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CSI Good News
(Church of South India Good News)
Vol. 4 / Issue 17 / June 6 2002
Contents of this issue
Editorial
It was marred face
Youth Conference in the SAARC Region
Prayer Request
Annual 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
By Sherly Isaac
I grew up singing, "Majhab nahi sikhata aapas me bair rakhna" means, "Religion does not teach us to hate others." But if you see the history of different religions, you will be surprised to see that communal violence is common throughout the history. One can ask why people are killing each other in the name of religion? Is it true that religion plays a major role in avoiding violence and murder? Recently we see all over the world Muslims are killing others in the name of Jihad. Few decades ago Adolf Hitler and his nazi party killed six million Jews. What is the reason of all these things? Does religion and our rituals have any answers to these problems?
Few days back one Muslim man wrote to me, "I read about yourself. I wonder how religious minded parents of yours make your life miserable and make you commit suicide. I feel it is a lie that you paint them as religious. If they were so then they would not have made your life miserable."
Of course my parents were religious. They did all the rituals with great faith and with great respect toward God. Without missing a Sunday they attended Church. I do not remember as if I ever missed any Sunday school class in my childhood. We had to attend morning and evening family prayer everyday and read the Bible and pray everyday. And more than that, every Saturday we had to memorize a whole Psalms otherwise no play that day. They tried their level best to bring us up in the fear of God. They did sincerely whatever method they knew to be faithful toward God but they had no idea that religion or our religious rituals cannot remove our miserable condition from our lives. Attending regular Church services and doing other religious acts could not ease our quarrels, pain and sorrow. We continued in that miserable state for years until we met God.
Yes, religion can only offer miserable life, hard work and no good results. No religion can save us nor forgive our sins. That is the reason why we see all the violence and killings in the name of religion. Many think that by killing others they are gaining points for going to heaven but of course they are terribly wrong. I have seen Hindu girls and women torturing their own body in order to gain the favor of God. There was a girl with us in college. She walked bare foot for 30 days in the month of their fasting. I also have seen many Hindu women waking up early, taking bath in chilled water and going bare foot to their temple. But could they gain the favor of God? I think not!
God never said that, if you were of a particular religion then only I would save you or forgive your sins. No, never!! God puts every human being in two categories:
1. Sinners 2. Righteous
Bible tells us in Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Bible also tells us that because Adam and Eve sinned, sin came in this world. Because they fell from grace, we all fell. David says in Psalms 51:5, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me." Sin brought death and destruction as we read in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, ..." We are all born in sin and we have sinful nature in us that is the reason why we bent toward sin. Bible says in Rom 5:12, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned;" This is the first category where God puts us.
But when a person gets forgiveness of his/her sins by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, he/she becomes righteous in the sight of God. Sin brings death but forgiveness of God brings eternal life and righteousness in our lives as we read in Rom 5:17 For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
If you want eternal life, if you want a blessed life, you must know God personally. Unless you meet God, there is no solution for hatred, miserable conditions, pain and sufferings.
It was marred face
By Sherly Isaac
When I looked at His face
It was marred face
Big drops of blood were falling
on His marred face
Piercing thorns made it to bleed profusely
Oh, the King of glory,
The rose of Sharon
The lily of the valley,
The bright n morning star
was hanging on the cross as becoming sin
What made Him to be in this state?
Nothing but my sins and your sins
My punishment and your punishment
My death and your death
Compelled Him to take the road of cross
Yes, He paid the price for us
He purchased pardon on the cruel cross
By shedding His own blood
He faced shame and guilt on Himself
so that we may never be ashamed
He took all our sins on Himself
So that we may never be in sin
He took eternal death
So that we may never die
But live forever and forever
He took all our punishment on Himself
So that we may experience freedom,
Forgiveness and love of God
Will you hear His call of repentance?
And will you turn to Him?
Youth Conference in the SAARC Region
The South Asia Youth Conference for the Chrsitain youth in the SAARC Region organised by the CMS and the USPG began in Columbo on the 23rd. About 200 youngsters from the 7 SAARC countries are participating and I am one of the facilitators. Please do pray for this very crucial meeting.
Rev. Vinod Victor
Prayer Request
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Please pray for me to get a job at the earliest and also for my mother's health. Thank you
Lawrence
Annual Family and Youth Conference
XVI Annual CSI Family and Youth Conference, Hosted by Emmanuel CSI Church, Philadelphia
Friends,
This years Family and Youth Conference will be held at the Pocono Manor Inn, Pocono Manor PA 18349, from July 4th - 7th.
The Moderator Most Rev. Dr KJ Samuel will preside. The new Bishop of Central Kerala Diocese Rt Rev. Thomas Samuel will also be a leader. The main speaker is Rev Valson Thampu of St Stephen's College Delhi a well known author and preacher of Maramon Convention fame. Pastor Robbie Sortino and Scott Armstrong will lead the Youth sessions. Many dignitaries and officers of the CSI are also expected to attend.
The program will be mostly interactive and there will be a special revival meeting on Saturday night. There will be a Talent show on Friday night. The program will allow for plenty of time to socialize or to go sight seeing.
The venue is panoramic, scenic and relaxing. The accommodation is comfortable and the cuisine tasteful. The room availability now is limited as we have been receiving good response to our early registration drive. Registrations will close on April 14th due to limited space at the hotel.
Please visit our website www.emmanuelcsi.com or download and print the registration form from www.2002conference.csichurch.org/
For details call Convener Koshy Ittyeipe at 610 363 3967 or e- mail: koshy@libertynet.org
We look forward to seeing you there
Koshy Ittyeipe
Convener
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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