Newsletter

Jesus is alive! What wonderful news after the darkness of three horrible days in the lives of his believers.

Every time I sang the song, 'As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after you…' I used to be confused by the concept of living water. Probably like the Samaritan woman at the well!

Jesus said that the living water would flow through us if we believed in him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

What joy his resurrection gives those of us who believe in him! Living water flows through us and we thirst no more. This happened because he rose and was glorified. This is the reason for my celebration.

A very happy Easter to all you believers out there!

Preethi Samuel

Greetings! and a very happy Easter 2008. Indeed, He is risen! This is the reason for our existence as Christians. We face challenges in this world. Let us face it with the help of the Risen One and our reward in heaven will be great. One of the challenges we face today is passing on our Christian values to our children.

In this way, the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our faith.

My strong belief is that we can transfer our biblical values to our children and teenagers. We can equip them to live godly lives in the midst of an ungodly world. Of course, the obvious question is HOW? What can we do to pass on our values to our kids? What can we do to instill biblical concepts of truth and morality within our children and teens?

The answer is in the word of God, in the model He gave to Israel for teaching truth to children. In Deut 6:4-7 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (NIV)

According to this verse the first step is to build a relationship with our children. Passing our values to our children requires a healthy relationship.

God's model for teaching Biblical truth to young people called, not only for a constant process, but for a relational method as well. Look at verse 7 – when you sit, walk, lie down or get up. How can we expect to teach these things to our sons and daughters when we don't spend any time with them? How can we expect to teach them if we are never around, if we never sit with them in our house, if we are never walk with them by the way, if we are not by their side when they get to bed, if we never see them when they wake up?

A big part of the problem we see all around us in our society is the result of messed up relationships. We cannot impart truth apart from honest, meaningful relationships. We are to teach diligently when we sit, walk, lie down, and rise up. In other words, God wants us to teach his truths in every relational interaction with our children. It's not only about quality time but about quantity time too.

Biblical truth and godly values are best understood in the context of a relationship. For example, if I need to correct my child, I have learned to begin by asking a question that applies to my relationship with her. If the answer to that question is positive, then I can be confident that she will respond to my correction. I ask, "Do you know that I love you?" By asking that question before I offer correction, I appeal to her, not on the basis of my authority, but on the basis of our relationship. So, the first step in passing our values of faith to our children is building a relationship. Parents and Teachers let us take this truth seriously and make our children belong to Kingdom of God. Amen.

- Pastor Godwin

திருக்குறள் says,

"உலகத்தோடு ஒட்ட ஒழுகல் பலகற்றும்
கல்லார் அறிவிலா தார் " (குறள் #140)

It means that those who cannot live in harmony with the world, though they have learned many things, are still ignorant.

திருமறை says,

உலகத்திலும் உலகத்திலுள்ளவைகளிலும் அன்பு கூராதிருங்கள். ஒருவன் உலகத்தில் அன்புகூர்ந்தால் அவனிரத்தில் பிதாவின் அன்பில்லை. உலகமும் அதின் இச்சையும் ஒழிந்துபோம்; தேவனுடைய சித்தத்தின்படி செய்கிறவனோ என்றைன்றைக்கும் நிலைத்திருப்பான். (I யோ 2:15, 17)

Bible warns us that we should not love the world or anything in it. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

- தேவப் பிரியன்

- Joe Kingsly

Ephphatha! Brood of Vipers!!

As I was aimlessly watching CNN, while thinking about the next issue of DeepDive, McCain came on stage profusely apologizing for certain derogatory comments made by one of his supporters, towards Obama. Had one of the candidates addressed the gathered crowd as "brood of vipers", be rest assured of a well-crafted apology in the next hour or minute. People find it easy to issue a statement and retract it; however, God is not a man that He should change his mind. He says what he means and means what he says.

So, when Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees, a 'brood of vipers', we need to dive deep to find out what he means. At the outset it looks derogatory and inappropriate. But the Bible assures us that 'none will lack its mate' meaning every verse has a mate. We need to search the scriptures and find it.

John the Baptist greets the Pharisees and Sadducees in a stern language calling them as brood of vipers. Jesus repeats the same phrase, not once, but twice to chide the religious leaders of that day. Was it a brute expression of anger or a figurative language in frustration?

The snake charmer holds the attention of the snake through the sound vibrations generated by the movement of the bag-pipe. Though, snakes don't hear sound, they 'hear' the vibrations. There are times they don't respond to what they hear. The Psalmist sheds more light on this behavior in Psalm 58:4 – "... like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers…" There are times when we stop our ears – maybe we're glued to the TV, or spouse is talking or just 'selective hearing'! Prophet Jeremiah calls those who have ears but do not hear as ‘foolish and senseless people'. Ezekiel refers to them as ‘rebellious people'. Zechariah laments that they refused to pay attention, stubbornly turning their back and stopping their ears. Jesus and John chose the more allegorical, 'brood of vipers'.

A very powerful allusion is portrayed in Mark 7. At the beginning of the chapter Pharisees and teachers of the law gather around Jesus. Jesus condemns their hypocrisies in many ways. Maybe he sensed that his teachings fell on deaf ears. At the end of the same chapter, he took a deaf man aside, looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Be opened!", causing the people around him to wonder, "He even makes the deaf hear…".

In a recent research study conducted by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, scientists concluded that "…vipers are responsible for more deaths than any other genus of snakes in the world". Maybe, spiritual deafness is responsible for more spiritual deaths than any other genus of sins in the world.

But, He can even make the deaf, including the brood of vipers, hear.

- Ajith E. Samuels

Undoubtedly the song sung more than any other at Easter time is Charles Wesley's triumphant hymn, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today". Each of its four verses is laced with Scriptural content. Its text recites the fact of His Resurrection; it announces the result of His resurrection and calls on all creation to proclaim this grand news.

The "alleluia" at the end of each line was not written by Wesley but was added by an editor to fit the text to the tune. The term "alleluia" (or "Hallelujah") follows each line of the song. This interesting word is a combination of the Hebrew word "Hallel", meaning praise and the shortened word for God or Lord, "Jah". Thus "Alleluia" means, "Praise the Lord!"

Last year was the 300th anniversary of Charles Wesley's birth. He studied theology and music at the same time. This hymn was written by him for the first service in the first Wesleyan Chapel in London, England in 1739. Charles Wesley was born on 18th December 1707, in Epworth, Lincolnshire. He studied at Christ Church College, Oxford. Charles Wesley and his brother John Wesley founded the Methodist church. Like many people at that time, they found the worship in the Church of England quite tedious and monotonous, so they launched the movement with a renewed emphasis on emotional involvement, singing and studying the Bible. Charles Wesley died on March 29, 1788.

The period of lent, in my adult life, has always been a period of looking into my innermost self. The realization of Christ dying FOR ME was always hard for me to comprehend. In early teen years, I would be comforted by the false ideology that Christ died for ‘people in those times- I had nothing to do with that'. I don't know about you, the personal factor in his sacrifice often fleets by until I think of Christ being my ‘personal savior and friend'. Unfortunately Easter has been portrayed in the carnal world with bunnies (they come in unrealistic colors too!), fluffy yellow chicks, eggs etc. Where is CHRIST? Do we really MEAN IT when we proclaim Alleluia?! Let us sing it like we mean it because one of the Alleluias has our personal name embedded in it proclaiming our ‘belonging' with CHRIST.

- Sujaya Robin

Of a slave-turned-Bishop

* As recorded in the epistles of St. Ignatius of Antioch

- Theoஃபில்Us

Congratulations! Correct entries for Crossword No. 9 submitted by
Edith & Adeline Andrews, Chennai, India
Kharun, Josh & Sangeetha Samuel, Naperville, IL