“Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and where…you should go next.” (Frederick Buechner) This is the quote of the week for me. I keep reading and re-reading it. Tasting the words, reflecting on…
When I moved to Minnesota to teach at Concordia College, Moorhead I purchased a shiny white car that I dubbed Grace. I felt it would be wonderful to drive around with Grace because grace was the best thing I knew. I heartily agreed with John the Baptist testifying “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.“(John 1:16-17, NIV). Grace enabled…
What happened to Jesus after he triumphed over the temptations? In my previous post To Give in or Not to Give in I reflected on Luke 4: 1-13. If we continue to read Luke chapter 4 we find out that after dealing with the Devil Jesus returned to Nazareth and went to synagogue. “When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God’s…
I explained why my blog is called FLOWING FAITH in my previous post Flow, flow flowing faith. What about the rest of the title “Ponderings of an Almond Tree in Bloom”? The quote from “The Fratricides” by Nikos Kazantzakis – “I said to the almond tree: ‘Speak to me of God’ and the almond tree blossomed” – was given to me on my high school graduation day. I’ve always felt that I was an almond tree and my destiny was…
Our family just recently took a holiday to Lapland. We spent a week in the winter wonderland and had great time. Coming home is always a pleasure no matter how much fun you had away. This time I was even blessed with an epiphany: I realized that this house in which we moved just few months ago really had become our home! This newfound understanding intensified my happy feelings of sweet homecoming. I have moved around a lot in my…
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it…
This is the fourth part of a series looking at how to (re)make Jesus Christ the center of our lives. We’ve talked about focusing on God, repenting and confessing our sins. Today we talk about bearing fruit because fruits should naturally follow repentance and confession. As John the Babtist said “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”(Matt. 3:8). Peter is a great example of a person who repented, confessed his sins and then moved on to produce spiritual fruit in his life….
When I was a student at the University of Helsinki a German tourist stopped me on the street. First he asked me if I spoke any German and all I could mutter was ‘JA’. Then he asked where the cruise ship possibly would be and all I could do was point and say ‘DA’ (there in German). He thanked and was on his way. First I was embarrassed how little I had been able to speak German. At least I…
Have you ever wondered what’s God’s particular calling for you? Of course, you have. Once we have learned to know God and his love for us we naturally want to response to his calling to share his love with others. We start praying for clear wisdom to see what God has intended us to do. Just too often we think too little of ourselves or God. Have you done that? We think that we are not capable of doing great…
