Far, far away in Siberia lived a good but poor king. He had always been told that when the Highest King would be born a star would proclaim his birth. As the poor king saw the star of Bethlehem, he knew right away that now the Highest King had been born. He chose the best things his country could offer: pearls, linen, fur, and honey to be his gifts to this new king and started his journey on his horse….
Have you ever struggled with keeping Sabbath? What do you do after church on Sunday? Is your Sabbath only 60 minutes long? Or do you keep Sabbath for full 24 hours? And how on earth is it possible in this hectic world? What are your Sabbath keeping strategies? This is something I’ve struggled over the years. I felt guilty for not offering up the whole Sunday for God but at the same time I knew that as a professor I…
You never know when an Aha moment arrives. I was reading a Christian chick-lit book “Queen Esther & the Second Graders of Doom” by Allie Pleiter (Steeple Hill, 2006) for entertainment purposes only and unexpectedly came across with a thought-provoking analysis. Pastor Mark in the story said after a church disagreement: “I am just happy to get them to care at all. Opinion is not my enemy, apathy is.” Indeed!! Opinion is not my enemy, apathy is! I’ve always struggled…
A BOOK REVIEW ofTHE WORDS OF JESUS: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord with Reflections by Phyllis Tickle(Jossey-Bass, 2009) Phyllis Tickle, founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, has done qualitative analysis of the words of Jesus in the book THE WORDS OF JESUS: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord with Reflections by Phyllis Tickle. She divided all the sayings from the gospels and the first chapter of Acts into five different groups: The…
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…
Martin Luther’s famous quote “Sin boldly” has been way too many times misinterpreted. That easily happens when we don’t take the whole context and frame work in consideration. Luther did not ever encourage to purposefully sin. According to Luther we are not to use the precious blood of Christ in vain (cheap grace if you will). Martin Luther intended to say that we are not to be fearful when it comes to living. We are to live boldly in Christ…
Last week I attended a women’s conference with my mom. We got there at the last minute and the only available seats were at the back. Not the ideal place to see and hear everything but it had to do. After the presentations the buffet was surprisingly opened right behind us and suddenly the first were last and the last were first. It was such a powerful first hand experience of “The last will be first, and the first will…
Nobody wants to be empty, right? Empty means poor, sad, lonely. Empty means cold, old, dead. We don’t want to be associated with those things. We don’t want to be empty. We try to fix it. But we mess up. “God gives His gifts where He finds the vessel empty enough to receive them” writes C. S. Lewis in Williams and the Arthuriad. We are not called to be empty. But we are called to be empty enough. God wants…
“Most Christians understand the principle when it comes to salvation but lose sight of it in living Christian life. Then He was our Redeemer; now He is to be our Life” writes Hannah Whitall Smith in her book The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life. What does it take to live out Christian faith? We need and we want salvation. But how Christ can be our Life? First of all, we need to remember that faith is a gift from…
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…
