The Pseudo Christian

There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. (2 Timothy 1-5)

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. (1 Timothy 4 :1-3)

...and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold... (Matthew 24 :11-13)

...You have forsaken your first love...(Revelation 2:4)

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean."Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. (Matthew 23:23-29)

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7 :15-23)

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12 :33-37)

Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'" (Matthew 15:3-9)

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery." Matthew 19:8

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' Matthew 25 : 41-43)

For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude 1:4)

Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them. (Jude 1:10)

These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. (Jude 1: 16-19)

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 9 :26 -29)

And I still dont like fire crackers though I dont mind them now

Fire crackers, I hate them, I am scared of them or rather the sound waves of huge decibels made by them. Every time I hear one, I cant help but jump. When I was small, I used to hide under the bed, stay there for a period of two days with wads of cotton stuffed in my ears, during Diwali, and only come out to feed myself. Now, don't give that smirk to me, maybe I am a cracker phobic.
But being an Indian, staying in India leaves me no choice but to resort to such crude methods to escape those jolting acoustics that gets at me every year. My parents hoped against hope that this phobia of mine would gradually fade from my life as I grew older and got married and had children, but I proved them wrong!! Now it is my husband Manoj's turn to hope so.
I feel God too wanted me to overcome this morbid fear of crackers, so I had my test of my life...

Last year, feeling sympathetic to my inner fears, Manoj suggested a getaway from the din of Diwali season to a far, quiet place in the city outskirts. The idea sounded good to me and off we went on a four day trip. Kids were excited too, atleast Abhishek was and Kia, we couldn't find out as she was too small then, just over 8 or 9 months.
We had everything packed, even a kettle to boil water and clean feeding bottles, plus all that I felt would come handy over there. It was a farmhouse, aptly named the 'Silent world', the magnitude of the aptness would hit us only later.
It was half past 8 in the evening when we reached the place after many phone calls to the manager for guidance. This was further from a village, the last of the civilised world we would see for a few days, set deep within a huge barricaded compound of a mostly vacant farmland.
As our car wheeled in front of the establishment, Manoj had to keep the car headlights on as he went to open the huge gate (there was no security/guard to greet us nor were there lights) and then we reached the main office or the club house. There were a handful of helps besides the manager and soon we were shown in to a cottage, the only one of its kind in the near and far vicinity!
The house was built on an elevation, was furnished, had two bedrooms, a drawing room with TV and a kitchen. I set about getting the place ready for our habitation as Manoj and kids settled in the sofa. Children were tired and we ordered food for them, fed them bathed them and I went to get the beds ready. That's when I saw this creature on the bedside, a huge lizard, the size of Comodo dragon (maybe I exaggerated, but did I not tell you I am scared of lizards too?)!! I gave loud shriek and Manoj fearing the worst came rushing to my aid, he tried to pacify me that it was just a lizard, but was a little bigger than the usual variety we get to see in houses. Nothing could pacify me and he called up the officials at the clubhouse. They sounded amused to Manoj as they said they couldn't possibly drive it out as it was part of the house and the house itself was near the forest.
It was getting late and I was forced to join the kids and Manoj in bed. But could I possibly sleep with this godzilla lurking behind the curtains? I kept a night vigil- super (scared) mom to the rescue of her family from the giant reptile.
I jumped everytime I heard howls or rustlings outside. I wondered who else were part of the household from our friendly neighbourhood jungle. To be honest, I have never prayed the whole night till then but that night I did.
The long night passed out and daylight streamed in and was I glad but was too exhausted. As we went out to drink in the scenery outside, we were alarmed to see nothing but long stretches of land and vegetation and rocks surrounding us, there was no human habitation for miles around.

We had a good time at the clubhouse, with swimming pool and well maintained lawns. Kids loved to play cricket, tennis and hide and seek. As the daylight faded, my fears resurfaced, another long night's vigil...
As the night hesitantly wore on, I just wished to hear human voices outside, sound of speeding cars, truck horns, or even our neighbour's constant hammering away in the middle of the night and...and...fire crackers that would remind me that people were around us, that we were not alone.
But I didn't have the heart to tell Manoj to cancel the trip and return to the city, after all he had meticulously planned it out for me, to take me to a 'Silent world' where there were no fire crackers to scare me...
Day three and things were getting on my nerves, Manoj sensed it and asked me should we go back home and as I hesitated to give a reply, Abhishek voiced my answer, "Papa, I want to go back home". Whew...
And that's how we came back cutting short our trip to no man's land and as we steered into our lane, I couldn't help but smile at those otherwise bratty kids in the next door apartment getting ready to burst more fire crackers. After getting fresh, I offered to prepare dinner surprising Manoj as I would dare not move to kitchen usually at this time of the year. And as I happily cooked, bomb-like crackers, rockets and other burstable stuff went off around our apartment...But now I was happy, relieved to be back among humans away from the silent world!