Posts Tagged ‘sunday thoughts’

He was sitting there by the road. Begging. As he used to do. Then they came. Pulled him up off the ground and wanted him to walk with them. He did knew them. He knew he could trust them. But what was it they wanted? And why this hurry?

He couldn’t ask, neither could he hear the answer. He was born like this. Deaf and mute. He couldn’t join his friends in much, he had trouble learning and working. Usually he sat there by the road with his head held low. Begging money from those walking by. He had to, if he wanted to buy some food for himself at the end of the day.

They made a stop by another man. He had kind eyes. They started talking to the man, sometimes they pointed back at him so he guessed they were talking about him. What was it this time? How he wished he could hear or taken part in the discussion.

The man turned and looked at him. He grabbed him by his arm and pulled him away from the others. It was just the two of them now. The man wet his fingers with spit and took on his tongue. Then he put another finger inside his ear. The man looked up at the sky.

He wasn’t afraid. Only eager to see what happen next. This could be the day he had dreamed of his whole life. He understood that the man wanted to help him by the actions he used. The man used the only language he could understand.

‘Effata’ – the man said.
He did hear it. It wasn’t something he made up. He really could hear it. The first word he ever had heard. He smiled. Moved his togue and tried to say it himself. Effata. It worked. His smile broaden. He turned to the man, wanted to thank him – but he didn’t knew how. He saw the man understood. He run back to his friends. Finally he was able to hear, not only watch, their voices. Take part in the conversations. Smile and laugh with the.

It was the best day in his life! Being brought to this man made all the difference.

People were overwhelmed with amazement. He has done everything well, they said. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

.:Read the story in Mark 7:31-37:.

Blessed Sunday. Blessed week.

It’s not easy to believe what we haven’t seen and haven’t heard.

I’ve been thinking along these lines today on the first Sunday after Easter Day. I’ve found that sometimes it really isn’t a good idea to believe in all that we’ve told, that is at least the fact when it comes to rumors about people in our neighborhood. I tend to think that most of it isn’t true, at least not until I’ve seen it for my self, but still there might be some truth hidden somewhere. When it comes to my faith in Christ. What then? Is it a rumor placed with his followers, is it the truth? I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but still I believe the story as told by his disciples and found in the Bible.

Thomas helps me find my faith in the resurrection. And in a way this is his Sunday. He wasn’t with the others on Easter Day. And when the others, with joy in their voices, told him that they had met Jesus. That he was alive and not dead. Thomas could not believe, he found it impossible to even think that it could be the truth, sad as he was about the death of his dear friend. But then he got to meet Him. He got to see Him with his own eyes. This Sunday (the first one after Easter Day) Thomas was together with his friends and he got to meet Jesus. He got to see, he got to touch, he got to say with joy and wonder in his voice: “my Lord and my God”. He knew now, as the others had known for a week already, Jesus was risen. It was the truth. Jesus is alive.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

I’ve been there with Thomas today. Stretched out my arm, touched the wounds, feeling the joy and wonder as I too have said: my Lord and my God.

I don’t understand it all, but I do believe.

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Blessed Sunday!

Yesterday my nephew cut a few (20ish) branches of pine for me.

Today I asked (very politely) the congregation to please come outside with me to start the service with a little Palm Sunday procession. We handed out the branches and our musician went in the front, together with MT and another kid. While swinging our branches we sang ‘Hosanna’ to Jesus and started our Palm Sunday part of the service (we went through all of the main days of Easter, I’ll get back to the rest of the days later…).

There is something with the things we do, it stays much longer with us than things we just hear or read. I wanted to give a tiny little feeling of being there by the gate of Jerusalem. Shouting out to the Lord with joy and laughter. Welcoming the king to our city.

Hosanna!

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

(John 12:12-13)

A good start to our Easter celebration
Wish you all a Blessed Sunday!

NOTE! My comments doesn’t work. I’m working on figuring out why..
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Lately I’ve been thinking a bit about why it is that I believe in the impossible. Yea, because I do! And sometimes I wonder why that is. Because, in a way, it would be so much easier to just don’t believe – to just say “well, I don’t think it is that possible to be raised from the grave” or “I’m sure the disciples just missed him so much that they started to believe he had resurrected, even though it all just happened in their minds”  (just to take a few of the many reasons not to believe).

But, you know what? I still believe. I can’t use these (or other) sentences because I do think the impossible is possible, I do believe that God is bigger than my understanding of him is. And I can’t find any reason for the change that occurs in the disciples behavior and attitude, other than in believing they tell the truth.

Thomas helps me find my faith in the resurrection. And in a way this is his Sunday. He wasn’t with the others on Easter Day. For some unknown reason  he wasn’t there when Christ came visiting. And when the others, with joy in their voices, told him that they had met Jesus. That he was alive and not dead. Thomas could not believe, not until he could see it with his own eyes. The next Sunday (as in this Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter Day) Thomas was together with his friends and he got to meet him. He got to see, he got to touch, he got to say with joy and wonder in his voice: “my Lord and my God”. He knew now, as the others had known for a week already, Jesus was risen. It was the truth. Jesus is alive.

I’ve been there with Thomas today. Stretched out my arm, touched the wounds, feeling the joy and wonder as I too have said: my Lord and my God.

I don’t understand it all, but I do believe.

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read more in John. 20:16->

We’ve reached the last Sunday in our church year in my Lutheran church of Norway.

When Advent rolls around we’ll start the new church year, with it’s new beginnings and Christmas story unfold.

But first we have to get by the Last Sunday of the Church Year. And as you might have guessed the theme and texts are from the Last Day, the Day of Judgment. There are so many different approaches to this; some thinks that this is more important than life on earth and spend their whole life thinking about how they are going to be judged – others thinks that this is the most unimportant thing to worry about and spend their whole life living in and of the world.

Most of us is somewhere in between.

I know I am, and even though I love living my life knowing there is a heaven and hoping for the future beyond my life here on earth, I’m also a very down-to-earth kind of person. So for me the most important about this day in our church year isn’t to prepare for Judgment Day in it self; I know Christ died on a cross for me and payed my dept and in him I’m free – no matter what!

Still I think it is important to let the texts and the theme inspire me to do good – not for my own sake, but because other people needs me and my help; big or small.

Yesterday I found this challenge to be nice – Operation Nice. I’m not always nice, but I try to be – so I’m putting this in my sidebar (later today) hoping that it’ll inspire me to do better, make it a priority. Imagine how the earth would be if everyone tried to be nice each and every day.

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Scripture from Matt 25:39-40.

Have a blessed Sunday – remember you are loved by God!

When I prepared for the sermon(s) for today I was stuck in a rut for a long time. I just could not figure out how to tackle the text in a down to earth and simple sermon. But finally I got help from above (glad God always comes through when I need it; he just lets me think good and long; getting some use of the brain he have designed for me……lol). Anyhow, I ended up in the baptist church I visited in New York all those years ago (May, 2003) – a few words from the sermon hold by a energetic female pastor really stuck with me (- and I know; I’ve told you before, here and here but here it goes again..since it’s still good and useful).

LET GO – AND LET GOD!!

When everything are being just too much, whether it’s the faith or the life in general getting too hard to handle; give room for God and amazing things might happen <3 And also remember that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6) – maybe we won’t catch all the balls we joggle in our life; everything probably won’t be all finished and made complete before the day we’ll meet our Lord. But while we’re down here we have our God by our side – helping us; giving peace when things gets a bit overwhelming; telling us how much he loves us when we need that extra loving to pull through – and more. So:

LET GO – AND LET GOD!!
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It’s been a day filled with church, psalms, sermons and being together as a congregation. I’ve had services in two churches and met a lot of people (some new to me, a good bunch of them family and people I knew off back when I visited Grandma in her yellow house – a long time ago!) – it’s been nice and I love to get to know more about the churches around here and the people as well.

Tonight I’ve enjoyed a few more videos of card making over at K. Werner’s blog (love them) and now I’m listening to Christmas music and getting in the holiday mood. Got to love that Can’t wait to hang my stars in the windows at the first Sunday of Advent; think I might need a few new stars as well; this house comes with a lot of windows Soon I’ll be heading to bed, though, it’s after midnight here at our place (again)..

Blessed Week to you.

This Sunday was all about keeping two thoughts in our head at the same time.

1. we are loved by God and are free to live with joy
2. we are different from God and do (or don’t do) things that mess up our relationship with God

In our service today we had both this aspects clearly with us: 4 children where there to be baptized and we had a special liturgy focusing on our need to repent and pray for mercy (we called the day bots- og bededag in Norwegian). I think we managed to give both these aspects weight through music, words and actions, but it took some preparations and thoughts throughout the week.

If we speak the truth about our selves – God will speak His truth.

When we realize just how much we are loved, when we realize just how much effort God took to make the wrongs right between himself and us, when we realize what we have in Jesus Christ – our life will change. We will not become perfect human beings doing nothing wrong to God or the people around us, but we will dare to go to our God with our life; the good and the bad. We can do that because through Jesus we are forgiven, still sinners – but forgiven sinners.

So speak the truth and receive Gods grace and forgiveness. There is nothing like it (and to be honest we need it more than once a year!).

Blessings

Today I’ve been thinking about the man that got lowered down before Jesus while he (Jesus) was preaching the word of God inside a friends house. Someone thought that bringing their friend to there were more important than keeping up with the normal rule about not breaking anything that doesn’t belong to you (like a roof…). I’ve been thinking about the man laying on the stretcher; what was he thinking about it all and how did he felt when everybody was looking at him – the intruder.

I guess a myriad of thoughts and feeling went through him, but one might have struck him as something new. He got to experience that he was loved by God, maybe for the first time ever. Back then they believed that there was a reason for being sick; someone (he or his parents) must have done something really bad for him to be this sick. They thought the sickness was God’s way of punishing people for their sins. So naturally most people kept a distance to the sick people,  they couldn’t go against God’s punishments; so to speak. It’s not an easy burden to carry, in addition to being sick he also felt that God didn’t like him very much. I’m so glad we don’t think like this any more (or do we??!).

I’m so glad Jesus is by our side for the good as well as the bad days. I’m so glad that I everyday can know that Jesus loves me more than I know – he loves you too; all of us!!

The man got his life back, he got forgiven and he got his health. I’m not sure what he would say was most important if I asked him, but I know that even though life doesn’t always show it’s good side – through it all we are loved by God. We can live our life knowing that that never goes away. This week I will think about the blessing in that; even though I see sickness and hard times so many places – God does see it too.
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PS: you can find the text in Mark 2:1-12

We went to church this morning (or rather day, I love this extra hour we get to sleep on the day we turn time back for winter…) – it is a rather heavy day in the church year, with focus on penance and sins. I’m not to found of this day, but I defend it’s place in the church year because we need a day for new beginnings – even though, EACH day with Christ is in a sense just that!

Anyway, during the sermon the pastor said a lot of things, but this got stuck with me (it’s about bringing our life, good and bad, with us into the church and to Jesus, I’m writing on memory here….)

If you leave the sins and the bad stuff outside when you go into the church, you are just going to pick it right up where you left it, when you go home. No, bring the sins and the bad stuff into the church, bring it to Jesus and let him take it away.

This became the important thought of the day to me!
There is no point preaching and talking about the sins in our life, if we not also talks about why and where we can go/what we can do with it. Go to God he promised to forgive because he loves us.

Amen.

Be blessed!

THE GOOD WORD!

I do meet a girl at 5 or 6 years on a regular basis.

She makes me happy – she meets me with her good words!

How nice that sweater is, wow, those earrings are beautiful, Your hair looks so nice today!

I wonder if she knows how much I appreciate these words; I try to smile and say to her: Thank you so much, that is so nice of you to say. Now I’m glad.

I’m not just happy on my own behalf, I’m happy for her – because she has already learned how to use those good words. And then she challenges me, now it’s my turn to use good words and be thankful for everything I have gotten in stead of frustrated about those things that doesn’t work or I don’t like!

It is possible to practice the good word thing. After a while you will find that it’s not only they you say those good words to that becomes happy; you will make yourself feel good as well. That’s the secret about saying the good words. I wonder if the girl have discovered this as well?!

God has lots of good thoughts for us. Did you hear it? God has lots of good thoughts for us. Rest in that. In Psalm 40:1(2)-5(6) you can find that God thinks good about us. He wants to help and be there for us!

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.

Let him drag you from the mud, let him show you what grace and love are all about. Let his blessing sink in.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.

In this blessing I find some of Gods most beautiful thoughts for us. He looks upon us; not over, not away – but upon! He looks at us with kind, loving eyes and wishes the best for us. Because he knows life has many challenges for us to handle, he softly brushes our cheek and says: I’m here for you. I love you!