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CSI Good News
(Church of South India Good News)
Vol. 3 / Issue 14 / May 10 2001
Contents of this issue
Editorial
Allah and Elohim - Are they same God? part 10
Annual Regional Conference Report
CSI Malayalam Congregation of Greater NY
Few Responses
15th CSI family and youth Conference
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
Mat 25:10-13, "And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. "Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!' "But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.' "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."
In Matthew chapter 25:1-13 we read a parable told by Jesus Himself about His second coming. He warned that only those who are prepared to meet the bridegroom can enter into the bridegroom's marriage. The Bible tells us that Jesus who is the bridegroom is coming soon to take His bride that is Church. And Church needs to be prepared as a bride prepares herself for the day of her wedding. How can we meet the bridegroom if we are not prepared for it?
The Bible tells us in Esther 2nd chapter that every young woman prepared 12 months (1 Year) to meet the king Esther 2:12, "Each young woman's turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after she had completed twelve months' preparation, according to the regulations for the women, for thus were the days of their preparation apportioned: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women."
So how much more important it is to be prepared to meet the King of kings and Lord of lords? How much necessary it is to keep ourselves pure and holy before the almighty God - to meet our soon coming King? If you are not sure whether you are qualified to meet the King please accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. When He comes in He will wipe away all your past and your sins and will give you a holy life. He is not coming to take a bride who is not prepared for her wedding day. Jesus said in Revelation 16:15, "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame."
Are you ready to meet the bridegroom with royal robe on you? If not this is the time to take the royal robe on you and prepare for the wedding of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
We are going to celebrate mother's day on 13th May. The Bible tells us about great mothers and women who shaped not only their families but also shaped nations! Esther is one of those women who made history to be re-written. When all the Jews were ordered to be killed Esther prayed for three days fasting and took courage to go before the King and appeal to him for sparing her people. She even risked her life to do this. And the Bible tells us how miraculously the Jews were survived. Her fasting prayer enabled her to get favor in the sight of the king. On numerous occasions we miss many things in our lives because we do not get favor in the sight of others. I remember one poor teacher in India. He was very intelligent and he worked very hard in the mathematical field to prove a theorem which no one else could prove till that time. He gave up his job and dedicated his whole life to prove that theorem. But after finishing his papers when he presented it, no one gave him the credit he deserved.
Yes, how many times we face the same type of situations and feel very bad but Esther's prayer and fasting changed her situation. Her situation of mourning and grief turned around and changed to joy and happiness. And it can happen to you too. Your fasting and prayer can change your situation. God is able to turn around your whole situation. Look to Jesus He can help you!
I wish every mother a very happy and blessed mother's day and happy holidays to our readers. May God birth a vision in every mother's heart that they may pray and fast for this dying generation and perishing world!
Allah and Elohim - Are they same God? part 10
By Sherly Isaac
Bible tells us about the day of Judgment as a horrible day and pictures it as a day of wrath of God, but unfortunately Muslims are waiting for this terrible day expecting to get their reward and to get into heaven. Let us look from the Bible and the Quran and visualize what the day of Judgment will be like and who will be going before the judgment seat of God?
As the name suggests "the day of Judgment" is a day when God will judge people. According to the pattern of this world itself we see that only those who break the law of Govt. are required to go to court and before the judge to get themselves convicted or acquitted - verdict of condemnation or verdict of acquittal So we can understand that the day of Judgment is the day in which people who broke the law of God will get their verdict and sentence. That is the reason Peter says in 2 Peter 2:9, "then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,"
Quran also says that sinners will get punishment as we read in
Smoke
Sura 44:39-41. We created them not except for just ends: but most of them do not understand. Verily the Day of sorting out is the time appointed for all of them,- The Day when no protector can avail his client in aught, and no help can they receive,
And also in:
Smoke
Sura 44:44-49, The food of the sinner! Like molten brass, it seetheth in their bellies As the seething of boiling water. (And it will be said): Take him and drag him to the midst of hell, Then pour upon his head the torment of boiling water. (Saying): Taste! Lo! thou wast forsooth the mighty, the noble!
So we can see that every person who is sinning will be going to hell fire and there is punishment from God for our sins. So It is necessary that before leaving this world we have to get forgiveness of our sins.
And Quran also says that only those who are saved from the fire (hell) will be admitted in heaven as we read in
Al-Imran (The Family of Imran)
Sura 3:185 Every soul shall have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of Life): For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception.
But the question is, is there any way to get forgiveness of our sins in this world itself? Bible says yes, but Quran denies it as we read in:
Al-An'am (The Cattle)
Sura 6:16. "On that day, if the penalty is averted from any, it is due to Allah.s mercy; And that would be (Salvation), the obvious fulfillment of all desire.
Sura 6:17. "If Allah touch thee with affliction, none can remove it but He; if He touch thee with happiness, He hath power over all things.
So we can see from the above Quranic verses that a person cannot get forgiveness of their sins by any means nor can they know until the day of Judgment whether they are going to hell fire or to heaven. It all depends upon the mercy of Allah.
But contrary to this, the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation says that we can get salvation and forgiveness of our sins and have eternal life through the shed blood of the Lamb of God. In the Old Testament we read that God gave laws to Moses and showed how they can get forgiveness of their sins by the shed blood of lamb as we read in Lev 17:11, "'For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul."
But the sacrifice of animal was not a permanent solution for our sins and that is the reason why Jesus who is perfect Lamb of God came down in the form of a man and gave Himself as perfect sacrifice for our sins, so that we may never be in sin but come out of it and have eternal life. That we may never face the Day of Judgment as Jesus assured us in John 5:24, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."
Yes, a person who believed on Jesus and accepted Jesus as his/her personal Lord and Savior is not going to face the day of Judgment. But those who rejected Jesus will face the day of Judgment and will have to give answer to Jesus who is going to come and judge the world. Contrary to it Allah did not promise heaven for his followers or believers nor did he promise forgiveness of sins in this world. That is the reason Allah spoke about the Day of Judgment to keep his followers in the dark until the last moment then to face judgment... oh, what a deception!
But my dear friend, you can have assurance of heaven in this world itself. You can know for sure that your sins are forgiven. You can know for sure that you are heading towards heaven while in this world itself. David said in Psalms 32:1, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered." Yes, if your sins are forgiven in this world itself then you are a blessed person that is why Jesus said in Mat 26:28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."
The Bible also says in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
My dear friend, God really cares for you and wants to forgive your sins so that you may never die nor perish and go to hell, nor face the Day of Judgment. That is the reason Jesus gave Himself and shed His precious blood on the cross. Not for His gain but for me and for you, He did that. Will you mind pouring your sins at His feet? Will you come to Him and say, I am a sinner, please forgive my sins and give me eternal life? If you will do that, He will surely wash your sins and give you eternal life.
After comparing Allah's quality and Elohim's quality we can see that Elohim/Yahweh God is ready to forgive all our sins and ready to give us eternal life but Allah has no power to forgive our sins so he promised Day of Judgment for his followers. While Yahweh God says in Ezek 18:32 "For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn and live!"
Again it proves that Allah and Elohim both are different Gods and have no match in their qualities and messages.
Annual Regional Conference Report
By Vinod Isaac
C. S. I Regional Conference (Region 4&5), 2001 was held from May 4th to 6th at Spiritual life Center Indiana. Theme of the Conference was "Unchanging Christ in a Changing Culture". Conference Convener Mr. Thomas Koshy did a great job as all the arrangements were nice and everything was happening in a timely and well arranged manner. Songs were led by Mr. Babu Philip. He taught many new songs.
On the first day the Conference started with Registration. Guest speaker Rev. Jacob Chacko presented the theme. He gave the theory of Culture and talked about different world views. For example Atheist, Agnostic, Christian worldview. He emphasized that cultures change but the Word of God (Bible) never changes It is always relevant. He described that Atheist claim that "there is no God" but they have nothing to prove their claim. To prove 'God does not exist' Atheist needs to be all knowing but he is not.
On the other hand Agnostic says I don't know and I don't care or in other words who knows what's out there. Christian worldview says God exists and He came down in this world for Redemption of mankind.
Then he went on describing why the Word of God is unique and unchanging. And he described that Bible is written in a span 1600 years and by 40 different authors. With such a vast diversity still from Genesis to Revelation Bible speaks of one thing Redemption. In the whole world there is no book written by different authors have the same message and same flow. Not only that the gap between Science and Bible is closing up and new researches show that Bible is true. Bible and Science have never disproved each other. And with great emphasis he said that Bible is unchanging. Exactly the way Lord Jesus said. Mark 13:31 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."
He went on to describe that to survive in this changing culture we need to have the mind of Christ. as it is written in Phil 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, He explained that we need to have a change of mind by having repentance and by turning to Christ. He also touched that prayerful family is a very essential ingredient for survival. He said "Family that prays together stays together" and emphasized on having a family prayer where all the members of the family can get together and pray.
Devotion was taken by Rev. Sam Matthew. In the afternoon. Separate sessions were there for youth and adults. Adults group was led by Rev. M.P. Joseph and Rev. Itty Matthew Youth group was led by Rev. Jacob Chacko, Rev. Sam Matthew, Jiju John and Renjan Karottu. In the Sunday Service New Vicar of CSI Christ Church of Chicago Rev. Oomman George was present. Rev. Itty Mathew gave the message and again emphasis was that we need to have mind of Christ to deal with the problem of changing culture. He touched the life of Joseph and explained that Joseph stayed away from sin because he said to himself that God is watching but at the same time King David fell in sin. He said that we have same problems facing the world today and Jesus is the only hope. We need to surrender our lives in the hands of Jesus. Conference ended with Rev. Itty Matthew offering to host next year's conference in Detroit Michigan.
CSI Malayalam Congregation of Greater NY
Atmaya Sangatana
The following officers are elected for 2001:
President: Rev. Sam T. Mathew
Secretary: Mr. Thomas T. Oommen
Treasurer: Mr. John K. John
Few Responses
Dear Brother,
Can you please send the Malayalam version of the same also? It will be a good help for few friends.
Kind regards....
Thomas Abraham
15th CSI family and youth Conference
The 15th Annual C.S.I. Family and Youth Conference of North America will be held from August 9 - 12, 2001 at Camp Allen Retreat and Conference Center Houston TX. For more info click here
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
Your Spam Folder
If you are getting this newsletter in your bulk/junk/Spam folder please hit the "not junk" or "not spam" button so that you could receive it in your mailbox. Also adding news@csinewsletter.com email address into your contact list can avoid this email from ending up in your bulk folder.
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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