History


Historyweekend_pots
Originally uploaded by Nikocrash.
This weekend in Plzen has been a History weekend, the streets are full of people going to different events in the center. There are numerous concerts, cultural dances, historical reenactments, sword fighting and many products both old and new for sale! Unlike most weekends here in Plzen when the streets are empty and you have your choice of bench to sit and rest on, this weekend the streets are packed and every bench taken with people celebrating the past.
I don't know really how much anybody is really celebrating the History as much as they are just using this time to get together and celebrate! Whatever the case it is a reminder for me to not forget the past. There is so much that we can learn from the past, from those who have walked before us! Here in Czech they have a long history and a very rich history at that! The dominating powers that came in a took over for the last couple of centuries, are not all that lie in Czech History. Some of the richest history that they posses is the Moravian Brethren movement. A group of solid believers who took off and went into the whole world with the Gospel. WHY? Not because they were devoted to the cause of seeing the name of Jesus proclaimed around the world, but because they were devoted to Jesus. This is a history we would love to see repeat itself! And it is good to remember on a weekend like this weekend that History is really something that we create today, the good and the bad. Today will soon be over but will forever be edged in History... WHAT WILL OUR HISTORY LOOK LIKE? Will we leave a history that should be repeated? Maybe we should go for that, and like the Moravian Brethren just be more concerned with being devoted to Jesus then to any cause!

New Beginnings!


Seeds
Originally uploaded by Nikocrash.
It’s that time of the year again- I’m not talking about summer vacation or even the end of school. It’s allergy season again!!! And even though I am sneezing and have itchy eyes, it is a small price to pay to have been able to enjoy the flowers and the trees and watching new life come! And I know that without this season we could not keep on enjoying new flowers and new trees and their coming to life. I was in the mountains of Romania this past week for a conference! It was such a beautiful time there, surrounded by the mountains! But the dandelions which were dying taught me maybe the most and I am just realizing it now! Dandelions are not always welcome and to someone like me who struggles with allergies they don’t help so much... But what a great picture they are to me! They spring up and then each flower turns itself to a seed which then is carried by the wind sometimes miles away until it is rooted in the ground and begins the life process again! But before the wind can take it, the flower must die- the seed must be dead! Only then can it grow and continue on in the multiplication process! The dandelions taught me that I, like them, must become a seed. It is not enough to stay a flower for myself. I must die so that more life will come. Though the death I am talking about is not a physical death, but rather a death to my own ideas, even good ideas, and letting God become the wind which will pick me up and plant me where He wants me! So that I can grow up into a flower which will again die and again spread life! This spreading of new life is a way of new beginnings. Maybe the seeds of the dandelion are spread miles away and maybe they fall just beside the place they were... Whichever the case a new beginning happens! And I am finding myself in that place of new beginnings. The place where I am dying daily to myself and being planted so I can again grow! And what is great is that like the dandelion- who can’t blow it’s own seeds but has to wait for the wind... I am and have been waiting for the breath of God to come and blow and do the spreading! And that season is here! God is spreading me and I put my trust and hope in Him to ground me and do the growing so that I can again be blown and fall to the ground and die for the sake of more life! His life! May we multiply like the dandelion and spread His life through the fields that need a splash of Life! In the words of Peter Pan “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” -James M. Barrie
"... The seed you put in the ground must die before it can come to life."(1 Corinthians 15:36)