[JOYnet] Book-Bank
Haloo dear friends, There is more that half a thousand people on the JoyNet, I believe that most of us read books, so I thought that it would be nice is if we can have a name bank of good books. Let me start this by suggesting some books, what I would like to happen is that everyone on the net will add on to this list so that we can have a big list of good books. 1) Life of Christ - Fulton J sheen 2) Peace of Soul - Fulton J Sheen 3) Through the Year with Fulton Sheen - Compiled by Henry Dieterich 4) Treasure in Clay - Fulton J Sheen 5) Life in the Lordship of Christ - Raniero Cantelamessa 6) When the well runs dry - Thomas H Green 7) Normal Christian Life - Watchman Nee 8) The Screwtape Letters - C.S Lewis 9) Theology for Beginners - F. J. Sheed 10) Holy Spirit Power - Charles Spurgeon 11) Healing - Francis MacNutt 12) Bondage Breaker - Neil T Anderson 13) Parables and Fables for modern Man - PeterRibies 14) Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Teens, Families) - Stephen Covey 15) The Road Less Traveled - M Scott Peck I have just listed some books that might be helpful for all. Please add to this list giving the name of the book and the author. You can list any book that will facilitate the Christian formation of those who read it. I believe that this will be helpful to all. Love and Prayers, C.C.Joseph May God Bless You This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[JOYnet] - ve Advertisments
Hai folks, How are you? How is your walk with the Lord? Well all of us have our eyes and ears open to the happenings in the world. But are you aware of the shift in the focus of the Advertisements in the Media? If we look carefully we will see a lot of negativity like anger, jealousy, hate, envy, obsession etc creeping in very much. (you will find an article regarding this in the Business Line newspaper on the 17th what I am writing is mainly concerned with India, I don't know about other countries ) The wife asks her husband about his new boss, a woman. She is visibly jealous when he says she is nice and is quiet fond of him, When the husband emphasizes that he too is fond of his boss, the wife crumples up his coat and throws at him, saying maybe she will not like a crushed coat. The husband picks it up and smiles there isn't a single wrinkle on it. Then the catch line "Grasim Uncrushables" comes. We see the husband and the wife breakup and the visual shows the husband leaving the house with his belongings. From the road the husband takes one last look at his wife, and then instead of going away comes back to house, the wife thinks husband has changed his mind. Actually the husband comes and asks for the shirt, which his wife was wearing, and then we see the husband going off with the shirt. The catch line 'live in shirts- you cannot live without it' A man comes home miffed with his boss who asks him to settle for an old office car, saying its as good as new. This man then decides to give a birthday gift to his boss- his old shirt made to look as good as new after being washed in as Electrolux washing machine. We will always remember the catch line of Onida 'neighbours envy owners pride' If I go on to mention there are scores of these types of advertisements being aired these days. I will not be doing justice if I don't say that there are many positive advertisements also. Nothing more for now. Love and Prayers, C.C.Joseph May God Bless You This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[JOYnet] Prasads ???(idols)
Dear Friends, There was a discussion about prasads on the net last week; I would like to share some of my views. The prasad issue is confusing many people, epically when we have two theories running in the air, one is that you should not have prasad, it's a sin. The other is that its ok to eat prasads. Lets go through the scriptures regarding this matter Before that what I understand is that there are two types of offerings made, one which is specially offered to the idols and special prayers and invocations are made over it, the other just simple offering. If I am allowed to use an example from the Church, the first one is like the Holy Eucharist specially offered (though nothing can be used to compare with the Eucharist, I am using a simile) . Other is like the other offerings we have during Mass, the ones we keep around the alter, including the money we give. Now there is a mark of difference between the two, and this is where we need to be vigilant. The first one should not be taken whereas there is no problem taking the second one. Now to the Scriptures: 1) 1 Cor 8:8.. : "Food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.. For if others see you, who possess knowledge. Eating in the temple of idol, might they not since their conscience is week, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? But when you thus sin against members of your family and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ"The criterion is that you are eating food, it is that by your eating if you become a stumbling block you better not eat. 2) 1 Cor 10: 23-31 - we see again that our eating should not be a cause of stumbling for others 3) 1 Cor 10: 19,20 : Talks about the food offered to idols that we are not suppose to eat. I hope that you understood the difference between the two types of offerings. In a country like India if we tell that we should not eat anything offered to idols, then we might not be able to eat anything. The rice that comes to our house if its from the field of a non Christina farmer, it will surely be offered to his god, can we take it. The meat that we buy from a non Christian (specially a Muslim) is cut only after making prayers, can we take it. Or the things that we buy from a non-Christians shop is also offered to his god, so can we buy it. If you look at the culture of India everything is offered to one god or other so can we take it? If anyone tells us that the food that he is giving us is offered specially to other gods, we must be bold enough to say no. What many of us do is hide under the context of 'hurting the other person', the reality is that we do not have the guts to say no. When a non-Christian politely refuses the meat that you give him are you hurt? No but rather I think we have no problems at all and next time we make sure that we do not embrace that person by offering meat again. Every Thursday we have Bhajans in our college where I teach. After the first bhajan for which I was there one person game me some prasad, I said that I would rather not take it, he said sorry and he respected me for my faith. So friends be strong and bold where you have to and use commonsense where it is need. Lets not be fussy about things. Nothing more for now. Love and Prayers, C.C.Joseph May God Bless You This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[JOYnet] any JY in NY
Dear friends in NY, There is a friend of mine who was active in the renewal in NY, he is also interested in JY and wants to be a part of a prayer meeting, if someone can contact him it would be nice, His email id is [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks. Love and Prayers, C.C.Joseph May God Bless You This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[JOYnet] Trinity-5
Dear friends,
I hope that by now you have gone through my last mail on Trinity and have
spent time dwelling on the truths mentioned there.
In this mail I will point out the various things mentioned about the Trinity
in the Scriptures and the CCC. I cannot give a detailed teaching as it will
take me pages to write, so what I will do is just point out some facts and its
up to each one to go through and meditate upon them, if you have questions I
shall be happy to answer them. (Please read the whole mail)
I would like to mention again that we must understand the fact that God
cannot be restricted to time and space he is above them.
1) In the Bible if we read Gen 1:26 " then God said, 'let US make
humankind..."(RSV): what I want to point out is the word US, its plural not
singular how come, I believe it has to be the Trinity. {shows that there are
more than one person in the Trinity}
2) CCC 233 "Christians are Baptized IN THE NAME of the Father and of the
Son and the Holy Spirit; NOT IN THEIR NAMES..." A very important observation
{shows that the Trinity is one}
3) CCC 253 : "The Trinity is ONE. We do not confess three gods, but one
God in three persons... The father is that which the Son is, the Son that
which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is,
i.e. by nature one God..
4) CCC 254 : "The divine persons are really distinct from one another...
He is not the Father who is the Son, nor the Son he who is the Father, nor is
the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son..
5) CCC 255 : " the divine persons are relative to one another...
Because of that unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the
HloySpirit ; the Son wholly in the Father and wholly in the HolySpirit ; the
HolySpirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son."
6) CCC 258 : ".. one God and Father FROM whom all things are, and one
Lord Jesus Christ THROUGH whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit IN whom all
things are."
So We believe in one God but three persons. In other words one NATURE but
three PERSONS.
Its as someone pointed out earlier, the example regarding, water, ice and
water vapour. By nature they are H2O but they are distinct from each other, is
water H2O? yes, is ice H2O? yes, is water vapour H2O? yes, are they same no..
Or if you have three candles lit in a room, how many light we have? We only
have one light but how many candles...
Or if we look at the usual fan in our houses, how many leafs do they have
three, but how many fans one. The fan is incomplete with out the three leafs,
the three together make one fan.
Its something like this also; Father is like honey in the flower, Jesus is
like the honey in the honey comb and Holy Spirit is like honey in the mouth.
(as I use these earthly examples I am well aware that these finite things are
not enough to compare to the infinite )
Everything originates from the Father, is brought to completion & actualised
by the Son, and reaches man, is present to and experienced by means of the
HolySpirit
The Four Statements about Trinity:
i) There is one divine nature and three persons
ii) No one is either of the other
iii) Father is God, Son is God, HolySpirit is God
iv) There is not three but one God
Please take time to dwell on these things if you are interested in Trinity
and I am sure that God who does not set any limits of us knowing him will
guide you in this journey.
Love and Prayers,
C.C.Joseph
May God Bless You
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[JOYnet] Trinity-4
Haloo, Lets continue our discussion on the Trinity, though not many are contributing.. Today we shall see some reflections on God, 1) God did not create me out of Need. He created me because He thought I enjoy life. 2) God created me to share in His own life - 2 Pet1:4 3) God does not know me because he created me. He created me because he knew me 4) God loves me as I am, not as I should be. ** We all know that God is Infinite (He is not very very big, or very very large, he is infinite) This is one of the reasons why Jesus had to come; When man a finite being committed an offence against the Infinite being, the offence was infinite. No amount of finite offerings could make up for this offence, there had to be an infinite offering, and that was Christ himself. ** God is above Time and Space (that's what I said in my previous mails, we should not limit God) Some one asked what was God doing before creation, and one answer was that He did nothing as He had no time, seems to be funny, but its true time came into existence only with creation there is no before or after for God, He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8) ** Some of the things God cannot do !!! - God cannot change - He cannot learn - He cannot move (to move he has to be in one space at one time and not in another, but he is everywhere so how can he move?) - He cannot improve - He cannot grow - He cannot ... you can add to this list ** God does not have existence, He is existence A wooden chair depends on the wood for existence, if there is no wood, there is no chair. As the chair depends on the wood for existence in the same way we depend on God for existence. How important. The one who gave me existence, also needs to keep me in existence. ** God shares himself for intimacy; he sets no boundaries for us knowing him Please spend time dwelling on these truths and I am sure you will enjoy the ride the Lord will take you to. Love and Prayers, C.C.Joseph May God Bless You This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[JOYnet] Trinity- 3 ???
Haloo Friends, Hope that all are doing well, by the grace. In the last mail I had pointed out some facts that hinder our walk to God, hope that it was helpful. Today we will see what helps in our walk to God. 1) Grace : Knowing someone involves the effort of both the parties, i.e. the one who wants to know the other and the person who wishes to be known. In knowing the almighty we need His help more than anything else. We need His Grace, Faith and Love. 2) Intellect : God has given us an intellect with a purpose, it seems that there is a tendency to say that we should not use our intellect in matters related to faith. But what I believe is that we are created to know and love the Lord, in that case all that we have should be used to know him, even our intellect. 3) Flexibility : We must be open to new things. We have to trust God when he takes us beyond our imagination. 4) Prayer : To know a person we have to spend time with him, not just spend time only asking. Our prayer should be more of spending time with him to know him, rather that just asking him always. 5) Repentance : Approach him with a clean heart 6) Bible : What more can we have than the love letter he has written to us that is the Word. As we go through the word in prayers we will know more about him 7) Books : We should be open to the thoughts of others and often this is in the form of a book, spend time diligently reading books. 8) Think, Meditate, Study : We have to spend time to think, meditate and study. Please send your views. Love and Prayers, C.C.Joseph. May God Bless You This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[JOYnet] before- Trinity
Hai to all out there, It is nice to see some contributing to the discussion about the Trinity, it would be nice if more can contribute. This is how I will contribute to the discussion: i) What hinders our walk to God ii) What helps in our walk to Go iii) Why God created me iv) God v) Trinity (These for some might seem t theological please go through them) Before we set on this journey to know the Trinity, we should be in a position to understand What hiders out walk to God ? in other words what blocks us from understanding and knowing our Lord. 1) Imagination : Can you imagine something not related to the five senses. We are limited to our five senses, which in turn are limited to the world. Our senses are fed by the world. We have to break this. 2) Experience : Usually our image of God is shaped on our image of our father, or some storied we have heard etc. We should not impose our ideas on God. In CCC-2779 we read that God transcends the categories of the created world. 3) Laziness : We don't show the desire to know more, not ready to put in the effort. We only chewed food, not ready to chew our own food. 4) Faith v/s Reasoning : we try to separate faith and reasoning, but they go together. CCC-158 "Faith seeks understanding..." . CCC-159 "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason..." 5) Fear : We are afraid to leave our comfort zone, fear of the unknown, fear of being fully known by God(though God knows us fully, we try to hide from him) and then fear of Change, we are sooo happy with the image and relationship we have with God that we do not want to change it. 6) Consumer Society : We don't like things that take longer, we don't like to spend time to know the details. We are not ready for open ends, we look for definite answers to all questions and we need fast-food solutions, not ready to dwell and ponder on the Truth of the Kingdom of God, we are s busy. 7) Prejudice : We feel that we cannot understand ( a feeling that these are for big people), a feeling that we need not understand. Then we have a closed mind, not ready to accept different things. 8) Sin : I need not explain this in detail. So today we have seen some of the points that hinders our walk to God. Now you can just read this and say it is good or bad, but I am looking for those who are ready to chew these things, those ready to dwell on these things. Otherwise our understanding remains limited. So welcome to this Invitation of God to know him more - Trinity. Please do share your ideas. Love and Prayers, C.C.Joseph May God Bless You This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[JOYnet] R-V- Committed ??
Hai folks, Hope that life in the new year is going on well, and all have celebrated the feast of Epiphany well. Yesterday I was there to attend the meeting of JYNT (Jesus Youth National Team) at Emmaus, Kerala. It was a very fruitful meeting. We celebrated the Holy Eucharist at the end of the meeting. During the Holy Eucharist Fr. P.C.George (pastor-JYNT) shared something about commitment which made me think a lot. I would like to share something based on it. After the parliament attack in India, it seems they were able to arrest some who aided this attack. During the integrations, one of the arrested said that their boss or head never sleeps in the night, his head is always filled with the thought of how to mobilise the youth of Kashmir. This arrested man said that he sleeps off, but his boss is always thinking about his cause. How committed is he to his cause- what about us. We needn't be committed to a cause, we have to be committed to a person(Jesus), are we? If we look at the world it would seem that the powers of darkness is more committed that those in light ! for me this sounds to be true. Take the case of the three wise men and King Hearod, both were committed to find Jesus but the basic motive was totally different. We who have known the Love of Christ, are we committed to him? Should we not stand for His Kingdom and values? As some one said " a dog barks when its master is attacked, woo to we Christians when we keep mum when out Master and His values are attacked" So pause for a moment and think, Who are we? Whose are we? and Why are we hear? Where does our commitment lie? Nothing more for now. Love and Prayers, C.C.Joseph May God Bless You This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
