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! :)