Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Definition of Sin

Billy Graham talks about the definition of sin:

The Bible says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" and God's request for your life. And you're a sinner. You have to confess it and acknowledge it; say, "Lord, I have sinned, and I'm sorry for my sin." Sin is when you disobey God. … If you've broken God's law, you have to pay a price. It's a terrible price because you're separated from God forever, unless you repent and receive Christ into your heart. … Christ took your sins, He shed His blood for you, and He said the reason was that He loved you.

He Wants You!

What does it mean that God loves us?
Here’s Franklin Graham:

He wants you, He loves you, He created you, He made you, He’s given you life. And you’ve turned your back on Him and He’s wanting to forgive you. He’s wanting to set you free. He wants to give you a new start. But you’ve got to be willing to come to Him tonight. Confessing your sin to Him, telling Him you’re sorry, asking Him for forgiveness, and receive by faith Christ into your heart, God will set you free. You see, Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me. There is no other way to God, except through Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the only one in history that paid the debt of sin.

Monday, April 13, 2009

A little bit about Easter in Ukraine

I asked Julia to give me just a small snippet of Easter in Ukraine. Here is what she said....

We actually celebrate Easter this year on the 19th of April. The Ukrainian orthodox tradition is to go to the orthodox church in the night (Saturday to Sunday) and the priest has an Easter service and "sanctifies" Easter bread, painted eggs, honey and other Easter food that people bring to chruch in baskets (he sprinkles it with holy water). Also we have a tradition of taking the Easter fire from the church. This fire is brought to every church from Jerusalem and people take it home and try to keep it for as long as possible. In Russian Easter is called "Pas-ha" which is similar to the Jewish name of this holiday.

Sasha


In 1999 Sasha was 10 years old, he used to come to a presbyterian church where we had a ministry for orphans and a great Sunday school where the kids from the orphanage were welcomed. After the Sunday school there was always lunch provided for the kids from the orphanage. Sasha came every Sunday. After he graduated from the orphanage he went to the construction college in one of the villages outside of Odessa. When he came back to Odessa he realized he has no friends to turn to so he found my number and called. He remembers the "good old times" when he used to go to Sunday school with warmth and is thankful to all the people in the presbyterian church of Odessa who cared for him. We got together several times and Sergey is building a friendship with Sasha. Please pray that he would grow in his relationship with God and get settled in Odessa.

Sveta and Vika


These are two girls Sergey met on the streets of Odessa. They are Sveta and Vika. One of them ran away from the orphanage and lives on the street. She sniffs glue, that is a thing most of the homless kids do. Another one has a mom who has a difficult life and hardly ever finds time for her daughter. As you pray for these girls pray for God to do a miracle in their lives and give them future and hope and please pray that we would be able to help them the best way we can. We want to give them clothes but they didn't come for an appointment.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Bible Group

Sergey and I had it on our hearts for a long time to start a group for young people who are interested in the Bible and spiritual questions. There are many young boys and girls we meet with, invite to our home and have chances to minister to and we want it to be a place for them to ask the questions they have about God and learn more about Jesus. Today we started...we had one friend who came (a 4th year student) - we had lunch together, prayed and talked about Easter and read a Bible passage about Easter. It was a good time and we are praying for more people to come and benefit from this time. Please pray for that with us!

Gypsy family


Almost every day Sergey goes out to talk to homeless kids on the streets of Odessa. One time he met gypsie kids. There are 9 kids in their family. One of the two youngest is with his mother while she is begging for money near the train station. Another is at home, sick (he has burned himself with hot water). The rest of the kids are begging on the streets of Odessa. This is a poor family, they live in one of the villages outside of Odessa but they tried to have a more or less normal life for as long as they could. The kids went to school and this is the first year when they are not in school - the family just got really stricken by poverty. Sergey is going to visit their home and see how the little one with the burns can be helped. They mentioned that the local church has given them christmas gifts so Sergey will try to contact that church to see that maybe they could help them somehow...Please pray that God would really help this family through us and other believers and that they would see love of God. Sergey printed out the picture that is on the blog and gave it to the kids - they were really excited, this is a rare treat for them - have their own picture.

Denis


Sergey keeps on searching for the lost kids on the streets of Odessa offereing them prayer, a word about God's love, some food and warm clothes. He talks to them listening to their stories and if someone has an orphanage to go back or a home he offers to take them back there and pay for their way. He met Denis in one of the McDonalds in Odessa, talked to him and prayed for him. They met one more time and Sergey gave him a coat since the clothes that Denis had on wasn't warm enough for the cold nights in Odessa. Denis spends days looking for warmth and food and some money and in the night sleeps in the internet cafe..Denis siad that the only people who ever did at least something good for him are Christians.......They agreed to meet again but Denis didnt show up on that day, Sergey hopes to meet him someday again.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Paid the debt


Paid the Debt
Franklin Graham talks about the debt that Jesus paid:

There is no other way to God except through Jesus Christ. Mohammed didn’t die for your sins. Buddha didn’t die for your sins. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. What are you going to do? Are you going to accept Him? Are you going to reject Him? It’s your choice. God’s a gentleman. He’s not going to force Himself into your life. He’s paid the debt of sin. Glory to His Name. He’s paid the debt of sin. All you have to do is be willing to receive it by faith. You can’t buy your salvation, you can’t work for your salvation. It’s free. It’s a free gift from God. And it’s by faith. All you have to do is simply believe.

As Franklin said, all you have to do to receive God's free gift of salvation is to believe in Jesus Christ as your savior.