The Indian President Shri K. R. Narayanan with Miss World Priyanka Chopra
and Miss Asia Pacific Diya Mirza, who called on him in
New Delhi on December 21, 200

Christmas is around the corner. You might have
beautifully and tastefully decorated your house putting
green trees and ornaments. Lighted Santa Clause may
be standing at your door and red stockings may be hanging
near your fireplace to welcome Santa Clause who is supposed
to enter through chimney on Christmas eve to fill your stockings
with goodies. As a child I waited to see Santa Clause coming
and filling my stockings with chocolate and gifts and always
wondered why he did not come to my house alone? What is
wrong with me? I always wondered from where he comes in?
I never knew that this is just stories.. But the Bible tells us
in James 1:17, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom
there is no variation or shadow of turning."

Yes, Every good and perfect gift comes from above only.
And God gave His best gift ever by sending His only begotten
Son - Jesus to this world so that we may be saved from our
sins and from hell fire. Almost 2000 years ago this wonderful
gift of God came down from heaven, took birth as a poor child
in a manger, lived among us facing all the temptations and all
the problems of this world. We could not recognize His glory
and majesty. We could not recognize the wonderful and the
most precious gift from heaven. We nailed Him to death. But
He rose up on the third day and lives forever and forever.
Though we treated Him badly He still loves us and wants to
fill our lives with all goodness and mercy. He wants to fill our
lives stockings with goodies. And today when we cry, when
we go through problems and temptations, He understands us
because He went through all these, but came out victorious.

Did you receive this wonderful gift in your own life? Has
Jesus the Savior been born in your hearts? If not, your tasteful
decorations, giving gifts to friends and relatives and joyful
celebrations of Christmas is meaningless. Your stockings are
empty and without goodies. You need to invite Jesus into your
life so that He may come in and fill all the blessings in your life.
Once He comes in then your life will not be the same as today.
He will give you peace, joy and happiness that this world can
not give. He will exalt you before others and bless you in each
and every field of your life.

In this Christmas season invite Jesus in your life and get rid
of your miserable life. I pray that Prince of Peace, Lord of lords
and King of kings may come into your life and fill your empty
stockings with all His goodness and mercy..

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and blessed
New Year. A very special greeting card is waiting for you at this
address: -http://www.csichurch.org/card2001.htm

Courtesy: CSI Church Newsletter Editorial

CHRIST IS BORN

By Sheela Isaac

Very soon we are going to celebrate Christ's birth. Here
in U.S. people decorate their homes and streets in a great way.
It looks as if the whole city is rejoicing over the birth of Christ.
But you may wonder to know that many do not even know why
they are celebrating Christmas. When you go out side you will
find that the same people who celebrated the festival of demons
(Halloween) a month ago are now celebrating Christmas. They
have removed all the decorations of Halloween like human skull,
skeleton, spider, spider's web, pictures of demon, pumpkin and
instead of that now they have installed Santa Claus and red
nosed reindeer. It gives the appearance that they are now
celebrating Santa instead of Christmas. Now the question is
whether they are celebrating Christ's birth or Santa's? I do not
know from where the idea of Santa and the red nosed reindeer
came, though Bible does not describe anything about this.

Why are we celebrating Christmas? What is the reason for
Christmas? Answer is very simple "Christ Jesus is born."
Now who is Christ? Why did He come to this world? Let us
see quickly.

1. Christ the anointed one
2. Christ the Savior of the world
3. Christ the Son of God

Christ the anointed one:
------------------------

Isa 61:1, "The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because
the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty
to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
Isa 61:2, "To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and
the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;"

Yes my friend, He is the anointed one who came down in the
form of a man to preach good tidings and proclaim liberty to the
captives. He brought good news for all the mankind of this universe.
Good news is that He is the only true savior, good news is that He
is the only Messiah who can save you and me from hell fire. No one
else has brought salvation, no one else has died for you and me, no
one else has offered forgiveness of sin. But only Jesus who being
God Himself lived among us as man, who suffered and died for us,
who shed His precious blood to redeem us from hell fire. Yes He is
the anointed one whom God anointed for this sole purpose to bring
liberty to captives. When we were sinners Christ died for us. When
we were bound in sin and were captive to devil He (Jesus) proclaimed
liberty for us.

2. Christ the Savior of the world:
-------------------------------------

Luke 2:10-11, "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for,
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
people." "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord."

Christ is that savior who was born in this world. He came for
all the people. He did not come for a particular group of people or
for a distinct religious sect of people. But the Angel proclaimed
that the Savior is born for all the people. You may belong to any
group, any religion it does not matter because He came for you to
save you. If you trust in Him you will receive the free gift of redemption.

A few days back we were talking to sister Kadambari Advani. I
was very curious to know how she came to find Christ in her life.
She shared her testimony. She said, "I had every thing in life money,
fame, name etc as I was in Indian Film industry. I never thought about
God because I never felt that I needed him. I was religious and was
engaged in devotion and prayer as a hindu performing pujas (Hindu
prayer) etc. But a time came when I lost all my loved ones except
my sister. I was about to marry a multi billionaire, but I lost my
fiancé too. And I was in great pain. I thought of committing suicide.
At that time somebody called over the phone to give me condolences.
I was crying over the phone and exclaiming that I prayed a lot but I
got nothing. The person on the other side said, 'your prayers were
wrong, as you did not pray to the true God and that is why you did
not receive anything. God created us but you were praying to a god
created by man with stone, wood, mud etc." I was shocked because
I never heard such thing before or thought about it earliar. But the
words were constantly working in my mind and I realized that she
was right. I was praying to stone and mud (idols). I telephoned her
but could not find her. I started searching for her address in yellow
pages and finally found it. She invited me to her prayer meeting
which I attended. Their prayer, their devotion, and the way in which
they meditated were all entirely different than what I was doing. I
knew then that Jesus was the real God. I cried for long time and
when I left that meeting I knew that I was not alone but Jesus came
into my heart and that Jesus was with me. The joy which I got was
so real. I never had such a joy in my life though I had name, fame
and money. Jesus compensated every thing that I lost."

Yes my friend, this is what Jesus can do for you. He is not a
respecter of person. Every one who comes to His Calvary and asks
for forgiveness gets it.

Christ the Son of God:
----------------------

He is the Son of God. He is God Himself. That is why Bible
says that whoever has son has life. But whoever reject Him has
no life.
1 John 5:12-13, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life." These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know
that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the
Son of God."

Yes my friend, do not reject Him. Accept Him as your Lord and
Savior and get this eternal life. Don't think that it is an emotional
experience told by somebody because of brain damage. No! But
Jesus Himself said in John 3:3, "Jesus answered and said unto him,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God." John 3:18 -19, "He that believeth on him
is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son
of God." "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil.

You may be born in a Christian family, you may have Christian
label upon you like John, Jacob and so on.......but you must realize
that if you have not invited Jesus in your heart till this time you are
still lost.

In India there is a famous malayalam movie singer by name Yesudas.
His name's meaning is that he is a servant of Jesus or follower of
Jesus. But you may wonder that he is not a Christian though he was
born in a Catholic family. Long back around late 70's I read somewhere
about him that he believes in reincarnation and he goes to Shabari
Malai for worshipping some hindu goddess or so.

Well, name and birth can not give guarantee to anybody to reach
heaven. Only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ you can get
redemption and become Christian. Think about how many Christmas
you might have celebrated, and how many times you might have
visited Church. But have you ever invited Jesus into your heart?
Have you ever-said, "Lord you were born in a manger as a poor boy
but now be born in my heart." Have you ever said, "come and become
my savior and Lord?" If not, this is the time, let this Christmas be a
turning point in your life. Let the savior be really born in your heart at
this Christmas. Invite Him in your heart. Pray this prayer from the
bottom of your heart.

Lord Jesus, I need you. Please come into my heart at this
Christmas. Come and wash away my sins and sin stains and dwell
in my heart. Today I invite you into my heart. Today I accept you as
my one and only Lord and Savior. In Jesus name I pray Amen.

Courtesy: Newsletter: CSI Church

Death of Seven Women Prisoners in Central California

The recent deaths of seven women prisoners in a California prison
points to the pressing need for independent scrutiny of medical
care, Amnesty International said today as it called for an
independent investigation into the deaths.

"For several years we have received complaints about the
inadequacy of medical care -- and delays in treatment -- in
women's prisons in California," the organization stressed. "What
is particularly alarming now is that these deaths have come just
weeks after state legislative hearings raised concerns about
medical neglect in these facilities."

In just over a month, seven women have died at the
Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. Local prison
groups who have visited the prison have blamed slow and shoddy
medical care for at least some of deaths. They have also argued
that the use of guards as medical personnel conflicts with their
custodial role. Inmates have reported, for example, that the
prison's medical technical assistants (MTAs) -- guards who serve
as the first line of prison health care -- disregarded the
complaints of inmate, Pamela Coffey, less than an hour before her
death.

The Californian authorities have, however, maintained
that medical practices, which were the target of a class-action
lawsuit over inadequate medical care, have improved considerably.

"What is clear is that there continues to be serious
questions about the delivery of health care and the ability of
the MTAs to respond in crisis situations," Amnesty International
maintained. "The time has come for medical standards to be
independently -- and regularly -- monitored."

Amnesty International is also calling on Senator Richard
Palanco, who presided over the Californian legislative hearings,
to re-convene and commission an expert's report.

The Central California Women's Facility serves as a hospital and
hospice for women throughout the Californian state prison system.
There have been 15 deaths at the prison this year; nine in 1999
and 10 in 1998.

Four of the women who died in the past month were
apparently suffering from terminal illnesses, but two of these
women were reportedly not given prompt attention after they began
suffering severe health problems. The Californian prison
authorities have announced an internal investigation into three
of the deaths within a one-month period.

In 1999 Amnesty International raised concerns about
medical treatment -- including the denial of adequate medical
care and the need for independent monitoring -- in two women's
prisons in California.