Tuesday, August 30, 2011
being answerable
Nobody is perfect, but everybody is responsible.
Our faith will not do away the corruptive influence of sin on everything.
The tree lies where it fell and man reaps what he sows. Eccl.11:3, Gal.6:7
Faith doesn’t stop the natural course of life, but it gives us an amazing
opportunity not to be limited to it.
Faith gives us new eyes to see further and new decisions to make according
to God’s eternal purpose.
By faith we deal with issues following the examples of those saints who
“Subdued kingdoms,
worked righteousness,
obtained promises,
stopped the mounts of lions,
quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword,
out of weaknesses were made strong,
became valiant in battle,
turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” Hebrews 11:33-34
Wow, what a list!
Wouldn’t it be right to say that faith is our responsibility?
When Jesus encouraged his disciples to believe in Him,
He was not bossing around demanding obedience from them.
He invited them to a life-style that they had to learn anew like a child,
step by step, word by word, decision by decision.
Every new step , word and decision enlarges the child’s area of influence
and increases his responsibility.
The English word responsibility refers to an ability to answer.
It doesn’t always guarantee that the answer is right but by being
responsible we actually just continue fellowshipping with Him.
Our faith will not do away the corruptive influence of sin on everything.
The tree lies where it fell and man reaps what he sows. Eccl.11:3, Gal.6:7
Faith doesn’t stop the natural course of life, but it gives us an amazing
opportunity not to be limited to it.
Faith gives us new eyes to see further and new decisions to make according
to God’s eternal purpose.
By faith we deal with issues following the examples of those saints who
“Subdued kingdoms,
worked righteousness,
obtained promises,
stopped the mounts of lions,
quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword,
out of weaknesses were made strong,
became valiant in battle,
turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” Hebrews 11:33-34
Wow, what a list!
Wouldn’t it be right to say that faith is our responsibility?
When Jesus encouraged his disciples to believe in Him,
He was not bossing around demanding obedience from them.
He invited them to a life-style that they had to learn anew like a child,
step by step, word by word, decision by decision.
Every new step , word and decision enlarges the child’s area of influence
and increases his responsibility.
The English word responsibility refers to an ability to answer.
It doesn’t always guarantee that the answer is right but by being
responsible we actually just continue fellowshipping with Him.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
like a window
LIKE A WINDOW
paintings
matti sirvio
22/08 – 25/09
Bulevardin Kahvisalonki
Bulevardi 1, Helsinki
WELCOME
TO THE OPENING RECEPTION
Monday , August 22
7 p.m.
Classical music will be performed by
Elina Eirola – violin
Tuomas Juutilainen ja Risto Kyrö – piano
paintings
matti sirvio
22/08 – 25/09
Bulevardin Kahvisalonki
Bulevardi 1, Helsinki
WELCOME
TO THE OPENING RECEPTION
Monday , August 22
7 p.m.
Classical music will be performed by
Elina Eirola – violin
Tuomas Juutilainen ja Risto Kyrö – piano
like a window
For some people it’s never been more than just
an empty hole next to the ceiling.
For others it’s the most important means to manage life
as it opens and closes from situation to another.
You can cover up your soul when you don’t want
the disturbing light, when privacy and insecurity take over.
You can also pull it wide open for everyone to see.
Some people’s windows have been broken into zillions
of pieces. There they are, travelling around the globe, trying
to pick up at least some of their soul crums in order to see again,
so many pieces, broken lives, shameful memories.
Jesus said to be The Door.
You come in and go out.
But He is also a window ,
a view beyond time to eternity,
where no one ever opens or closes again,
heaven.
That’s where every piece will be
restored to it’s right place.
Every painting is like a window.
It invites you to see, to open and to close.
Sometimes you are seen from there.
You are the glass placed between time and eternity.
Maybe it is a picture of your soul.
Maybe it is just an empty hole waiting to be filled.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
a call to sacrifice
We often talk about God loving us unconditionally.
That is a powerful truth that continues revealing God's greatness.
Don't you think that he would like us to learn to love him the same way,
unconditionally?
We will learn to love him when we accept him as he is and continue talking
with him even when he doesn't say only the things we want to hear.
Unconditional love is sacrificial.
Jesus challenged his disciples to love one another by laying down one's
life for his friend. John 15:13
Without a total availability to sacrificial love a person will have no capacity
to forgive as God has forgiven.
With sacrificiallove comes joy that cannot be found otherwise.
It's the same joy that will fill heaven one day.
That is a powerful truth that continues revealing God's greatness.
Don't you think that he would like us to learn to love him the same way,
unconditionally?
We will learn to love him when we accept him as he is and continue talking
with him even when he doesn't say only the things we want to hear.
Unconditional love is sacrificial.
Jesus challenged his disciples to love one another by laying down one's
life for his friend. John 15:13
Without a total availability to sacrificial love a person will have no capacity
to forgive as God has forgiven.
With sacrificiallove comes joy that cannot be found otherwise.
It's the same joy that will fill heaven one day.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Giving to God
Lying to God sounds so incomprehensible.
How can you lie to someone who is omniscient?
The Bible gives examples of people who were caught up in lying to God.
Ananias and Sapphira are probably the most famous liars in the Bible.
Peter made it clear, ”You have not lied to men but to God.” Acts 5:4
They lied to people and God took it personally and dealt with it
firmly. They both died because of their lying.
Hiding from God sounds as impossible.
If God is everywhere present where could you hide from him?
Nevertheless, Adam and Eve managed to hide from him.
Their existence was not unknown to God but their connection was broken
by the power of their will. God’s question, ”Where are you?” expressed
his concern of the broken relationship.
Adam was there , but he was not connected.
Genesis 3:8-9
Negotiating with God sounds similarly like an oxymoron.
You cannot make a deal with God.
Abraham debated with God concerning the fate of Sodom.
I believe it was a real conversation , not just a play with words.
God listens emphatically , not just mechanically from his almighty position.
He listens to man much more than what Satan would ever want him to.
Could we give God something that isn’t His already?
In the end of Matthew 25 the Lord comments on the actions of the righteous
and the unrighteous. They both are surprised to hear that they did something
to God, something that they thought was done only to people.
They gave God something to eat , something to drink etc.
God has chosen not to violate the free volition of man.
When man surrenders his will to God, he gives God something that he
doesn’t have. Everything in man’s relationship with God relates to this.
What a strange thing for us to hold back something that God is so interested in.
How can you lie to someone who is omniscient?
The Bible gives examples of people who were caught up in lying to God.
Ananias and Sapphira are probably the most famous liars in the Bible.
Peter made it clear, ”You have not lied to men but to God.” Acts 5:4
They lied to people and God took it personally and dealt with it
firmly. They both died because of their lying.
Hiding from God sounds as impossible.
If God is everywhere present where could you hide from him?
Nevertheless, Adam and Eve managed to hide from him.
Their existence was not unknown to God but their connection was broken
by the power of their will. God’s question, ”Where are you?” expressed
his concern of the broken relationship.
Adam was there , but he was not connected.
Genesis 3:8-9
Negotiating with God sounds similarly like an oxymoron.
You cannot make a deal with God.
Abraham debated with God concerning the fate of Sodom.
I believe it was a real conversation , not just a play with words.
God listens emphatically , not just mechanically from his almighty position.
He listens to man much more than what Satan would ever want him to.
Could we give God something that isn’t His already?
In the end of Matthew 25 the Lord comments on the actions of the righteous
and the unrighteous. They both are surprised to hear that they did something
to God, something that they thought was done only to people.
They gave God something to eat , something to drink etc.
God has chosen not to violate the free volition of man.
When man surrenders his will to God, he gives God something that he
doesn’t have. Everything in man’s relationship with God relates to this.
What a strange thing for us to hold back something that God is so interested in.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
We have received a kingdom.
When Jesus told his disciple,
“It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper
will not come to you…” John 16:7
I’m sure all the disciples disagreed with him.
Everything was so exciting and meaningful when Jesus was in charge.
When they tried, even the elementary things, on their own,
things became a mess.
For the disciples it was too early for Jesus to go.
They had hardly learned how to cast out demons.
Jesus was becoming extremely popular as His miracles never failed.
His words were discussed all over Jerusalem in people’s conversations.
The disciples were ready to roll.
His surrender to the cross seems to have come as a great surprise
for his followers.
He had told them clearly that His kingdom is not of this world.
Their blindness to heaven discouraged them.
We are in a similar place today.
When God’s plan all the sudden pops up from the dust, we start panicking,
holding on to our earthly possessions and diplomas.
We behave as if Jesus never taught us to be prepared for these changes.
It’s all for our advantage.
“Now this,’ Yet once more’, indicates the removal of those things that are being
shaken , as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken ,
Let us have grace (for the changes), by which we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear. ” Hebrews 12:27-28
“It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper
will not come to you…” John 16:7
I’m sure all the disciples disagreed with him.
Everything was so exciting and meaningful when Jesus was in charge.
When they tried, even the elementary things, on their own,
things became a mess.
For the disciples it was too early for Jesus to go.
They had hardly learned how to cast out demons.
Jesus was becoming extremely popular as His miracles never failed.
His words were discussed all over Jerusalem in people’s conversations.
The disciples were ready to roll.
His surrender to the cross seems to have come as a great surprise
for his followers.
He had told them clearly that His kingdom is not of this world.
Their blindness to heaven discouraged them.
We are in a similar place today.
When God’s plan all the sudden pops up from the dust, we start panicking,
holding on to our earthly possessions and diplomas.
We behave as if Jesus never taught us to be prepared for these changes.
It’s all for our advantage.
“Now this,’ Yet once more’, indicates the removal of those things that are being
shaken , as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken ,
Let us have grace (for the changes), by which we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear. ” Hebrews 12:27-28
Monday, August 8, 2011
Man can be like God
God is not like man, but man can be like God.
Jesus demonstrated this thorough his earthly life.
He showed what man is like when he agrees with God
in everything.
God listens.
We have been given an ability to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.
Many things we haven’t heard because we haven’t listened.
Listening often demands a lot of patience and self-control.
No wonder that God is called the God of patience. Romans 15:5
When we listen we connect.
God speaks.
He doesn’t play childish games of punishing others by not speaking.
He created the world by speaking and continues to speak from heaven
and in heaven.
God gives. He is not sparing his gifts. He is not holding back his mercies.
He gives to his own hurt, to the point of laying down his own life.
He loves the world by giving freely.
God forgives.
Whenever we forgive we are like God.
Our animal nature doesn’t agree with forgiveness.
Our new nature finds it’s strength in uncompromising forgiveness.
God loves to the end. John 13:1
He doesn’t love only for pleasure in comfortable times.
He loves for better for worse, when things are for us and when they are not.
His love never fails.
Forgive as he has forgiven. Ephesians 4:32
Love as he has loved. Ephesians 5:2
Be holy as He is holy. I Peter 1:16
Jesus demonstrated this thorough his earthly life.
He showed what man is like when he agrees with God
in everything.
God listens.
We have been given an ability to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.
Many things we haven’t heard because we haven’t listened.
Listening often demands a lot of patience and self-control.
No wonder that God is called the God of patience. Romans 15:5
When we listen we connect.
God speaks.
He doesn’t play childish games of punishing others by not speaking.
He created the world by speaking and continues to speak from heaven
and in heaven.
God gives. He is not sparing his gifts. He is not holding back his mercies.
He gives to his own hurt, to the point of laying down his own life.
He loves the world by giving freely.
God forgives.
Whenever we forgive we are like God.
Our animal nature doesn’t agree with forgiveness.
Our new nature finds it’s strength in uncompromising forgiveness.
God loves to the end. John 13:1
He doesn’t love only for pleasure in comfortable times.
He loves for better for worse, when things are for us and when they are not.
His love never fails.
Forgive as he has forgiven. Ephesians 4:32
Love as he has loved. Ephesians 5:2
Be holy as He is holy. I Peter 1:16
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
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