Reflections

Read: 1 Samuel 1                             Majority of us lead a life where only once in a while we may face crisis or challenges. However, there are countless people in this world, whose very life and existence itself is crisis. From the time they wake up, to the time of getting into bed in the night, every moment of the day are moments of struggles and challenges. When life becomes hard and unbearable, people buckle under pressure and they live a life of complaining or try to find easy way out to get out of their life and its struggles. But listen to the struggles and challenges of a young migrant Tamilian girl, Prema Jayakumar, living in a small chawl [slang for very poor home] in the city of Mumbai. Prema and her family who hails from Tamil Nadu, is now in the national and international headlines for topping the nationwide Chartered Account...

A Difficult Mission                                                           Exodus 4: 1-9 “This”, said the Lord “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob- has appeared to you.” (Exodus 4: 5) When an ambassador is appointed, he carries with him a letter of credence, to be provided to the Head of State of the other country. This legitimizes his mission. After Lord’s appearance to Moses in the burning bush, God entrusted Moses with the mission to deliver the Israelites. It was a great mission to deliver the slave like Israelites from the mighty power of Pharaoh.  Moses made excuses at first. We can empath...

Read: John 10                    Transmitting faith to the next generation is an important function in the life of families, the church and other religious institutions. It is the family that is the primary agency in the transmission of faith. Both family and the church are supposed to play the role of being hand in hand,  to transmit faith to the next generation so that they are also able to come to a personal commitment to the Lord. But somehow many of the families have not taken the role of transmission of faith seriously  and often thinks that church and its related organizations like Sunday School are solely responsible for the transmission of faith to the next generations. But because of the absence of strong family nurturing often misconstrued understanding of faith is conceived by our children.  This could be seen by the responses received in respect to any article pu...

Legacy of faith Hebrews 11: 24-40 Hebrews 11:39 “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised”. In the Marthoma Liturgy, when the congregation comes to the Holy Communion table we chant, “Now as we come to your table, we recall those gone before us. Grant their lives be an example, may we use their teaching as our guide.” The faith of great men and women of God from the past inspires and guides us.  In Hebrews 11, Paul recalls the great believers of the Old Testament and their accomplishments. They lived in different times and had different backgrounds, but all had one thing in common. “These were all commended for their faith” vs. 39. These men and women of God left a legacy of faith. Faith in choices: Moses was raised in the Pharaoh’s palace. He grew up with all the luxuries of a royal family. Yet, when he came of age, he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh. Letting go of earthly pleasures is never an easy choice. As h...

Read: Philippians 4: 4-8                                 Connecting with friends is something that we all enjoy and Facebook has been one of the most wonderful ways by which we connect with our friends. But today Facebook is more than a source of connection. It is almost like your second home where you display sometimes quite unknowingly the most sensitive and intimate aspects of your personal life. Thus today it is quite normal for friends to post their  wedding snap, or some intimate snaps with their spouses or snaps of a college reunion or snaps of the latest vacation that the family had. But there are times when I feel very strange that there are people who even dare to post those snaps which are of very private in nature. I think today through Facebook the line of distinction between what should be shown in public an...

Christian Education Forum Diocese of North America and Europe of the Mar Thoma church Word for the Day - Jan 23 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Transforming a crisis to blessing Daniel 2:24-30 “As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.” (Daniel 2: 30) 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. God reveals Daniel both dream and its interpretation: All the wise men of the land failed to do that and king ordered to execute them. So the officials and the wise men wanted to include Daniel and his friends in this group. We see here the God given wisdom and tact of Daniel as ...

Read: Genes 12: 1-3, Exodus 3                          There are number of gadgets and products that have revolutionized human life and today we can't think of how to survive without them. Microsoft products are an apt example in this case. What would be our life, our work and our business if we did not have Microsoft Office?. The various application of Microsoft like Office, Excel, Power Point and Outlook have totally revolutionized the way we work. The credit for  making Microsoft a world class, easily accessible and user friendly goes to its co founder Bill Gates. Bill Gates has been a man who has been phenomenally popular because of his organization Microsoft. But during the last decade Bill Gates began to be known not only as the co founder of Microsoft but someone who is genuinely interested in alleviating different issues that common people face in ...