Suffering

This is something i read.


This world is no stranger to suffering. The last one hundred years--which saw greater technological and medical advances than people living in previous centuries could ever have imagined--witnessed suffering, pain, and despair on a nearly inconceivable scale. Disease and sickness, earthquakes and other natural disasters, war and genocide, poverty and death--a stranger to Earth might be forgiven for concluding that suffering was the defining element of our world.

And suffering in its myriad varieties continues to this day, scaled to fit our everyday lives. We--and people we know and see around us--struggle daily against a world full of pain, a world full of hurts that seem to serve no purpose beyond inflicting misery. Some people struggle to feed and shelter their families; others to understand the loss of a loved one, to find the strength to keep standing beneath the weight of a terrible illness, to lift their eyes to heaven and demand an answer to the age-old question: "Why, God, why?"

I don't know what you're suffering. Maybe it's one of these horrors. Perhaps it's much more personal, more mundane. We each live unique lives with unique hurts, sharing in common an experience of a world that just doesn't seem to work like it should. Each of us suffers personally, in ways that no other person can understand.

Is there hope? Is there an answer to be found? There is, although we may not see it yet. In the meantime, this most important fact remains: we do not suffer alone. That is the promise of God. "... we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:17-8). "For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows" (2 Corinthians 1:5).

Breath Of Heaven (Mary's song)

Sometimes

Sometimes, it’s hard to be loved. It’s hard having people who care about you and care about what happens to you. So if you get hurt, it hurts them too.

Sometimes, it’s hard to be strong. It’s hard to keep smiling when all you want to do is cry. It’s hard to keep moving forward when all you want to do is turn and run away, to hide from the world.

Sometimes, it’s hard to see the good in your life. It’s hard to see all the wonderful things God has placed in your life. It’s hard to focus on the good and not the bad.

Sometimes, it’s hard to focus on now. It’s hard to move on from all the hurt in your life. It’s hard to forget. It’s hard to forgive. It’s hard to look to the future, instead of looking to the past.


But that’s just sometimes. What about the times when those things aren’t so hard?


Sometimes, being loved is the best thing in the world, knowing that no matter what, you have people who care about you, who are there for you, who will support you.

Sometimes, being strong comes easy. When using the strength of God in you, staying strong and
persevering with life doesn’t seem so much of a struggle and it becomes easier to face the world.

Sometimes, all the good things in your life are so evident, that you wonder what you did to deserve them all. You can see the true beauty of the things that you have. And when they’re staring you in the face and are just so amazingly overwhelming, how can you not concentrate on them?

Sometimes, all the other things are so great that they override the bad. Sometimes, you’re so busy loving the life you have now, that for those moments the past hurts don’t matter. Yes, sometimes it is hard to forgive and forget, but as time moves on it gets easier. As the bad is becoming overridden, and becomes to hurt less, it becomes easier to forgive, it may take a while, but eventually it will be possible. And although the memories are still there, they are thought about less and less, as more good things fill your life.



When the sometimes are hard, don’t focus on them. Instead focus of the other times. Focus on the sometimes that are easier, that are good.


Philippians 4:8
   And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (NLT)

And maybe eventually, the good sometimes will happen more often.

what i'm learning next!!

You.

By: Amena J. Brown

You find me when I'm hiding behind all my disguises
You see me. It takes you to keep me, breathing
You are heart, Passion, Vision, Word Incision
You send me and you bring me close, Close, close, closer
Until when you look at me you see you
You are heavenly, My present and future destiny
You are Father, Creator, Sustainer, Life changer, Pride breaker
You are yesterday today and forever, You are pleasure
You are worth, Reason, Present in every season
You are worship, Devotion, You are the reason for all my commotion
You are the one that I pray to, You can tell that I'm nothing without you
So awesome that I can pray to you about you, To know you, To sense you
To believe you more, To love you more, To obey you more, To give you more of my heart

Oh God search me, Know me, See me, Examine me, Test me, Love me, Watch me, Protect me, Show me, Investigate me,
Be pleased with me, Question me, Keep me, Change me, Have me, Correct me, Take me, Help me, Create in me,
Break in on me, Be my reality, Sustain me, Decrease me, Decrease me, Decrease me, Decrease me,
Until there is no me left, Only you, Only you, Only you

You are light, Are true, Are you, Are hope, Are love, Are strength, Are escape, rescue, safe
You are peace, You are belief, You are advance and retreat, Of what, to what, to whom can I compare you?
You are my all things new, You are my place of refuge
You are my fortress, My rest, My creativity in the strength of your words to me
You are my ability to see, hear, feel, move, live, breathe, be,
You are life and death all at the same time
You are friend, You are believer, savior, redeemer
You are today tomorrow and the next day, And the next day, and the next day, and the next day
You are truth, You transcend old age and youth,
You are timeless, priceless, lightness in darkness, greatness, goodness, sinless
And in a mess like my life you see righteousness, You leave me speechless
You... alone.... are God.

it got me thinking......

The upcoming showcase has got me thinking about i61 and why i go. Here's what i've come up with!


i61, church in a pub, what's that all about? Introduced to it by Cherie i came for for the first time, not really knowing what to expect, but having the image of the traditional church in my head, well....i was wrong about that! Everyone was so friendly, it was strange, strange because people wanted to know who i was, i wasn't just there, not being noticed, i was welcomed into it. I loved the worship (and still do!) it wasn't singing hymns from hymn books, it was modern and it was great. A new church for the new generation.
So why did i keep going? well, there was something different about it, and i don't just mean the music or the fact that it was in a pub, there was something else. So i kept going, getting to know more of the people who went, interacting more with the things that they were doing, and i loved it.

i61 isn't like the other churches, like, when someone has a problem in their lives, Steve and Gill don't just give them the Bible and tell them that they'll find the answers they need in there, they find the answers for them, they make it more personal, they connect with all the people. i61 reaches into the community, not to find the people who are already christians and have been for a long time, who go to church regularly and whose lives are great, no, they reach out to find the people who are lonely, who need guidance, who need to be told that they are loved, and they become their friend, they show them the way through things and tell them time and time again that they are loved by God.

i61 is more than just a church, it's a family, everyone cares about everyone else, and just like being part of a family, it's a great thing to belong to. I'm proud to say that i am a part of the greatest church around, and the greatest family too!!

evolution of dance

why post this video, you may ask? the answer is simple, coz it made me laugh!! and every one can do with something to make them laugh now and again!

love it!!