a boy with his pet pigeon

Rebekah, the Irresistable

Yeshilkoy is nice!

Istanbul spring

step by step

In chaotic life situations God doesn’t want us to give up.
He has prepared a way out. The way might include hundreds
of smaller decisions that we have to make to the right direction.
Miracles sound like an easy way out.
Should we expect miracles from God or should we make more
efforts on our behalf? This is the dilemma of faith.
In a fatalistic faith structure believers recognize the sovereignty
of God but think too little of themselves.
In living faith everything is connected with our personal
relationship with God.
We are not just brainless victims in his irresistible kingdom,
we are his friends.
For some religious people it is an abomination to call God a friend.
They would argue that this attitude diminishes the authority of God
and makes him too human.
The incarnation of Christ is the true evidence that God is not
afraid of becoming human.
He has chosen to lead us step by step, thought by thought,
day by day. It almost looks like he wants to guarantee that we
talk with him daily.
“ and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matt. 28:20
“He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
Psalm 23:3

another coming to Eminonu

thinking about bread

The Jews could not figure out Jesus because they were
not spiritually oriented. When Jesus spoke of himself being
the bread from heaven they responded saying, “ How can
this man give us his flesh to eat.” John 6:52
Jesus didn’t explain too much, just continued speaking about
people’s need to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
Many got offended and followed him no more. John 6:66
Even the disciples were so often missing the amazing
revelations that Jesus taught them.
In Matthew 16 Jesus is teaching them to be on their guard
against legalism and the self-righteous teachings of the
Pharisees. They thought that he was rebuking them because
they had forgotten to take the bread.
Isn’t this often the situation with us, too? Our failures influence
our relationship with the Lord. We expect him to express his
disappointment with us when he actually sees us spotless and
beautiful and ministers to us accordingly.
In order for us to be spiritually minded we need to finally
accept the truth that “He chose us in Him, before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love…” Eph.1:4
“ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace.” Rom.8:6