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Showing posts from March, 2013

Easter Greetings from Rt.Rev.Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius

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Faith and Witness at the day of Victory Mat. 28.1-10  “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay”. (6) Today we are celebrating Easter. The greatest day in Christian faith. Christian faith is revolves around the life of Jesus, the Saviour. Christian faith celebrates the manifestations of Christ-Event. Christ-event is not limited to the birth and death of Jesus. It is the life of Jesus in its totality. It is the expression of the whole Being of Jesus. Crucifixion, death and resurrection symbolises the victory of the Cross. The Gospel according to St Mathew gives us a descriptive report of the life of Jesus from ecclesial perspective. The gospel was written for the first century believers with a Christological motif. This gospel bears the spirit of Old Testament scriptures. In Mathew 28:1-10 the gospel writer presents the resurrection of Jesus in an artistic sense. Vindication of the faith of the victims At the foot of the cro...

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Life beyond death Ezekiel 37: 1 - 14 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign  Lord , you alone know. (3) This passage has captured the imagination of readers of the Hebrew bible for centuries. The Ezekiel's vision reminds every generation that God not only gives life but restores life, that death will not have the last word, even when all signs of life have been taken away. Our God is the creator God of life, and at the same time He renews the life, its origin and goal.   As we read these verses, it is virtually impossible not to envision a desert scene with bones and skulls lying in disarray as far as the eye can see. Ezekiel stands in the midst of the dry bones listening to the word of the Lord. God the giver of life The question of God, mortal, can this bones live?, and the answer of the prophet was O Lord God you know that whether these bones would live or not, because you are the creator and the giver of life. The dry bones r...

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Passion to the Cross Mathew 27 :1-14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. (14)   The story begins with the break of dawn where the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed, however, in Mathew 26:65 is where the real decision to have Jesus executed took place (In the cover of darkness). Since it was illegal for the Jews as per their custom they once again in the morning took the decision to have Him Executed. In Chapter 27 Vs 2 we see that they (Leaders of Israel) bound Jesus and handed him over to Pilate (A Gentile & The Representation of the world power then). Why this is Important is that on that fateful day – Both Israelites & Gentiles have no excuse in putting Jesus to the Cross. No one is with an excuse today for turning our backs to Christ, including the Roman Governor Pilate who heard every word that Jesus had to say. This meditation I want u...

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MAUNDY THURSDAY      MATHEW. 26:1-28  “ While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body.”   (26)   Maundy Thursday is the name given to the day on which Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples, known as the Last Supper. The word “Maundy” is derived from the Latin word for “command”. The “Maundy” In Maundy Thursday refers to the command Jesus gave to the disciples at the Last Supper that they should love and serve one another. Maundy Thursday observance focuses on two primary religious acts that are portrayed in the biblical accounts of the Last Supper. One is washing of feet and the other one is Holy Communion. WASHING THE FEET The narrative of washing the feet serves an important purpose for St. John to introduce the disciples and readers to the passion of Jesus. For Jesus washing the feet is an expression of love...

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Passion to the cross 1 John. 4:7-21 “….if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (12) The first letter of John deals with teachings against the heresies in the early Church. Heresies were taught by false prophets. They confused the believers by contradicting the true teachings given by the apostles. False teachers were trying to mislead first-century Christians by denying, among the other things, the true humanity of Christ. This view came to be called Gnosticism and is the background of much of 1.John. John had two basic purposes in mind in this letter(1)to expose false teachers, and (2)to give believers assurance of salvation.1.John.1:5-2:28 is teaching about having good fellowship with the Father and the Son.   God is love- love one another: Author encourages his readers to love one another because God is love. God’s love is proved by sending His only begotten Son to this world and saving it by the passion and crucifixion (Vs....

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PASSION TO THE CROSS Matthew: 23:13-35 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. In Matthew 23:13-35 talks about the 7 woes. All these woes bring us the warning how the Christian should behave with others in relationship with Christ. In this small devotion, we shall meditate on three woes. 1. To those who block the door of the kingdom . People who have the eagerness for the kingdom experience have blocked their hope by the so called religious boasting people. The scripture reveal God's quest for man and man's quest for God, but a false Judaism had turned them in to burden of rules too heavy to the borne. False leaders had taken away not only the scriptures but the key to life. The gentiles were forced to go through the external action rather than change of heart. So they blocked the door to the kingdom. 2. To the false strangers. There are many leaders, who were in Jerusalem and among Diaspora wh...

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  Remembering the Cross Isaiah 63:7-19 "In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old." Isaiah 63:9 As we approach the holy week, let us remember how God has carried us in our past. Even when we were not grateful for the goodness in our lives, He reached out to us. Father’s promise is fulfilled through his Son, Jesus. Passion of Jesus for his creation cost his life on the cross. Let us remember His love for each of us and admit that we are sinners who are lost and clueless. Let us seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to turn to the Cross daily. As followers, we should proclaim all that He has done and make a glorious name for Him. Remember the old days: We shall never forget how God has lead us in the past. This is one of the greatest mistakes Christians commit. We forget the fact that God was present and alive in o...

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LENT : A SEASON MARKED BY FAITH IN ACTION Mark 2:   1– 12 When Jesus saw their faith,he said to the paralytic,”son,your sins are forgiven .”   Mark 2:5   In 1923,the Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, wrote his famous book called I and Thou . The main point of Buber’s book is that there are two ways of relating to other people in our lives.We can see them as objects,Buber call it as the I-it relationship .A nd we can see others as having feelings,dreams like our own,what Buber calls the ‘I-thou relationship .We sometimes treat others as objects and measure their worth not by what they are but by what they are able to do for us.Surprisingly,here four people consider the value of useless,paralyzed person’s life as their own life. Condition of Paralyzed Man-Wretched and Helpless Modern medical field has now accepted the fact that there are psychosomatic diseases. That means ones physical condition is affected by the mental state of the person. Some types...

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  Prayer Transforms Daniel 2:1-19 "He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery" (18) Daniel and his friends were going through a crisis in Babylon and they were facing death by the decree of the king. The king had a dream and he wanted the wise men of the land to tell him about the dream and to interpret the dream. But all the wise men of the land failed to do that and king ordered to exe-cute them. So the officials and the wise men wanted to include Daniel and his friends in this group Daniel and his friends were at the verge of losing their lives but they depended on God and used their God given wisdom to transform this crisis to a blessing not only to them but also to the people who went through the same crisis. We see here the God given wisdom and tact of Daniel as he went imme-diately to Arioch, the king’s official who was appointed to execute the killing of wise men of the land, and told him not to destroy the "wise men"...