A Mighty Fortress is Our God!

      A Couple weeks ago a few of the students and I went up to Königstein for the afternoon to see the castle there and also the mountains. I've been there before in the spring, but it was nice for some of the new students to see it.

It's a beautiful town.

Here's the town from the Top of the tower.

The remains of the castle. I can only imagine what it would have been like to visit this castle in the days of its use.

The Group of us that went. Johannes (Austrian), Me, Harri (Finnish), Sherry (Chinese), and Silja (Finnish). 

We actually all went down inside the castle where it was pitch-black darkness. Like you couldn't see anything. And it really brought to mind when in the Bible it talks about Utter Darkness. Like your eyes just keep trying to adjust, but they can't there is no light there at all. 

10          Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness,
    prisoners suffering in iron chains,
11 because they rebelled against God’s commands
    and despised the plans of the Most High.
12 So he subjected them to bitter labor;
    they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he saved them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,
    and broke away their chains.
15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
16 for he breaks down gates of bronze
    and cuts through bars of iron.

So many people in this world are in utter darkness, but God is light, and has also called us to light the world with the knowledge and glory of Him. When we came out of the darkness it was amazing to see everything in the light again. So it is the same, and much greater, when people who are in darkness come into the light of God's love for them.

A mighty fortress is our God,

a bulwark never failing;

our helper he amid the flood

of mortal ills prevailing.

For still our ancient foe

doth seek to work us woe;

his craft and power are great,

and armed with cruel hate,

on earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,

our striving would be losing,

were not the right man on our side,

the man of God's own choosing.

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is he;

Lord Sabaoth, his name,

from age to age the same,

and he must win the battle.

And though this world with devils filled,

should threaten to undo us,

we will not fear, for God hath willed

his truth to triumph through us.

The Prince of Darkness grim,

we tremble not for him;

his rage we can endure,

for lo, his doom is sure;

one little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers,

no thanks to them, abideth;

the Spirit and the gifts our ours,

though him who with us sideth.

Let goods and kindred go,

this mortal life also;

the body they may kill;

God's truth abideth still;

His kingdom is forever.

Amen.

Indonesian Style in Köln

      So last weekend I went to visit a friend of mine who lives in Köln (For Americans it's the German name for Cologne). It was only about 2 and a half hour bus ride from Frankfurt, and I got a good deal on the tickets. I left Friday morning and returned Sunday morning, so it was just a short trip.
      My friend picked me up at the Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) in Cologne and then since it was almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon we decided to look for some place to eat. But since my friend has only been there in Cologne for a couple months studying he didn't really know where to go to eat, so we ended up just getting some some stuff at the grocery store for the next couple of days and then heading back to his apartment. Then when we got there we just ordered pizza.
      Anyways enough details about the food.

      I really think that God worked it out for me to visit my friend at just the right time. He has been going through some difficulties in his life, and we were able to talk and share with each other and pray together. It was really some blessed time that we spent together. I don't believe that anything in our life is a coincidence. I really believe that God really does care greatly for his children here on earth, and that He does everything for their good.

     After praying and eating together my friend and I went out to explore Cologne. It started getting dark, but It was kind of nice to see the city lit up at night. We went to the KölnerDom (Cologne Cathedral) and we also went out on he bridge across the Rhine to view the city. After an hour or two we headed back to his apartment and got to bed.

      The next day we headed to the local Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cologne. It was a very warm and welcoming church, and what was a real blessing was that they had an English Sabbath School group! It was led by an American Pastor who is starting up an English Speaking church in Cologne. For church the German pastor along with some of the members shared an experience they had in Mozambique this summer building a school.
      After Church a family invited my friend and I over for lunch. They are from Indonesia but have been living here in Germany for quite some time. My friend also is from Indonesia. So for lunch we had Indonesian food, which was very good. The family was very warm and friendly to us.
      After eating we sang a few songs and then with one from the family as a tour guide we again went to visit the Altstadt (Old part of the City) in Cologne. She was very knowledgeable about the city and gave us a very good tour. Then we returned to their home and they shared some more food with us, which was a great blessing. It really was a wonderful Sabbath.

     We then headed back to my friends apartment, talked some and then went to bed. In the morning we ate, and then I had to get to the bus station, and then I headed back to Frankfurt.

The Football (Soccer) Stadium in Cologne.

Some Church Building or something that was partially bombed out during the Second World War and they never completely restored it.

The Main Shopping district.

I don't know the name of this church but it was quite impressive.

Here's the Cologne Cathedral.

Even after a couple hundred years its still not completed. They are still working on it.

A Little dark inside so it was a little blurry.

The Cathedral by night. On the right there are thousands and thousands of padlocks, where people "Lock" Their love together and then throw the key in the river.

Predicted Failure

       Just the other morning I was reading from 1 Kings 3:1-15. This is where God asks Solomon what He can give him, and Solomon asks for Wisdom. But I didn't even get to the main part of the story. I got stuck on verse one.

      "And Solomon made affinity with the Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaohs daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about."

      At first it doesn't look like there is much of interest in this verse, but look at it again. "Solomon made affinity with the Pharaoh king of Egypt." Other Bible translations render this word "affinity" as "Alliance" or "Contract." Then it goes on and says that Solomon "Took Pharaoh's daughter." Basically he married Pharaoh's daughter. So we have Solomon, the king of Israel, of God's people, making an alliance with a worldly king and even marrying his daughter. This was definitely not according to God's plan.
      First off God commanded the Israelites not to make any covenant or treaty with the pagan nations surrounding them in Exodus 23:31-32:

      "And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with them nor with their gods."
     
       Now sure, you could make an argument that here God is only talking about the people who are in the land of Caanan, not in other parts of the world. But I think the underlying concept is that by making an alliance with a pagan nation it would make it easy for the pagan gods and customs of that nation to be absorbed by Israel. This was ultimately what God was concerned about.
      Also prophetically in the Bible, Egypt represents Atheism. (See Exodus 5:2)

      There was another huge mistake that Solomon made though. He married Pharaoh's daughter. God had commanded the Israelites not to marry anyone from any other nations besides Israel in Deuteronomy 7:1-3:

      1. "When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusties, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
      2. "And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
      3. "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son."

      (Now Verse 2 is a topic for another study and is just in there for context.)
Verse 3 shows us that God did not design for the Israelites to marry non-believers. Why is this? Well Amos lays it out for us. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed."(Amos 3:3) So now of course we could give Solomon the benefit of the doubt and say that this Egyptian Princess had been converted, or that he converted her after she was married to him, but this even is dangerous. Later on Solomon marries other women who aren't of his faith, and this turns out badly for him. Look at 1 Kings 11:3, "And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart." Now the fact that he had so many wives is not what God wanted in the first place, but aside from that fact we see that Solomon must have thought himself immune to his wives religion. But they ended up turning his heart far away from God.

      Thus we see the downfall of Solomon at the very beginning of his "Ministry" or his reign. Is it possible that we as Christian young people can make the same mistake as Solomon? That right at the time we begin of working for God that we fall into temptation and marry a non-believer, or even a christian with beliefs that are different than our own. We could even marry a someone with the same beliefs as us, but who doesn't have the same mission as us, to carry the gospel to the world in this generation.
       Now maybe you are thinking about that one couple you know who got married, and one was a Christian and one wasn't and the Christian one ended up converting his or her spouse. I'm not doubting that this can happen. But 9 times out of 10 it doesn't end up that way. That's the exception. Sometimes Satan can even allow that to happen to someone so that others will stumble. They see that it worked for them, so it will work for me. But then it doesn't.
       I know that I'm probably not the most knowledgeable person in the subject, and I personally don't have any experience in this field, but I do see the example of Solomon, and of other young people who lose a lot, if not all of their usefulness for God because they made wrong decision in who they married. We are called to a high standard, especially in these last days.

      "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" -2 Corinthians 6:14

      "And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among who I dwell." -Abraham (Genesis 24:3)

      "Do not plow with an ox and donkey yoked together." -Deuteronomy 22:10

      "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?"-Amos 3:3

Don't make the same mistake as Solomon. Live up to the standard God has set for us. 

Do the right thing, come what may.

   

Afghan Hospitality

    So today was a great day! I had a lot of work to do in the office here at AFCOE-Europe in the morning, but after lunch I had an appointment to meet with a Afghan man I met a couple weeks ago.

      A couple of weeks ago I visited a mosque here in Frankfurt just out of curiosity, and to see if I could ask some questions about what they believed. There I ended up meeting this man who is from Afghanistan. He used to work with the American military in Afghanistan as a translator and project coordinator. He has been living here in Germany for quite some time though and is studying here. I asked him a few questions about Islam and what he believed, and he answered all my questions. After talking for about an hour I said that I had to go, and he asked if we could meet again to talk together about these subjects. He even invited me to maybe come some time to his house and eat with him and his family some traditional Afghan food.

      Fast forward to today. Like I mentioned above, this afternoon I went and met with this man at the mosque. He went in and prayed, and I waited outside. Then He asked me if I wanted something to drink, so I said "yeah sure." So we went in a room attached to the mosque and there were a few other men there and they poured me a very small cup of water. It was kinda weird, but I drank the water. Then my friend turned to me and said that the water is from Mecca and that someone had brought it back from there. He also said that it is special water than can heal you if you are sick. It didn't taste like anything special to me, but anyways, after the small drink I walked with my friend and his 4 year old son to his friends house which wasn't far away.
     We were graciously welcomed into this other mans home and we sat in the living room and I asked my friend questions about his faith, his family, Islam, and Afghanistan. It was quite a nice discussion. We were even able to talk about some stories from the Bible about Lot and Ishmael. This man though would make a great Christian. He is very dedicated to helping others. He even said that the way to love Allah (God) is to help people who need help.
      After about an hour and forty-five minutes of talking I was about to leave, but then they told me that there was a supper prepared and that I was invited to eat with them. They also said it was a huge part of their culture to feed their guests. So I decided to stay and eat with them.
      The food was traditional Afghan food. There was rice, some vegetables, salad, some chick peas, and Chicken. (I ate everything but the chicken of course). It was all very very tasty. And when we ate we sat on the floor and used our hands to eat with some Afghan flat bread. It was quite an interesting experience.
      After eating I had to head back to the AFCOE House, but was left with the promise from my friend that we would meet again. I feel very welcome with these Afghan people. In some ways they could teach us something about hospitality.

      So please pray for my friend and his family. He is married and has two sons. One of his sons is sick with some type of Virus in the hospital so please pray for him especially. Also pray that God will give me the words to speak with this man when we talk, and that I can also share my faith while I build a relationship with him.
      Pray for Muslims around the world though. God didn't put 1.6 billion people on this world not to be reached with the Gospel of Jesus' love. So pray that God sends people to work with these wonderful and hospitable people around the globe.

SUGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - or not.

        So it's been awhile since I've posted on my blog, but now that things are settling down after a crazy busy summer, hopefully I'll have more time to write some posts and testimonies and stuff.

        I'm back in Germany, and I'm going to be working with AFCOE-Europe as Outreach Coordinator for the next 9-months. But also while I am here I decided to put myself to a challenge. And the challenge is not eat sugar, (white sugar, brown, sugar, Maple Syrup, Honey, Agave, Corn Syrup ect.) or anything containing sugar, (Pastries, Condiments, Peanut Butter, Jelly, Cereals, ect.) until Christmas. But I am not removing fruit from the diet as those fruits have plenty of fiber, and are also in their original state.
       Why do this? Cause I believe that in the western diet we get far too much sugar, and it is crippling on the immune system, and also helps cancer to grow, as well as harm the body in many other ways. So I'm doing it for health, but also to test myself, and work on self-control. I'm trying to strengthen the mental faculties by denying myself of something that I enjoy.
        Also, since I believe we are called to do the best service we can to God, I don't want to weaken my body and thus be less useful in the work for God.

       I have 3 friends who have already joined me in this challenge. If you want to, you can to. Test yourself. I challenge you to stop eating sugar until Christmas. Or even for a shorter period of time.

"Self-denial is the test and definition of self-government." -G.K. Chesterton

Weekend Travels

So a few weekends ago we made a few excursions. Sabbath afternoon we went to Heidelberg and Worms again with that weeks teacher.

It was nice to be in Heidelberg again.

In these little places they used to place statues of saints. So Adina and I sat there. =D

Adina, Gurmej, and Che

Gurmej, Me, Aki, Christoph, and Max.

This is a castle that in Konigstein. We went here on Sunday.

The view from the tower was amazing!!!!

They were haying!

I loved this place!

Some of the crew.

-Goran 

Natalie, Anna, Christoph, and Vesna

This looks bad, but really its just orange juice, sparkling apple juice, and grape juice. I don't know why it had to be so fancy.

(Oh and and lot of these pictures are photos that Adina or Che took on my camera.)