Whose side are you on? You know, there’s no middle ground. Even if we’d like it to be so. Jesus said: “Whoever isn’t with me is against me, and whoever doesn’t gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30, CEB) This verse stopped me this morning. I’m either with Jesus or I am against him. I either gather with Jesus or I scatter. No other alternatives. Jesus or no Jesus. Whose side are you on? God wants it all. God wants obedience….
Did you know that you are a very important person in God’s plans? For real. It does not necessarily feel like it or even look like it from your perspective. But when you look at the big picture or from God’s perspective, you see the importance of every person in the relay of faith. Just the same way we need to look at the big picture and not to be satisfied with partial truths when we are reading the Bible….
Is it wrong to have fun and enjoy life? Is it okay to love life? Is joyful living a sin? These are questions that used to haunt me as a teenager. I was on the verge of independence, eager to start out my own life. I had grown to love the Lord more than anything but I didn’t know if it was okay to have fun, enjoy life. I have a bubbly personality so this was indeed an important question…
Do you ever wonder how on earth you ended up messing up things once again? Especially when you thought you had asked God’s blessings on your projects? How did everything go wrong when you thought God was in your team? These questions used to haunt me, too. Until I laid them to the Lord and asked him to explain me where I had gone wrong. How could I have avoided these pitfalls? How could I have made wiser decisions? The…
The second day of Christmas is a national holiday in Finland and many other European countries. This day is a great day to reflect what Christmas means in our everyday life. Does Christmas have a stable influence in our lives? 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…
God has promised to bless his children richly. But these blessings are not material things. Nonetheless these blessings bring forth all the good things in life: God’s kingdom isn’t about eating food and drinking but about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14: 17, CEB) We can’t produce spiritual fruit on our own. And artificial fruit just does not do it. The only way to bear spiritual fruit is by abiding in Christ. Even then it’s never…
“Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning”, writes Karl Barth. I think so, too. There is nothing bigger or better in life than receiving grace through faith in Jesus Christ! G.K. Charleston has said “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.“ If we take time to wonder God’s mysteries in our lives we start to see God’s handiwork all around us. We need to cultivate wonder because wonder leads…
Christians are citizens of two worlds: God’s kingdom and the world we live in. Sometimes it is a struggle to balance out these two. We don’t want to be worldly yet we are meant to live to the fullest. How should we balance life and faith? It’s important to note that the secular world does not necessarily mean an atheistic world. The secular world is a world that has no special religious connotation. C.S. Lewis has stated “Christianity was never…
Prayer is as important as breathing to Christians. We all know -no matter how busy our lives are- we need to find time for prayer. Or maybe especially because our lives are hectic we need more and more prayer. Like Martin Luther has said “the less I pray, the harder it gets. The more I pray, the better it goes”. Well prayed is indeed half done. Without God’s guidance and blessing there is no point to do anything. But when…
“Remove Christ from the Scriptures and there is nothing left”, states Martin Luther. That is so true. Without Christ there would not be a way back to God. Without Christ there would not be life and more life to come. Without Christ we would be lost. That’s why I agree wholeheartedly with Paul writing: For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified…
