My Space

For the first time in 8 years of living in Khabarovsk, I have an office! It even has a view – its solitary window looks directly out on to the wooden beams of one of the outer walls of the new building we are constructing for the church. My office is in the “cottage”, a little house that we renovated into our church’s office. Eventually, the cottage and the new building will be joined together, and the conjoining seam will eliminate my window with a view. Till then, I am enjoying looking at the wooden beams, and what little sunlight filters down into my office.

My office is 6 feet wide and 12 feet long. It’s just a little larger than your average walk-in closet, but big enough for a desk, bookshelves, and eventually a two person divan for guests. Right now, two stacking chairs and a collapsible table are my support staff, but in time, we’ll get some “real” furniture.

In addition to my office, the cottage sports a multi-purpose room which can hold up to twenty people for small meetings, another office room for our accountant and church administrator, and a kitchen. There is hardly ever a dull moment at the cottage. It’s used literally night and day for everything from prayer meetings to staff meetings. I cannot overstate what a HUGE blessing it is to have a place of our own that we can use during the week for everything but Sunday worship services.

Now back to my office… Till I moved into my office, I never dreamed what a difference it would make to have a work place away from home. But I have discovered that being able to get away from the home for a normal work day has helped my increase my work output many times over. Not only that, it allows me to keep the “work” of the ministry separate from our family life. No more meetings late in the evening with church members that interfere with the kid’s bedtime, etc. Oddly enough, my little office has blessed our whole family. I am so thankful to have it.

In closing, I have to add something about God’s grace. After receiving the gospel of grace and experiencing it in my life, to my amazement I have not become a spiritual vagrant “hanging out” in God’s green pastures, doing nothing more than staring at the passing clouds because I am now under grace instead of the law. Actually, the opposite is true. It’s strange, but living by the grace of God, rather than the dictates of the law, has caused me to accomplish multiple times more than I did earlier. How can that be? Because grace focuses on Jesus and on His ability and strength and wisdom, etc., as opposed to the law which focuses on self effort. When you are feeding on the strength and wisdom and love of Christ it will NOT make you lazy. Oh no! It will give you divine strength and energy to do more.

Consider what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10

 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” NKJV  

Regaining My Blogging Groove

 

It took a major move, two back-to-back teams of visiting guests, and loss of internet connection to get me out of my “blogging” groove. I am sorry to disappoint friends and family with my lapse in blogging, but it looks like things have been reduced from an exuberant boil to a slow simmer. Allow me to mention that the past couple of weeks have literally been life-changing for us in a positive sense. For one thing, we were mightily impacted, I mean like a “9” on the Richter scale, by the ministry of Pastor Joshua Lee from New Creation Church in Singapore. He came and did a series of meetings in our church and in another local church in town. God used Pastor Joshua and his message about grace and truth, to revolutionize my life and the lives of others in our church. I am literally a changed man, and I don’t say that lightly. Since I was baptized in the Spirit, I have never been so transformed by the grace of God. Honestly, I didn’t even plan to write this blog about this, but it’s just coming out of me. One way that I try to explain what God did in my life is by saying, “It felt like God rearranged the furniture in my heart.” I believe that I have found my place in life, and found the message that I was born to preach – grace and righteousness. These two things, along with the solid foundation of faith that I received through Kenneth Hagin’s ministry, are what I believe that I was called to preach. Though, I must say that grace and righteousness could and should be summed up in one word – Jesus! I was called to preach HIM!

 

I am sure that you will hear a lot more from me about this in the days to come.

 

As I mentioned, we also experienced another move, and this move wasn’t spiritual! Our landlord of five years requested that we move out and find a new flat to rent. We were excellent tenets and had a congenial relationship with him, but he plans to move into the flat himself, so out we went. Our new flat is beautiful and spacious. True, it is on the 8^th floor of a high rise, and the elevator doesn’t work. It has no hot water, and the phone isn’t hooked up yet, but it is beautiful and spacious. The good news is that we just had a couple of electric water heaters installed and the elevator is supposed to be working in a month or so. Hopefully, the phone will be turned on in a couple of weeks. Step by step we are eliminating the negatives and God is lavishly pouring out His grace on us to endure those that remain, till they too are eliminated. Eventually, our new flat is going to be first rate, much better even then our previous flat.

 

That’s all for now! Talk to you soon.