Shalom: Shalom: Human temptation for temporary shelters…th...

Shalom: Shalom: Human temptation for temporary shelters…th...: Shalom: Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !... : Jonah chapter 4: 3-10 Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !!....

MARRY MAGDALIN ...IN MASTER'S TOMB....??

                                          MARRY MAGDALIN ...IN MASTER'S TOMB....??

Praise the Lord . I greet you in the name of triune God.   

For Today’s short meditation please turn your Bible with me, Gospel according to John 20:1-18. Vs. 1, 11-13,and 16-18.    

        The central truth of this story is the fulcrum of our Christian faith and mission.                 

   Insignificant one for God’s Significant Mission

The background of the fourth gospel could be traced back in the various religious movements and philosophies like Platonism, Stoicism, of the early century. In the opening words of this gospel, John asserted full divinity and full humanity of Jesus Christ.  After three and a half years of glorious ministry, Jesus was crucified. He died on the cross and buried in the tomb. But interestingly Jesus resurrected and came out of the tomb, overcome all the human strategies made against His resurrection.

Chapter 20 talks about that great event, which is the centre of the Christian faith. Vs.1-10 talks about the Mary’s visit to the tomb of Jesus and found the open tomb. She reported to Peter and John about open tomb so they came and enter in to the tomb and see the linen cloth and napkin in the tomb. Then, Peter and John went back to their own safety zone!.

Magdala is one of the towns in the province of Galilee. Mary is from that city. Jesus had cast out seven demons from her, that time onwards she became his follower. Here I would like to draw your attention to Mary Magdalene who went to tomb early in the morning. What made her to take a risky step like this?

Mary Magdalene a woman of devotion and unparallel  love

  Verse 11-13, narrates Mary’s discovery of the empty tomb. The gospel of Jesus does not end with his death and burial. The best evidence for his resurrection is the empty tomb and his appearance to his disciples in various occasions. The word ‘But’ contrasts Mary’s behaviour with Peter and John who have left from the tomb. Only John’s gospel tells us about “weeping Mary” at the tomb. The Greek word Klaio  using for weeping means ‘expressed profound grief’, ‘violent emotion’, ‘loudly cries out’, etc. The followers of Jesus could not visit to the tomb on the Sabbath because to make the journey in Sabbath would break the law.

When male disciples were shut the door and sitting and chatting. But this Marry rush to the tomb of Jesus, she had a strong desire to see Him at any cost. She wanted to express her loyalty, gratitude and love to Jesus, her saviour. Once she was suffered by demonic possession .In Lk. Ch 8:2, we see that Jesus cast out 7 demons from her. According to Jewish culture demonic possession is the curse and they become out cast in the society. She was hopeless and isolated from the socio-religious realm. By the physical weakness, she was cut off from everywhere. But Jesus gives her hope and He made her something from nothing. He restored things what were lost in marry. Today she is not only free from the bondage of demon but also from the mental depression and socio-religious oppressions. Yes, dear beloved- these are the reasons of her love, devotion and gratitude towards her saviour. She expresses her thanks at the suitable time in an appropriate way.

‘There was a poor shepherd, who was unexpectedly elevated to the position of king. During the course of time he became prominent among surrounding nation by defeating them. Once he got a great victory. This king expressed his thanks and loyalty to his God by dancing publically with his servants. Seeing this dancing the queen got an angry and tried to stop him. Queen asked king why you are acting like a vulgar fellow shamelessly. The king answered to queen, “honey... I was not worthy to the prince of this nation and your husband, but by the grace of my God I came thus far...” Once I was nothing.. and neglected by my parents and brothers. I was a big zero before others, but my almighty lifted up me as a Hero” !!. He is none other than David, the 2^nd  king of Israel. Dear beloved in Christ I believed this is the story of most of us. This unshaken love was the driven force behind Mary’s early morning visit to tomb of Jesus.    Dear, what is our gratitude and devotion towards our loving God??

Marry magdalin symbol of courage and boldness .  Let’s see what were the things she had to fear about?.

femininity: marry was an ordinary woman .Even men are fearful to go in lonely cemetery in the early morning. No women dare to go in the early morning, even in noon time..? but here one women going a cemetery.

Darkness and Tomb also a great challenge:    No one was willing to visit tomb in this time according to scholars this dawn means 3-6 am. But she is willing to visit tomb at any time because her love and gratitude compelled her to did so.

Roman soldiers: in Mtt. 27:65.  Pilate gave a group of cruel soldiers for keeping the tomb and body of Jesus.

Big Rock and Roman imperial Seal. She overcomes all the above mentioned hindrances. She was not bothered about the consequences from the various places.  My dear believers, most of us are facing many of problems in our Christian journey. It may be economical crisis, sick, rejection from our own family or society. Let me encourage you that, only by the fearless faith and the help of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome all the stumbling blocks and problems. When we read Rom.:35-38, Apostle pictures certain things and asking.... who shall separate us from the love of Christ? We can see that, only weeping marry could talk with Jesus and angels. John and peter saw only linen cloth buy she saw the author of the universe. What is our response to God in various difficult satiations?              Prepared  by. Prasad Abraham valanjavattom

Shalom: Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !...

Shalom: Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !...: Jonah chapter 4: 3-10 Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !!. Ø Temptation to temporary protections Ø Unexpected Atta...

Shalom: Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !...

Shalom: Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !...: Jonah chapter 4: 3-10 Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !!. Ø Temptation to temporary protections Ø Unexpected Atta...

Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !!.

Jonah chapter 4: 3-10

 Human temptation for temporary shelters…than God !!.

Ø Temptation to temporary protections

Ø   Unexpected Attacks by unpredicted time

Ø Self-centered life leads to self-destructions

  

Jonah could not accept that the Lord has forgiven the people of Nineveh. He finds a place outside the city and settled down and waited to see what would happen to the city. He was probably still hoping that God would change his mind and take action against the city. As he waited, Jonah made himself a temporary shelter and God graciously caused a bush to grow up around him and giving protection from burning sun. Jonah greatly cherished the shelter of this bush.

While Jonah waited for the judgment of God to fall upon Nineveh, the Lord sent a worm to eat the bush. At the same time, the Lord sent a strong wind and extreme heat. Without the shade of the bush, Jonah struck by the sun with all its intensity. He weakened under the heat. Jonah cried out to God to take his life because he was angry that the Lord had taken the bush from him.

When asked by God if it was right to be angry about the bush. Interestingly, Jonah responded by telling to the Lord that he has every right to be angry, even to the point of death. From Jonah’s perspective, things couldn’t have been any worse. He was in a foreign land .The heat was intolerable. God seemed unjust. As far as Jonah was concerned, the only thing that had gone his way in the last few weeks was that the bush grows up around him. Now God had even taken that from him.

See, how Jonah claimed this bush as his own, and how he failed to surrender all he had to the Lord. The Lord not only has the right to give, he also has the right to take away. How often do we receive the blessings from God and claim them as ours. There are days when all our plans seem to get changed, we have to admit that we get upset and become short-tempered. The fact of the matter is nothing is ours. It belongs to the Lord who can choose to do with everything as he pleases. We must learn to let him do whatever he pleases with all the blessings he has given us.

The Lord questions Jonah’s concern for the bush. Why had he shown concern for this bush and no concern ever for the eternal destiny of an entire city? The people had been held in spiritual darkness. For so long that they could not distinguish their right from their left .In other words, they did not even know the difference between right and wrong any more. In reality, the question of God to Jonah was this “why are you so concerned about your temporary comforts and completely ignore those who perish all around you?”  

The world in which we live resembles the city of Nineveh. It is filled with people who do not know their right from their left. Many people do not know the truth of God. Here what is our response to this situation? Are we like Jonah, who spent his time wrapped up in his own world, which is concerned only about our personal comfort? Our possessions are real blessing from God, but they must not take us away from the will of God.

When the children of Israel wandered through the desert, God fed them day after day with manna from heaven. One of the things the Lord told his people was that they needed for each day. Any manna left over would spoil. In this way had to rely upon the Lord on a daily basis. God knew human nature was such that it would always be grasping for more. If his people were permitted to accumulate possessions, their lusts would soon get the best of them and nothing else would matter.

The question that each of us must ask ourselves is, what is our bush when compared with that of Jonah? What is it that consumes our time, energy, talents and money and takes us away from time in the Word and service for God to account of our life? How will our priorities measure up to God’s expectations? Will they be in tune with the priorities of God?

May the Triune God Help us to surrender for His will and help to find out what would be the bush in our personal life which is leading us away from God’s expectations. Amen

If really you blessed through this message, kindly introduce this blog to other.   God bless you abundantly

JWP. edited  by   Prasad V Abraham, Valanjavattom

Shalom: God,s love,peace.

Shalom:

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, led by the spirit of God..

Eph.4:25-32 ::: v.30 – “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption” . The grieving of the Holy Spirit of God defined as defiling one’s Holy Spirit. Paul exhorts through his epistles not to quench the Spirit (1 Thess.5:18) and not to disregard God who gives his Holy Spirit (4:8), thereby attempting to resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51).

However, the idea of grieving the Holy Spirit is unique to Ephesians in the New Testament, and appears to have taken up the similar thought from Isaiah 63:10 that states, “But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit”. Here the word, “to grieve” means “to hurt, to cause pain, to provoke to wrath, to irritate and so on”. In other words, the passage can be reread as “But you shall take care and be alert that you do not grieve the Spirit of the Lord” or “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit who is in you, and do not extinguish the light which has been lit in you”.

The disappointing and saddening language of “grieving the Holy Spirit” is identified with an individual’s words and deeds. It is not a question of some offense aimed directly at the Holy Spirit that causes grievousness but rather the offenses committed by an individual from the faith community that are being mentioned in the earlier verses – such as, speaking falsehood, harbouring anger against the other, stealing from the poor and needy, deity worship in any form, verity of sins and works of the flesh (Gala.5:19-21) and so on, causes grievances to the Holy Spirit. In other words, any individual within the faith community that commits sinful words and deeds cause more grievousness to the Spirit, because they have been sealed in the Spirit for the day of redemption. Sins that disrupt communal life disrupt and oppose the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus, God is hurt when an individual’s sinful action that harms their brothers and sisters. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who want to lead  pure Christian life who set his/her minds on the things of the spirit, they can only please  God (Rom.8:8)

Further, defiling one’s Holy Spirit is connected with sins of the mouth. The scripture states, “they defiled their Holy Spirit and opened their mouth with a blaspheming tongue against the law of the covenant of God. Passages from 1Thess.5:18,19 and Eph.5:18,19 & 6:17 reflects the intimate link between speech and the Spirit. Hence, the misuse of the organ of speech is accordingly a wrong done to and felt by the Spirit who claims to control it. Using the hateful words against one’s brothers and sisters within the faith community distresses the Holy Spirit who binds that community together.

It’s important to note that the language of the Holy Spirit is “reconciliation within diversity”. He does not speak the language of unanimity or uniformity but unity in diversity within the faith community. In fact, the Holy Spirit is not only the God in us but also God between us. He dwells in our midst to create a sense of social quest, thereby building bridges between people and not letting them to live in an island of isolation. Hence, this prominent function of the Holy Spirit in building social, communal and corporate dimension of our faith provides us insight as to the reason for His grievousness. That is, when the language of unity is disrupted with words that divide, then the Holy Spirit is grieved.

Indian Christian theologian like Chenchiah also understands the work of the Holy Spirit within a social dimension, over against marginalizing the work of the Spirit to an individual piety. He finds Holy Spirit being active in all sphere of life. Such an understanding leads us into a new continuing humanity based on the role of the Holy Spirit in the social dimension of the gospel. On a broad level, it accommodates both the regeneration of humanity and the renewal of the whole creation. However, when human living is flagged with corruption and self-destruction to disrupt the creative handiwork of God, the Holy Spirit is grieved.

Therefore, my beloved  let us commit this day not to grieve the Holy Spirit, who is continuously at work both in creation and in the redemptive plan of God in building the community of faith. Lets pledge to speak the language of unity in spite of diversity and not defile our mouth to sin. Lets also confess our sinful words and deeds that caused grievousness to the Holy Spirit, since they have been sealed for the day of redemption. All who are led by the spirit of God are children of God (Rom. 8:14) Who you are....?     

T Manoj edited by Prasad V Abraham, Valanjavattom