Finishing Well

a well respected Christian Scholar gave me a copy of his latest book- finishing well.The book is written for Leaders about how to finish what we have undertaken in lfe , well.In the race it is important how we start ,and how we run. But in the end, it is how we finish that matters.Dr.Robert Clinton, the Professor of Leadership at Fuller, USA, and the author of The making of a Leader says " Few leaders finish well. Of those on which information was available, less than 30 % finished well."I thought of giving you the summary mentioned in his last chapter, chapter 17, which summarises all main issues.

1. To finish well in the end, we have to begin now

2. To finish the final chapter well. we have to finish each prior chapter well

3. We have to close a chapter well before we move on to the next

4 To finish well, we need a perspective from the end

5 To finish each chapter well, we need to finish it with a clear conscience

6 How well we finish depends on the relationships we leave behind

7 To finish well we need to deal ruthlessly with pride

8 To finish well, we keep the main thing the main thing

9 To finish well, we extend and accept unconditional forgiveness

10 Finishing well does not mean fulfilling all our desires

11 Finishing well means letting go and moving on 1

2 Finishing all is all that matters in the end It is not hard to start something. It is hard to finish it. It is not difficult to start something well. It is difficult to finish it well. The completion is better than commencement.I hope you will take this to heart and learn to start good things without waiting for other to do things....at the same time finish what you have already started

Christianity and the Study of the Mind ------- Dr Jamila Koshy

So you are in college!! All excited about your courses and raring to go every day (since you now have a lot of time to hang out with friends!)? Three years, or more, filled with classes, canteen, friends, assignments, canteen, tests, holidays, canteen, games, festivals, canteen, and a host of other things! You would have big books to help you with many of those, but this little booklet could be important in another, vital way - it could help you, as a Christian, to begin the process of integrating your studies with your Christian faith.

Let’s guess, who you are?

You could be a psychology student or a young lecturer. Perhaps a student pursuing another arts degree but with supplementary courses in psychology. Maybe a social work major or a psychiatry resident? Or maybe you are someone from a totally different background who is interested in the study of the mind, and found the title compelling.

What’s this booklet about?

Most of us divide our world into little bits. It’s easier to handle it that way! So we have our college world, our home world, our work world, our recreation zone, our church world, friends group and so on. There may be some interaction between these worlds, but often these are separate compartments. After saying good-bye to my parents in the morning (Bye, Ma, OK, I’ll eat my lunch; don’t worry, I’ll be back in time to go to the station with Dadima), I slip into my college persona, which is subtly different - heck, I even speak differently, dude! I really love worship songs and hymns, but in college, my friends don’t know that side of me very much, they see only the Shania Twain fan.

It would be sad if most of us cannot integrate what we learn in college with what we learn in the Bible, or practise Biblical principles at our workplaces. At church or Christian meetings, though, we would actively discuss Bible passages and derive the Christian approach to various issues. However, in college, the only guides for our thought systems are our text-books. We may study literature without stopping to think what view of God and life is brought out by Shakespeare or Hardy. We may work as engineers without ever relating God’s fantastic engineering skills to our own design of bridges or software programmes. We may study sociology without learning the Christian perspective on social issues.

This is a major problem! We have, in effect, two parallel belief systems running -one the college/ workplace secular belief system; and one, (on Sundays, mostly), the Christian one. Christian principles rather than supporting and under-girding, or if you like another word-picture, overarching all others, are held almost apologetically, and as if they are contrary to, or have nothing to do with the various fields of human study and endeavour. This attitude divides our world artificially into “secular” and ‘sacred” zones. It brings no glory to God; it speaks poorly about the esteem in which we as Christians hold God’s Word; it reduces our usefulness to God; it robs us of the delight of being one integrated person everywhere; it lowers our own credibility and our integrity. Do we truly wish to be “split-personalities”?

So, this booklet is an attempt to consider the field of psychology - from God’s view-point. We would look at psychology and psychiatry - with Christian “spectacles”. The Christian approach to psychology is set out under four main sections:

to be continued ...

written by Jamila Koshy

Nuggets of Hospitality

Our story begins on an ordinary day interrupted by three visitors who arrive at the home of Abraham and Sarah. Strangers show up at Abraham and Sarah’s home in the heat of the day and they are welcomed. Their hot, dusty feet are washed. They are offered a place in the shade to rest, food to eat and something refreshing to drink. Even Abraham’s posture and language as he greets them demonstrates respect and honour. Abraham and Sarah understand hospitality. Abraham, who leaves the shade of his tent in the heat of the day, because he sees travellers coming. He doesn't seem to know who they are at first.

As a nomad in the ancient Near East, Abraham knew the sacred rule of hospitality. It was more stringently kept than many written laws. There were many dangers, and travellers were at risk. The rule of hospitality was that a guest would be treated with respect and honour. Water would be provided for foot washing and a large feast prepared. The traveller enjoyed protection from all enemies for three days as the host was to provide sanctuary. This provision became part of Psalm 23 where the psalmist writes about God - 'You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemiesSo when Abraham spies these strangers, he doesn’t chase them from his land. Just the opposite. He begs them to stay, invites them to enjoy a good meal. He tells Sarah to get the kitchen even hotter by baking bread and he tells his servants to start the barbecue. He brings water for these men, some to wash their feet and some to quell their thirst. He insists that they stay and won’t take “no” for an answer.

When the feast is prepared, he serves it to the unknown travelers and then stands deferentially in the shade by a tree waiting on them as they finish the feast. But even without knowing who they are, Abraham makes haste to offer them hospitality. He runs from the tent to meet the visitors. He hastens back into the tent to talk to Sarah, and bids her make bread quickly. He runs to choose a calf and gives it to a servant, who hastens to prepare it. In addition to the speed, there's a protocol for hospitality: when you see visitors, hurry to meet them, greet them with courtesy, invite them in, offer refreshment, serve them, and pay close attention to them. A superficial reading of this ancient tale might lead to the idea that all of this was done because it was God (or at least God’s angels) who came knocking at their door. But there is actually strong evidence that recognition of divine presence only comes later, after the hospitality has been offered.

They were only doing what good hosts do -- welcoming the stranger into their midst.Three things to consider from this story. First: We know of course that it was God who was visiting Abraham, but in the actual story there is no indication that he knew it was God. When he used the words, 'My lord,' he uses a word with a small 'l' which is simply a term of respect. Second: While there is no indication that Abraham knew it was God, there was a common belief among the ancients that a wandering stranger could be a deity or the servant of a deity. Hebrews 13:2 reads, 'Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.' In other words Abraham was surprised when it turned out that God was his guest. The third consideration is that Abraham did not greet the men by asking them their business. Only after meeting their physical needs did he dare ask questions.

This too was part of hospitality.Abraham and Sarah offer their best, not knowing anything about these three unexpected visitors. They do so not cautiously, but enthusiastically, not in search of a favor from them, but with glad and generous hearts. Had they not risked this, they would have missed the promise for which this story is most famous. They would not have heard that Sarah would soon bear a son. We would not know the origin of this son’s name as Sarah laughed at this news, laughter being the English rendering of the Hebrew, “Issac.” Had Abraham and Sarah not done what they did, Issac would not have arrived as the promise of all the nations and his distant ancestor Jesus would have come from a different root. As a result, the patriarch becomes a model for faithfulness, not only in the pages of the Old Testament, but in all of Scripture.

Abraham is not hospitable to the strangers to arm twist a promise from God, like their descendant Jacob will later attempt with the angel of God by the river Jabbok. And yet, it is through their hospitality that they open themselves to a visit from God, to hearing a fresh word from the Lord that will forever change their lives and the life of the world. What would this mean for us today? What if you and I could risk exploring new language to worship God and new music to praise God not in fear that we will reject our rich heritage of liturgy and music, but open to fresh insights from the Spirit of God? What if you and I could welcome new people whose color or ethnicity or economic background or denominational tradition is different from our own?

What if we could do so not with the trepidation of those who fear change, but with inviting arms, glad to share with others what we have come to know of God’s grace and the love of Christ in this community of faith, knowing that the Greek word for hospitality is a combination of philia, brotherly love, the kind of bond that one feels for those who are kindred in some way, and xenos, the word for stranger. It is about showing the love of kinship to those who are strangers.Throughout Christian history, this has been the accepted meaning of hospitality. Kindness to one's family and friends was taken for granted. This is natural. Christians were expected to do more than this.

They were to see themselves as sojourners in this world, living by the grace of God's hospitality and offering hospitality to others especially the stranger in need - in grateful response. The early church was famous for its hospitality. As Christianity became more of an established religion after the fourth century, this came to include the setting up of more institutional, public locations for hospitality: the founding of hospitals, hospices and the like were all inspired by Christian understandings of hospitality. But somewhere along the way, certainly by the eighteenth century, hospitality lost much of its moral content. It had come to be seen, much more as it is today, as a way of self-advancement rather than a way of self-giving.

Today, our culture seems very far from that early Christian understanding of hospitality as welcoming the stranger, the person in need.The distortions of hospitality in our world today are manifold. Many people are too busy to do much by way of entertaining even their friends and family at home. Indeed, one of the basic elements of hospitality, eating food together, is apparently fast fading even from family life - TV dinners, eating from the micro wave. Where then is the energy to even think about the stranger? Life has become quite atomised, depersonalised. Today the word 'hospitality' conjures up the picture of having family and friends over for a pleasant meal, or of the 'hospitality industry' of hotels and restaurants which are open to strangers as long as they have money or credit cards.

Hospitality tends to be seen as a nice extra if we have the time or the resources, but we rarely view it as a spiritual obligation or as a dynamic expression of vibrant Christianity.In ancient times all strangers depended on someone else's hospitality. Today it is those without resources who depend most on the free provision of food, shelter and protection. For the people of ancient Israel, understanding themselves as strangers and sojourners with responsibility to care for vulnerable strangers was part of what it meant to be the people of God. Hospitality, in the Christian sense is a willingness to open up our life and your heart and our busy schedule to another human being.

Hospitality is opening up some space in your life - making time, making room, for another person's needs “When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? I tell you, whenever you did it to the lost and overlooked and ignored, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25: 37 & 40) True hospitality involves attentiveness to the guest, even when the guest is a stranger. True hospitality not only helps the guest feel welcome, but also sets the stage for the host to recognize the divine presence in our midst. When did we encounter God this way last?

The covenant aspects of marriage

At one point , it was considered quite horrifying if a Bible believing Christian who knew the Lord Jesus Christ either got married to an unbeliever or endorsed in any way the marriage of any one who married one, even It happened to be their own children. These days, while the distress is still there in private in most instances, as incidents of this nature become more common, the public condemnation has reduced. In fact these days, it is not so uncommon, even in broader evangelicalism, for young Christian singles to find it a temptation to marry outside the Church. Not merely outside their own congregation, but outside the people of God altogether.

There are numerous reasons for this. Sometimes it is because they are keeping the wrong company to begin with. Single Christian men and women actually sometimes have few friends within the church; most of their single friends are unbelievers. Sometimes it's the common interests of co-workers, or perhaps just activities like going to the gym, where you meet people. And that's who they get to know. Or sometimes, it is frustration. Perhaps the congregation is small and the young man or young woman looks around and says: "Who can I marry here? There are no candidates." And in the event, they go to the altar with somebody who is not bound to Jesus Christ. This is not merely a modern problem. Israel too faced the issue of intermarriage and in Malachi 2:10-12. Judah marries the daughter of a foreign god.

The Lord takes this seriously. This intermarriage has very significant ramifications. Judah marries the daughter of a foreign god. This is betraying Judah's identity. It undercuts who Judah is. It is also betraying Judah's community. The issue is not simply a personal issue, but it affects the people of God as a whole. Further, such marriage is betraying Judah's God. And finally, it is provoking Judah's punishment. The fundamental issue at stake in connection with this question of intermarriage is not racial. In other words, what provokes Malachi's inspired blast against the marriage practices of Judah here is not that he is offended that people are marrying non-Jews. Seen in this light, intermarrying with pagans is a betrayal of Judah's identity. Such intermarriage undercuts God's purposes. It attempts to undo God's creative act, to return everything to the formless void. Intermarriage disrupts the viability of God's new humanity.

We tend to see marriage as primarily a personal affair. Whether or not I marry this girl or that girl is my business, not yours. But Malachi says, "No, everybody lives with it. By intermarrying with pagans, you have betrayed not merely your individual identity; you have betrayed the identity of the community." The people of the world may think of themselves as so many little individual islands, but the people of God are not allowed to think of themselves in that manner. We belong to one another; we are covenanted together. The point is not, however, "what others think." The point is the identity of the community of God's people. What you do in this area affects the community in a profound way. Marrying "in the Lord," to use Paul's language, affirms the covenant people; it builds according to the pattern which God has created. Marrying outside the covenant does the opposite. It erodes the character of the people of God.

Therefore, single people contemplating marriage must ask the right questions, questions prompted by the covenant which God has made with His people. Would this marriage be glorifying to God? Or would it be compromising God's new creation? Would it contribute to the health of the Church, or would it undermine it? Failure to ask such questions and act faithfully with reference to them means betraying the community of God's people. And that means that God's people are not allowed to marry outside the faith. That is to import a competing deity, a detested "god," into the fellowship of the covenant. God says, "You are my sons, and you may not marry the daughters of other gods. That is to bring my enemies into my household. It is to betray me."

This was what the sons of Seth were censured for, way back in Genesis 6. They looked upon the "daughters of men" - in other words, the young ladies descending from the line of Cain - and they saw that they were beautiful, and they married them. And that practice was so abhorrent to God that it is the one thing that is singled out in the context of the destruction of the world by flood. Isn't that remarkable? The Satiate intermarriage with unbelievers wiped out the line, it mixed together the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, to the extent that really there was no covenant community left. And the result was that God spared only Noah and his family, in order to start over.

Having said this, it must also be said that God has shown Himself powerful to overcome even the greatest sins of His people. Think of Samson. We can look at him and say, "What a lech!" He was a man driven by his hormones. It resulted in the loss of his eyes, the loss of his freedom, and the loss of his life. And yet we must also say that it resulted, not only in his repentance, but also in the opportunity for him to destroy more Philistines, more of the enemies of God, at the time of his death than he had done all throughout his life.

So too with mixed marriages. Unlike under the old covenant in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, Christians are not called to divorce unbelieving spouses. Paul makes that very clear in 1 Corinthians 7: if the unbeliever is pleased to dwell with the believer, then they should remain together. I think the reason for the difference is the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. There is a new wealth of God's power in the Church, and Paul is confident that God's grace is not only sufficient to keep us united to Christ, but even to spill over and convert the unbelieving partner. And time after time, that is precisely what God in His grace does.

That is not to minimize the seriousness of the sin of intermarriage with unbelievers. It remains a great evil. And we have no right to put the Lord to the test by marrying outside of the covenant people. There are too many examples of people who have left the faith altogether because of failing at this point. And even if God does ultimately prevail upon the heart of the unbeliever - which He is not bound to do - we may well find that there are all sorts of negative consequences for our disobedience. As Paul says, "Marry - in the Lord." Let us commit ourselves and our children to be faithful to God in this area.

But the heart of faith is able to hear the gospel in words even such as these. Passages like this remind us of God's passion for His covenant. They remind us of His faithfulness. They remind us that God is ready to speak to us, to call us to faithfulness, rather than merely to abandon us to our own devices. That in itself is wonderful grace. The value of Judah is that she is God's treasured possession. The great privilege of Israel is not ethnic. It is the covenant which God has made with her. And therefore the covenant must be defended. Malachi would rather see the people of God reduced in number than to see the covenant perish through corruption. It was better that God saved Noah and his family - eight people - than for the whole world to have continued on the way it was, because then there would have been no covenant and no hope. But there is more here than that for us, as significant as that is. The great mutual character of the covenant community. Our lives are not our own, to do with as we please. They belong to God, and they belong to Him by way of covenant. And that means that in a very real sense, they also belong to each other.

We see therefore that God has more to do with us than just Sunday worship. Sunday and the rest of the days of the week are closely interrelated. If you do not serve God from Monday to Saturday, it is folly to suppose that God will accept our worship on Sunday. As God says in the book of Amos to those who are acting unjustly, "Take away the noise of your songs!" "I won't listen to you, because you do not listen to me." As we are faced with temptations to sin, as we are confronted with the world, the flesh and the devil, let us remember our identity; let us remember our covenant with one another, so that we may be moved to greater holiness, both for the glory of God's name, and for the good of His community on earth. May we seek its prosperity always?
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Was at an interesting discussion the other day. The context was that anew 'youth' group was trying to start up. One of the issues that thegroup had to think about was what their pastor would say about such agroup. There was no official representation from the church in thegroup to govern issues such as doctrine.So it was feared that the pastor may object to the group. The pastor,from a independent church, must have spent tons of energy building uphis church. Any group that forms of its own probably was a potentialquestion mark to the church. Besides such groups have been led astrayso he was justified to a good extent.His offficial stand was supposed to be ' let the church have a higherpriority than any group '.

The members of the group feared that theycould not agree with such a stance as they wanted their freedom tochoose where they belonged to.What was also very interesting is that the group members came fromdifferent church backgrounds and had been influenced by missionorganisations which are inter-denominational in nature.Church history is replete with issues of such nature - early churchsplit into 3 major divisions atleast because of the power strugglebetween rome and other places. Even in the bible Peter and Paul had tostruggle with it.

The origin of 'missions' clearly shows how medieval church could notaccomodate the vision of all its members and hence capable peoplestarted off on their own establishing successful missions.I have had experiences with mission groups who had asked me to choosebetween church and mission work. The same could be extended to giving- to the churches or missions. While several middle positions existfor resolving the issue , plenty of bible verses are quoted by bothsides and unlike medieval times the bishop or pastor cannotexterminate people so easily anymore, it will be interesting tounderstand the stance on the issue from different angles.Herbert Roy