I have been away from my blog over the last thee weeks. I went to India first and then on my way home visited the church plant in Sweden that my wife and I have had the priveledge of being a part of the last 2 and a half years. I must say that my time in India was a real eye opener to the way that God is working in that country. We had a chance to visit 5 house churches and to hear testimony of how the lord is drawing many people to Himself.

I have heard that the Lord is working in mighty ways in different parts of the world but this was an opportunity for me to visit one of them and actually experience it. We heard many testimonies while we were in India of His power to change lives and we met many people who lives had been changed.

Perhaps the thing that touched me the most about the church planting movement we observed was the prayer that goes on behind the movement. During my time there I was encouraged to pray much more than what I have ever done before. Prayer is not for God's sake it is for our sake. God knows what He is going to do before we ever pray but He loves to make us a part of what He is doing when we pray. In prayer we say to God that we are weak but He is strong. We say to God through prayer that we cannot do the work He wants us to do by ourselves but we can do all things through Him who strenghtens us.

India, a new experience

Last night I arrived in New Delhi, India. I will be here for the next week. I will try and put up some pictures and tell a little about what I am up to and what I am experiencing in India. At this time the country is a little tense because of some terroism and acts of violence that have taken place in the last couple of weeks. I am here to learn what the Lord is doing in this country in the area of building His Kingdom. Today I attended a house church meeting in the city and had a chance to speak to a man that is leading a church planting movement. He shared with me that that God is a work here and that the church has started to grow very fast the last couple of years.

After spending many years in Europe and not seeing fast Kingdom growth I am amazed at what I have seen and heard today. God is a mighty God and He is doing an amazing work here. I heard many testimonies from people in the church that spoke of His power of healing sicknesses and drawing people to Himself. Often it is a matter of His first delivering them or a family member from the power of darkness. When they experience that encounter and see the power of God they turn to Him. Often the whole family turns to him. How exciting it is to hear them sing songs to the God of light and truth. The joy in their faces tells the story.

Reversal of fortune

A number of years ago when I was teaching at a Bible Institute I discovered an interesting thing about the literature of First and Second Samuel. These two Old Testament books are full of reversal of fortune accounts. What I mean by a reversal of fortune account is a story that begins with the protagonist in a desperate situation while the antagonist seems to be doing very well. As you continue to read through the story there comes a point where a reversal takes place and the antagonist situation goes down and the protagonist is brought up from desperation to a much better place.

A good illustration of this is the story of Hannah and Peninnah. Both women are married to one man by the name of Elkanah. Hannah has Elkanah’s love, but Peninnah has given birth to his children. Hannah is without children and in those days being barren was a terrible thing. Hannah is constantly taunted by Peninnah about her barren state until Hannah is in tears. So what happens? Hannah prays in the temple that she could bear children. The old priest Eli sees her praying in such a desperate situation that he thinks she is drunk and tells her she needs to dry up and live a better life. Hannah explains that her heart is heavy because of her situation and Eli,upon understanding the woman’s desperation, tells her to go home and says may God grant you your the request. The Lord answers Hannah’s prayer and she winds up having six children, four sons and two daughters. Her first son Samuel winds up becoming a great prophet and a leader of Israel. In Hannah’s prayer of praise in Chapter 2 of 1st Samuel she says, “the bow of the mighty is now broken, and those who stumble are now strong.” (1st Samuel 2:4) She knows that the God of Israel loves the reversal of fortune and He performs it often. She also understood that the reversal of fortune comes from the hand of God and not from our power or strength.

In the New Testament I have found this same theme throughout its pages. God raises the downcast and lowers the proud. Mary’s Magnificat in Luke chapter one verses 51 and 52 expresses it like this, “His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.” In many ways this is the story of the world we live in. We are all part of a big reversal of fortune. The Bible says that all we (mankind) like sheep have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6). In other words we have wondered away from the one that created us and desires to live in a relationship with us. Notice it says, “all” we. Not just one or two but all mankind has gone astray and turned away from God. The great reversal of fortune is found in what God did for us by sending Jesus to die on the cross in our place. Paul writes in Romans 5:10-11, “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”

Scratching Where It Itches

“I do a lot of traveling in my work and I sleep in a lot of different beds.” This is what I told the doctor last week. For the last two months I have been scratching a lot. First I thought it was mosquitoes, but then I realized that I was not outside that much and I didn’t remember getting bitten. I then thought it was Poison Ivy, I had been for a walk in the woods at a State Park, but I hadn’t wandered off the beaten trail. I never had a problem with Poison Ivy before, but I had never scratched like this before either, so surely it must be something I had never had before. I bought the over the counter spray and rub on cream that one uses for Poison Ivy but the itch never went away. Sooo I finally did what I should have done in the beginning. I made the doctor’s appointment and went. That’s when I found out that I had something that I never dreamed I would get. I had “Scabies”.

They say that the word Scabies comes from the Latin word for scratch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scabies). Trust me when I say that scratching brings some relief but only for awhile and then you have to scratch again. It is a nasty problem that I am hoping I have gotten rid of but I won’t know for sure until at least one more week. I guess this is one of the risks of traveling a lot. You have to take the bad with the good and it is always possible to get things you didn’t ask for.

As I think about it, I must admit that I wish that I would itch like this to love the Lord my God with all my heart soul and mind. I wish I itched like this to love my neighbor as myself. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just wake up each morning itching to live the life that God had in store for you today. Just think if I was always itching to forgive others, to do what is right and to love mercy and justice. I sadly admit that I don’t always itch like that. There are times that I do but not always. Itching and scratching are two different things when it comes to the Christian life. I don’t always itch to do the right thing but I need to scratch just the same. Sometimes the scratching, in doing the right thing even when we don’t feel the itch, primes the pump for the itching to start. The Apostle Paul tells us not to be weary in doing good. He doesn’t say wait until you feel like it to do it.

Today I need to scratch even when it doesn’t itch.

Dodging Storms

We are in the midst of the Hurricane season here in Florida. Tropical Storm Fay has already shown us just what a tropical storm can do to us if it just lingers around and doesn’t move. It is amazing how much water these storms can carry. Then, shortly after Fay left Hanna came along. Hanna went up the East Coast of Florida and just missed us. She missed Florida and invaded the coast of South Carolina instead. Now as I write this blog Hurricane Ike is out in the Mexican Gulf and threatening to thrash Texas. I have also been reading about what these storms have done to Haiti and other Caribbean communities and it is absolutely terrible. We definitely have nothing to complain about in Florida in comparison to them!

Last time I was home in Florida the year was 2004. I think three Hurricanes went through Florida then. The year after that Katrina came and devastated New Orleans. I had just moved back to Sweden (the day before Katrina hit) and read about the destruction and flooding that Katrina left. Interesting to note that while I was in Sweden for two and a half years it was relatively calm here in Florida. So what happens when I return? It all starts again! Now don’t get me wrong I am not superstitious… but one does begin to wonder at times why it all happens when I return home.

But putting all this aside I also think about storms in my own life. Now, I am not speaking about hurricanes and tropical depressions, I am speaking about difficulties in life that leave me wondering where they came from and why they come my way. I am sure that I am not alone in this. I have at times been so simple in my thinking that I thought If I lived a certain way, or watch out for certain things, then all will go well with me and my family. I have even at times been so presumptuous as to judge other people that are going through junk in their life thinking privately that they must be doing something wrong since all these storms are coming their way. I didn’t realize it when I was doing it but I was judging others through my own black and white world view. Where I got this world view I am not sure but it doesn’t hold water.

In Jesus day there were people that thought they had life all figured out too. Once, when Jesus and His disciples walked by a man born blind, His disciples asked, “Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” They thought that they had the answer to why junk happens. They had boiled It all boiled down to either sin in our life or sin in someone else’s. It sounds reasonable doesn’t it? I mean, it is true that the stupid things we do have consequences don’t they? While this is true that we do sometimes suffer the consequences of our own stupidity we also know that sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we get away without our stupidity affecting us. We also know that sometimes things just happen to us that we can’t explain. Jesus answer to thedisciples was different than what they expected. He said, “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,…This happened so that the power of God could be seen in him.“ We later read that Jesus healed this man.

Life happens and sometimes things happen that we simply can’t explain. It is humbling because we learn that we are not in control nor do we always have the discerning power to figure everything out. The storms that I have been dodging lately make me realize that I don’t know as much as I thought I did. God knows why things happen like they do and He doesn’t always tell us. My job is not to try to figure everything out, my job is to trust Him while I go through the storms of life.