Today I’ve been pondering on giving. What it is and what is is not. I don’t think we need expensive gifts but I do think we need extraordinary generosity. Material gifts do not bring happiness. But love and caring do. Because when we love each other, we are touched by God. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity. (Luke…
Yesterday at church a senior men’s choir sang a beautiful hymn at the end. It was so touching. I am sure I was not the only one with misty eyes in the audience. Not because of the words of the song. Not because the performance would have been somehow extraordinary. But because these older men were standing there and praising God with their song. After decades of hard life and difficult circumstances, they were still praising God. What a testimony….
Have you ever felt – or do you feel right now – that God is silent? Do you know what to do when God is silent? It is an important faith skill. Because too often we worry about if we have done something wrong when God feels distant. The silence of God is part of salvation life. Sometimes it lasts few days or weeks, sometimes the silent period lasts months or even years. But it doesn’t mean that we would…
From very early on I was aware of the power of my choices. I realized I had to decide whether I wanted to add to the good or to the bad in the world. I had to decide how I was going to be remembered. I had to choose between the light and the darkness. The choice was easy then and it still is a no-brainer. I want to choose life-giving light. I want to be zealous for good. I…
Faith is a weird thing. You can’t see it. You can’t taste it or touch it. But you can sense it. You can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. You can see with the eyes of faith and you can know the truth. Yet it is very hard to describe to others. Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious…
Is November getting you? It is incredibly gray and foggy over here today. So some uplifting and hope-filled thoughts seem to be appropriate today, don’t you think? It always helps when we remember who is our hope. Our hope is not a sunny weather, no matter how nice that would be. Our hope is not money or a new job. Those things are just temporary things, here today – gone tomorrow. But our hope is Jesus. And that hope is…
I have been in love of Psalm 19 a few days now. I am going to share it with you and explain why it feels so precious to me right now. Read it and let the Holy Spirit read you while you are at it. This is how the Living Word of God works! The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life-maps of…
Do you dare to hope when there’s no reason to hope? Do you dare to hope when your life as you’ve known it has been taken over by a razing storm? Do you dare to hope when life has become bitterness and poison? I hope so. I’ve been there. Everything but God was taken from me. But God was more than enough. I can testify that God is faithful. That’s why I can assure you: God will also see you…
Are you a control freak? Or an occasional control freak? You are not alone. It is hard to live carefree. It would be nice to be able to control things, wouldn’t it? But that’s not how life works. Control freaks ultimate desire is to feel safe. That’s the reason why they want to be in control. So that everything would be fine in their lives. They try to achieve this peace on their own. But control freaks are looking for…
As you probably have noticed, I like to end my posts with a prayer. I do that because I believe that all change begins in prayer. I believe that all the good things start with God. My calling is to bring others to Jesus. And in prayer people can meet Jesus firsthand. Today I wrote the prayer before writing the post itself. And I pray God will answer that prayer in this post. (Maybe this is too random but we…
