WORD OF THE DAY - Monday 23 January 2012 from Mykolaiv, Ukraine

And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last." (Luke 13:30)

И вот, есть последние, которые будут первыми, и есть первые, которые будут последними. (От Луки 13:30 Russian)

І затямте: хто нині перший, буде тоді останній, а хто зараз останній, буде тоді перший». (Лука 13:30 Ukrainian ERV)

Most Holy and Righteous God, our Dear Heavenly Father ~ thank you for the fullness of your grace and mercy that greet us on this new day. Give us wisdom to comprehend that each person must strive with obedient faith to enter through the narrow gate that opens into eternal life. Help us to overcome the tendency to comfort ourselves by thinking that we were born in the right generation to the right parents. In Christ name we pray, Amen.

This morning we have slick roads and sidewalks left from yesterday's snow with colder temperatures in store for this week. January and February are typically like this and we must strive harder in the type weather to accomplish things that are critical to spreading the gospel message with more intensity than we would if we were trying to sell soft drinks, cosmetics or chewing gum. We had 13 people present yesterday even with the frozen roads and sidewalks. Pavel works as a personal evangelist for the Skver Church of Christ near Kiev. His two sons live here in Nikolaev with their mother. Dima likes to help me lead singing. I usually let him help me lead the opening song. They came early for Galina’s Sunday school class. We were impressed with their resourcefulness since they come from far across the city. His younger brother Zhenya wanted to stand with his big brother yesterday. Two more came after our fellowship period. Vitaly dropped by to say hello, and Natasha came for her WEI lessons. It was also good to see Nikolai Gagarkin and his wife Olga with us in the meeting yesterday. He and David Ciolkosz helped lead the worship service. If all people keep their appointments, we rejoice that have a busy schedule of teaching today. We are hoping that we will have a couple of packages waiting for us at the Post Office before we go to see the boys on Friday.