Category: Life

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Christianity is proclaiming the good news. Then why are so many Christians unhappy?

Why it is important to face this question is because we are living in a pragmatic age. People of today are less interested in truth, and more in results. And they ask - does Christianity work?

Well. Does it?

Many say of Christian people: 'Look at Christian people, look at the impression they give. They look so unhappy and troubled and downcast. They have written on their forehead - I'm not good enough'. All this while the people of the world are excited and thrilled about football matches, museums and culture - and they sure want everybody to know it!

There is no doubt that this 'display of unhappiness' by Christians is a big reason why large numbers of people have stopped to be interested in Christianity - and let's honestly admit that there is some justification in their claims. Christians too often give the appearance of unhappiness and of lack of freedom and abscence of joy.

There are large numbers of these Christians, or more specifically - miserable Christians, in this unhappy situation. Their Christian life seems to them be a constant problem, they read books, attend conferences which are meant to give instruction about the Christian way of life - yet they always seek this something which they don't find and seem to live a life of defeat. Astonishingly, most of them have a clear perception of the Christian faith, and here is often the problem. They often focus more on the question of sanctification and being righteous and doing good works - than justification. They have assumed they are on the right tracks and have forgotten or ignored about the basics of salvation and justification. The question they need to ask is 'Do I know God' not 'Do I believe in God'. 'Is Jesus Christ real to me' not 'Do I believe in Him'.

The best remedy for overcoming doubts, discouragements, regrets and fear for the future is learning to live the Christian life wholeheartedly. This is of course not easy. It is not an act of righteousness. This demands that you take time to explore whether you are humble or just play a game of appearing righteous! No, this is not in fashion today with all the social media hype about appearing so cool, right?! We are all in such a hurry to congratulate ourselves - and, we have to have everything at once. We also think that all truth can be stated in a few minutes, all questions answered immediately without contemplation. The answer to that is that it cannot, and so the reason why so many today are living superficial Christian lives is because they will not take time to examine themselves. Before we face anybody else, we must really face ourselves.

Conviction of sin: If you have not a conviction of sin, and if you do not realize that you are unworthy before God, and that you are utterly condemned and a complete failure before God - pay attention to nothing else until you have it, until you understand this because you will never get rid of your depression until you are right about that.

In other words: It does not matter if you have nearly entered within the gates of hell, if you are guilty of murder as well as every other wicked sin, it does not matter from the point of being justified with God. Because you are no more hopeless than the most respectable self-righteous person in the world!

Do you wish to be rid of your spiritual unhappiness? Then say farewell now once and forever to your past. Realize that it has been covered by Christ. By his blood to be more specific. What you need now is not to make resolutions to live a more holy life, to start fasting and sweating and praying. No, you just need to begin saying ... 'I rest my faith on Him alone'.

Therefore the conclusion is that a man is justified by faith without deeds of the Law.

 

Photo by Steven Kamps
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Darkness on the edge of town

THE LAST RAYS OF THE SUN are closing in on the Soukka beach in Espoo, Finland at 15.18pm on December 2014. The sea is covered with a thin ice.

I hate the winter darkness. Not the winter but the darkness. Winters are no more like when I was a child-plenty with snow, the white pushing away the dull grey. That's why I prefer living more south. The grey of Nantes in France contains more light than the sun up north in December.

There is darkness and then there is November in Finland. The latter is far more mind-numbing. Darkness attacks first the mind, then enters the soul.
Far-away foreigners flicking through Lonely Planer assume the Nordics are living a life to die for. No crime, much space, wild nature next to the cities, a party with the health services...

But in October, the warm summer nights are long gone and forgotten-then darkness and frost arrives. Short, colourless grey days, and a chill that is felt to the bone ensure the mind won't be able to reach for much light either. And as if THAT wasn't enough, by November the dark brown sleet on the motorways and eternal lack of sunlight dispatches the most vulnerable and weak into the 'recharging department' at the country's numerous mental institutions. Many foreigners are little aware of the dull and mentally mediocre life in darkness people put up with most part of the year in Scandinavia. Uninterested faces, grunts as greetings, avoidance of physical contact at any price. The security and efficiency of a northern nation turns into an isolated and silent zombieland.

Then Spring. Suddenly Helsinki wakes up to a March morning - alive and with a promise of something new. Temperature is still below zero at 7.30am, but it doesn't matter because the sun is already high. The grumpy and silent inhabitants turn into smiling sociable companions. People looking past their feet, which is pretty much said of a Finnish person. After the dark, cold winter, the Finnish turn into open human beings, ready ro talk anytime and anywhere. Almost compassionate.
Relief of the returning light. The shrill cry of the seagull. The world is again open and full of opportunities. Chatter on the street. Feeling of a weight being removed. How do you explain this to somebody living in Brazil or in the Caribbean? You don't because anybody who hasn't been through a Nordic winter can't understand what it is.

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How the redbreast got its colour.

"But little by little he gained courage, flew close to him, and drew with his little bill a thorn that had become imbedded in the brow of the Crucified One. And as he did this there fell on his breast a drop of blood from the face of the Crucified One;—it spread quickly and floated out and colored all the little fine breast feathers.

"Then the Crucified One opened his lips and whispered to the bird: "Because of thy compassion, thou hast won all that thy kind have been striving after, ever since the world was created."

As soon as the bird had returned to his nest his young ones cried to him: "Thy breast is red! Thy breast feathers are redder than the roses!"

"It is only a drop of blood from the poor man's forehead," said the bird; "it will vanish as soon as I bathe in a pool or a clear well."

But no matter how much the little bird bathed, the red color did not vanish—and when his little young ones grew up, the blood-red color shone also on their breast feathers, just as it shines on every Robin Redbreast's throat and breast until this very day."

Christ Legends, by Selma Lagerlöf

 

Photo by Luca Huter