Reflections

  Redemption of all creation. Three Day Lent St. Matthew 24: 36-46 V.44 “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”   The scripture portion (Matt 24: 36-46) that we are meditating upon today is titled: “The Day and Hour Unknown”. Interesting title, isn’t it? We all travel, and when we travel, we know the date and time of travel, isn’t it? How about birth and death? In most cases, we have some idea of the hour of birth and day of birth but the day and hour of death are Unknown, isn’t it? Scripture prophesied the second coming of Jesus but “The Day and Hour Unknown”. V.36 reminds us “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” So, we are meditating on a topic that not even Jesus, the Son, knows. Father the creator, Son the redeemer, and Holy Spirit the sanctifier; the trinity in unison recognize that a second coming is required. Scripture also reminds us o...

  Confession Three-day Lent Golden Rule: Our Greatest Commandment Matthew 7: 1-12 Vs.12: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”   I apologize for repeating this first paragraph from a prior devotional, but it is appropriate for today’s passage. For over 15 years, I have been working for  The National Marrow Donor Program  which runs  Be The Match , the national blood stem cell/marrow registry of the United States. The organization’s mission is to save the lives of patients with blood cancers and blood disorders by educating and registering blood stem cell/marrow donors. I am proud to say many members of the Mar Thoma Church have registered at events hosted by our churches and a few fortunate people have donated their blood stem cells to save the lives of patients worldwide.  In recent years our organization has struggled with many potential donors being identified and informed of becoming a match...

  Confession Three-day Lent Golden Rule: Our Greatest Commandment Matthew 7: 1-12 Vs.12: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”   I apologize for repeating this first paragraph from a prior devotional, but it is appropriate for today’s passage. For over 15 years, I have been working for  The National Marrow Donor Program  which runs  Be The Match , the national blood stem cell/marrow registry of the United States. The organization’s mission is to save the lives of patients with blood cancers and blood disorders by educating and registering blood stem cell/marrow donors. I am proud to say many members of the Mar Thoma Church have registered at events hosted by our churches and a few fortunate people have donated their blood stem cells to save the lives of patients worldwide.  In recent years our organization has struggled with many potential donors being identified and informed of becoming a match...

  Trust in the Providence of God Philippians 4: 4-8 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.   How can I rejoice when I’m anxious? How can I have peace when my life is so chaotic? These are two questions I have often asked God while I go through difficult seasons.  Sometimes our lives are too much to handle. We may be consumed with the stresses of the moment to stop and look to God. We may doubt that there is someone who understands wha...

  Trust in the Providence of God St. Mathew 6:19-34   This passage is part of the teachings of the Messiah to his disciples: the Sermon on the Mount. A collection of short sayings and arguments are united by the theme of possessions. While materialistic pleasures occupy our minds most of the time, Jesus calls upon us to put God first by trusting in him to meet our requirements here on earth. Jesus’ concern about wealth and materialism In the first part of today’s passage, Jesus warns about wealth and materialism. A treasure is that which has value and is worth something to someone. Where is our heart, focused on earth or focused on heaven? Jesus’ concern is that we guard against centering our lives around houses, furnishings, cars, lands, buildings, stocks-all the things that makeup security and wealth on this earth. The reason is simply understood: nothing on this earth is secure and lasting. It is all corruptible and temporal. Jesus wants us to center our lives on Him and he...

  Trust in the Providence of God Psalm 121: 1-8 Vs 2: "My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."   Psalm 121 is known as a prayer given to a pilgrim who is about to embark on a journey. We are all pilgrims or sojourners on the earth - the temporary dwelling place. And this journey has a lot of ups and downs, unexpected circumstances, and struggles yet with moments of joy, contentment, and peace. Psalm 121 reminds us that the Lord will be there protecting, providing, and guiding us at every stage of our journey. The first two verses are written from a first-person perspective and then it goes to a second-person perspective. It seems to be a conversation between two people beginning with a question - where will help come for me followed by the answer that the help comes from the Lord. 1) Help comes from the Creator:  When we look back at the journey we have traversed so far, to whom do we attribute the achievements? Though we like to pronounce ...

  Christian Participation in Nation Building St.Matthew  5: 13-16 Vs 16: "In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your father in heaven".   The word "Christian" is derived from the  Greek word "Christianos" which is a compilation of two Greek words 'Christ' and 'Tian'. Christ means the 'anointed one' and Tian means the 'little' while the Greek word ''Christianos'' means the 'Little anointed ones". The word “Christian” used in Biblical history was in the Book of Acts  11: 26 , "The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch".  The above verse means the followers, believers or the disciples of Christ were called “Christians.” This raises a question in front of us. Are we Christians? If yes, are we following Christ's righteous path? Being Christians we have a responsibility towards our nation. Are we fulfilling the...

  Trust in the Providence of God 2 Chronicles 32: 9-23 Vs.22: So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all others. He took care of them on every side. The Bible portion for meditation today is written at a time when Hezekiah was reigning in Judah’s southern kingdom. The name “Hezekiah” means “God has strengthened”. Hezekiah was the 13th successor of King David. Hezekiah’s godliness was in direct contrast to his father’s (Ahaz) wickedness. King Hezekiah faithfully walked with God (2 Chronicles 31:20), and “there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him” (2 Kings 18:5). Hezekiah restored Temple worship and reformed Judah, and thus revival came to God’s people. During his reign, the ruthless Assyrian empire conquered many nations. With foresight, Hezekiah decided to fortify Jerusalem against siege. He fortified the city walls, expanded his military, and built a 1,750...

  Trust in the Providence of God 1 Peter 5:7-11 Vs. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.   Life is like a rollercoaster ride. It has its ups and downs and twists and turns. At some points, the ride is so slow you can feel the stillness in the air. But there are also moments that can feel completely out of control. How often do we experience bouts of fear, helplessness, or uncertainty and all we want to do is make the ride stop? If you are like me, not having control over certain aspects of your life, can cause havoc on your emotional and psychological well-being. Verse 7 states, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”   In the previous verse (1 Peter 5:6), Peter commands us to humble ourselves before the Lord. Casting our worries on Him is a way of humbling ourselves before Him. Despite all the trials and tribulations we experience in our personal or professional lives, we must trust that God is in control of our ro...

  Trust in the Providence of God Acts 27: 9-26   God's Providence is our Almighty God's presence, protection, and guidance that helps us in every way. He ensures that the true believer's actions and inactions will always lead to the way God intended to be, which we believe will always be positive. Our lives are full of challenges. We receive advice from everyone on how to deal with our difficulties. Everyone seems to know how to deal with our problems, but they seldom know how to deal with their issues. When we get advice from others, we have two options: either we listen and obey the advice given, or we choose not to take it and have to deal with the consequences. Life is a journey, and we do not know where we will end up - only God knows. This passage talks about Paul, a Prophet of God, on a journey to Rome on a large cargo ship. He was a prisoner taken to be judged by Caesar along with other prisoners.  It is not the first time Paul has been on a ship. According t...

  Acknowledging Christ "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make straight your paths." – Proverbs 3:5-6. A lot of verses in the book of Proverbs centers around wisdom and leads us on how to face and encounter different scenarios/aspects in our life. One of them is, as our progress forward in building our faith, we lean more on Christ. As we look back on how we have dealt with situations, did we call on the Lord first,  to guide us through different situations or did we wait to cry out to Him when we felt we were unable to handle the situation anymore. Many a times, we keep a blind mindset that our understanding is correct and remain ignorant to what is said or shown  around us. I’m sure a number of pointers would be coming to our minds. In retrospect,  ‘I would have done a lot of things differently’ is a phrase we think about or use often. God is with us, but do we not often i...

  Ecumenical Sunday: Unity of churches – God’s will John 17:18-26 “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that may be one as we are one…”V22 This passage is a part of Jesus’s longest prayer recorded in the Gospels. It is also called as Jesus’s High Priestly prayer. Herein, He prays to the Father as He knows that the hour to be glorified is at hand. Jesus is conscious that His glorification is through the cross, where He will suffer and die for the redemption of the world. When He is lifted up, He will draw everyone to Himself (John 12:32). For the community that will be formed by this glorification, Jesus intercedes. Jesus prays, not only for the community of His immediate disciples, but also for the entire community of believers that will be formed because of the testimony of these disciples. Thus, the prayer that Jesus prayed that night is for all of us. These are some aspects that we can understand from Jesus’s intercession for His Church as a faith community. The Church ...

  Unity of the churches - God’s will 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of It.” vs.27  Have you ever felt invisible or irrelevant or not important in the Church? Have you felt burdened by Church politics and cliques? Perhaps it is time for us to recapture the vision of what the Church is meant to be.  The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has given us a beautiful revelation of the Church as being like the human body. The body is one but made up of many parts. So, all of us together make up the body of Christ. The body is only complete when all parts are present and work together. Every part of the body has a unique role to play. We should not compare ourselves with others and think that we are not important (v15-18). It is God who sovereignly decides what role we are to fulfill (v18) and equips up with unique gifts for the edification of the Church. This also means that if we are not fulfilling our r...

  Unity of the Churches-God's Will Counter cultural Unity – Wise Living Unites and Worldly Living Destroys 1st Corinthians 3: 1-9 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worl“dly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? Vs.3-4 A. W. Tozer writes about unity in the concluding pages of his book, The Pursuit of God, in this way: “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same tuning fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.” We understand from this Bible passage that Apostle Paul was frustrated with the Corinthian Church over their factionalism and groupism.  In reality they were spiritual and mature people who had trusted Christ and were well aware of their obligations and expectations....