Reflections

Feast of Nativity- A New Dawn- Grace upon Grace Hebrews 1:1-14 Rev. Manoj Idiculla  Vicar Carmel MTC, Boston 3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. The book of Hebrews offers practical help for overcoming evil at work, serving the people we work among, enduring hardship, bringing peace to our workplaces, offering hospitality, cultivating a life-giving attitude toward money, and finding faithfulness and joy in workplaces where Christ’s love often seems in short supply. The structure of Hebrews is a different from other New Testament books; it begins like an essay, continues as a sermon and ends like a letter. Hebrews is basically a book that exhorts discouraged Christians to continue on strong with Jesus in light of the complete superiority of who He is and what He has done for us. One important thing that is to be noted in the book of Hebrews is that Jesus does not speak; instead

The Sovereign God is our refuge 1 Peter 5:6-11 Saramma Chacko Epiphany MTC, NY 7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.                Anxiety is the result of envisioning our tomorrow without God.  He who provides for birds can be trusted for His peoples' needs. God is greater than our problems. We are not alone in our pain. God is beside us and promises never to leave us nor forsake us.  He has us secured in the palm of His hand. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.   And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"(Phil: 4:6-7).  The best defense against anxiety is staying in communion with God.  Then spend time meditating on the scriptures and focus our mind on the Lord and His promise.  When we pray there may not be any change in our circumstances but there will come a great change i

Taste and see the Lord is good Luke 13:1-9 Lijy Jogy W/O of Rev. Jogy Thomas Epiphany MTC, NY V 8&9 “ ‘Sir’, the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” A little six-year-old girl was watching the evening news with her father. He became aware that she was talking, not to him, but to God. He began listening to her, and heard her say. “Our father who art in heaven, why did people have to die in the air plane crash? Why did people die from that hurricane? Why do people starve for food? (Dr. Dale Miller). Suffering is a great challenge to our faith.  Throughout history, philosophers and theologians have struggled with the question of evil and the fact of innocent suffering. The common people ask the question: if God is good and loving and powerful, why do innocent people suffer? Luke gives us a pair of stories that call us to repentance (vv.1-5) and a par

Taste and see the Lord is good 1 Samuel 7:5-17 Samuel P. Abraham Epiphany MTC, NY 13 So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel; the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 14 The towns that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered their territory from the hand of the Philistines.                The Philistines were Israel’s major enemy.  The Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines.  As the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines. The elders then decided to bring the ark of the LORD so that it may save the Israelites from the hand of their enemies.  The men of Israel brought the ark of the LORD and when the ark of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel raised such a shout that the ground shook.  When the Philistines heard the uproar and learned that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp, they were afraid.  So t

Taste and see the Lord is good 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Koshy George CSI Jubilee Memorial Church, NY 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.              Just like we taste honey and find that it is sweet, we can experience that the Lord is good.   God becomes real in our life when we go through difficult experiences.  We find that the Lord is good when we depend on Him for our daily needs.  We read about men of God who went through various experiences in life that made them realize that the Lord is good and that He keeps His promises.  Many hymns were written by authors who went through real life experiences.  As the Psalmist wrote, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him” Ps. 34:8. God commanded Moses to encourage and strengthen Joshua to lead Israel to the Promised Land.  Moses was a mentor to Joshua.  “Mentoring” is not a word mentioned in the scripture, but the concept is found

Taste and See the Lord is Good. Hebrews 1 Jacob Koshy Epiphany MTC, NY “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”  v3                                             -   The relationship of a father to his son is definitely a special thing. Fathers are their sons first hero’s! The strongest person in the world! The one who shares and cares in all the excitement of life! Surely the early years of fatherhood seem quite rewarding for all the praise it undeservedly brings.   The passage we examine from Hebrews and in Chapter 1, identifies Jesus as the Son of God. He is described as the radiance of God’s glory, such that it would illuminate the hearts and souls of all mankind, and so exacting in His representation of God’s being, the character of whom would be so aligned to the Father that in Him would be no sin. This first chapter in Hebrews goes to great lengths to define the superiori

A Blessed and Merry Christmas to All! Our Lord Comes John 1: 1-14 Rev. Manoj Idiculla Carmel Mar Thoma Church, Boston “ And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” Vs.14   John starts his Gospel by referring to Christ as the Word of God. The first five verses of John's Gospel says quite a lot about Jesus. It is a grand introduction to the Son of God and the Savior of the world. The rest of the book is a record which was written to show "that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name." John 20:31. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” We are celebrating the coming of our Lord Jesus today. Christmas is God continuing to give life to His people. Christmas, says St. Gregory of Nyssa, is the “festival of re-creation.” It is God giving God’s own life to His people. It is as if God said, “I want humanity to see my face. I want them to hear my voice. I want them to touch me. I want to live their life.

Yaldo - Feast of Nativity- A New Dawn- Grace upon Grace   Luke 2:1-20 Rev. Thomas Kurian Oklahoma Mar Thoma Church 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”   Wow!!! (Wonder of Wonders) The recent edition of Readers Digest portrays Courtney Holmes, a generous man who chose to donate his time and give free haircuts to underprivileged kids to introduce them into a world of reading books.  Holmes remarks that “The kids should earn their free haircut by having to read a book to me and thereby be  away from a world that is today full of guns and violence, and  my barbershop is a safe haven for the kids, to come and read books”. He turns his place of work into a transforming venue where the needy children become little wonders and this elicits in me a sigh of Wow!!! If that is so, how about our Savior who left His heavenly

Taste and see the Lord is good Deuteronomy 28:1-14 Dr. Shibu Joseph Epiphany MTC, New York 2 all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God:   When we were young, all of us wanted to grow up, get an education that will lead to a good job, have a nice house, loving spouse and children.  Now when we look back, we can recognize that our Lord has been kind to us and blessed us abundantly so that we may come to this land and improve our lives and those of our children. We have indeed tasted that God is good.                   I sincerely believe that all our blessings are due to the unfailing faith our parents and grandparents had in the Lord. Their tearful prayers early morning, afternoon and night still resonates in my memories. In Deuteronomy 6:10, God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11. houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did

Feast of Nativity- A New Dawn- Grace upon Grace 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Joash Mathew St. Johns MTC, NY 8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel, 9 for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained.                          How many times do we pray in a day? Once? Twice? Maybe some days we forget to pray and at other times we maybe saying to ourselves, “Oh, I’ll just pray tomorrow.” Do we ever wonder what God would say when He hears that excuse?  In the midst of our comforts or busy lives, is remembering our Lord becoming yet another task?                          We live in a society where everything around us is constantly changing. Technology is always getting upgraded and the latest gadgets and apps are always better than the last. Popular routines, like reading the newspaper, are fading out because access to the news and other medias are conveniently found on

Yaldo-Feast of the Nativity-Freedom from Suffering Isaiah 9:1-7 Cyril Abraham St. Johns MTC, NY 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined. The Christian community throughout the world was saddened Sunday morning(Dec. 11, 2016) to learn of the bombing of the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo. Twenty-five people, mostly women and children, were killed and many more injured. As heartbreaking as the news was, there was undoubtedly a feeling of collective numbness. After living under a constant barrage of similar news for the past few months, it is easy to understand violence and suffering as an unavoidable part of our existence. It has become something we accept with grim resignation and then swiftly move on. Christianity has a unique relationship with suffering. We do not claim we can avoid it or live a life without it. In fact, we are called to embrace it, to live among it, and to even boas