Supernaturally Happy
- By Dr. Ernie Prabhakar
- Published 03/27/2008
Dr. Ernie Prabhakar
Dr. Ernie Prabhakar has “been becoming” a Christian for all his life. Though born in Chicago, his family traces their Christian heritage back nine generations to the beginnings of evangelical Christianity in India. He was deeply involved with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship throughout his eleven years in higher education: 4 years at MIT for an S.B. in Physics, and 7 years at Caltech for a Ph.D. in Experimental Particle Physics. During that time he ran numerous Bible studies, discipled over a dozen students, attended Urbana five times, and translated the gospel into calculus!
Upon graduation in 1995, he decided that he ultimately preferred people to particles, leading him to spend two years doing business analysis at the Boston Consulting Group in Los Angeles. While attracted by the data-rich world of business, he ultimately became disillusioned by consulting’s overriding focus on pecuniary advantage (“To a scientist, money is like toilet paper: it is bad if you don’t have it, but you don’t want to spend all your time thinking about it!”).
By the grace of God, everything came together for him when Apple acquired NeXT in 1997. Initially hired as a summer contractor because of his UNIX background, he rose to senior Rhapsody Product Manager within six months (because the rest of the department was laid off :-). He was instrumental in the launch of Mac OS X Server 1.0, as well as of Darwin, the open source core of Mac OS X.
Today, he is the UNIX specialist on the Mac OS X Product Marketing team, focused on Open Source, Web 2.0, Grid Computing, and other “geeky” technologies in line with his scientific background. He is also one of the key leaders of the Apple Christian Fellowship, which sponsors speakers, socials, and other events to help believers at Apple bring their “whole person” into the marketplace.
He and his wife Sandhya reside in Santa Clara, California where they attend Kingsway Community Church. He can be found online via LinkedIn or Facebook. He maintains numerous blogs and websites (technical, political, philosophical, personal) including this one, where he is attempting to blog through the Bible.
My friend, mentor, and former Pastor John Isaacs is blogging a wonderful series on the Beatitudes, which I want to collect here. Last update: Jan 30, 2006
Matthew 5:3*Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You will be supernaturally happy, knowing you are approved by God and have a place with Him and will experience the reality of His dynamic reign and rule both in your present life and in your life to come, when you face the reality of your own poverty of spirit apart from God.
Matthew 5:4*Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Supernaturally happy will be a person who knows their place in God - and they will find comfort in knowing that godly sorrow plays an important role in producing the changes God desires in their life. It will bring them to repentance, draw them closer to Jesus, and conform them more to His image.
Matthew 5:5*Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Supernaturally happy will be anyone that knows their place in God - and they will be confident that they will inherit a life of godliness in the present, and a life of reigning with Christ in the future, if they choose to place their strength under God’s control, surrender their will to God’s will, and put their trust in Him alone.
Matthew 5:6*Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Supernaturally happy you will be because you will know your place in God — and be confident that you will be filled to fullness with an ever deepening satisfaction, if you intensely desire to have a right relationship with God, to live a godly life, and to be a demonstration of His justice to the people around you.
Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Supernaturally happy you will be because you will know you have God’s approval — and can be confident that you will receive His kindness and forgiveness, if you can recognize the distress of others, and if you discern it is God’s will, to show Christ? love by extending tangible help, regardless of who the person is.
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
You will be supernaturally happy and know you have God’s approval when you turn to Him, in faith, receiving the cleansing work of grace in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, and you will be drawn closer and closer to God as you continue to confess your sins, turn away from darkness, fellowship with one another, and regularly bathe in God’s Word.
Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
You will be supernaturally happy and know you have God’s approval when you begin making peace; passively, by avoiding contention and strife, and actively, by being an ambassador of reconciliation, willing to *go to war* if necessary. Behaving as a maker of peace, causes others to see attributes of God’s character in your life and you will be viewed as belonging to Him.
Matthew 5:10
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness? sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You will be supernaturally happy and know you have God’s approval when you choose a life of right living and suffer abuse from others for it. Some will reject and abuse you, as they have rejected Christ, but others will be drawn to the light of God’s glory shining through you. Remember, irregardless of how you are treated, right living will be rewarded in heaven.