What is love Chuck?

Good night my friends, 

Sweet dreams

God bless you.

Drought Crisis in sub-saharan Africa

At the end of 2015/early 2016, Sub-Saharan Africa experienced very poor rainfall resulting in a widespread drought and food crisis. Across Africa this has resulted in a significant increase in price for staple foods. Hands at Work is currently assessing the severity of the need in the communities we serve, to ensure that the most vulnerable children continue to receive consistent access to basic services. 

Will you join us in our prayers for a speedy and wonderful response to help these communities. This is a time where we can give and help because we have and they haven't. 

Remember this passage in Luke 21:1-4 

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Please share too. 

For more information about Hands at Work’s response, visit http://www.handsatwork.org/DroughtRelief

Really?

 

All good gifts come from the Lord,so thank him for his provisions

A lovely goose!

My God, You never failed me...

Copyright This beautiful Republic

I'm losing contact forgetting what is real
Able to touch but not able to feel
It's easier to shut out everyone
I'm chasing after my newest distraction to escape it all

My God, oh, my God, what have I become?
The self-addicted one
My God, oh, my God, You never failed me
You're what I need

So often I'm the sleeping prayer
More often I'm the weeping betrayer
Sometimes I play the martyr, become the traitor

The humbled sinner has never been a role I knew to play

My God, oh, my God, what have I become?
The self-addicted one
My God, oh, my God, You never failed me
You're what I need

Treason, a pound of flesh is the debt
Leaving a crippled man
I'll give You all I have left
A straining outstretched hand

Is it enough? Is it enough?
Reach down, take me back, take me back

My God, oh, my God, what have I become?
The self-addicted one
My God, oh, my God, You never failed me
You're what I need

My God, oh, my God
(My God, oh, my God)
My God, oh, my God
I'll give You all I have left
A straining outstretched hand

Read more: This Beautiful Republic - My God Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

Chibok: the Fathers' stories

In April 2014, over 200 girls were abducted by Boko Haram islamists from the Chibok High School for girls in Nigeria

The girls are still missing, their parents are grieving.

In this short film, three of the fathers of the missing Chibok girls talk about the pain of losing their daughters, and say thank you for the support they’ve received from around the world.

Thousands of Christians have been killed or displaced by Islamic extremists in Nigeria.

Militant Islamist group Boko Haram continue to terrorise the north and have declared their own caliphate (Islamic State), although President Buhari's campaign against them has had some success. 

However, Islamic Hausa-Fulani herdsmen, who frequently carry out cruel attacks on Christian villages in Nigeria's middle belt, are being given grazing land by the government taken from indigenous Christian communities, depriving Christians of their fields and livelihoods.

Read more about persecution in Nigeria

Comfort food: hazelnuts brownies, why not?

Today I thought that I would bake some brownies and this recipe inspired me. I grilled some hazelnuts (a handful) beforehand and lined them at the bottom of my round tin (I'm using a round tin as my square one is in a cupboard at Imo's house in London..and I haven't bothered to buy another one,,will do though!)
So I'm on the last minute and I will make my own way to our friends home, Mike and Eva who are hosting a venue 'Say one for me' for our House church and the Anglican church meeting together.
Have a blessed day.

True love?

True Love?

“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment (Philippians 1:9).” 

George Pinwell, A Beckets troth the Saracen Maiden entering London at Sundow 

Charles Dickens in his “Child’s History of England” tells of the romance of Thomas a Becket’s parents. Gilbert Becket was a London merchant in the 11th century. While on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was taken prisoner by a Saracen lord who had a beautiful daughter. The girl fell in love with Gilbert and expressed a desire to become a Christian, escape with him and become his wife. Gilbert seemed to return her love until he found a chance to escape with Richard, his servant. Once he was back in England, Gilbert’s love for the beautiful Saracen maid began to grow dim until he all but forgot about her. But while his love was decreasing, her love was increasing. She left her father’s home in disguise to follow Gilbert and made her way to the coast. Gilbert had taught her two English words, “London” and “Gilbert.” She went from ship to ship saying over and over the name of the city where she so desperately wanted to go. She found a ship going to London and with some of her jewels paid for her passage. She soon arrived in London.

As Gilbert was sitting in his office one day his servant, Richard, came running in saying, “The Saracen lady! As I live, she is going up and down calling out, ‘Gilbert! Gilbert!’” Gilbert went out and found her in the crowds. When she saw him she fainted in his arms. Soon afterwards they were married. 

Distance can sometimes destroy a love affair. But true love will overcome whatever the obstacle. 

Do we have a true love for our Lord? 

A love that is increasing day by day? 

We should pray as Paul prayed for the Philippians that our “love may abound yet more and more....” 

If you wish to read more devotionals written by Pastor Ed Wrather click here Ed Wrather

Love is patient!

1 Corinthians 13

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,but have not love, I gain nothing.

A life-sized Noah’s Ark

Amish carpenters nearing completion of life-sized Noah’s Ark





A mind-blowing full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark is nearing completion in Williamstown, KY, displaying the remarkable grandiosity of the all-wood colossus.


While Noah and his family spent 100 years toiling on the ark, Ken Ham and his construction team — including dozens of Amish carpenters — will have taken five years by the time they are finished in July and it opens to the public.

The value of modesty

This morning, I found a very interesting article written by Wayne Jackson. 

Louis L’Amour wrote stories of the Old West that became bestsellers. He was meticulous in producing works that are fastidiously accurate in terms of the culture of the 1800s which addressed the manner in which women were viewed in the Old West. He observed that almost uniformly they were treated with great respect, even by the roughest of men. He noted that, as a rule, females could travel alone hundreds of miles by stagecoach and feel quite secure, because men regarded them so highly, and were extremely protective of the “fair” sex. I would add that I have noticed this in most Western films.

Those days are gone—and have been for quite a while. Now, a woman can hardly walk unescorted down a crowded street without being verbally assaulted or in some fashion sexually harassed. Most men in sizable cities do not want their wives driving alone at night.

One recent author believes she knows, at least in part, a cause for this dramatic shift in attitude toward women. She says it involves the “loss of modesty.” 

Modesty Abandoned

Wendy Shalit, a young Jewish writer, created a considerable stir in the media with the publication of her book, A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue.
This volume has been hailed by some as a work that will “change society.” Others—especially feminists—vehemently denounce it, even suggesting it should be banned.
Ms. Shalit says that her initial exposure to our grossly “immodest” culture commenced when she was in the fourth grade. She was introduced to a “sex education” course, from which her parents presently removed her. She argues that such classes should be “completely abolished” because they erode one’s natural sense of modesty. She voices concerns that I've had along with other English colleagues everytime we've taught sex education to 12 and 13 y.o. in Year 8 and 9.
Modesty, Ms Shalit contends, is an innate, psychological barrier which protects youngsters as their personalities are developing.
Later, as a student at Williams College in Massachusetts, Shalit was appalled by coed restrooms and other on-campus, sex-related problems. She wrote a piece about these practices that was eventually published in Reader’s Digest.

The thesis of A Return to Modesty is that the so-called “sexual revolution” has robbed society of many of its most valuable virtues—for one thing, a sense of self-worth.

Read on, click here

Visit Wendy's website, click here

Who am I?

A beautiful song!

"Who Am I"
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt?
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart?

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done.
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are.

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean.
A vapor in the wind.
Still You hear me when I'm calling.
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling.
And You've told me who I am.
I am Yours, I am Yours.

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and watch me rise again?
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me?

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done.
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are.

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean.
A vapor in the wind.
Still You hear me when I'm calling.
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling.
And You've told me who I am.
I am Yours.

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done.
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are.

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean.
A vapor in the wind.
Still You hear me when I'm calling.
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling.
And You've told me who I am.
I am Yours, I am Yours, I am Yours.

Whom shall I fear?
Whom shall I fear?
'Cause I am Yours, I am Yours.

The names of the apostles!

Good morning my friends.
Are you a child at heart? I hope so and in that case this song is for you!

Simon Peter and Andrew his brother
James and John the sons of thunder
Philip and Bartholomew
and lest you doubt Thomas too
James the son of Alphaeus
Matthew used to make us nervous
Leadeus or Thaddeus or Judas, the son of James, he may have other names
Simon the Zealot and
Judas the Isacariot betrayer of the Lord

these are the 12 apostles

You can see this 'byzantine' frescoe in Auzance (Creuse) in the Puy de Dome. 

This is Jesus' last meal shared with the 12 apostles.
On the table a bread and a fish stand, symbols of the very first Christians, as much as a chalice and a host, symbols of Christ's blood and body.
While the apostles are listening to Jesus, Judas the traitor who sold him for 30 golden coins, is swallowed (on the left) by a dragon.

A fresque by Nicolas Greschny

Have a blessed day filled with the peace and love of our Lord Jesus-Christ. :-)

Happy women's day!

Women are valid witnesses to Christ. The idea of women as primary witnesses does not seem unusual to people in the 21st century, but it was a revolutionary concept at the time. The testimony of women was not given the same weight as men's, either personally or in a court of law. Mary's witness to the Resurrection reversed this idea. I'd say that Jesus-Christ is the first feminist ever!

The status of women in early Christianity was equal to men's. When the Christian stories described Mary Magdalene and the other women as the first witnesses of the Resurrection, they were saying something important about the nature of women: that they were capable of being as fully Christian as men.

 Mary Magdalene as a disciple of Jesus

1 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Mag'dalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,3 and Joan'na, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means. Luke 8:1-3

She was present at Jesus'crucifixion

40 There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Mag'dalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salo'me,41 who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered to him; and also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. Mark 15:40-41

25 So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Mag'dalene. John 19:25

Witnesses identified Jesus’ mother Mary, along with close friends Mary Magdalene and Mary the wife of Cleophas, who were at the crucifixion site, also known as Calvary. They were seen beginning a vigil at the tomb.

I was pleased to find a website that describes women in the bible websiste  

Note: However whereby they dispute the authenticity of the writing in the Old Testament I disagree as I believe that the Bible is the word of God.

Praying for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria.

NIGERIA: FULANI HERDSMEN KILL HUNDREDS IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

03 March 2016

Hundreds were killed in northern Nigeria during violence that took place in four communities in Agatu, Benue state according to BBC News. Reports say that over 7,000 people have been internally displaced and are living in camps as a result of the violence.
Muslim Fulani herdsmen have been targeting Christians in this area and driving them out of their homes in violent attacks. It is not clear how many Christians were killed in the attacks last week; the security situation makes it difficult to confirm the details and reports are unclear.
Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari has ordered an investigation into the clashes and ordered security agencies to get to the root of the problem. He said: "We will conduct an investigation to know exactly what happened; the only way to bring an end to the violence once and for all is to look beyond one incident and ascertain exactly what factors are behind the conflicts."
He continued, "There should not be any reason why Nigerians of any group or tongue cannot now reside with one another wherever they find themselves after decades of living together."

Read more, click here