Our name......again!

This is yet another passionate and emotional cry to my people. Please read and take note. For those who take offence to something I have said here, you can email me and try to justify your arguements. I will gladly reply.

Please, to anyone who is reading this. Please stop calling us "Christian Assyrians."

I have seen this term thrown around many times recently, especially on Assyrian websites. Who decided to use this name?

We are Assyrians. That word alone, that description, the reference to any Assyrian out there in the world should automatically warrant a Christian branding. By using the name Assyrian, we are identifying with the first Christians of civilisation, that is a fact no one can deny.

Also, might I add, that we, Assyrians, are much different to other cultures ie. Egyptians and Lebanese. While these 2 nationalities can be split down the middle into either Muslim or Christian, the Assyrians cannot.

I am not interested in any 'statistic' which shows me that there are Assyrians of other religions out there. I will not accept nor believe, be it on my death bed, that there are Assyrians who have converted to Islam of their own free will. That is just outright ridiculous.

So you see, by using the term Assyrian Christians, you are clearly implying that there are Assyrians of other religions! We were called Assyrians from day one, hence our name should remain as it is. There should not be a joint name such as Ashur Chaldo, our language should not be called Neo Syriac Aramaic or Judeo Palestinian Aramaic. We should not bow down to anyone who throws a label on us. No we should not accept it.

I would also like to make another point. To anyone who shouts with pride "Christ spoke our language" let me say this: If you call yourself a true Assyrian and a true Christian, dont be a hypocrite. You should know perfectly well that Christ was capable of speaking any language. Did he not have the ability to create languages? In fact, I would even go as far as asking you: Did he not create ALL languages? Yes, Christ spoke Aramaic when he was of flesh on Earth, but dont sit and claim he spoke Aramaic when you know nothing of the language or you cant speak, read, write or understand Assyrian. Do not open your mouth if you do not know your own language.

On a side note, its interesting to see that a few individuals, a few, who seem to do a lot of talking these days, who seem to talk themselves up as Chrisitans, are off learning other (Non Assyrian) languages. To you I say this: You are a disgrace and should not even call yourself Assyrian. Bold statement? Maybe, but i can justify my words. How and why would you go and learn another language which is not your own when you dont even know your own language? What thought process did you undergo to decide that you would much rather go and learn a foreign language but not your own? Why not learn Aramaic? And i dont mean being able to read a few lines. Im talking about knowing it. Knowing its grammar, understanding what you are reading, where the words originated from etc.

If you are a true Assyrian and a true Christian and are interested in these things, learn Aramaic! (or even Akkadian if you think you are up to it) Learn it properly and not a half assed job at that. What purpose is it for me to know another language but not my own? It is only to boast to others when telling them you study another language but you can so easily be jammed if the other person asks you "Oh ok so that means you know Aramaic and Assyrian?" What will you reply then?

Please be very careful when referring to who we are. Do not listen to the media who will call us Iraqi Christians or Assyrian Christians. We are Assyrian. No ifs or buts, its not a question open for discussion and its not a technical term. Its plain and simple, dont let this dirty world distort your vision.

To those I referred to earlier as being hypocrites for not knowing their own language prior to studying others, I would like to say with love and respect: If you dont know your own language and cherish it and maintain it, how can we pass it on? How can we document it and pass it onto the next generation? How can we prove that this beautiful language once existed? If we are all off studying foreign languages and marrying non-Assyrians, what does the future hold for this language and its people? Thats where I am coming from.

God bless

JI

Relationships (and Marriage) - Part 1

How do you become the person God wants you to be?

The problem is that most people look and wander for something and can never figure out what it is. The reason why those people will never achieve what God wants them to be is because they are looking in the wrong places and making the wrong choices. The choices we make in life determine whether or not we find happiness, success or failure, contentment and triumph over our adversities.

We need the right relationships in our life, if you and I are going to be the person God wants us to be.

Relationships are what life is all about, relationships with God and with each other. We don’t measure the value of those relationships be it positive or negative. Most of the time we might be in a relationship for a long time and never think about it. We all have relationships, with our friends and families.

God said in the Garden of Eden that it is not good for man to be alone, he needs a partner, that is a relationship. God has made us dependent on Him but also to need each other and when we talk about relationships, we talk about connections. That is, you are connected with people, emotionally as well. The issue is what kind of connections are they?

Do I have relationships that I believe will help me become who God wants me to be? Do I have relationships in my life that do not promote me to be who God wants me to be? Or do these relationships make me slip away from knowing God and being who He wants me to be?

The truth is that we won't make it anywhere in this life alone. We need each other to reach the place God wants us to be. Remember, man cannot build his house alone, he needs others to help him.

There are only a few things we accomplish on our own, but we are all dependent on each other. That is God’s will.

Noah had great relationships with his family in order to convince them to help him build the ark. They didn’t know what an ark was and especially didn’t see the purpose of it since it had not rained back in that day. Noah’s relationship with his family helped him convince them that God had commanded him to build an ark.

God’s plan for us is to build Godly relationships during our lifetime.

The kind of relationships we need to be where God wants us to be:

• Build our confidence. In God and ourselves. (1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.")


• Motivate us, to do our best.


• Encourage us in those moments that we are discouraged.


• Stimulate us to greater creativity. See within us the potential we have.


• Energise us when we are weary. How? If I feel a little down, ill call my friend and say “lets go and eat” I won't be so much interested in eating, only to be in their company to listen to them and talk to them so that my problems seem distant.


• Comfort us when we are hurting. We need someone else’s strength, empathy or sympathy.


• Defend us or criticise us. The more Godly you live the more criticism you will receive. We need those people who will defend us, who know us for who we are, believe in us, know the truth about us, not what others believe about us.


• Forgive us. We need those people who will forgive us when we falter and sin. God forgives us, but we need those strong people who can forgive us.People who love us when we are unlovely. They understand who we are even in our bad moments.

God loves us when we are unlovely. We are grateful He doesn’t only love us when we are good. We need those people who will accept us as we are.

Relationships (and Marriage) - Part 2

We can’t change anybody. If you want to marry someone who is a drunk and you believe that you can change them, you can’t. Only God can. It is not up to you to change them, your responsibility is only to live a Godly life. If you are marrying someone for the purpose of changing them then you are marrying them with the wrong intention. If you are marrying someone and you already have in mind something you don’t like about them, then you better stop and ask yourself if you are ahead of God’s schedule.

We need someone who can confront us when we are wrong. We need someone who can tell us that we hurt their feelings. We need to be told when we are wrong. If it is done in a Godly manner then it is easier for us to accept.

We need someone who can serve us. This means someone who can see us in our time of need and is willing to come to our aid and rescue us in that time of need. Many people have the gift of service. We all need to be servants in one way or another willing to be there for people.

We need patient people. We need people who can be patient in us when we are difficult. We need that person to understand us when we are going through a trial and not get upset because we are not ourselves on that particular day. We need the empathy from these people.

Do you have anyone in your life, one person, whose goal in their life is to build you up, to motivate you, to encourage you, to stimulate you in your creativity, to comfort and love you. Someone who is patient with you and can confront you. Do you have anyone in your life that can match this list?

Do you have anyone in your life where you are that person? Do you have that relationship with someone where you want all this for them?

Or are you self centred and just wanting someone to be there for you and bring you happiness and contentment? If so, you will never be the person God wants you to be UNTIL you are willing to be that same kind of person to someone else. If you have all these qualities with someone and your relationship with them works both ways, do you know that is the greatest treasure that you can have? Nothing in this world can match that genuine relationship within you. When you think about this person it makes you want to smile because you know who they are and you know what they think about it and no matter what criticism you receive they will stand for you and it makes you feel that you will do the same.

You know this person is the man or woman they ought to be. We need to bring people to a point where God wants them to be. But a lot of people will live their life in denial, lying to themselves and living life as their true self.

It doesn’t matter who you are there is nothing in life you can do alone. Anyone who says “Yes I have everything I don’t need anyone” or “I don’t need anyone in my life as long as I have all these things” Well guess what? You are living in a world of deception. You need people! Relationships, Godly relationships, so you can achieve the things He wants you to achieve, that’s the only way you will be happy. We can look at celebrities and billionaires, look at their marriages and relationships, all the divorces and problems, look at their lifestyles, there is no contentment there. Why? Because their relationships are so messed up, they do not have God in their lives.

Relationships (and Marriage) - Part 3

Negative relationships

These are the other kind of relationships, not positive influences in our lives.

They:

1. Dim our vision. They cause us to be in denial. “I know this is what I should be doing BUT…..”
2. Discourage us from truly and really wanting to be that Godly person.
3. Drag us down. “Well ok, I guess that’s not what God really wanted for my life” when you actually know it was. Or you say “Well I guess I will never probably become anything.” They derail you in your thinking until you give up. It defeats you.

Solutions

1. Pray for God to change the other person(s). They won’t always change, when someone doesn’t want to change, very seldom will God make them change, its free will.
2. You can give up your goals and dreams. You can give up your desire to be a Godly person and the things God wants you to achieve.
3. Separate yourself from that relationship. This could be a job you are in, a loving relationship with a person, a friendship or maybe you are married to someone.

You may be in a relationship with a person who does not have your goals, not interested in your life, your future but only in them selves. I am NOT saying you should divorce a person because of that. I am saying you should FACE that relationship and deal with that relationship. I am saying God can take the most difficult relationships and when we put our faith and trust in Him we can endure far more than we could ever realise we could.
4. We can persevere and determine to be the person that God wants you to be and you can achieve the things God wants you to achieve by His help and His strength no matter who you live with or what the relationship is. You are trusting in God and not giving up in failure. Your trust in God that He will use all the criticism, difficulty and hardship to make you a Godly man and Godly woman.

But, of course, it would be far better to have the right relationship. So, before you get married you need to sit with the other person and work out:

- What are their goals in life?
- Where they are headed in life?
- What do they want to achieve in life?
- What do they want to accomplish in life?

Some will say that “I want to marry and be happy and have kids.” Well ok that doesn’t take too long does it? Then what? Kids go to school and now you are a grandparent, now what?

You need to sit down and do some long, serious, Godly hard thinking and find out who this person is. What are their goals, where they are headed, why they want to marry? If you can’t say with a whole Godly heart, listening to God that I do believe I can link myself with this person because we have mutual goals and we both want to achieve what God wants us to achieve. We are committed to each other till death.

We want God to accomplish His purpose in our life, we want to build up each other and comfort each other and stimulate each other, motivate each other and all the other others! Not just “I think I am in love.” That’s not enough, there has got to be something stronger and deeper, a foundation. Built on what? The truth of the word of God, when it is built on this, you have a far better chance of making it work. Why? Because God lives inside of you. How? Whatever circumstance, situation and relationship, if you are to respond to Him in the correct fashion, He will turn it to your good no matter what, no matter what!

Relationships (and Marriage) - Part 4

Ok so what should I look for in a relationship? What type of people will help me be the person God wants me to be.

Remember these and ask yourself if someone has these qualities and if you are willing to be the same to them.

The person must have:

1. Godly character. Their beliefs and their behaviour will be consistent with the word of God.
2. Committed to you. A person who is committed in helping you become your best in life.
3. Genuinely loves you. They love you because you are you. Not because you are only there for them and they not for you, that is selfish and unGodly. They genuinely love you for who you were when they first met you and not how they picture you in the future according to how they want you to dress, speak, walk and live. If you change your look, dress, talk, lifestyle for this person, then it is not genuine, especially if they allow it! Genuinely loving someone means you accept them for who they are and you want to push them forward to be that greater person, where God wants them to be.
4. Always looking out for your best interest. You will be doing the same for them!
5. Wise counsel. Godly counsel, their advice is for your best interest, no matter how much the truth hurts. If it is according to God’s word, then it is wise. They are honest with us even when it hurts. It would be foolish to link your life to someone whose opinion or judgement you won’t even consider! What’s the point?
6. Faithful to you, when you’re right or wrong, when everyone else has left you, your friend is still there and says to you “Hey buddy I’m here for you through thick and thin.”
7. Give them selves to you. Their time, interest, efforts, willing to help someone in times of need.
8. Prays for you! Not “God bless him.” We need people who can pray for us “God convict him, God show him the truth.” Is there anyone in your life that prays for you at the moment, everyday? The greatest asset you and I have on the face of this Earth is when people call our name to our Father, to the living God! Asking on your behalf. Sacrificing their prayers in order to pray for you. What does that say about that person?

Are the relationships you are in, intimate and otherwise, do they match the things on the list you have just been given? Are they building you up? Encouraging you? Matching the items on the list? Are these relationships trustworthy? Are you becoming a better person? You make the choice.

Do you have a say, opinion in your relationships? Are you worth something to the other person? Or are you living only to impress the other person constantly and receiving nothing in return?

Can you confront the other person and be honest with them?

All good relationships begin in one place. That’s JESUS. Personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. You recognise you are full of faults and sins, disobedience and rebellion. You believe the testimony of the word of God that Jesus went to the cross and paid your sin debt in full and if you ask him to forgive your sins, he will forgive you and cleanse you. You will grow in your relationship with Him, trusting him as your Savior, this is how you begin to develop good, healthy, Godly relationships with people.