The Best of all is God with us

  With the current war going on between Israel and Hamas of Palestine, Jews, Christians and Muslims around the world have begun to show their support to either Israel or Palestine. The sad part is that these groups have pulled out their daggers at each other believing that they do so in the name of their God. They hardly realize that they do so as followers of the same God worshipped and served in three different traditions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I strongly believe that it is not the will of God to have an armed struggle between them, seeking to annihilate the other. I do not entertain the antisemitic feelings as some would do especially the extremist terror groups like Hamas. I also do not condone the merciless retaliatory actions of the state of Israel against the unarmed civilians who are vulnerably sandwiched between Hamas and the Israeli army. In this article, I state my stand on Christian Zionism which is heavily lobbying unconditionally to support the current state

  Kingsley Thesiganesan Muttiah was born on May 7, 1935, as the 3 rd Son of Rev. and Mrs. D.N. Muttiah of the Methodist Church Sri Lanka. He was Inducted as the President of the Methodist Church Sri Lanka in August 1990 and led the church with distinction. His untimely death took place while he was in office in the final year of his term as the President of Methodist Church Sri Lanka. The 29th Death Anniversary falls on the 29 th of October. This article is written in celebration of our personal friendship with him, Grace his wife, David, Niruban and Jessica. In January 1984 I was stationed in the Kandy Circuit of the Methodist Church. This was my second posting and the final year during the three-year probationary period before ordination. Having worked under a strict but very caring superintendent minister like the late Rev. L. Victor Salgadoe in the first two years of probation, I was rather apprehensive about how things would turn out between me and Rev. Kingsley Muttiah the ne

  Judgement in Zephania’s prophesy I received through social media another Bible verse or a prophecy which is circulating with reference to Gaza – the disputed land between Israelites and Palestine. It quoted Zephaniah 2:4 “Gaza will be abandoned…” with a note saying “The truth is here in black and white written 2000 years ago…” This seems to be an excellent verse from the Bible to support the Israelites' destruction of the Palestinians. But it is a miserable position if anyone quotes only Zephaniah 2:4 without reading the entire book’s message. Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of King Josiah (640–609 B.C.), a Judean king who wanted a religious reformation together with acceptable worship practices before God (2 Kings 22:1–23:30). From the following Timeline you could see that the Prophetic ministry of Zephaniah occurred between the fall of the Kingdom of Israel and the fall of the Kingdom of Judah - both were the chosen people of God. Despite having seen the destructi

                                     Pray for the Peace between Israelites and Palestinians “The festival site - with three stages, a camping area and bar and food area - was in the Negev desert, near Kibbutz Re'im. It was not far from the Gaza Strip, from where Hamas fighters crossed over at dawn to launch their attack. They infiltrated towns and villages, taking dozens of people hostage.” The violent conflict in the contentious Gaza strip has restarted as a result of the Hamas's unexpected attack on an Israeli music celebration.   Israeli reports claim that Hamas is holding 150 hostages at now. This unexpected attack has exposed Israel's intelligence shortcoming and destroyed its sense of invincibility. Even though this conflict has been ongoing for a while, every time it flares up, it stings the residents of Gaza and Israel alike. This time, Hamas and Israel are both threatening to annihilate one another. This surpr

  Who will bell the cat? The idiom “Who will bell the cat?” originates from the fable The Mice in Council. The mice decided to put a bell around the murderous house cat so that he could no longer sneak up on them. However, the trouble starts when it’s time to decide which mouse will risk his life to put the bell around the cat’s neck. The moral is clear: making plans for a great outcome is not good enough. It should be achievable despite the risks involved. Otherwise, it serves no purpose. Easter Sunday, April 21, saw a horrific bomb attack in Sri Lanka on unarmed civilians who were in Churches and hotels. I heard the news while at the Methodist Centre, Kumbichangkulama, Anuradhapura. I had gone there along with my wife Sharmila and Rev. Anura Perera, Chairman of the Southern District, to celebrate Easter with the Methodist community. A week before, on Palm Sunday, April 14 th , while I was worshiping with them, we were attacked by a group of young people. It was perpetrated by a loc

Straight talk in the Church   A few years ago, I met with two other senior church leaders to have a straight talk with another senior church leader. He had deliberately made his way through a loophole to get what he wanted, and that was disturbing his church. Having started with a general conversation, we moved on to say that we needed to have a heart-to-heart, straight talk with him on the above-mentioned After five minutes, he moved out, saying, "I have another engagement." It seems like one of the dysfunctions in churches revolves around the topic of "hard conversations". Especially we who are pastors have a shepherd's heart, and we do not enjoy difficult conversations. We dread them. They can give us "sleepless nights and knots in our stomachs", which are hard to explain. We are expected to be diplomatic and kind. We are called to extend God’s grace and forgiveness to others. But when it comes to correction, rebuke, or confrontation, to say it’s