God's Glory Church

The immutability of God in a rapidly changing world

No matter what happens around us, what tragedies or natural disasters happen, there is one wonderful and unshakable news – God is alive and He is among us. The world around us is developing rapidly: what seemed like a fantasy yesterday is a reality today, and it is difficult to imagine what technologies will appear tomorrow. However, in this whirlwind of changes, two things remain unchanged: God Himself and our heart. From the first day of creation, the human heart continues to rejoice, cry, feel fear and hide unforgiveness in the same way. And God’s power works just as unchangingly on earth – God knows whose tear to wipe, who to comfort, and who to show the right path.

The Path of Trials: From the Desert to Gethsemane

When we accept the Lord into our hearts, we promise to serve Him with faith and truth until the end of our days. However, this path is never cloudless. Jesus Christ showed us an example of what we will have to go through:

• 🏜️ Desert: A time of spiritual testing and formation that we go through almost every day.
• 💔 Betrayal: Painful experience of disappointment in people.
• 🤲 Washing the feet: A call to serve and humble ourselves even before those who hurt us or look down on us.
• 🛐 Gethsemane: Moments of deep loneliness, when those whose support you hoped for (students, friends, loved ones) simply “fall asleep” and leave you alone with difficulties.

The Art of God’s Love: The Question “Where are you?”

How do we respond to the sin and fall of others? Weak people usually look for someone to blame, trying to blame everyone around them. But the strong seek God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, violating the Creator’s trust, God did not come to them with condemnation. He did not brand a “sinner” by demanding reports. He simply asked, “Where are you?“.

This phrase is a perfect example for our ministry. When we see a person who has gone astray, we should not start with reproaches and stigmatization. Our goal is to cover everything with love, find a person in his pain and say: “Follow the Lord.”

Serving one’s own is the hardest test

Carrying the Word of God to strangers is often easy: you speak the truth and walk away, trusting that God will do the rest. The real test is service in one’s own home, to one’s relatives and friends. Here comes the fear: “What if I say the wrong thing and they get offended?”, “What if they suddenly stop coming to visit?”.

Often parents are afraid to tell the truth to their children or insist on spiritual education, preferring “carrot” instead of the necessary upbringing. But when children grow up, reaping the fruits of such indulgence becomes very bitter. We cannot transfer spiritual education to school or simply hope that children will “grow up on their own”. Parents and the Church should be a living example.

Two Kings: David and Solomon. The danger of compromises

The scriptures call us “kings and priests”, and therefore each of us has our own “kingdom” – our family, life, heart. And here we are given two biblical examples for science: David and Solomon.

• King David was a great warrior, a man after God’s own heart. But he also knew how to sin. His greatness lay not in sinlessness, but in the capacity for deep, sincere repentance (as in Psalm 50). He did not repent “just for the sake of it”, he cried out to God to change his heart. It was because of this sincerity that his kingdom was stable, and from his lineage came the Messiah.
• King Solomon received everything: wealth, a peaceful kingdom and even asked God for unprecedented wisdom. But wisdom does not save where holiness is lost. Sin crept in unnoticed through political compromises and hundreds of women. Solomon compromised with the world, and compromise is the voice of the flesh, which always leads to sin. The result was the division and destruction of his kingdom.

This example poses a serious question to us: who are we like in governing our spiritual kingdom?. Loving service and any business without God is doomed to failure.

Truth as a path to healing

Our heart is the field where the Lord sows good seeds. But the devil always tries to throw weed seeds in there. If sin is allowed to take root (for example, compromising with the sin of loved ones under the pretext of “I want to save them”), there will be no pure harvest. Pulling out this weed is very painful, but it is necessary.

That is why it is so important to tell the truth. Truth clears the way to God. It cleanses us, even if it is unpleasant to listen to. We must refuse to make any compromises in our spiritual life. No matter how painful it is, no matter how we are rejected (after all, Jesus was once shouted “Hosanna” and then “Crucify”), we must stand firmly in faith and be faithful to God’s word.

So let each of us review the state of our “kingdom”, not surrendering ourselves to the slavery of sin, but surrendering ourselves to the hands of God. Keep the presence of the Lord in you so that one day you will hear from Him the words: “Good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of your master” (from Matthew 25:21).