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SECTION - I

HE WAS BORN on the way to Jerusalem, wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger.

- Brought up in a poor carpenter's family.

- Tempted by the devil and was with the wild animals while He was praying and fasting in the desert.

- He was in all points temted as we are; yet, without sin.

- Though He was targeted by the devil from His very birth, He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.

- Throughout His life in this world, His one and only concern was to glorify His Heavenly Father in each and every word and deed.

But . . .

- The teachers of the Law called Him, a 'blasphemist'.

- The Pharisees sneered at Him and branded Him 'the prince of demons' and 'the friend of sinners'.

- On hearing His speech, all the people in the Synagogue ferociously drove Him to the brow of the hill to throw Him down the cliff.

- His family members said that He was out of His mind.

- The Jews said that He was possessed by a demon and was raving mad.

- They also contemplated ranking Him a deceiver and sought all the more to kill Him.

- Many of His deciples turned away from Him; because they felt that His was a hard teaching.

- Two times He had to hide Himself from the Jews who tried to stone Him.

- With a single kiss, the one, who had been considered His friend and disciple betrayed Him.

- In the climacteric crucial emergency all His disciples deserted Him and fled.

- The chief of His disciples not only disowned Him but also cursed Him and swore against Him three times within a night.

- His captors spat on His face, struck Him with their fists and slapped Him mercilessly.

- They also said many insulting abuses against Him.

- The Governor of the land ridiculed Him and jeered at Him along with his soldiers.

- He was beastly flogged by the Roman soldiers for thirty-nine times without a single break.

- The whole company of the Governor's soldiers came together and stripped Him totally; put a scarlet robe on Him (in view to mask the profusing blood exudation that would have splattered all over His body after the gruesome barbarian torture); set on His head a crown of thorns; spat on Him; struck His head, that was already embedded with spiky thorns, again and again with a staff and humiliated Him in all possible ways and means.

- Then He was brutally nailed to the cross without a single piece of cloth on His person, in between two well-known criminals of that time under the mid-day scorching sun.

- The people, the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and the elders made fun of Him.

- The criminals who were crucified by His sides also heaped insults on Him.

- Even while hanging in the cross after such an amplified excruciating torture, He committed no sin; nor was deceit found in His mouth: Instead, He pleaded for forgiveness to those tormentors.

- He accepted this path of life without any inhibitions and reservations; because, He knew well that, that was the only way to redeem us from the wretched clutches of the Evil.

- The Chastisement for our peace was upon Him.

SECTION - II

AFTER HE HAD disarmed the dark forces in such an explicit manner on the cross, He gave a clarion call to all those who follow Him down through the ages: GO INTO ALL THE WORLD (i.e., every city and village) AND PREACH THE GOSPEL (the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God) TO EVERY CREATURE'.

Truely a victorious call after He had triumphed over death through His resurrection in the third day as He had prophesized during His sojourn on the face of the earth as a human being.

Do you ever hear this exultant voice . . . ?

If you say that you are a Christian, then it is more than one hundred per cent surety that you have already heard this loving sweet voice!

Now the million doller question is:

SECTION - III

DON'T ROPE IN charity and other multifacet social works in the place of preaching the Gospel and deceive yourself!

His call is for a war . . . !

- A war against the great deceiver to liberate and to gather His beloved subjects who are all redeemed through His Blood.

The day-to-day affairs affirm that the modern days' good works of charities and social works hardly bring glory to our Father in Heaven; but, to the doer himself!

Beware of it ... !

Also here comes the root of all evil . . . !

To do such work you need money. But, slowly after a short period, 'the need of money' becomes 'the money for everything' that leads to 'love for money' which propels us into 'lust for money' and finally makes the victim to land in 'unquenchable thirst for money!' And you begin to stray away from the faith to which you are called; And you pierce yourself with many sorrows until the world swallow you up completely.

Moreover, those works will sure enough consume your valuable time and poisonously thwart your precious relationship with your Heavenly Father.

Also your work becomes 'a work in the name of Jesus' instead 'the work to the glory of the God Almighty through our Saviour Jesus Christ'. Your path of 'serving to the LORD' deviates into the one of 'services for the LORD'.

Unlike Jesus, the doer of such charity or social work or any other related good work, easily falls prey to the evil design of the 'great deceiver' in a very grand manner.

Because, the name of our LORD will, by then automatically, be blasphemed among the gentiles due to your closeness with the world.

That is why in 1 John 2:15, it has been written -

'Do not love the world
or,
the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.'

In James 4:4 also the Spirit of the LORD gives us a severe warning when He says - ''... Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

Present-day charities and social works, one day or another, certainly transform you to be a friend of the world.

So, don't cheat yourself under the blanket of such charities and social works at least heretofore!

The Bible also clearly instructs us in 1 Thess. 5:22 - "Abstain from all appearance of evil."

SECTION - IV

IF YOU SAY that this Jesus, who was crucified on the cross in the place of you, is your LORD and Saviour, then you have no other choice but tp obey His passionate call without fail.

That Jesus, whom you believe of yours, must have been a some other one, who has never had a place in the Bible at any cost . . . !

So, take this as the apt time for you to check it out and correct yourself.

". . . the time has come for judgement to begin at the house of God" (1 Peter 4:17). So, let us cautiously "redeeming the time" (Ephesians 5:16).

Amen and Amen !