People change.

Money, power, popularity, tragedies, sicknesses,

broken relationships, change people for better or for worse.

Everybody changes, that's the name of the game.

To change one's opinions, political or religious convictions,

wives, husbands, friends, even churches is considered immoral.

A person involved with such changes is often trusted less

and avoided more.

Some changes are mistakes and lead people to change back.

It's a bit confusing , but joyous, to meet people who divorced

and remarried back, even many times.

Most of the changes are private, quiet ponderings of the heart.

Sometimes people leave and it surprises others.

Maybe in their hearts they left decades ago.

II Corinthians 3:18 speaks about the change that the Holy Spirit

causes in us, from glory to glory. I'm sure this is not referring to

our religious vocabulary or our public behavior inside or

outside of the church. This speaks about the none-manipulated 

work of the Spirit in a believers soul. This is connected with 

the intercession of the Holy Spirit. He is said to intercede

for us "with groanings that cannot be uttered".

Romans 8:26-27

Our souls are changed as

 they are being prepared for heaven.

If something is not right,

it's wrong.

But "wrong" has become a relative concept.

That what is wrong for you might be absolutely

acceptable for millions of other people.

Millions of others would argue that it's wrong 

to even say that something is wrong.

With this oxymoron all wrongness has lost it's authority.

No wonder the news are filled with 

conflicts and tensions all over the world.

When nothing is wrong, then nothing is right neither.

Eating and again eating

The disciples didn't believe that they were speaking

with the risen Savior " because of joy and amazement..."

Luke 24:41

Jesus knew how to get their attention.

He asked them, if they had anything to eat.

This was the language the disciples understood

right away. This is not imaginations. This is real.

They were obviously still on the bread level.

Food is not a lesser motivation for all human activities.

It has moved nations from one country to another.

A lot of our daily activities are arranged around food.

Breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinners,

 brunches, coffee breaks,

diets, calories, organic products,

carbohydrates, enzymes,

minerals,tofu ... we know it all.

Maybe the secret of a balanced spiritual life

 is to eat less

and believe more.

The Same Power

Nothing less, but the same power that raised Jesus

from the death is given to us.

It enables us to believe when hope has been crushed.

It helps us to love when anger cannot be controlled.

It demands us to forgive, even "to our own hurt."
It gives us an unending reason 
to go on until we'll see His face.

Happy Easter to all !

No Greater Love

It is a brilliant, but painful plan,

loving by suffering.

It seems like some are called to suffer

so much more than others.

Love suffers long.

Genuine love will always leave it's

mark in history.

Jesus loved people by taking their pain.

He explained this to be the greatest 

expression of love.

Without a relationship in love,

all our pain will be wasted.

It will be forgotten forever.

Love will never be forgotten.

Let there be laughter.

When was the last time you laughed your head off?

Laughter is this funny little, human function,

that cannot be faked.

When  your mind laughs, your body responds with

waves of muscle impulses.

If you pretend it,

you’ll soon get just exhausted and less and less joyful.

Real laughter comes suddenly.

I can’t wait to meet the next one.

It requires an atmosphere of freedom and security.

Heaven will be full of laughter.

Endless New Beginnings

How many new beginnings are we allowed to have?

Most of the religious policemen of the world would

not allow you more than one, maybe two, if you

really pay well and plead for mercy long enough.

Christ brought us millions of new beginnings.

No one reached the end of his forgiveness.

In the eyes of the self-righteous religious leaders

Christ always forgave too much.

His answer to Peter about the amount of new 
beginnings in forgiveness, says it all,

" I do not say to you, up to seven times,

but up to seventy times seven."

Matthew 18:22

This is the power of grace.

Is there a Jonah in the boat?

Are you the Jonah in the boat?

Sometimes things don't happen ,

because of individual people's

disobedience of God.

Even the heathen, superstitious

 passengers on the boat

lost their common grace environment

 and started asking around,

 "Who is not pleasing their god?"

Jonah understood that God 

was shaking the boat because 

of him. He admitted that he is 

the reason and off board he went.

We cannot do the work of God,

but we can resist and hinder him

surprisingly much.

A good advice is to look for the perfect will

of God and stop considering the permissive

will as an option.

Pivotal Moment

It's mandatory for man to be born again in order

for him to be saved in eternity.

John 3:3

This is not a process, but once and for all moment.

When we put all things into the right perspective, 

we see the extreme importance of

this powerful moment.

People don't need more time,

they just need this moment.

This is the moment that touches eternity.

The Sky's the Limit

In so many areas man continues to discover 

new things, even long after he taught that he

had figured it all out.

Man can do so many things, yet he cannot

stop himself from sinning.

Even when he isolates himself from all other

people and temptations, he will be continually

failing to keep the standard.

Yes, the sky is blue and beautiful, but in the same

time it's a daily reminder of the greatest
 humiliation and frustration

of the mankind.

Surprises from the Heart

When the Holy Spirit has opportunities

to search our hearts,

 a lot of stuff comes to the surface.

We didn't even know they were there.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart..."

Psalm 139:23

It's understandable that the longer the disciples stayed

with Jesus, the less they trusted their own hearts.

At the night when Jesus revealed that he would

be betrayed, they all asked him,"Is it I?"

Just don't do it!

Have you ever been looking for a good deal

for flights, hotels or car rentals?

Isn't it amazing that they always have only one thing left

and you will miss it, unless you do it right away.

It's the merciless panic tactics that marketing people 

are using just to get your business.

Fast, spontaneous decisions can be dangerous.

The small text will show up later.

In the business world there is no such a thing as 

a free lunch.

But in the kingdom of God there is no such a thing 

as a paid blessing.

Yes, the fear of God should direct our decisions, but

even more so, our confidence in God's grace should

help us to rest

 when the whole world around is panicking.

Are we friendly or just polite?

Politeness helps us to avoid open confrontations,

but it doesn't open any doors for a personal connection.

It can stay on a superficial level and often deceive us

to think that everything is fine. Even dangerous enemies

have learned to be polite.

Friendliness, on the other hand, always requires personal

involvement. You cannot be friendly from a distance.

We love to be with friendly people, don't we?

Friendliness cannot save the world, but it sure makes it

easier to talk about the Savior.

It is right, but is it supernatural?

It's not difficult to fake happiness.

It's not complicated to learn a religious behavior

with all the right vocabulary and acrobatics.

However, it's impossible to pretend to the

spirit world that you are spiritual , if you are not.

They will beat you up.

Acts 19:15-16

Make no mistake.

The flesh can do it all, except pleasing God.

" for whatever is not from faith is sin."

Romans 14:23

All the sudden there are less and less things

that bring us to an awe at the presence of God.

Could our life be that way?

Seasonal Friends

Some people disappear from our lives for a season.

They turn off their devices and don’t pick up the phone.

I guess they need to have some distance for a season.

If you are reading this, you are not one of them.

Seasonal friends don’t read other people’s blogs.

They have very little capacity for other people’s thoughts.

They’ll come back

when they get tired enough of themselves.

Don’t judge them hard.

Some people start speaking before they turn one,

others say their first word when they are three.

Some others regret all of their lives that they ever

opened their mouth in the first place.

Who cares!

Well, I do.

In the world where postmodernism , post postmodernism.

pseudo-modernism and selfishism have tried to devaluate all

meanings and connections, I believe in God's eternal purpose.

It's the only thing that can motivate us to look for a meaning

between all these seemingly irrelevant details that overwhelm

our daily lives.

Every meaning is revealed in relationships.

Faith , hope and love don't function in a closed circle.

They will always look for opportunities to break out

from selfish worlds. That's why no man can put his

stamp of ownership on them.

They will never submit to man's fallen nature, the flesh.

We have an opportunity to connect with God's purpose

with every detail in every moment.

Everything matters and everything finds it's meaning

in our personal relationship with God.
And our personal decisions and movements
are connected with millions of other personal
relationships of God.
This is the beauty of God's multidimensional
eternal design.

If you are empty,

don't stay empty.

Evil is flooding around,

looking for souls to fill.

There is nothing more dangerous 

than to explore the world with

an empty heart.

Some of the stuff that gets in there will 

occupy your mind for decades.

Guard your heart with all diligence.

It should not have happened.

But it happened.

You should not have done it, but you did.

You should not have gone there, 

but you went and so on and so on, endlessly.

And now you have to live with the memories and

consequences of that what happened.

This is what man's life is like outside of grace.

It's full of guilt, shame and regrets.

Man's soul is  haunted by memories

and consequences of things

that should not have happened.

Some add another burden to their soul by saying,

that grace is not true, it's too easy, it's not right.

Well,

I take it.

Otherwise I cannot see

how could I live another sane day

in this world of sin and misery.

Grace gives me the right to smile again.

It's the only way to make it as a believer

in this present evil world.

Love helps us to wait.

P.Schaller's message last night was touching

one of the mysterious issues of God's character.

Why would he wait for us?

He is the Creator of all things. He holds everything in 

order.In the midst of all that he created us,

free and untamed.

"God wants to catch our hearts.

We are the hardest thing to catch.

Even God, doing his best, cannot always catch us."

"The father is home, all day long, 

stretching his arms, waiting, while his son is living

with the pigs."

"Who are you , God?"

It's easy when you are loved.

This was P.Scibelli's message

in the missions night in Budapest.

Everything is easy, because love

creates new capacities

and abilities in us.

It's easy to forgive when you are forgiven.

It's easy to love when you have been loved.

It's easy to give when you have been given.

And

It's easy when you love.

Jacob worked for seven years

 for Laban in order to get Rachel

and they were like nothing ,

 because he loved her.

Love always finds a way.

Love makes even suffering easy.

After all love is the most 
powerful motivation given 
to the mankind.

We should never underestimate 

nor despise the power of love.

Trust

is difficult to defeat.

We all know very well that we should not

trust any man, but we should always trust

in God's work in people. People can change. 

People can grow. People can genuinely repent.

We trust in God's ability in people.

Trust always opens a new opportunity for

people to go on with their lives.

It's clear.

If I’m looking for things to obey, I will have no

time to wonder about the will of God.

If I’m looking for opportunities to avoid

all responsibilities, I’ll be endlessly talking about

that how difficult it is

to know exactly what God wants.