Archive for September, 2007

The 29 th of September, is the day for the angels and St. Michael. In Norway we have returned to an old tradition of celebrating this day. This picture I had over my bed as a little child, it still gives me a good and secure feeling. I like that the children doesn’t see the angel being therm, it reminds me of how I see God and that he won’t always protect me from troubled times – but he’ll always be there with me himself, through his angels.

There are over 300 places that angels are mentioned in the Bible, only two angels are called by their name, though. Mikael and Gabriel. Gabriel is the angel visiting Maria to tell her about the son she shall give birth to. Mikael is the most famous angel in the Bible, he’s even called an arch angel. He’s in the front of the fight against evil and is often pictured as a warrior angel. A lot of churches is dedicated to him and I guess most people back then thought he was both safe and breathtaking at the same time and wanted his protection. I guess that is also why his name soon became the name of the angel day. Mikael was in our land (Norway) called Mikkel, so we call his (and the other angels) day for Mikkelsmess.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

Matt 18:1-4.10

I love how he uses the child as an example for the adults.
For us, to set us straight.

In Heaven things aren’t like on earth. More important than asking who’s greatest, is asking how to serve God and humans like Jesus did!

Blessed Sunday!

I’m going to turn these into angels; wish me luck!

We’re having another beautiful and sunny day. After over 7 weeks with mostly rain and gray weather this is really nice!! We are enjoying it and have been outside for a little while the two other days and I hope we’ll manage some today as well. Off course MT has been outside in the kindergarten too, so it’s mostly me that needs the outside time(!)

MT just got invited to join a few other kids in a inflatable castle to jump and have fun. He tells me he don’t want to go, but I know the reason – so he’ll have to go jumping anyway. (Right now my geeky son would rather spend time online playing than having fun with his friends in the sun, so I’m putting the foot down and telling him forget it. No computer games before you have jumped for a while! )

Anyway I have a few work related things today and I can’t wait too long before I’ll pay the office a visit. Later today I’ve having a short devotion (I think that’s the English word for it) and the congregation is saying their good buy to us in a get together at the same event, so I have to bring my boy even though he doesn’t want to. There is a gift waiting for him, though, wish I’d know what it was……

And then off course I have to prepare the service tomorrow. We’re celebrating Gods angels and are going to tell stories from the bible about them and talk about them and what their mission and purpose are. I look forward to the service, but there is a lot of things that I have to make sure are in place before I got to bed tonight! Not to mention all the angels that we are going to make out of common mussels, that I have to prepare a bit or else it’ll be too time consuming in the service!

And then there is the laundry and the dish washer and the….. I’ll better go make myself ready for another craze pastor day. Tomorrow is my very last day here…..

And one day I’ll upload those photos I mentioned below and maybe more!

In support and sympathy for the people of Burma I’ve made the background red. May they win the battle for a democratic nation with as few dead as possible. It’s scary to see how the ruling party are slaughtering down their own people and I’m glad to join the world in protest, in a small – but visible -way.

Hope you’ll join in too and wear something red today, Friday 28nd of September!

A few facts about Burma. Check out this flickr photo.

Instead of running around in my house like a craze person, trying to get it presentable for the inspection (kind off!) tomorrow, I’ve been to the beach and relaxed in front of the tv tonight! All because I stood up to my boss and told him:

“Sorry, but I just can’t spend my last days cleaning when I need the time to prepare the service on Sunday and to spend it with my boy that are going to have his last day in kindergarten (at this place, at least) tomorrow – and I don’t know how he’ll react when I come around to collect him. Can we please move it to next week?! I’m sorry for not putting the foot down earlier, I should have done that because this has been bothering me ever since the date was set.”

I’ve spent a bit of time being frustrated about this and angry. Yesterday evening I found that I no longer wanted to be the nice person and do it just to please those that clearly does not understand what it’s like to be a full time mum, pastor, housekeeper and chef (not a gardener any more, I’ve given that up!). I had a short trip to the office last night to send a fax and I’m glad my boss was at home, because then I was not in a diplomatic state……

Now I’m so glad that my boss finally understood that all my words about it being a bit to much was true and that he had to give me a few days of space to make the finishing weekend as good as possible for me and my boy. And for the congregation as well, I think. I feel like stones have been lifted of my shoulders and the rest of the workday went like nothing

And this afternoon, after feeding my self and the boy, we did what I couldn’t have done if we hadn’t moved the date: we went down to the beach to collect common mussels, the blue ones – and to (for MT’s part) throw stones and sticks in the fjord! MT brought his bike and we had a great time together. I love the smell of the ocean, it was good to be down there by it and it was fantastic to have a day with blue sky and sun after all the weeks with rain, cold and gray weather!!

Later I’ll upload photos from this, and a few other days.

But right now – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Good night!

Around here Førde is commonly known as ugly and bad planned. But this photo shows that that isn’t the whole truth!

I took this (above)to make a revisit to the location of one of my most favorite photos on Flickr. When I got home I saw that I probably stood a bit more to the right last time, but it’s in the same area non the less New houses are also on the way up.

In a few weeks we’re moving back home to Telemark. I really going to miss, not only the place we do live, but also Førde; the town, the shops and the look of it! I love driving down the hill and watching as the town approaches laying on the floor of several high mountains. In the night with thousands of lights sparkling and making the place look like a big city.

One day, I’ll be back

Jesus is stronger than death! For him death isn’t what it is for us; an impossible barrier to climb, the one thing that truly separates us from those we love.

For Jesus death is just a sleep, that he can awaken us from.

A few times we meet it in the bible; that Jesus conquers death. A widow gets his only son back from death when they meet Jesus on their way to the grave (Luk 7), Jairus are sick with worry and sorrow but gets his little girl back from death when he brings Jesus along (Mark 5).

It makes me smile to read this and I’m amazed, not only because Jesus can do this, but by the cares he does it with and the down-to-earth way of telling them to feed them and clothe them. I guess the last part is needed or else it wouldn’t have been done with the people around in awe over Jesus’ powers….

And then, a few days before he’s heading against his own death, he shows his power and mercy by calling Lazarus out from the grave. No wonder people are amazed about this guy. Stronger than death!

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.”Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”"Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.”But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

John 11:17-27.37-44

Even thought he gets there way late and Martha is giving him in for that, in the end it doesn’t matter because Jesus is stronger than death. Now he’s ready to face his own death and conquer it for real.

One day death will not be anymore among us, but for now we cling to the hope of eternal life together with him and everyone that believes his word. For us death isn’t the last; because of him death can’t hold us any more than it could him!

BLESSED SUNDAY!

This is the beach of Naustdal, Norway

The air is cold and crisp and the trees are starting to go orange. And I have turned on the indoor heating, there simply wasn’t a way around it anymore….

I just wrote a passworded post. It’s funny that I has to write the correct password to open in up in my browser, while I’m still logged in and am the post’s author!

I guess I need to be protected from my own words!!

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It was my first time in an American church. I was visiting New York and wasted to attend service. I got the church recommended, a lot of others visitors went there as well. I felt welcome and had a great time there. Somethings I was familiar with, other things not. And as a pastor I couldn’t help my self for thinking and comparing to my own church at home….

I have forgotten a lot of the details of the sermon. Only remembers that she had some help, at the end, of the organist. I still smile when I see her in front of me preaching about trusting God, while the organ underlines her words. For me that is so American (I might be wrong, though!) – and therefor a thing that stuck with me. The other thing was her words, that she kept on saying:

LET GO AND LET GOD!
LET GO AND LET GOD!

If I’m not mistaken it’s from a poem. I didn’t know that then.
It’s not easy words to translate this into Norwegian, at least not so catchy, so mostly I just use the English version when I tell people about this service. If I should make a sermon for tomorrow, this is what I would have said over and over again – until my congregation had it as much stuck in their mind as I:

LET GO AND LET GOD! LET GO AND LET GOD!

That is the essence of Jesus words; just read them:

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matt 6:24-33

LET GO AND LET GOD! LET GO AND LET GOD!

Wish you a happy and Blessed Sunday!

anneberit

I have 2 goals for today (keeping it at a level I can live with…):

1. Emptying 1 book shelve, and packing the books in boxes DONE!
2. Making sure my house loan are flying and sending the real estate contract (or what to call it?) back to the agent. NOT DONE, because the bank guy never called me like he should nor did he take the phone when I called him – now I have to wait until Monday before this is solved. I don’t like that!

This should be manageable!

You know what? I have a dream of installing a wind turbine on our land. I guess it will be a more traditional one, but I love the look of these:

           

Check them out; the Q5 of Quiet Revolution and the Windspire of Mariah Power. I think Q5 is my number one when it comes to design!! But since our land is farmland with open fields and not too many close neighbors, I guess a traditional one is the most economic efficient.In a few years we’ll see if I get to follow my dream

So I haven’t been to my yahoo-email for a loooooong while. And guess what; I have 1547 mail waiting, not counting spam. Yippiii!

I guess I have to check them out….