Do you have some difficult faith topics that you push away from your mind as much as you can? I bet you do. I think we all do. One of my challenging faith concepts has long time been that ‘my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit’. Not because I would not agree with the statement. But because it is humbling to think that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. THE HOLY SPIRIT!!! Or didn’t you realize that your body…
Are you fully convinced that Christ is risen and lives and cares for you? Do you trust God will do what he has promised? Or are you tired of waiting for God to answer your prayers? This is why I am utterly thankful for the Bible stories, heroes of faith that leads the way for us. Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. 21 He was fully…
Spring is here. I especially love how there is more and more light. It does invigorate us – at least me – so much. But there is a problem. You see, here in Finland we get light around the clock in summer time. Yes, it is wild. Yes, it is wonderful. But. It is hard to sleep when it’s so bright all the time. So what do I do? I block the sunlight out. Then it’s nice and dark and…
Spiritual exercise is necessary for robust spiritual health. There is no way around it. Any muscle that goes unused becomes weak. Any faith that does not get exercised becomes weak. So what are you waiting for? You even have your own spiritual trainer, the Holy Spirit, available 24/7. Let’s continue our journey towards a strong spiritual immune system. In the first part of the series I presented a formula for spiritual health. We need to have a healthy diet and…
You know that faith is a gift from God. You can’t earn it, you can just receive it. Just as spiritual gifts in general, also faith is inspired and brought to pass by one and the same Holy Spirit. All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when. (1 Cor. 12:11, MSG) If you have had the pleasure to receive the gift of…
Now is the flu season. The best way to avoid catching a cold is to boost your immune system. What do you think? Do we need to have a spiritual immune system? I think so. Life is hard, life is rough, life is difficult – even if we don’t talk about spiritual battles. Our faith is on trial every single day. In order to be able to feel spiritually well and live our lives according to God’s will we need…
Do you recognize God’s presence in your life? Or are you too busy to take notice of the divine intervention? These are the questions the Bible asked me today. I was reading the chapter 19 in Luke where Jesus is entering Jerusalem to be crucified. Jesus wept over the city because he knew they were not recognizing and welcoming God’s personal visit. This is how he prophesied: When the city came into view, he wept over it. “If you had…
We are called to be one in Christ…but we are not succeeding very well, are we? Living in unity seems like a balancing act sometimes. How can we who are so different live in harmony? How can we respect everyone and allow each other freedom in Christ? These are the questions I’ve been mulling over lately. Blessedly I learned five things about walking in love from Romans 14:13-23. 1) We need to stop criticizing at once. Everyone we meet is…
Do you ever wonder what Jesus is doing now after he has returned to his father? Is Jesus still in the picture? Yes, he is. He is still part of God’s plan. Jesus is still blessing us in mighty ways: [Again, the former successive line of priests] was made up of many, because they were each prevented by death from continuing [perpetually in office]; But He holds His priesthood unchangeably, because He lives on forever. Therefore He is able also to save…
Do you wear glasses regularly or do you need reading glasses? What a blessing it is to have a way to see clearly, isn’t it? Otherwise everything is a bit blurry. Hard to focus, hard to see. That’s exactly the way it is in our spiritual life too. It’s hard to focus, hard to understand what’s what. We need spiritual reading glasses to see clearly. Especially when we read the Bible. Otherwise we miss the wonderful things in it. Let…
