If Metallica were actually the 12 disciples....

Then the song Nothing Else Matters would be interpreted a bit different.

I am going to walk you through the song as if this were true, hopefully it will be a bit entertaining for you.

So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters

The disciples had walked with Jesus and had gotten to know him quite well. They had a bit of despair in those days after Jesus was crucified and before the day of Pentecost. By the time they got around to writing this they would have embraced the closeness of Christ with them even if his physical body is gone or they have traveled far from Jerusalem. 

The work they do is purely out of their love of Jesus and relationship with God, it comes from the heart. They are facing significant persecution both from the Jews and the Romans at this point and they must Trust that they are followers of Jesus, followers of "The Way" (this is what early Christians called themselves) and that nothing mattered except doing the work that Jesus set them to be about.

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
And nothing else matters

Before the coming of the Jesus their hearts were not the same. The Holy Spirit opened their heart in a new way. They are now experiencing Abundant life after 2nd birth having been born of the spirit, they are now living according to the Spirit and another reference to "The way". They really mean it! Jesus is all that matters.

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters

They have learned to trust in Jesus, they were a bit baffled at first in John chapter 14 when Jesus told them they would be doing even better works than he did because they will still be around doing the work. Everyday they see something new, new believers, new miracles, new abundance in life. They feel enlightened compared to the life they had before, because Jesus is all that matters.

Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
But I know

Those Pharisees... there has always been something weird about them and the way they talk about God. I met Jesus and now I understand how God loves me isn't based on the things I do or the things I understand, its based out of who God is and that he created me and wants a relationship.

As Always thanks for your time and giving this a read. If you enjoyed it share it with friends, you can do so easily with one of the buttons below. I pray that you will embrace life in the Love and Grace offered to you through Jesus Christ, and that you will always remember Jeremiah 29:11.  – For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, Plans to Proper You and not for harm, Plans with Hope for the Future.

Samara, Trains, Restaurant Cars, and Escalators

So between leaving Novgorod and arriving back in Moscow this morning Not much was missed, and that was mostly covered in the quick posts to let you know we were safe and where we were going. However I will post pictures of the conditions on the train when we get back to the US and I upload the rest of the pictures. There really is not much to say about Samara except to pray for the people who live there, its pretty... ugly. Samara is a new city kind of it was formed as a hidden factory town when the Germans had taken over the western parts of Russia so it has a lot of world war 2 and Cold war era structures that make the projects in New York look fancy. The part of the city that they brag about is the river side and the beach where you will find wonderful views of crumbling concrete litter and broken glass mixed with a few sand volleyball courts and a beach soccer stadium (okay that was kinda cool)

I just want to tell two quick stories. The first story comes on the train back to Moscow from Samara. We had stopped to get food for the train at McDonald's but figured we would go to the restaurant car to have some thing to drink with it and a more comfortable place to sit for a few hours. Anastasia didn't come to the restaurant car right away and it was Alex, Bradley, Michael and I. The waitress was not happy that we couldn't speak Russian, so while trying to say not to worry we have a translator and she will be here in a few minutes she thought we were asking for chicken. She got frustrated and handed us off to another much nicer waitress. We knew the word for Tea(Chai) and Pepsi so we ordered that and began eating our McDonald's After a few hours of us sitting and drinking tea and talking this waitress had begun drinking, she had not been happy with us the whole time and we could tell. She began yelling at us that we were sitting there and had not ordered anything when in fact we had, so from that point on every little thing became a big deal. Alex went to use the restroom and she yelled "that restroom is for staff only" Anastasia got up and checked and there was nothing that implied that anywhere and we had seen many people use that restroom. Michael guessed that they just wanted to have a staff party and get rid of us and turned out to be right. Most of the staff on the train began showing up and started drinking, so we continued to sit and talk.

The second story is one of playing on escalators, now apparently escalators are serious business and fun is not to be had on them. So Friday the 24th as we were headed back the the hotel for the night after a fun day back in Moscow the group of us are in high spirits laughing and giggling Alex and Anastasia were holding hands from one escalator to the other and I made a gesture as if I were going to sit on the rail. There was an attendant lady at the bottom, and she saw me. Russians in general are pessimistic, you get bonus points if you can get a picture of one smiling. So instead of just saying, "Stop that" or "No" or something brief and to the point she proceeds to yell over the intercom while looking right at me all sorts of things in Russian as if I can understand her, luckily I knew how to say sorry in Russian which I did as I walked by while she was still yelling at me. Nastia explained to me that she was being very elaborate and trying to guilt me about playing on the escalator going as far as saying that I was going to cause the whole escalator to stop and that everyone would fall down and die not to mention the backup that it would cause in the flow of the people getting to the trains. Nastia then assured me while laughing at me that most of these women are very angry people anyways and it really is not as big of a deal as she made it to be. None of the Russians even turned their head to see what this lady was yelling about, no one seems to pay attention to the PA system or the Metro staff.

I promised Bradley I would include that last story in the blog so I wanted to do that before I fell asleep and forgot.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog so far, we leave for the airport to come home at 6:30 in the morning. I pray that we are not delayed and that we make our flight, Every time I have flown back across the Atlantic I have had to spend an overnight in the airport including 25 hours in Charles De Gal airport in France. So hopefully that does not happen this time. We should be back in Dallas by 8PM Saturday!!! I will post pictures to the blogs early next week.

ADDED:

I think Michael was the least happy about all the train rides on the shelf, poor guy was so tall it doesn't look like he fit.

 Yes they managed to squeeze 56 beds into each train car and there was little to no air conditioning so it kinda smelled by the time we fell asleep.

 Alex is sitting on her shelf and offering me a puff pastry with chocolate inside, it was delicious.

 Bradley fell asleep very quickly... sometimes.

As Always thanks for your time and giving this a read. If you enjoyed it share it with friends, you can do so easily with one of the buttons below. I pray that you will embrace life in the Love and Grace offered to you through Jesus Christ, and that you will always remember Jeremiah 29:11.  – For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, Plans to Proper You and not for harm, Plans with Hope for the Future.