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Showing posts from August, 2011

Basic Lessons - Part 4- God of Hope

Recently it occurred to me that hope is not an universal thing. Really?? Well, let me put it in this manner .... Tom wants a chocolate fudge cake for his birthday, his birthday is around 10 months away. Now if he did hope that he gets it, he is positive that he would be alive the next day, and the next and the next. So, then hope is a by-product of what he believes. This is the basis of  Christianity. Welcome to another session of ... The hope that Christians have is based on teaching that has been passed down from people who lived over 2000 years . But the best part is that there are still evidences and historical documents that support this. Well, does Christianity stop with that?? No, its more. Love is something we call "strange" and "odd". We all could understand the love a mother has to her kids, a lover to his lover , but the odd thing is the Christian's love. I agree that this is rare, but that is the thing that bound the early Church. They were one in

Basic Lessons - Part 3 - Jesus says "simple"

... continuing on the series called Basic Lessons ... Basic Lessons is an understanding of the early Church or the Church of the first century AD. There were some key things they did and they followed it gladly ... I was talking to my mentor today and telling him about the things i heard in the church about basic and real Christianity. He pointed out that Christ was really very simple to follow and his teachings were easy to keep up as long as we did not put our ideas to make Christianity a religion. We all love that, don't we? We just love to complicate things just so that we look smart or "cool" but the reality that Christians have to face today is the Churches they go to and the rituals or systems they follow is actually adulterated. 1 %  Christ to 99% Strict teaching that some people at the church felt cool about. Be it any Church, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Marthomite or anything for the matter. My uncle is a retired Food Inspector of the Southern Railways in Ind

Basic Lessons - Part 2 - Eating with Love

.... as in the intro of the series this thing called "basic lessons" is a culmination of the learning that I had over the last few years as a practical class and recently a theoretical class too .... There were many things that the apostles did, but they had some basic stuff that they did every where and any where and this was though not a written law, it was like a "modus operandi" (way they work) ... cause they felt it was the best and they did it. Unlike many modus operandi we know of this was not so complicated.  They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. (The Message) I am starting this from the other end of the spectrum. When the people met they ate. They broke bread (means they had communion) and share food. Just imagine this (said a pastor in Para Church, Thiruvalla)  one day this uncle here comes to your house and tells "hey, lets break bread and thank God for the life he has given

Basic Lessons - Part 1

Paul Oakley's "Jesus Friend Of Sinners" was the first thing that came to my mind when I was about to start this blog. Back in Sunday-school (its like Church for Kids) we had sung this song with some modifications. The chorus of this song goes " Jesus, Jesus, Friend of Sinners; Jesus, Jesus, Friend of mine;" and we had "Talk About It" echoing in the chorus, and when I look back I feel sad that I had lost the boldness to declare that I am a Christian as much as I did when I was a child. I recently had spend some time with my young cousins who were very bold to say "Jesus" because that was all that they cared about. Many a time we are also caught in this net of social and peer pressure that we do not say about the things we love or people we care about.  Recently in India there was a huge gathering of people in the capital and smaller in the cities and even smaller in the villages who were asking the government to bring out the "Anti-Corru

Above All

http://pastor.resourcesforyourministry.org/ Through all the paths I walk, Even though the valley is deep and dark, I will fear no evil, You are there by my side, Even when I feel lost, Your presence consoles me, Whom will shall i fear, Where would be lost, 'cause you 're right here with me. You alone are my comfort, You alone are my sheild, Your voice guides me in the dark, To the bright 'n' new glorious hour, I will declare your name, Above all! http://snowshoetracks.blogspot.com Above all, Above all I will fly your banner above all, Ever more , Ever more, I will praise you for ever more, Music and Lyrics: Subin Abraham Mathew Copyright: Creative Commons : BY-SA-NC - 2.0 Subz Your browser does not support the canvas element.Get Google Chrome or the view Enhancement software for HTML5 site from here Click Here

Giving Thanks ....

Back when I used to work at the call centre in India, (yes, we are the worlds  - 0800, 1800, 800, etc) we were advised to end every call with this mandatory statement " thank you for calling XYZ, this is Subin, I hope I had been able to assist you with the enquiry today, Have a nice day". To be truthful we found us repeating this statement so blatantly  and other times it was parrot-talk. Life really gets monotonous at a call centre especially at first enquiry points. But it was worth one year, I can now stay in a same room with my parrot.  We are so used as people helping us and we helping them that a "sorry" or a 'thank you" is spoken without any care. I remember the time when my little brother gave me a chocolate and I thanked him even without looking at him. I was so caught in the moment that I did not care for the kid who had got me a chocolate out of his own pocket money. Man ... what a shameful act right ! This is also what happened in Jesus's

Being Rationed

Recently my state government released this new policy as a conservative and "pain in the neck " policy, "The Rationed  Cooking Gas" . Well for some of my readers who are not in India, you see mostly every one in India prefers  LPG  over any other source of fuel for cooking. But, assuming that there is a huge depletion of natural gas cylinders per household per year. Which means, at the normal amount of 9-12$ (US) - or 300 - 350 Rs per cylinder filled with LPG of 14.1 kg, would cost double after the four cylinders. My grandmother is absolutely furious about it. She, has been cooking since her teens find it impossible to manage with this situation. If this woman who cooks only for her husband, cannot manage how would a mother of two with her family survive this "day light robbery" she asks.   Well, even i was irritated at this news. But thought i could get your comments on this. Be free to comment of what you think of this situation. My guesses are that thi

Google Chrome - Revisited

A few months ago I had run some dummy tests on Firefox and Google Chrome. Thought i would rewrite some tips i found while working with Chrome and Firefox. The stuff i loved the most was the "about:" pages. Chrome's About About Page Description about:about ~ Displays the about page showing all about pages! Cool :) about:blank ~ Displays a blank page about:memory ~ Chrome about:memory This shows how many browsers are active. I have a screen shot attached. about:tab ~ Displays a blank tab -ed page about:stats ~ Stats as of last page load about:plugins ~ You guessed it, It tell you if you got a flash player about:credits ~ Displays the credits page. This is something you would not find in IE about:dns ~ Displays more than just DNS. It tells how long you were on each page, and if you were forwarded by an ad to another about:stats ~ Stats as of last page load about:flash ~ Stats of flash players and latest crashes :( about:terms ~ The Goog