Reflections

Redemption Exodus 17:1-6 Dr. Eapen Daniel Trinity MTC, Houston 5 The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.   Redemption is the theme of the Bible as a whole.  Anytime we humans sin, it is God’s great redeeming act that saves us and puts us back on the path of sanctity if we desire to be sanctified.   As God had commanded, the Israelites journeyed through the desert for years with on and off comforts and sufferings. As we read in the books of the Old Testament, God’s protection was all around the Israelites. Even though they had experienced His protection and care through times of great trouble, when they encountered diffi...

LORD: Adored for His Humility Philippians 2:1-11    Dr. Deepu A. Thomas Carmel MTC, Boston MA  3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.   In this passage, Paul, who is already happy with the faith of Christians in Philippi, is urging them to make his joy complete by being unified with fellow Christians in love and by sharing the same spirit. The purpose of this unity was to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus. He also instructs them to be humble and to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.   This passage influenced me a lot in my faith journey. I use verses 3 & 4 to challenge me everyday.  Contrary to what our world asserts us to do, Paul is asking us to value others above ourselves, a quality of God who loved us humans to such an extent that He gave His only son for our salvation. Pride, one of human being's  basic instincts, means “an inordinate self-esteem or a reas...

LORD: Worthy of Adoration Revelation 7: 9-12 Paul Varghese Carmel MTC, Boston MA “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”   The term 'Adoration' comes from the Latin ‘adoratio’ meaning “to give homage or worship to someone or something”. Adoration is respect, reverence, strong admiration or devotion in a certain person, place or thing.   We believe in “an Awesome God”; a God of “Amazing Love”; a God of “loving-kindness”. When we appreciate and focus on how wonderful God is, and acknowledge all the great things He has done, and is still doing and will continue to do in our lives, our natural response, due to our tremendous gratitude, ought to be praise, thanksgiving and adoration. Praising God makes every circumstance of our lives essential and worthwhile. . The Psalmist states: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord” Psalm 150.6 . “Praise is essential t...

Lord: Worthy of Adoration Exodus 15:1-18    Mercy Mariam Koshy Carmel MTC, Boston MA "2.The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him."   This passage, titled the ‘song of Moses’ , is the first of many songs recorded in our Scripture. Moses received God’s call and his ordination on top of the Sinai. Hampered with a speech impediment, Moses initially didn’t feel worthy of taking on the enormous task of leading the charge of His people’s deliverance. Although at first reluctant, Moses accepts this call and to put this into any sort of perspective relieving a whole people from the bondage of earth’s most powerful man, Pharaoh. Who among us would similarly trust God and venture forth?   God used a flawed man like Moses to fulfill His plan. Israel’s children had completed their mission in Mizraim, staving off a great famine, and erecting tall ...

Impartial Justice with Righteous Living Amos 5: 18-27    Joseph Kurian Ph. D Carmel MTC, Boston MA   24. But let justice roll on like a river; righteousness like a never-failing stream” The prophet Amos warns the people of Israel about the judgment that is to come. People of his time were self righteous and religious. Amos finds hypocrisy in their life. Their actions and worship did not go hand in hand. Some of them longed    for the day of the Lord, and thought they will be saved on that day. But Amos tells them, on the day of the Lord, they will be subject to unimaginable misery and suffering. It will be a day of darkness for them and not of light as expected. He compares their coming misery, to the misery of a man who flees from a lion and meets a bear or is bitten by a snake. There is no escape or refuge for them. The wrath of God is upon them. The reason for His wrath is the absence of fairness and the presence of unrighteousness in their...

Lord, You Are Worthy of Adoration    Daniel 6: 19 – 28 Mathew George Carmel MTC, Boston “....For he is the living God,  enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed,  and his dominion has no end.  27. He delivers and rescues,  he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth;”   Ah, the word Adoration… one of the most beautiful words in English literature…. Adoration (Latin) means respect, reverence, strong admiration, or devotion in a certain person, place or thing. It is one of the most natural thing that we do as humans. We can witness this from the fans at football games, cheering and chanting when the player's score and especially when their favorite team wins a close game. However, in the life of a Christian, true adoration is reserved for God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, who gives us life everlasting, provisioning us with His abundant Grace and sustaining us in our daily life. When we adore God, a ...

Lord: Who Led into and out of Egypt Psalms 81 Subi Rachel Mathew (W/O Rev. Denny Philip) Carmel MTC, Boston  MA 10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Psalm 81 is a song arranged in a melody called Gittith, a music style of Gath. The song was meant to be sung together on a festival day (v. 3). It evokes varied feelings and experiences that are essential for spiritual growth. The song portrays a God, worthy to be praised and adored. Adoration has to be a natural response resulting from an exceptional experience. We are sometimes filled with awe and wonder on seeing a beautiful landscape which may find its expression through acclamations, verbal or nonverbal.  Similarly, adoration to God shall also come from a spiritual experience.  Here, we see two experiences in the life of Israel that fill the heart of the psalmist as well as the later singers as they adore the God of Jacob...

United in Christ’s Love – Ecumenical Sunday John 15:11-17 Rev Issac P Kurien St Johns MTC NY 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. The context of the passage is the farewell discourse and closing prayer of Jesus Christ. We can see two images of Jesus’ relationship to his disciples. These two imageries, branches and friends, involve privileges as well as responsibilities. Branches denote the privilege of sharing in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and the responsibility is to abide in His love. As friends, the privilege is  to know the will of God and the responsibility is to obey the will of God. 1. Abiding: Promises complete Joy - v. 11 The main focus of Jesus is the incomparable joy to be shared and that will fill our lives. John 14:27 says about the peace that Jesus shared with us. It is not like the peace that the world gives instead it is the peace that God gives. John. 15:9 says ab...

United in Christ’s Love 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Chris Mathew Thomas    St. John’s MTC,  NY 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.   There’s a book entitled “War in The Pews” that talks about real-life instances which are absolutely outrageous. In Mississippi, in a small town northeast of Vicksburg there were two churches that shared a common parking lot. They were of the same denomination. But, because of some differences of opinion, they had split and they now share that parking lot. I wonder if they remember what the split was about. These divisions or quarrels are not something new in the church but it existed right from the beginning.   Paul founded the church in Corinth on his second missionary journey. Eighteen months after he left, arguments and divisions arose. In  1 Corinthians 1:10-17 , Paul addresses these...

United in Christ’s Love Deuteronomy 4: 1-10    Jacob Joseph St. John’s MTC, NY 9  But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children— 10 how you once stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so”;    In today’s world, when we look at society, we often see separations amongst people, whether it is based on social class, religion, race, or gender. These social distinctions and differences among groups of people have caused all of us to believe that we are either superior or inferior to one another. However, this isn’t true in the eyes of the Lord.  In the eyes of the Lord we a...

Jonah’s Anger and the Lord’s Compassion Jonah 4:1-11   Justin Mani Staten Island MTC, New York 10 Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh.....   The book of Jonah is a very unique book. In the beginning of the book, we see the Lord asking Jonah to go the city of Nineveh and preach to them because wickedness has come up in that land. Jonah got scared and ran away in the opposite direction towards Tarshish instead. The Lord sent a storm and a big fish to get Jonah to change his decision and finally Jonah was heading to Nineveh to preach about the upcoming destruction of the city. The people of Nineveh heard Jonah and decided to turn away from their evil ways and called the Lord. The Lord saw this and decided not to bring destruction to the city of Nineveh. Now we have Jonah very anger ...