Reflections

Boasting in the Cross Galatians 6:11-16 VS. 14 May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  Paul's letter to the Galatians is a perfect depiction of how Christ came to fulfill the essence of the law. Paul encourages the Galatians by explaining that the essence of Christianity is not the legalistic aspects of the law, but the principle of grace and mercy found through the sacrifice on the Cross that unites God to man again. The cross allowed for the justice of God to merge with the grace of God which ultimately allowed for us as humans to be in communion with Him. It made a way for us to be a new creation - a creation that is pure, holy and blameless because we are covered by the blood of Jesus In fact, there is nothing else that can unify us to God.  So where does the law play into all of this? C. S. Lewis states in his book Mere Christianity: “[To have Faith in Chr...

Redeeming Christ Galatians 6: 11-16 Vs. 15 For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything but a new creation is everything.              Quaker John Woolman was an itinerant preacher who waged his own personal campaign to end slavery in Colonial America. Woolman felt that slaveholding was inconsistent with Christianity and spent his life travelling, observing and advocating against slavery. He met with slave holders to speak of the injustice of holding other human beings as property. Although Woolman did not eradicate slavery completely, he did persuade many masters to free their slaves.             Christian Freedom is the main theme of this epistle. Martin Luther said: “This is a letter to me. I am betrothed to it.” The context in which the letter was written is clear from the letter itself. When Paul left Galatia the Jewish Christians who belonged to the pharisaic group approached the Gentile Christian...

The Prayer of Nehemiah Nehemiah 1: 1-11  Vs. 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. As a child, I remember my parents instilling in me the power of prayer. I used to pray for everything: food, clothing, getting A’s in all my classes etc. I used to even pray that my favourite character would not be harmed in the TV episodes that I used to watch. Trusting in the power of prayer, I genuinely believed that our big and awesome God could somehow save even my favorite fictitious character from her demise. Though my understanding of prayer as a child was simplistic, it was child-like fait...

Bearing the Image of God Matthew 22:15-22  Vs. 21 They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  The context of this passage is about the Pharisees plotting to trap Jesus in His words. The question posed by the Pharisees was about paying taxes to Caesar. If Jesus said that paying taxes to Caesar was lawful, His influence among the people would be gone, as they would regard Him as a coward for supporting Roman taxes which the Jews hated. If Jesus would say that paying taxes was not lawful, they would have Jesus arrested by the Romans as a revolutionary. Jesus asked them for a denarius as He did not possess it. Jesus asked them whose inscription is on it and the Pharisees replied Caesar’s. The Pharisees were marveled by the response of Jesus which is the theme verse. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s- The ancient view of coinage was a sign of p...

Faith Expression of the Marginalized Matthew 15:21-28   Vs.27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” St. Matthew in chapter 15 beautifully contrasts the traditional Jewish faith, the faith of the Pharisees with the faith of the Gentile Canaanite women. Jesus rebukes the faith of the Pharisees and the scribes that blindly hold on to the traditions and at the same time break the commandment of God (v.2,3).  He calls them as hypocrites who honor God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. In v. 21 Matthew shifts the focus of narration from Gennesaret, a supposedly fertile land yet where Jesus meets people worshipping in vain and practices a faith away from the will of God, to Tyre and Sidon, a seemingly notorious land yet to find the faith of Canaanite women which Jesus acknowledges as ‘great’. Her faith expression transcends the boundaries and limitations. The primary hindrance for her to come to Jesus i...

Impartial Justice with Righteous Living Amos 5: 18-27   Vs. 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 abse...

The Inevitability of the Cross St. Mark 10: 32-34  Vs. "..the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; 34 they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”  The Bible passage we are looking at during this Mid-Lent season is the passage where Jesus predicts His death for the third time. Some questions come to mind when studying this passage: Why does Jesus  mention about His death three times to the disciples? Is He trying to prepare the disciples for His death? Is He testing their faith? Is He trying to scare them? It is actually more than these suggestions. From the beginning, Jesus knew the men He had chosen as His disciples, were men of doubt, sin, and fear; it is the sole reason He selected them. He planned to instill faith, grace, and courage in each so that they could touch the lives of oth...