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CSI Good News
(Church of South India Good News)
Vol. 12 / Issue 51 / January 20 2011
Contents of this issue
Editorial
Why John MacArthur is Wrong! - Part 2
Join us in Facebook
Special E-card for Republic Day of India
News Items (Common to all issues) :
Through the Valley of Death & other Books
Download Articles in Handheld Computers
Kids Page - Free Tutorials
Hindi / Malayalam/Tamil Bible Online
Your Spam Folder
Your Feedback
Editorial
By Sherly Isaac
Genesis 45:5, "But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life."
This was spoken by Joseph when his brothers came to meet him. Joseph being the head of Egypt, collected grain and stored during the seven years of plenty and when famine came all over the place and at that time when grain was available only in Egypt, Joseph not only provided food for the Egyptians but also for the neighboring countries and those who came to buy food including his family.
Food is the life source that preserves our lives. Without food a person can live for some days but not for long. If food is not available he/she would die. Our physical body needs food to live. In other words food preserves our lives and keeps us away from death.
Moses spoke to the people and said in Deuteronomy 6:24-25, "And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us."
Further he says in Deuteronomy 8:3 which Jesus also quoted when the devil came to tempt Him, "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD."
God's word is life which gives eternal life to us and saves us from eternal death. Jesus said in John 6:33-35, "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."
When a person comes to Jesus and accepts Him as his/her Lord and Savior then Jesus gives a new life and makes his/her spirit alive that is dead in sin. If you have come to Jesus, you have passed from death to life and you will not go through the judgment of God. This is what Jesus wanted to give us. He wants to wipe away our tears and wants to save us from death. For this very purpose He came in this world and died on behalf of us so that we could come out of our sins and live forever. So that our lives could be preserved and that we may never see death.
This eternal life is for you if you just come to Him and repent from your sins. Jesus said in Rev 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." It is just a matter of opening the doors of your heart so that the creator could come in and when He comes in there would be great feast as you have never seen before.
Why John MacArthur is Wrong! - Part 2
By Sherly Isaac
To read previous parts or next parts please click on these links:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19
We have looked last week and seen that according to the Bible "Self-denial" is not the true Gospel. I would like to delve a little deeper on this subject. Self-denial means to deny ourselves to that extend making ourselves as nothing. But no matter how much we may try we could never be able to make ourselves as nothing or we could never be able to make ourselves so humble that we give up everything. Even if it is possible, still our humbleness is nothing in the sight of God. Besides that humbleness cannot clean us from our past sins which we have already committed.
There are people who live in utter poverty who do not even have one time meal to eat. They beg for their living or eat from dumpsters. There are people who do not have anything to wear; there are people who spend their lives in the streets. Are they more privileged to get into heaven? According to John MacArthur it is so, but according to the Bible, it is not true. What John MacArthur is saying is to torture our physical body in order to get rid of our sins but Bible tells us that suffering and torture would never give us forgiveness of our sins. It is not humbleness that how much we have tortured our bodies. But the real humbleness is that we acknowledge the great sacrifice of Jesus and fall at His feet for the redemption of our soul.
Once I read about an Indian Hindu priestess. Her name is Chandra Leela Sadhuni. You can read her whole story at Chandra Leela Sadhuni - Part 1, Chandra Leela Sadhuni - Part 2 and Chandra Leela Sadhuni - Part 3 She was born in Kathamndu, Nepal in the year 1840 as a daughter of a royal priest. She got married at the age of seven but at the age of nine she became a widow. When it happened, she was confused and she thought that, what sin she would have committed that this tragedy fell on her. So at the age of thirteen she went on a painful and long journey to many ancient temples in India including four main pilgrimages to find an answer. She tortured her body very much just to find salvation from her sin and peace in her soul. But every time she was discouraged seeing that salvation and peace was very very far from her. She walked miles and miles, she did everything which she thought could help her to get rid of all her sins by torturing her body like she applied ashes on her whole body and on her face, she put sandal wood paste on her forehead, applied cow dung on her beautiful, long hairs and twisted it around her head. She vowed saying, "In summer I will sit in sunlight upon the skin of deer surrounded by fire burning. Because of intense heat her sweat was flowing like streams. Then she continued to stand on one leg with folded hands before idols from night 12 0’clock till morning.
And because she allowed her body to be tortured, people started worshipping her. In winter, she used to sit within ice cold river water for the whole night chanting the names of Hindu gods with her wooden chain. She said, "It is horrible to think about the long nights. In my chain there were 108 beads, with one of my hands I turned my chain taking the name of god with every bead I moved and with the other hand I used to keep count of how many times the chain was moved around. During the entire night I moved the chain 100 times so that I could take the name of god 10800 times. The whole night was spent thinking when morning will come.
At the end of all these things she was completely discouraged and disappointed that she neither found peace nor were her sins forgiven. Despite all her efforts to find God's grace and favor she could not.
But one day she found Jesus and when she invited Jesus in her heart, her search ended right then and there. She found such peace and joy which she never found in her whole life and all her sins were forgiven by the precious blood of Jesus.
This is not of one priest's story but there are hundreds and hundreds of people who have given up everything and suffered a lot in order to find forgiveness of their sins. But there is no way out with torturing our bodies to get into heaven. Bible tells us that, "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked" as we read in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?"
This heart needs real cleansing and it is only possible by the precious blood of Jesus. All the work of our salvation has been done by Jesus and now we have only to come to His feet to receive the redemption of our souls. Bible tells us in John 1:12-13, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
The moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we become a child of God, washed by His precious blood. What a privilege to take birth in the family of God! What a privilege to have our sins forgiven! What a privilege to enter in His joy and in His kingdom!
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Through the Valley of Death & other Books
As many of you know that in the year 2005, our dad was very sick even unto death. God miraculously healed him. We have compiled it in a book form. I sure believe that it will inspire you and encourage you greatly.
This book is available for purchase at JasmineCorp Store
Also read these two books by Sherly Isaac "Allah and Elohim - Are they the same God" Available at JasmineCorp Store, and "Is Jesus God?" Available at JasmineCorp Store,
Both books compares the Bible and the Quran and read eye opening facts about Jesus, God of the Bible, Allah and Islamic faith. I am sure that you want to read this.
Download Articles in Handheld Computers
You can now download articles in Palm Doc format for your palm handheld computer. It will work with any devise that has Palm OS and Palm Doc Reader installed. To download click on the link named "Palm Doc Format" i.e. at the top of this page by the side of each articles.
Kids Page - Free Tutorials
Now you can learn Graphics and web designing online at Kid's page. These tutorials are free for kids who subscribe for CSI Kids Newsletter. Currently tutorials for Paint Shop Pro, HTML and Dreamweaver are available.
So please enroll your kids by going to http://kids.csinewsletter.org/member/join.asp
And visit CSI Kid's page at http://kids.csinewsletter.org
Hindi / Malayalam/Tamil Bible Online
Now you can read Bible in Hindi online at http://www.hindibible.org
in Malayalam online at http://www.malayalambible.org
in Tamil online at http://www.hindibible.org?ver=tamil
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Your Feedback
Your feedback and comments are Welcome. Please send your Parish news & articles to Editor (Sherly N. Isaac) at this address News@csinewsletter.comThe messages submitted will be checked whether they are correct according to the word of God. Editor reserves the right to accept, reject or edit the messages. The writers are responsible for the contents of their writings.
 
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