The long awaited celebration dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Embassy of God has come!
The anniversary of the Embassy of the blessed kingdom of God for All Nations is declared open!
The Lord is the head of the church and we started this great congregation with a bright joyful praise of God. He is worthy of all the glory and praise for He is the reason that our church exists and spreads the Kingdom of God around the world.
Besides the praise and worship team, Alexander Klauning with the song “Ukraine”, art-creative group with the song “Ukraine” and the folk- choir “the seed of love” extolled God also.
The testimonies of members of the Embassy of God church confirm the greatness of God.
Ruslan Bondarenko used to be an alcohol addict, wasted his earned money and was just a carpenter until he came to the church and realized the purpose of his life and understood that every Christian is born to impact on the world. Now he has his business. He is the owner of a Christian kindergarten teaching children correct values from a young age, hereby impacting the future of this country.
The only right purpose of our wealth, success and achievement is to praise the Creator for the salvation our souls. Living for oneself is a mere waste of time. Ruslan’s daughter has been staying in Kiev for two months and for this time she has already gone through a training for youth and attends almost every meeting with pastor Sunday. She plans to stay for here for two years to get the fullness of the teachings of the Embassy of God Embassy and go back to Donetsk to start a Christian youth movement. This girl has many benefits now: young age, Russian speech without accent, the same God that pastor Sunday has. Now it’s not a problem at all to attain success! It is so wonderful to know that such a young girl is already a person with a mission.
Another sister, Natalie, from our church, who once had lost completely everything; got divorced and didn’t want to trust anybody anymore. After a while she came to God through the church as she had no sleep for half a year because of nightmares. She was living in fears. After her reconciliation with God, her daughter Katherine came to the church as well. She used to suffer a lot from depression and even wanted to commit suicide. Now Katherine is a joyful and a happy girl. Natasha thanked her mentors, Pastor Ruslan Mahmudov, and Pastor Sunday Adelaja for helping her. The most important thing about the church for her is that this is the place where you can get knowledge on how to build relationships with the Lord.
The new generation of doctors! The Christian Academic Movement is developing in a fast way!
Elena Stebelskaya prepared a presentation report of the work for this year: about 150 people were engaged in an academic conference; some have published their work in academic magazines, and some are doing their postgraduate study. The importance of gratitude and honor in a person’s life and life in the conscious mind have already been introduced to the academic environment of Ukraine. In the end of the presentation pastor Bose Adelaja stated: “ Our church is the church for professors and docents”.
After presentations, it was time for the Word that the Lord was willing to give us.
Bishop Anotoliy Belonozhko came with a sermon titled “Conscious Christianity.”
1 Corinthians 14:20 Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature”.
Now that we are 20 years old, it means that our church as an organism has passed its own way from its birth till this day. That was a glorious way! We’ve learned how to forgive, how to take a punch. We have grown.
This year, 97 new churches were opened and this is just the beginning. We have to keep on thinking of a new tomorrow, of the future and making new plans already now for the next 20 years. And for this we need to be mature and live in the couscous mind in regard to our ministry and life.
A person with a conscious mind has the understanding of the reason why he lives; he knows the purpose of his life. This person is always sober minded and realizes where he is and the kind of people surrounding him, what he does and the reason for doing it. He has a high degree of conscience and personal responsibility. This person is active and ambitious, weighing his deeds and every potential “yes” or “no” all the time This is something that every one of us should strive for.
People with unconscious mind live their life with the mentality “from salary to salary,” unaware of their purpose of life. They easily break relationships and do forget all good things that had been done to them, their actions are based on feelings and emotions and all this finally lead them to regret.
We all have to pursue living in conscious mind. Only conscious mind make a Christian, a Christian. Christians with conscious mind realizes that there are no accidents in their lives, but there is time, reason and purpose. They clearly know that everything that happens to them, either bad or good is for their good.
Jeremiah 1:15 ‘“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Our whole life has been programmed already by God and everything that comes to our life is not by chance. We are in this church not by chance and this anniversary is not by chance too. There is divine providence for it. Having this attitude we have the ability to step to another level.
We must get over our infantility and become mature with a conscious mind. We must make conclusions from everything that happens to us in our life. The most correct conclusion is: to serve God that saved us from the bottom of our heart. Every one of us had many situations where we could have been harmed but God protected us there. And the most important salvation is the salvation from hell. In our lives, God-ordained meetings happen. We have to be thankful to the Lord for them as well.
The life of a Christian with a conscious mind is built around accomplishing of his calling – he understands his destiny, and the importance of it for himself and others.
His priority is to fulfill God’s will in his life. Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” The reasonable service means conscious service. It demands not just a service but a reasonable and conscious one meaning: my service has a purpose and I have to serve by my will but not by force, I have to serve with a joyful heart. A person with this heart and attitude, thanks God through his service. Conscious service is a service with a high quality, with diligence and sacrifice.
Christians with a conscious mind are led not by emotions but by principles and truth. Life is always a choice: what is the right thing to do, what is the next step to make. The Word of God is this instruction for us. If you are holding on to the truth nothing would be able to crush you down. You will always remain standing!
All of our actions must come from the knowledge of the word of God. Unconscious service and unconscious life leads to problems. Listening to your feelings and worries will bring trouble. Bishop Anatoly Belonozhko noticed two tricks that people usually get into and some obstacles that hinder them afterward: when they are young, when they do not know much and when they feel overconfident and the truth is neglected.
That was a relevant message from Bishop Anotoly Belonozhko – the word for mature Christians.
Further Pastor Bose invited Ron Bruce to the stage for a welcome speech. Ron Bruce (a guest) said that he has been coming to Ukraine since 1989 bringing Bibles and establishing the Kingdom of God through this. He couldn’t see the results of it for a long time. But now 25 years later he can see that Ukraine has become a strong Christian country. All praise to God!
As citizens of this country and members of our church as well we have to be grateful to God and to those people who have sacrificed a lot so that we could know the Lord.
May the Lord bless all of them including His servant Ron Bruce.
The service ended with the hymn of the Embassy of God Church.
Translated by Elena Mamonova
Edited by Liz Ekakoro
