Too Good to be True

I just found out that the amazing 'true' love story of Herman and Roma Rosenblat is a fabrication... I've blogged about this story here and I even received the manuscript from the USA because I was considering to buy the Dutch language rights for our publishing house in Amsterdam. But now I am glad that I decided not to go ahead with this, because this romantic love story turns out to be fake!

At Ark Media we did have a look at the manuscript, but because we are a Christian publishing house, we decided not to translate it - due to a lack of Christian content. I didn't question the story itself and didn't have any doubts about the credibility of this man.

But this is what I just read on the BBC NEWS website - "A US publisher has cancelled publication of a Holocaust memoir after its author revealed that he had made up crucial parts of it. Herman Rosenblat did survive a German concentration camp, but he did not fall in love with a girl who threw him food over the fence, as stated in the book. Instead, he met her on a blind date in New York and married her 50 years ago.
His book, Angel at the Fence, came under public scrutiny after a number of scholars questioned important details. The fabricated story says that when Rosenblat moved to New York after the war he met Roma Radzicki by chance and discovered she was the girl who had thrown apples and bread to him. They fell in love and married.
But some questioned Rosenblat's descriptions of Schlieben - a sub-camp of Buchenwald - and said it was impossible to throw food over the fence there."

To be honest, I do feel disappointed because I did like the story and thought that this was one of those examples that some things in life are just too extraordinary to be deemed 'coincidences'. But this fabricated story really turns out to be 'too good to be true' and it is sad that people are willing to tell and write lies, just to spice things up a bit (and earn some extra money on the side, I guess...).

Pretty Maria

Okay, I am biassed - being her proud father - but I think that everybody will agree with this: Pascalle is a pretty Maria! Click pic to enlarge. Check also this picture Maria & Joseph. More pictures from this year's Christmas celebrations in our church here. All pics © Marcello Geerts

Christmas Service in our Church ON-LINE

This year our church - Meerkerk in Hoofddorp - organized eight Christmas celebrations and approx. 6,000 people attended! Even if you can't understand Dutch, you will probably appreciate listening to the Christmas songs. Just to let you know that the family of God is celebrating the birth of our Lord all over the world. Christmas blessings from the Netherlands to all of you!

WATCH THIS DUTCH CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION ONLINE

Note: there is a full screen option on the menu bar of the player.

Wednesday 24 December - 40 years ago...

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts; Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders did a live television broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and Moon seen from Apollo 8. Lovell said, "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.

I would like to add JOHN 1 to this reading and I wish you all a Happy & Blessed Christmas!

A Call to Die

Not a very attractive book title... But I am reading this devotional book/ forty days journal written by David Nasser right now and, although I am only at page 116 (from 350 pages), I think this book conveys an important message. "To live is Christ, and to die is gain..." as Paul puts it in Philippians 1:21. Intense words and thoughts - easy to repeat, hard to live by!
Paul is writing about his desire to depart physcially and be with Jesus. But he was able to think and write like this because he was willing to die spiritually to self. It is so easy to sing: "I surrender all", but it is so difficult to really give everything to God. It's so tempting - and so natural - to keep some areas and 'secret treasures' in our lives where we don't allow God to reign and be LORD! Do you recognize this?

Keeping me humble

Just signed in to a new service called Disqus (a tool for web comments and discussions). Look at the encouraging piece of information they have given me: no friends and zero fans. Well, thank you very much for reminding me and for keeping me humble!

Jesus as the Centre

"Jesus as the centre is only unifying for those who repent. For everyone else he is not a unifying centre, he is a dividing line." - Mark Driscoll (If you have 50 minutes left: listening to this panel discussion is not a waste of your precious time!)

Jason Upton - Dear John (Born)

Lauryn Hill - I Gotta Find Peace Of Mind

Just watch this clip till the end. It's moving, so get your handkerchiefs ready... (thanks to my daughter Sosha for showing this MTV unplugged music video to me)

Caught in the Act

I looked outside the window and saw this cat sitting in our tree... Looks like he has a bad conscience. This food in our tree - some little peanuts and netted fat balls - is intended for birds, but this cat had some other ideas...

Together with all the saints

I'm not the only one starin' at the sun
Afraid of what you'd find if you took a look inside...

Yesterday I copied these words, taken out of (the context of) a U2 song, on this blog. I was looking for some astronomical information about the sun, because I needed a metaphor to describe the loneliness and insignificance of human beings in the light of an eternal God. And the words of this song that I love - Staring at the Sun - came to my mind.

God is a consuming fire. He is so awesomely great that we are completely humbled just by considering his eternal existence, his endless power and the inaccessible light of his being. We can not approach him, because he is completely out of our reach. We can not picture him, because he is totally out of our sight. We can not fully appreciate him, because our minds and souls are not able to comprehend him. We are clueless, helpless, lost. We need a revelation.

We long to be loved. We didn't create this desire, it just welled up in us, consumed us from the inside out and confronted us with our loneliness. Hopefully we have experienced love. Human love - great affection, but always imperfect and often conditional. We want to hear that we are desired, that we belong and that we will not be left alone in the dark. Most of all we need to hear from our Maker that he loves us.

I didn't ask to be born. It just so happened. And I'm one of the lucky ones, because I was raised by loving (albeit imperfect) parents and I have no reasons to complain about the love that I receive right now from the people surrounding me. Don't worry about me, because I'm fine. But I want to be more than fine, I want to be embraced and fully accepted by God.

Aren't we all aching for pure love? We want to reach out to each other and to our Creator, but something is withholding us and this is what it is: The fear of being rejected. What if the ones that you love could have a look inside your heart – just like the U2 lyrics say? Would they still love you, accept you, praise you, admire you? And what about God – who is really able to look straight into the secret chambers of your soul – will he still accept you, love you? I believe that he does.

"It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing." (Ephesians 2:3-10 - the Message)

Human love can be close to perfect, but it will always be human. The best we can do is to accept and forgive each other's shortcomings and brokenness. And we can only do this if we dare to be honest and vulnerable ourselves. Face it. We are imperfect and incomplete, we desperately need compensation - each and everyone of us. We need other human beings to guide us, oppose us, confront us, unmask us, heal us. And we also need other people to get a better understanding of our Creator. Together with all the saints, in the company of true followers of Jesus, we will be able to grasp the immeasurable dimensions of Christ's love. We are not the only ones searching for light, love, life. We're staring at the sun together, blinded by its light, vulnerably exposed to its burning power.

If the sun stops shining right now, it will take approximately eight minutes before we will notice this down here on earth because this is the travel time needed for every ray of light from the sun to our planet. But as soon as God pulls the power plug of his love we are gone in an instant. His grace is still supporting us, even if we are not aware of it, even if we don't give him any credit for keeping us alive.

"My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19 - the Message)

Staring at the Sun

I'm not the only one
starin' at the sun
Afraid of what you'd find
if you took a look inside
Not just deaf and dumb
I'm staring at the sun
Not the only one
who's happy to go blind
- 'Staring at the Sun' lyrics U2

Staring at the sun is not a bright idea because it can damage your eyes or even destroy your eyesight completely - "No one is immune to sunlight-related eye disorders. Every person, regardless of their background is susceptible to ocular damage from UV radiation that may lead to impaired vision." Source

But, if you still want to have a closer look at the sun, I can offer you a good alternative that is safe, cheap and 100% up-to-date. Just click here and see for yourself. And if you want to listen to U2 too... Be my guest and watch this eyeblinding (not really) video clip!