The Ethiopian Church Journal Blog

Look At Me Now! I am “the” star I can spin, like dust in the air . . . I am the leaf, rotten dump in the mud I am the forgotten son, I am that unwanted child Look at me now! I am the sea that swallows your land I am your handicap; I am your shortest hand I am the king who sits above it all I am the slave who waits for the crumbs to fall I am the rich, with riches untold I am the poor, have hunger as a friend I am the righteous, with clean feet and clean hand I am the sinner, covered with splattered blood Look at me now! I am the sunshine, I am the rain I am the pleasure, I am the pain I am the joy, I am covered with smiles I am the sorrow; I am your midnight tears I am your dancing feet; I am your signature beat I am your fear; I am your bloody sweat I am you, I am me I am us, I am he I am them, I am she But don’t look at me now , in me you find no good I am not me, with Christ I am dead Look at me through the blood Look at me through Christ, through my eternal friend Look at him now ...

Signs of the Times [L] Americans at Target on Black Friday: Waiting for Goods; [R] Russians at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior: Waiting for God?

Now on his way to Jerusalem , Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee .   As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy   met him. They stood at a distance   and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said,   “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”   And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.   He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked,   “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?   Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him,   “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” [Luke 17: 11-17]             “Praise be to you, O  LORD, God of our father Israel , from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O  LORD,   is the greatness and the power and the g...

The Colonel and Hell And so the Libyan leader Gaddafi died in the manner he lived. Violently. Every one seemed to be in agreement that Gaddafi deserved to die. There were jubilant street scenes even as the cellphone-video of his bloodied body went viral. Some wished he would go straight to hell. These are thinking people hailing as far north as North America and Europe . These are the same crowd who more than likely would fight to abolish capital punishment or to uphold due process or rubbish off-hand the existence of Hell and critique the Bible mercilessly for teaching such a "gory and outmoded" doctrine. It now appears there are exceptions to the rule. It is interesting how times like this often lay bare our true intentions, our true nature and the values we thought we've managed to hide. So what do we think of hell? Or more appropriately, what does the Bible teach on the subject? Here is a piece by Tim Keller that, we hope, could make the skeptic and the uninformed to...

GOD OF THE HOMELESS photo credit: ifhomeless.org GOD SAID HE IS SLEEPING ON THE STREETS TONIGHT WITH THE HOMELESS GOD said  I should remind people to wash the blankets first before they give them to the homeless, so that it is given with a good heart.  GOD said if you have spare sleeping bags, sleeping bags are better and a small pillow.  GOD said some of them are hungry.  If you have a flask, put a hot drink in it, HE would appreciate it.  GOD said HE is sleeping out on the streets with the homeless.  GOD said if you have any old warm jumpers and spare woolly socks, bring them with you, it's cold! GOD said don't take the food or clothes to the shelters, they do not need them.  GOD said HE will protect you, come in twos if you are afraid, the people who need it are underneath the railway arches and in the doorways of buildings in the cities and on the streets. I wrote this song in 1994 after giving MY life to Jesus.  In 1983 I w...

credit: the verge “Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”   [Steve Jobs' Commencement Speech at Stanford, 12 June 2005.] ---------------------------------------------------- There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die … He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. [Ecclesiastes 3:1-2,11] Since the children have flesh and blood, [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by hi...

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make oura joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from allb sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our ...