There are times in our Christian walk when purposelessness and meaninglessness creeps in. We have no motivation or desire to exert any effort in any things least of all the things of God. We say and think like the writer of Ecclesiastes that everything is meaningless. It is a painful path but God allows it to take away every impure motive in our life for serving Him. We are so concerned about success that we want success which can be seen by men even in our service towards God. Our buildings and our money and even the number of followers that you have may not be what God is seeking from you. So there are times when everything is meaningless. We have the desire to do nothing and nothing that we do or are doing seems to be of any use for anyone. It is a period of darkness for the soul. God does not speak to us and we feel the heavens are shut to our prayers. The very act of prayer is a burden we cannot bear. What is happening to us?, we think. It is the cross working in our life. It is the time when God opens our eyes to the meaning of life in Him. What we thought could make us happy did not do so. Our busyness and our vision is gone. We don’t seem to have any vision for anything in life. We are left to die on the cross by our loving Father because He knows that there can be no resurrection without a dying on the cross. We die and we die alone saying, God, why have you forsaken me? The only response we can have in such a situation is simply to surrender to the Almighty and His Divine will. We have to cry out, Lord not my will but Yours be done. We will rise up from the tomb a better man sensitive to the pain that others go through in life and we will be in a position to better serve God with pureness of heart and motive. Amen.

There was a time in my life when I believed that good people go to heaven. Not any more! You may be good but that does not qualify you for heaven. You may be shocked but that is the truth according to the Bible. In fact ‘being good’ is the cause of the greatest deception even among the so called Christians. Jesus had to tell the righteous Nicodemus, “You must be born again” Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.” What does this mean? It means that if you don’t believe in Him you are not on the Way and you do not have the Truth and the Life. Simple as that. There is no such thing as a good human being without Christ  entering heaven. You may not like it but that is your problem. I may sound narrow but I walk on the narrow path. Broad is the path that leads to destruction and many find it. That is what the Bible says. If you are a Christian, you have to be narrow. There is no such thing like I am right and you are also right. If you are not born again then you are walking in darkness and the light is not in you. You may be a good human being but you are still in darkness. You are not living according to the will of God for your life. You may think you are a Christian and you may even go to church but without a living relationship with Christ, you are just as lost as the others. There is no such thing as a good Muslim or a good Hindu or a good Buddhist. Without Christ you are lost and you don’t even know about it. The good news is that there is room in the kingdom of God for you and the way to enter is by believing in Christ.