If you've ever wondered

If you have ever wondered what a life in ministry is like just take a look at the video.  It is a pretty accurate analogy of the joys and challenges.

xtnyoda, shalomed

H/T to Brutally Honest

An Abortion Denied

A week ago I was in NE Arkansas helping conduct the funeral of a dear friend in ministry. While there a young lady in her 40s came up to me with her 9 year old granddaughter. It took about one second to remember her from 30+ years ago when I was her pastor.
I was in the hospital room with her back then, when the Dr. came in and told her they were going to need to abort her baby or she would die from some infection that had developed. She asked me to pray, then opened her eyes with tears streaming and said something like, "Then I will die. I am going to give this baby life."
She and the baby lived! Now, I am looking at her beautiful round faced, red headed granddaughter! Bright eyed and full of life! I asked the young girl if she had ever heard about the story of her mother's birth? She said she had not. I looked quickly to her grandmother and she gave a nod of approval.
I quietly shared with the granddaughter about the circumstances of her grandmother while carrying her mother, and what and how her grandmother had resolutely responded. I will never forget that beautiful girl's response.
She looked up, directly into her grandmothers eyes for a moment. She then simply asked, "You did that for my Mom and me?" The grandmother smiled and simply shook her head with a yes.
The granddaughter then laid her head over onto her grandmother's breast and began to cry quietly and gave her grandmother a big hug.
Just had to share.

xtnyoda, shalomed 

H/T to Brutally Honest for the picture.

God's justice

Here is a picture of God's Justice at work.

xtnyoda, shalomed

via Brutally Honest

The Word continues

A wonderful Christmas present for the people of Jamaica ... the Word of God in their own language!  This is exactly why Jesus came to earth as the Living WORD of God.  To speak to us in a language that we could understand.

Kingston, Jamaica (AP) — When English teacher Faith Linton first proposed translating the Bible into Jamaica's patois tongue in the late 1950s, most people who heard the idea shook their heads.

Some on the deeply Christian island believed it was sacrilegious. Others opposed it because the unique mixture of English and West African languages was widely disdained by the elites as a coarse linguistic stepchild to English, which is the only official language in this former British colony.

"There was shock at the mere suggestion," said Linton, now 81, a longtime board member of the Bible Society of the West Indies. "People were deeply ashamed of their mother tongue. It was always associated with illiteracy and social deprivation."

Decades later, Linton's vision is becoming a reality: After years of meticulous translation from the original Greek, the Bible Society is releasing in Jamaica print and audio CD versions of the first patois translation of the New Testament, or "Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment....

 .....

Follow the link for the whole article.  Praise Yahweh!

xtnyoda, shalomed 

Heroes' Highway

Heroes don't wear capes, they wear dog-tags.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Good word for today

President Ronald Reagan Tribute: Rare Footage of Him Speaking the Gospel from vids2inspire on GodTube.

President Reagan on prayer and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Take up your cross

A 19 year old carrying a 12 foot tall cross to DC, for a witness and for prayer.

Salute.

xtnyoda, shalomed

He ain't heavy, he's my brother

H/T Brutally Honest

Stronger

Enough said.

xtnyoda, shalomed

In Joplin, a life saving husband

Husband Dies Saving Wife From Joplin Tornado from untilweflyaway on GodTube.

Beautiful

Thankful for a day

Terminal Cancer Victim Gets Fairytale Wedding from ourprecioussavior on GodTube.

Seeing this video makes me ... thankful for each day in a new determination.

Thank God for each day.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Listen to the heart

Just a MUST see. Parents that lost their daughter get to hear her heart beating once again. A real life "Return to Me" story.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Follow Jesus on Twitter

I'm Gonna Love You Through It

H/T to Brutally Honest!

For my birthed Sister and all our Sisters that have been through it.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Everything

Sunday, before our 1st worship service, one of my WW2 vets started sharing with me as I was greeting folks. He started telling me about dodging German subs on their way to England and the European theater. He shared how he and his Army battalion crossed the Rhine River into Germany on his 19th birthday. How he and another 19 year old were the 2 forward observers for their battalion ... point men ... for an entire battalion ... advancing through Germany.

He then started to share about being involved in the liberation of a couple of concentration camps that held the Jews. How they came out ... starving ... emaciated ... fearful. He shared about seeing the gas chamber ... and the ovens ... and the mass graves discovered. He shared that the surviving prisoners had nothing ... barely alive.

I asked him in honest wonder, "What did you do?"

He looked down to the floor ... and then after a brief pause ... he raised his head ... and looked me in the eyes ... and simply said, "We gave them everything we had."

I became very quiet.

I asked his Grandson later if he had ever shared any of that with the family. He said that his Grandfather had never shared a word about it with anyone. I thought you might like to know.

That's all, I just wanted to share it.

God Bless.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Everything

My Christmas Eve

Shared from the Borg Conspiracy

My Christmas Eve

Something that needs to be shared. Please take the time to watch and listen to the entire presentation.

The Power of Words

OK ... this is a MUST SEE!!!



Now ... let's live it.

H/T Tiger!

xtnyoda, shalomed

A Thanksgiving Hymn

Following is a challenging account of the writing of one of our meaningful Thanksgiving hymns via The Deacon's Bench.

German pastor Martin Rinkart served in the walled town of Eilenburg during the horrors of the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648. Eilenburg became an overcrowded refuge for the surrounding area. The fugitives suffered from epidemic and famine. At the beginning of 1637, the year of the Great Pestilence, there were four ministers in Eilenburg. But one abandoned his post for healthier areas and could not be persuaded to return. Pastor Rinkhart officiated at the funerals of the other two.

As the only pastor left, he often conducted services for as many as 40 to 50 persons a day–some 4,480 in all. In May of that year, his own wife died. By the end of the year, the refugees had to be buried in trenches without services.

Yet, while living in a world dominated by death, Rinkart wrote this timeless prayer of thanksgiving for his children:

Now thank we all our God With hearts and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done, In whom this world rejoices.
Who, from our mother’s arms, Hath led us on our way,
With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

xtnyoda, shalomed

H/T DEKE