Articles

How to be saved?

2013-12-06T13:13:35Z

The author of article - Igor Kudryashov - Pastor of Udomlya Baptist church.

Parents and children

2010-12-01T08:18:36Z

“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Ps. 127,3).

At one school children were asked to answer a question, what words do they hear often at home. It has appeared that more than half of children in the answer to this question wrote: «I don't have time». So more often parents answer the children.

The girl has asked the father to tell to it a fairy tale. He has told. "Once again", – the girl asked. The patient father has told once again. And when the girl asked the same fairy tale to tell in the third time, the father told: «I don't have time», but to comply with the request of the daughter, he has told a fairy tale on the recorder and told: «Well here, now you can use the tape recorder and listen how many you want».

«But the father, – the girl answered, – I can't sit down to this device on knees, as to you». It means, that it is important not only an interesting fairy tale, but fellowship with the loving father and mother.

Children are wonderful creations of God, and parents should be ready to bringing up their worthy citizens of the sky and the earth. Parents should care not only of that their children were live or that they were as more as possible richer, but parents have to aspire to that their children mind to fill with wisdom. After all wisdom is more expensive than jewels and pearls; everything to what people aspire, it is impossible to compare to wisdom. “Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour” (Prov. 3,16). A tree of life at those who seizes it, and those who will keep it are happy.

While the soul still is capable to formation, is gentle and soft, like wax easily embodies in itself images, it is necessary, without hesitating hour to induce it to good. When the wisdom will be formed, then the initial bases of piety will be already put. Then the wisdom will inspire useful, and skill will facilitate success. A young tree is easier to force to grow anyhow, than the adult tree.

The kind example happens better any lecture.

Don't forget it, fathers and mothers. Find time for employment with children.

P.Shatrov

Justification and condemnation words

2010-12-01T08:15:17Z

“For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Mt. 12,37).

In snow mountains of Switzerland conductors warn travelers that they didn't say any word as from the slightest fluctuation of air the hung snow can start moving and there will be the collapse which is carrying away all in a precipice.

Who would think what one word can cause such terrible consequences? However moral influence of our words inexpressibly is more considerable. Rash words which we so easily waste, move events within centuries, and great day of court will find out terrible consequences of our words, this day we will give the account «for each idle word».

It is terrible to think of set of the told words which will appear before us then with relentless clearness. «Idle words» are what arise from idle life, a word unnecessary, thoughtless. Such mere words passing by word of mouth, quite often blacken moral shape of the person, put wounds, express gloating at the sight of another's failure and become cruel.

The idle words are also the conversations interfering in secret area of home life which under the pretext of a joke or an inappropriate hint can shake bases of family happiness.

We would speak a little if constantly remembered that our words are heard in the sky and that we will find in them for ourselves the justification or condemnation in the Doomsday. We have to remember that one of Jesus Christ names – the Word (Jn. 1,1).

It is impossible to return the told word back. And therefore let our words will be just, simple, frank, benevolent and loveful. After all the word is a mirror of heart and soul of the person. The Bible says: ”Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Col. 4,6).

P.Shatrov

Gianna Jessen Abortion Survivor

2010-12-01T08:07:34Z

Gianna Jessen

Testimony of abortion survivor Gianna Jessen before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on April 22, 1996.

My name is Gianna Jessen. I am 19 years of age. I am originally from California, but now reside in Franklin, Tennessee. I am adopted. I have cerebral palsy. My biological mother was 17 years old and seven and one-half months pregnant when she made the decision to have a saline abortion. I am the person she aborted. I lived instead of died.

Fortunately for me the abortionist was not in the clinic when I arrived alive, instead of dead, at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of April 6, 1977. I was early, my death was not expected to be seen until about 9 a.m., when he would probably be arriving for his office hours. I am sure I would not be here today if the abortionist would have been in the clinic as his job is to take life, not sustain it. Some have said I am a "botched abortion", a result of a job not well done.

There were many witnesses to my entry into this world. My biological mother and other young girls in the clinic, who also awaited the death of their babies, were the first to greet me. I am told this was a hysterical moment. Next was a staff nurse who apparently called emergency medical services and had me transferred to a hospital.

I remained in the hospital for almost three months. There was not much hope for me in the beginning. I weighed only two pounds. Today, babies smaller than I was have survived.

A doctor once said I had a great will to live and that I fought for my life. I eventually was able to leave the hospital and be placed in foster care. I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a result of the abortion.

My foster mother was told that it was doubtful that I would ever crawl or walk. I could not sit up independently. Through the prayers and dedication of my foster mother, and later many other people, I eventually learned to sit up, crawl, then stand. I walked with leg braces and a walker shortly before I turned age four. I was legally adopted by my foster mother's daughter, Diana De Paul, a few months after I began to walk. The Department of Social Services would not release me any earlier for adoption.

I have continued in physical therapy for my disability, and after a total of four surgeries, I can now walk without assistance. It is not always easy. Sometimes I fall, but I have learned how to fall gracefully after falling 19 years.

I am happy to be alive. I almost died. Every day I thank God for life. I do not consider myself a by-product of conception, a clump of tissue, or any other of the titles given to a child in the womb. I do not consider any person conceived to be any of those things.

I have met other survivors of abortion. They are all thankful for life. Only a few months ago I met another saline abortion survivor. Her name is Sarah. She is two years old. Sarah also has cerebral palsy, but her diagnosis is not good. She is blind and has severe seizures. The abortionist, besides injecting the mother with saline, also injects the baby victims. Sarah was injected in the head. I saw the place on her head where this was done. When I speak, I speak not only for myself, but for the other survivors, like Sarah, and also for those who cannot yet speak ...

Today, a baby is a baby when convenient. It is tissue or otherwise when the time is not right. A baby is a baby when miscarriage takes place at two, three, four months. A baby is called a tissue or clumps of cells when an abortion takes place at two, three, four months. Why is that? I see no difference. What are you seeing? Many close there eyes...

The best thing I can show you to defend life is my life. It has been a great gift. Killing is not the answer to any question or situation. Show me how it is the answer.

There is a quote which is etched into the high ceilings of one of our state's capitol buildings. The quote says, "Whatever is morally wrong, is not politically correct." Abortion is morally wrong. Our country is shedding the blood of the innocent. America is killing its future.

All life is valuable. All life is a gift from our Creator. We must receive and cherish the gifts we are given. We must honor the right to life.

Gianna Jessen Abortion Survivor in Australia Part 1

Gianna Jessen Abortion Survivor in Australia Part 2

Birth again

2010-12-01T08:04:35Z

“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1,18)

On the island of Pacific ocean the Christian missionary worked among natives. Many people listened to his hot evangelical sermon, and some of them accepted it by heart. One of the savages who have believed in Jesus Christ, more others penetrating into the new doctrine, wanted to have a talk with the missionary alone and came to his home.

«Whether you can explain to me, – he has told, – why I have now absolutely other thoughts and feelings, than before? After all you know, how I willingly listen to your sermons; but all the same before attracted me to habitual sinful life; now – all was changed. Nothing attracts me to a sin, and now with a great pleasure I read the Scripture. When my former companions try to entice me and to force to forget everything I learned from you, it isn't possible to them.

– «Tell, how do you explain yourself such changes?» – missionary has asked him.

– «I think, – but hardly I dare to state it, – that the Holy Spirit makes in me this change, averting my heart from a sin and involving in God».

His words breathed deep belief, and all his being, appear, has been got by awe. The new born Christian was right, as we see from the Bible: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Heb. 8,10).

The birth again is a merge of divine life to human soul. This change, or penetration, a divine nature in a human soul does us by children of God. The birth again is a new birth, and it informs us the new nature of Holy Spirit. Therefore we never can begin new life, we will not be born again, yet we will not accept the new nature. The Christianity is a divine life in heart of the person who was born again.

P.Shatrov

The Christ died for our sins

2010-12-01T08:02:38Z

“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3)

In one small city an old woman lived. Her heart burned with fire of love to the Lord and people, and she wanted very much to tell to people about love of God, but she was weak and sick, her feet swelled up, so she hardly moved from one place to another. She was absolutely lonely, and very few people knew her, but her window sill knew all people: it always was decorated with flowers.

The old woman decided to use the window in glory of God and on advantage to people. She found a piece of a cardboard and asked to write on it large color letters of a word: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3,16). The old woman has put this cardboard among colors and began to observe of the passing people.

One of them went indifferently, others stopped and read Bible words. An elderly Christian woman prayed for each of them to the Lord that these words have sunk down in their hearts.

Once her attention has been involved by the girl who some times came back to a window, again and again reading the written words. The old woman began to pray for her even more. In two days she heard a knock at a door. This girl entered and asked the old woman: «Really is it the truth, what God loves me? Really He can forgive me?»

Elderly christian explained to the girl that these words are taken from the Bible, are undoubtedly they are true, and woman suggested the girl to pray together with her. The heart of the girl was full of a sin and grief, but now she found a consolation in Jesus Christ, Who has died for her sins.

In death of Christ God has made some things for the person, which he was unable make for himself. Without death of Jesus Christ there could not be a pardon of sins and, hence, rescue. The Christ has died for us, that is instead of us. Go to Him!

P.Shatrov

The changed cross

2010-12-01T08:00:31Z

“And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Mt. 10,38).

There is a Christian poem «the Changed cross». It is told about one woman which believed that a cross which has dropped out on its share, the heaviest and that its all associates had crosses incomparably easier, and she wanted to change her cross, and to choose to herself another instead of it.

At night she has dreamed that she is in a premise where many crosses of the various form and size have been spread out. Between them there was a small cross of the marvelous beauty, all decorated with gold and jewels.

«Ah, I could bear this cross without any difficulty», – she has told. She has raised it, but her weak camp has begun to tremble all under its weight. Gold and jewels were fine by sight, but their weight was not on forces to her.

Then she has seen the wonderful cross decorated with a graceful carving and all twisted fine flowers. «Here this, undoubtedly, will approach». She took it, but under flowers there were sharp thorns which have wounded her hands till bleeds disappeared.

So she continued the way while at last she hasn't come across a simple cross without any ornaments from jewels, without a carving, but only with the several words written on it. She has lifted it, and it has seemed to her the most convenient and easier than others. Considering it at bright rays of light, she has recognized in it an own cross. She has found it again, and it has appeared best of all and most easy for her.

God knows better, what cross we are capable to bear. Any man or woman has his own cross which is absolutely distinct from all other crosses. Therefore as it is impossible to exchange medicines so it is impossible to exchange a cross too.

Any of us on a way to eternal pleasures should bear the cross up to the end. What is this cross? It consists of our struggle against sin, passions and defects. Our cross is illnesses, sufferings which we should undergo in our life.

P.Shatrov

Fellowship with Jesus Christ

2010-12-01T07:57:59Z

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2,20).

Hindu minister Sadu Sundar Synge told that during the travel across the Himalayas it once, sitting on the bank of small small river, took a stone lying in water, and has broken it whether to look wet it inside. It has appeared that it was absolutely dry though many years was in water.

There are same firm hearts, as this stone. They live in God because God omnipresent, but God doesn't live in their hearts. It is necessary, that heart was similar to a sponge. A sponge in water and water in a sponge – they as though one, though a sponge is not water, and water is not a sponge. And our hearts should be in God, and God – in hearts.

Everyone who has fellowship with Jesus Christ, has incorporated to Sacred God, as the child with the father. It is possible to tell with confidence that all people anyhow heard about God. It is possible to have extensive enough knowledge about Him, however all these knowledges remain abstract data until we personally won't meet the Lord. Only at personal meeting with Jesus Christ, only in live and delightful fellowship with Him, our knowledge about God revive and start to shine with unearthly beauty.

Without sweet Jesus Christ is bitterly to live in this very poor world. It is better to suffer scarcity and to be with Christ, rather than out of fellowshipwith Him to abound with all everyday. It is better to lose all things in the world, rather than to lose Jesus Christ: He will remunerate all deprivations one hundred times, and deprivation Him can't be rewarded possession of the whole world. People, who gets Jesus Christ loses nothing.

What joyful experience is to wake up every morning and to perceive that He is here at a room! What joyful experience is to learn every evening at a sunset the God’s world! Any place becomes a temple with Jesus Christ!

P.Shatrov

Open your heart to the Lord

2010-11-30T19:37:18Z

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Mt. 15,8)

One soldier stayed on a post at the entrance to military unit. Suddenly he hears: there is a car, he looked and saw that there has arrived the person on duty, severe enough captain. The soldier has become straight and has risen on a rack "quietly". The captain looked at him and told: «Listen, the good fellow, your honor isn't necessary to me, open to me a collar that I could drive on military unit territory». The soldier ran to open gate.

So many people, calling the Christians, do the same with Jesus Christ. They salute Him in the different ways, but their hearts are closed for Him. They pray to Him, glorify Him, sing to Him, but the doors of their hearts are closed for Him. What for are our honors to Jesus Christ if we don't give Him a due place in our hearts?

In the Jewish language a word meaning "heart" not quite coincides with its value in modern European languages. The physiological meaning is, of course, identical. But other values are rather excellent. A word "heart" causes representation in us only about feelings. In the Jewish language a word "heart" designates «internal essence of the person» in very wide sense. The word "heart" includes not only feelings (Ps. 21,2), but also memoirs and thoughts, intentions and decisions. God gave a heart to people to think. Psalms tell about «thoughts of hearts» of God: “The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Ps. 32,11). Width of heart (1 King 4,29) means width of knowledge, «give your heart to me» (Prov. 23,26) can mean «be attentive to my words and enter your heart for Me », and «fierce heart» speaks about a dull brain.

Jesus Christ wants, we give Him a due place in our hearts. He speaks: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3,20).

P.Shatrov

Give your heart to me

2010-11-30T19:35:48Z

“My son, give me thine heart” (Prov. 23,26)

Roland Gill preached in one of big cities of England. During his sermon madam Anna Erskin entered into a hall, she wasto known to all city as the riches and beauty the woman. She was the welcome guest everywhere, but very rare guest in church.

Suddenly Roland Gill interrupted the sermon, gave a hand forward and told: «Here there is madam Anna Erskin, welcome!» Also he loudly asked the gathered people: «Who wants to buy a soul of madam Erskin?»

After a strange question, a few having kept silent, he continued:

- «I see many buyers, each of which wants to possess it. The world, what you will give?»

– «I will give magnificence, glory, respect and many good days».

– «Is it more than anything? And what about eternal life?»

– «I don’t have it!»

– «Then your price is too low for me. The world, you won't receive it! What sense to our madam if she receives the whole world, but her soul will damage?»

– «well, a Satan, what you will give to us?»

– «I will give the provided life. She can execute all her desires and live how it is pleasant to her».

– «Also what you demand for it?»

– «Her soul. She should become my property».

– «Your price is too high, a devil. You won't receive her. You are the murderer from the beginning, the deceiver and the father of lie».

– «And now Jesus Christ, what do You give?»

– «I have given the life for this madam. I have spilled the Blood for her on a cross. I want to give to her soul the world, rest and pleasure. And when she will finish the earthly way, I promise to take her to Myself to the Heavens».

– «Also what do You demand for all these gifts?»

– «Her sins, her vicious conscience, everything that presses and weighs her, I demand from her».

– «You will receive her, Jesus Christ, she is Yours and should belong to You eternally. Madam Erskin, are you happy?»

– «Yes!» – she has answered with a loud and firm voice. And Anna Erskin has kept the word. She devoted all further life to service to the Lord, Which has pulled out her and us from a death and sin ditch.

P. Shatrov