I was going through a tough phase in life, so difficult anxious moments in the fmly. Fear & doubt gripped and faith was at its low. I was just praying and going through my normal work and this particular verse jus struck me and it exactly described the situation I was in and the verse and the pic comforted me so much
So I will strengthen them in the Lord, And they shall walk up and down in His name,”Says the Lord. Zech 10:12
The word strengthened me so much that I have faith God will strengthen her and in Jesus name she will walk. All glory to God.
Update:Jan 2015
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
Yes,I worship a living God who delivers on His promise, Joanna is walking without any issues.All glory to God.
The other day I was watching CNN, press conference by Dr. Kent Brantly( the first person to survive Ebola virus in US) after being discharged from hospital. Just a touching testimony and giving glory to the Almighty Father.Dr. Kent Brantly is a medical missionary working in West Africa doing God's work
What striked me most from his press conference ?
I prayed that God would help me to be faithful even in my illness, and I
prayed that in my life or in my death, He would be glorified.
I can tell you is that I serve a faithful God who answers prayers.
I am forever thankful to God for sparing my life and am glad for any
attention my sickness has attracted to the plight of West Africa in the
midst of this epidemic. Please continue to pray for Liberia and the
people of West Africa, and encourage those in positions of leadership
and influence to do everything possible to bring this Ebola outbreak to
an end.
Just a powerful testimony crediting God, while the whole world watches. All glory to God.
I just pray that God raises more such powerful testimonies, so that the world knows that He is a faithful God who answers prayers
Growing up in a evangelical christian family gave me the opportunity to know about lot of christian martyrs, missionaries. Knowing one such character left a lasting impression in my life and probably drew me even more closer to God. The idea of not just living a christian but the desire and hunger to pray & help others in reaching to the dying souls grew in me after knowing about Vanya.
My Sunday school days & Junior Church days in FGPC Kattathurai were those which shaped my thinking and love for Christ. Every week there was a new biblical character or martyrs life was taught. These characters left a deep impression in my soul and inspired and put in me the passion for Christ.
The life of Vanya ripped my heart and inspired to renew my faith in
Jesus.Vanya's life is a must read for all Christians.He died as a
martyr for Christ.He faced extreme persecution for his faith and belief. His life proves about God's faithfulness to His own in spite of suffering, persecution and death.
The son of peasant farmers born in Moldova, Vanya entered the army at eighteen to perform two years of required military training and service. Because he spoke openly of God, which was forbidden in the atheistic regime, Vanya was persecuted by his military supervisors.
His letters home and the tape recordings that he made on his last leave home, documented the cruelties used against him. At times he was starved. He was awakened and interrogated night after night, and often struck. For two weeks in the dead of winter, he was compelled to stand outside in his thin Summer uniform. He claimed that God miraculously warmed him.
Miracles confirmed his testimony. Once he was run over by a truck. He was told his life could only be saved by the amputation of an arm and part of a collapsed lung. Delirious with fever he prayed earnestly aloud. The next morning, he was completely healed.
On another occasion, he was challenged by his barracks to prove that God exists. The test was that God obtain leave for a certain sergeant. Leaves were hard to get. After asking God if he should accept the challenge, Vanya agreed. All night, he sat up with the sergeant explaining the things that he would need to know when he became a Christian. The next day, an authority from another town called and ordered the leave. The sergeant became a Christian and so did other men.
Vanya was an army chauffer. When every effort failed to break him of his faith, he was ordered to chauffer some KGB men. He did not return. A coffin arrived at his parents' home, welded shut. Vanya's mother insisted it be opened. A brother, who belonged to the Communist party resisted, but the rest of the family prevailed. Vanya was barely recognizable. Witnesses, Christian and non-Christian alike, signed a statement which declared that his chest had been burned. His face and body were lumped and bruised. Heel marks marred his body. His heart was punctured in six places.
His family did not know about all the things which happened to Vanya, but his letters and the testimonies of the other witnesses completed the puzzle and made the story of Vanya known.Colonel Malsin, his commander, said, “Moiseyev died with difficulty. He fought with death, but he died as a Christian.”
Under Communist pressure, the non-Christians withdrew their testimony. The Soviet's claimed that the six heart punctures were from attempts to restart the heart with adrenaline after a drowning accident and that the other marks were from an autopsy. They claimed the Baptists made up the torture story to discredit the regime. However, in light of thousands of other incidents of mistreatment of Christians in the Soviet union, and given Vanya's letters and recordings, the Baptist story is the more believable of the two. To cap matters off, Vanya's unit was broken up because so many men in it had become Christians.
Dramatization by Dean Kershner of "Vanya4
Testimony of Vanya's life, written after his death by Myrna Grant, you can get a copy here.
Short film following a couple of kids from a small village In Thailand
and how soccer(football) changed this small village for ever.
Inspired by the 1986 FIFA World Cup, children built the pitch from old scraps of wood and fishing rafts. After making it to the Semi-final on an inland tournament, all the village were inspired to take up the sport. They built a brand new pitch, although the wooden one still remains and is popular among tourists. As of 2011, Panyee FC is one of the most successful youth soccer clubs in Southern Thailand, and the boys who built the pitch back in 1986 are now grown men. A 2011 brand campaign for TMB Bank includes a short film that tells the team's story.[3] The film is based on interviews with the original team, and it stars local children rebuilding the field on location
How many Chotus do we come across everyday? A good video on child labour
A good video on making the right choice of selecting the right candidate for the upcoming elections
A poem the author wrote to highlight the difference between Jesus and false
religion. In the scriptures Jesus received the most opposition from the
most religious people of his day. At it's core Jesus' gospel and the
good news of the Cross is in pure opposition to
self-righteousness/self-justification. Religion is man centered, Jesus
is God-centered. This poem highlights my journey to discover this truth.
Religion either ends in pride or despair. Pride because you make a list
and can do it and act better than everyone, or despair because you
can't do your own list of rules and feel "not good enough" for God. With
Jesus though you have humble confident joy because He represents you,
you don't represent yourself and His sacrifice is perfect putting us in
perfect standing with God the Father.
2013 has been a year of blessing, got promotion @ work and personally got the best promotion of all -Father to Joanna. From the day we came to know of Joanna being conceived , all through the pregnancy we kept of praying for her.One of the things which I did was to look out for verses in Bible which talks about kids & blessing of children. At times I read out all these verses in faith, just compiled a list hope this will be useful for you too.
Blessing for your Baby!!
1 Samuel 1:27–28
"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of
him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given
over to the LORD."
Jeremiah 1:5
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born
I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."
Luke 2:40
"And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him."
Psalm 127:3
"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a
reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of
one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;"
Isaiah 8:18
Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
