First - Bible(interesting facts)

1. First man to be born? 
  *Cain*  Genesis 4:1

2. First gardener?
   *Adam*  Genesis 2:15

3. First women sheperd ?
   *Rachel*    Genesis 29:9

4. First man to rear donkey ?
 *Saul's father* *Kish* 1st samuel 14:51

5. First man named before birth..?
 *Ishmael* Genesis 16:11

6. First mighty man?
  *Nirmodh* Genesis 10:8

7. First prophet ?
   *Enoch* Jude 1:14

8. First women who laughed ?
  *Sarah* Genesis 18:12

9. First man who got angry ?
 *Cain* Genesis 4:6

10. First man who celebrated birthday and held feast ?
 *Pharoah* Genesis 40:20

11 First women who steal ?
 *Rachel ..* Gensis 31:19

12. First man tare up his clothes ?
 *Jacob*  Genesis 44:13

13. First mountain ?
 *Ararat* Genesis 8:4

14. First nation ?
 *Havilah* Genesis 25:18
  
15. First man to buy land ?
    *Abraham* (for his wife's burial) Genesis 23:4

16. First man who made offering box?
 *Abraham*  Genesis 13 :20 ( abram gave him tenth of everything)

17 First man to marry two women .?
 *Lamech* Genesis 4: 23 to 25

18. First man to make feast ?
 *Abraham* Genesis 21:8

19.  First man to tithe ?
 **Abraham*  Gen 14: 20

20 First judge ?
 *Othniel*   Judges 3

Few lessons learnt in past few days:

 1. United States is no longer the world's leading country.
 2. China won the 3rd World War without firing a missile and no one could handle it.
 3. Europeans are not as educated as they appear.
4. We can survive vacations without trips to Europe and USA.
5. Rich people are in fact less immune than the poor.
6.No priest, poojari, usthad, astrologers saved patients .
7.Health professionals are worth more than a footballer.
8.Oil is worthless in a society without consumption.
9.How animals feel in the zoo.
10.The planet  regenerates quickly without humans into play.
11.Majority of people can work from home.
12.We and the kids can survive without junk food.
13.Living a hygienic life is not difficult.
14.Only women are not supposed to know cooking.
15.Media is nonsense.
16.Actors are just entertainers, they are not HEROES.

Safe Quarantine world!!!🏡🏡🏢

First Easter

This is beautiful 💖
The very first Easter was not in a crowded worship space with singing and praising. On the very first Easter the disciples were locked in their house. It was dangerous for them to come out. They were afraid. They wanted to believe the good news they heard from the women, that Jesus had risen. But it seemed too good to be true. They were living in a time of such despair and such fear. If they left their homes their lives and the lives of their loved ones might be at risk. Could a miracle really have happened? Could life really had won out over death? Could this time of terror and fear really be coming to an end?

Alone in their homes they dared to believe that hope was possible, that the long night was over and morning had broken, that God’s love was the most powerful of all, even though it didn’t seem quite real yet. Eventually, they were able to leave their homes, when the fear and danger had subsided, they went around celebrating and spreading the good news that Jesus was risen and love was the most powerful force on the earth

This year, we might get to experience a taste of what that first Easter was like, still in our homes daring to believe that hope is on the horizon. Then, after a while, when it is safe for all people, when it is the most loving choice, we will come out, gathering together, singing and shouting the good news that God brings life even out of death, that love always has the final say!

This year we might get the closest taste we have had yet to what that first Easter was like.””

*WHY YOU WORRY??* 🤭 *Everything* is NOT locked down

*Sunrise* is NOT locked down

*Love* is NOT locked down

*Family time* is NOT locked down

*Kindness* is NOT locked down

*Creativity* is NOT locked down

*Learning* is NOT locked down

*Conversation* is NOT locked down

*Imagination* is NOT locked down

*Reading* is NOT locked down

*Relationship* is NOT locked down

*Praying* is NOT locked down

*Meditation* is NOT locked down

*Sleeping* is NOT locked down

*Work from home* is NOT locked down

*Hope* is NOT locked down

*Cherish what you have.*

*Locked down is an opportunity to do what you always wanted to do.*

*MASK* is Better than *VENTILATOR*, 

*HOME* is better than *ICU,*

*PREVENTION* is better than *CURE*.

SO BE HAPPY and stay safe!!!

COVID - PASSOVER - DECODED

Hey guys! If you a Christian or you are/were around a Christian friend, you might have heard this word - "Passover". Memes like the one I have posted, may not be new to you. If you are wondering what in the world that means, this is just for you. 🙂

Passover is a seven-day long Jewish festival. This year it is to be celebrated between 8th April till 16th April. Why is it called "the Passover"? Because God passed over the houses of Israel. Now that may sound like Greek and Latin. Let me explain… 

The Israelites were slaves under the cruel Egyptian task-masters. God warned the Egyptian King (Pharoah) to let his people free through Moses. Pharoah did not bother and rejected the proposal straight out. God sent in plagues one after the other (water turned into blood; frogs, lies, darkness filled the land and so on) to remind him that He was in control of nature. The Pharoah would not budge. God again warned the final plague would be the most terrible of all. Pharoah only got angry at God and not sorry for his mistakes. He didn't want anything to do with God. This was the last and the scariest plague; every firstborn son in the land of Egypt would die - from the firstborn son of the king who sits on the throne to the firstborn farm animals would die. Did Pharoah listen and change his mind? Sadly not. 

God told the Israelites if they want to be safe from the plague, that each family must take a year-old lamb without any blemish, cook it and eat that night. They had to take some of its blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they stay (Just like in the picture). Just as God said, the plague happened at midnight. Loud outcry was heard all over Egypt except in Goshen because the Israelites did exactly as God said. The plague did not attack the house which had the mark on its doorposts. The Israelites were safe because God passed over the houses that had the mark and did not let the plague have a say. 

What does it have to do with COVID?

COVID is no plaything. It seems like the world is under a big shutdown - economies are crashing; governments are struggling to stop the spread of the virus. More dangerous than the virus is the panic and mental stress it has put on people. People for once are beginning to contemplate about death and things that really matter in life.  

If you are someone who does not believe in God, then this might seem like a way nature balances itself (Thanos comes to mind) and you just don't have any hope. If you believe in God, you might be wondering what He is up to, like me 🤔. 

Or like some Christians, you might be tossing out jargon like 'end-times', 'unrighteousness', etc. 😃

In obscure times like these, it is safer to dig back in time because invariably history repeats itself. Let's think about the plague in Egypt again. We just saw from the story of the Passover that the land of Goshen had hope even though it was right in the middle of plague-infected Egypt. What was that hope? If it was on the blood of the lamb, I'm sure all of us who know this story would have been right at the mutton shop when the outbreak happened. If it was eating the lamb that gave hope, then I'd be the first to order Roghan Ghosht from Swiggy. 😁Surprisingly the truth is much, much simpler than that. 

God did a symbolic thing with the lamb. 1000 years after the first Passover, God came to the world in the form of a man named Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life. He did good and spoke only good. Even an atheist is cool with that fact. But during a Passover celebration, His own people crucified Him. Now you may ask if He is God why didn't He save Himself? You are not wrong at all! He could have, but he didn't, just for you and me. Why you may ask? 

The only way for a Holy God (who cannot tolerate sin) to pass-over your life and save you from the plague, is to become that blemish-less lamb and die for you. If you are like me you would be wondering, would it not have been simple if we just killed a lamb every time we sinned/ once a year on our birthdays? The sad but honest truth is that our sin is so dark that it takes something at God level to clean it. Though it is human to err, it is not like a food spill on our cloth that can be washed with detergent. Evil is buried deep in our hearts and it takes God to wipe it clean.

So, today, you have the lamb sacrificed, you have the blood in a bowl, figurately. What do you do? Just say, "Jesus I accept what you did for me. Please forgive the evil in me. Thank you for being the mark over my heart, that I am kept safe from plagues. Amen!" 

What have you just done? You have bought yourself life insurance on your soul for eternity. Today it is COVID, tomorrow it could be something else. But now you now have hope - the hope of a pass-over; the hope that God protects you not just on earth but in your after-life as well. 😊

8 Gifts That Don't Cost a Dime

Let's all try to give at least one of these gifts every day. I know it's easy to just brush it off, but it really truly does make a difference in your life and the life of the person you give the gift to :)

1. THE GIFT OF LISTENING...
But you must REALLY listen.
No interrupting, no daydreaming,
no planning your response.
Just listening.

2. THE GIFT OF AFFECTION...
Be generous with appropriate hugs,
kisses, pats on the back, and handholds.
Let these small actions demonstrate the
love you have for family and friends.

3. THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER...
Clip cartoons.
Share articles and funny stories.
Your gift will say, "I love to laugh with you."

4. THE GIFT OF A WRITTEN NOTE...
It can be a simple
"Thanks for the help" note or a full sonnet.
A brief, handwritten note may be remembered
for a lifetime, and may even change a life.

5. THE GIFT OF A COMPLIMENT...
A simple and sincere,
You look great in red," "You did a super job,"
or "That was a wonderful meal"
can make someone's day.

6. THE GIFT OF A FAVOR...
Every day, go out of your way
to do something kind.

7. THE GIFT OF SOLITUDE...
There are times when we want nothing better
than to be left alone.
Be sensitive to those times and give
the gift of solitude to others.

8. THE GIFT OF A CHEERFUL DISPOSITION...
The easiest way to feel good is
to extend a kind word to someone.
Really, it's not that hard to say,
Hello or Thank You.

The Richest Family in Church.

👇👇👇👇👇

The Rich Family In Church will never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12,and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us
babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to
make three potholders to sell for $1. We made $20 on potholders. That month was the best of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so we figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be about 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering. The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.
That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet. But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes and felt rich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills. Mom put the money back in the envelope.
We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night. We had two knives that we passed around to whomever needed them. I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor.
That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed. I didn’t even want to go back to church. Every one there probably already knew we were poor! I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor. We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to.
Although it was a sunny day, we didn’t talk on the way. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people? ”We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering. When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church. “Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that “little over $100.” We were the rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary just said so? From that day on I’ve never been poor again. I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus! 

Eddie Ogan.

👆👆👆👆👆

Little Tea cup☕

I'm a Little Tea Cup.

 Love this story or not, you will not be able to have tea in a tea cup again without thinking of this. 

There was a couple who took a trip to England to shop in a beautiful antique store to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.

 They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially teacups.

Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke, "You don't understand. I have not always been a teacup.

 There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "Don't do that.

 I don't like it! Let me alone," but he only smiled, and gently said, "Not yet."

Then WHAM!

 I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was made to suit himself and then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. 

I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. "Help! Get me out of here!"

 I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, "Not yet."

When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened.

 He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf-life, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! "Ah, this is much better," I thought.

But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. 

The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 

"Oh, please, stop it, stop, I cried." He only shook his head and said, "Not yet."

Then suddenly he puts me back in to the oven.

 Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. 

I begged.

 I pleaded.

 I screamed.

 I cried.

 I was convinced I would never make

it. I was ready to give up. 

Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, "What's he going to do to me next?"

An hour later he handed me a mirror and said, "Look at yourself." And I did.

 I said, "That's not me. That couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful!"

Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember. 

I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped,

you would have crumbled.

 I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. 

I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't

done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held.

 Now you

are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you."

The moral of this story is this: God knows what He's doing for each of us.He is the potter, and we are His clay.

 He will mould us and make us and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be

made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect.

So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control;

 when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life

seems to "stink", try this.

Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think of this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter..

☕☕

..God Bless You !

Happy steady life!!

Such a beautiful message ...worth reading😍😍!!!

I was jogging this morning and I noticed a person about half a km ahead.

I could guess he was running a little slower than me and that made me feel good, I said to myself I will try catch up with him.

So I started running faster and faster. Every block, I was gaining on him a little bit.

After just a few minutes I was only about 100 feet behind him, so I really picked up the pace and pushed myself. I was determined to catch up with him.

Finally, I did it! I caught up and passed him. Inwardly I felt very good. "I beat him".

Of course, he didn't even know we were racing.

After I passed him, I realized I had been so focused on competing against him that .....

I had missed my turn to my house,

I had missed the focus on my inner peace,

I missed to see the beauty of greenery around,

I missed to do my inner soul searching meditation,
and
in the needless hurry stumbled and slipped twice or thrice and might have hit the sidewalk and broken a limb.

It then dawned on me, isn't that what happens in life when we focus on competing with
co-workers, neighbours,
friends,  family, trying to outdo them or trying to prove that we are more successful or more important and in the bargain
we miss on our happiness within our own surroundings?

We spend our time and energy running after them and we miss out on our own paths to our given destination.

The problem with unhealthy competition is that it's a never ending cycle.

There will always be somebody ahead of you,
someone with a better job,
nicer car,
more money in the bank,
more education,
a prettier wife,
a more handsome husband,
better behaved children,
better circumstances and
better conditions etc.

But one important realisation is that
You can be the best that you can be, when you are not competing with anyone.

Some people are insecure because they pay too much attention to
what others are,
where others are going,
wearing and driving, what others are talking. 

Take whatever you have,
the height, the weight and personality. 
Accept it and realize, that you are blessed. Stay focused and live a healthy life.

*There is no competition in Destiny. Each has his own.*

Comparison AND Competition  is the thief of JOY.
It kills the Joy of Living your Own Life.

*Run your own Race that leads to Peaceful, Happy Steady Life.*

Santa Claus’s Prayer

My dear precious Jesus, I did not mean to take your place,
I only bring toys and things and you bring love and grace.

People give me lists of wishes and hope that they came true;
But you hear prayers of the heart and promise your will to do.

Children try to be good and not to cry when I am coming to town;
But you love them unconditionally and that love will abound.

I leave only a bag of toys and temporary joy for a season;
But you leave a heart of love, full of purpose and reasons.

I have a lot of believers and what one might call fame;
But I never healed the blind or tried to help the lame.

I have rosy cheeks and a voice full of laughter;
But no nail—scarred hands or a promise of the hereafter.

You may find several of me in town or at a mall;
But there is only one omnipotent you, to answer a sinner’s call.