Beautiful Lord

Enjoy this video and song called Beautiful Lord:))

A Triumph For Christianity in Qatar

With Islam on the march and warpath it may seem hopeless sometimes for some, but God is still in control in this world. Nothing is impossible with Him. The truth will stand even in darkness.

In the last few weeks in e-mails and during a chat with my Turkish boyfriend, he has expressed a desire to become a Christian. He says he wants us to be the same, and since as he says he dislikes Muslims because they think only about war and killing, he says he prays to Jesus now. His grandfather came from Greece and his grandmother from Bulgaria. He also told me recently that one of his grandfather's grandparents were Christians but was forced to become a Muslim by the Ottomans. I feel guilty because I have not be dilligent in sharing my faith, even with him. Still despite my laxity, he seems to be discovering Christ on his own. On a personal level Christianity may be triumphing.

Today I found this article about the first church being established in the Arab Gulf nation of Qatar. Truly God is in control and the church and the truth will not be defeated by darkness:

Christians in Qatar will celebrate Easter this year in a church for the first time in 14 centuries.

Next month, the St. Mary’s Catholic Church will be among the first of a series of churches to open its doors in the Qatar capital of Doha. Anglican, Greek Orthodox, and Coptic churches are expected to soon follow.

"A few years ago, opening a church in Qatar was sort of impossible, but Qatar has changed since the coming of the new emir,” Italian ambassador Igantio Di Pashi recently told a local Qatari newspaper, noting the significance of the country’s first church since the 7th century. (Continue)

Pakistani Christian Keeps On Preaching

I was and once again a big fan of a Christian radio station at Toccoa Falls College which is north of my town/city of Athens. In the last few weeks I have returned to the station to listen some evenings and also when I am dressing for work. What the station presents is a more intelligent and global way of telling about the Gospel instead of the usual American way of mixing politics with Christianity, or presenting God like a genie in the sky who will grant us all our worldly wishes for money and material things. What is occurring in the church widewide is often discussed. Last week a pastor from church in Bulgaria was interviewed. The week before I heard a news report about a street preacher in Pakistan.

The report said that there are few majority Christian neighborhoods in Pakistan. But in this case, where this Pakistani Christian was preaching on the street was one of only a few Christian communities in the country. While was he proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, two Muslim men came up to him and demanded that he stop preaching. He ignored them and continued doing what he was doing. The two men left, but showed up again and brutally attacked him. He was sent to the hospital, where he recovered. Once he was discharged, he went back to preaching in that neighborhood. At the time of the report it was said that the police had not yet located the preacher's attackers. In Pakistan it is said that when Christians are attacked or killed, the police tend to drag their feet in investigating such crimes.

Our Christian brothers and sisters in Islamic and non-Islamic nations like China and North Korea who live daily under the gun deserve so much praise and admiration for being determined to not back down when faced by so much hate, deception, and evil. They truly have the spirit of the early church, the spirit that God intended the church to have.

My Favorite Spot During My First Trip to Turkey

When I traveled to Turkey in May 2003 as a tourist, my favorite sacred spot that I was able to see in Istanbul was the church of St. Savior in Chora. The mosaics in this church (now museum) were to me masterpieces of Byzantine art. I also very was moved to see what looked to me like an artist's attempt to even portray the Holy Spirit. Information about the history of St. Savior can be read here.


Also you can see here frequent traveler to Turkey, Dick Osseman's photos of mosaics in the church.

For Christians who feel that YouTube is a worthless contaminant, these two videos from YouTube shows the usefulness of the site for Christians who seriously want to expand their knowledge of places and lands where Christianity was once the chief religion and where the love, hope, and peace of Jesus Christ must be taught again.

Knowing The One True God Alleviates Fear

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4) New King James Version

There is so much fear in the world now because so many people do not know the One True God. Fear drives people into murder and the biggest form of murder of all, war. Fear is causing people to close themselves off and not attempt to trust anyone. Fear is leading others down the road into intense depression. So many people live in fear on a personal, national, and international level.

I look daily at a blog written by a young Turkish guy who writes for a major newspaper in Istanbul, Turkey. I have traveled to Turkey 5 times, and have developed strong friendships with a number of people there. My boyfriend is Turkish and searching for God even without my help. He is a nominal Muslim, so perhaps the Holy Spirit in me has spurred him on to try and find the truth.

In Turkey I see a nation of people who are in a terrible spiritual struggle between secularists and Islamists. God and Satan are in a struggle for Turkish souls. There are a few Christians there to give off a little light, but in Turkey there is a form of opaque darkness. Turkey is where so much of the early church had its' home. Most American Christians do not know that New Testament books like Ephesians was written to the church in Ephesus which is in modern day Turkey.

Getting back to this young Turkish journalist who writes a political and cultural blog. I used to write on there, but he developed a very hostile, untruthful, and arrogant tone in his writing. When he eventually allowed a Turkish guy who lives here in the states, and who seems to be extremely bitter, paranoid, and hostile to begin writing there, I quit making comments. Over time this guy's blog has become an arena where he repeatedly expresses his four fears:

1.The European Union continues to drag its' feet on accepting Turkey as a full member.
2. Racism is rising worldwide, particularly against Turks in Germany.
3.The lie of the Armenian Genocide and the Armenian diapora's campaign against Turkey
4.The headscarf issue is the biggest issue in Turkey today.

For all his liberal and humane talk he never mentions the women, children, and old people who beg on the streets of Istanbul. He thrives on conspiracy theories against Turkey. I am African-American, and the word "racism" shows up on his blog more regularly than it does in my conversations in several months.

This poor guy shows obsessive tendencies, and it is really sad because he once wrote about art, literature, and Turkish history. Now all I see is helpless rage and pessimism. He is convinced that Germany is heading in the direction of another Kristallnacht and that the Neo-Nazis will take office in Germany and that there will be another Holocaust, but this time against Turkish Muslims. Are things really that bad in Germany? Anything can happen with people. But...

Then this guy starts about his fear that the present government in Turkey is moving the country down a path that will make it into another Iran ruled by imams. One of my best friends lives in Istanbul, and she voted for the Islamist party that is in power. She does not wear a headscarf, is educated, and does not feel that Turkey will become another Iran.

Over the past year since I began to follow his blog a blogger from the Netherlands who lives in Istanbul with his Turkish wife has tried to get him to see reason and to stop embellishing the truth. He has reached out to him, and even asked that they meet. This poor journalist seems to be so fearful and paranoid that he has yet to meet the older Dutch blogger.

Fear seems to have caused this blogger to not accept reality. A few weeks ago he made a post in which he claimed that only older Turks were addicted to smoking. This is totally untrue. There is huge concern because so many teenagers are addicted to nicotine there. When I worked in Istanbul, I would go upstairs to the canteen at our school where so many students, both male and female, would be smoking that the atmosphere in the area looked a smoky blue.

I had planned to write about something else here, but when I saw this blogger's entry for today, it did not touch me until a little later: Christina Who Saves The World. At first I laughed to myself because the title seemed so naive and childish, but then I thought "Christina" and then "Christ." Christ came in to the world to save it. He was promised by God from the very beginning after Adam and Eve fell. This little girl that this blogger is putting so much hope in CANNOT change the world or attitudes in her country permamently, only Christ CAN save this world. When I saw this title, I began to wonder if this was that blogger's silent outcry unknown even to him to the real God, not the Allah that he follows. I hope God is working on him.

This blogger and I used to exchange friendly e-mails about our common interests, but he always appeared to me as a young man who was very fearful. Even through a veneer of intellect, I saw a very weak side; a person who was stiff, lonely, and who was only comfortable with his education not really with people. I saw a person who believed he was tolerant of other opinions until someone disagreed with him. He seemed to have built a cocoon around himself, as one person commented the other day on his blog. It is really sad. I ask here that you pray for Emre (the name of this blogger) and his country and that the light of Jesus Christ can rescue so many people there who are searching and empty. Neither politics, the EU, the eradication of headscarves, their dead president who is also the secularist's God Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, or Allah can save Turkey.

Emre is not the only fearful Turk. I have met others in person who were fearful but unlike him were more humble and not quite as tormented.

Remember how often in The Bible that God would tell His people to "Fear not"? I wish Emre knew this.

"Fear not, neither be discouraged." (Deuteronomy 1:21) New King James Version

A New Discovery: GodTube

I was skeptical. I am still.

This week I glimpsed the title of an article on The Christian Post which had the words "GodTube" in it. Since I currently have The Christian Post as my homepage, I saw the article's title several times this week on my way going to other sites. One evening I finally stopped long enough to click on the title, and by doing so learned that GodTube which came into existence last year is the Christian answer to YouTube.

I admit that I love YouTube because it offers much to me who loves history, culture, art, music, and other cute curiosities such as videos of babies' reactions to eating their first lemon. Like I have said in an earlier post, I define myself as a "primitive" Christian, one who believes that the church in America needs to go back to its' roots and follow Christ's teaching of love, sacrifice, and pacifism. Elements in American Christianity need to see God as One who not only loves but Who also reserves the sole right to judge and to punish.

Too much of American Christianity is ruled by greed and ignorance of God and His Word The Bible. There are some preachers who meddle and dabble too much in politics. This has particularly been the case with the Bush administration where preachers like John Hagee has espoused pre-emptive strikes against Iran even though the country is mired in two wars. Many preachers, especially many African-American preachers have poor theological training and just preach God's Word according to how black preachers have traditionally gotten into their pulpits and spoken or shouted for generations. Others are slick con men and women. The problems in the end are not an issue of color because misinformation and deception are flowing from preachers of varying colors and of both genders. Church has become a business in America.

So often I do not find in American Christianity what I know The Bible and God is about. We do not have the humbleness or knowledge of the early church. It is very disturbing to see so much mediocrity and ignorance.

So what about GodTube? I cannot say very much right now. You watch and decide. The little that I have watched proves that Chris Wyatt, the CEO of GodTube and its' creator has offered nothing really creatively unique. Wyatt has admitted that he wanted to create a family friendly or sanitized version of YouTube. The idea in portions of the Christian community in America is that in order to draw more people to Christianity, the church should get ideas from popular culture and mold what it gets into a Christian copy. Often what popular culture itself offers is low in standard, so what the church ends up with is nothing to really inspire or bring a kind of passionate truth to the world.

The church in America is not growing. For all the effort and good intensions of those who create sites and items like GodTube or MyChurch.org, the Christian answer to MySpace.com, the end results are not profound and artistic. Where are the spices to jazz up the bland fare we get? Where are the Christian scholars, especially in the Protestant evangelical church here?

It may be too early to come to final negative critique of GodTube since it is young and hopefully evolving. For those who feel like me, lets hope it evolves into something as beautiful and innovative as pre-Renaissance and Renaissance Christian art. I own some Greek icons which I purchased when I visited the Greek island of Rhodes in 2003, so lets hope they can arrive at the level of primitive beauty and creativity of an icon at least.

Where are the artists and Christian intellectuals in America? We truly need them.

Here is GodTube's answer to Desperate Housewives called Desperate Housewives of The Bible. I did find it quite funny, but in the end still rather bland fare.

What Napoleon Had to Say About Jesus Christ

Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the greatest military geniuses of all time. He came from a modest background, but elevated himself through vision and hard work to become the emperor of the French. Born on the island of Corsica, his native language was not French, but Italian. Still over time Napoleon became more French than the French. He nearly united Europe by war, placing members of his family on several thrones in Europe. He was a man who believed in himself and saw himself as inheriting the mantles of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. But what did he think about Jesus Christ, this man who had a rather large ego and was very sure of himself and his abilities especially in the area of warfare?

Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force.

Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him.... I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man: none else is like Him; Jesus Christ was more than man.... I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me.... but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lighted up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts....

Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful!

In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is accountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers.

Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range.

This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

In his lifetime some saw Napoleon as the Anti-Christ because of the widespread devastation and suffering his wars of conquest brought to Europe. Napoleon's words show that even he was able to grasp the truth about Jesus Christ, something which some people who profess to be Christians are ill equipped to.