Saturday, January 7, 2012

Merry Christmas.....Even know you cant see God...He loves you!

WHAT IS GOD LIKE?
A Message Before You Start....
Dear Friend; This lesson is about God. Have you ever wondered what God is like? God is so great and wonderful that we can never know all about Him. But God has given us a wonderful Book that tells us about Him. This Book is the Bible, God's Word. The Bible tell us that God created all things. God made the sun and the moon; He made the millions of stars that twinkle at night in the sky above us. God made the earth and He made us. The Bible tells us many other things about God.

GOD IS ALMIGHTY!
This means that God has all power in Heaven and in earth. He can do anything. Nothing is too hard for God. The Bible says, "For with God nothing is impossible." Luke 1:37. God has all power. All the kings and presidents of all the countries in the world are as nothing compared to Him. Because He has all power, God can do whatever He chooses to do.

GOD IS SPIRIT!
Do you wonder why we cannot see God? The reason we cannot see God is that God is spirit, and we cannot see spirit. When God made us He gave us a body. He also gave us a spirit. Our spirit lives in our body. Other people can see our body, but they cannot see our spirit. God is all spirit. He does not have a body like ours. That is why we cannot see Him. The Bible says, "God is spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24. Though we cannot see God, we can know Him and we can love Him. Knowing God is the most important thing in all the world. It will make us truly happy. When we know God, we will love Him, we will trust Him, and we will worship Him.

GOD IS GLORIOUS! God's glory is so bright that we could not bear to look on Him. WE cannot bear to look at the sun when it is shining brightly. It hurts our eyes. If we were to look at it very long, we would lose our sight. God's glory is much greater and much brighter that the sun. This is why we cannot bear to see Him. God said, “There shall no man see me and live." The Bible tells us about a man named Moses. Moses was a special friend of God. He talked with God and God talked with him many times. But Moses never saw God. One day Moses asked a special favour of God. He said, "...show me thy glory." God said to Moses, “You cannot see my face because no man can see me and live. But I will hide you in the rocks, and then I will pass by you.” Moses went up into the mountain alone. God hid him between the rocks. Then God caused His glory to pass by Moses. Moses did not see God but he saw a little bit of, God's glory and it made his face to shine as the sun. When Moses came down from the mountain, his face was so bright that the people were afraid of him. It is no wonder that Moses and the people said, "Who is like unto You, O LORD.....glorious in holiness." Exodus 15:11.

GOD IS HOLY!
This means that God is pure and perfect and without any sin at all. In the Bible darkness sometimes stands for sin. The Bible says of God, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness (no sin) at all." 1 John 1:5. God is all light and glory. God is pure. God never sins. God always does what is good and right. Nothing sinful can ever stay in God's presence. The Bible says, "The LORD our God is holy." Psalm 99:9. God once spoke to a prophet named Isaiah in a vision. A vision is like a dream. Isaiah saw a vision of God on His throne. Around the throne were many angels, praising God and saying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory." Isaiah 6:3. When Isaiah saw the vision of God, he was afraid. The vision showed him that he was a sinner and God was holy.

GOD IS LOVE! This means God loves us and only wants the best for us. Though He is the Ruler of the universe with all power and glory, God knows and loves each one of us. He knows you and He loves you. You may say, "But how do I know that God loves me?" There are two ways we can know that God loves us:
  • We know that God loves us because the Bible tells us so. In His Word, God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love..." Jeremiah 31:3.
  • We know that God loves us because He gave His Son to die for us. The Bible says, "God commendeth (showed) His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinner, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8.
Many people think that God does not love them because they have said bad things and done bad things. It is true that God hates sin, but He does not hate us. Instead, He loves us! He loves us so much that He made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins. The Bible says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. The verse says that God loved you and me so much that He gave His only Son, the Lord Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. When we believe on the Lord Jesus and take Him as our Saviour, God forgives all our sins and makes us His child. We have everlasting life. Because God loves us so much, He wants us to love Him. The Bible says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart...." Matthew 22:37. It pleases God when we choose to love Him with all our hearts. King David was a great man of God in the Bible. He said, "I will love you, O Lord!" This pleased God very much. It will please God very much when you choose to love God as David did. Here is a prayer to help you: "Lord, I will love You with all my heart! Help me to learn more about you. Thank you for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus, to die on the cross for my sins.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Oksana's Love....Helping Ukrainian Orphans at the Kirovograd Orphanage.

"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."
James 1:27 NKJV 

The first time Oksana and I went to church, I notice a church pamphlet, from a Sister Mary Bernarda Arkatin, OSBM. She was seeking aide in providing clothing to orphans in Ukraine.  When we arrived home I looked online for information on "Ukrainian Orphans".  What I found brought tears to my eyes and burned images in my mind that will never go away.  All these children cast away, not wanted, FORGOTTEN.  I dont believe my God, Your God intended these children to be forgotten, Jesus said "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."John 14:18 NKJV  God has put these children in my heart and through the Love of my wife Oksana, these children became alive to me.  If not for her I would have continued in my life knowing nothing of these children's plight.  If these beautiful children are not adopted by age 5, they only have a 20% chance of being adopted at all. By age 14-17 they "Graduate" from their orphanage. They have no real useful skills. These a beautiful little children will grow up and become teenagers and be discarded like yesterdays newspaper.   
  •   Ukraine now has over 100000* orphans throughout the System.
  •   Approximately 300 orphanages. 
  •    Only 16% of orphanage graduates have families.
  •    Only 1% of orphanage graduates obtain higher education, University.
  •  10% will commit suicide before their 18th birthday.
  •  11% are under the age of 7 yrs old.
  •  89% are ages 7-18 yrs old.
  •  60% of the girls will engage in prostitution.
  •  70% of the boys will entire a life of crime.
  •  Several will contract Tuberculosis (TB),  Hepatitis and HIV.