Right to Walk Campaign

The Hindu's launches a campaign "Right to Walk,” which aims to "reclaim our city’s footpaths" and "goad local officials to act." Every day the newspaper posts sidewalks completely blocked by trash, parked cars and motorbikes, vendors, road signs, and construction. The campaign reveals a scene in which sidewalks are illegally appropriated for commercial activity and parking, forcing those on foot into the street, which is clogged with dangerous traffic. 

This is a good effort on the part of Hindu to bring to the notice of the authorities the poor state of affairs of our beautiful city Chennai. Good number of photos have been posted in this facebook  page and can also see some changes taking place by the concerned authorities.  

Readers can mail the pictures of bad pavements (size not more than 1.5 MB) to myright@thehindu.co.in    The pictures will be posted on www.facebook.com/chennaicentral and will also be considered for publication in the newspaper.

Website: http://thne.ws/mychennai

Twitter: @chennaicentral; Hashtag: #righttowalk

In search of true Christian - Good Samaritan

In search of true christian we need to explore the Jesus second commandment "Love your neighbor as yourself'" We really need to understand who is our neighbor?"

Jesus told the famous Parable of the Good Samaritan to explain who is our neighbour.

“A Jewish man was traveling on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Two different religious leaders passed by but did nothing to help. Finally, a Samaritan man came by and took pity on the injured man and help him. Things have not changed even today and its sad the so called religious christians still failed to follow the second most important commandment. We have failed to show mercy and love to others. Its not important how many times we read bible and pray...we need to practice. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in order to illustrate that human kindness and fellow feeling must be available to all.

Unconditional love is a term that means to love someone regardless of one's actions or beliefs.
I corinthians 13 touches about true love. It clearly mentions there is no life without love.

"If I have the gift of prophecy, and
know all mysteries and all knowledge; and
if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing."

In search of a true Christian……………

Define True Christian

The term Christian used to describe people who believe Jesus Christ as God, but what I think the term should include only the genuine follower of Jesus Christ. Who can be classified as a true follower of Jesus? Anyone who worship God, the Jesus Christ? Jesus Himself made it clear that merely using His name does not make one a Christian. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). It’s clear that the true followers need to follow the will of the God? What does he wants us to do? Does he want us to pray, sing songs to praise him, go to church, read bible? All these things can help us to be his followers but mere doing this does not make us a true Christian. The true Christian needs to follow God’s commandments. Any man who follows Gods commandments can be considered a true Christian. So we need to list the commandments of Jesus to identify the true followers and then can find the true Christians.

Commandments of God

Throughout the Old Testament, there are hundreds of commandments, covering all parts of life. Important commandments are put as “ten” commandments.
1. "Do not put anything ahead of God your Creator."
2. "Do not make or worship idols."
3. "Do not take the name of God in vain."
4. "Take one day of complete rest each week, in honour of God."
5. "Honor your father and your mother."
6. "Do not commit murder."
7. "Do not commit adultery."
8. "Do not steal."
9. "Do not tell lies against anyone."
10. "Do not covet other people's possessions."

How many commandments do we follow every day to call ourself true Christians? First three mentions about God, the next seven explains about u r moral values. Let us look this way if any person who is morally right (follow nine commandments) but practices idol workshop. Can he be called as true Christian? Or can we call him 90% Christian? What is the PASS mark to reach kingdom of heaven ………… God sends His Son, Jesus Christ to earth to make us to understand his commandments better. Help us to get PASS grade without him we were about to fail the exam. We need to thank GOD for sending his son to save us.

Jesus Christ and Ten Commandments of God.

Is the Ten Commandments and Jesus teaching different. The answer is no. One of scribe asks Jesus what commandment is the foremost of all. Jesus replied,
“Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Mathew 22:35-7)
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12.31)
The Ten Commandments reflects Christ’s two great commandments. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Mat 22:35-46). Jesus life stresses these two commandments again and again. You cannot reach Kingdom of heaven by following just one commandment.

Jesus in his teaching gave more importance to unconditional LOVE. He wanted us to show love to our God, parents, brothers, family and even enemies. I will explore more about UNCONDITIONAL LOVE in my next blog.