A week ago I started watching a new TV show - House. In today's episode there was this conversation that, I thought, was funny and worth sharing. But you really need to watch it on your own in order to get the same experience. It's first season third episode.
House: Make a note. I should never doubt myself.
Another doc: I think you'll remember. You know, it would hurt you to be wrong every now and then.
House: What? You don't care about these people?
That's what I call a healthy self-esteem:)
29 januára, 2010
28 januára, 2010
House of God Forever
A music video our our new band that we haven't named yet:) But it was lots of fun recording and (especially) editing :D
Btw, yes we know that the lyrics aren't related to what's going on in video in any way...but hey, it was recoded at our church...so goes the title: House of God Forever....:)
Voice: Kristian Lundgaard and Jeni Williams
Video and editing: Marek Tomašovič
Enjoy! :)
Btw, yes we know that the lyrics aren't related to what's going on in video in any way...but hey, it was recoded at our church...so goes the title: House of God Forever....:)
Voice: Kristian Lundgaard and Jeni Williams
Video and editing: Marek Tomašovič
Enjoy! :)
14 januára, 2010
That's a ministry!
About a month ago I read how one can minister in a prison (even if you're a part of the prison). This is an excerpt from the article that was published at DesiringGod.org, that you can read HERE:
This prison (Angola Prison in Angola, Louisiana) is the largest maximum-security prison in America. It is one of the most famous prisons in the whole world. It has only murderers, rapists, armed robbers and habitual felons. The average sentence is 88 years, with 3,200 people in one place serving life sentences. Ninety percent of the inmates will die here. This is a place of hopelessness, so if Angola can change, the rest of the country’s prisons can’t say, “We can’t do this.”
There is a local extension of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in the prison and about 140 prisoners are enrolled. There are six churches in the prison and they train their own pastors. They send trained “missionaries” to other prisons to plant churches. They do this without using any tax money. But O the money—and lives—it saves!
Violence in the prison is rare. Courtesy and respect is pronounced. The ministry team of women who were visiting at the same time we were said they were treated with more respect from prisoners here, than in many places on the “outside.” Public profanity is not allowed.
The 42-inch church bell hangs high over the chapel in a prisoner-built tower. They rescued the bell from storage where it had been put after falling and killing a man. Some of the prisoners say: The bell killed a man and we killed a man, but now the bell and we serve the Lord Jesus.
I preached with all my heart to those who could fit in the chapel, and to the rest by closed circuit television. G.B. (and three others on Death Row) told me they’d be watching. I pulled no punches:
This prison (Angola Prison in Angola, Louisiana) is the largest maximum-security prison in America. It is one of the most famous prisons in the whole world. It has only murderers, rapists, armed robbers and habitual felons. The average sentence is 88 years, with 3,200 people in one place serving life sentences. Ninety percent of the inmates will die here. This is a place of hopelessness, so if Angola can change, the rest of the country’s prisons can’t say, “We can’t do this.”
There is a local extension of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in the prison and about 140 prisoners are enrolled. There are six churches in the prison and they train their own pastors. They send trained “missionaries” to other prisons to plant churches. They do this without using any tax money. But O the money—and lives—it saves!
Violence in the prison is rare. Courtesy and respect is pronounced. The ministry team of women who were visiting at the same time we were said they were treated with more respect from prisoners here, than in many places on the “outside.” Public profanity is not allowed.
The 42-inch church bell hangs high over the chapel in a prisoner-built tower. They rescued the bell from storage where it had been put after falling and killing a man. Some of the prisoners say: The bell killed a man and we killed a man, but now the bell and we serve the Lord Jesus.
I preached with all my heart to those who could fit in the chapel, and to the rest by closed circuit television. G.B. (and three others on Death Row) told me they’d be watching. I pulled no punches:
For 90% of you the next stop is not home and family, but heaven or hell. O what glorious news we have in that situation. And believe me it is not the prosperity of Gospel. Jesus came and died and rose again not mainly to be useful, but to be precious. And that he can be in Angola as well as Atlanta. Perhaps even more.
12 januára, 2010
Does this game work? :)
Dominik and I as we're trying out a game for Dorast (we had to make sure it's playable:) And it was! :D
09 januára, 2010
John Piper on prosperity Gospel (new one)
This is a transcript I made of Q&A that John Piper gave at Angola Prison, LA on November 19, 2009:
Satan has two ways to destroy your faith.
One: pain
Two: pleasure
He can kill you either way. He can make you so painful you curse him. Or so pleasurable your forget him. I think pleasure kills more people in this world, way more, then pain. Way more! Have you ever heard anybody say: I got to know Jesus more deeply in the bright sunny days then I did any other day. You never hear anybody to say that. What is hear every day of your life, almost, is: When the lights went out in my life I found Jesus. When the things got hard in my life Jesus showed up. So I just don't buy the prosperity thing. I don't buy that you have to be well, you don't have to be out of prison, you don't have to get a good job, you don't have to get a good wife. None of these prospers things are the sure signs of God's blessing. Blessing comes in forms you never dreamed. And if you're a child of God I'll tell you in what form it comes in: every form!
All things work together for good for those that love God according to his purpose. So you keep loving God and you know that everything is working…everything's working.
Source: DesiringGod.org
Satan has two ways to destroy your faith.
One: pain
Two: pleasure
He can kill you either way. He can make you so painful you curse him. Or so pleasurable your forget him. I think pleasure kills more people in this world, way more, then pain. Way more! Have you ever heard anybody say: I got to know Jesus more deeply in the bright sunny days then I did any other day. You never hear anybody to say that. What is hear every day of your life, almost, is: When the lights went out in my life I found Jesus. When the things got hard in my life Jesus showed up. So I just don't buy the prosperity thing. I don't buy that you have to be well, you don't have to be out of prison, you don't have to get a good job, you don't have to get a good wife. None of these prospers things are the sure signs of God's blessing. Blessing comes in forms you never dreamed. And if you're a child of God I'll tell you in what form it comes in: every form!
All things work together for good for those that love God according to his purpose. So you keep loving God and you know that everything is working…everything's working.
Source: DesiringGod.org
21 decembra, 2009
On God's Wisdom...
God's wisdom is also shown is our individual lives. "We know that God works all things together for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28, author's translation). Here Paul affirms that God does work wisely in all the things that come into our lives, and that through all these things he advances us toward the goal of conformity to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). IT SHOULD BE OUR GREAT CONFIDENCE AND A SOURCE OF PEACE DAY BY DAY TO KNOW THAT GOD CAUSES ALL THINGS TO MOVE US TOWARD THE ULTIMATE GOAL HE HAS FOR OUR LIVES...
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology; p. 194
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology; p. 194
20 decembra, 2009
My preaching and how’d it go...
First of all I want to thank you all for your prayers. I know that there were many people praying for me. It was a big day for me and I really felt your support in prayers. Well, it’s been a week. But I still remember it pretty well. So let me share with you about it.
The thing was that the night before I had prom…so you get the point:) But preaching was my priority and so I left earlier (well, I was the first one that got out of there). I woke up at 6am and went to the church. I went there to pray. For myself and also for those that would hear the message. It was an interesting time when I was struggling with a question of what can older people receive from my preaching? You know, like 40 yrs old and people in their 50s… What about them? What can a teenager boy tell them? Then I realized…what was it that God said? It goes like this:
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:10-11
So it’s not MY job to make sure that it’s going to touch people’s lives. It’s HIS job and I can rest on that. The verse that God gave me to get ready and to fight just minutes before my preaching was a verse from Proverbs 1:33 that says:
But whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.
So I just pleaded with God. I prayed: God, I just want to listen to You and tell them what I hear from You. Not more, not less. And I really want to listen to you and I know that when I do – I don’t have to be afraid, for it is You I listen to!
It was amazing to stand up there. You know what I remember? Feelings and thoughts? Nothing! I don’t know...but it was just that I was there and preaching. I didn’t care at all that it’s my first preaching, or that I’m being recorded, or that there are almost 50 people staring at me (including my parents, my friends from school and MANY other “special” people). It just all passed me by. I was so into preaching and the Word that I had NO idea and interest about those things. It was there just me serving the Lord. And what a great feeling to be used by God! I didn’t pay any attention to me being there – but wanted Christ to be there and be speaking through me.
So speaking for myself I enjoyed it and loved it. It just felt right to me that I was preaching and I felt that I was at the right place at the right moment. But feedback is really important and so I cared how useful it was to people. I was afraid that it was useful only to me…I’ve learnt a lot along the way but I failed at passing it down to the congregation – at least that‘s how I felt. But those people didn’t feel like that at all. Actually I’ve received lots of positive feedback. People were encouraged and blessed by the ministry and I was really thankful for that.
Later our pastor told me (when he was giving me feedback) that I can start thinking of another topic for my next sermon. So yes, I will preach again. But that’s not going to be any earlier then in the spring. What will I do till then? Just read the Proverbs:) I will listen to the LORD and I will dwell secure and without fear!
Marek
The thing was that the night before I had prom…so you get the point:) But preaching was my priority and so I left earlier (well, I was the first one that got out of there). I woke up at 6am and went to the church. I went there to pray. For myself and also for those that would hear the message. It was an interesting time when I was struggling with a question of what can older people receive from my preaching? You know, like 40 yrs old and people in their 50s… What about them? What can a teenager boy tell them? Then I realized…what was it that God said? It goes like this:
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:10-11
So it’s not MY job to make sure that it’s going to touch people’s lives. It’s HIS job and I can rest on that. The verse that God gave me to get ready and to fight just minutes before my preaching was a verse from Proverbs 1:33 that says:
But whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.
So I just pleaded with God. I prayed: God, I just want to listen to You and tell them what I hear from You. Not more, not less. And I really want to listen to you and I know that when I do – I don’t have to be afraid, for it is You I listen to!
It was amazing to stand up there. You know what I remember? Feelings and thoughts? Nothing! I don’t know...but it was just that I was there and preaching. I didn’t care at all that it’s my first preaching, or that I’m being recorded, or that there are almost 50 people staring at me (including my parents, my friends from school and MANY other “special” people). It just all passed me by. I was so into preaching and the Word that I had NO idea and interest about those things. It was there just me serving the Lord. And what a great feeling to be used by God! I didn’t pay any attention to me being there – but wanted Christ to be there and be speaking through me.
So speaking for myself I enjoyed it and loved it. It just felt right to me that I was preaching and I felt that I was at the right place at the right moment. But feedback is really important and so I cared how useful it was to people. I was afraid that it was useful only to me…I’ve learnt a lot along the way but I failed at passing it down to the congregation – at least that‘s how I felt. But those people didn’t feel like that at all. Actually I’ve received lots of positive feedback. People were encouraged and blessed by the ministry and I was really thankful for that.
Later our pastor told me (when he was giving me feedback) that I can start thinking of another topic for my next sermon. So yes, I will preach again. But that’s not going to be any earlier then in the spring. What will I do till then? Just read the Proverbs:) I will listen to the LORD and I will dwell secure and without fear!
Marek
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