Praise be to God for the Risen Lord!

The signs of spring feel our hearts with joy and happiness, because there is a Creator and a Saviour behind every small flower.

It is even a much bigger blessing that our Easter can be full of meaning because of the Truth of the empty tomb.

We wish you, the reader, a blessed Easter Sunday in the presence of the risen Jesus Christ.

With lots of love,

Murray, Kaleb and Adina :)

We would be so poor without the Book of Psalms...

I have been working on a translation of a study about the psalms. I find it really enriching and it helps to understand the background and the context of the poems much better.

[Since the Face to face (Bible reading guideline of the church) reading also suggests the Psalms, I decided to make the Book of Psalms my main devotional at this time.]

There is one aspect that stood out for me: the psalms have a very practical side, they are the expressions of an individual or the community on the occasion of thanksgiving, petition or worship accompanied by the actual / physical sacrifice in the temple.

It makes it more real for me, because I tend to read them as prayers only, whereas they are an act of worship in the setting of other believers as witnesses and the offering of sacrifices.

Today's reading raises a question in my heart: do I pray blessings like this for someone? It shows so much care and love and all these blessings are pointed toward someone else and not the self.

Psalm 20

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ May the LORD answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
² May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
³ May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.^[b]
4 May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
⁵ May we shout for joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the LORD grant all your requests.

⁶ Now this I know:
The LORD gives victory to his anointed.
He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary
with the victorious power of his right hand.
⁷ Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
⁸ They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.
⁹ LORD, give victory to the king!
Answer us when we call!

Divine beauty

I am rejoicing today in the beautiful truth that we are created with an eternal need for being relational: privacy has never been the plan for us. :)

If I choose to take my own path, it leads to disaster unless God in His mercy plants a gracious obstacle in the way, so I need to stop and get help. Privacy ended.

'This wall I keep bumping into is my own doing', I realize it today. 'Things keep flying back into my face because of this wall: I better tear it down. I need God and I need people to give me a hand to take out just one piece of a stone at a time.'

Funny, how accustomed I am to trying to solve things on my own: that is my good Hungarian pride, I suppose... or not...

I am grateful today for my husband: he helps me in this difficult process of identifying my 'own' private ways...

Yet, I am not deprived: I am unique and I have individual steps to take in my fellowship with God and men. That is a divine beauty!

Family pictures

We have been looking forward to the photo-taking appointment at church (for the new directory) and behold the results (these photos are not perfect, but then we are not perfect either :).