“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12, NIV) We are called to zealous prayer life! Prayer is a gift from God to us. Just think about having a direct prayer line to God Almighty! Pretty awesome!! We are called to be faithful in prayer and to pray without ceasing. God wants to participate in our lives. Through prayer we are able to…
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Phil.4:6, NIV) Do not be anxious! Easier said than done, right? But I do think that we can either worry or pray. We can’t do both. Either we worry and keep focusing on our problems. Or we pray and surrender to God. We are instructed to go to God with everything. With our joys, our sorrows, our troubles, our emptiness….
How on earth is is possible to find joy in this broken world? No matter where you watch, left or right, you see terrible hard ships and things gone awry, broken hearts and crushed lives. What to do? How to handle all this pain? How can we go on with living when things are so wrong? One way to force joy into life is trying to eliminate things that hurt and then try to lighten the boredom of that numbness…
Is the call for simple living a chore or a privilege? Something you have to pretend you are doing or something that you embrace whole-heartedly? Simple living is not the easiest task to accomplish in our hectic world! Our attention as consumers is constantly wanted. It takes a lot of practice to succesfully navigate between needs and wants. It takes a lot of prayer to maintain a lifestyle that is focused on God and not on stuff. A God-loyal life…
Father, Son and who? The Holy Spirit seems so untangible that sometimes we seem afraid of approaching the subject all together. But let’s check out what living in the presence of the Holy Spirit could be! Jesus told his disciples:”And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he…
Lectio Divina is Latin and means ‘divine reading’. It is an ancient way of praying with Scripture that promotes communion with God. Lectio Divina has four parts: Reading(Lectio), Meditating(Meditatio), Praying(Oration)and Contemplation(Contemplatio). I have always enjoyed tremendously any participation in Lectio Divina. But a couple years ago I had a chance to practice a modern version of Lectio Divina and that truly left me in awe. I will share the method here with you. You need a good study Bible with…
Who would think that a monk, Ignatius, who lived 1491-1556 would encourage Christians a half a millenia later to grab their Bibles and read it with all their God-given senses? Don’t you just love the idea? Ignatian Meditation asks that we enter into the story of scripture, that we become a part of the action. We need to use our imagination and smell, taste, touch, hear and see through the Bible! Bring it on, right? I am giving here a…
As I started reading the Bible through in one year, I fast realized I need a journal to accompany my journey. I want to record my thoughts, questions, findings, revelations along the way. This might be something you want to consider, too. As we prayerfully approach reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit will show us new things through God’s word. That’s why it is a living word! And that’s why I want to record the reading process. A.W.Tozer has said…
At the moment the cock crowed for the second time. The Peter remembered that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept. (Mark 14:72) Once again Peter shows us how to walk in faith. When we have sinned, we need to break down and weep. We need to repent. We need to stop living for ourselves and start living for God. We need to turn around…
The second day of Christmas is a national holiday in Finland and many other European countries. This day is a good day to reflect what Christmas means in our everyday life. It was great to celebrate baby Jesus and welcome him to the world. But what does it mean to us that Jesus was born 2000 years ago? It is time to put Christmas into practice! It is time to put our faith into action! The fact that God chose…
