Verse of the day

I've had a rough day today and I've received this Bible verse with comments:

Jeremiah 20:18

"Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame." (NLT)

Meditation

Sounds familiar? When things go wrong for you, you might forget that plenty of good has also happened to you. How do your perspective and mood change depending on what happens to you?


We easily forget all the good things we've got and we forget to rejoice in the Lord for all His wonderful works and for His grace above all. I thank God for reminding me of the blessings I have in my life and for His amazing presence. I pray that He'll help me to learn to be joyful in Him. After all every single day we have is God's gift for us and I want to be thankful for it.

'Do not worry about tomorrow'

'Be still and know that I am God'

I've been feeling very stressed today and God has given me peace reminding these verses:

'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own'. (Matthew 6:34)

'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light'. (Matthew 11:28-30)

I'm amazed at the grace of our God, at His mercy and patience. He teaches us day to day and waits for us to learn our lessons. He forgives us each time we fail to learn and always gives a chance to start all over again.

He's been teaching me to trust Him. I'm not a very good student, but He's a good teacher. :) I praise Him for that.


Today I pray for the souls that are feeling uneasy and the hearts that are burdened. I pray that 'the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard ... hearts and ... minds in Christ Jesus.' (Philippians 4:7)

Psalm 121

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Where is the Lord?

Sermon on Jeremiah 2:4-13.
It is published here :)

God of Wonders

God Of Wonders

Lord of all creation

Of water, earth and sky,

The heavens are Your tabernacle,

Glory to the Lord on high.

God of wonders beyond our galaxy,

You are holy, holy!

The universe declares Your majesty,

You are holy, holy,

Lord of heaven and earth...

Early in the morning,

I will celebrate the light.

When I stumble in the darkness,

I will call Your Name by light.

Tonight I'm praying for strength and patience. I'm praying for strength and wisdom. I'm praying for understading that His "power is made perfect in weakness".
I want to see the glory of God and to celebrate His light. Amen.

The Dark Half

I've just watched a movie "The Dark Half" made after one of the stories by Stiven King. I have to say it wasn't easy to watch it. The good thing was that I had the lights on, though a couple of noises made by my guinea pig scared me quite a bit :)
Anyway. This movie made me think of something. What if I was to meet someone, who'd look exactly like I do, but was the incarnation of all of the "bad" thoughts, feelings, motives that I've ever had? What if you were to meet such a dark copy of yours? What if this person contained the worst of your expreinces and had ever bit of the anger, agreession, cruelty, stubborness, envy, vulgarity you've ever thought of even for a second? Can you imagine what a monster it could be?
I don't think anyone of us would be excited to meet such a "copy" of her/his own.
What about our loved ones, our families, friends, people in church? What if they knew every single thought that has ever been in our minds? Do you think they'd still be able to love us? What if we saw ourselves at the moments when we are filled with anything from that dark list for whatever reason? Would we still be able to love ourselves?
But you know what? There is Someone Who has seen all those monsters. He met them on the cross, He nailed them to the tree. He took them away. There's Someone, Who has seen and still sees every bit of our negative side, but He's still eager to accept and forgive, eager to change us and renew. He's still giving His love to us and leading us from the darkness to the light. He IS the light.
Knowing that, how can we ever let the monsters be born in our hearts and minds? How can we ever want to feed our sinful nature instead of commiting our lives to the cross and to the One, Who sacrificed His life for us? We can't.

Whiter than the Snow

We sang this song last Sunday during the service. It has wonderful lyrics. It is truly a great mistery of God's love and grace, of the sacrifice He's made to cleanse us and to give us new lives in purity and righteousness. It amazes me...

Whiter than the Snow
(Mike Burns)

Whiter than the snow, purer than the cleanest stream;

Wash me and I’ll be bathed in purity, I long to feel clean.

A robe of righteousness, a robe I could not afford;

My Lord, You paid the price,

Your perfect sacrifice has covered up my shame.

And so I thank You, Jesus for the sweet forgiveness of the cross.

It’s a mystery to amaze even angels,

That when Father looks into my heart,

He sees me now as whiter than the snow.

Tzaritzino

I had a terrific walk at one of the parks in Moscow (Tzaritzino) and took some pictures.
I've posted it on my livejournal, but decided to post a link to the pictures here as well :)
Enjoy! :)

What if..

What if,

GOD couldn't take the time to bless us today because we couldn't take the time to thank Him yesterday?

What if,
GOD decided to stop leading us tomorrow because we didn't follow Him today?

What if,
we never saw another flower bloom because we grumbled when GOD sent the rain?

What if,
GOD didn't walk with us today because we failed to recognize it as His day?

What if,
GOD took away the Bible tomorrow because we would not read it today?

What if,
GOD took away His message because we failed to listen to the messenger?

What if,
GOD didn't send His only begotten Son because He wanted us to be prepared to pay the price for sin.

What if,
the door of the church was closed because we did not open the door of our heart?

What if,
GOD stopped loving and caring for us because we failed to love and care for others?

What if,
GOD would not hear us today because we would not listen to Him yesterday?

What if,
GOD answered our prayers the way we answer His call to service?

What if,
GOD met our needs the way we give Him our lives???

P.S. The author of the text is unknown; My friend Sonya shared the text with me :)

Afraid to trust God?

I've been reading through a book named "The Adventure of Holiness". One of its chapters talks about God calling us. Actually, the thought that amazed me was that calling someone means taking the risk. Why? Because that someone might not hear, might not understand and might not want to respond. God calls us, but He always gives us a choice. Isn't that amazing? The Creator of the universe grants free will to His creations, to His loved creations. It's so simple and so incredible at the same time.
So I was thinking about trust. Isn't it one of the most fragile things in our lives? It's something that can easily be destroyed and so difficult to build again.
When we are born into the world we tend to trust everyone and everything. But as we grow up through our own painful experiences we learn not to trust. We get hurt and we choose caution instead of trust.
In our society full of various formalities, where emotions are strictly scaled and feelings are considered to be an expression of weakness, we learn to hide our true selves behind a wall of self-control and prudence. Often we are so afraid to be misunderstood or rejected that we even choose not to offer help when we know people need it. And how does that work with the commandment "love your neighbor as yourself"?
For the sake of the same reasons we are afraid to tell people about God's love, about His work in our lives, about the ways He can change their lives as well. Yes, we are afraid to get hurt, to be rejected when sharing something so important for us. These are beautiful excuses. But there are rough words that stand behind our reasoning: we are ashamed of our faith and our dependence on God and we doubt that God can change lives of other people and that He can actually work through our words and lives. Now, how does that work with the commandment "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind"?
We are afraid to trust God... It's rather ironic, considering that He holds the world including our lives in His hands. Yet, we are afraid to trust Him with our particular thoughts, deeds, hopes... We are afraid to talk about God, because we think it's us, who witness and not the Spirit of God. We are afraid to serve people, because we think it's through our strength and not through His power. We are afraid to trust God because we want to receive His blessings, but we do not want to receive His love. We desire the result of His promises, but we don't want to trust His word and to follow it.
We are afraid to trust God with our hopes and plans. We'd like to let Him do whatever is included into our view of the situation and show His might in giving us what we want, but we afraid to give Him our desires completely and trust His will in our lives.
When I think about being afraid to trust God, I try to remember how much He trusts us. He knows our sinful nature, He knows we can betray Him, He knows our weaknesses and still He trusts us to be His children. He trusts us to walk with Him. He helps us to get up each time we fall, He forgives us each time we repent. Isn't it the amazing evidence of His love and His trust?
Jesus came to the Earth to be rejected, to be humiliated, to suffer, to be crucified and to resurrect in order to save each one of us. How many of us would agree to go through something similar, knowing that our sacrifice might not even be accepted? I doubt that we would. He did. He knew that even the ones who accept His priceless gift would still hesitate, would stumble and fall down again and again, but He was willing to bring us salvation. And He still is. Isn't that the most incredible evidence of His love and His trust?
The least we can do in response is to give Him our lives and love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our strength and with all our minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves, because one is impossible without the other.
Praise be to the Lord!