Lord challenges Job... again

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: Brace yourself, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. Are you going to discredit my justice and condemn me so you can say you are right? Are you strong as God, and can you thunder withe a voice like his? All right then, put on your robes of state, your majesty and splendor. Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. Humiliate the proud with a glance; walk on the wicked where they stand. Bury them in the dust. Imprison them in the world of the dead. Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you.

"Take a look at the mighty hippopotamus. I made it, just as i made you. It eats grass like an ox. See its powerful loins and the muscles of its belly. Its tails is as straight as a cedar. The sinews of its thighs are tightly knit together. Its bones are tubes of bronze. Its limbs are bars of iron. It is a prime example of God's amazing handiwork. Only its Creator can threaten it. The mountains offer it their best food, where all the wild animals play. It lies down under the lotus plants, hidden by the reeds. The lotus plants give it shade among the willows beside the stream. It is not disturbed by raging rivers, not even when the swelling Jordan rushes down upon it. No one can catch it off guard or put a ring in its nose and lead it away.

source: Job 40

honesty....integrity...

if ever two powerful forces were needed to preserve us along life's way, they are integrity and honesty. the psalmist asks for these to protect him step by step (Psalm 25:21). honesty -makes us learn God's requirements and strive to fulfill them. integrity - being what we say we are - keeps us from claiming to be honest while living as if we do not know God. honesty says, "this is the Shepherd's way." and integrity says "i will walk consistently in it."

be in the dark...

should we stay away from unbelievers? no, although there are some places christians should avoid. Jesus demonstrated that we must go among unbelievers to help them. but there is a different between being with unbelievers and being one of them. trying to be one of them harms our witness for God. ask yourself about the people you enjoy. if i am with them often, will i become less obedient to God in outlook or action? if the answer is yes, carefully monitor how you spend your time with these people and what effect it has on you.

right way please...

we are bombarded today with relentless appeals to go in various directions. television advertising alone places hundreds of options before us, in addition to appeals made by political parties, cults, false religions, and dozens of other groups. numerous organizations, including christian organizations, seek to motivate us to support a cause. add to that the dozens of decisions we must make concerning our job, our family, our money, and our society, and we become desperate for someone to show us the right way. if you find yourself pulled in several directions, remember that God teaches the humble his way.

The Wonders of Babies...

i love babies!:) they are the most beautiful creation on earth!:) i love being with them and watching them. they are so innocent and just a bundle of joy to be hold. no wonder when a mother see her baby... all the pain in giving birth was forgotten. it was replaced by a joy of seeing a beautiful creation in her arms, which in itself is a miracle and a gift from God. babies are precious, they are special gift from God. having given a responsibility to raise a child and given an opportunity to love that child is a great opportunity that should be taken seriously and with joy. babies themselves are a bundle of joy!:) their smiles can take away any pain and sadness that a mother is feeling. knowing that she have someone that gives her hope and strength to go through tough times in life. a baby that gives her a reason to live and be hopeful. a baby that reminds her of a life that can change and make a difference...someday...

The Beauty of Flowers

how many times we saw lovely flowers on the road while walking or on the flower shops or in someone else's garden or home? the normal response is to appreciate it's beauty, and comes with it is the feeling of happiness seeing how lovely and beautiful the flowers are. have you stop and think about for a moment, why do we have such response to these beautiful creations of God? have you stop and think why the sight of beautiful, lovely flowers makes us happy or lift us up whenever we are lonely or having a bad day? isn't it amazing how much it affects our emotions? God has His reasons in creating such beautiful and lovely flowers, and one of them is to lift up someone's spirit when they are down or sad. a person who is ill lightens up when someone visit him/her with a bunch of flowers. flowers are not just to make a place beautiful and bright...it does lift up someones spirit as one of the many reasons God created them!:)...it also does reminds us of someone that are dear to us. i am sure you have your own experience or thoughts to share about it, and it would be nice to hear or read then as well.:)

church is weird....

A friend of mine recently tried to convince me how weird we were. For a while now, he has been obsessed with the idea of what real community looks like and how the Book of Acts paints a very different picture than what the Church looks like today. During our conversation, he told me that if you read the Bible carefully, you’ll see that we’re not normal—that is, those of us in the North American Church in the 21st century. The Book of Acts describes what normal should be like, and it turns out that the “normal” Church in those days would be pretty radical now. Church, or Experiencing God? Fighting for Authenticity Why Do You Go to Church? 7347 Apartment Ministry Take Acts 2:42. It’s a verse that describes life in the first-century Church just after the amazing events of the Pentecost: “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (TNIV). In this one sentence there are four devotions of the early Church, the Church that changed the world. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching There’s a real sense of authority here. The nascent Church didn’t just drop by to sample what those who had been with Jesus were saying—they were devoted to this teaching. You can imagine that they weren’t just gunning for a 96 percent or better on the next test. The didactic message was, “God has been here, we have been with Him, and we declare Him to you.” These apostles proclaimed not only who Jesus was (Acts 2:36), but they boldly declared that a proper response should produce in a follower of Jesus a radical change from one’s society (Acts 2:40). If a new believer wasn’t “fed” by this teaching, there was nowhere else to go! They devoted themselves to fellowship Is there any word more tainted these days than “fellowship”? Does the phrase “Fellowship Hall” evoke images of vinyl tile, metal folding chairs and potluck food? Some modern churches have overcome the stigma and have actually managed to engage their members in community, but it’s a tough bridge to cross. Most people today prefer to hang out with friends in warmer environments surrounded by music and those who share a common life Monday through Saturday. Places like Starbucks, Panera Bread and, yes, even taverns provide an atmosphere more conducive to sharing life than the vibe found in church halls. But the first-century Church devoted itself to fellowship. No buildings to maintain, only people to love. Is it too big of a stretch to say that their passion was to be with one another? Conversion in those days meant becoming a part of a new family (the family of God) that was more real than a birth family. They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread This could (and probably does) mean at least two things: sharing meals with each other and the ritual we have come to call the Lord’s Supper, or Communion, or the Eucharist. Jesus Himself had instructed His followers to remember Him in the breaking of bread, and the early Church was devoted to remembering Him in this manner. Some churches still are. While the prevailing Protestant emphasis is on God’s word on Sunday mornings, our Catholic brothers and sisters organize their worship around the Eucharist. Perhaps they have something to say to us about this. Perhaps nothing: There are centuries of Catholic teaching about how to encounter Jesus fresh and new every time we come to His table. How can we be devoted to something that only happens once a month or once a quarter? They devoted themselves to prayer Yikes! Anything but prayer! My prayer life used to run like this: “God bless Dad, God bless Mom and … um … God bless the puppies.” I always felt like I ran out of stuff to pray about so fast. But prayer was a central devotion of the early Church. I expect their prayer gatherings were more intense than ours. Check out Acts 4: 24–31 to see what I mean, especially verse 31. Can you imagine God answering prayers immediately by shaking the building? And when the apostle Peter broke free from jail (Acts 12:5–19) he made his way to where he knew believers would be praying for him. He knew they would be at their post, doing something important. The praying Church even thought that an angelic manifestation on Peter’s behalf was a normal occurrence (check out the incredible assumption they make in verse 15). What would the Church look like if we refused to settle for the same-old, same-old? What if we took a moment to realize how weird we really are? Maybe we could become normal at last. Author: Ray Hollenbach Job: Pastor, College Teacher, Soccer Coach Ray is just a country parson at a Vineyard church in central Kentucky

new page added

just wanted to let you know that my other site: www.saritaladios.wordpress.com was just updated and we added a new page on it: http://saritaladios.wordpress.com/getting-involved/ to those that wanted to get involve in the works here in ukraine.

thank you for visiting the site and for leaving comments. enjoy the rest of the week!:)