Belofte voor 2018-2019

In het voorgaande academisch jaar is er misschien niet zo veel gepost op dit platform, maar nog minder op mijn eigen Ruimte (Marcus Ampe's Space).

in het seizoen 2017-2018 heeft mijn hoofd en mijn "pen" niet stil gestaan. Op heel wat religieuze platforms heb ik mijn woorden wel laten vloeien, waardoor ik dan ook minder tijd had voor mijn eigen persoonlijke blogs.

Het is mij opgevallen dat hier, zo wel op WordPress, ik uit vergetelheid meerdere artikelen ongepubliceerd heb gelaten.  Voor dit komende seizoen heb ik dan besloten om deze in de vergeethoek geraakte artikelen toch te publiceren. Ook Instagram is totaal in de vergetelheid geraakt betreft het publiceren, maar net voor het bekijken van anderen hun mooie prenten, foto's en video's, welke ik dan ook kon 'taggen' of 'liken'. Ik moet toegeven op Instagram heb ik al heel wat mooie dingen kunnen zien, waarvan ik nog niet geleerd heb hoe ik deze met anderen kan delen. (Iemand mag mij daar steeds bij helpen - ook voor het delen van video's op mijn Instagram account.) Op dat platform zit ik nog in 1992 ... maar hoop daar vandaag nog verandering in te brengen, door over te gaan naar foto's uit 2006.

Vergeef mij mijn vergeetachtigheid en mijn verstrooidheid en vindt tussen de nieuwere artikelen ook die oudere die ergens in een hoekje waren achter gelaten.

Sommigen willen niet zo graag herinnerd worden aan het verleden anderen doen gewoon de moeite niet om even terug te kijken of na te gaan wat er in het verleden gebeurde. Maar dat verleden kan heel kostbaar zijn aan nuttige gegevens om in de toekomst niet zulke stommiteiten te laten gebeuren. Men hoort lessen te trekken uit dat verleden.

Zoals voorheen al gezegd kunnen wij best van het verleden enkel dat goede herinneren en datgene wat ons tot onderricht kon zijn, ook al mocht het op dat ogenblik niet zo prettig zijn te ervaren.  Steeds kunnen wij best de goede tijden laten primeren boven de minder goede. Maar om de goede tijden uit de slechte te halen moeten wij ze ook als dusdanig kunnen erkennen.

Mijn voornemen (en belofte) is dit seizoen met wat meer regelmaat ook hier weer (meer) artikelen te plaatsen en de niet geplaatste artikelen te publiceren.
Ook al mogen die vergeten artikelen al wat ouder zijn hoop ik toch dat ze nog interessant leesvoer mogen aanbrengen.

Veel leesplezier.

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Lees ook:

1. Vergeten artikels
2. Tijd
3. Vijf jaar en ouder.
4. Het verleden zo strak op je borst klemmen dat het je armen te vol laat te om het heden te omhelzen
5. Laat gisteren niet te veel gebruiken van vandaag
6. Zekerheid van het verleden
7. Reflectie voor 8 Juli – Verleden in de rug
8. Voorbij het verleden
9. Reflectie voor 12 Juli: Terugkopen van verleden
10. Niet te bepalen wat er op je afkomt
11. Gevangene van je verleden of pionier van je toekomst
12. Verleden, heden, toekomst, lessen en volhouden
13. Mogelijkheid om het verleden af te sluiten
14. Laat gaan wat was
15. Opbouw van verleden naar toekomst
16. Leg de afstand af 
17. Gelukkig is de persoon die weet wat te onthouden van het verleden
18. Christelijke Overdenking: Kijk naar vandaag

Can a state create a church

Normally one would think a state can not create a church, but in the Ukraine this year the country may see the formation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) headed by a self-proclaimed leader named Patriach Filaret Denisenko becoming to be accepted by the
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) who is been asked as first among equals (primus inter pares) primarily for historic reasons (because Constantinople, before its takeover by Turks in 1453, was the centre of Orthodox Christianity) to accept this new church.

Russian Patriarch Kirill, speaking in Moscow at the celebrations of the 1030^th anniversary of Vladimir’s baptism of Rus, warned against attempts by secular authorities in Ukraine to interfere with church affairs or to split the historic church.

Orthodox faithful inside Ukraine, both ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians, see the plans of Poroshenko’s government and Denisenko as an illegal assault on their tradition and religious heritage. In addition, some deputies in the Ukrainian Rada (Parliament) have warned that there could be “bloody consequences” if the properties of the UOC-MP are confiscated and its members forced to join a new church.

According to the historical record, the Baptism of Kievan Rus by Vladimir had the support and participation of the Greek Church in Constantinople, then the official church of the Eastern Roman Empire, later known as Byzantium. The first Orthodox bishops and metropolitans (equivalent to Western archbishops) in Russia were Greeks from Constantinople who got their “apostolic succession” from Christ’s disciples. 

Poroshenko: More moves against Moscow.

The petition to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to approve the invention of a new “united” Ukrainian church that eliminates the UOC-MP would violate this sacred apostolic succession, says the Moscow Patriarchate. The UOC-MP has also protested that neither Poroshenko nor the Rada are empowered to ask Bartholomew to change the church’s organization in Ukraine.

“The strength of the Russian Orthodox Church and its Ukrainian sister UOC-MP lies in the apostolic succession, which the current Ukrainian government can neither provide nor imitate,”

 the Russian Orthodox Church’s spokesman said.

 “The state cannot `create’ a church, nor should it aspire to do it. But this is exactly what the Ukrainian authorities are trying to do, urging the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to merge with Denisenko’s entity and asking from the ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople an autocephalous status for this new `united’ Ukrainian church of their own invention.”

“This initiative is an abuse of power, an interference of state into church affairs,”

 UOC-MP’s the spokesman said. 

The UOC-MP has remained the only public organization in Ukraine which still legally has the word “Moscow” in its name, and for millions of Ukrainian citizens, ethnic Russians or not, any kind of legal linkage to Russia is still valued.

 > Preceding:

Ukraine Poroshenko-Denisenko plan to form independent Orthodox church in Ukraine

Ukraine Poroshenko-Denisenko plan to form independent Orthodox church in Ukraine

In the Ukraine we may find Patriach Filaret (born Denisenko) a former cleric of the Moscow Patriarchate, who left the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He had lost an ecclesiastical election and tried to form his own church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and therefor he became excommunicated. His church is not recognized by any of the other members of the international community of Orthodox churches. 

Now the Poroshenko government, formed in the beginning of the civil war that followed the U.S.-backed 2014 bloody coup in the “Euromaidan” uprising, is favouring the split-off of the traditional church by the anti-Moscow church known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP)

They have called on Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul to remove the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate and recognize a new, single independent Orthodox church in Ukraine, severing all ties to Moscow.

The single church in the Poroshenko-Denisenko plan would carry the UOC-KP name with the authority, according to Denisenko, to seize all churches, temples, chapels, monasteries and other properties belonging to the UOC-MP. 

It would mean dispossessing the historic UOC-MP, which has direct “apostolic” continuity with the 1030-year-old original Kievan church and Christianity in the Eastern Roman empire, once brought there by Christ’s own disciples. UOC-MP said they would not pray in church together with the excommunicated Denisenko.

Evangelicalism in France on the rise

It looks like Evangelicalism in France is on the rise, a study by the National Council of Evangelicals in France (CNEF) has found.
The study reported by Evangelical Focus shows around 35 new evangelical churches were opened in France last year or three a month.

France is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, with an estimated 56 per cent of the population having been baptised. Some of the cities may still have very conservative priests and institutions who do not allow people in their churches with bare arms and legs. (Two years ago I was sometimes considered to naked to enter a church but not enough naked to walk on the beach.) In some cities you also can see nuns and priests still clothed in their long dresses and nuns with covered heads. But for the amount of citizens who go to the Catholic church it seems the youngsters are not so much interested in that Catholic faith. The Catholic Church suffers from an aging and over-stretched priesthood and a shortage of vocations, and weekly mass-going is estimated at only around six per cent, which is much more than in Belgium.

The protestant church seems to be more attractive to many youngsters because they offer services with lots of entertainment.
There are around 650,000 evangelical Christians in France, around a third of all Protestants, and according to CNEF study the numb has increased tenfold in the last 60 years.

Prayer Bible verses to help us to get a deeper conversation with God

Many people consider Jesus to be God and as such Jesus praying to himself. Though Jesus did not pray to himself but to his heavenly Father which he considered to be greater than Him. Jesus very well knew he could not do much without his heavenly Father. Consider the two scriptures that follow, as they relate to personal prayer times of the one sent by God to the earth to declare Him.

Luke 6:12: One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

Matthew 14:23: After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

All who love God and want to follow Christ Jesus should remember that he asked his followers to pray to his Father and to go out into the world to preach the gospel of the coming Kingdom of God.

Every follower of Christ should consider setting aside a time and place for continuous and uninterrupted prayer. Each of us should make it a discipline that can not, and will not be interrupted.

Some may find that prayer can be exhausting, so it should not be something that will take away from themselves freshness of intimacy with God. Therefore they better can take some time for themselves remembering some prayer verses which were given by the master teacher himself and by his disciples of the first hour.

Prayer Bible Verses

· 1 Chronicles 16:11
Look to the Most High God Jehovah and His strength; seek His face always.

· Psalm 4:1
Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.

· Psalm 145:18
The Elohim Hashem Jehovah is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

· Proverbs 15:29
The Elohim Hashem Jehovah is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Let us also remember

· Matthew 7:11
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

and follow the example of the master teacher

· Luke 6:12
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

· Luke 18:1
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

We also may be assured that God is there for those who call unto Him.

· Romans 8:26
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

· Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

When taking time for prayer we should not mind all sorts of way to come into a good conversation with our heavenly Father. We also should not do it once in a while but regularly.

· Colossians 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

· 1 Thessalonians 5:17
pray continually;

· 1 Timothy 2:8
I want men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands

It must comfort us that we can speak to the Most High Divine Creator. Jesus has prepared the way to Him and restored the relationship with God. We also now have Jesus as the mediator between man and God and can count on him.

· Hebrews 4:14
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

· James 1:7
That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;

· James 4:3
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

· James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

· 1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.