Reflections

Read: John 6: 1-11                 Every day countless of events takes place. Some are noticed, while some go unnoticed. Some news find the pride of place in the news headlines,  while some are relegated to the sidelines. Yesterday, an event took place in U. S. Capitol, though reported was a very significant event. President Barack Obama unveiled the statue of Rosa Parks in the U.S. Capitol, in a function that was attended by congressional leaders from both republican and democratic parties. With the unveiling of statue, Rosa Parks will have a permanent place in the U.S. Capitol, just as the news agencies reported an  "an unmovable place". Parallel to history in the same way as she was unmoved on December 1, 1955, when she was threatened, abused and yelled by the bus driver to make her get up from the seat, so that a white passenger could sit. She was still unmoved even as she was arrested, but it was this single act that launched civil rights movement in this country. Fi

                             Paradox of Human Struggle – Body vs. Spirit                           Romans 7: 15 – 25   What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? (24) One day one of our Achens went to a pet shop and ordered 12 mice, 2000 ants and 1000 cockroaches. The clerk took the order but still wondering why this Achen has placed such a strange order. So he asked, “Hey Achen why you do want all these stuff?” and this Achen replied, “I am getting transferred from this church and my Executive committee has asked me to leave the parsonage as I received it.” LOL! The question is – “Need for the restoration to original is a desire or a necessity?” As Paul has said in Romans 7: 14ff; for us it’s a desire, but for God it’s a necessity. Why? Because after creating us; God himself has witnessed that we are good (Gen 1: 30). But because of sin, as we moved away from divine goodness; as Father it is a necessity for God that we His childre

Read: Mark 7:24-30                     People Fall. Some fall in their credibility, some fall from positions of authority, while some fall from grace. All these create a negative and a cascading effect in the minds of all. Recently there was one fall, that people just laughed, not because the person fell, but the way the person organized herself after the not so pleasant incident in a very high flying programme. The world and the media are talking about the fall of Oscar award winner Jennifer Lawrence. The incident happened on Oscar night, when the winners of different category was being announced. Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for best actress,  for her role in the movie "Silver Linings Playbook". But as she went to receive her Oscar, she tripped and fell. For a moment, that tripping overshadowed her walk to receive the Oscar. Though the tripping incident was considered not a good gesture in front of an august audience, the fall became the talk of town. What made people

A Prayer of an Afflicted                             Psalm 102: 1 – 28 “The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” ( 19-20) In his book, James , Max Lucado writes, “Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, “I can clean that if you want.” And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes away our sin.” The heading that is given to this Psalm says, “A prayer of an afflicted man. When he is faint and pours out his lament before the Lord.” Sin leads to death, repentance leads to healing In 2006, Pastor Mike Guglielmucci stated that he was dying of cancer. In 2008, the truth came out that he was addicted to pornography. This sin caused him to live a double life by trying to deceive God, deceiving his family, friends, and church members. Du

Read: Acts 3, 10                                   Being famous and becoming a celebrity can sometimes be little hard in some point of life. Tim Tebow the New York Jets quarter back recently realized that truth. Being celebrity has a price to pay. He was supposed to make an appearance and speak at the First Baptist Church in Dallas in April and this event was a much publicized event. Soon critics started warning Tebow about his association with this particular Baptist church because of the controversy that surrounds its senior pastor, Pastor Robert Jeffress. Robert Jeffress has been criticized for his anti-gay stand,  for being adamant and his so called conservative stand on many issues. Many sports writers started warning Tebow, telling him that he is going to make the biggest mistake in his life. Another sports writer told him "after a season of sidelines, the ball is in your hands, Timmy better not fumble with this one". Soon Tebow's appearance in this particular B

                        Forgiveness of Sins                                                                         I John 1. 5-9 ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” As Christians we have many questions in our spiritual journey. One of the question we ask ourselves is - is God going to forgive all our sins.  Every Sunday when we confess our sins to take Holy Qurbana and confess our sins we wonder if the sins we have committed have truly been forgiven.  The bible tells us yes with one exception. Matthew 12: 31-32 and Mark 3:29 clearly states that any blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven either in this age or in the ages to come.  But if you read 1 John 1:9 it states that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What is sin?  Sin is the breaking of the rel

Read: Mathew 6: 25-34                  It is always a pleasure to meet people who are happy. People who radiate happiness and sense of positive outlook in their life. The news agency CNN released today a very unique news items on their column. In which states or cities do you find the happiest people?. The study has been done by Twitter, based on about 10 million geotagged tweets that people did through Twitter in 2011. Based on the tweets that people send out from the city that they lived in,  Twitter made a study to map out the mood of the Americans living in urban areas.  What they did was to rank the locations, based on the frequency of positive and negative words using a tool called as Mechanical Turk Language Assessment Word list.  This list included about 10,000 words, that have been rated on a scale of 1 to 10 and describes the level of happiness. On the higher end of scale, were words that are positive and happy.  Words like LOL, haha, good, nice, sleep, wine, food were so

                               The Mystery of Forgiveness                                                                                                                                     Numbers 12: 1- 16 “So Moses cried out to the Lord, “O God, please heal her!” Moses was a person who derived the utmost love and confidence from God.  No other human was that much loved by God as Moses.  It is an irony that such a God’s person is detested by his own brother and sister, namely Aaron and Miriam.  This is the nature of the world and of human beings.  The ego that surpasses all human qualities forbids man to see the reality.  Aaron and Miriam fail to grasp God’s desire.  They fail to understand the saintly nature of Moses.  Their animosity to the wife of Moses makes them blind.  Their wrath reaches the zenith when they dare to question Moses audaciously.  They angrily ask if God has spoken through them too. Aaron and Miriam surely did not want God to involve in this dispute. 

Restoration of relationships              Mark.2.1-12 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  (v 5) Jesus, like the prophets, invited Israel and us into a new and wonderful world where healing and forgiveness of sins creates a new life, new possibilities, and new relationships.  Jesus the Christ came here to restore our proper relationship with God and with those around us.  Jesus Restores Our Relationship with God One of the main points of this story is Jesus declaring that the man’s sins are forgiven, while he is still paralyzed. Even though the man is still paralyzed, Jesus is saying that his relationship with God is restored.  Here Jesus is demonstrating that a person’s relationship to God is not dependant on their health or illness.  In other parts of the Bible we even see that a person’s relationship to God is not dependant on the amount of money or power they possess. As this story demonstrates, we can have the right r

                     Feeling the Touch of Christ Isaiah 12:1-6   “I will praise you, Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.” (Isaiah 12:1) This passage is a reflection of the children of Israel and their response to the God of forgiveness after their bondage in Egypt. There was a time in which the Israelites faced bondage and captivity where the touch of God felt at a distance due to their actions and choices. Although God had been angry towards the Israelites, they eventually experienced the comfort and forgiveness of a God who had never left them and remained their salvation throughout the difficulties that they faced. This left them in utter praise of the God who takes care of His children and will draw water from the wells of salvation for those He calls His own. I remember growing up under the watchful eye of my father. He was one that loved me dearly and did anything for his little girl. There was one time I

Read: Luke 7: 1-10                     We all have some cause in our life that is very dear to us. Sadly, most of the cause that is dear to us, are very selfish in nature. We work and we toil so that our life is made more secure and our goal is to move up in life. But there are some people who live for a cause, a cause that is noble, and which has no selfish element in it. The pure joy of serving, serving without any grudge, serving for a mightier cause than just for some selfish cause.   Meet Albert Lexie. Most of the news agencies yesterday featured the life of Albert Lexie. Albert is the one who shines shoes at the Children Hospital in Pittsburgh . He has been shoe shining since 1982 and earns about $5 dollar for shining shoes. What is remarkable about Albert is that from the day he started working as the shoe shine person in the hospital, he sets apart the tips that he receives while he does his shoe shine. What is remarkable about the work that Albert does is that he has to dr