The winter has come!

In Khabarovsk

My dear friends! We are here in Khabarovsk! I can not believe that
we have moved! We are very happy! We like this beautiful city! It is a
big blessing for us to be here! Polina goes in Christian school. She
has much new friends. We even did the Apple party at our place for the
girl of her class and our teacher. I have begun my female ministry.
And as I have the master-class for the woman from different churches.
It is a good opportunity to invite their girlfriends to do something
with their hands and to tell them the Gospel! Life here in Khabarovsk
is very expensive and my husband is compelled to continue his work in
Birobidzhan. From Monday till Thursday he works in Birobidzhan and
comes to us for the days off. It is difficult for me and children, but
we pray that the God has given him a new work here in Khabarovsk.
Please pray for us! Please forgive if I could not make that I promised
to you, but I hope, that I can do all when things to rise on their
place! With all my love Nika

Pursuing Joy in the Joy of the Beloved

And what is the church's ultimate joy? Is it not to be cleansed and sanctified and then presented as a bride to the sovereign, all-glorious Christ? So Christ sought his own joy, yes-but he sought it in the joy of the church! That is what love is: the pursuit of our own joy in the joy of the beloved.

In Ephesians 5:29-30, Paul pushes the hedonism of Christ even further: "No man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body." Why does Christ nourish and cherish the church? Because we are members of his own body, and no man ever hates his own body. In other words, the union between Christ and his bride is so close ("one flesh") that any good done to her is a good done to himself. The blatant assertion of this text is that this fact motivates the Lord to nourish, cherish, sanctify and cleanse his bride.

By some definitions this cannot be love. Love, they say, must be free of self-interest-especially Christ-like love, especially Calvary love. I have never seen such a view of love made to square with this passage of Scripture. Yet what Christ does for his bride, this text plainly calls love. "Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church . . ." Why not let the text define love for us, instead of bringing our definition from ethics or philosophy?

According to this text, love is the pursuit of our joy in the holy joy of the beloved. There is no way to exclude self-interest from love, for self-interest is not the same as selfishness. Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of others. Love seeks its happiness in the happiness of the beloved. It will even suffer and die for the beloved in order that its joy might be full in the life and purity of the beloved.

John Piper Desiring God