March-April 2015

What a spring this has been so far!

I feel like ever since Eurocon I have woken up with the praises of God on my mind. It has been so beautiful here lately and I think it's been really easy to worship God. I thought of this in relationship to the "winter" times that we have in our lives. It's so easy to praise God and rejoice when we have things go our way but what about the times when we feel dead spiritually or even physically?

I have always wanted to preach a message on the two shortest verses in the Bible, John 11:35 and I Thessalonians 5:16. In John 11, Jesus has just arrived at the tomb of one of his closest friends, Lazarus. As Jesus looks around and sees the people mourning, something very interesting happens, he weeps. That’s the first shortest verse in the Bible- “Jesus wept.” How human of Jesus! I think of this as a “winter” time. The next verse I mentioned was in I Thessalonians and is actually an imperative statement made by Paul. “(You understood) rejoice evermore.” Though we experience trials and down times in our lives we are commanded to rejoice. How can we rejoice when everything seems to be against us? There is death, there is sin, there is difficulty in every life and yet we are supposed to rejoice? I think this is why Jesus wept. He identified with us. We all go through “winter” seasons but what comes next? The spring time! Life abounds! This is how we rejoice in every situation, it’s hard, it’s difficult but Christ is there with us, identifying with us through the trial. Hebrews 4:15 says just that- we have a High Priest who has been through the same “winter” we have been through. He is our Comforter and Friend. Whatever you have been going through, remember, the winter is over. Spring is here and God has been through both with you!

Well, I didn’t mean to preach but I just love that thought. I am so excited to see what God will do in these coming months. A few of us have started going to different ministries throughout Hungary on a weekly basis. Two weeks ago we went to Szeged where we have a church. Below is a picture of the Pastor there, Pastor Csaba, he is the one on the left along with a couple of our team members doing a question and answer time after service.

I would like to ask you all to pray for a specific student at GGIS. She is Chinese and in 11th grade. I sat down with her last week for about a half hour just to talk. She has so many questions about God and Christianity. She told me that she began the year as an atheist but has since become a believer in a “higher power.” We talked about God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus’ death on the cross and even about Easter and what it means that He rose again but she just wasn’t ready to accept Him. My prayer request is that while she began this year as an atheist, she would begin next year as a born-again believer.

Thank you all for your continued prayer and support. He is risen! Matthew 28:6