Praise God! I came back from Calgary, Canada yesterday morning and guess what? Calgary got covered with snow the day I left. It must be God who kept me from seeing it, seriously! God knows how I passionately don’t like and appreciate seeing snow. I praise His name! And I always thank Him for not putting snow in heaven. No snow in heaven, do you know that? Oh, no, there is none! Thank You, LORD!
I’m happy to be back to Maryland and before I tell you all about my stay in Calgary, Canada, I would like to write a thank you note to people who made my stay in Calgary a success.
I first would like to say thank you to all the four local churches’ pastors who came as one to put the program together: Pastor Workneh Mogesse from Philadelphia Church; Pastor Meron W/Hawariat (with Pastor Nahod) from Global Faith Ministries; Pastor Chalachew Eshetu, from Ethiopian Evangelical Church and Pastor Tewodros Damtew from Agape International Church.
The health of a marriage depends on how a couple deals with their marital conflicts. In reality, every married couple deals with conflicts here and there and the presence of a conflict doesn’t indicate that the marriage is an unhealthy one. Rather the presence of the following four ways of dealing with conflicts may show that the marriage is an unhealthy one:
Marriage certificate is not a certificate of sex but a certificate of self-death. As long as a person accepts that license as a death certificate of self and lives up to it, marriage will be such a bliss, heaven on earth.
Truth to be told, nothing can put a man to death than loving his wife as Jesus loved the church; and of course, nothing can put a woman to death than submitting to her husband as the church submits to Christ (Ephesians 5:22-31). And that very thing which puts them to death is the only thing that brings life to their life as well as marriage. Continue reading Marriage Certificate→
A4P Guest: I have one short quick question; I have no love for my husband. Is it worth living with him without me having any feeling for him?
A4P: My friend, the Bible never says, “If you love your husband, live with him; but if you don’t feel any love towards him, it is not worth living with him; divorce him.” Continue reading →
The truth has to offend our intellect before it wins over our soul. When we refuse to be offended or avoid the opportunity to be offended by the truth, we let go of that which has the power to free us. And that which has the power to free us is called “the Truth”.
“You will know the truth and that truth will set you free.” John 8:32
Nothing can set us free but the truth. However, for example, if we are still searching for another research paper that proves that masturbation is perhaps good for our health, we will never experience the sexual freedom God has for us; the freedom that lets us enjoy not only our sexual nature but also the sex God created for us to enjoy without any guilt, fear or shame. ///
If you are looking for people with lots of opinions, you can stop by at my house. Talk about opinionated people, we are the typical ones. Five of us have our own different opinion about everything and to tell you the truth, it is very entertaining for me, not always; but sometimes.
So, yesterday, after we argue a little, we all agreed to go somewhere. When we were looking for a parking lot, I saw two young men coming out of a “Dollar Store” (a store where everything is sold for a dollar). They both look very happy especially one of them who was almost hugging the stuff on his hand.
It is easy to teach or sit and listen to the message of biblical sexual purity. But living out the message is a completely different ball game. Taking into consideration our own natural sinful bend and all the hidden and unexpected curves and turns of life, we sometimes get tempted to say, “Forget it! This is not for me; maybe it is written only for few but not for me.”
But the Word of God is given to us who are “new creatures” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17); to us who are sharing God’s divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4), to us who are the temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Continue reading Wow! It is true that – – –→
I usually check our mailbox at the end of the day. I bring all those mails (including junk mails) and put them in the kitchen island table. I always look through them to see if I have any mail and leave the rest for the rest of the Banko’s to check and take theirs.
I love those magazines which always come with the mail with 15% and 25% off coupons. I clip those coupons and put them in my purse to use them if and when I stop by at the mall. I sometimes do my “window shopping” in my kitchen flipping through those magazines. I sometimes don’t find time to see them all; so I put them aside for later time.
Then one day, while we were preparing to eat dinner, my Berhan (my husband) collected all those magazines and handed them to me and said, “Missy, it is okay for you to look through these magazines but not for us men including my boys. We struggle to bounce back our eyes from the lingerie sections. Our nature is completely different from yours. Can you help us so that we won’t be tempted in our own home? Can you put those magazines in the trash before we get to them?” Continue reading Pursuing Purity as a Team→
