Youth Retreat : Youth & Family - Rev. V. M. Mathew

We had 28 members attending the one day Youth Retreat organized by the St Paul's Yuvajana Sakhyam on Jan 26th - Republic Day - at Scripture Union, ECR, Chennai. We started off from church after breakfast at around 7:30 AM.

Main speaker for the meeting was Rev. V. M Mathew with Rev. Gigy Thomas presiding over the outing.

Rev. Gigy Thomas gave the Presidential address. calling the Youth to have a sense of belonging and spirituality. He asked the Youth to understand the context we live in and should learn to share resources, skills and give! He asked the youth to live for God's glory.

Rev. V M Mathew talked to the Youth on Youth and Family. The day was split in to three sessions. Session 1 & 2 were on Bible study. Session 3 was for games and interaction.

We started off with Mr. Thomas Mathew (Tom) First year student of Gurukul Seminary leading us with some beautiful songs.

Session I
Started of by reading from Judges Chapter 14-16 and Samuel  1-3.

The main theme was how God worked in the families of Samson and Samuel. Some of the highlights :
Samuel followed the vow made by his mother on he being dedicated as a Nazerite to God.
Samule lived in the presence of the Lord always. Followed the Nazrite vow deligently.


Samson broke the Nazerite vow of keeping away from wine, dead (sin), growing their hair - Read more about it in Numbers 6. Samson also did not know when the Lord's presence left him when his hair was shaved.  Samson also lived in his own comfort and was not fully obediently to God's will.


In general we see that Samuel was able to transform God's blessings to him for God's glory.
God has blessed us in many ways. He gave us good homes, jobs, safe place to live, education etc. Are we able to transform these blessings for God's glory ? Achen called upon the youth to live lives that are pleasing in God's sight.


Session II : was dedicated on Family. He talked about the importance of Family in the life of the Youth.

Family values thrive on dependency on one another. However the modern way of life individual mobile phones, bed rooms etc encourage individualism. We need to keep the basics of family in our minds and maintain our relationships well.

Two types of families - Functional and Dys-Functional.

Functional Families - Have positive aspects and are non-judgemental. Each member is accepted as is. There is also a free operation of various roles like child, father, mother etc. There is also healthy attachment and deattachment. Family needs love, care, support.

Family life can be better if each other accepts the possibilities and difficulties that come in each others life. Success syndrome is also one reason for the failure of married life. We should learn to accept failures too as that has an impact on our personal relationships too.

Family of Jesus was an epitome of relationship and the relationship between Joseph and Mary was based on obedience to God.

He also called up the youth to have a responsible relationship. Especially with parents when they are old. Have respect for parents and old people. He emphasized on the need for the need for basic communication in the family.

Session three had games organized by Christo, Jerin and Biju. We started back to church at 4:45 pm.

Overall the outing was a blesssing for all who attended and brought more fellowship among the youth members.

ARPANAM - Liturgy and Worship

As a follow up to last week's study on liturgy, we had a very interesting study on liturgy lead by Rev. V.M Mathew Achen. Here is a gist of what we heard. This is not a complete summary. Please attend it next week to hear first hand.

We are a liturgical community, we are a worshipping community

Worship

· Is an activity of ascribing worth to God

· Is to credit sacredness of God

· Is to acknowledge God’s worthiness

· Is reverence and adoration for God

The word worship is mentioned 158 times in NIV Bible version

Attributes of our worship

· Our worship is developed from Jewish worship

· Monotheist community i.e. worships one God.

Exodus 20:3-4: You shall have no other God before me. You shall not make for yourself any carved images or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

· Worshipping in a particular place.

Exodus 9:1-2: Then the lord said to Moses” Go in to Pharaoh and tell him, “thus says

the Lord God of Hebrews:”Let my people go, that they may serve me.

Liturgy

Liturgy means order of worship.

§ Greek word Leitourgia-means public duty

§ Hebrew word Abodah –means temple service of God

Liturgy: Is a form according to which public religious worship is conducted

Worship is a natural experience; liturgy consists of external forms and rituals believers use for worship

Sacrament

The word has originated from the Latin word which meant an oath of allegiance

§ Syrian word khadesh-means to be holy

§ Greek word Mysterion is akin to sacrament

Sacrament is a means of grace/something mysterious

Two dominical sacraments are

§ Baptism

§ Holy Communion

Bible and Liturgy

The liturgy in the olden times influenced formation of scriptures. The revelation made by God to Israleties, there deliverance from Egypt, and Gods mighty acts where passed on to Generation by word of mouth and songs, which later took a written form of scripture.

§ The origin of the present liturgy is from scriptures

§ The earlier liturgy of Mathoma community was given by St James

§ Our present liturgy is result of reformation by the reformation leaders like Abraham Malpan and others

Illustration of direct and indirect use of scripture in our liturgy

Direct Use

§ Reading of scriptures in all sacraments

§ Listening of scripture

§ Interpretation of scripture

§ Scriptural verses in liturgy

Indirect Use

§ All our prayers are based on scriptures

§ Theology of liturgy

§ Hymns

§ Responsive reading

- Dayana

Youth Sunday Update

Today was celebrated as Youth Sunday.

We had all round participation of the Yuvajana Sakhyam members today.

The special guest for the week was Rev. V. M Mathew who talked to us from the Bible about Joseph and how he was able to be role model for integrity in work and life. In addition to other values, he also talked about how Joseph transformed bondages in to triumphs.

We had Dayana, Cinchu and Alex assisting Achen with the Youth Sunday English Order of worship.

Aju and Blessy participated in the offertory collection and kiss of peace.

Vishal, Sujith and Tony assisted Achen in the altar.

As mentioned last week, we also had a special Hindi song - Yesu mere saath he, yeshu mere andar he, composed and tuned by Mr. Tony. Thanks for everyone's participation today.

Especially it was a great sight to see everyone on time in church by 7:40 am (when the time given was 7:45am) for the song and activities preparation ! Great team work.

The Youth Meeting that followed started off with singing two songs and prayer by Mr. Gijo. Then we had Rev V. M Mathew Achen continuing from where he left the sermon and called up on the youth to ensure the right attitude in the workplace, and to live a disciplined life to become a disciple of the Lord.

We had five new faces today : Arun & Kiran (twins), Feba & Lydia (ME Anna university) and Kevin. A warm welcome to all.

Kiran made the closing prayer.

Have a nice week ahead.

July 10 : Rev V. M Mathew on Seeking Him, The Old Testament and some HEATED discussions

This week we had a very interesting discussion and talk by Rev V M Mathew, a student of the M.Th. He talked to us about the importance of The Old Testament.

There were a lot of intriguing details that he shared with us and these will surely help us understand the context of the Bible.

It started off with the call to seek the Lord and that seeking should not be limited by

• convenience
• considerations
• corrupted way of our life

Seeking should involve

• a confrontating Him
• Returning to the Lord - re-turn.
• Submitting to his ways and thoughts

Some of the others points mentioned discussed are mentioned. It went in to the structure of the Old Testament books, plus some interesting facts about organizing the Bible.

• Between 400 BC to Jesus birth, there is no coverage of history in the Bible
• It is very important and interesting to first of all understand the chronology of the Bible. This will help us put things in to perspective.

Those who did not attend, did miss some very interesting views about the Bible and make sure you come every second Sunday to attend the classes organised by Rev. V. Mathew Achen.