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.

Updates

In the last month so many things have happened, and God has dramatically changed how our near future is going to look!

Firstly, we found out that we'll have a baby in October, yay! It was a lovely surprise for us, but because of this new found blessing, we must delay visiting and hence moving to India anytime in the next year or so.

Secondly I started a new job, teaching english to kids, to help us save money for the future.  It pays well but is thoroughly exhausting because of so much travel.  I'll keep working until probably my third trimester when work becomes too difficult.

Thirdly, my husband brought home a dog that an old lady was giving away for free.  We thought she was so sweet until about two days later when we quickly realized what an untrained monster she is.  And by the way, we realized yesterday that she is actually a he, and so now we need to change his name from "Molly" to "Leo" which means Lion, since he'll be a pretty huge dog.

We've also just moved to another apartment, smaller, cheaper and closer to the metro, which put a dent in our savings, but we believe is a good investment for long term saving money for the baby.

God has taught us many things over the last month, especially about patience and perseverance with our dog, and also about persevering through both our exhaustion.  My husband, Oles, is also extremely exhausted from work and all his responsibilities for our family, but he is a real trooper for Christ, and he perseveres no matter how hard things get.  He's a great example for me, since I'm much weaker when it comes to dealing with tiredness.

We continue to be more and more involved in ministry here in the church despite how busy and hard life is sometimes, and we're greatly looking forward to the building of our family in the future, assuming Christ does not return before then!  We wait for Him every day, knowing that "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere" Psalm 84:10

Praying About India

Dear friends, for the last few months my husband, Oles, and I have been praying about moving to India. God has been slowly answering our prayers for wisdom about what decision to make. However, God has begun to answer my prayers about comfort and peace in my soul about making such a move and transition in our lives.

Ever since I became a Christian, God put in my heart the desire to chase after Him as fast as possible, and doing this has taken me through many adventures and hardships. God has used all my circumstances to help me grow tremendously in my faith in His goodness and sovereignty. I still have so much growth to go. As Paul says it: "I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things (spiritual maturity) or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." Philippians 3:12-14 NLT

About a month ago I realized that I had some rising fear in my heart about moving to India. The fear is related to my thoughts about how uncomfortable and hard life will be in a third world, non-Christian, non-western country. I have sometimes cried out to God in agony, asking him to take this fear from my heart and give me a heart of courage, and the desire to pursue spreading the gospel to the most unreached, most dangerous places on the earth. I'll admit it, I was very scared to even start to pray this prayer. I was afraid that if God gave me this desire, then surely I would follow it and go live in a crazy place. 

 
Well, I've gotten over this lie in my head and realized that "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." 2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV

And...
"my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

Once I realized that if God gives me this desire, He will also equip me with all strength, courage and faith that I need to persevere even in the hardest circumstances.  It was a break through moment for me, when I realized this, and God has helped my faith and confidence in His promises of grace to grow abundantly over the last few months.

For now we believe that Oles will continue working in business and I will continue teaching english and doing english clubs, and we pray that we will grow spiritually and in God's grace, so that He will prepare us for the right time to move to India to be missionaries. We believe that the work God will prepare for us in India will be by working with orphans, studying Hindi, and preaching the gospel.

There's several reasons why we believe that God is preparing our hearts to go to Delhi:
1. Our hearts are broken for the lost people, and god has directed our hearts to have a special desire to focus on the people of India.  We desire to see as many people saved as possible before the coming of the King Jesus, at His return.
2. Delhi is a corridor for us to eventually go to even more unreached parts of India.

3. It will give us the opportunity to share the gospel by speaking english until we learn Hindi.
4. We will be able to obtain a visa by entering India as students to learn Hindi at a University in Delhi.

5. It will give us access to hospitals to start our family, and continue to care for my severe back pain.


So the prayer requests that we have now are:
1. For God to reveal to us when we should go to Delhi, India

2. For God to supply for our needs (especially financially)

3. For God to help us prepare spiritually for this great step in faith to fulfill the Great Commission.

Here's a video we found a few months ago that pictures some typical scenes from India. Watching it gets me excited!

"Think about it" India 2012

Do Not Lose Heart

The chiropractor I went to yesterday says I have "grade 2" Scoliosis.  Scoliosis is so painful because when the spine is out of alignment it doesn't work properly, which causes everything else around it to not work properly, especially causing muscle pain, nerve pain, etc...

My back is not this noticeably bad, but you can understand by the picture what's happening

I still can't figure out what that means for me in the future, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true considering how bad my back pain has become over the last 5 years.  Every day for me is a battle, and daily things like cooking and cleaning and travelling on the buses are difficult for me because they cause my back so much pain.  I've been to chiropractors in the past, and no one has told me I have Scoliosis until now.  They told me "You just have a small curve in the thoracic vertebrae"  I almost never have any relief from pain unless I take medicine or seriously rest my back by laying down for a long time.

At this point in my life, I'm so used to this pain that it's normal for me.  I have accepted this pain from the Lord, and I even thank Him for it because I know how much it pushes me to cry out to God for help in the worst times.  The bible teaches that in this life there will be suffering, especially for the children of God.  So I have accepted this from the Lord as part of my suffering, and as a way that He constantly humbles me and tells me "you can't do this without me."

When I came to Ukraine I was pretty concerned about my back health.  In America I was going to the chiropractor once or twice a month to manage my pain and keep my spine in alignment.  Well, until yesterday I haven't seen a chiropractor or doctor in 6 months, and thank God my back hasn't gotten that much worse.  There's been some times when the pain was unbearable and I had to stop and rest or take medicine, but the Lord has given me the strength I prayed for to carry on with life and His mission for me.

As I meditated about all this yesterday I resolved not to worry or lose heart, knowing that apostle Paul was a man ridden with horrible health problems, yet his faith was a shining example of what it means to be a true disciple of Christ.  In 2 Corinthians 4:16 Paul says from personal experience, and to encourage the believers "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

The psalmist also said it like this: Psalm 73:26 "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

So I will not lose heart despite my circumstances and how horrible I feel, because I know in my heart that all this is just temporary and in a short time I will be relieved of all pain and all troubles and be with the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity.

Please pray for my husband and I not to lose heart or faith in God through all our pain and struggles.  (My husband also has some undiagnosed back problems and pretty bad pain).  Thank you friends, may the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and sanctify you.