Five Ways Our Home is a Sanctuary of Peace

Before we got married, I read the book for Christian women "The Excellent Wife".  The book covered the basics and more or biblical womanhood and how to apply this to married life as a wife.  
One piece of advice from the author that has stuck with me in my marriage now is...make your home a place of rest, a sanctuary, where your husband and children can come home and find rest no matter what the world has thrown at them during the day.

1. I realized that the peacefulness of my home is a result of some things I can do, but is mostly a result of the peacefulness of my soul. This peace comes from trusting God, and knowing that know matter what we go through God is working all things for our good. We try by God's grace to make our home a place of rest, peace and love, and by that grace, God has given us such a home. I pray we will continue to have peace in our souls by trusting God even once we have kids in the house too. Isaiah 26:3 "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."

2. Preparing my mind and attitude so that when my husband comes home I am eagerly waiting for him, and cover him with my love.  This is important, and if I'm in the house when he gets home I drop everything to run to the door and greet him with hugs and kisses.  He needs this after long, hard days at work.  No matter how hard my day was, I pray to God for strength to reflect God's love to my husband, especially when we are together. 1 John 4:10-11 "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

3. I do what I can to help him with necessary things in life like finances.  For me, this means keeping track of our food budget, since I do all the cooking.  It helps him a lot, and if our food budget is in line we don't have to worry that we won't have enough food to eat at the end of the month.

4. I try to maintain the house so it's at least a little clean, and, at minimum, acceptable to look at.  This is harder and harder as time goes on, but I realize that if I get the cleaning done earlier in the day it means more time we can spend together and with God in the evening.

5. I do what I can to serve him as much as possible when we're together.  Some simple things are having dinner ready when he comes home (usually that means I need to cook something in the morning or afternoon before i go to work for a few hours), making him tea or massaging his feet, making sure he has clean shirts to wear the next day, packing lunch for him the night before or morning of, etc...
Service reflects the true heart of Christ...
Mark 10:44-45 "And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I hope you are encouraged by this to strive to make your home a place of rest for your family.  Wives and Moms have a huge influence on the peace and love in their family, probably more than they know! :)

God bless!

Do Not Forsake the Lord!

We watched part of the history channel "The Bible" series yesterday and after seeing such an amazing depiction of the exodus from Egypt it still amazes me that Israel forsakes God for idols, and they do it constantly throughout the Bible and history. Yet, I ask myself how easily I can be just like them! God gave the Israelites a strong warning...Do Not Forsake Me, Do Not Go After Idols, Lest I Destroy You! 

Deuteronomy 6:10-15
"And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth."

Nevertheless they lust after idols and forget their covenant with God and today we see their consequences today.  This makes me remember that I should never forget the goodness, holiness and worthiness of God, and that I should honor Him every day of my life, for He has made an exodus in my life too, bringing me out of slavery from sin. 

Here's a picture from the movie, where God brings the waters of the sea down on the Egyptians after the Israeites have passed to safety.  Amazing movie so far, I recommend it.  While it only tells some of the most important stories of the Bible, they are done fairly well and true to scripture.

Feeling lonely?

I sure do sometimes.

This morning I went to the clinic with my husband, but he had to leave for work before it was my turn to go in to one of my appointments.  

In Ukraine, there is no appointment system at the doctor office, you just show up when they are working and wait in line.  Sometimes you wait for hours just to see the doctor for a few minutes.  For pregnancy, women need to see many doctors and get many tests done, and this is overwhelming for Ukrainian women, so imagine how I feel...American, don't speak Russian/Ukrainian, and don;t understand the culture fully.  

So this morning I had to wait for about 30 minutes for the doctor, and meanwhile about 10 people come up to me and start asking questions in Russian or Ukrainian and I can't understand anything these people are saying to me.  I get this look of confusion on my face, and sometimes I can't manage to say anything at all.

Finally it was my turn to go in to the doctor, and I was able to get my husband on the phone to talk with the doctor.  I was only in the office for about 1 minute and the left again.  I had the option of going to another office to draw blood, but I didn't have the strength or courage to wait in line again and go through all the confusion.

It was incredibly hard, but everything worked out and thankfully that doctor wasn't mean or rude to me (sometimes it happens). So I praise God for that, but I just realize more and more how much I need to know Russian/Ukrainian, and it is currently next to impossible for me to take the time to study seriously. ( I work, have ministry and other responsibilities that take all my time)

I am still struggling emotionally and spiritually sometimes to get past the fact that I don't understand people most of the time. I know I need to trust and hope in God, but it's sometimes very difficult.

Some of my family members in America, and friends, struggle with depression and loneliness.  I understand what they are going through now that I'm in an environment where most of the time I have almost no communication with anyone all day except for my husband and some of the kids I work with.

When I first moved to Ukraine I felt extremely lonely, and I felt that no one understood what I was going through here.  I realized that Satan was using, and still is, these circumstances to lie to me and make me believe I'm alone.  1 Peter 5:8 says "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."  Since that time, I have started to fight back against my despondency and hopelessness with the truths of God and the Bible.  The foremost truth that I believe is that my God will never leave or forsake me.  The psalms are filled with this truth.  This morning at the clinic, I read Psalm 139:7-12 

"Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!If I take the wings of the morningand dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,even there your hand shall lead me,and your right hand shall hold me.If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,and the light about me be night,"even the darkness is not dark to you;the night is bright as the day,for darkness is as light with you."


There are many other passages I can think of that talk of God's constant presence in the believer's life, but this one has captured my heart and mind for today.

I hope that if you feel lonely, despondent, depressed or hopeless that you will read these words for the psalms and know that you are not alone in your struggle.  Even if every person on the earth abandoned you (which is unlikely for most of us) God will still be there, and He is more than enough for our souls!  It took me a long time to realize this truth...that when I feel completely alone in this world and I have nothing earthly to hope in (ex: culture and language skills) God is the one who cares for my needs no matter what circumstances I'm in, and His love never fails me.

A Day the Hokies Will Never Forget

On April 16th, 2007 a tragic, massive shooting occurred at Virginia Tech, in which 32 people were murdered as a result.  Now 6 years later, the school has received healing from the horrific events that affected the whole campus and the whole world.  Over the years, there were other horrible events at Virginia Tech, which always left people wondering "why us?"

I was not present on the campus on April 16th 6 years ago, but I still remember the pain that showered the campus for a while afterward.

I used to ask God, "why do you let people die in such a horrible way?"

Well, after many years of growing in faith in God, I surely haven't come to an amazingly clean cut answer to that question.  However I do know a few things from the Bible that explain why there is such suffering in the world, and how we can handle it.

1. Sin is the cause of death - The Bible says in Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  People will all die, physically and some people eternally, because of sin.
The only way to escape eternal death is to be born again, through the gift of life and faith in Jesus Christ.  This is a free gift of God, of which no person can do anything to deserve.

2. God will provide relief from our suffering through faith in Jesus Christ, now and in the future - Matthew 11:28-29 "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

 Revelation 21:4 "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

3. The suffering does not last forever - 1 Peter 5:10 "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you"

4. Our pain and suffering is actually working for the good of believers - Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

5. Born again Christians can expect that they will suffer in this world,because of sin and because of their faith, but they should take heart, because God will not put them to shame - 
John 16:33 "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”"

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies."

 Romans 8:18 - "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us"


Today I am praying specifically for the families and friends of those who died, who are still experiencing the pain or grief of loss, that they will be comforted by the God of all comfort.  I look at such circumstances as these, and always pray and trust God's plan.  His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and everything, even horrible things, work together in the grand scheme of His plan for the world to bring people to Him.

May God bless you to know Him today.

Happy April Fool's Day

Every April 1st, I specifically remember  back to a story I read about 3 years ago:

In Florida, an atheist became incensed over the preparation for Easter and Passover holidays and decided to contact his lawyer about the discrimination inflicted on atheists by the constant celebrations afforded to Christians and Jews with all their holidays while the atheists had no holiday to celebrate.

The case was brought before a wise judge who after listening to the long, passionate presentation of his lawyer, promptly banged his gavel and declared, "Case dismissed!"

The lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling and said, "Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? Surely the Christians have Christmas, Easter and many other observances. And the Jews -- why in addition to Passover they have Yom Kippur and Hanukkah... and yet my client and all other atheists have no such holiday!"

The judge leaned forward in his chair and simply said "Obviously your client is too confused to know about or to celebrate the atheists' holiday!"

The lawyer pompously said "We are aware of no such holiday for atheists, just when might that be, your honor?"

The judge said "Well it comes every year on exactly the same date-- April 1st!"

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'"
Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1

If you ever doubt that God exists and that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man, then I recommend today that you think again, and pray about your understanding of God and who he is.  This is a life and death matter for you!  I've copied some texts below to help you get started.

Romans 1:18-25 God is angry about the sin of people
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."

Romans 3:10-18 No one is born righteous, and everyone is condemned naturally because of sin

 "As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands;

there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.”

“Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery mark their ways,

and the way of peace they do not know.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”"

Romans 3:23-25 Christ took the punishment for all people's sins

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith."

Romans 6:23 - the cost of our sin

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 5:6-8 Christ died for the ungodly

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 10:8-9 The only way of salvation from eternal condemnation in hell
"But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

Galatians 2:16 There is no way to work hard and do good to get into heaven
"know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified."

May God bless you on this day to know, love and fear Him in reverent fear!
God Bless!

Blessed are you when...

Recently there was a very difficult situation in my life.  It made me reflect again upon my heart, and helped me to grow deeper in my trust of Christ through this difficult situation.

Thank the Lord my husband was there by my side to encourage me and lift me up, redirecting my sorrow to joy in Christ.

To briefly describe what happened, I had been praying for a friend for at least 6 months (about this friend's spiritual condition) because even though I don't have a deep relationship, I care about this friend a lot because of the amazing faith I have seen in this person in the past.  I decided to write this friend a letter of encouragement.  The letter was filled with scripture and I tried to lovingly tell my friend that what is posted on facebook, etc reflects what we are interested in and what inspires us.  I encouraged this friend not to write and post about so many worldly things, but to direct posts and pictures to Christ, so as to make a bigger impact for the kingdom of God.

I prayed about sending this letter for probably the last 5-6 months and recently decided to send it, and prayed that it would be received well.  With friends who I have lovingly rebuked in the past, things went over well, and we were both stronger in our faith because I had the desire to help them.  Unfortunately, this wasn't the case.  My friend immediately accused me very harshly of being judgemental and driving people, like this friend, away from Christ.  It was extremely shocking to hear such words come from a professing believer, and I'm sorry to say that this friend had now completely disconnected all communication with me because of this letter.

Maybe this friend jumped to conclusions too quickly and didn't really understand the purpose of the letter, or was so struck by the scriptures that the heart couldn't handle the sharpness of the word of God.

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

I can't judge what's in the heart, only God can, but it's very sad to me that some believers can only receive loving words that make them feel good about themselves, but they reject all words that even slightly rebuke any part of their character or actions.  It seems that this friend did not even consider one word that was said as helpful or encouraging, but took on the defense, springing back with accusatory and unloving words in response.  It's true that I don't know this friend as well as I would like to, but I only made observations from what I have seen from the outside, and the response was an unfortunate effect.  It is very sad to see how easily disunity can be created in the church because of simple, loving rebukes using the word of God.

Anyways, after talking with my husband, we know it is best to continue to pray for this friend and hope that if this friend is really a believer, that disunity can be overcome in the future.  In the mean time, I am checking my heart constantly to fight any ounce of pride or judgement toward other believers.  I have always carefully evaluated myself before taking such actions to help friends, and will continue to do so if I have such a conversation with another friend.

My husband told me I did the right thing.  That is was good of me to pray for and be concerned for my friend's spiritual condition.  My husband reminded me of Jesus' words in Luke 6:22-26

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn
 your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!  
Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their
 fathers did to the prophets. 
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  
“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. 
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to 
the false prophets."

I am truly blessed that God enables me to not respond to a harsh rebuke with hateful 
words or thoughts.
I am truly blessed that not everyone loves me when I say something that is not what
 they want to hear!
I am extremely thankful to God that he allows me to still love and pray for this friend, 
even though is seems this friend now wants to be my enemy.

Here's another verse that I was meditating on yesterday, even before I heard the reply from 
my friend:
 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,  for each tree
 is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes 
picked from a bramble bush.  The good person out of the good treasure of his heart 
produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the
 abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:43-45

Jesus's words make perfect sense.  I hope they make sense and resound in your heart too.
"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love." 
1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Snow in Kiev in Spring

Hello! Sorry I haven't updated you all in a while!  It's been quite busy around here with life and work, and now the weather!

To give you an idea of what we experienced this weekend, you can watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D-NwY6zgp5o


They actually shut down all public transportation, and especially in certain parts of the city there are absolutely no buses running, so people are all walking.  Almost no one is driving because even if you can dig your car out of the snow, it is almost impossible to drive on the roads.

It seems that the government just doesn't have enough resources to handle the meter or more or snow we've had in the past 3 days in Kiev.

All this has got me thinking about God more and more, and how He purposefully gave us this weather.

I read recently from Proverbs, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." Prov 19:21

And also "That people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things." Isaiah 45:6-7

I often look around at people when I'm outside and think about Ukrainians, and how most of them believe that they are in control of their own lives.  Even professing Orthodox believers live in ways that show that they don't respect or believe in God's sovereign control of their lives.  This plain idolatry makes me realize more and more how much people in Kiev need to know who God really is!  

My husband and I know that God gave us this weather for a reason, and that is most likely, we think to show His power and control of everything to the people.  We know that even in such an amazing storm as this people will still not realize what God is telling them, but we hope and pray that we can reach out to some people, especially in our english club, and talk about the real meaning behind all these events, and what they mean for us.

Pray for us that the weather will clear up soon, and even if it doesn't, please pray that we will still have the opportunities to share the gospel with people in Kiev.