In our culture we suffer from sitting too much. It is a passive kind of sitting that leads to complacency and laziness. We get stuck in front of our computers or in our couches or church pews and can hardly get up and make ourselves do anything because we just get comfortable sitting.
But at the same time that we are sitting too much, we have a hard time finding rest. We are filled with stress and restlessness even when we are inactive, zapping away on our wide screen TV:s or surfing the internet for hours.
In Biblical language, the verb "to sit" does not usually have to do with sitting down to rest but sitting down to rule (Is 52:2). It is a place of honor and respect. We sit down on thrones with Christ. It is a very active sitting down. But it is also a place of rest. We rule when we rest. Our strength is in the stillness and the rest we find in God (Is 30:15). We don't get caught up in worries and fears because we know that God is so much bigger and mightier than whatever we can face and that His love always surrounds us.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Faith
The concept of Happy Thoughts comes from Peter Pan. Peter Pan has grown up and forgotten who he really is. To get in touch with his true self again and be able to fly, like he used to, he needs to think Happy Thoughts.
More and more I understand how our thoughts are so important for our lives. If our thoughts are all negative and filled with lies and fears we are not going to fly very high in life.
I know that faith is not "positive thinking" but in a sense we need to become like little children and have that childlike faith that everything is possible. Faith is not a heavy thing, that we can work hard on to make stronger in our life. Faith is a gift. We receive what God has for us by faith. It is not even our faith but the faith of Jesus Christ. He has faith in us. He is full of faith. That means that He is faithful and true! To us. And most of all to Himself. So we need to get to know Him, the person Jesus Christ, and then our faith will grow automatically. It is a very personal, relational thing, not some magic formula.
If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him], He remains true (faithful to His Word and His righteous character), for He cannot deny Himself. 2 Tim 2:13
To a Swede, the Norwegian language sounds sort of humorous. We can perfectly understand Norwegian (pretty much) but it is like a funny version of Swedish, not quite as serious, but Norwegian sounds happier and more energetic than Swedish, at least to a Swede. That is why I liked this Norwegian version of the Peter Pan song. To me it catches the spirit of positive thinking.
More and more I understand how our thoughts are so important for our lives. If our thoughts are all negative and filled with lies and fears we are not going to fly very high in life.
I know that faith is not "positive thinking" but in a sense we need to become like little children and have that childlike faith that everything is possible. Faith is not a heavy thing, that we can work hard on to make stronger in our life. Faith is a gift. We receive what God has for us by faith. It is not even our faith but the faith of Jesus Christ. He has faith in us. He is full of faith. That means that He is faithful and true! To us. And most of all to Himself. So we need to get to know Him, the person Jesus Christ, and then our faith will grow automatically. It is a very personal, relational thing, not some magic formula.
If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him], He remains true (faithful to His Word and His righteous character), for He cannot deny Himself. 2 Tim 2:13
To a Swede, the Norwegian language sounds sort of humorous. We can perfectly understand Norwegian (pretty much) but it is like a funny version of Swedish, not quite as serious, but Norwegian sounds happier and more energetic than Swedish, at least to a Swede. That is why I liked this Norwegian version of the Peter Pan song. To me it catches the spirit of positive thinking.
Happy Thoughts
Tonight I visited heaven for a little while. We are house sitting and "baby sitting" our friends house and kids this week and one of the privileges about that is that I get to put the younger kids to bed, read them stories, sing lullabies and pray with them. Tonight the youngest one wanted me to tell her "Happy Thoughts" to think about before she went to sleep and then she told me "Happy Thoughts" and off we went straight into heaven. She told me how I was dancing around on a field with all these animals and then the lamb climbed the back of the tiger and was riding on him. The little mouse was dancing right next to the big moose but he never stepped on him but the mouse ran in and out in between his legs in perfect harmony and just had fun, being silly.
Then we were playing by this waterfall and the water was just the right temperature and everybody could swim and those kids came that never had had fresh water their whole lives and they just drank. We did not need soap or shampoo that gets in the eyes but we all got clean and fresh from just the water and there was healing in the water too and refreshment. Then Jesus disciples came ("What does disciples mean anyways?") and said that these kids were rubbish but Jesus said that they were perfect for him and he thought they all were handsome and wonderful worshipers.
It was so easy and so much fun and really profound to visit heaven with my little friend. I cannot wait to go back again and get more revelation. Maybe I will even go up on my own. But it is good to have a little helper that is not too caught up in rational thought.
Then we were playing by this waterfall and the water was just the right temperature and everybody could swim and those kids came that never had had fresh water their whole lives and they just drank. We did not need soap or shampoo that gets in the eyes but we all got clean and fresh from just the water and there was healing in the water too and refreshment. Then Jesus disciples came ("What does disciples mean anyways?") and said that these kids were rubbish but Jesus said that they were perfect for him and he thought they all were handsome and wonderful worshipers.
It was so easy and so much fun and really profound to visit heaven with my little friend. I cannot wait to go back again and get more revelation. Maybe I will even go up on my own. But it is good to have a little helper that is not too caught up in rational thought.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Four living creatures
Some things in the Bible I find a bit strange. Then I don't pay too much attention to that, but move on and read something else. I am sure it all makes sense I just don't get it at the time or it doesn't appeal to me at the moment. Later I can read the same scripture and it is like the passage pops out from the page and comes alive to me.
I had one of those aha-moments the other week as I was reading the first chapter of Ezekiel. It describes a powerful vision the prophet had of God and the activity going on around His throne with different living creatures and flashes of lightning etc. These creatures always seemed weird and pointless to me, like taken from a science fiction movie, type Star wars, that I am completely uninterested in. I could not see what they had to do with my life at all.
But the other week when I read the passage again all of a sudden it made sense. Of course, these creatures need faces in every direction so they never need to take their eyes off of God. He is so beautiful and marvelous so they cannot afford missing out on any aspect of Him. To make that point even clearer they move around on wheels that are covered in eyes. And the wheels are so high that they are dreadful. All these eyes serve that same purpose - to gaze on God. And they are covered in eyes! One pair of eyes is far from enough. There are so many aspects of God and such depth, so much splendor, awesomeness, beauty and all kinds of other adjectives forever and ever so the only words to rightfully describe Him is "Holy, Holy, Holy".
These creatures are constantly on the move. Actually they are running back and forth like flashes of lightning. I never reflected on the enormous power, energy and activity that is going on before the throne of God. I typically visualize it as a sort of quiet, peaceful and reverent place, but these creatures don't stand still. I bet God doesn't stand still either. It is explosive! There is so much life!
I had one of those aha-moments the other week as I was reading the first chapter of Ezekiel. It describes a powerful vision the prophet had of God and the activity going on around His throne with different living creatures and flashes of lightning etc. These creatures always seemed weird and pointless to me, like taken from a science fiction movie, type Star wars, that I am completely uninterested in. I could not see what they had to do with my life at all.
But the other week when I read the passage again all of a sudden it made sense. Of course, these creatures need faces in every direction so they never need to take their eyes off of God. He is so beautiful and marvelous so they cannot afford missing out on any aspect of Him. To make that point even clearer they move around on wheels that are covered in eyes. And the wheels are so high that they are dreadful. All these eyes serve that same purpose - to gaze on God. And they are covered in eyes! One pair of eyes is far from enough. There are so many aspects of God and such depth, so much splendor, awesomeness, beauty and all kinds of other adjectives forever and ever so the only words to rightfully describe Him is "Holy, Holy, Holy".
These creatures are constantly on the move. Actually they are running back and forth like flashes of lightning. I never reflected on the enormous power, energy and activity that is going on before the throne of God. I typically visualize it as a sort of quiet, peaceful and reverent place, but these creatures don't stand still. I bet God doesn't stand still either. It is explosive! There is so much life!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)