Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
Just wanted to throw in a quick post because you haven’t heard from me for a couple of days.
I’m still alive, and there’s nothing to worry about 
Things are pretty busy right now (mostly because of my Master’s thesis, but also because of some personal stuff I have to deal with).
Nevertheless I currently have four projects running (besides the stuff mentioned above).
So stay tuned for updates… and worry not my friends 
This makes me giggle every time I think about it:
It happened yesterday. I was attending the Jesus House+ PraiseNight. Sitting in the front row. Technically it wasn’t really the front row. There were a couple of chairs for pregnant women, seniors and war veterans My sister and I we were sitting on the floor just in front of the stage.
It all started, and we sang the first song when I heard a couple of guys making some stupid jokes and shouting random trash just to disturb the event. I turned around and it really wasn’t hard to spot the guys causing the troubles because they were still in the process of disrupting MY worship experience 
(on a side note: I saw some girls vigorously shaking their heads… guess they were pretty annoyed too).
I was mad… upset… close to explode… I would have loved to stand up and knock the bad boys around just to make them stop. It wasn’t the best idea I ever had
What else could I do? I took a closer look at the group. There was that one guy who totally looked like the leader of the gang. Should I beat him up to make the others stop? Nah… still not a good idea. So I just stared at him… for a couple of minutes. Didn’t take long for them to realize that (I didn’t have the brightest smile on my face 
). The other group members started to whisper. One pointed his finger on me to call the big boss’ attention to me. As long as I was watching, they remained silent. *wohoo*
I won… NOT!
There I was… a believer in Jesus Christ attending a praise night to give glory to my God. And I could only think about hurting those little boys (17-19 years old, I guess) to finally make them shut up. I was pretty ashamed of myself.
I turned my back on them and my attention back to the stage, the music and Jesus. I started singing and praying. It was awesome worship After a couple of songs I turned around because I couldn’t hear my little friends anymore. Hard to guess what came next…
They were gone! I don’t know what happened to them. I tried to find out, but either I asked the wrong people or really nobody knew I certainly hope some security guy took them to another room and preached the gospel to them there, but I guess they just left. Anyway… God answered my prayers and made it possible for me to focus on the important matters.
Sometimes it’s just best to let go. Let God take control! Ask God for help to handle your problems.
He helped me… there is no way he wouldn’t do the same for you!
Today’s post is going to be really short.
Just an answer to the following question:
“Why do you read the bible in English even though your native language is German?”
Actually my native language is Hungarian.
Well… to be precise: I grew up bilingual. I started learning German in school at the age of five.
To cut a long story short… I read the bible in English not because I don’t like the German language (’cause I do like it ). Neither do I read the bible in English because I like the English language (even though I do ).
I read the bible in English because it helps me to focus. There are some verses I just don’t understand after reading them the first time. Sometimes there are some words I don’t know yet which forces me to use a dictionary. By doing so it’s easier for my brain to process what I just read.
So basically it’s just a little trick I use to ensure that God’s word receives my best attention.
There you go… now you know!
Maybe you should try it too and read the bible in a language which isn’t your first language.
Just sayin’…
After last week’s enumeration of the parts of our Armour it’s time to go into some detail…
Today I’d like to share some thoughts about the sword of the Spirit.
Take … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…
Ephesians 6:17 (New International Version)
After having a quick look at our whole equipment again (a short repetition never hurts ), we can observe something really interesting…
Nothing special… I guess… well… if we take a closer look at the purpose of every single piece we might be able to notice something.
There is only one thing in the list that can be used as offensive weapon. It’s the sword of the Spirit. You’re right, swords can be used to fend off attacks of our opponents but mainly they are used to actively attack the enemy.
But there’s more… the bible tells us that it’s the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Again the devil is in the details (a gross play on words ).
This is a battle we fight with words! Words originating from and backed up by the Spirit of God. Sounds like a pretty powerful weapon to me!!
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (New International Version)
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 (New International Version)
This one is for you online-bible-readers out there (I’m one myself, it’s not a bad thing )
Keep in mind that we haven’t reached the point where we have internet access all the time…
There might come the day when you need to look up a bible verse quickly. Not even knowing if the scripture is to be found in the new or old testament could become really embarrassing (just sayin’ ^^). It’s very important that you’re familiar with the print-out version of God’s word too!
Read the word of God and memorize it! Educate yourself so that you will be able to resist false promises and invalidate false claims and arguments.
There’s a valid reason why kids in Sunday school are taught to learn bible verses every week!
In a nutshell:
You can’t use a weapon effectively without reading the user’s manual. Make sure you keep your sword sharp and train your swordplay skills on a daily basis to stay in excellent form!
Believe it or not, like it or not… we are at war! Every single day of our lives!
This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Ephesians 6:12 (The Message)
We have a strong enemy, but God gives us the proper equipment to be able to face him and to defeat him!
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:11 (New International Version)
Let’s have a look at the parts our armament consists of:
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Ephesians 6:14-18 (New International Version)
In a nutshell:
It’s very important to know every single piece of our equipment to make sure we won’t forget to take it with us into battle!
And it’s also essential to make sure we know exactly how to utilize it to maximize it’s efficiency!
That gives me quite a lot of new topics to write about
Stay tuned…
I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine about “Christians vs. the use of bad language“.
I did a lot of research on this topic, because I wanted to be really sure about what the bible has to say about this, before posting something here which could turn out to be wrong.
After reading a lot of bible verses and some articles written by other Christians I was left with one inescapable conclusion: “Swearing is definitely not the way to go for Christians”
Probably you are waiting for an explanation… sure… let’s begin:
John tells us the following:
Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1 John 2:6 (Today’s New International Version)
This brings us to following question: “Did Jesus ever swear?”
The question is hard to answer, because we don’t have 24/7 spy cam footage of Jesus’ life. But we have the bible
Do some research on your own! I, for myself couldn’t find any records of Jesus using foul language.
(if you want to argue about the fig tree then you better read some bible commentaries)
My second argument is: We should be an example to others who are around us. It’s our duty to show them how living in Him effects our daily life!
You don’t believe me? Read what Paul wrote to Timothy:
Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. 1 Timothy 4:12 (New Living Translation)
Still not convinced? Peter has something to say too
Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives. 1 Peter 2:12 (The Message)
Argument three is a rather strong one… Don’t swear, because the bible tells us so
Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior.
2 Timothy 2:16 (New Living Translation)
… Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.
Ephesians 5:4 (The Message)
During my “investigations” I came across this nice proverb:
What’s in the well comes up in the bucket. If the well is clean, then all that will come to surface will be clean as well.
Just think about it!
I’d like to finish this post with the following request: If you ever happen to hear me swearing, please point it out. Thanks!
I haven’t written “random thoughts” posts for quite a while now, but I was pretty busy doing really important stuff for work and university.
But… today is Sunday
That forces me to lay aside my work and so I finally have some time to write about the things that kept my mind busy lately.
A lot of you will know the Lord’s Prayer… Some of you might even pray it from time to time.
In case you haven’t heard it until now, here it is:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil;
for yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.
Matthew 6:9-13 (New International Version)
I highlighted a part which became very important to me during the last days…
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
For some of you the first part of the sentence might seem reasonable. Come on… be honest: who doesn’t want to be forgiven? I’m pretty sure we all sometimes do stuff we aren’t proud of afterwards. Maybe it takes some time but usually we realize our mistakes and ask for forgiveness.
It’s simple math…
our starting point is 0
mistake = -1
asking for forgiveness = 0.5
So if we want to reach our starting point again after hurting somebody, we end up with the following equation:
0 = -1 + 0.5
(starting point = mistake + asking for forgiveness)
Hold on… Something is missing…
Does this mean we should ask for forgiveness twice to reach the starting point? Well… not exactly!
We forgot one important variable:
forgive = 0.5
This needs to come from the person we hurt! If this is missing our equation becomes an ugly inequation!
0 = -1 + 0.5 + 0.5
(starting point = mistake + asking for forgiveness + forgive)
Sounds ok to you?
Hmm… I guess it isn’t as easy as I hoped it would be! What if we are the ones who need to forgive? And what if our counterpart doesn’t regret what he did to us?
Right after the Lord’s Prayer we can read this:
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 6:14-15 (New International Version)
I’m not sure how you interpret it, but as far as I am concerned: I don’t see “if you forgive men when they sin against you and ask your forgiveness” written there.
It’s only: “if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
Are you kidding me? We should forgive even if the one who hurt us doesn’t care how we feel and isn’t sorry at all?
Yeah… Now you got it
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19 (New International Version)
How do you know you’ve really forgiven someone who isn’t sorry for hurting you?
You know it when the thought of their name or the sight of their face – rather than causing your blood to boil – causes you to feel sorry for them instead, to pity them, to genuinely hope they get this turned around. (Stephen Kendrick & Alex Kendrick)
I’m very tired right now and have quite a headache, but I just can’t go to bed before having finished this post…
Today I had a long conversation with a friend of mine. No, we haven’t been chatting online . It was in real life, and I’m so glad that it was! You can observe and discern emotions a lot easier when you interact with your dialog partner face-to-face. It’s something I really appreciate!
To cut a long story short: We’ve been talking about some ugly intrigues going on in his social surroundings which directly affect his relationship with his circle of friends and colleagues (if you are hoping to hear names I have to disappoint you).
For both of us the discussion ended in a win-win situation:
He was happy that he could get some things off his chest and I was enlightened because the confrontation with this topic made me truly realize how much pain, sorrow and agony it can cause to talk behind other people’s backs or to make defamatory remarks about somebody to others.
Furthermore for the rest of the day I had to think about a quotation I read a couple of years ago which I used today (maybe for the last time) as farewell after our talk:
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. (John F. Kennedy)
The first part I totally agree with! But the second part gives me a headache!
Let’s have a look what the bible tells us about forgiveness:
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37 (New International Version)
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13 (New International Version)
We should forgive as the Lord forgave us… let’s have a deeper look:
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:12 (King James Version)
Think about it yourself and tell me what you believe is the right way to go…
One thing I know for certain: Forgive and forget is better than forget to forgive!
Good night and God bless you
A couple of minutes ago I returned from my dentist’s appointment. The funny thing is that I remembered something I read some days ago while sitting in that comfy dentist’s chair.
When was the last time you had an argument with somebody? If you get offended by someone are you looking for a way to pay him/her back? Or do you keep calm and stay under control? If you are treated unfairly do you react with anger? If that’s the case, you are spreading poison instead of medicine!
Anger is usually caused when the strong desire for something is mixed with disappointment or grief. You don’t get what you want and you start heating up inside. It is often an emotional reaction that flows out of our own selfishness, foolishness, or evil motives.
Patience, however, makes us wise. It doesn’t rush to judgement but listens to what the other person is saying. Patience stands in the doorway where anger is clawing to burst in, but waits to see the whole picture before passing judgement.
(S. Kendrick & A. Kendrick)
People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.
Proverbs 14:29 (New Living Translation)
Patience is, where love meets wisdom. And every relationship needs that combination to stay healthy. (S. Kendrick & A. Kendrick)
See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people. 1 Thessalonians 5:15 (New Living Translation)
Demonstrate patience! Say nothing negative to others even if they hurt you! If you get tempted, choose not to say anything. It is better to keep quiet than to say something you might regret!
I had to think about this while sitting in the dentist’s chair. She had to do a dental imprint of my mandible (for adjusting my braces) so I was forced to enter the state of silence
Perhaps the next time I’m in a dispute with somebody I can remember to put on a lockjaw again
Two days ago I suddenly had to think about “love”
I was in the shower at that time and somehow two statements popped into my head.
To be honest: I didn’t really have time to share them here until today, but better late than never!
Imagine you want to buy an offset screwdriver – without knowing what that is – because a friend told you it’s a good tool (who says we have to go for a hammer in my story? ). You enter a hardware store, and approach a staff member – let’s call him Kevin for further reference
(who unfortunately is the only one working at the store at that time). As luck would have it he is completing an internship there and isn’t really a handyman.
Anyways… you ask Kevin for the offset screwdriver who immediately starts looking everywhere but he has absolutely no idea what to look for and the tools aren’t labeled. He shows you some tools hoping that you can identify what you need, but you can’t help him either. Kevin isn’t capable of giving you an offset screwdriver, even if it’s laying right in front of his nose.
I think it’s the same with love… if you don’t know what love is, you can’t give love to others. You first have to learn what love is. In my opinion you can only understand what true love is, when you ask Jesus to show you what it really is.
Think of it this way: You could have told Kevin that a hammer (here we go… our beloved hammer just arrived ) is an offset screwdriver and he would have believed it. But as soon as his boss comes and corrects the wrong assumption Kevin would know (and possibly never forget) what an offset screwdriver looks like and how it should feel when you touch it. Why? Because his boss is the expert, somebody he can trust. Very much like Jesus is for me
As Kevin was no big help for you to get what you needed (the offset screwdriver… just in case you forgot ) you decide to give it another try the next day. You enter the same hardware store again and now you have more luck. Kevin has his day off and Tim runs the shop today. Tim is _the man_! He knows all tools by their names and is also an expert in using them. So you ask him for the offset screwdriver ’cause you really want to have one (because everybody has one ). Tim looks around, goes to the shelf where the offset screwdrivers are kept and then discovers that there aren’t any left. He knows exactly what they look like, he could use them with his eyes blindfolded, but it’s impossible for him to hand you one, because he simply hasn’t any!
Again – in my opinion – it’s the same with love. If you have no love in your heart you can not give love to others! You have to ask Jesus to fill your heart with love until it’s brimmed
Just wanted to share that… If you have any comments feel free to post them here! Thanks!
Good night!
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