How to visit when you can't

With Paul, I can say "I want you to be ..aware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now)".

Ironically, I have had the chance to go to places I did not even particularly want to got to: Rome - England - Israel, while the place I really want to go - Srbija- eludes me.
What I can do in these internet days, though, is visit by proxy: Google Earth. First time I tried it made my laptop crash! So I had to get a new one.
But there are some real benefits to using Google, all in all. How else could I get to Beograd once a week, looking at the places and all the photos people have uploaded, following up YouTube connections, -but above all, praying my clockwise round the city. In fact I have learned much I could never have found out on a flying visit.
As use Google, (mainly on Fridays,) I find myself learning so much about this people so far off, seeking their welfare and praying as my imagination, empathy and, I trust, the Spirit of the Lord shows me how.

A Death in the Family

As I understand it, for many Serbs the loss of Kosovo is something akin to the death of a close family member, and as such I wish to extend my condolances.

"A Wounded Spirit who can bear?"

asks the Book of Proverbs (18,14).

That's a rhetorical question, and the answer, -by the look of things, is "no one, -neither the person who's been wounded, nor their kith, kin or neighbours."
A wounded spirit is ultimately extremely self-destructive. It makes for completely unreasonable reactions to the most innocent of overtures: outbursts of anger, tantrums, self-pity and so-on.
The good news is: it can be healed:

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,

(quote from NIV; Biblegateway.com)

Serbia, allow Me to give you the future

When the Lord interrupted my wedding plans and asked me to allow Him to set the agenda, it was a lesson with a wider application. As I have told before, the wedding became more creative, more enjoyable, more memorable more enriching than the event we planned for ourselves. Yet it was not unlike it either! It was more a case of being all we had wished for and more, because the Lord is so much more positive than anything we can be when we stand alone.

So with Serbia and so with us all: keep an open mind, be ready for the creatively unexpected:
"Allow Me to give you the future

I want you to have"

Hear the Lord in this, and you surely will not regret it!

"All roads lead to where we stand"

Corrie ten Boom, the author of "The Hiding place" hid Jews from their Nazi persecutors during the war. She was arrrested and sent to concentration-camp. Commenting on her life experiences she said that the events of your past are a preparation for your future.
The relevance of the past is the wisdom it gives for the future. All your past has brought you to where you are now, but it is over; you owe it nothing. The road ahead is your true business, and the agenda belongs to God.

It's all about You, Jesus
And all this is for You
For Your glory and Your fame
It's not about me
As if You should do things my way
You alone are God and I surrender
To Your ways

(Paul Oakley 1995)

"No, - I will not!" (buy you a Mercedes Benz)

Janis Joplin called her song "Mercedes-Benz" a "profound social comment on America", although I'm sure the cap fits a lot more places than just the US of A. Another commentator(Ern Baxter)said:
"Imagine if you could see all the things people pray for: all the deep freezes, television sets, bicycles and so on floating down from heaven each night as people say their bedside prayers. That's not what prayer is about, -- we've turned Him into Santa Claus; that's who!"

God set the agenda, not us. To pray effectively you need to learn what God is like, grasp His heart, and ask for things that please Him. Sometimes, (not always,) this can be the reason why we get instant answers to our prayers; other times we have to persist. This has a two-fold effect: it trains us up in patience, and it sorts out the desires that have their origin in the Spirit of God who is prompting us to pray and sifts away the things we have come up with ourself.
As I have said earlier, its an on-going process, but that doesn't mean that God's will is something negative for us, not in the long-run, at least. For example, when I was planning my own wedding, I budgeted on a shoe-string. Then the Lord interrupted me (quite unexpectedly, as usual,) and said: "Allow Me to give you the wedding I want you to have!" My whole perspective changed, (and my wife is very grateful that it did). More than that, our wedding was happy, bountiful, joyous and positive in a way I could never have devised out of my own resources; -truly a day to remember.
So what God wants for us, is normally better than anything we can wish for ourselves, but it may not seem so at the time. What is good to know is that if I get it wrong, God is going to veto my requests. -What exactly am I going to do with a Mercedes-Benz anyway?

What have I prayed for Serbia recently?
1) That there would be a big enough turn-out for the Constitutional elections to decide the matter one way or another.
2) That there be a proper turn out for the January elections, so that whoever won would truly have a mandate, and not just win by default.
3) That Serbia will have a true Statesman for a leader.

As to Kosovo, - that God dispenses true justice, and a resolution that serves Serbia's true interests (what ever they may be).

God is NOT Santa Claus!

That time I was so concerned about South Africa, one of the things I did one day was to pray:

“LORD, what do you want me to pray for South Africa?”

--“That Vorster will resign,” came the reply.

What! Did I really hear that, or was it just my imagination?

So I prayed that Prime Minister Vorster would resign.

The next day Vorster resigned, and was replaced by Piet Botha.

Once I’d recovered from the shock, I naturally felt very encouraged. But let’s get a few things into perspective now: It’s hardly the case that I was the only one praying for South Africa at the time, and probably not even the only one praying for that particular thing. Nor did I receive some kind of “3 wishes” guaranteed to alter the cou