Love Makes Life Beautiful

For a moment let’s put our imagination to work. Imagine a world without hills, mountains and the valleys that outline the painting of earth. Imagine a world without flowers, plants and trees that colors this canvas with its gorgeousness. Image a world without streams and falls, rivers, lakes and seas that brings life to this work of art. Imagine a world without the sun, the moon and the stars that frames these creations. Imagine a world without the birds of the skies, the fishes and the creatures of the waters and the wildlife that wander the lands, giving details to this drawing. The world will be a very sad place to be in without all this brilliant elements of nature.

The same could be said about love. Imagine a life without love. Life will be a tragedy. As much as humans need air to stay alive, we need love to live that life. Love gives us purpose and it motivates us to be a better person each day. When we fall, love carries us back to our feet and love helps us to find our way back when we are lost. Love turns our smiles into laughter and love gives meaning to our tears. With love we are able to feel and because of love we could stand the pain. Love creates and love builds to greatness. Love destroys and defeats evil. Love sacrifices and love gives without expectation.

Mother embracing her newborn close to her breast and a son holding his mother near to his heart, there is love. Father holding the hands of his girl as she takes her first step, and a daughter leading her father by his hands as he takes his few last steps, there is love. When two very different individuals commit to treasure each other for the rest of their life, there is love.

The Creator of the universe taking a form of His creation, humbling Himself to the point of death on the cross, forsaken and rejected and conquering death itself is the ultimate expression love.
Now for a moment, switch-off the television and the iPod, walk to that window and take a look at the world outside. It won’t take long for you to realize that love makes life beautiful.

By Kater B.

Your heartbeat

A glisten of dew on a blade of grass
bursts of gold and orange upon the sky
the unblemished crisp of air
the pregnant silence of the dawn,
Lord, I hear Your heartbeat.

as the measure of time called day shuffles to its feet
and life finds it voice; chirp, buzz, chatter;
scream, cackle, whimper, shriek, roar, murmur...
Yet, the stillness of Your presence,
Lord, I hear Your heartbeat

a woman holding a fragment of herself;
the newborn taking his first breath;
as she draws him to her breasts,
two hearts beating as one,
knitted together by love... complete and perfect,
Lord, I hear Your heartbeat

Here I am, down on my knees,
humbled...
I opened the windows of my soul
You shone love into every recess, corner, curve, edge
the walls I so carefully built,
crumbled...

With Your gentleness You make me great
I could not begin to comprehend Your majesty,
in my humanity, I am but dust.

Words fail to frame my thoughts, Lord
I could only be still,
and know that You're God.
Here, in the stillness of Your beauty
and peace that surpasseth understanding,
in Your love's perfect purity,
Lord, my heart...beats after Yours.

By Cynthia Phillioux

Have you waited lately?

Inspired by: Acts 1:4-
on one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about

Led by instinct it enters a stage of solitude and there it waits…

It yields to the power of its creator Who had incorporated greatness in its origin. Silencing the voices of the world, it realizes its higher call, not to crawl through this world but to fly the skies and to reach the heavens. Its destiny is to amaze the habitants of this earth with its splendid beauty and to display the touch of the One who painted the universe through His words. As the caterpillar remains all alone, trusting totally in its maker, an unexplainable phenomenon begins from within. Its appearance and its form begin to change, a transformation beyond recognition.

Days and nights go by and the moment finally arrives when a new sensation fills its being. The newly created neuron structure, the specialized cells where each unit is accountable for receiving and transmitting information from the brain to throughout the body, begins fulfilling its responsibilities. An assuring voice calls for a breakthrough from within. With all its newfound might, it breaks the cocoon that enveloped it all these days. Blood rushes forth all through its being, screaming the message of freedom, without hesitation it leaps into the skies as a butterfly for all to behold.

God has planted greatness into each one of us too. To fulfill our destiny we need to silence the negative influence of this world and wait in solitude. We are to build a cocoon that will isolate us from the system of this world that has been polluted by the nature of sin. The awesome and magnificent day will come when you will be displayed for all to see; the wonder and the majestic work of our Lord.

By Kater B.

What's on the Price Tag?

Whenever we hear the word free today it makes us think, can anything be free? There is always a catch or a hidden agenda. To be honest, I think there is nothing free in the world anymore; everything has a price tag on it. For something to be free it has to be out of this world. This system of the world has somehow crept its way into our churches today.

The idea of “nothing can be free” has polluted the way we see and preach God. Most of the time we hear preachers saying that salvation is a free gift from God, but they add a price tag to everything else after that. The messages we hear today demands us to tithe or to serve in the church or to attend church services in order to be blessed by God.

But, that’s not what the Bible has to say. The Bible declares everything for free simply on the basis that Jesus had paid for everything in FULL when He died for us on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross He did not just make salvation available but with it financial blessings, health, peace of mind, love, care and everything one would need for a victorious life. Instead of bringing the voucher that Jesus had given us, we go to God with our works which is never enough to pay for anything from Him.

Let’s come out of this lie that has robbed us from God’s blessings. The truth is we tithe because we are blessed and we serve in the church because we are blessed, not to be blessed. God has given everything for free; it’s the church that has put a price tag on it.

By Kater B.

A Prayer from a Heart of Gratitude

Lord I want to thank You
For the way I feel now
A heart of gratitude that you gave me

You saved and You made me
Into whom I am now
You made a difference in my life

My mind could not imagine
The wonders of your grace
The price you’d paid for someone like me

A heart of gratitude…
Love fills my senses
It’s Your blood that’s flowing through my veins

Lord I thank You for being who You are
Lord I love You for loving me somehow
Lord I serve You for giving me this life

Even though this life I give
Could not repay the price You paid
But this is all I have, I give it all to You.

By Kater B.

How did the universe begin?

How did the universe begin? This is the very first question that the Bible answers. It says “In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1: 1). But somehow some people find it hard to believe it because if they do, then they have to agree that God exists. So after a lot of thinking they proposed a theory called the “Big Bang”.

The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe began from nothing. So in the beginning there was nothing and nothing becomes something. I am no PHD holder but I think I can say that this is mathematically wrong. When you introduce any value to nothing it always turn out to be nothing (1 x 0 = 0). I learned that back in my kindergarten year. They said that about 3 to 4 billion years ago the universe launched itself from “singularity” and when they were asked what “singularity” means, they said that they are “zones which defy our current understanding of physics”. In other word, it simply means “WE DON’T KNOW!” (http://www.big-bang-theory.com/) All the billions of dollars invested into the years and years of research just to say “we don’t know”? Come on, get a free Bible from behind the church pew.

The Bing Bang Theory is far from being a scientific fact. It is just a theory and idea - it is a belief. No one can claim that the Big Bang theory is scientific. To be honest it is more likely to be a fairytale. A fairytale always begins with these few words, “A very long, long time ago…” and the first few words of The Big Bang Theory are “Billions and billions of years ago…”, sounds familiar?

The word universe comes from two different words, “uni” which means one, and” verse” which mean sentence. My Bible tells me that God spoke and the universe come into existence. There is no other explanation and there will be no other rationalization to the beginning of the universe. God designed everything in this universe and finely tuned the laws that make life possible.



by Kater B