Don't stop doing good...

2 Thessalonians 3:13

"And I say to the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good."

I was reading this morning the book of 2 Thessalonians 3 and this verse spoke into my heart and reminded me about doing good.

We just had another successful Kids Camp. And once again, the children enjoyed it and was happy. And even before the last day of the camp, the children were already asking about the next year Kids Camp!:) The children were actually asking why the Kids Camp is only one week and not longer!:) I have to tell them that the workers/volunteers can't get longer off from their work, as all them are working, except the youth that are having their summer break from school/university. But one of the other reasons, is that we don't have enough funds for longer camp, even if we want to, unless God wants us to do it longer then I/we know that He will provide for it!:)

Which brings me to another amazing things that God did for this camp. He not only provided additional volunteers/workers but He also provided additional finances for the Kids Camp. We (the team) as we met every week before the camp, talked about how many people (the ones that used to volunteer) can't help during the camp as their summer holidays from work was either before or after the camp. Sergei (the pastor) was concerned about how we (15 volunteers) will handle 100 children during the camp!

First day of the Kids camp, there were more than 20 volunteers that showed up!:) And as the Kids camp progress there were 4 more people that showed up and helped in the camp, there were more than enough kids camp workers that helped during the kids camp. God knows what we need and how He will provide for that needs!:) The team worked well and I felt that this Kids Camp was easier to run than the last time. The whole program just run smoothly. And everyone knows what to do and what to expect everyday. They were ready and prepared. It was just amazingly great team work!:)

Another blessings that God provided for the Kids Camp is the football player that I've randomly met 2 weeks before the camp. He stumbled upon my website, sent me an email to encouraged me in what I do here in Donetsk and expressed his desire to help with my work. After sending me an email, he rang me on my mobile and told me the same thing that he wrote on his email.

He (Kingsley) is a professional football player. He just came to Donetsk a month ago from Cyprus where he used to play as well. He was offered a better pay to play in Ukraine, that's why he came and joined the Mettalurg Donetsk Football Team.

After expressing his desire to help me and my work, I said that he can help me by helping the upcoming Kids Camp. He readily agreed and we decided to meet up that evening and talk about it. I asked Sergei (the pastor) to join us in the meeting that evening, since he wants to get involve its just right to meet with the pastor as well. He contributed financially and agreed to come and play with the children during the camp.

The highlight of this year's Kids Camp was the time that the footballer spent playing with the children. Football is a big thing here in Ukraine. The children were so happy and enjoyed their time with him. They enjoyed the McDonalds treat that he brought to the camp for all the children and workers. Have their photos taken with him and even asked for his autograph!:) The children asked him to come next year's Kids camp.

What amazed me with all of these is the way how God met our needs in wanting to do good for others even if we don't have enough. Even before we know that we will be needing more funds and volunteers, God already working and preparing those needs and will send it in His right time. He is never late nor advance, He is always on time. We just have to learn to wait and trust in Him!:)

I believe, what matters the most is what's our heart's desire, and God sees and knows that. And He will make the way for us to be able express that desire to do good for others. He is looking for people that is willing to be a channel of His blessings and He will take care of the provision to make it happen.

I believe that what we've doing in this community (Mine 12/18) is making a positive impact in the lives of these young children and gives them hope for a better future. We just have to continue to do good for them. We saw positive changed in the lives of these young children since we started doing kids camp in that community 5 years ago and it will surely affect their family and peers.

The First Real Mission....

FROM RELEVANT MAGAZINE


The First Real Mission

Beth Guckenberger
It’s almost the end of the week, and we’ve run out of projects, supplies and motivation.

For the past few years Todd and I have sponsored our church’s youth mission trips to Queretaro, Mexico. In general, we know what to expect. A little paint here, a little polish there, some late-night tacos, an evangelistic drama—all in the name of the Lord.

The truth is, no one really cares. As I unpack the paints, I think, “Haven’t we painted this wall before?” We are frustrated, the students are uninspired and, worst of all, the nationals we have come to serve are unaffected.

One of the men from our group comes up to us and says, “About two more hours, and we can clean up here and head for dinner.”

“Two hours, huh?” I sigh.

I close my eyes and try to think how to fill that time, until Todd interrupts my thoughts: “Remember the orphanage we visited in Albania?” he asks, his back to me, bent over, cleaning some paintbrushes.

“Sure. Why?”

“You think there are any in this town?”

Even before he can stand up and turn around, I’m gone. I dash over to where our teens are talking to some of their Mexican counterparts.

“Orphanage-o? Orphanatorio? Orphanagorio?” I try every combination with my best Mexican accent to get a reaction. “Aquí?” (“Here?”)

“Sí. Sí.” They look at me, laughing, either because the answer is obvious or because of my funny words. I don’t know which.

I wish I could say that Todd and I sat down right then and made a plan, but we didn’t. The truth is, within 10 minutes of his question, we leave the students with the other adult sponsors, and we’re in a taxi trying to find an orphanage.

Looking back now, it seems foolish. We didn’t speak much Spanish, didn’t have much money if we got into trouble, and were in a city where we could have easily gotten lost. An hour later, we’re standing in front of a children’s home on a dusty road, knocking at the door as we wave goodbye to our taxi driver.

We hear a series of locks, bolts and chains being unlatched, and the door swings open. Have you ever heard the expression “his face is an open book”? Well, the title of the book on the face of the man who answers the door is Who the Heck Are You? Even though he’s sitting in a wheelchair, he seems eight feet tall. Seeing him makes us wonder if all those locks are to keep people out or keep children in. While he waits for us to explain ourselves, I catch a glimpse of a child over his shoulder.

We struggle with our bad Spanish for more than an hour but don’t get far. Finally, frustrated, Todd gives up and starts playing basketball with some of the boys, leaving me to continue the conversation. For a while we watch Todd in silence, our host with a blank expression on his face and me hoping we really are on a holy errand.

The thought crosses my mind, Has this man already asked us to leave in Spanish and we just didn’t understand? Or is this something that You planned, Lord?

Finally, the man turns to me and says, “I can understand you. I’m an American.”

I can’t believe it. Why did he pretend? I know I should be mad—but my first thought is gratitude that we can now communicate.

He continues, “I’m a Vietnam War vet. I came to work with abandoned children because I know what it means to be tossed aside. Like them, I’m trying to forget the people who failed me. I don’t always trust outsiders.”

I say nothing.

Todd, who has overheard everything, walks over from the court, with the ball under his arm, and says, “We have $200, 25 eager students and a whole day left in our trip. Is there anything we can do for you if we come back tomorrow?”

The man shifts his eyes and says softly, “The children haven’t had meat in a year, and that window up there is broken.”

Sometimes just talking can cost you. His admission costs him something, and our request costs us as well. We all overcome our fears and say things that are uncomfortable. But we do it. As we sit there on that bench, sipping our lemonade, I know what’s happened: Our first real mission has begun.

The next day, with a much clearer sense of purpose, we set out for the children’s home. On the way, we stop at a market to buy food and toys. When we get to the front door, the children are waiting, laughing and asking if “Michael Jordan” has come back.

We have 200 hamburgers, a new window, and our crew of teenagers.

The orphanage is built like a bullfighting arena, with a large open area in the middle. Steep stairs go up to the dorms on the top layer, which encircle the courtyard below. We set up the grill in the courtyard and begin serving the meal.

After all 40 of the kids receive their hamburgers and second helpings, we find ourselves still flipping burgers. From behind the grill, Todd whispers, “What’s going on? These kids can’t still be hungry; go see if you can figure out where all the food’s wandering off to.”

So I mingle with the kids, who are holding napkins full of hamburgers. Some are carrying them up to their rooms; I follow one little preschool girl up the stairs to the dormitory, and with each step, it’s almost as if I can feel her leading me, wanting me to see something. When we reach the top, she hesitates only slightly as she enters and leaves me standing in the doorway.

She’s hiding the hamburger patties under her mattress.

When I walk into the room, some of the other girls are startled and one of them starts to cry. Why? Do they think I’ll be mad? Yell at them? Hit them? Take the hamburgers back? I don’t know, but none of those things even occur to me. I simply help the little girl I followed lift her heavy mattress.

After we carefully hide the girl’s hamburger, I take her hand, and we head back out the door. Then I stop and send her down to get Todd. After he bounds up the stairs, we stand together in that doorway, and something happens to us, right there, that we don’t even realize at the time. But when I chart the events of my life that followed, they trace back to that moment in the doorway.

We walk slowly down the stairs, trying to think of how we might be able to buy more hamburgers. At the bottom, the director is watching us skeptically, waiting for our reaction, and he explains that the kids often save food for later. Even though we know the hamburgers won’t keep long, none of us has the heart to stop them.

That day Todd and I had a defining moment—an experience that impacted our thinking, touched our hearts and compelled us into a new course of action. It changed our lives. I used to be afraid of that word, change, as if it implied, somehow, that I need to be corrected. But now I have a different view of change. It is a shift in perspective, and not the Extreme Home Makeover kind of change we see on television. It is a shift in what we think we are capable of. In where we want to see our life heading. In how we are willing to spend our time, talents and resources.

When people tell me about how God “moved” them, it is that kind of shift, I believe, they are talking about. It’s a step in a new direction that we couldn’t have taken on our own. Sometimes defining moments result in immediate and complete life transformations, like it did for the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus; but more often, such moments are more subtle, things we can only see in hindsight.

For me, the hamburger incident was not a defining moment that lit up in neon lights. Not at all. I flew home the next day, went back to work, headed to the grocery store, called my friends—but there was a difference. I have since described it as being like a burr under my saddle. I knew I would never feel quite comfortable again. Something inside me had shifted, and after the supernatural pleasure of that “defining moment,” like an addict, I knew I wanted another hit.

Before that trip to Mexico, I was not a bad person. I wasn’t doing anything wrong that required major discipline in my life. But that trip was more like a big wooden marker in the shape of an arrow pointing to someplace I couldn’t see—a place I was nervous about, but excited to explore. Just a week before the trip, the path I was on in my life had seemed fine, but now, in light of that experience, I didn’t want fine anymore. For a year afterward, I moved around on that saddle trying to get comfortable again, but there was that silly burr, always reminding me that I had changed that afternoon in Mexico. That is what reckless faith does—it propels me faster and harder toward God’s true plan for my life.

Todd and I talked hundreds of hours in the following year about those hamburgers and about all the people we knew who could buy food for orphans if they only knew there was a need and how important they could be in meeting that need. It became clear that the arrow was pointing us back to Mexico, and so, without much guidance other than a vague sense of the rightness of the decision, we moved to Monterrey.

Today, when people look at our organization and ask about strategy, vision casting, projection and planning, we just smile. It would be tempting to spin it all so it seems more polished.

But the truth is, it started with a little girl hiding a hamburger under her mattress.

Taken from Reckless Faith © 2008 by Beth Guckenberger. Used by permission of Zondervan.

Joy that last....

The word happiness evokes visions of un-wrapping gifts on Christmas morning, strolling hand in hand with the one you love, being surprised on your birthday, responding with unbridled laughter to a comedian, or vacationing in an exotic locale. Everyone wants to be happy; we make chasing this elusive ideal a lifelong pursuit: spending money, collecting things, and searching for new experiences.

But if happiness depends on our circumstances, what happens when the toys rust, loved ones die, health deteriorates, money is stolen, and the party's over? Often happiness flees and despair sets in.

In contrast to happiness stands joy. Running deeper and stronger, joy is the quiet, confident assurance of God's love and work in our life - that he will be there no matter what. Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Christ.

The book of Philippians (one of Paul's letters) is Paul's joy letter. The church in that Macedonian city had been a great encouragement to Paul. The Philippian believers had enjoyed a very special relationship with Paul during his stay with them, so he wrote them a personal expression of his love and affection. They had brought him great joy. Philippians is also a joyful book because it emphasizes the real joy of the Christian life. The concept of rejoicing or joy appears sixteen times in four chapters, and the pages radiate this positive message, culminating in the exhortation to "always be full of joy in the Lord, I say it again...rejoice!" (4:4)

Although Paul was writing from prison, joy is a dominant theme in this letter. The secret of his joy is grounded in his relationship with Christ. People today desperately want to be happy but are tossed and turned by daily successes, failures, and inconveniences. Christians are to be joyful in every circumstances, even when things are going badly, even when we feel like complaining, even when no one else is joyful. Christ still reigns, and we still know him, so we can rejoice at all times.

Believers of Christ can have profound contentment, serenity, and peace no matter what happens. This joy comes from knowing Christ personally and from depending on his strength rather than our own.

We can have joy, even in hardship. Joy does not come from outward circumstances but from inward strength. As Christians, we must not rely on what we have or what we experience to give us joy but on Christ within us.

What comes to your mind when you hear the word "comfort/comfortable?"...

When you hear the word "comfort or comfortable" what comes into your mind?

Here's what Collins Gem English Dictionay says about the word "comfort/comfortable:"

Comfort is: (noun) physical ease or well-being; consolation; means of consolation; (verb) soothe, console.

Comfortable is: (adj.) giving comfort; free from pain; informal well-off financially.

During one of my reading times, I encountered this word and it made me think. I stopped and just thought this word for a while and meditate on it. Checked the dictionary what it says about comfort/comfortable.

Did some checking as well what the bible says about comfort/comfortable. And found that they varies with their meaning.

The world (means us, human beings) think what the dictionary says when we hear the word comfort/comfortable.

But the bible says that, comfort/comfortable is not about being well-off, free from pain, being physically fit, or being soothed or consoled.

Comfort is being at peace and content of who and where you are no matter what. Knowing your situation (good or bad) and having that inner peace, joy and contentment knowing that even if you can't do anything with your situation. there is someone that can and that is Christ.

Trusting and having faith in Christ gives us that inner peace and joy and make us content in our lives, even if things seems bleak or hopeless. It's like a steady flow of a river or a brook, even in the midst of strongest storms. Knowing that it all will come to pass.

I believe that having that kind of assurance is the one that gives us comfort and makes us comfortable to face and deal with any storms (problems) that comes into our lives.

Love...the greatest of ALL....

This morning when I was doing my morning readings part of chapter that I was reading just reminded me once again what Love is:

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

It speaks about what Love is and what it is not. I just want to share the verses that spoke into my heart while I was reading this chapter in 1 Corinthians 13.

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstances."

"There are three things that will endure - faith, hope and love - and the greatest of these is love."

In chapter 12 Paul gave evidence of the Corinthians' lack of love in the utilization of spiritual gifts, chapter 13 defines real love, and chapter 14 shows how love works. Love is more important than all the spiritual gifts exercised in the church body. Great faith, acts of dedication or sacrifice, and miracle-working power have little effect without love. Love makes our actions and gifts useful. Although people have different gifts, love is available to everyone.

Our society confuses love and lust. Unlike lust, God's kind of love is directed outward toward others, not inward toward ourselves. It is utterly unselfish. This kind of love goes against our natural inclinations. It is impossible to have this love unless God helps us set aside our own natural desires so that we can love and not expect anything in return. Thus, the more we become like Christ, the more love we will show to others.

In morally corrupt Corinth, love had become a mixed-up term with little meaning. Today people are still confused about love. Love is the greatest of all human qualities, and it is an attribute of God himself. Love involves unselfish service to others, to show it gives evidence that you care.

Faith is the foundation and content of God's message; love is the action. When faith and hope are in line, you are free to love completely because you understand how God loves.

When the Going Gets Tough...

Have anyone of you watched the soccer game last weekend? It was the 2008 European Championship, Spain and Germany was the top and tough teams that played against each other.

I watched the game (that's right, I did watch soccer game!) and as I was watching my two favorite teams, as much as I want both of them to win - there's only one team that can bring the trophy and the title back to their country!

I was watching the game and the going gets tough - both teams are trying to make the ball into the goal, but each team didn't make it easy to do so. Each team tried their best to defend their goal, protecting the goal from their opponents from scoring by getting the ball into the goal.

Both team tried their best to score and tried their best to keep the ball out of the goal. Some of the players tumbled down, rolled over, got hit by each other or by the ball, bruised, got kicked, beaten down (accidentally), bleed (have you seen Germany's team captain and midfielder Michael Ballack bleed from the head collision with the Spanish midfielder Marcos Senna?! bleeding and all, still he got up and got back in the game!) other players got broken bones and pulled muscles from their efforts!

Bleeding, beaten, bruised as the game gets tough, still the players gets going! The players showed perseverance, determination, passion, and focused on their goal - to win the game! And in the end one of the team won and reached their goal in winning the game, by keep on going even when the going gets tough, they didn't quit, instead they persevere to the end.

As I was watching the game in action, my mind went on thinking and comparing the whole thing to our lives. There are times in our lives that we will experience being beaten, bruised, tumbled down, got hit, got kicked, rolled down, bleed, broken and get tired.

But just like the Germany & Spanish soccer players, we have to get up, press on and focus towards our goal in life - to win the battle from daily problems that comes into our lives. That, even if we got beaten, broken, bled, rolled down and tired - we have to keep on getting up, press on and get focus towards our goal, which is to overcome every problems that comes into our lives. To come out victorious from the battle inspite of beating, rolling, kicking and bleeding from it.

I read somewhere that says; winners don't quit and quitters don't win. It's up to us if we want to be winners or quitters, the choice is there - i do hope that we all choose to be winners and not quitters!

What is the Purpose of Life?

Incerptions from Rick Warren's interview

Interviewed by Paul Bradshaw:


People ask me, what is the purpose of life? And I respond: in a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body - but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up-act-the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems; either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys-you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that its kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." but one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, 2Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up a foundations to fund an initiative we call "The Peace Plan" to plant churches, equip leaders, assist poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? guilt? bitterness? materialism? or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, "God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better." God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do-list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.

That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.


Rick Warren is the Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church; He is also the author of the book: The Purpose Driven (www.purposedriven.com)

"De-cluttering"

Do you have clutters in your house? closets? work room? I thought so! I believe we all have clutters to sort-out or tidy-up in our homes or work place, that is waiting to be sorted out or tidied up. The clutters are just there waiting for us to give it some time or to sit down and plan a "de-cluttering goal!"

Yes, it is a goal, as most of us just have the tendency to say it can wait or I'll do it later (procrastination) - we all are guilty of this. No matter how organise a person is, he/she has clutter to sort-out. As the days, weeks, months or years passed by we added more clutters to our homes, closets or work place.

I was "de-cluttering" my place the other day. I usually do it twice a year. First quarter of the year and third quarter of the year. But I haven't done any of "de-cluttering" - I was hoping to do it early this year but was not able to do so - in short, I procrastinated!

As I was going through my closets and work place, I realised that I had so much "clutters" that needed sorting out, so I did! I was going through all of my "clutters" and I realised that more of the "clutters" that was in the closets are just junk and was just taking so much space in my closets, that made it full and just muddled with stuff!

Spent hours doing some sorting and tidying up and guess what? yes, you are right - half of the stuff that was in my closets are just "junk clutters" that needed to be thrown out! Papers, documents, old clothes, etc., that is been sitting there and taking so much space that can be thrown-out and free-up some space and get the closets more organise if I have given it some time to "de-cluttered" early on instead of procrastinating.

As I was "de-cluttering" my closets and work place, my mind went into comparing our hearts and thoughts to our homes or closets. In the same way that we gathered or accumulated "clutters" into our homes/closets - we do accumulated "cluttters" as well into our hearts/thoughts everyday.

Most of us (if not all) has too much "junk clutters" in our hearts/thoughts, that we've been carrying for ages that instead of "de-cluttering" our hearts/thoughts with pain, hurts, bitterness, pride, immorality, etc. - we keep on dumping more of these negative emotions into our muddled hearts and later on we find it hard to carry-on with life.

Then life became too heavy with burdens, things started to look bleak, hopeless, unhappy, and later on depression and discouragement started to sit-in and leads to isolation and hating life and everything around us. It's 'coz of the "junk clutters" that we are carrying in our hearts/thoughts that we wouldn't let go of, or keep holding on, life later on became meaningless.

I believe that, if we regularly take some time do some "de-cluttering" of our hearts/thoughts then we will find out that life is beautiful and we will have lots of room to learn and experience new things, happiness, joy, relationships, etc. - and may also find out that, life can be a source of life itself, if we only do a regular "de-cluttering" that gives freedom, lighten the burdens, gives new space for experiences, relationships, and other things that we will enjoy.

Right now, I am happy and enjoying the space that I freed from all the "junk clutters" that I have thrown out and was able to organised my closets and work place well. I am happy whenever I open my closets and I see how organise and neatly piled up everything are inside! It gives me a feeling of joy and fulfilment.

I have peace and can think more clearly and I am more productive when everything is in order and organised around me - it does have that effect on me or my thinking!:)

Dew Drops

I just want to share this sweet and warm musing of a dear friend that she wrote and sent to me.....


Thank you so much Joms, I love you too!:)


dew drops...

i know for a fact that every snowflake is unique, not one ever the same. i thought of rain and i mused that every pouring is called for as the heaviness of the grey skies could bear but one more. and the bareness of the dry land awaits every trickle that may have been born a name. you think a rain drop is unique from another? what could this name be? the skies are dark and dreary, the winds howling calling forth each name.

a joy to step out after past a storm. dew drops always abounding, gentle and fresh in the morn. sending this to a dear sister who's played with them snow balls. who's probably thought of each snow flake's little but majestic life, freezed on somebody's nose so tall. yes we just had the latest typhoon news back here at home. but i'm glad our Father placed you where snows are by a heap to share them blessed heart warmed from a land of tropical heat. so tell each snow flake her unique name, a beauty beyond splendor called forth by the Name.

so tears ever flowing never ever escape, the One who has the time to stop & pause, bend over a Heart so great to spruse the skies with stars to twinkle on those eyes that needs to see how awesome things can be and would be beyond the rains, the winters, the storms; and how gentle dew drops are on quite new mornings.

i love you ate sarita. a note penned just for you out from my tired musing. would you share this to your study group girlfriends there who may need a little warm smile today over those empty cold vodka bottles. a happy distraction may not hurt.


much love,
joms :)

Time of Trouble...

"The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble." Psalm 9:9

"In times of trouble." The word "times" is an indication that trouble is not a "one time thing". As we go through the journey of life, we will face many "times" of trouble. Sometimes trouble will come back to back with no time to even catch your breath before the next one comes- as was the case with Job. Then at other times it seems as though trouble takes a break and leaves us alone for a while, but before we know it--- it's back.

Trouble also comes in many forms and invades many different areas of our lives. It can attack us in our health, our finances, our personal relationships and in our relationship with God. They also come in different sizes. They can be as small as the little foxes or as big as a giant. The Bible says that "man is born to trouble and his days are full of them". If I stopped here with that statement it would seem that life was hopeless, we could never expect anything but trouble- no happiness, no joy, no peace, just trouble, trouble, trouble. But thank God we don't have to stop there. When we have "times" of trouble there is hope, His name is Jesus!

Jesus sticks with us in times of trouble- He does not run out on us, He does not leave us to handle it by ourselves, He does not forsake us. In times of trouble He is our refuge, our hiding place, our security, our safety. When facing times of trouble we don't face them alone- He leads, guides and directs us so that we can safely navigate through them to the other side.

Are you facing one of those "times" of trouble this morning? There is hope and help for you. Look to Jesus. He is big enough to handle whatever trouble comes your way and however many times it comes.

Have a great day. Each time that trouble comes, He will always be our refuge.



Excerpted from Coffee Break by: Lorraine Ezell

Combating with Self-Discipline

Have you experienced combating with self-discipline? I have, many times and I say it is not an easy task at all!

There are times that I succumbed to my flesh and do what it wants but there are times that I successfully denied myself of its desires to do what it wants, and that took lots of courage and working myself out to the point of literal exhaustion (emotionally, physically and spiritually).

Learning different languages is not easy task and it requires lots of self-discipline, especially when you are doing a self-study of it. I have to force and discipline myself to do a language study at least an hour everyday for the past few years. But there are times that my flesh just don't want to spend that hour in studying instead spending that hour infront of computer blogging! I have to literally drag myself out infront of my pc and make myself get my language books and workbooks and painstakingly make myself focus on language study.

For those of you that is studying languages, I am sure you can relate with me on this. And its not just studying languages that needs self-discipline. It's just one of many things that I need to do and make myself discipline to do so everyday.

Everyday we combat the need to stay disciplined and keep our focus to the things that are priorities versus important. First things first though, we have to know which are priorities and which are important, as those two are not the same. Learning and knowing the difference will help us a lot in tackling the issues that are infront of us everyday.

I am sure each one of us has different issues that we need to combat with self-discipline everyday. In my experience, self-discipline will not be instilled in our lives if we don't take hold of our daily activities and control our desires to be laxed in self-discipline. Knowing priorities from important will help us a lot in tackling everyday issues. We have a choice to make a better and focused life if we have self-discipline, but to do so, we have to combat self-discipline daily and purposely.

Having a discipline life makes life easier to deal with, as we are focus and we know the difference of priorities from important. This save us lots of confusion, headaches, stress, etc. Saying "NO" is an important factor in combating self-discipline. Learning to say "NO" can simplify our lives.


Question:

Have you learned to differentiate your priorities from important issues in your life?


Action:

Take sometime today and get a pen and a sheet of paper and list down the issues or concerns that you have. Make two columns and write down on each column which you think or feel are your priorities and which are important.

Then make sure to stick with your list and discipline yourself to work on them accordingly.

Fatherless Generation: coming to terms with the loss...

With Father’s Day right around the corner (that’s right, don’t forget to drop that card in the Outgoing Mail slot sometime this week), we decided to tackle one of the prevailing issues of our generation: fatherlessness. Whether it’s a father who’s physically absent, or one who is emotionally distant or hurtful, the lack of a father has left a noticeable mark on our society. RELEVANT talks to Rick Johnson, author of Better Dads, Stronger Sons and founder of Better Dads, a fathering skills program designed to equip men to be more engaged in the lives of their children, about the impact of fatherlessness and what the Church can do about it.

Do you think fatherlessness is a big problem in our society?

As a culture, we tend to think the physical absence is the only form of fatherlessness, but a father can be emotionally distant, uninvolved in their children’s lives, workaholics, abusive or addictive. I believe fatherlessness is a huge problem in our culture. In fact, I believe every problem our culture has can be directly or indirectly traced to fatherlessness in one form or another. Kids from fatherless homes are five times more likely to be poor, and 10 times more likely to be extremely poor. Kids from fatherless homes are twice as likely to be high-school dropouts, girls are three times more likely to be unwed teenage mothers, 90 percent of runaways come from fatherless homes, and three out of four teen suicides come from fatherless environments. About 70 percent of men in prison come from fatherless homes. I speak a lot on the prisons, and when I talk to men, I survey them. When I ask them not only if they came from a home without a dad at all but if they had a poor role model for a father figure, it bumps that number up to about 90 percent. If you look at just that—the consequences, devastation and destruction that men in prison have caused to our culture and families—that’s pretty significant.

Why has fatherlessness become so prevalent today? In your experience, what are some of the major reasons or symptoms?

One of the reasons I think has to do with our culture’s mentality in general. Our culture now has more of an instant gratification kind of mentality. When I talk to young people, they’re frankly a little bit hopeless that marriage can last for a long time. It’s because they’ve experienced growing up in a culture of divorce. Why we’re seeing more of it now is because clearly, the role models we have growing up are things that we tend to emulate. When people have been brought up in a broken home, or a fatherless environment, boys tend to model that behavior, sometimes unconsciously. A lot of men vow to never leave their wife or children, yet because they’ve kind of been programmed that way, they’re almost helpless to be able to stop a chain of events that leads to that kind of conclusion.

The same with young women. For a variety of reasons, they tend to make choices where they end up in a situation where they’re either pregnant and not married or in a broken relationship. Just having had that model, we tend to imitate that. We see generational cycles. I know families where the great-grandmother was a single mom, the grandmother was a single mom, the mom was a single mom and now the daughter is a single mom. Those generational cycles are hard to break sometimes, especially if we don’t recognize that it’s contributing to the problem.

How has this affected the 18- to 34-year-old age bracket? What are some characteristics that define this generation that stem from father issues?
I think there are some specific things that affect the younger, up-and-coming generation, because a lot of them have been raised in environments without a father. When I talk to young men, I feel a real eagerness and need. They want to be good dads and good husbands, but haven’t had that model for them. A lot of them grow up saying, “I’m a dad—now what do I do? I know what I don’t want to do, but an older man has never shown me what I’m supposed to do—what my role as a man, a father and a husband is.” There’s a lot of confusion, and I think a lot of times, especially in males, it manifests itself in anger. I think there’s a lot of angry young men out there, and it’s not because they’re necessarily angry as much as they are afraid. Males typically are reluctant to do the things we possibly are going to fail at, because it’s humiliating to fail. Either we leave, rather than face potential failure, or we become angry to cover that humiliating feeling of failure or fear.

For females, I think there are certain things that manifest themselves in the younger generation as well. I think the way a lot of young women view themselves can be directly related to how they perceived [the way] their father viewed them. If they had a loving father, they tend to feel good about themselves, are more confident and have more self-esteem. If they didn’t have a man growing up, they tend to not have that self-esteem and that kind of self-assessment that they’re worthy and valuable. The common theme of women and girls who did not have a father is an inability to trust a man. It’s a leap of faith for them, because a permanent relationship with a man is kind of theoretical. These women tend to test men who are in their lives by starting fights, finding flaws, expecting to be abandoned—things like that that are pretty destructive to relationships to begin with. We all have cravings for affection in our lives, and I think the women who didn’t have that in a father have a void in their lives. They search for that, not having experienced healthy, masculine affection. Sometimes they’re willing to replace that need in some destructive ways, like confusing sex for love.

How do you think it affects people spiritually? Do you think there is a correlation between the way they view their father and the way they view God?
Studies have proved that people’s perceptions of their earthly father is how they perceive God. There’s a lot of confusion, anger and maybe even turning away from God because of what’s been modeled by their earthly father. The other day my wife and I were driving in the car, and we were listening to Angela Thomas [on the radio]; she wrote My Single Mom Life. She was talking about how her husband left her with four kids. It was really tough, as you can imagine. She was exhausted and was praying to God that she just couldn’t go on. She heard God talking to her, asking her what she could do, encouraging her like a father would do. He called her His sweet baby girl, and my wife teared up, and I asked her what was wrong. She said, “I grew up without a father. I can’t even imagine a heavenly father calling me [that].” I never even thought about that, but she was right. Because she didn’t have an example of that growing up, it was hard for her to believe that there’s a loving, heavenly father that would have that kind of unconditional love for her, because she had never experienced it.

What are some short-term and long-term steps we could take, as a Church, to combat the trend?
There are so many opportunities for the Church to reach out to the hurting community out there. One of the things we do a lot of work with is on single moms raising boys. We have mentoring programs for fatherless boys, and we pair them up with college-aged men to hang out with. We have camps for single moms and their families, where they come out and we just serve and honor the single moms while teaching and letting the kids play with men so they can get a healthy example of what healthy masculinity looks like, for both boys and girls. These are great, nonthreatening opportunities for the Church to make a difference as I believe God would have us do as Christians, particularly to reach out to the widows and orphans in our community. My frustration is that I see very few churches who are willing to do that. In fairness, I think the Church is recognizing the problem of fatherlessness, but I think they’re a little overwhelmed by the whole thing and tend to be paralyzed and not do anything. There are a couple of churches that are doing some significant things to reach out to the fatherless community, and I think they’re going to make a huge difference in the world. I think churches could very easily host and encourage ministries like ours that have nonthreatening outreaches to the community that introduce biblical principles in a nonthreatening way, while getting into areas of the community that would never even set foot in a church. Because we’re reaching out and giving them something that they need without any expectations in return, they are going to be much more open to hearing the good news of the Gospel than they might normally.


Author: Sarah Moore

Sarah Moore is an editorial intern at RELEVANT Media Group