Rescue mission - 25th December.

It's here.

The moment that split time, that tore a gaping hole in the very fabric of human intelligence, that ripped to shreds what we thought of as sanity and intellect.

The moment that fulfilled 3,000 years of prophecy by giants of humanity, that ended 2,000 years of waiting.

The moment that won the war, so that no more little battles would scare us.

The moment that every man, woman and child on the planet owes their life to.

The greatest rescue mission in the history of the planet begins tonight!

Jesus - welcome back!

The storm has passed

He did it. Jesus did it. I won! He truly is the God of mystery and wonder. How else can anyone explain this?

My very presence in Dubai is now the biggest witness to His love and wonders I can possibly give.

Don't know what i'm talking about? Ask.

A storm and a Saviour

I find it quite intriguing that in the 3 weeks after ACYC, when my spiritual life has been at an all time high and my submission to my God due to His wondrous works in my life has been paramount, satan has upped his efforts.

The more I come closer to Jesus, the more I daily surrender and see his Majesty at work due to it, the more I leave claim to worldly pleasures and wants, the more satan has begun to throw adversities towards me.

And then yesterday, he deals his biggest blow: I discover I will most probably need to leave Dubai on the 20th for Karachi, and won't be able to enter until 24th June i.e. 6 months later. Its not a labour ban, its an entry ban. And unless I can find some legal way of lifting it, I must stay in Karachi for the coming months.

What does this mean morally and in other ways:
1. I miss my godchild's Baptism
2. I miss the Family Fest where I was the person handling its first Youth Kiosk in 10 years
3. I miss World Youth Day Dubai 2010, which for the first time is taking place in Dubai instead of Fujairah
4. I may either work for IQPC at home in Karachi through our virtual network or not work for them at all
5. I will not be able to join SFC, spend time with my new friends from ACYC etc

And despite all the above, wherein the evil one must be thinking I'd be devastated: I'm not. I have a smile on my face.

Why? Because He lives in me. ALL of the above are worldly. But His presence in me surpasses all that. So what if I am confined to Karachi for 6 months? I'm confined with Him. And no other company would I prefer more.

I was thinking to myself the other day, I wish there was some way I could evangelise the youth of Karachi, however there didn't seem any way I could do this. You never know, maybe this happened so that I may go to Karachi and spread the news of A Younger Jesus to them.

Time and time again - no pun intended - God shows me his bare wrist without a watch! :)

Jesus Culture - Holding nothing back

This song has been on repeat on my mp3 player for the last 10 days, and doesn't show signs of stopping.

God-less Parents

This is a topic that really riles me up. Something more and more
Christians are taking for granted. In the West parents do it out of
obligation, in the East (particularly among Pakistani and Indian
Christians) they do it out of preference.

I'm talking about Godparents.

Even as early as last night, i met some people who didn't even
remember who their children's Godparents were, let alone their own!
And among my own friends and family back home, couples choose their
sisters, brothers, aunts, nieces, cousins, best friends etc as their
children's Godparents simply because of their relationship. It doesn't
matter whether that person knows nothing about Jesus save a novena or
two.

A Godparent, in its simplest explanation, is someone who will take
care of your child in two avenues: security (economical, educational,
physical, moral etc) and spiritual. The first is given a passing
thought during the choice, the second isn't even considered. Sadly.

A younger Jesus would have not been the spiritual powerhouse had He
not been given both the physical AND spiritual nourishment his mother,
father and others among His family's acquaintances gave. Imagine if
Jesus had been nourished instead by an aunt more concerned about what
tunic she'd want to wear at the next Passover. Or a cousin who only
knew how to discuss female anatomy. Or even an uncle whose favourite
pasttime was lewd jokes. And yet, look at the choices of some
'Godparents' today. Some by our own friends!

How do you feel about this?

Lets be impossible!

Just received an email testimony of a beautiful child of God's experience with His ways, this time for World Youth Day, that bastion of a young Jesus, and Hillsong.

It ended with a prayer which brought me to tears of empowerment, and with her permission I'm sharing it here. May it be a prayer for you as well:

"With this email, I pray that you will dream the impossible (and thrilling) dreams that God desires for you. That you will believe in the dreams that capture your heart– however crazy or trivial they seem. And that you will have the faith to be desperate for them to come to reality in God’s time and with his grace."

Where's that wristwatch again?

So this morning I got another dose of the Majesty of God's eternity when compared to my own silly, human perceptions and expectations of time :P

I woke up at 6:30 this morning because I needed to be at work on time, in fact BEFORE time. I had prayed the night before to help this happen because due to traffic and other instances - and not in the least because I live 55 kilometers from my office - I'd been late 3 days in a row.

So much for that. Busy shower, no taxi for 20 minutes, and other things only enabled me to leave home by 7:45. What time do I need to be at work? 8:30. 55 kilometers from Qusais to Media City? In rush hour? In 45 minutes? Not happening. I got into the taxi with a prayer: You WILL make this happen, because you are the God of time.

Did the heavens open up? Did the roads clear? No. :) The signal near my home got an epileptic attack this morning, and would be green for 8 seconds. Then the Airport Tunnel was congested. Then Garhoud was at a standstill. Then Shk Zayed Road was tied up. Then some irritated driver in front of my taxi started acting funny and slowing down in front of us to get us into an accident.

It was 8:25 and I was still a good 10 minutes away. What was playing in my headset? Jesus Culture's 'Your love never changes'.

I made it at 8:32 and discovered my boss arrived AFTER I did.

Your love never changes, Master of time :)

That's My King!

This video both empowers me and tears me up. It gives me confidence and courage, yet puts me in awe and humility in the presence and knowledge of Jesus. Truly, that's my King.

Why virginity is so good

Speaking to friend last night, we were drawn into a conversation on our perspectives on virginity and what I personally felt about the reason virginity should be treated as something that should be gifted to one's spouse.

My belief is simple and two-tiered:

1) God created sexuality as a beautiful, delightful and wholesome act. It is no doubt the most pleasurable physical act in all of humanity. And yet, when He decided to become a human, He chose to do so through the body of a virgin. Now if my own Creator, the Master of the universe and the Creator of sexuality Himself chose to be born through a virgin, (thereby implying the respect even He has for virgins), how much more respect should I as a human have for it
2) Virginity - being a gift of spouse to spouse - is entirely dependent on permission, or put more simply, two 'yes's. Whenever I think of giving one's virginity up, I remember Mary and the Annunciation. At that moment of the Yes of Salvation, even God in His power chose to ask the permission of Mary. And her saying Yes wasn't simply her giving permission to the Holy Spirit. Her saying Yes was her allowing God to say Yes to her as well. So, when a wife gives her virginity to her husband, she is mimicing Mary, while when a husband does so, he is mimicing the yes of the Holy Spirit.

Isn't is obvious, then, that virginity is a divine gift, not simply a human one? Then I must treat it so.

In His time...

I just got told by an awesome child of God I met at ACYC that I'm now at the same age Jesus started His ministry.

:)

God definitely does NOT have a wristwatch. All in His time!

Alpha

Its time.

I've been putting off creating my Jesus blog for years. Never really knew what I'd write about. That is, until the Arabian Catholic Youth Conference last month in Dubai.

1,000 Catholic youth, an 82 year old advisor to the Pope who made those youth dance, a Bishop who proved to us the power - and permanence - of God's love, Christian music which made us yell 'YES Lord YES Lord YES YES Lord'?

Yes, I think its time I started speaking for Him.

About the title: After Jesus entered my life, I began to experience Him not just as the loving Father, but as the teenage friend who knew what I was going through, simply because at some point in His life He was 15, 16, 17 and 18 too. He also played football with his friends on the banks of the river, right? I'm sure He must have had his close little clique who would meet up once a week for a quick chai while sitting watching Nazareth's people go about their daily lives.

Yes, a younger Jesus than we've known. One who knows what being youth is.