Off I go:-)

Alrighty then! It is about the time and I am really ready for it!!! I am excited, because it finally came - my vacation!!! I am flying away!!! I am going to Sochi in some hours.
But I still will be praying for you and it means I will not be very far. Maybe see you soon!
May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace!!!

Wisdom vs. Intelligence

I could not get this thought out of my mind since I read the verse in Proverbs. So, I am going to share it, because I think by now I can formulate it well enough. I am not like you, sometimes for me it can be a problem to say something right to the point, usually I have many words, but not much sense:-\.
Anyway, this verse was in my One Year Bible(NLT), proverb 18:15, it says: "Intelligent people are always open to new ideas. In fact, they look for them". Right away the word "intelligent" drew my attention and to be honest, it did not sound right to me, I am not even talking about the rest of the verse. So, I read this verse in NKJV and it says: "The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge." I also checked in my Russian Bible and in Hebrew Ketuvim and the meaning was the same as in NKJ. Not that NKJ is an ultimate translation, but I just happened to have it.
I also decided to read what Wiki says about "intelligent" and "wise". After all I came to this conclusion... Prepare yourself!!! I might say something utterly stupid, but I hope you will be gracious and forgive me for that.
I don't know about you, but when I think of an intelligent person usually it is somebody who has a lot of knowledge about certain subject or many different subjects.
When person speaks with authority and can state his position well, usually people call him an intelligent person. For example: when a scientist is telling you everything about his research, gives you all the evidence on the subject and almost makes you convinced that some big monkey is your ancestor ... the same about a teacher in History class, who tells you that Communism is the only way to go and then adds: "There is no God"... this is what fool says in his heart, according to the Bible.
Besides if an intelligent person having all the knowledge in the world and being able to use it, also possess such qualities as arrogance, greed, envy, hate and so on. According to the Bible this person also called wicked and a fool.
Now wisdom: when I think of one word that was said right to the point, in the right place and time. When this word as a precious gem makes everything that was said before a beautiful setting for it. Or maybe it is like sharp error hitting the target. That I consider a word of wisdom and sometimes the wise person who said it can be a small child, who is not even realizing that God's wisdom just came out of his mouth:-).
I think intelligence is based on human knowledge and wisdom is based on the knowledge of God.
You know what? I think I am becoming wise in my own eyes:-\ I have to check what the Bible says about it.
As much as I tried it did not come out as short as I wanted:->. O, I know how I am going to end this: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil" King Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived (aka Ecclesiastes, 12:13-14)

Blessed evening

Every Friday Julia and I come to Dale's house and we go through a book of the Bible, but tonight there were two other people - Dale guests. One of them I know from his previous visits, but the other person I just met today. It was such a blessing to me to see this young man, who is committed to the Lord with his whole heart, desiring to serve Him. He played couple worship songs and again it was a blessing because he was worshiping and not just singing. Right now I am doing worship on Sundays by myself, it's been a little hard because of the circumstances. But here in such a simple setting it was so wonderful to worship the Lord together. It was easy to sing too, because our voices sounded in unison. So I truly enjoyed it. It is a little strange but the songs reminded me of you, I guess because I heard you sing them before. So I thought that it would be so wonderful to hear you sing again, actually to worship together, I think our voices would sound in unison too, because they were before:-).
The rest of the evening we were sharing what the Lord was doing or what He showed us.
What a refreshing time it was!!! I am so thankful:-)
I pray that the Lord would bless you too with the moments like this, that are refreshing, encouraging and simple, that make your heart rejoice in Him and in the work He is doing in your life.

Friendship

I guess I do not have as much time as I thought:-). I wanted to share many things with you that were on my mind, but right now I will talk about just one. Recently I translated for a team of American missionaries. So I was a part of conversation when girl from the States asked Russian guy (as they were talking about another person), "Is he your friend?" The guy responded, "No, he is my good acquaintance." It reminded me of my personal observations. Maybe it sounds strange to you that just two phrases caused me to write about friendship, but I will explain...It is very interesting to me that different cultures have different definitions and different understanding of seemingly simple things. And I am not going to go to the ancient Greek of the New Testament that has several definitions for just one word, I mean...you know all that:-). But this one thing I've noticed while living in the States: often times people would say "this is my friend" where in reality it was an acquaintance or even just a friendly person. I made a conclusion that this is a cultural thing, because for me and I know for most of the Russians, friend is a person, who is not just friendly or whom you know well. I am not truing to compare, it is just an observation. Correct me if I am wrong.
I was truing to figure out how friendship is defined in another culture, but I did not have enough time for that, so I am not quite sure. Besides the values can differ because of age, background, and things like that. One thing, I hope, I can state for sure: there is no way to make friendship happen. If one person desires friendship, but another does not, it will never work. And sometimes even when two people want to build a friendship it might not happen. I had this experience before, one person told me, "I want us to be friends", but it never really worked.
Friendship grows over time. It is not necessary to tell somebody, "I want to be your friend", just be a friend.
For me it is important to trust my friend, because it really hurts when you share with a person something very precious and then a while later, find out that others know about it too. I love honesty in my friend, kind and patient honesty and I really hate flattery. I love to listen, but sometimes I need to be listened to.
I am trying to be a good friend myself, but sometimes I discover that what I think is good, other people do not appreciate.
We have a saying in Russian, "Tell me who your friend is and I'll tell you who you are" , I wonder is this universal? I was thinking that this is how many Jewish religious leaders judged Jesus, He could not be the Messiah for them, because of His friends - tax collectors, fishermen, prostitutes, lame, blind, leprous - that is the social outcast of those days. But if to turn it the other way then all these people had one true Friend. When He called them His friends for some "righteous" it sounded horrible, but when they would say "Jesus is our Friend" ...I am just truing to imagine how their faces would light up with a smile as they were saying it. Even now I am thinking about that Jesus is my Friend too. Who am I? Well, just a person living in Moscow and not too many people know about me and some who know, maybe do not really want to know:->, but Jesus is my Friend and He is your Friend too. How does it feel? Isn't it beautiful, wonderful, amazing...pick more words still it will be indescribable.
I am glad that I have Jesus as my Friend, I can tell Him anything and He will listen, but never tell anyone else. I can be myself with Him and He receives me the way I am, but always corrects me gently when I am being nutty. I can trust Him always, I can be sure that He is there to help when difficulty comes. O, yes, He never misunderstands me:-) I love this about my Friend. I can say so much more but it is getting late.
Blessings to you my friend from my Dear Friend Jesus!

Inspiration

Interestingly enough, as I was staring at an empty page, thinking what I could write about, I realized that most of the time when I am writing something, first I get an inspiration for it. "Wow!" you'd probably say, "what a discovery!" The truth is: I might have a lot of different thoughts in my mind, but in order to say or to write something valuable or at least good, there has to be a solid foundation for it, a reason and a need. I am talking about myself of course (not that I am some kind of a big writer), but I know it is true for many people and I believe for you as well.
Often times people use words unwisely, or just make them empty and I think it is because they do not realize or forget that an ability to put words together is a gift from the Lord. He is an Author of communication and His words are not very hard to understand, even though He is the Creator of the most complicated things in the Universe like life itself for example.
So the inspiration. Your words had often times been an inspiration to me in the way you cannot imagine. Your thoughts would cause me to think and even if I was not in agreement with you, still my opinion was born from what you were sharing and every time I was very excited to share what the Lord gave me through you. But now, when you are silent I miss your words very much, I fill like I lost something very precious, and I do not know if I'll ever have another opportunity to talk to you. I am glad that the Lord knows:-) and I thank Him for you.
So, what I just said here does not really have any wholeness, it is just a few different thoughts and a bunch of words to express them. But look at the next line and appreciate its simplicity and depth. It is today's verse from DBV. No need to add anything, just pause and think about these words of the Lord: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5:6 Oh, how wonderful You are!