Occupying the Land
Pictures of Christians seem to be so positive these days. Lots of beautiful laughing faces -- just like the stars in popular secular movies, they are all picture perfect and they look like they're having lots of fun... . Few look sad, grieving, burdened with life's challenges. ...
But that's not the a true picture of the Christian life. Life isn't all fun and laughter. While the world can drown their sorrows in all kinds of fantasies and emotional distraction that cover up the tragedy of life, Christians are called to be honest, sincere, not hiding our struggles -- but demonstrating the overcoming life of Jesus in the middle of those struggles.
The world is in trouble. Life is hard. I know it well, because I get letters from around the world.... Parents and children and grandparents who really hurt. Most of them know God and love Him, which is why they share their hearts with me.....
Psychologist in Alberta Canada.
Not harder than what God can't handle, but certainly harder than we can handle apart from him.
God told us so. "In the world you will have tribulation," said Jesus, "but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."
Torunn asked me to talk about myself this time, and I will, but first I wanted to explain that we are all walking together -- sheep following the shepherd who goes before us.... and who has faced every temptation and struggle that we face. 2 Cor. 10 And while our struggles may not be all the same, we meet those struggles with the same fleshly human nature, the same tendency to follow its promptings, the same difficulty in ..... In other words, my testimony will be different than yours, but we're walking on the same bumpy, winding narrow road and need the same source of strength and hope every moment of our day and night: Jesus Christ Himself.
I grew up in Norway, like Torunn, I was born in Oslo early in WW2. I remember very little from the war, but some of the memories that do stay in my mind were all the scary air raids during the last year, the raging fire as the apartment next to ours was bombed, the bomb that fell through the roof in our apartment but -- by God's grace -- didn't explode and the nighttime visit from about a dozen Nazi officer who had discovered that my father was part of the underground resistance movement and came to take him away for interrogation, then incarceration in three different concentrations camps.
My father was release 6 months later when the war ended, but he never wanted to talk about that time of pain, hunger and torture. In more recent years, I asked him if he and fellow prisoners prayed together. I had assumed they would, since Norway was basically a Lutheran or Christian nation. But he said, no. They never did. They had learned to be tough, stoic, ready to stand on their own.
In wasn't until later in life, after suffering a stroke and losing most of his sight -- when life got hard -- that he committed his life totally to God, and was able to praise Him in the midst of all kinds of excruciating struggles. As God promised Isaiah,
I will give your treasures hidden in darkness, secret riches...
We didn't go to church or discuss our beliefs during my childhood. Back in those days, school would start with prayer and a hymn, so you would think it made a difference. But I don't think many of my friends, other than a Jewish girl, took Biblical truth seriously.
I had an advantage. My godmother was a Christian, a missionary to Madagascar. Home on furlough one year, she taught me the Lord's prayer and asked me to say it each night. I did. I still love it. It's like the armor....
Skip forward to 1971.
Psychologist in Alberta Canada.
pretend and imagine all walking in victory every moment. But life isn't like that -- especially when you walk with Jesus. Other can cover over the hurts, ignore them, live in a fantasy world or illusion that all is well. But Christians are called to be alert, sober, ready to take a stand even if it offends someone.
It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the blows which must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to have the vision batter'd to shape and use by God? The batterings always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people.
There are times when we do know what Gods purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends upon us, not upon God. If we prefer to loll on the mount and live in the memory of the vision, we will be of no use actually in the ordinary stuff of which human life is made up. We have to learn to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision, not in ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but to live in actualities in the light of the vision until we get to the veritable reality. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making known His demands.
Pictures of Christians seem to be so positive these days. Lots of beautiful smiley faces, few sad ones -- all walking in victory every moment. But life isn't like that -- especially when you walk with Jesus. Other can cover over the hurts, ignore them, live in a fantasy world or illusion that all is well. But Christians are called to be alert, sober, ready to take a stand even if it offends someone.
The world is in trouble. Not any trouble that God can't handle, but certainly the kind of trouble we can't handle apart from him.
In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.....
I know it well, because I get letters from around the world.... Parents and children and grandparents who really hurt. Most of them know God and love Him, which is why they share their hearts with me.....
Psychologist in Alberta Canada.
And as they heard these things, he added and speak a parable, because he was
nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should
immediately appear. 12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far
country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his
ten servants, and delivered them ten poundsa, and said unto them, Occupy till
I come. 14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying,
We will not have this man to reign over us.
The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (Lk 19:11). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc.
1 Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was
near Jerusalem and because ;they thought the kingdom of God would appear
immediately. 12 kTherefore He said: A certain nobleman went into a far
country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13 So he called ten of
his servants, delivered to them ten 5minas, and said to them, Do business
till I come. 14 lBut his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after
him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
15 And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then
commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him,
that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 16 Then came the
first, saying, Master, your mina has earned ten minas. 17 And he said to
him, mWell done, good servant; because you were nfaithful in a very
little, have authority over ten cities. 18 And the second came, saying,
Master, your mina has earned five minas. 19 Likewise he said to him, You
also be over five cities.
20 Then another came, saying, Master, here is your mina, which I have kept
put away in a handkerchief. 21 oFor I feared you, because you are 6an
austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not
sow. 22 And he said to him, pOut of your own mouth I will judge you, you
wicked servant. qYou knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not
deposit and reaping what I did not sow. 23 Why then did you not put my money
in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?
24 And he said to those who stood by, Take the mina from him, and give it
to him who has ten minas. 25 (But they said to him, Master, he has ten
minas.) 26 For I say to you, rthat to everyone who has will be given;
and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
27 But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over
them, and slay them before me. Lk 19:11
I learned that early. I grew up in Norway. My father was in the Norwegian underground homefront....
get so many sad and painful letters to our website...
In Christ we have strength to carry them. He bears the biggest burden
Children involved in witchcraft
A little boy dying of leukemia
A little girl in agonizing pain because of juvenile rheumatic
A son killed on a motorcycle
Severe depression
Loneliness - not fit any church....
God has protected me from most of these... not all. And we all have suffered.