Abide With Me is one of these lovely songs touching the heart. Written by Rev. Henry Francis Lyte, the lyrics emphasize our need for God's presence throughout every stage of our growth in faith: justification, sanctification, and glorification.

I chose the last part of every verse of the song to create the context of the variation, hence coming up with five of them.

(or listen via Spotify or Apple Music)

When I was a kid, I wondered why people need blood transfusions and why would someone donate blood. Growing up I understood better that in some cases (eg. serious injuries etc.), people may lose blood, therefore requiring a transfusion. Since blood is not something we can buy or create artificially (perhaps yet?), the viable option is to motivate other persons to donate little quantities of their blood. ✨

One day a friend of mine shared their experience and that inspired me to donate blood and clear my fears about it. By doing it regularly I discovered how meaningful it feels to help people around us in this way as well. 🍀

Spiritually, we can see sin as a serious injury to the perfect initial state. When sin entered the world, the human race was in great danger. Thankfully, there is Someone who offered Himself to save us. As our physical existence depends on the blood flowing through our bodies, eternal life is in the blood of Jesus, as Peter writes:

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." — 1 Peter 2:24

We live in times in which it is relatively easy to obtain something we want, and often quite quickly. A simple internet search usually saves hours of searching in physical books, fast vehicles take us from point A to point B with speeds we could not naturally reach, and the list goes on. 🚀

But what do we do when life goes at its slow pace? Sometimes we may be surprised. 🎁

In my teens, I listened to a lot of music, but two music albums, in particular, were special to me. A young Croatian couple from the Church recorded that music, and I was impressed by how well the voices would mix with the music. They were Sabina and Daniel Poropat! 🎶

Since I had done a couple of music collaborations before that, I thought it would be lovely to record a song with Daniel and Sabina. After sending them a message, I was so excited when Sabina replied! We kept in touch for years, hoping one day we would record something together. ✨

This year in July, we met in Croatia. It felt so good to read the long thread of old messages, starting eleven years ago! In the meantime, God blessed them with two talented kids. As you can imagine, we talked a lot and got the chance to record a song together! 😇