Blog: Words that mean so much

For­gi­ve­ness – a won­der­ful word with such a lot of me­a­ning. It is about love, for­get­ting, bles­sing, and even ac­cep­tan­ce. But it is al­so a chal­len­ging word: dif­fi­cult to ask, to give, and to be­lie­ve.

En­du­ring foun­da­ti­on was a to­pic in Lon­don ser­vi­ces

For 25 ye­ars SRK ser­vi­ces have been ar­ran­ged in the Fin­nish Church in Lon­don. No­wa­da­ys pe­op­le gat­her for ser­vi­ces eve­ry two months. The Fin­nish Church in Lon­don is lo­ca­ted in Rot­her­hit­he, which was for­mer­ly part of the Lon­don Dock­lands. There is no sign of the docks left any more, and vi­si­tors to the church are most­ly Fin­ns li­ving in Lon­don for work or stu­dies.

At Christ­mas camp in Swit­zer­land: The gos­pel car­ries even at a lo­ne­ly gu­ard post

Be­lie­vers in Cent­ral Eu­ro­pe have gat­he­red to a Christ­mas camp eve­ry ye­ar sin­ce 2004. This ye­ar the camp was held in Ley­sin on De­cem­ber 4th to 6th. Ley­sin is an Al­pi­ne vil­la­ge of about 4000 in­ha­bi­tants, which lies at an al­ti­tu­de of 1 300 me­ters in the French-spe­a­king re­gi­on of the Swiss “Pre-Alps”.

God’s good­ness cal­ls man to re­pen­tan­ce

There are many kinds of cal­ls and in­vi­ta­ti­ons. We ac­cept some, but can­not ac­cept all. We usu­al­ly pre­pa­re for a fes­ti­ve oc­ca­si­on with res­pect for the per­son who in­vi­ted us.

Mis­si­on Trip to Gam­bia and Se­ne­gal

God bles­sed our trip, this was how we ex­pe­rien­ced it. In Gam­bia and Se­ne­gal there is a small but gro­wing group of brot­hers and sis­ters, a cong­re­ga­ti­on that wants to en­de­a­vour in faith. They wish to have more ser­vi­ces and they want to hear the gos­pel.

The ge­nui­ne­ness of yo­ur faith is tes­ted in tri­als

What kind of tri­als and ad­ver­si­ties have you ex­pe­rien­ced in yo­ur life? Have there been things that have tes­ted yo­ur faith in life and in the fu­tu­re? Have you had such he­a­vy tri­als that they have see­med to crush you and make yo­ur whole life and fu­tu­re im­pos­sib­le?

Faith co­mes by he­a­ring

Many mem­bers of the pe­op­le of Is­ra­el he­ard the te­ac­hings of Je­sus, but they did not all act ac­cor­ding­ly. In them came true the prop­he­cy of the prop­het, ac­cor­ding to which “their ears are dull of he­a­ring, and their ey­es they have clo­sed; lest at any time they should see with their ey­es, and hear with their ears, and should un­ders­tand with their he­art, and should be con­ver­ted” (Mat 13:15). The word that they he­ard did not re­ach their he­art. He­a­ring the word did not pro­fit them, as they did not be­lie­ve it (Heb 4:2).

He­a­ring the word of God

The Bib­le be­gins with the story in which God cre­a­tes the world by his word. Right in the be­gin­ning God spoke to the first hu­man pair, Adam and Eve. The third chap­ter of the Bib­le tel­ls us how man fell in­to the temp­ta­ti­on of not he­a­ring the word of God: ”Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of eve­ry tree of the gar­den?” (Gen 3:1) As a con­se­qu­en­ce of the fall in­to sin, man doubts if the word of God is true.

The sig­ni­fi­can­ce of the read and pre­ac­hed word of God

The first Chris­ti­an Pen­te­cost mar­ked a tur­ning point in the his­to­ry of sal­va­ti­on. Je­sus ope­ned the minds of the dis­cip­les to un­ders­tand the Scrip­tu­res. The prop­he­cies of the Scrip­tu­res – the Law of Mo­ses, the books of the prop­hets, and the Psalms – and the pro­mi­se gi­ven by Je­sus to His dis­cip­les were ful­fil­led in the pou­ring out of the Holy Spi­rit. The dis­cip­les were gi­ven a task: “And that re­pen­tan­ce and re­mis­si­on of sins should be pre­ac­hed in his name among all na­ti­ons, be­gin­ning at Je­ru­sa­lem.” (Luk 24:47)

God’s word of re­ve­la­ti­on, the Bib­le, in our time

The qu­es­ti­on about God is the most im­por­tant qu­es­ti­on in hu­man life. But no hu­man abi­li­ty can help us know God. We lack the ca­pa­ci­ty of thought, emo­ti­on or will to con­nect with Him. ”Truly you are a God who has been hi­ding him­self, the God and Sa­vi­or of Is­ra­el”, ad­mit­ted the Old Tes­ta­ment prop­het (Isa. 45:15).