The Ethiopian Church Journal Blog

The Greatest Sentence That Was Ever Written “ God is Love . ” 1 John iv. 8 . My subject is the greatest sentence that was ever written. Of course, that sentence is in the Bible. All the greatest sentences are in the one Book. The Bible has a way of putting more in a single sentence than other writers can put in a whole book. Yet there are some who would tell us that the Bible is no more God’s Book than other books. Either they have not read the Bible, or they have read it with their eyes closed. This sentence has in it but three words. Each word is a monosyllable. One word has four letters, one three, and one only two; yet these nine letters, forming three monosyllables, contain so much of truth that the world bas been pondering it for eighteen centuries, and has not got to the bottom of it yet. Whole volumes are dedicated to the exposition of this wonderful sentence—thousands of volumes. 1 John iv. 8, "God is love.” That is the greatest sentence that was ever written.

  Losing All To Gain Christ ... John Sung himself believed that he was not converted until he went through a spiritual crisis in America many years later. When he was nine years old [1910], a revival occurred in Hinghwa, China. Within a month there were about 3,000 professions. On Good Friday morning he heard a sermon on “Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.” The preacher contrasted the sleeping Disciples with the fearlessness of Jesus. Many people wept with grief at the end of the sermon. Among the mourners was John Sung, the nine-year-old son of the Methodist preacher. It seems to me that John Sung “dedicated” his life to Christ but was not truly converted at this time. Like my former pastor, Dr. Timothy Lin (whose father was also a preacher), John Sung began to preach and help his father by the age of thirteen. But, also like Dr. Lin, he had not yet experienced real conversion. He was a diligent student and finished high school at the top of his class. During this time he became kno

The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. [Joel 2:31] In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ [Acts 2:17-21]

My Conversation with God By Anonymous I had no idea what God would do when I asked him to use me. Does God still speak? I grew up hearing testimonies about it, but until October 2005, I couldn't say it had ever happened to me. I'm a middle-aged professor of theology at a well-known Christian university. I've written award-winning books. My name is on Christianity Today's masthead. For years I've taught that God still speaks, but I couldn't testify to it personally. I can only do so now anonymously, for reasons I hope will be clear. A year after hearing God's voice, I still can't talk or even think about my conversation with God without being overcome with emotion. That's one reason I know it was real; I'm not a person who shows emotion easily. Plus, I'm a skeptic about things supernatural. Not that I don't believe they can happen; I just doubt most miracle stories except the ones in the Bible. I've even been known to crit

Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

 Royal Wedding      “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Save the Children By Mitiku Adisu No one knows what actually happened to finally force Ethiopian government to clampdown on international adoption. No one can tell if details of scams that have been going on since the late-1990s will ever come to light. Is it ok to be part of a scam in order to do some good? Does the end ever justify the means? Unfortunately, those who dispense information are the same ones with a stake in the adoption ‘business’ now busy sanitizing their side of the story. Having endured emotional and financial hardships, adoptive parents would be defensive and not easily swayed to want to undergo another round of scrutiny. Much is at stake; above all, at stake is hopes and dreams of a motherless child and a mother without a child. Several factors have come into play to result in what appears an interminable problem in Ethiopian adoptions. First, numerous agencies are authorized to deal with children with little or no coordination among themselves. There are