An Atheist

A preacher and an atheistic barber were once walking through the area of slums in the city; suddenly barber started his talk with the preacher: "This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God was as kind as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these things." The minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkempt and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face, said the minister: "You must not be a very good barber because you wouldn't permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut and shave." Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man's condition? I can't help it that he is like that. He has never come in my shop; I could fix him up and make him look like a gentleman!" Preacher gave a penetrating look to barber, and then he said: "Don't blame God for allowing the people to continue in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to come and be saved."

Promise For The Day:In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened; He saved me from all my troubles. Psalm 34:6 (NLT)

Verse for the Week 4 (vw 4)

Proverbs 18:15

An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

South Asian Ecumenical Youth Leadership Programme

South Asian Ecumenical Youth Leadership Programme

'Re-Definition of Mission and Re-formulation of Agenda in a Globalized World'

Organised by :
Vichara, Mavelikkara
and
Christian Conference of Asia.

on
31 July to August 3
2009

At
Sophia Centre
Kottayam, Kerala

Topics:
History of Mission
Biblical Understanding
The Present Context
Towards a new paradigm

Resource persons:
Rt. Rev. Dr. P J Lawrence, HG Geevarghese Mar Coorilose, Dr. Rienzie Perera, Dr. Sangook Park, Dr. M P Joseph, Mr. Adam, Anrad Row, Rev. Dr. K G Pothen, rev. Raj Bharata Patta, Fr Vineeth Koshy, REv. Jolly Thomas, Rev. Oommen Varkey, Dr. Samuel Cornelius.

Food and accomodation is free and there is no seperate fee for the programme

Register soon.

More details, contact:
Director, Vichara, Mavelikkara, Kerala, India - 690 101
Ph: 0479 - 2300096
94469163074
9446117221

mammenv@sancharnet.in
mammenvv@yahoo.co.in

Thank you for the Picture!

Folks,

Special thanks to Vipin (KRPuram Marthoma Church (Bangalore) for sending in this picture which is used as the Title Background. It certainly gives our blog a face-lift! Thanks Vipin!

Remember this is your blog and these are ways in which you can make it your own and share and encourage our fellow youth. Do feel free to send in articles/pictures/ reports on events in your youth league, etc. so that we could share it with others! And a special thanks to those who have sent in materials. May the AWESOME God we belong to bless you all!

<-More pictures sent by Vipin: If you would like to have any of the other pictures as the title picture, or have one of your own pictures, do mail, xtianyouth @gmail.com

Dear Friends,

Are you looking at being an ENTREPRENEUR? Here is your chance for it.

An intensive course to teach you the facets of Christian business is here.

(Click on the poster to see the enlarge version)

Safe in the arms

A little boy was helping his father move some books out of an attic into more spacious quarters downstairs. The little boy was helping his dad, even though he was probably slowing down things more than he was actually assisting. But that boy had a wise and patient father who knew it was more important to work at a task with his young son than it was to move a pile of books efficiently. Among this man's books, however, were some rather large study books, and it was a chore for the boy to get them down the stairs. As a matter of fact, on one particular load, the boy dropped his pile of books several times. Finally, he sat down on the stairs and wept in frustration. He wasn't doing any good at all. He wasn't strong enough to carry the big books down a narrow stairway. It hurt him to think he couldn't do this for his daddy. Without a word, the father picked up the dropped load of books, put them into the boy's arms, and scooped up both the boy and the books into his arms and carried them down the stairs. And they continued load after load, both very much enjoying each other's company. The boy was carrying the books, and the dad was carrying the boy. Friends, Aren't we safe in the arms of Almighty God every moment…! We are. Instead, every time we are frustrated with things in our life, He (our heavenly father) is always ready to get us back to normal situation. Every time we tend to fall, He is always ready to pick us up, as the father picks up the boy here from staircase. He is never frustrated with our doings. He is always ready to love us.

Promise For The Day:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28.

Material courtesy: Dinu Sam David, Ebenezer Mar Thoma Church, Jalahalli

Dear Beloved in Christ,

Following are the prizes winners in Diocesan for the year 2008-2009:

Best Sakha:
1st Place – St. Thomas Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Ramahndrapuram, Hyderabad
2nd Place – Bethel Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore.

Best Centre:
1st Place – Bangalore Centre
2nd Place – Chennai Centre

Best Promising Yuvajana Sakhyam:
St. Thomas Mar Thoma Yuvajana Sakhyam, Ramachandrapuram, Hyderabad.

Following are the new Office Bearers of MTYS-Chennai Bangalore Diocese for the years 2009 – 2011:

Vice – President : Rev. Manoj Idiculla
Secretary : Mr. Prince John (Chennai center)
Lady Secretary : Ms. Liba Varghese(Chennai center)
Treasurer : Mr. Robin. T.S (Bangalore center)
Hyderabad Centre Representative: Mr. Benu Thayyil

Centre representatives to the Diocese
Chennai : Mr. Roji Mathews [Chennai]
Bangalore : Mr. Dinu Sam David [Bangalore]

Representatives to the Kendram
Rev. B. Mathew [Chennai]
Mr. Christo George [Chennai]
Mr. Benu Thiyal [Hyderabad]
Mr. Vipin George Thomas [Chennai]
Mr. Lithin John [Chennai]
Ms. Daisy Daniel [Banglore]

Diocesan Assembly Member
Mr. Subin John Mathew [Hyderabad]

Auditors
Mr. Shiju.T.Varghese
Rev. Anu Oommen

Youth Messenger would update you on what the Diocese, center and the Shakha has in store for us through news letters so you could pray and even participate.

Thank you all for your support.

Prayers and Regards,
Prince John
Diocesan Youth Secretary

Diocesan Notice 1

To view copy on the Diocesan Letterhead, click here

Mar Thoma Bhavan, No 77 6th Avenue, Harrington Road, Chetpet, Chennai – 600031

Date: 16^th July, '09

Dear Beloved in Christ,

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

First of all, I take this opportunity to thank each and every one who have been supporting and helping our Diocesan Yuvajana Sakhyam to glorify the Lord through it's various activities, from it's inception. All these years, God has led us wonderfully.

The 4^th Annual General Body Meeting of the Chennai – Bangalore Diocesan Yuvajana Sakhyam was held on 11th July 2009 at The Madras Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Chetpet, Chennai, presided over by Rt. Rev. Dr. Issac Mar Philoxenos, Diocesan Bishop & President of MTYS.

I have pleasure to inform you that the General Body has unanimously elected the following new Office Bearers for the MTYS for the years 2009 – 2011:

Vice President :Rev. Manoj Idiculla

Secretary : Mr. Prince John

Lady Secretary : Ms. Liba Varghese

Treasurer : Mr. Robin. T.S

Let us use our talents effectively and also support the new Office bearers in all the future activities of the Sakhyam. Let us also uphold them in our prayer, so that they will be utilized by the Lord as instruments for His name to be glorified.

I have also great pleasure to inform that the Diocesan Bishop has declared and presented the award for the Best Center Runner and Runner up to Bangalore and Chennai Centre respectively. I would, therefore, like to especially congratulate all the parishes of Bangalore and Chennai Center for their achievement, and look forward to witness still better performance and participation in the coming years.

I also take this opportunity to inform you all that a BLOG has been created for the benefit of our Youths (www.youthofthecross.blogspot.com) where they will be able to interact, debate, vent out and strengthen relationship between each other, in their walk to bring glory to our Saviour Jesus Christ! It will also help to reach out to friends who don't know what a wonderful thing it is to be in relationship with our Saviour Jesus and get them hooked to our King.

As you might be already aware, in the coming months, the MTYS, Chennai-Bangalore Diocese has planned the following activities:-

Diocesan Conference, Teenagers Conference, Mission Field Visit, Diocesan Kalamela, Newsletter-cum-chain prayer request communications through email and blog, Outreach program and mission visit etc.

While specific communication will be issued in due course of time for each of the above activities, I look forward to your valuable suggestions for improving the activities of the Sakhyam and your continued prayer, support and cooperation.

Yours in Christ's Service,

Prince John

Diocesan MTYS Secretary

Chennai Bangalore Diocese.

MAR THOMA YUVAJANA SAKHYAM

CHENNAI –BANGALORE DIOCESE

Verse for the Week 3 (vw 3)

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17)

From the Diocesan Secretary. . .

Dear All,

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I would like to thank each and every one of you for supporting our Yuvajana Sakhyam in these last years right from it's inception.
In these years, God has led us very well. Without His grace, all what has happened- would not have happened.

The 4th Annual General Body of the Chennai Bangalore Diocese was held on 11th June at the Chetpet MTC, Chennai.

The Yuvajana Sakhyam elected the following office bearers to handle the Diocesan Activities for the next 2 years.

Vice President: Rev.Manoj Idiculla, Bangalore

Secretary: Prince John, Chennai

Lady Secretary: Liba, Chennai

Treasurer: Robin T.S, Bangalore

I would be sending the list of members in the Diocesan Committee and a brief report on the activities of the Yuvajana Sakhyam last year, in a short time.

I would once again like to thank all of you youths, who have supported the office bearers in the last year, and empowering our Diocesan Yuvajana Sakhyam to glorify our Lord through it's activities.

Let us use our talents effectively and also support the new office bearers in all future activities.

Let us uphold them in our prayer, so that they will be utilized as mighty instruments for His name to be glorified.

Prayers and regards,

Dinu

Applying the Bible to our lives

The biblical 'text' does not require interpretation or application so that it can be brought near our experience and circumstance. rather, the text is so powerful and compelling, so passionate and uncompromising in its anguish and hope, that it requires we submit our experience to it and thereby reenter our experience on new terms, namely the terms of the text. The text does not need to be applied to our situation. Rather, our situation needs to be submitted to the text for a fresh discernment. It is our situation, not the text, that requires a new interpretation. In every generation, this text subverts all our readings of reality and forces us to a new, dangerous, obedient reading.

Walter Brueggemann
more on this person, click here

Material Courtesy:
Prathi Dina Veda Padhana Sahayi (Daily bible Study Guide, Malayalam), Back Cover
(July October 2009)
Published by: Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Memorial Research and Orientation Centre
Managanam PO, Kottayam 686 018
( A Mar Thoma Church Institution)
email: tmamaroc@sancharnet.in

When God ran...

Here's a lovely song by Philips, Craig and Dean
(Click here to watch the video on youtube.com)

WHEN GOD RAN

Almighty God, the great I am
Immovable rock, omnipotent, powerful, awesome Lord
Victorious warrior, commanding King of Kings
Mighty conqueror, and the only time
the only time I ever saw Him run

CHORUS:
Was when He ran to me, He took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said,
“Son do you know I still love you?”
He caught me by surprise when God ran

The day I left home I knew I’d broken His heart
And I wondered then if things could ever be the same
Then one night I remembered His love for me
And down that dusty road ahead I could see
It was the only time – it was the only time I ever saw Him run

And then He ran to me, He took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said,
“Son do you know I still love you?”
He caught me by surprise as He brought me to my knees
When God ran – I saw Him run to me

BRIDGE:
I was so ashamed, all alone and so far away
But now I know He’s been waiting for this day

I saw Him run to me, He took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice I felt His love for me again

He ran to me, He took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said, “Son”, He called me Son
He said, “Son do you know I still love you?”
He ran to me and then I ran to Him
When God ran

click here watch on youtube.com

Song sent in by: Rachel Philip, Ebenezer Mar Thoma church, Jalahalli, Bangalore.

Send in your inspiring stuff to : xtianyouth@gmail.com

My Struggles are About Him - Max Lucado

by Max Lucado

What about your struggles? Is there any chance, any possibility, that you have been selected to struggle for God’s glory? Have you “been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29)?

Here is a clue. Do your prayers seem to be unanswered? What you request and what you receive aren’t matching up? Don’t think God is not listening. Indeed he is. He may have higher plans.

Here is another. Are people strengthened by your struggles? A friend of mine can answer yes. His cancer was consuming more than his body; it was eating away at his faith. Unanswered petitions perplexed him. Well-meaning Christians confused him. “If you have faith,” they said, “you will be healed.”

No healing came. Just more chemo, nausea, and questions. He assumed the fault was a small faith. I suggested another answer. “It’s not about you,” I told him. “Your hospital room is a showcase for your Maker. Your faith in the face of suffering cranks up the volume of God’s song.”

Oh, that you could have seen the relief on his face. To know that he hadn’t failed God and God hadn’t failed him—this made all the difference. Seeing his sickness in the scope of God’s sovereign plan gave his condition a sense of dignity. He accepted his cancer as an assignment from heaven: a missionary to the cancer ward.

A week later I saw him again. “I reflected God,” he said, smiling through a thin face, “to the nurse, the doctors, my friends. Who knows who needed to see God, but I did my best to make him seen.”

Bingo. His cancer paraded the power of Jesus down the Main Street of his world.

God will use whatever he wants to display his glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems.

Rather than begrudge your problem, explore it. Ponder it. And most of all, use it. Use it to the glory of God.

Through your problems and mine, may God be seen.

material courtesy: Vinay George, Mar Thoma Church, Primrose Rd., Bangalore.

Send in your inspiring stuff to : xtianyouth@gmail.com

Verse for the Week 2 (VW 2)

But those who wait on the LORD, Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles; They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 (New King James Version)

Wait On The Lord…

Those that wait upon the Lord look to Him in sincerity and humility for wisdom and strength, and then patiently await His guidance. Strength is expended in service for the Master but there are always new supplies of grace and vitality available from Him who knows no weariness. One of the most magnificent sights of the wild is an eagle soaring in the sky, higher and higher, with seemingly little effort and it knows when the storm is approaching long before it breaks. It will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, it is soaring above it......The eagle does not escape the storm; it simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rides on the winds that bring the storm......"Similarly, the child of God who draws his strength from above is enabled to go ever onward and upward, always reaching new heights of achievement.

Material Courtesy: Dinu Sam David, Ebenezer Mar Thoma Church,Jalahalli, Bangalore.
Send in your inspiring stuff to : xtianyouth@gmail.com

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting! You have just landed yourself on the blog of the youth of Chennai-Bangalore Diocese (of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church)!

Make yourself at home as we set up this place. We envision this space as a bustling living room where youth of the Mar Thoma church interact, debate, vent out and strengthen each other in their walk to bring glory to their number one friend and Saviour - our Lord JC!It's here that we discover that we are not alone but have a bunch of fantastic young people going through the same struggles as us! Surely, our mission is to reach out to friends who don't know what a wonderful thing it is to be in a relationship with our Saviour Jesus and get them hooked to our King !

Hope you save this link or subscribe to the feeds via email/ RSS/Atom or add it to your Google Reader! Do come here often check it out and contribute, because it is your space. It will develop based on your ideas!

Do keep coming back and spend a few moments of your busy life here with all of us.

We fall, we get up, we fall again, we help each other out from falling in the same place again. Sounds like Christian life, doesn't it? Well, that's exactly why we are here.

We'll be starting a Diocesan group on facebook soon.

Remember, if you don't want to keep coming back to the blog, you could still subscribe to the blog posts by email! Easier isn't it? Just check out for the buttons on the to left, add your email address and press 'subscribe'!

Heard an awesome song lately? Send the lyrics and the band name and it'll be up here! Anything that glorifies our Lord!

Send in your articles/queries/ cartoons/ blog addresses/statements/opinions/links/reports/photos and whatever zing thing to the blog's email address :

xtianyouth@gmail.com

Looking forward to hear you guys making noise around here!