Ministry update from Moldova

This has been a busy week on the mission field. I absolutely love serving the Lord day in and day out in the country of Moldova. It is not easy and is quite exhausting most of the time but also so fulfilling.

The week began on Sunday at Good News. The medical team that was to work in a village arrived at church and I was their translator. It was a great service. They shared and encouraged us and then we all prayed for the upcoming week’s activities. They were about to go and work in a village that has a long history of animosity toward the Gospel. God answered our prayers and worked in a mighty way among the people of the village.

Be angry yet do not sin (Sunday’s Sermon from Ephesians)

Yesterday was a great day at Good News. We had a full service. We had guests from the Southern part of Moldova, an ensemble that played and sang traditional Moldovan music with a Christian message. One of the men in the group shared his testimony of how God changed his life, from being wife beating alcoholic to a follower of Christ.

The church was also blessed to have a medical mission team that will join us in serving at one of our mission points in a village not too far from the city. The team consists of 20 doctors and nurses who will set up a mobile clinic. Using this service to the community, we want to form friendships, share the Gospel, and seek to start small group Bible studies that will blossom into a local church.

Five Rock Solid Truths for daily living

There are many things that compete for our attention today, especially during this age of technology where all the information that you may need is at the stroke of a few keys. The problem is, this access is dangerous because many of the competing modern ideas contradict each other. Some of the ideas that are promoted can be very dangerous. In this age of information, we have many, many people who are confused about life and its purpose. Because of this confusion, the disease of the 2oth and 21st Centuries is depression. As a result, the world is full of people who are just drudging through life or, worse, people who end their days because they just cannot take the pain.

I would like to present 5 rock solid truths for every person who lives on this earth.

Church Bible study on choosing deacons

Last night Good News met to have a short Bible study on the characteristics of a deacon because we are in the process of choosing deacons. A church with over 100 members does not have any deacons. We elected a deacon last year but he was then ordained as a pastor to plant a church out of Good News. There was a deacon in the very beginning but he was ordained a couple of years ago to be one of the pastors of our growing church.

I would like to share the truths that we learned last night.

Is it important to have a profession?

I went to teach my two 8th grade classes yesterday and the theme of the lesson was the importance of choosing a profession. After finishing the Bible study “What does the Bible say about sex”, I have been invited to add a Biblical perspective on the topics covered over the course of the rest of the semester during civics class. Yesterday’s topic was careers, as I have already mentioned. I would like to share some of the truths from the lesson here.

What happens to a nation that forgets God?

We live during days that are very similar days to the days of the prophet Joel, even though many centuries separate us, our cultures are very similar. At one time during the history of the USA, there was a very healthy fear of the Lord. Children used to pray at school even if they did not come from families that were faithful to God. Many children learned how to read using the Bible as their guide. Bible stories were once the bedtime stories that children heard from their parents. Somewhere along the way, people stopped seeking fellowship with God. It did not happen overnight. It happened little by little until social/secular life became separate from spiritual life and many just completely moved away from spirituality. This discretion is a mirror image of what happened in Israel during the life of the prophet Joel. Society was falling apart then as it seems to be doing now. I would like to examine the root of the problem and see what solution God offers to right was has been made wrong by us, the people.

Masturbation and Onanism are two totally different sins

I want to address this topic because the more I teach “What does the Bible say about sex” to teens, the more I realize the confusion between these two sins. I even remember hearing while I was growing up that masturbation is wrong because you spill your “seed” on the ground like that guy in the Bible and God condemned him.

I would like to use this article to clarify the difference between the sin of masturbation and the sin of onanism. Unfortunately, the dictionary calls onanism masturbation but as we will see from the Biblical example, onanism is not masturbation. Onanism is not just simply a man spilling his seed on the ground.

What does the Bible teach about masturbation?

Speak the truth in Love (Sunday’s Sermon from Ephesians)

Yesterday was a great day. I really enjoy Sundays, even though as a pastor, it is not really a day off for me. I get to meet with our church members who serve the Lord on the mission field throughout the week and hear how God is at work. It is amazing to be a member and leader in a church that is active. Each Sunday I get to hear at least 2 or 3 testimonies about God’s goodness from members who are actively involved in the process of making disciples.

After hearing all of those wonderful testimonies and worshiping corporately through song, our Senior Pastor, Vasile Filat shared a great message from the Word of God with us. He has been preaching through St. Paul’s epistle to the Ephesian church and this week’s message come from one verse:

Fix your eyes upon the Lord

As you go through the daily activities of life, do you have your eyes (your heart, your focus, your perspective) fixed on the things of God or on the quickly fading things of this earth? What are you living for, to eat, drink, and be merry because you never know how much longer you have or are you living with eternity as your perspective setter? What do you spend the majority of your time focusing on, the things that are here today and gone tomorrow or the things that will last all throughout eternity. The things of this world are fading away so if you are focused on them, you and your perspective on eternity will fade away along with them.

Fighting an inferiority complex

As I prepare to teach this Friday night’s lesson, I want to address a need that many young people seem to have in our day and age. It is not a new problem. It is something that people have struggled with all throughout the ages. The problem is a feeling of inferiority. Most teens at one time or another suffer from this complex. I would like to give a Biblical answer to our struggles with inferiority.