Duke Jeyaraj’s Goodnews Blog

– Duke Jeyaraj

Yes, Telugu movie Pokiri will be first movie ever in Tollywood history to run for 500 days with four shows and with a minimum of one shift. Screened for four shows a day, the film completed 100 days in as many as 200 centres in the state and neighbouring states, including 17 in Hyderabad alone and silver jubilee in a record 63 centres. In 15 centres, it completed 200 days. Pokiri completed 365 days with four shows and created new records and even more interesting is that it’s confirmed that Pokiri will finish 500 days run mark in Kurnool Bhageeratha theatre. The records set at 365 days will be extended. Even after DVD/VCD release and 365 days of Pokiri, the movie is managing to collect the theatres rent per show in Bhageeratha theatre. The Mahesh Babu-Illeana starrer raked in a staggering Rs 40 crores, a task not even Telugu cinema’s biggest star Chiranjeevi could accomplish in his illustrious career, and in the process toppled several existing records. The last time a Telugu film ran for 365 full days all over the state was almost two-and-a-half decades ago when NTR and ANR, despite passing their prime, still lorded over the Telugu box office. “If films in the earlier days ran for so long, it was mostly due to hero worship which was at its peak. Television too did not make inroads. But that is not the case now. Pokiri’s success story is mind-boggling!” says a senior film journalist. This movie was remade in Tamil with Vijay. Prabhu Deva wielded the megaphone. Producer Boney Kapoor is now making the Hindi version with Salman Khan (Courtesy: Lines from http://www.hindu.com/, http://www.superstarmaheshbabu.com/ , 19 June 2007).

Ileana’s line

I happened to bump into a scene from this famous movie once. The scene had the actress Ileana and the hero Mahesh Babu, traveling in the metro train. When Mahesh Babu goes to answer nature’s call, the seat next to Ileana falls vacant. A young woman who walks-in takes that seat. This irritates Illeana. She asks her to occupy another seat, but the young woman isn’t pleased with Illeana’s suggestion. At this point, Illeana uses a sentence which is very commonly used by youth of Hyderabad and I should say many youth in general, to shoo away the young woman who sat beside her in the Metro train. It is this sentence: “Get the hell out of here!”

One line by Illeana in the movie Pokiri made me think and the word, “Hell”!

Jesus, the greatest hell preacher!

What Ileana said was a stark reminder to me that the usage of the word “hell” has become so common place that young people do not realize for a moment how horrible and terrible that place is. Max Lucado writes, “Of the twelve times that the word ‘gehenna’ – the strongest Biblical word for hell – appears in Scripture, there is only one time in which Jesus was not the speaker. No one spoke of hell more than Christ did” (When Christ Comes, Page 118). But Jesus did not speak of hell in casual terms like today’s youth. If anyone knew how hell looked like (or would look like) it was Jesus – the all-knowing, ever-existing God in flesh and bone.

Hideousness of hell

Jesus painted the hideousness of hell by pointing out we must do whatever it takes to escape going there. For example, he said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Math 5:29). He repeated this almost verbatim in Mathew 18:9. If Jesus had not repeated this, his saying on hell, Mathew would not have recorded it twice in his Gospel, would he? By saying what he did, Jesus was not advocating plucking of one’s eye to beat the temptation to lust. He was simply telling us, that hell is so terrible and horrible, that if one can escape it by plucking his eyes out, it would be a cheap price to pay. A place to make you wish that you were never born!

Jesus also depicted the gruesome nature of Gehenna (Hell) by the way he talked about Judas Iscariot – the one person we know for sure would go to hell. He categorically said this about Judas whom he referred to as “the son of destruction”: “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Math 26:24; John 17:12). In other words, this was Jesus’ message here: If you are not born-again or if you turn away from the born-again experience, like Judas did, you will go to a place which will make you wish that you were not born at all! Hell is so painful! Hell is so agonizing!

Children of hell – that is what we are

Jesus gave us humans a new name: children of hell. That is what he called the religious big shots of his time (Mathew 23:15). They were hypocrites. We are all hypocrites. And we too deserve such a title – the title of “children of hell”. What God originally prepared as a destination for the Devil and his angels – the terrible place called “hell” – becomes our destination as well (II Pet 2:4). It is only right that the devil’s ultimate destination becomes ours as well because we choose to follow the devil and his sinful urgings in our day to day lives. I refer to his urgings like “Use abusive language to get even with those who abuse you!”, “Watch pornography – it will not harm you!” etc, etc! Calling someone a “fool” may be quite cool with this google generation. But doing that can take you to hell, Jesus taught (Math 5:22). Undressing the person of the opposite gender who is not your married partner, in one’s mind, may be the favorite pastime of the Youtube Youth of today. But when such sins are persisted upon, hell is where we land up in, Jesus warned (Math 5:28, 29). The human race, by and large, is on the broad road that leads to destruction (hell), Jesus pointed out (Math 7:13). The way to hell is sleazy and “easy” (Math 7:13).

A name for God which worship leaders hardly use

Jesus also gave a new name for God, a name you will hear worship leaders use rarely: him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Math 10:28). It was only re-coining an Old Testament title for God: Consuming Fire (Duet 4:24). Yes, it is true. God is not only a Compassionate Father. He is also a Consuming Fire. He is love. But he is not only love. He is just and righteous as well. That is why all sin must be punished. God cannot wink at sin and pretend that it did not exist. If he did, he no longer can be called just and holy. That is why, Jesus taught about the existence of hell which serves as the ultimate punishment for “rebels” against God – a place of unquenchable fire in which both the worms feasting on the human body, and humans themselves “will not die” forever (Isa 66:24; Mark 9:43-48). The human race is in a hopeless situation. Jesus asks us the same question he asked the Religion Biggies of his time: You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? (Math 23:33). We have no answers to Jesus’ question. And guess what – Jesus decided to answer that question himself. He said in-effect: “I will open a way – in fact it will be the only way – for you to escape being sentenced to hell! I will experience hell instead of you. You need to trust in me – the One who experienced hell for you – to be saved from going to hell!” Stumped? Read the next paragraph for more details….

The hedge on the broad road to hell

Jesus not only preached about hell, he did what it takes to prevent you from going to hell. This is what he did: he voluntarily endured hell instead of you. While he hung on the cross he cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Math 27:46). Hell is the one place which is truly God-forsaken. Jesus experienced hell even as he hung from the cross. That is why he cried out that way. Because your sins and my sins were laid upon Jesus on that day – two thousand years ago – the holy God whose eyes are too pure to even look upon sin, had to turn his face from his Only Son, Jesus, and forsake Him, for our sake (Hab 1:13). This happened at the “ninth hour” – the Gospel-writers tell us (Math 27:46; Mk 15:34). Every year, exactly at that very hour, Jewish families would chop the neck of a lamb that would take away their sin – symbolic of what Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God would do on the cross, years later. The God who stopped Abraham between the neck and the knife as he was about to chop his son Isaac, did not stop the knife of the cross falling on the neck of his son. The reason? Jesus died for our sins.

How Jesus endured hell for you

Jesus also cried out, “I thirst” from the cross, remember? (John 19:28). He was echoing the words of the rich man who went to hell, he once talked about. That rich man too cried out in thirst saying, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame’ – do you recall? (Luke 16:24). What that rich man underwent in hell, Jesus underwent even as he hung on the cross, Bible Scholars tell us. That is why he uses almost the very same words as that of that rich man. Why did Jesus have to endure all of this? To prevent you and me from living a life of hell and going to actual hell. He was taking the”punishment”, which is ultimately hell punishment, instead of us, the Bible declares (Isa 53:5, Rev 21:7, 8). Jesus died so that we may not have to experience “second death” – another Bible word for hell (Rev 21:7, 8). And we will only go to hell, if we reject Jesus, who claimed to be only way of salvation from our destruction in hell. If we jump over the cross of Jesus in pride, the cross which acts as a hedge to prevent people from going to hell, this is where we will land in: hell!

You could remember this essay – from hell

Jesus warned – six stunning times – that hell is a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Math 8:12; 13:42; 13:50 ; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). He repeated this depiction of hell, because it was mighty important. Who weeps? Those who are sad. Who gnashes teeth? Those who are angry and frustrated. You have guessed it right – Jesus wants us to understand that hell will be a place where our memories would be intact by using this phrase to talk about hell. Should we go to hell, we will remember and recall, every opportunity we ever had on planet Earth to escape coming to hell, and we will feel sad and shattered, angry and frustrated, that we did not make the most of it! My prayer is that you will not land up in hell, but if you do, you will remember reading this article, that explained to you, in black and white, the only way to escape hell!

A line from I Know What You Did Last Summer….

Don’t get me wrong – Jesus did not come to this planet to condemn you to hell. Far from it. The Bible says, ” For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). But hell is where we will go, if we ignore Jesus’ repeated warnings about hell. “There was a murderer in the balcony. I saw him from the stage in the beauty contest. And you will fry in hell, if you ignore my words!” – those are the words in-effect that Sarah Michelle Gellar screamed at a Police Officer who doubted the veracity of her claims in the 1997 Hollywood horror movie, I Know What You Did Last Summer. The skeptical police officer, who made fun of Sarah for making such a claim was promptly and shockingly “hooked” by a sickle to a gruesome death, by the very murderer whose existence he doubted, shortly after he heard Sarah’s warning. If you and I doubt Jesus’ claims on hell, I am afraid, on the day of Judgment, or the day of your death (which can be any day), you and I will be in for a similar shock, like that police officer was in for, in the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer.

“There was a murderer in the balcony. You will fry in hell if you ignore my words!” those words were heard in the movie, I Know What You Did Last Summer. Jesus says, “I am who I claim to be. If you do not believe I am who I am (God in flesh who is the only way to true peace and joy) you will die in your sins (which is to fry in hell forever!)

Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10 ). Why do you want to experience hell in this life and go on to experience hell in the next life to come, forever and forever, when Jesus can you give you “abundant life” – a life which nothing or no one can give you?

How to escape hell – here’s how

Maybe you are asking the question after reading this essay, “What must I do to escape hell and experience the heaven Jesus alone can offer me?” What you must do was put in plain words by Jesus. You must first leave. I mean, leave your life of sin. I mean repent. I say this because, Jesus preached, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). When he used the word “perish” there, he meant “perish in eternal hell”. So repentance from sin is the first step to escape this horrible hell.

Second, you must believe. We read in the Bible that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). Yes, that is right. You must believe that Jesus died on the cross to save you from going to hell with all your heart. You must believe, that He is alive right now, having risen from the dead on the third day, to be able to walk with you daily in the narrow road that leads to heaven.

If you have decided to repent from sin and believe on Jesus, why don’t you join me in saying this prayer, which will help you begin a relationship with Jesus – the only one who can save you from eternal Hell: Dear Jesus, I am sorry for my sins that took you to the cruel cross, where you experienced hell for me. Please forgive me. Please wash my manifold sins with your precious, pure blood that was shed for me on the Cross. I pledge to join you on that narrow road that leads to heaven from now on! Thank you for saving me! I am grateful! I am glad! So be it!”

If you have any questions about this article please call Duke at +91-9441352433 or e-mail him using emailduke@aol.in . If you have made a decision to follow Jesus for the first time, after having read this article, join a local church where Bible is taught faithfully, for if you are in an active fellowship with fellow believers in a local church, “the gates of hell will not prevail” against you (Math 16:18).

The text in brackets refers to Bible Verse References. And they are taken from the English Standard Version of the Bible available online at http://www.esv.org/ .

-Duke Jeyaraj

THE SEARCH
Aishwariya Rai (Indian actress) talked about it – a vacuum in her heart. She told the press once, “You know as Ms World, I was suddenly exposed to so much that after the year was over, there was suddenly a vacuum!” (The Times of India, 20 October 1999). The Backstreet Boys (Irish Boy Band) put music to the gnawing empty feeling on the inside. They sang, I was lost and alone, trying to grope, making my way down the long winding road. And no reason, no rhyme, like a song out of time… (lyrics as found on http://www.lyrics007.com/ on 12 March 2007). Australian youth icon, Pat Rafter expressed the void in his inner self this way after winning his second US Open (after pocketing a huge pay cheque before an adoring worldwide audience): “When you haven’t got it, you really want it; when you have it, you really don’t want it!” (Quote read from The Sportstar). John McEnroe depicted the barrenness in the bosom of Chilean Tennis Star, Marcelo Rios this way: “Here’s a guy who makes millions and millions of dollars a year and has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the world, and he looks miserable most of the time” (The Sportstar, 23 October 1999, page 67).

Life means more….
Hello. Hi! Do those real stories – from representative parts of the globe (Asia, Europe, North and South America and Oceania) from both the genders in a wide range of fields – strike a chord in your bosom? Think of the nights you hit the bed and stared into the ceiling and asked the question, “Is that all there is to life?” You walk with a spring in your step. Always flash a beaming smile. Your eyes sparkle. But the sadness and pain behind those eyes almost shows. Mankind – Kapil to Kajol – is on a search for meaning, for fulfillment in life. There is a universal feeling that “life means more” (as the debunked Hometrade.com ad goes). Life surely means more than growing up, studying, finding a job, getting married, having kids, becoming a grandpa and dying.

A promise
If you are searching for the meaning and purpose in your life here is a promise for you from the God of the Bible: Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed (Jer 29:11, The Message)!

THE SURPRISE

In our quest to find what is missing in our life we try out different things: Drugs and discos, pornography and perversion; shopping sprees; boozing binges; fondling friends; long work hours. But when these are tried they leave us emptier than when we started. We can try to fill that vacuum with loads of wit or wisdom or work or women or wine yet that vacuum will surprisingly stay, the Bible points out (Ecclesiastes 2).

Why this emptiness?

The Bible explains why we have such emptiness in our hearts in the first place. It is because we try to fill that emptiness without God, who alone can give us real enjoyment (Eccl 2:25). “Life under the sun, will be meaningless and futile until we make a living relationship with the one above the sun – God!” (This is how Selwyn Hughes summarized the message of Ecclesiastes – one of the 66 books of the Bible). Only God can satisfy our search for true meaning in life. “Show us the Father (Father was the word Jesus used for God) and we will be satisfied” That is how Philip, one of the disciples of Jesus expressed this truth (Jn 14:8 NLT). Pascal put it precisely: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in our heart and only God can fill it!” That God-shaped vacuum entered our souls because of sin, the Bible explains (Isa 57:20,21). “Emptiness is their only reward,” the Bible says, when it speaks about people who make sin their life-style (Job 15:17, 31 NLT).

From Mother Teresa to Lady Diana

We are all sinners – from Gandhi to Godse, from Mother Teresa to Lady Diana – without exception, the Bible says (Rom 3:23). We are sinners by nature. By nature, Ethiopians have dark skin. By nature, leopards have spots. By nature, the human race sins. You and I, sin. This is the teaching of the Bible (Jer 13:23). That emptiness entered our system because we chose to sin – every passing day of our lives (Jer 6:16). Just as Anna Kournikova pouts, “Omega, my choice” we by our life say, “Sin my choice!” Hollywood interestingly titled a movie, Six Degrees of Separation. The Bible teaching is that sin has separated us from God who made us in his pattern and hence this empty feeling in our soul. The Bible also warns that sin will make us its slave and ultimately take us to the lake of burning sulfur – hell – where one will have to live forever and ever in great agony or pain (Jn 8:34: Rev 21:8).

THE SURRENDER

Can’t lift yourself with your bootlace, can you?

The Bible also makes it clear that we cannot fill this emptiness in our hearts on our own (Isa 57:12). You can’t lift yourself with your bootlace, can you? Our good deeds are like a woman’s menstrual cloth in God’s sight, according to the Bible (Ezek 36:17). As Max Lucado wrote, “Two kids in a mud puddle can’t clean each other. They need someone clean. Someone spotless. We need someone clean too. That’s why we need a Savior.” That was the reason, Jesus – God cloaked in human flesh and bone – came to this earth two millennia back.

Never “full” without Jesus

Jesus preached, “I have come that they might have Life and have it to the full!” (Jn 10:10 NIV). Without a relationship with Jesus, no matter what you do or what you have, your life will never be “full” – it will always be empty and void. He came to plug that vacuum in the soul of every human and save every person from his sins! He is qualified to do so because he never ever sinned in all his life – something no one else has done in all of the world’s history – and therefore did not experience a vacuum in His heart. He wagged his bony finger at his worst enemies of his time – the religious head of the Jewish religion – saying, “Which of you can truthfully convict me of sin?” They were mum (Jn 8:46 NLT)! He is the Living Water we must drink (believe in) in order to never thirst again (or experience the empty feeling in our soul).

Salman Khan-Like muscular soldiers

As a sinner, I should have lived a life of dissatisfaction on the earth, then died and gone to burn in never-ending hell. But sinless Jesus took my place when he was executed as a crass criminal at a hill in Israel, two thousand years back. He took your place too. He shed his blood so that our sins – each of our sins – may be forgiven and the emptiness in our souls may be gone (Jn 3:16/ Rom 5:8). A moving poem dedicated to the Indian soldiers who lost their lives for the country at Kargil, goes this way: He loves Ol’ Hindi songs just like you/He hates injections, just like you/ He cried each time Amitabh died, just like you/He has been in love, once or twice, just like you/ He’ll bleed if you cut him, just like you….He’s gone to die for a stranger and that stranger is you! (Bangalore Times, June 29, 1999, page 2). That’s what Jesus did for us. He died a cruel death for each one of us when we were still sinners and far away from him enjoying the pleasures of sin. Jesus shed every drop of his sinless blood, got beaten so badly that his back looked like a plowed field by Salman Khan-like muscular Roman soldiers, to become the sin-bearer for every person who has ever lived, is living, and will live on this world. He loves us so very madly. Because he is God who is beyond the dimension of time – he could die for all humans of all times. Because he is human he could be your substitute and mine.

Ronaldo Vs Jesus

It’s the World Cup Football Final. The year – 1994. Brazil makes a substitution. The watch says it is just 8 minutes to the finish. In walks a teenager. His name? Ronaldo! In those 8 minutes he dazzled the world. It was a great substitution. I will tell you of the greatest substitution of all time. It happened six hours one Friday. It happened when Jesus took your sins and my sins upon himself on the cross. Because he was 100 percent human he could be every human’s substitute. Because he was 100% God (who by definition is infinite) he could die for all humans of all times – past, present and future. I am a sinner. I should die and go to hell. But Jesus said, “No! No! I will die instead of Duke. I will endure the horrors of hell instead of Duke!” He did. He also did for you. He did for every one of us. “He (Jesus) was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace!” That’s what the Bible tells us (Isa 53:5).

Bradman Vs Jesus

He came back to life – a feat that proves he is God and he is alone and above everyone in the long-line of self-proclaimed gods. When cricket’s legend Don Bradman died, The Sportstar paid tribute to him this way: “In an era when 50-plus is still a true yard-stick of greatness for batsmen, Bradman’s average of 99.94 must give us an idea where the Don stands – alone and apart from every cricketer” (Quoted from The Sportstar). That’s only an imperfect picture of how infinitely Jesus stands in comparison to all others who claimed to be gods – alone and apart! Jesus claimed to be the only way to fill-in the vacuum in your heart and the only way to God.

Come now to Jesus!

His offer to you today is straight: “Are you tired? Worn out? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover with me!” (Math 9:37,38 The Message). This isn’t a call to join a religion. No religion can plug that vacuum in your soul. Not Christianity! Not any other religion! Only Christ can. He also said, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (Jn 6:37 NIV). The Multi National Companies may drive you away, but my Master won’t. Your boyfriend may drive you away, but my Jesus will not.

Ask Lady Diana if you could!

The only cure for ache in your heart is to leave your life of sin and believe in Jesus. First, you must decide to leave your sin. The Bible calls this as “repentance”. Jesus preached to those who narrowly escaped death when a tower in the country he preached in – Israel – crashed down: “Unless you repent you too will all perish!” (Luke 13:5 NIV). His message is the same to those of us who are still alive and kicking after mishaps such as the crash of the 115-storey tall World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001: “Repent! Turn from your sin!” Who knows when our next brush with death will be?! Life is short. Ask Lady Diana if you could! It is never too early to come to Christ. But at any moment it can be too late! The best and the most sensible time to surrender your life to Jesus is “now” (II Cor 6:4)! Over 300 times the Bible declares in various ways that Jesus will return to planet Earth. He would do that to judge the world, we are told. He will do that in a sudden and unexpected way, as a thief in the night would break into a house! And to think the Bible – God’s Word in human words – has never ever gone wrong in over 600 historical events it has predicted (Source: Encylopedia of Biblical Prophecy by J. Barton Payne, Hodder and Stoughton, 1973)! To ignore the words of the Bible would be like shooting yourself on the foot!

Hrithik’s song…

You have to make a choice about Jesus. He claimed to be the only way to fill the vacuum of your heart when he said he came to this world to make our lives “full” (Jn 10:10). Take him at his word. Believe him. You can call Jesus the biggest liar who ever lived. Or you can call him a nut-loose. Or you can call him the only Saviour of your soul and invite him into your heart and life. But you have no way of getting around his claims to say, “Jesus was one of the good men who lived in the earth.” In fact if you call Jesus as one of the many good men or god men of this world you are in-effect calling him a liar. He did not give you that option in the first place. So he is a liar, lunatic or Lord (as C. S. Lewis put it). He can’t be a liar. He was sinless. Even his worst enemies could not find a single fault in him. He couldn’t be a madman. He did not giggle in glee when he was hammered on the Cross. He felt pain and cried out in agony. That leaves us with just one option: he is the only Way to Heaven; the only Way to fulfillment and purpose in life. He categorically stated, “For unless you believe that I am who I say I am, you will die (which ultimately means to be cast in the lake of burning sulfur to be tormented forever) in your sins!” Don’t say, “I will wait till I understand everything about Jesus and then only come to him!” We perhaps would sing with Hrithik Roshan, Kyon hotta hai pyaar? Naa thum jaano…naa hum (meaning Why do people fall in love? Neither of us knows!) (Words of this song were penned by Ibrahim Ashq and lyrics quoted from www.ukindia.com/zip2 on 12 March 2007). Likewise, it is very important that you come to Christ, with a simple faith – even if we may never fully understand all about him – that he died and rose to take away the blankness in your bosom, right now without any delay!

By praying this prayer with all your heart you can invite Jesus into your heart and life and see the vacuum in your heart go:

Dear Jesus, I am a sinner. The vacuum in my heart is because I have sinned against you. Please forgive me. I repent of my sin. Thank you for dying for me on that hill and rising up again. Cleanse me with your blood, which you shed for me! I promise to live for you – with you helping me out. So be it!”

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Duke, the author of this piece works for an international bank, and loves to write. Email him at emailduke@gmail.com.