Hubbard Lena's blog

The Holy Spirit

2011-10-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm re posting this message because I think it's key for our time and for our life's as Christians. I haven't lived this for a long time. (Not the way I used to, anyway). I still speak in tongues and have that power in my life, but I'm not in a place, (and I'm talking about my personal life), where I feel like I'm changing the world around me. My first years in Stockholm after I got saved I believe that I was part of a transformation of the city around me. I was influencing my neighborhood, we were out preaching on the streets all the time. I knew I was a different "species" where ever I went. In the grocery store, on the subway, at my job. When we were flowing out of the church after a service, we were glowing and we were overflowing of God's love and peace and joy. We many times went to McDonald's next door and we brought heaven to that place. Totally. I need the power of the Holy Spirit to love the unlovable. Even to love myself and those closest to me. I can't love in myself. But when the love of God flows through me, that's true love. And it's unconditional. I need to draw from Jesus and be filled over and over again and never think that now "I got it". No, he's grace is new every morning. I need to tap into His river of life every day and every moment for it to work in my life. As soon as we start to produce or reproduce what we know to be right we create religion. We now have religious behavior instead of the abundant life Jesus died for us to have. I don't claim to be anything but a believer that love Jesus and wants to see His kingdom come, but there may be people out there that struggle with this. Maybe you're in a church that doesn't teach this and you wonder why it's so hard to live the Christian life. We're not supposed to live it in our own power or abilities, but in His power and under His grace. Here's my article again about the Holy Spirit.

Here's what John the Baptist said about Jesus:
"I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Mark 1:8
than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Matt 3:11

So it’s Jesus Himself that baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and fire.

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he talks a lot about the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.
"For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries." 1 Cor 14:2
"He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification." 1 Cor 14: 4-5

Many misinterpret this to say that we should not speak in tongues, but that's not what Paul is saying because in 1 Cor 14:18 Paul says: "I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;"
No, he's just talking about being careful of how to display the tongues in public. I believe it can be done, if it's done in order. We used to pray strong in my church, all together in tongues, but when it came to speaking out loud it had to be done in order and the pastor was in charge of who could speak or prophesy or interpret.
"What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding."
1 Cor 14:15

I think being born again is the greatest miracle of all and of course it is a work of the Holy Spirit. But I believe there's MORE! We, just like the apostles in Acts need to be transformed and filled with the Holy Spirit so we boldly can proclaim the gospel. We are called to proclaim the gospel and not some sophisticated, intellectual, worldly religion. We need power! If we don't have power, the enemy has power over us.
If God hadn't transformed my life I had never set foot in a church. I had no need for conformity or tradition. But when Jesus saved me on that beach in Spain, I couldn't wait to meet my brothers and sisters. And God led me to a church where the Holy Spirit was so strong, His presence came over you already in the foyer and you couldn't walk straight sometimes.
And you were not the same when you walked out of the church as you were when you came in. An ongoing mighty transformation happened all the time.
And you can't hide in an atmosphere like that. You become transparent which may sound scary, but it's not, because the love of God is there to cover you. (Kind of like in the Garden of Eden where they were naked but they weren’t aware of it.) And when you're loved like that it's easy to love everybody. It just flows out of you.

I do believe that speaking in tongues is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit but I also believe that it’s a sign that you are filled with the Spirit. I have never seen anybody flow in any of the other gifts of the Spirit that does not also speak in tongues. I have never seen the gift of prophecy at work for example where people are not spirit filled.

"If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” " Luke 11:11-13

I also think we need the power of God more than ever to win this world for Him. His power is so much stronger than anything this world can offer. We know that, but people out there need to see it through us.

Who owns the church?

2011-01-13T21:50:00.000-08:00

Who is the head of the church?

“And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy”. Col 1:18

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood”. Acts 20:28

“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,”       Eph 1:22
The Bible says that Jesus is the head of the church. The church belongs to God and no man. To be a member of the church you have to be bought with the blood of Jesus. That’s the only way to get in.

The church is not a social club. You don’t have to be rich; you don’t have to be famous. You don’t have to be smart or talented. You don’t have to bully your way around to get your way. You don’t have to be a little pope. On the contrary the Bible says that God choose those that were considered nothing in the world.
(If a brother or sister treats you with disrespect you can know that they don’t have respect for God and that something is seriously wrong in their relationship with God. That was something that became very clear to me when I got saved 25 years ago, that respect for God and respect for people goes hand in hand. Unfortunately I’m as much at fault in this area as anybody else and things happen in our Christian walk that can tarnish this revelation, but I know it’s true).
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” 1 Cor 1:27-29.

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes”. Matt 11:25
When Jesus is allowed to be the head of the church, (yes we do have a choice), there is a place for everybody. God has a unique calling for each and everyone. We may not have entered the fullness of it, but if we walk in spiritual discernment we know and respect each others calling.
“They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like men of war; Every one marches in formation, And they do not break ranks. They do not push one another; Every one marches in his own column”                               Joel 2:7-8
They do not push one another, every one marches in his own column. I don’t have to be something that I’m not. I don’t have to try and be like somebody else or try to take their place. I don’t have to compare myself with anybody. I can be inspired by somebody else but only to become more that which God has called me to be.
There is such a wonderful freedom in this but we can lose it in the church if we, or worse, the leadership in a church are living by their own agenda. If we have our own secret plans that are not God’s plans.

We should always seek after God’s vision and God’s plan; for our own personal lives and for the best of the church. Sure we can do it in ourselves and in our own ability but then the church becomes something else. Corruption creeps in.
What is corruption? The meaning of the word is the opposite of eternal. It’s something that is spoiled, impure and rotten. If we are corrupt, we no longer live with eternal values in our lives and we’re just like the world.
We know that corruption is bad in politics and there are countries that are so corrupt it’s everywhere; you can’t trust anybody, not even the police. It’s like a disease and very hard to deal with. We are the salt of the earth. If we’re corrupt, there’s no hope for us or the world. If we are corrupt we are offering our lives to a different God.
“The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon”. 2 King 23:13
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot”. Matt 5:13

“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires”.2 Pet 1:4
The Bible talks about Eli the priest and how his wicked sons were corrupt. They didn’t distinguish between the holy and the unholy. The Bible doesn’t clearly state this, but they probably learned their ways from their father Eli. I can picture them growing up sitting around “the kitchen table” where Eli would talk to them about the things of God and the people of God in an unholy way. It didn’t go well for Eli and his sons. The sons both died in one day just as God had said through the prophet Samuel and Eli broke his neck and died suddenly falling off a chair. Read all about it in 1 Sam 2-4.
If we don’t live in the truth, who will?
We are to be like a city up on a hill and a light that can be seen from afar.
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden”. Matt 5:14
The living church of God is instituted by God. It’s His creation and His plan for this world.
“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms”, Eph 3:10

“to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen”.     Eph 3:21
“and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” Eph 5:27
In the book of Revelation Jesus says seven times: “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The voice of God, the Truth of God here and now is to be heard in our churches to manifest His Kingdom on earth. We are one heart and one soul. If we’re not, we need to change. It’s His Kingdom, not ours.
“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought”. 1 Cor 1:10
Our foundation is the Word of God. That’s where our unity is. We believe in the Word of God.
“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ”. 1 Cor 3:11
We need to let God melt us down. You may be born again and a child of God, but are you broken? We have to let Jesus brake us so that we don’t have any strength of our own. We need to be poor in spirit.
“ Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth”. Matt 5:3-5

I’m preaching to myself as much as I'm preaching to you. I love Jesus and I want to see His Kingdom here on earth. Don’t you?

The Holy Spirit and Speaking in tongues

2011-01-09T10:58:00.000-08:00

Many Christians think that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is just about speaking in tongues and to them it seems odd and not something they want to be part of. It IS speaking in tongues but it's also most of all an ability to just get lost in the spirit. To shout and worship from your spirit in a way that can't be expressed by human words. To express the inexpressible. And I think it makes it easier to give yourself completely over to the Lord and His will. It’s simply to have more of the Lord in your life.

If you're not baptized in the Holy Spirit, ask the Lord to fill you with the signs of speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues will help you stay filled with the Holy Spirit. The tongues can be used in many ways. To me personally it's mostly a prayer language where I can pray out things that I don't even know about in the spirit. I also worship in tongues where I speak to God about His greatness and His love and His wonderful plans.

It’s a wonderful gift from God to us as believers that will increase our understanding of His love and give us boldness and fire for Jesus.

"On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Acts 1:4-5
Christians know about the day of Pentecost which you can read about in Acts 2:1-4. Many seem to rationalize and try to imply that what happened then were just for that particular time.

Verse 4 says:
"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

I think Acts is a model for how we as Christians should spread the gospel. Wherever people in Acts heard the gospel they were also baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. That's how they knew, they spoke in tongues!
"While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God." Acts 10:44-46
In Acts Acts 19:2-6
"he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”
So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”
Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied."

Here's what John the Baptist said about Jesus:
"I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Mark 1:8
"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Matt 3:11
So it’s Jesus Himself that baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and fire.

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he talks a lot about the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.
"For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries." 1 Cor 14:2

"He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification." 1 Cor 14: 4-5

Many misinterpret this to say that we should not speak in tongues, but that's not what Paul is saying because in 1 Cor 14:18 Paul says: "I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;"
No, he's just talking about being careful of how to display the tongues in public. I believe it can be done, if it's done in order. We used to pray strong in my church, all together in tongues, but when it came to speaking out loud it had to be done in order and the pastor was in charge of who could speak or prophesy or interpret.
"What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding."
1 Cor 14:15

I think being born again is the greatest miracle of all and of course it is a work of the Holy Spirit. But I believe there's MORE! We, just like the apostles in Acts need to be transformed and filled with the Holy Spirit so we boldly can proclaim the gospel. We are called to proclaim the gospel and not some sophisticated, intellectual, worldly religion. We need power! If we don't have power, the enemy has power over us.

If God hadn't transformed my life I had never set foot in a church. I had no need for conformity or tradition. But when Jesus saved me on that beach in Spain, I couldn't wait to meet my brothers and sisters. And God led me to a church where the Holy Spirit was so strong, His presence came over you already in the foyer and you couldn't walk straight sometimes.
And you were not the same when you walked out of the church as you were when you came in. An ongoing mighty transformation happened all the time.
And you can't hide in an atmosphere like that. You become transparent which may sound scary, but it's not, because the love of God is there to cover you. (Kind of like in the Garden of Eden where they were naked but they weren’t aware of it.) And when you're loved like that it's easy to love everybody. It just flows out of you.

I do believe that speaking in tongues is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit but I also believe that it’s a sign that you are filled with the Spirit. I have never seen anybody flow in any of the other gifts of the Spirit that does not also speak in tongues. I have never seen the gift of prophecy at work for example where people are not spirit filled.
"If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Luke 11:11-13

I also think we need the power of God more than ever to win this world for Him. His power is so much stronger than anything this world can offer. We know that, but people out there need to see it through us.

Curb balls

2010-10-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

If life throws you a curb ball, make lemonade. Isn’t that what they say? Well, maybe not.

I just want the kingdom of God to be proclaimed and I want the gospel to be heard.

I’ve had and have some great people in my life that care and pray for me. I will never forget the love they show me. I’m forever grateful to God for them.

Why do I write all this? Because life is throwing me a curb ball. I know it’s happening to you as well. In Jesus we have victory. Don’t let the devil take away your song. Use what God has given you. A Swedish singer named Ulf Christiansson once said that God had told him to just use what he has. That’s very biblical and I often think about that. It doesn’t have to be all new and fancy. We make it to complicated sometimes. God said to Moses; -“What do you have in your hand?”

So here’s a song I sang in August at a radio interview in my home country Sweden. I made a video around it and I’m using it, hoping that you will be blessed. And that if you don’t know Jesus that you will want to know Him.
Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone!

Click on this Link

Revival

2010-07-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

I went to see and hear Natalie Grant here in my hometown the other night. I have heard her live a couple of times before and I think she's a very talented singer and songwriter. What I appreciate the most about her though is the Holy Spirit working in her life. She truly ministers and I was very blessed by her performance. I am seldom moved by music alone but if the Holy Spirit is at work I'm in. When she sang I was truly worshipping and praising Jesus. With shouts, singing and praising in the Holy Spirit. She's spirit filled I'm sure.

There are so many Christians that think that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is just about speaking in tongues and to them it seems odd and not something they want to be part of. It IS speaking in tongues but it's also most of all an ability to just get lost in the spirit. To shout and worship from your spirit in a way that can't be expressed by human words. To express the inexpressible.

There was a little old lady sitting next to us on the bench. I started to speak to her and I could tell that she was spirit filled. And just by looking at her seeing the joy that just oozed out of her.When I asked what church she goes to she told me it was one of the Assembly of God churches in town. I knew it! After the concert I hugged her before we left and I just felt that love in the spirit between me and her, (a total stranger), that only the Holy Spirit can give. It's a total surrender to the love of God.

If you're not baptized in the Holy Spirit, ask the Lord to fill you with the signs of speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues will help you stay filled with the Holy Spirit. The tongues can be used in many ways. To me personally it's mostly a prayer language where I can pray out things that I don't even know about in the spirit. I also worship in tongues where I speak to God about His greatness and His love and His wonderful plans.

Don't miss out on a wonderful gift from God to you as a believer that will increase your understanding of His love and give you boldness and fire for Jesus.

"On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Acts 1:4-5
Christians know about the day of Pentecost which you can read about in Acts 2:1-4. Many seem to rationalize and try to imply that what happened then were just for that particular time. Still they claim to believe in all of God's word.

Verse 4 says:
"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

I think Acts is a model for how we as Christians should spread the gospel. Wherever people in Acts heard the gospel they were also baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. That's how they knew, they spoke in tongues!

"While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God." Acts 10:44-46

"he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”
So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”
Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied." Acts 19:2-6

Here's what John the Baptist said about Jesus:
"I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark 1:8
"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Matt 3:11

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he talks a lot about the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.
"For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries." 1 Cor 14:2
"He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification." 1 Cor 14: 4-5

Many misinterpret this to say that we should not speak in tongues, but that's not what Paul is saying because in 1 Cor 14:18 Paul says: "I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;"
No, he's just talking about being careful of how to display the tongues in public. I believe it can be done, if it's done in order. We used to pray strong in my church, all together in tongues, but when it came to speaking out loud it had to be done in order and the pastor was in charge of who could speak or prophesy.
"What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding."
1 Cor 14:15

If you are born again that is a work of the Holy Spirit and salvation is the greatest miracle of all. But there's MORE! We, just like the apostles in Acts need to be transformed and filled with the Holy Spirit so we boldly can proclaim the gospel. We are called to proclaim the gospel and not some sophisticated, intellectual, worldly soup. We need power! If we don't have power, the enemy has power over us.
It's not enough to be "churched". I see a lot of people that is just that; "churched". If God hadn't transformed my life I had never set foot in a church. I had no need for conformity or tradition. But when Jesus saved me on that beach in Spain, I couldn't wait to meet my brothers and sisters. And God led me to a church where the Holy Spirit was so strong, His presence came over you already in the foyer and you couldn't walk straight sometimes.
And you were not the same when you walked out of the church as you were when you came in. An ongoing mighty transformation all the time.
And you can't hide in an atmosphere like that. You become transparent which may sound scary, but it's not, because the love of God is there to cover you. Kind of like in the Garden of Eden where they were naked but they didn't know it. And when you're loved like that it's easy to love everybody. It just flows out of you.
So just ask the Father to fill you. He is good and only wants the best for you.
"If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” " Luke 11:11-13
Jesus loves you!

Jesus the Redeemer

2009-12-23T13:54:00.000-08:00

If you have not received Jesus before, this is a good time to do that. Someone said; you may be able to live your life without Him, but can you die without Him?

I personally found it very hard to live without Him. The years before I got saved were very dark and I was desperately seeking for meaning. Now I can’t even imagine living without inner peace and inner spiritual life.

Jesus is the only way to God. You may know about God but the only way to KNOW Him and be part of His family is to receive Jesus in your heart and confess Him as Lord. Give up all your own self life and He will give you a new abundant overflowing life.

There’s power in the name of Jesus. Sickness has to leave, demonic influences and powers have to leave when we speak the name of Jesus with authority.

Start saying His name today. Just say: “Jesus, Jesus I want you in my life. Forgive me for all of my sins. Cleanse me in your blood. I want to be born again and become a child of God. Help me , lead me into Your Kingdom. I am yours. I want to follow you Jesus for the rest of my life and for eternity. Amen”

Watch this video that I made and put on You tube. It’s the wonderful song “Redeemer”. Just let the words and the music minister to your heart. Jesus is wonderful. He loves you and He wants to bless your life and give you everything that He is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GD-qDuPXDw

Merry Christmas! (And receive the best gift of all.)

God's Healing Power

2009-10-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

I promised to write about the baptism in the Holy Spirit before, but first I want to write about healing. I’m not an expert on anything, but I am a believer and I do believe in what the word says. It’s so easy to base our faith on our experiences especially when it comes to healing. I hear a lot of teaching here in America that says that God has everything in His hand and that nothing bad will happen to us unless God permits it. That may have been true in the Old Testament and people refer to Job as an example of that.

When you bring this issue up in a discussion, a lot of people will tell you that you cannot understand God’s mysterious ways etc, etc and it sounds very wise, but it’s just human reasoning based on what they have seen in life. And they may have been around for quite some time! When you say that God wants to heal everybody it seems so radical and unwise.
If you are saved, born again and has received Jesus in your heart, health and healing is part of salvation. Our bodies will not be completely redeemed till we get our new glorified bodies in heaven, but the healing powers of Jesus is ours.
“And by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
“who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”
1 Peter 2:24
God is now our Father through Jesus Christ and He wants only the best for us.
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning”.
James 1:16-17
In my Swedish translation it says that God is light and that there is no darkness in Him.
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
Luke 11:11
I would like to add, which one of you parents would want your child to have cancer?
That seems absurd to ask, still we find it easy to believe that our heavenly Father would want that for us.
I have given my testimony here on my blog before, how I got saved when I was thirty. I didn’t have any physical health problems as far as I know, but God healed me from so many issues in my mind and my soul. He also delivered me from smoking which probably would have turned into a health problem eventually. He didn’t just save me and let me deal with my issues on my own to teach me something. He totally delivered me and set me free. In my church in Stockholm they would lay hands on people all the time and I would run up front and be prayed for so many times.
Here’s one example how the Word of God itself just healed me when I read it. I was very introvert when I came to the Lord. I had done a lot of eastern meditations and those kind of things which had led to that my soul was in boundage. One day I read the word below, about letting your eyes look straight ahead, and it was like something popped in me and around the area of my eyes and I was loosened.
“Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you.” Proverbs 4:25
He has not changed. My God is the same yesterday, today and forever. What He does for me, He will do for you. He will heal our minds as well as our bodies. He is altogether good.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8
God has through Jesus Christ given us authority over evil. We are to cast out demons, lay hands on the sick and command sickness to leave.
“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Luke 10:19
He has given us authority over demonic powers. Many times when Jesus came upon a sick person, He would cast out the demon that caused the disease.
We are not to be passive bystanders. Jesus tells us to do what He did. We don’t pray a prayer and hope that something will happen. We tell sickness to go because in Jesus name we have the power.
We don’t live in a perfect world and I believe that there are things that can bring on disease. Bitterness and unforgiveness for example can open the door and give the enemy access to our bodies. The most important thing is that God doesn’t make us sick to teach us something. He is chastising and correcting us through His word first and foremost, and only if we refuse to listen or take heed we can bring disease upon ourselves. Satan is also out to destroy us and he is more than happy if we don’t understand that we are in a spiritual warfare and we start to question God’s goodness. How can you pray for somebody’s healing if you in the back of your mind think that it may be God’s will for this person to be sick?
You can also ask yourself, if you believe it’s God’s will, why pray at all? Why go to the doctor if it’s God’s will that you be sick.
I think we’ve been fed human theology and not God’s theology and it seems kind of holy and humble to have those beliefs. But it’s not. True humility says what God says. We also have to look at the whole Bible and not just find one scripture that seem to back up our theory.
“The entirety of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.”
Psalms 119:160
Maybe you prayed for somebody and the person died. OK, so that’s your experience. Like I said before, we don’t base our faith on our experiences. Just because that person didn’t get healed doesn’t mean that God didn’t want to heal. We don’t have the whole picture and there may be obstacles that we didn’t see or didn’t understand.
The Bible is full of words about healing. We have to find those promises and pray them over ourselves to stay in health but also pray them out for ourselves and others when sickness attacks.
“He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
Psalm 107:20
Here is also an interesting word that reads a little different in the Swedish version where it says that the righteous are snatched away by the power of evil whereas in the English the righteous is taken away from evil.
"The righteous perishes,
And no man takes it to heart;
Merciful men are taken away,
While no one considers
That the righteous is taken away from evil."
Isaiah 57:1-2
If you look up evil it always talks about how the righteous will be protected from evil and the wicked. Reading the Swedish translation here tells me there are times when the evil one actually snatches somebody away before his time. Like young people dying in car accidents for example. I don’t know what the original translation says so I’ll just leave it at that.
I can recommend BibleGateway if you don’t already use that website, for easy access to God’s Word.

http://www.biblegateway.com/

God Bless You!

Open letter to Björn Ulvaeus

2009-07-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

First an introduction. Björn Ulvaeus is one of Sweden's most well known cultural figures and is mainly known as one of the four members of the super-group ABBA. Together with his fellow ABBA member Benny Andersson, he wrote the musicals Chess and Kristina. Now he is involved with the hit musical "Mamma Mia!" which has been seen by 25 million people around the world.

He is also a member of the Swedish Humanist Association and here are some of his thoughts on faith based education that can be read on the Guardians website that I want to respond to.

http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jun/30/bjorn-ulvaeus-religion-schools?commentpage=1

I used to know Björn Ulvaeus back in the seventies when we were both at the same record company and shared the same manager, Mr Stig Andersson. Björn and Benny produced some of my records and even wrote some of the songs I sang.

Björn Ulveaus, who I know to be a very intelligent, smart individual is using his name and influence to come against faith based schools in Sweden. He questions why tax payer’s money should be used. I’m a Christian and can only speak for Christians; first of all, Christians are tax payers like everybody else and are great contributors to our society. They are hard working with ethics way beyond average. They should have the same right to give their children an education where they feel true values are taught. I also know that in most cases the tax funded part is not sufficient to run Christian schools, and parents are paying extra money to keep their children there. They are also dedicated to volunteer to take care of the facilities, doing all the cleaning and general maintenance when needed.

I quote Björn Ulveaus : -“ Freedom from indoctrination ought to be a basic human right for all children.”

One of the reasons Christian parents don’t want their children in public schools is that they don’t want them to be indoctrinated by an atheistic, humanistic, God denying society. I don’t think it’s a human right to be taught that there is no God.

There is no neutral ground, even if that’s a very popular “Swedish” thought. You are either for or against something. Jesus says in Matthew 12:30: "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”

Christian children are mocked and ridiculed by both teachers and their peers in Swedish schools today. You can’t speak up against for example evolution or the homosexual lifestyle without repercussions. Evolution is taught as being proven facts when in reality it is just a theory and a belief. The homosexual lifestyle is said to be just as natural as being heterosexual. This is completely contradictory to what the Bible says. (Homosexual groups are welcomed into our schools today encouraging children at a very sensitive age to try and see if they are homosexual.)

We still have freedom of faith in Sweden. This means that you are allowed to have your faith, to live in accordance to your faith and to act and speak in accordance to your faith.

As adults and parents we are called to teach and guide children and show them what is right from wrong. We are not here to present a smorgasbord where we show everything there is in this world and then ask them to choose. No, we are showing them the right way so they will have the best life they can have and thrive and prosper. What parent would want their child to try heroin just because it’s out there? In the same way there’s “poison” in the spiritual realm and in the intellectual realm with thought systems that lead directly to hell.

Children don’t belong to the government. It’s the parent’s responsibility to give them what they need for this life.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:3

Someone once said, for to know a false $100 bill from an authentic $100 bill you don’t study all the false ones, you study the authentic one till you know it so well you can’t be fooled.

Christian parents want their children to know who God is, how God fits into history and our society today, and to know that Jesus died for them, loves them and wants the very best for them. They will never get that in a public school today. I’m old enough to remember morning prayer in my public school and we had Christendom on the schedule my first years before the government took that away. That was back in the 50’s and early 60’s. It was a different time very much because of the still domineering Christian influence.

I read another article with Björn Ulveaus where he seems to think that there is a contradiction between Christianity and science. The scientific thinking in itself with cause and effect, trial and error stems from Christian thinking. You don’t have that in for example Hindu thinking. I’m over my head here but I will refer to a friend of mine, Krister Renard. He was an atheist physicist and came to faith when he saw the mathematical equations in the universe and how exactly everything is working.

http://www.welcome.to/renard

The Swedish Humanist Association had this advertising campaign in Sweden, (and I’ve seen a similar one here in the US), saying: "God probably doesn't exist: but still he affects you. Less than 20 percent of Swedes are religious. Yet God is holy in our country. We in the humanist movement think it is worth considering. There are many examples of how religion affects our lives - not only for believers but also for the seven million other people in Sweden. How religious are you? Do our web test!"

This is so funny to me. “God probably doesn't exist” So you’re not quite sure, are you? Well, let me tell you. The Christian faith is a living faith. It’s not a dead religion. It’s a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Every person that has ever received Jesus in his or her heart, knows that He is alive and real. We don’t believe in a dead thing. The word of God, the Bible has transformed us. Ever heard of metamorphous? This is it. This is a transformation that if you have not experienced it, there’s no way you can understand it. It’s spiritual and not intellectual. It doesn’t mean that you leave everything intellectual behind. It means that there are spiritual realities that cannot be comprehended by the intellect. Why? Because God is spirit and we can only receive His knowledge with our spirits. It will bear fruit in our intellect as well, but it doesn’t begin there. And it is for everybody to receive. Christian faith is not exclusive. Salvation is available for everybody. It cleanses our hearts and our minds.

To want to take away God from the schools which has already happened in Sweden, and is happening in the US, is to take away everything good. Thank God for Christian schools. Here is what Christian faith stands for, and you want to take that away?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, righteousness and wisdom.

What is wrong with you people?!

The Basics of Christianity 4

2009-05-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

The bible teaches that what separates us from God is sin. The reason we don’t know Him personally is sin. God cannot have relationship with sin and there for we need to be cleansed from our sin.
If you have not received Jesus in your heart yet, I’m sure there have been times when you have wondered, is there a God. And you want to believe there is a God, but you don’t KNOW.

This is the difference between people that have received Jesus and people who have not. Once you say yes to Jesus as your personal Savior, you will KNOW without a doubt that He is real.

Sometimes we as Christians are trying to convince the world by historical evidence etc. I think no matter how much proof we present, if a person doesn’t receive Jesus in faith it’s all futile. It’s a matter of faith and that’s the way God has made it. You can only come to Him by faith and faith alone.
In Romans it talks about how the righteous shall live by faith. Romans 9:9-10 says:

..” if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

And in verse 13:

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Jesus says in John 3:3:

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

And in verse 5-8:

"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

All believers that are born again are one in Jesus. The bible says that we are one body and that Jesus is the head.

There is also the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I wish that all believers would embrace that. The disciples received the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. They needed that to be bold followers of Jesus Christ and they were instantly transformed. I don’t understand why not all Christians realize that we also need the power of the Holy Spirit today and maybe even more today than ever.
The sad thing is that a lot of believers think they already have it when they don’t, and I think that is a great deception in the body of Christ. We need everything that the bible talks about.
We need the spiritual gifts, which is NOT hospitality like some try to make it.

This is what 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 tells us the spiritual gifts are:

“it’s the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, the gift of prophecy, the gift of healing, the gift of faith, the gift of miraculous powers, the gift of distinguishing between spirits, the gift of speaking in different kinds of tongues, and the gift of the interpretation of tongues.”

These gifts are all supernatural. You can be hospitable with the help of the Holy Spirit, He is there to help us with anything God has called us to do, but the gifts of the spirit are truly something we could never produce in our own power. I would say that most churches do not operate in these gifts. Still they consider themselves a Christian Church. I’m sure that people in most places are born again, but we are not doing what God has called us to do and we are not helping this world to be delivered from the power of Satan. We give the world a picture of a social club when we should be a power station and refuge for a world in dire need.

I hear Christians say when it comes to the issue of speaking in tongues that the bible says that it should be done in order etc. Well, that was said to people who were speaking in tongues already and (obviously so much they needed to be admonished), not to people who don’t want to have anything to do with the spiritual gifts altogether. The bible never says not to speak in tongues.

Paul says in Corinthians 14:5: “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues” and in
verse 39: “Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.”

A large part of Christianity think that they can just skip these chapters in the book of Corinthians about the spiritual gifts and just create their own version of Christian faith.

I also believe that we just as the disciples in their day need all the five ministry gifts. Ephesians 4:11-13 talks about this:

“It was he, (Christ), who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

If the Bible says we need this to fulfill our calling as believers, why do so many churches think we can manage without this? And why do they think we no longer need apostles?

An Apostle lays a spiritual foundation for the house of God. It can be a new church being started out in the mission field or anywhere. Wherever God is starting up something new, there needs to be a foundation in the spirit. The teaching of an apostle has a whole different depth and is much more profound than the teaching of a teacher. The teacher gift goes into detail but the teaching of the apostle creates something in the spirit that keeps on working for a long, long time.

We desperately need the fullness of Christ, we need the full gospel. We can’t just pick and choose what we think is acceptable. We have to be willing to be fools for Christ. The gospel is foolishness in the world’s eyes.

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.” 1 Corinthians 1:25

“We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:12-16

“Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise.”
1 Corinthians 3:18

If you have not yet received Jesus Christ as your personal savior pray right now:

- “Jesus I come to you now. I receive you in my heart. I believe that you died on the Cross for me. I believe that you rose on the third day. Forgive me for all of my sin, cleanse me with your blood. Thank you Jesus that I now belong to you, that I am now a child of God, and thank you that I am now born again. I want to follow you for the rest of my life. Amen.”

If you have not yet received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I will show what the bible teaches about that and how to receive it in my next post. God bless you!

Basics of Christianity 3

2009-05-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

God sends Jesus.

Jesus was sent to Earth for a mission. He was in the glory with His Father, but He chose to come down to us to save us for eternity.
In Revelation 22:13 Jesus says:
" I am the Alfa and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, The First and the Last”

In Colossians 1:15-17 it says;

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist ".

To understand the significance of what Jesus did on the cross it's important to also understand his altogether divine origin. The Crucifixion was no accident but a, from eternity, thoroughly thought out plan, to once and for all crush the power of darkness and buy mankind back to it's Creator.
When Jesus died on the cross he took the sin of all mankind upon himself. He took the punishment for our sins. He went down to the kingdom of death and made an amendment for our sins. On the third day he was risen from the dead.
It says that,

" He died so that we would live"and so : “that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone". Hebrews 2:9b

Salvation.

When a person receives Jesus as his own personal Savior he is born again. (John 3:3).
The spirit in him gets new life, the spirit of God,the life of God starts to reside inside of him.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new".

Jesus’ act of redemption is complete. What Jesus did on the cross, does not just cover our sins, it totally wipes them out. They become obliterated.

Every man, every woman is personally responsible before God and must answer to Him for their life and their relationship to Jesus Christ. There's nothing or nobody to blame for us not coming to Jesus. All of Creation bears witness that there is a God.

In Romans 1:20 we read:

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened."

Here we see how strict God can be. He doesn't see through his fingers when it comes to sin and rebellion against the truth. We can never fool or hide from God.

But most of all He is a loving God. The Bible tells us that He IS love. This love can be summarized with the words in John 3:16-21.
God gave the most precious that he had, his own beloved son, so that you and I wouldn't be lost forever but have eternal life. That is the greatest and the best gift you can receive here on earth, salvation through Jesus Christ. He is true light and eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God”.

The Basics of Christianity 2

2009-05-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

The temptation

As you may very well know, the snake came to visit in the garden, (Satan that is), and questioned what God had said. He stated that they wouldn't die if they ate of the fruit. On the contrary he said, God was just trying to withhold from them the possibility of being as wise as God himself and be able to discern between good and evil.
The snake so fooled them both, and they ate from the fruit.

How could this happen?

God created us human beings with a free will. He didn't create meaningless robots that can't do anything but obey. It's quite the opposite. When we come to him, He wants us to come because we ourselves have chosen it and because we love Him. Adam and Eve choose to listen to the snake rather than obey what God had said.

In the moment they ate, they died spiritually. God's glory over their lives disappeared and they were aware they were naked. They even ran and hid. They could no longer come boldly before God and they felt both shame and guilt. Feelings that earlier were completely foreign to them.
God came by in the evening and called out for Adam:

"Where are you"? (1 Genesis 3:9).

This is where sin starts to reign in humanity. God had to drive them out of the garden because now they are mortal and marred with sin. He puts cherubs and a flaming sword to guard the road to the tree of life. In their present condition they cannot have eternal life. God pronounces a curse over the snake and gives a promise that somebody is going to come and crush his head.

" I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (1 Genesis 3:15).

God already had a plan of action prepared and this is His spoken promise of a coming Messiah.

All evil got access in the world through Adam and Eve's disobedience. Death, sickness, murder, envy, evil desires, lust.
Adam and Eve got two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain murdered his brother because of envy. The consequences of sin were fully at work.

Abraham

God's first step in his plan to save humanity back to himself, is to make a covenant with one man, Abram. He received the promise that he would become; "a Father of many nations". He was the first Jew.
God wanted to bring up a people who would know God and his ways. This was essential for God to be able to send Jesus to Earth. The Bible says that He needed " a well prepared people". God gives the law to Moses; the ten commandments written in stone. The law was to be "an up bringer to Christ".

In the book of Romans 7:7-8 we read;

"I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet”.

Without the law there's no sin. If we didn't have the command, "You shall not steal", nothing would stop people from grab a hold of other people's property.

Now God sent his word and revealed mans true condition.* She received something to measure herself with. By that she was to understand that she needed a savior since it was impossible for her to keep the law by her own strength. God had planned a new and living way where His law no longer is an outward constraint but as is written in Jeremiah 31:33;

" I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.".

How can this be true? Through the new birth in Jesus Christ.

* And this is how the word is still working today in people's lives. When you read the word of the Bible you will understand that you are truly in need of a Saviour, and there's no way you can save yourself, or meet God's standards in your own strength.

The Basics of Christianity 1

2009-04-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

I will publish some articles going through the basics of Christianity. Our roots, where it started, and why we need Jesus. I live in America, a country very much “under the gun” right now both financially and spiritually. It is very likely connected. We as individuals or nations are either blessed by God or in the hands of the enemy, which is Satan. There are so many things going on in this country right now; threats that will take away freedom of speech for one, with laws that will criminalize speaking the truth from the Bible. We live in very serious times my friend and it’s more important than ever that people get to hear the gospel so they can take a stand for or against Jesus. There’s no middle road. I pray that the Lord will show me what to do. How I can best reach people.
Lord, where do you want me to go, and what do you want me to do?

Why Jesus only ?

You may not have asked this question, but it's a fact that Christians all over the world with no exception, claim that there's only one way to God, and that way is Jesus Christ. The answer to the question is, that Jesus is the only one who deals with the basic problem of mankind, which is sin. No doctrine, no religion can cure this. All you can hope to get is some polish, some nice behavior maybe, but man's nature persists.

What is sin?

Sin is to turn away from God and wanting to go your own way, and thereby miss the purpose for one's life. And to miss the very meaning with why we were created.
The Bible does say that God created us; even created us in His image. God created man out of love because he wanted to have fellowship. What we see in the world today are consequences of sin;hatred, violence, murder, selfishness, sexual promiscuity. All of this is sin in God's eyes and a fruit of man going his own way, turning away from God.

The Garden of Eden.

God created man out of love and put him in a wonderful place where everything was good and good only, the Garden of Eden, and God gave man authority over His creation.
He blessed Adam and Eve and said:
“ Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

There was no death; life was eternal. Both man and creatures were to eat from everything that the earth would bring, all kinds of fruits and herbs.
Eden was full of trees of every kind that were "pleasant to the sight and good for food."

In the center of the garden God put the "Tree of Life" and also the"Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil”.
God gave Adam the command that he could freely eat from any of the trees in the garden, except for the"Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil”, for if he did that he would surely die.

What is Easter?

2009-04-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

Now is Easter, or more appropriate, Passover. Right before the Israelites were taken out of Egypt, God told them to take a lamb, unblemished and spotless, and eat it for their last supper in Egypt.

They were to take the blood from the lamb and “put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs.” Exodus 12

The blood was a sign for the angel of death to pass their doors when all the firstborn of Egypt were killed. “When I see the blood I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

This was a picture of God’s lamb that was to come which is Jesus. In the same way we who have received Jesus as our personal savior and have been cleansed through his blood, have his blood on our “doorposts”, our hearts, and we too are protected from evil and eternal death.

The Jews had been celebrating Passover for generations, just like God told them to, when Jesus came. Jesus knew that he was the Lamb of God that had to be sacrificed for the sin of all mankind. The last Supper with the disciples was at Passover and Jesus was crucified at Passover. It was all perfectly planned out from eternity. He was the fulfillment of the Passover.

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:18-19

By His Death and Resurrection, Jesus conquered sin and death for you and me.

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14

The message of the gospel is so simple a child can understand it. Just believe it and receive it.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” I Corinthians 1:18

Listen to your heart today. Don’t let your mind deceive you. Believe that Jesus died and rose for you. Let this Easter be the Easter when God touches your heart from eternity. He loves you so much. In His eyes you are worth all the suffering He had to go through. When you say yes to Jesus all of heaven celebrates and sings. They are just waiting for you.

Say: - “Jesus I come to you now. I receive you in my heart. I believe that you died on the Cross for me. I believe that you rose on the third day. Forgive me for all of my sin, cleanse me with your blood. Thank you Jesus that I now belong to you, that I am now a child of God, and thank you for now being born again. I want to follow you for the rest of my life. Amen.”

Take out your Bible and start reading. The gospel of John is a good start. Just let the Holy Spirit make the word come alive. Because that’s what it is, a living word that will transform your life. You also need to find a good Bible believing church. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I’m so glad you took this step. You will never ever regret it!

Happy Easter!

Ted Haggard in the news again.

2009-02-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

I haven’t been writing here for a while. Guess I‘ve been a little to wrapped up in Facebook.

One thing that did upset me recently was seeing the former New Life pastor Ted Haggard on Larry King Live.

I am a firm believer of forgiveness and restoration, and I know from my own experience that is one of God’s main goals with all of us. What I’m reacting to is that here is a man who has hurt so many people that he was entrusted with by God, some that may never fully recover and be able to believe in Christian leadership again, sitting on National TV with his family who say that they want to “tell their story”. I feel really bad for his whole family and I can’t even imagine what they are going through, but my point is, please don’t make a show case of this, don’t give the world another reason to slam Christians.

I think the proper thing to do would be to withdraw from the public arena and let God do his work. My feeling is; I don’t want to hear your story, I have heard it already and if you need to go public again, it should be in a Christian setting with pastors that can fully verify that you have been forgiven, restored and delivered. It would be very different to see Ted Haggard on TBN or the Inspiration channel. That would show that God has truly done something in his life, because I’m sure they wouldn’t put him on unless he had truly repented.

Again, I completely believe in forgiveness and the Christian community should be ready to forgive, but please don’t go to secular media, it’s none of their business.

“If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?” 1 Corinthians 6:1-2

This is the scripture I’m thinking of. It speaks about lawsuits but I think it can be applied to this case as well. This chapter goes on to talk about sexual immorality and even homosexual offenders and how they will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I think that anybody that is serious would not turn to the world for help or sympathy but would go to God first and then seek counsel from godly men and women. And we as believers don’t need publicity to get by. We need the power of God and Him only. He can change any situation; He can drag us out of the pit. He can transform any circumstance when all we want is to please Him.

The whole thing just didn’t seem right to me.

Reply on "Imagine" comment

2009-02-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

To author@ptgbook.org

Thanks for commenting on my article about John Lennon’s “Imagine”.
It’s very interesting how ungodliness take different shapes and forms over time. For example; atheism is not a new phenomena of course, but all of a sudden, it’s a movement and now walking “hand in hand” with humanism.

In the 70’s it was New Age, which was a very broad name for anything “spiritual” under the sun that was not Christian. Nobody’s talking about New Age anymore. In the Old Testament days it was worshipping of Baal. It’s all the same old, same old.

John Lennon's "Imagine"

2009-02-01T21:41:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned John Lennon’s song “Imagine” before. John Lennon was an extremely talented musician and song writer. Unfortunately he didn’t use his talent to honor God. Instead he started to create his own “religion”, a dream world that attracts a lot of people. "Imagine" is a great song, but I am going to go through some of the verses and try to show from a biblical perspective what I think it’s really about. First of all, the Bible says that God has put eternity in our hearts which means that we all have a desire within to find truth and harmony, and to be one with God and each other. So anything that looks like that will be attractive to us.

Here’s the first verse:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

There is a heaven and there is a hell. You can try and imagine as much as you want, it will still be there. And why would you want to imagine that there’s no heaven? Nobody wants to go to hell and not even God wants anybody to go there. He has made it very clear in His word that through Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ only, we can escape hell. Hell is made for Satan and his angels. Jesus paid the price with His own death so we won’t have to go there. Our souls and our spirits are eternal. We don’t go into nonexistence when we die.

Here’s the second verse:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

The Bible says that there will come a time when there will be just ONE big country. It will be the “kingdom of Anti Christ.” But it will not be a life of peace. It will be a reign of terror. All “religion” as we know it will probably be banned during that time as well.

“And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?"
Revelation 13:1-4

Read the whole chapter 13 of the book of Revelation. It’s all about Anti-Christ and his kingdom that will be set up in the last days, saying for example how no one will be able to “buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.”

We have reason to believe that time is near. People are ready to receive a world ruler, somebody who claims to be able to solve the world crisis. Did you see Barack Obama’s speech after he won the election? I don’t think that he’s Anti-Christ, but the way people in the audience were cheering him, crying and adoring him, tells me it can be happening very soon.

The Bible also clearly states how we can inherit the Kingdom of God, and what sins we need to be cleansed from;

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Cor 6:9-11

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

There will also be the thousand year reign with Jesus as King when the devil will be bound for a thousand years, which will be a kingdom of peace, but I don’t think that’s what John Lennon is referring to. That’s a kingdom where the believers of Jesus Christ will rule with Him.

“They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Revelation 20:4b

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

“I hope someday you'll join us”. We don’t know who the “us” are that is referred to here. John Lennon and Yoko Ono maybe? John Lennon may have been a dreamer, but he didn’t as far as we know, come to Jesus to see his dreams realized. There’s a wonderful future and a wonderful place for every believer. This world is not it. The moment you receive Jesus in your heart, your eternal life begins.

“No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him
" but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 2:7-10

Imagine that…

Come to me

2009-01-23T16:46:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago, I read about a famous female writer in a newspaper. She has been very successful over the years and very productive since her debut in the late 50’s. She is famous for her writing, but also for her lifestyle. She grew up without a father with a very strict, loveless mother and her whole life she’s been rebelling against her mother by being promiscuous and has even described her love life in some of her books.

Now when I read about her she has become old, sick and full of fear. Her life is miserable and she cries out in the article;-“Is there anybody out there that can help me?”, and - “Is there anybody that can drag me out of this?”

Those words really spoke to me, since I know there is somebody, and yes, there is help. It also reminded me of a book I read some years ago that actually has the title; -“Is there anybody out there that can help me?”. It is written by Sandy Brown who was a waitress at the Hallelujah (!) ballroom in Las Vegas. One night she got so tired of her life that she took every sleeping pill she could find in her bath room cabinet, swallowed them, got into her car and drove into the desert. She started to feel the pills working in her system and became more and more drowsy. She realized she would soon loose conscienceness and suddenly knew she didn’t want to die. She rolled down her window and called out into the night, still driving, ;-“Is there anybody out there that can help me?”. Long story short, Sandy drove into a house, somebody took her to the hospital, she survived and gave her life to Jesus.

Back to the female writer; I’m thinking this lady is in the same situation.
I wrote her a letter. I don’t know if she ever received it, I hope she did.
I know that a person like that, an intellectual and all, can be very proud and have a hard time receiving this kind of a message, but this is what I wrote, and I’m skipping the introduction part. I publish it because there are so many people in the same situation that need the same kind of help. Maybe you are that person?

“Dear xxxx

I hope you don’t take offence by me writing to you. I have been in the spot light myself and I know how hard it can be to receive letters from someone you don’t know. I read your article on-line the other day where you describe the fears of aging. Some of your words touched my heart. You wrote:”- Is there anybody out there that can help me?”, and - “Is there anybody that can drag me out of this?” I don’t remember your exact words, but you said something like:”-Please tell me that this will pass.”

I have worked with old people for many years and I have seen a lot of suffering.
I know this is a very delicate matter and what I have to tell you may be the last thing you want to hear. But the word that came to me was from Psalms 40:2,

“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.”

In Psalms 18:4-5 it says:

“The cords of death entangled me;the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.”

And in verse 16-17:

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.”

In Psalms 107:10,

” Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains,…”

Verse 14 and 20:

“He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains.”
“He sent forth his word and healed them;he rescued them from the grave.”

These are wonderful and true words from the Bible. I have myself experienced the salvation power of God. He pulled ME out of the slimy pit and transformed MY life completely. He took me out of anxiety and confusion. It is now over 23 years ago and it’s still working and I know it will take me all the way into eternity.
I’m convinced that God is able to transform your life in such a way that the years you have left to live on this earth, will be the most wonderful years of your life. And to give you a conviction so strong that you will know that what is even more wonderful lies ahead, that is eternity and heaven.

In Hebrews 2:14-15 it talks about Jesus: ,

“He,[Jesus], too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

I don’t know from my own experience what it means to get old, even if I’m not exactly young, I will be 54 this year, but I do know what it means to have anxiety and fear. It was among other things the anxiety that drove me to Jesus. And I can honestly say that I have not experienced anxiety, not even once since I got saved. All the dark within me disappeared and instead came a wonderful peace and joy.

It’s very easy to get saved. In Romans 10:9-10 it says;

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved”.

In verse 13 it says;
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Jesus says further; “and whoever comes to me I will never drive away”. John 6:37b

and

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life”. John 5:24

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love”. 1 John 4:18

God doesn’t just have love, He IS Love. To receive Jesus is to receive eternal, divine, unconditional LOVE".

The War on Israel

2009-01-06T13:59:00.000-08:00

I watched the news last night seeing reports on what’s going on in Gaza. It makes me very angry to hear the defenders of the Palestinians. Israel does NOT want to hurt civilians. The Palestinian government is to blame because they are sacrificing their own people by harboring criminal elements like the Hamas. It’s the Palestinian government that needs to deal with Hamas and hunt them down. By not doing so they are on Hamas side. I’m so tired of hearing how horrible Israel’s actions are, and not a word about what Hamas and all the other terrorists have been doing for years and years. Israel is NOT the aggressor. And when Israel retaliates their aim is Hamas weapon depots and training camps. NOT the civilian population. When Hamas on the other hand send their bombs into Israel they deliberately target civilian population centers.
Hamas also deliberately use civilians and civilian buildings to hide their weaponry and themselves which puts innocent people at harms way. They hide in hospitals and schools for example. They have even been known to use children as shields.
One particular Israeli village just 1 mile from the Gaza border has been hit with 7500(!) Quassam rockets since 2001. The last 1500 during 2008. See interview with Israeli mayor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ska-4Eer_8&feature=email

According to Dore Gold who used to be an Israeli ambassador for the UN, Israel even make phone calls to civilians to warn them and give them a chance to get away when they know there is a military target in a civilian area.

I’m not an expert on this subject, but I know where I stand. I am clearly pro Israel because I believe that the Jews are God’s people and I believe that God has a special plan with the nation of Israel. The whole creation of the nation Israel is fulfillment of prophesy. That is the main reason why there is such a battle over that tiny piece of land.

The basic view of every Christian is that God loves all people whether they are Palestinians or of any other origin and He wants all people to be saved. God is not against the Palestinians as a people, so that’s not what this is about and that’s not what we as Christians believe. But we do know that God is for Israel and against Israel’s enemies. And the war is against the terrorists.

I also know that Israel is the only democracy in the area with western ideals which means that as all countries in the west they share an openness towards all people that wants to live in peace within their borders.

But Hamas and PLO have a completely different agenda. They want to exterminate the Jews and wipe Israel off the map. That is their plan and has always been their plan. How do you negotiate with such an adversary?

I know the propaganda in Europe where few voices are raised to defend Israel, and there is some of that propaganda even here in the US through media. If you are a Christian you need to get your information elsewhere. You need a divine revelation to understand Israel’s place in the world and in history. If you are not a Christian you are being lied to.

There’s a great teaching series with Pastor Jon Courson on this subject. You can buy the CD’s or you can hear the teaching on-line. http://www.joncourson.com/teaching/teachings-topicalindex.asp?topic=prophecy
The title is: “Middle East: War and Peace”. He is associated with Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, CA.
Except for the Bible I can recommend a book called, “The Jews; People of the future” written by Pastor Ulf Ekman. (Can be found on Amazon.com).

The Bible says that God will bless those that bless Israel. God doesn’t exclude anybody but let’s everybody be saved through Jesus Christ who came through the Jew’s to save us all. God choose the Jew’s so that the whole world could be saved. This is what God said to Abraham who is the first Jew;

"I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
Genesis 12:2-3

Here’s another word regarding Israel and its future:

"As you have been an object of cursing among the nations,
O Judah and Israel, so will I save you, and you will be a blessing.
Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong." Zechariah 8:13

God also tells us to pray for Jerusalem;

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May those who love you be secure.”
Psalm 122:6

We as Christians need to stand up for Israel more than ever before.

Jesus or Santa

2008-12-31T15:30:00.000-08:00

America is so much more a Christian nation then any of the European countries today. Still at this time of the year it saddens me a little that so much of Christmas in the media is just about Santa Claus. In America the whole story around Santa is also so much more developed than anywhere else.

I’m from Scandinavia, which is close to the North Pole by the way, and we have our version of “Santa”, though he has another name, but there are no reindeer's or Elf’s. We just have our “Santa” show up on Christmas Eve for the kids and usually he just comes walking through the forest.

Just to make that clear, I enjoy some of the Santa movies as well. Santa Claus 1 with Tim Allen is very cute and my favorite. It’s just to much of it in the media, movies, shows etc; all the talk about the Christmas spirit, everywhere and no mentioning of Jesus Christ who should be the center of attention.

It just makes me sad that every TV channel except for Christian TV, is soo out of focus.

I wish you all a wonderful, blessed, Jesus centered,

Happy New Year!

Who is this child?

2008-12-23T22:33:00.000-08:00

"For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace

there will be no end. "
Isaiah 9:6-7

This child is the one that God promised to send already when Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden. In Genesis 3:15 God speaks to the serpent which is Satan, saying:

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

He’s the one that was prophesied in Isaiah 52:13-15

"See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness—
so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand."

He’s the one that was prophesied in Isaiah 53:3-7

"He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth."

His name is Jesus and in His name and His name only, there is salvation for every man that believes and receives forgiveness for sin.
In Isaiah 55:1-3 it says:

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. "

In some parts of the United States it's not politically correct to say merry Christmas anymore. You are supposed to say Happy Holidays. Well, the gospel is offensive and He is still the reason for the season so

I wish you all a

Very, Merry Christmas!

Prodigal Son 2

2008-12-19T12:18:00.000-08:00

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
“How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' John3:3-7

To Joel

I have one question for you; are you born again? It sounds to me that you have tried to understand scripture without being born again, without letting Jesus into your heart so He can reveal the truth to you. You try to figure out scripture with your intellect. You can’t. Only The Holy Spirit can show you how it all fits together.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim 3:16-17.

I have studied some philosophy; I was a seeker before I found the truth. I was seeking everywhere. None of the famous philosophers to my knowledge found the truth. Some spent their whole life trying to prove that God does not exist. Seems like a pretty futile mission. I had a teacher in philosophy that was the most confused unhappy person. That alone told me it was not for me.

I mentioned how I lived before I got saved, a very common lifestyle among people who are not believers. A lot of people in “the world”, meaning non Christians, couldn’t make it without a “fix” every week which could be alcohol, legal or illegal drugs. That’s the truth behind the facade in many people’s life. Just check out how many prescription drugs are used in this country. And they all claim to be just FINE, right?

And it’s not about “understanding” Christianity, it’s about letting the Holy Spirit transform you. And again if you really did “understand” what it’s all about, you would be a fool to renounce it.
So do you think that you in your own power can defeat Satan and his demons, or have you in your “understanding” come to the conclusion that the spiritual world doesn’t exist?

Maybe you can live without Jesus, but can you die without Him? I think I was a teenager when I realized that I actually will be present at my own death. That’s a realization most people don’t want to take in. The Bible says it’s good to think about those things when we are young.

I have peace in my heart, a peace that’s out of this world. I wake up with a song in my heart and I have joy for no apparent reason. I’m forever young in my spirit and energy and inspiration flows through me because of Jesus in me. That’s priceless.

Prodigal Son

2008-12-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

This letter is for Joel. (Again, I found him on Bill Maher's blog site where people are giving their views on the movie "Religulous".)

I think there are a lot “Joel’s” out there. He says he recently became an atheist after growing up in the church. I don’t know if he’s a prodigal son or if he just never really opened his heart to know the truth. He admires Bertrand Russell and other famous atheists.

Someone said; -“Maybe you can live without Jesus, but can you die without Him?” Many of our great thinkers wrote their thesis when they were at the peek of their lives. But do we know how tragically many of their lives ended? And where do they go for eternity?

Joel refers to the Bible as a book full of war and hatred.
No matter how smart or intelligent some people may be; if they don't allow wisdom to come into their lives, it has no value. Wisdom transcends intelligence. The Bible says:
- “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 1:7
Some translations use the word wisdom instead of knowledge.

Joel, if you go back in my writings you can read about how I got saved. I will not repeat that again, but I will tell you I wasn’t raised in a Christian home. I’ve been saved for 23 years now, and my parents still haven’t accepted Christ. To be honest I haven’t read through everything you have written, because some are just so dark and negative. I read your quotes from the atheists.

One thing that is very important to remember is that true Christianity is NOT a religion. It’s NOT a set of rules and regulations to live by. If that’s where you come from, I understand why it didn’t satisfy you. Legalism and religion is contrary to what Jesus came for to give us. He came to give us life and true freedom. You are 26 and I was 30 when I got saved. There were few limits to what I was allowed to do. Nothing was sin as long as it seemed good to me and it didn’t hurt anybody. But what I discovered in my late 20’ was that I felt like I was dead inside. And I knew I wasn’t free. I really longed for freedom more than anything else, more than love even. And I mean freedom within. In my teenage years and in my 20’ I was “free” to drink, smoke, and everything else that goes with that lifestyle.

I was “free” to express my opinions. I was raised in a country where you are encouraged to have a critical mind and to not except authorities. But let me tell you, I was NOT free. The more I lived this lifestyle the more depressed I became, the more darkness I started to feel inside of me. And I started to seek the truth. Christianity was not my first choice. I looked into writings from so called wise men from India for example. But my life began to really change when I started to read the Bible. The way you refer to the Bible tells me that you don’t read with an open heart to the truth. You seem to be trying to find fault with God and faith. That’s not how I read the Bible. I was desperate for help. I was tired of my life, of all the shallowness in the bars and the circles of people where I was living. I just knew there’s got to be more to life than this. If you read what I wrote before, you will also see that I was a teenage star in my country. I was touring, recording doing TV etc. I was making a lot of money to begin with too. But I always felt like, there’s got to be something MORE. This can’t be it. I had done “everything” already when I was 25.

The Bible is not like any other book. The words in it are alive, it’s a living word. Do you know what that means? Have you ever experienced the word coming alive in you? If you haven’t, I have to say, you have totally missed the point. You may have grown up in a “Christian” environment, but if you have never received the truth in your own heart, you don’t know what you are talking about. I think that sometimes being in that kind of an upbringing can actually make you “immune” to the real thing. If all you see are hypocritical behavior and not the real joy and love through people, that can be very devastating.

God led me to a church after I got saved that was full of God’s revelation, life and love. I mean I could truly see Jesus Christ in people. AND I could truly feel Him working through me. I felt His love through me to people that I in the natural would never, ever care for. And I was delivered from so many things. At the moment I was born again, which happened at a beach where the Holy Spirit came over me, I was delivered from my fear of death and my anguish that would cause panic attacks. That was the first thing I just knew was gone from me. It was truly miraculous. Something I had been struggling with for years just vanished.

God is a supernatural God. It saddens me that such a large part of Christianity doesn’t live in the super natural. If we did, I think that a lot of people like your self would see things differently. We are called to walk in the power of The Holy Spirit and Jesus said that we are to do greater miracles than He did. In my first church at that time the worship was so strong and the presence of God so tangible that nonbelievers that walked in would be convicted.

Jesus loves you Joel. You are young and you have yet to discover how cold and lonely the life of an atheist is.

Freedom from Sin

2008-12-12T10:38:00.000-08:00

Yes we are to love sinners, but we are also to hate sin.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
I was a complete sinner when I came to Jesus. My lifestyle was totally ungodly. Jesus still loved me and saved me. But I didn’t stay in that lifestyle. I repented which means I turned away from my old life.

A few months after I got saved I was on the verge to commit fornication. Somebody I had just met and that I wanted to witness to tricked me and I almost fell for it. God gave me an open eye vision to save me from this situation. I saw what seemed to be the courtyard to hell. It was a horrible, hopeless, dark place where all you could hear were wining and moaning. I saw people with their hoods on, and I couldn’t see their faces, instead there were just a black, empty whole .

The agony and the pain in this place were indescribable. I just sat up and shouted to God to take this vision away from me. While it was going on I couldn’t see the room I was in, just this vision. It finally went away and I asked the person to leave and get away from me. I was never tempted again in this area.

There is a battle for our souls. I was lucky the way God led me to a very strong, bible based church where the pastors preached the truth, and nothing but the truth. The bible says that we cannot have faith if we don’t hear. There are many liberal churches that don't preach deliverance from sin. If it’s not preached, it’s not going to happen.

Just take smoking as an example. I believe it’s wrong because it destroys our bodies. I was delivered from smoking because I heard that I could be delivered. I also struggled with it because God delivered me right away when I was saved, but I kept on going to my old "waterholes" the first 6 months, (witnessing), and I played with it and got really stuck. Not until four years later during prayer in my church where everybody including myself, was praying strong in tongues, did I hear myself saying nicotine spirit, and I SAW that spirit leave me, and I knew I was free.

I had been prayed for many times during this time, and I had even tried to quit myself, but this time I was completely free with no withdrawal symptoms at all. Not a sweat, not a shake, nothing. Gone after 18 years!

God can deliver us from anything that keeps us in bondage. He wants to see His children free. And if you’re not a child of God, He wants you to become one.

Atheists and Christmas.

2008-12-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

The American Humanist Association is spending $40.000 on a holiday advertising campaign proclaiming; "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake." The ads will appear on Washington, D.C., buses running through December.

On TV last night we heard that there are people out there that are very upset because to them all the Christmas decorations and everything else that’s going on this month is offensive. They are offended by manger scenes on display with the baby Jesus, lit up crosses etc, etc.
Humanists or let’s call them atheists, seem to think that there is a neutral lala land that we should resort to and forget about all “religion”. It’s kind of like in John Lennon’s song “Imagine”.

They picture this wonderful place where all hatred and strife are gone. And the way to get there is to get rid of “religion”. Without religion everybody will be “nice”. No more killing, no more conflict. People, I assume they think, will then stop using drugs or alcohol. We won’t be needing any weapons because without “religion” there will be nothing to fight about. And of course we will not be needing prescription drugs cause there will be peace on earth. I’m being sarcastic.
This view is totally materialistic. They don’t take into consideration the spiritual world. You can get rid of “religion” as much as you want; there will still be a spiritual world behind it all. And there will still be a battle for our souls. This world is not all there is. There is an existence after death and we get to choose in this life where we want to spend eternity.

What the atheists fail to see is; if they would succeed in getting Christianity banned there would come something else in its place. There would be a void that Satan quickly would fill. It can be Islam or any other thought system. Even atheism with its materialistic view has a spiritual root. Atheism can easily be a system of thought that will enslave people. That’s what Satan wants. He wants people in bondage.
The Bible states that there’s a force that holds evil back. We believe that evil will not have full reign on earth till we the Christians are taken away.

“Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”
“And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.”
2 Thessalonians2:3-4, 6-7

There is no neutral. We are either for Jesus or against Him.

"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters. Luke 11:23

The atheist say: “be good for goodness sake”. Define goodness. Without God’s grace over this world, there would be no goodness anywhere. Only God is good, and we are still living in the “Age of Grace” where we can receive God’s love and goodness. The “Age of Grace” will soon be over and it will be very difficult for people to be saved.

Without realizing it, the humanists, atheists are trying to create their own “religion”. Mankind is incurably religious.

It’s much better to come to Jesus who is not a founder of a religion, but a giver of LIFE.

God and Science

2008-11-27T12:49:00.000-08:00

A lot of people think that science and faith in God does not go together.

I have a friend who is a scientist. He was an atheist and he didn't get saved till he was 37. This is way over my brain, but he was convinced there is a God when he saw how precise everything in the universe is set up mathematically. He has written books about it and it’s very interesting.

Just think about the sun, how it’s positioned exactly in the right spot to make life on earth possible. Just a little off course and we would either freeze to death or burn up.
And the infinity of the universe; doesn’t that make you wonder why and what?

Or take another universe which is or bodies. Study any of our organs and tell me it came about by chance. A kidney for example is a very intricate little machine.
Nothing can replace a kidney like somebody else’s kidney.

The Bible says that Satan blinds people to creation so they can’t see that there is a God behind it all.
Romans 1:20;
“For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Humanism and atheism.

2008-11-21T11:51:00.000-08:00

Some time ago, I found an article in Modesto Bee, a newspaper in our nearest town. It’s written by Mark Morford. His article has the headline “Teddy Bear Blasphemy 2007” and among other things he is astounded over the Christians reaction to the movie “The Golden Compass.”

There were protests all over America where Christians wanted to warn people and especially children to not see the movie. Looking back, I think Christians succeeded on this one. There was a lot of hype when the movie was released, but the movie just died and did not have the impact the producers had hoped.

This is my reply and the letter I sent to Mark Morford.

Mark, you briefly mention the movie “The Golden Compass” and you make fun of and can’t understand why Christians make such a big deal of a movie about a bear. This is the reason: there is a very deliberate scheme behind the “The Golden Compass.” The movie is not inspired by God, but by the devil and its main target are children. If the devil can saw a seed of serious doubt and disbelief in children early, it will be much more difficult to win them over for Jesus and millions of now kids and later adults will be lost for eternity. That’s the devil’s plan. This is very serious and the reason why Christians are warning people of this movie.
I understand that you are an intellectual and believe that you can fully understand everything. Believe me, without revelation and the Holy Spirit you can’t.

There are some other things in your article. You are very upset over the Pope’s statement that; -“Modern day atheism have led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice ever known to mankind.”
I heard a man of God say recently that atheism is on the march. I know that he knows as well as I do, that “there is nothing new under the sun”, Ecclesiastes 1:9. I think what he meant was, that it’s taking new forms. Like in the shape of humanism for example where people very purposely work against Christian faith.

What is interesting to me and is a misconception of true history, people like yourself seem to think that there has been a time in history when this world was “Christian “and that now we the humankind have reached a point where we know better. That we have evolved as human beings. Nothing can be further from the truth.

This world has always been “worldly”, and to follow Jesus has always been the narrow road. In every generation the majority of the population has been heathens and only some have found truth and eternal life. There have been times when Christian thinking and Christian ideals have been more or less influential. South Korea today is said to have about 30 % Christians. That’s a very high number. The country that I come from, which is Sweden, is thought to have less than 1 % Christians; a very secular country today. Sweden was the first country in the world to legalize partnership between homosexuals, as early as 1995. Even to the point where the Lutheran church now conduct the ceremony.
The Bible talks very clearly about that lawlessness will take over in the latter days. I believe, and I have heard it being prophesied, that when you create a law that totally goes against what the Bible, which is God’s law says, you open up the door for all kinds of lawlessness. We have seen that in Sweden. We now have crimes that were unthinkable only a few decades ago. We hear about parents killing their children, children killing parents, shootings, and just horrible, horrible things happening.

You seem to think that atheism is the answer to the world’s problems and you can’t name any evil atheist rulers. Let me help you. Want some names of cruel atheists in history? Here are some that have killed millions of people; Lenin, Stalin, Mao TseTung…. Why don’t you do a little research? Hitler used religious symbolism but he was clearly not a Christian and he got some of his inspiration from the occult.
What about Envar Hoxha who was the dictator of Albania? He proclaimed Albania as the first atheistic state. He kept his people in poverty and ignorance for over 40 years. Nobody could ever leave the country and he convinced everybody that the world outside was horrible. They would scare their kids, saying; - “If you don’t behave, we will send you to America.” (I know this since I have had Albanians staying in my home in Sweden when they came to attend bible school.)The truth is that Albania was one of the poorest countries in the world and they are still struggling. (I have been there and seen it with my own eyes). Albania was freed as late as 1993 I think it was.
Look at the Roman emperor Nero back in history. I mean, history is full of cruel atheists, if you really want to know. I’m not a catholic but I think the Pope is right in his statement.

The Christian battle is won with the Word of God which is a spiritual sword. One by one, by one as hearts are being open to and receiving Jesus. Islam is the religion of the physical sword. That’s why we have terrorism. They believe in physical violence and Jihad is a reality in their belief system. I don’t care what has been done in God’s name; you don’t find anything like Jihad in the Bible.
Christian faith is not blind. It’s a faith of revelation. I don’t know what your background is or why you have such a negative view.
There’s a spiritual reality behind all we can see with our eyes. My first eight years as a born again Christian I would go out and witness to people about Jesus. The argument that without religion everything would be great in this world I have heard so many times. I heard it on the streets of Stockholm, and I heard the same argument on the streets of Madrid. There’s a war going on in the spiritual world all the time and the only way for an individual to win in that war is to “join forces” with Jesus.

God is Love

2008-11-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

The people I’m debating are on Bill Maher’s website and under his blog on his new movie Religulous.
This is my last reply on this subject unless you who read this have something to add. This is my reply to Binky, obviously gay himself and upset over what I was writing. Just remember from a Christian standpoint, God loves everybody. He just wants to separate us from sin and that goes for all of us. God’s law is eternal and doesn’t change with the times. His values stand firm and doesn’t sway with opinion. This world is going down. The question is; do you want to go down with it?

To Binky

I realize that we can’t stop gays doing what they are doing. What I am against is that they want to influence everybody else to accept their lifestyle. And when I say accept, I mean approve. I can love a gay person with God’s love. It doesn’t mean that I sanction his way of living. As a Christian I’m surrounded by people who curse, drink, fornicate and think they’re living life. I’m not better than them, I have just received God’s salvation and I have been delivered from those kinds of sins. I’m not perfect and never will be, but God has changed my heart so I don’t desire what I used to desire. And everything God says is wrong is there for our benefit. He as a good Father wants the very best for us. He knows what will destroy our souls, what will eat our heart out. All His commands are for our own good. The further from God we live, the further from Love, (GOD is LOVE), the further from peace, (GOD is PEACE), the further from truth, (GOD is TRUTH). You can try and change that as much as you want but God will always win. You can’t win against God. He actually won victory for you through Jesus Christ. So that you can be free and have eternal life. You may not see that yourself but your language is very raw, full of sexual words. I think many gays live in sexual bondage. They talk about love, but it’s very much just about sex and lust and body parts. It’s sad; we are so much more than just a body. We are spirit, soul and body and we are not supposed to live a life where our bodies dictate our lives.

Salt in a rotten world

2008-11-17T22:05:00.000-08:00

Here's my response to MJ in So Cal:

Christian leaders should always be for freedom of religion, and the main reason is that true Christian conversion can only be based on free choice. Through history there have been many attempts to make Christianity a state religion. Konstantin the great was the first regent to impose that on his people. This demand on everybody’s submission to the Christian faith actually was the greatest threat to true faith. Christianity is not about traditions and rituals even though many churches have adopted this false religion.

In regards to the issue of homosexuality and what the bible teaches. Jesus told us Christians to be salt in this world. Why? Because this world is in a rotting process. Without the word of God everything is spiraling down continually; morally and spiritually. That’s one of the reasons we are against the spreading of homosexual behavior, (and we believe it is a behavior and not something people are born to.) All sin is wrong in God’s eyes. Sex outside of marriage is also a destroyer and has robbed millions of true happiness. It is not love, it is lust, and cannot fill our deepest needs. We also believe that Jesus can deliver anybody that is in bondage. Lust is a spirit. Why do you think that a lot of homosexuals, men especially, have a very typical way of talking and moving? They are under the same influence and they can be set free.

Somebody mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah before. That whole town was under this influence. When two angels came to visit Lot, the men of the city knocked on the door and demanded that these two, (as they thought), men, would come out so they could lay with them.

This is what it says in Genesis 19:4-5:

“Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."

God destroyed these towns and Lot and his family were the only ones that survived. It’s all in the Bible. Nothing is new under the sun and history repeat itself. God is always the same though and we have his word to guide us and let us know the right way so we won’t perish.

To Janice:

Regarding Lot and why he didn’t fight these men. Well it says that it was “all the men, from every part of the city..- both young and old”. That sounds pretty overwhelming. And remember God spared only Lot and his family and that only because of Abraham’s prayers. I don’t know why he wanted to offer his daughters, maybe because the thought of these men violating even God’s angels was more than he could handle.

Back to MJ SO Cal, again:

I’ve been around for some time, half a century actually, and only in my lifetime have I seen a tremendous change. More people are falling for the homosexual lifestyle than ever before. And I think especially in your teenage years, if you are encouraged to try you can easily be caught. It’s all about lust really and it can be canalized either way.
I’ve had homosexual friends too. One guy I knew simply said that he thought it was less complicated to live with a man. I have also found that most homosexuals want to spread their lifestyle. There is even a thought pattern among them that everybody is gay, really. And considering it’s all about lust, that could happen when the moral standards break down completely. Many of them have a very clear agenda. They want everybody to bow to their way of thinking and they love to influence the media. It happens in America and all over the world. I’ve seen it in my country. They even take over what is to be family entertainment and dress and act in a way that children shouldn’t have to see. You don’t hear the word seduction very often these days. But it’s still a reality. People are being seduced, doped and numbed. Even in the schools homosexuals want to “inform” children about their lifestyle. It’s a very deliberate propaganda and it’s not just about them being able to live as they want. They want approval, even from Christians.

In Isaiah 5:20 it says:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

Hot Topics of our Day

2008-11-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

I’m on another blog where I get a lot “inspiration”. There’s a lot of hot topics and confusion out there .
Here in California people got to vote Yes or No on Proposition 8 which states that marriage should be between one man and one woman. The Yes votes were in majority. According to Rick Warren, pastor of Saddle Back Church, (who also hosted a forum with the two presidential candidates on TV), there are about 2% gays. The Yes side won but a lot more than 2% voted against. Why? I think they voted against Christianity in general and the moral standards that Christianity represent.
Now a lot of gays and other people are protesting against the result of the voting. So I guess democracy isn’t good enough when it comes to certain issues. Interesting. They want to change the concept of marriage, which was a Christian idea to begin with, and they want to force Christians and others to accept and approve their lifestyle by law. And they want to force pastors and priests to conduct the ceremony.
It’s quite amazing, and they think they have a right to do so. They even compare their agenda to the Civil rights movement and to when blacks were held in slavery!

Cont. Bill Maher's movie Religulous

2008-11-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

Like I wrote before, I was 30 when I met Jesus. I was not raised in the church. I believed in God as a child and I never denied him, but I never understood who Jesus was. When I was a teenager I had a career as a singer. I was touring, recording, doing lots of TV. I had quite a life looking from the outside. I was a celebrity, something a lot of people seem to desire to be these days. I have a lot of good experiences from this, I got to travel and see things a lot of people don’t have a chance to, but on the inside I was very insecure and hurt. People can be very brutal to you when you are everybody’s “possession”. Look at Britney Spears for example. What happened to me was I became a seeker. I searched in all kinds of places in my 20’s. I looked into Eastern religions, scientology etc. And I withdraw pretty much from society. To me, the most important thing was to find spiritual answers. It wasn’t till I started to read the bible that my life began to change. I had a lot of anxiety and panic attacks frequently, and I sensed how the words of the bible were speaking to me and were penetrating the darkness inside me. This was going on for about 4 years, and that day at the beach in Spain I was laying in the sun when I felt the Holy Spirit come over me, giving me a choice to choose life or death, and I was sure did I say yes, I would die. But the love I felt was so strong I decided it was worth it. I said yes and the love of God filled my whole being and I was weeping like a baby. It was tears of joy and I was totally crushed at the same time. This happened in August 1985 and my life has never been the same. I’m now 53 if you can do the math, and I totally know what it’s like to not be a Christian. I also know of the anguish and everything else that people go through when they don’t have Jesus in their lives. Fear is a big constant in many people’s life. God’s love can take that away. There are a lot of lukewarm churches, where there’s no fire of God. When I first was saved, God led me to a church where the presence of God was so strong sometimes you had to hold on to something to not fall over. I now live in America, and I know there are churches like that here too. I have not seen that move of God here in California. The Pentecostal movement started on Azusa Street in L.A and I believe it can happen again. It can even happen to you Bill Maher!

Bill Maher's new movie Religulous

2008-11-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

I have not seen Bill Maher’s movie, but I’ve seen him on TV and heard him on the radio totally mocking Christianity. I think Christianity can take a punch or two, and I don’t even think it’s wrong to joke about some of the more human aspects of Christian life. I have found that God has a lot of humor and I have laughed in church more than anywhere else. When the Holy Spirit is at work many times very funny situations are created. And this is happening in spirit filled churches. But I think Bill Maher together with atheists and humanists have on their agenda to get rid of Christianity. Which is absurd. It’s like wanting to get rid of the creation itself. Just because Bill Maher can’t understand Christianity doesn’t mean he should try and wipe it out. Truly, nobody can understand God. The only way you can get to know Him and get a glimpse of who He is, is through revelation. Revelation is the Holy Spirit revealing spiritual truths to man. No matter how intelligent or intellectual we are, our human mind cannot comprehend the knowledge of God. Only through receiving words from God to our heart, spirit, can we start to know who God is.
Here are some of the things I wrote on Bill Maher’s blog. Let me know what you think…

I guess my hope is that Mr Maher himself will read this. It’s interesting how he with all his wit and smartness have the same arguments as any man on the street. I’ve been talking to people in many countries and they all think they are very original in their thinking, but the way they oppose the gospel is almost identical. One big mistake Bill Maher is making is, that he thinks that Christianity is a religion. True Christianity is NOT a religion. It’s the only way man’s spirit can be born again and come alive. Through Jesus Christ we can get divine life into our very core being. No religion can do that. A monkey can be trained to be NICE, but that’s not what Christianity is about. WE are not NICE, we are filled with the power of GOD. There are a lot of Christians whose only aim is to be NICE, but that’s not what Jesus died for. He came to deliver us from DEATH which is holding people captive. Jesus conquered DEATH. That’s not religion, that’s REAL! I was 30 when I was born again. My whole life was radically changed. I didn’t even go to a church to receive Jesus and His resurrection power. I was all by myself on a beach in Spain. I found a church later, because with my new life and revelation of the truth, I wanted to have fellowship and teaching from other Christians. No movement can stop people from get to know Jesus personally. They tried in China and they have tried in Soviet Union. Now people are trying very deliberately to kill Christianity in America. There are groups of atheists and humanists that are trying very hard. No man can stop The Holy Spirit from talking to and revealing the truth to any human being. It doesn’t matter if she’s in prison or in a country run by dictatorship. Not even in America with all her freedom can the gospel of Jesus Christ be stopped. In every generation there have been and are people that are saved. In these latter days more people than in all history together will come to faith and there’s nothing either Bill Maher or anybody else can do about it. It will come to pass. I hope you who read this will be one of those people that receive eternal life and heavenly joy.