onsdag 30. september 2015

Meet Baldrian


 Baldrian brings a lot of love and life into the house. He is a kitten, and he likes me:)
I get to hold him and pet him, sit deep in thoughts and feel his warm little body on my lap.
My hands rest on him.

He is quick, bright and responsive.
And playful!







 Some creatures just know how to live! Baldrian is one of them. I think I can learn from him.

mandag 28. september 2015

Old Words, New Hope



I interact with many interesting people, and one of them brought forth the basic writings of Philipp Jacob Spener (1635-1705) to my attention. Perhaps his ideas have something to say for rebuilding the Lutheran church in Norway?


In Pia desideria, Spener made six proposals as the best means of restoring the life of the Church:
  1. The earnest and thorough study of the Bible in private meetings, ecclesiolae in ecclesia ("little churches within the church")
  2. The Christian priesthood being universal, the laity should share in the spiritual government of the Church
  3. A knowledge of Christianity must be attended by the practice of it as its indispensable sign and supplement
  4. Instead of merely didactic, and often bitter, attacks on the heterodox and unbelievers, a sympathetic and kindly treatment of them
  5. A reorganization of the theological training of the universities, giving more prominence to the devotional life
  6. A different style of preaching, namely, in the place of pleasing rhetoric, the implanting of Christianity in the inner or new man, the soul of which is faith, and its effects the fruits of life
This work produced a great impression throughout Germany. While large numbers of orthodox Lutheran theologians and pastors were deeply offended by Spener's book, many other pastors immediately adopted Spener's proposals.”
                                                                               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietism

I see traditions in the prayer-house movement reflected, with its the base in pietism.
According to the six points in Spener’s work, I think point 3-6, are applicable for today.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I have so much to say, but at the same time I am at loss for words.
Part of me wants to fight, part of me mourns.

May the Lord guide us and may He be the one to build the house again.

Perhaps tearing down the present structure is necessary, and we should not patch it up. 
Let us not sell our soul to the money-keepers. The Lord God is far richer.

A church is ruins is quite useless

søndag 27. september 2015

Pope Francis - Blurring the Divide


In April of 2015 BBC reported on Pope Francis and his stand against persecution of Christians. It seems right and fitting for him to speak sharply and clearly on this issue.     

“Pope Francis has condemned the "complicit silence" about the killing of Christians during a Good Friday service in Rome.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims joined him for the Way of the Cross ceremony, recalling Jesus' crucifixion.
Among the cross bearers were Syrian and Iraqi refugees, and Nigerians who had escaped Boko Haram persecution.
The service came a day after almost 150 people were killed in an al-Shabab attack on a Kenyan university.
"We still see today our persecuted brothers, decapitated and crucified for their faith in you [Jesus], before our eyes and often with our complicit silence," Pope Francis said, presiding over the ceremony at the Colosseum.

Earlier, he condemned the attack in Kenya, where Christians were singled out and shot, as an act of "senseless brutality".
In another Good Friday ceremony, Pope Francis listened as the Vatican's official preacher Raniero Cantalamessa denounced the "disturbing indifference of world institutions in the face of all this killing of Christians".
Pope Francis
He too mentioned the Kenya attack, as well as the beheading of 22 Egyptian Coptic Christians by Islamic State (IS) militants in Libya in February.
Pope Francis has spoken out against the persecution of Christians before, saying that the world would be justified using military force to combat the "unjust aggression" by IS.”

It does not take much background knowledge to see that these instances of brutal persecution are carried out by Muslim groups. Further, it does not take much knowledge to understand that Islam is a separate religion from Christianity. It denies the fundamental teachings of the Christian church, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who died for our sins and who is risen from the dead and sits by the right hand of God today. Islam is fundamentally different in spirit, in spirituality, in spiritual force.


The Muslim may be my neighbour, colleague, friend, fellow human being - but he is not my kin. He is not my brother, nor she my sister – in the sense of Christian fellowship. There is a deep spiritual abyss between us. In the same way as it is untrue to speak of ‘our humanist sisters and brothers’ is it meaningless to speak of the Muslim as a spiritual kin.
In a recent public reaction to a stampede in Mecca during hajj, the Pope blurred this divide by addressing Muslims as ‘brothers and sisters’. I understand that he intends to show sympathy on a human level, and we are all of the human race. But for a major church leader to deliberately choose to signal spiritual kinship by using the phrase “brothers and sisters,” is ugly as sin.

I have read most of the Qur’an, and I have read the Hadith. I have numerous books on Islam, some by Muslim writers, some by western Orientalists. I read occasional websites on special issues relating to the Hajj, or women in Islam, or on more enjoyable subjects, like Mosque architecture. As I read, I detect the suppressive and obsessive hold in the texts, as well as the stamp of supremacy.


How can anyone, I wonder, anyone who has the Spirit of God in him, not realize the spirit of deception and destruction in the sources of Islam? And further: how can anyone who has come close to this not cry out to God for them and plead with Him that He open their eyes to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?



lørdag 26. september 2015

Biskoper og Vasekopper


Hva er en biskop?
a) Det er en som har et visst oversyn. 
Ordet har greske røtter : epi+skopos, og betegner nettopp det, at en ser ting i perspektiv ovenfra.  Vi bruker det mest i kirkelig sammenheng, hvor et regionalt område av kirker og kirkelige tjenestemenn har en regional leder, en tilsynsmann, en biskop.
Sjakkbrikke:biskop

b) Det er også en viktig brikke i sjakkspillet, som jo er et spill om dominans, om kongelige og geistlige autoritetsfigurer, hærer i strategisk mot-spill.


c)På engelsk brukes ordet ’Bishop’ også om varm kryddervin.


Men hva er en vasekopp?
1a)Det er person som vaser, en tullekopp, en tøysekopp.  
Ordet har norrøne røtter. Ordet ’vase’ har med å rote sammen, få i floke, rote sammen. Det har med å snakke tull, fare med slarv. Og ’kopp’ kjenner vi igjen i det tyske kopf – og det betyr hode.


Hva har vi i Den norske kirke?

bispekollegiet i DNK


fredag 25. september 2015

Violations of the Sacred


Will I dress in black, in mourning for the violations of the sacred space? I dressed in black today, at work, and I had two crosses, dangling like bling, around my neck. It did start a few conversations.

            I was in heated debate mood in the early morning hours, and I did not spare the whip on my imaginary foes. I saw caricatures in of leaders before my inner eye, with horn like small devils. Sharply and solemnly I was speaking in the grand conference of my imagination. The Christian church has been under attack again – this time, not from slaughtering evil-doers with deathly violence. No, the attack is on the institution of church organization. The ‘liberals’ have hijacked the organization and forced them- selves on the believers. They have raped the church. In open defiance against the teachings of the church and of the Word of God, they have paved the way for the church council to redefine ‘marriage’ to include two women’s lesbian relation, or two men’s gay relation, which in turn is to be ‘sanctified’ in the church. 
"love is blind"
The argumentation they provide for this will, in turn, entail some natural consequences: that any person of any sexual preference and orientation, be it as devious as it might, he or she will have the ‘right’ to claim church sanctifications over their pedophilia, animal sex relations, prostitution - or bigamy.
           Should not these people be welcomed at church? Should they clean up their act before coming to the sacred space? Come, I say, please, come: but when you do, expect to meet your Maker, and expect to be changed. Expect to see truth in the eye, and be confronted with your self and your guilt. Confess, and receive the liberating words of ablution. Forgiveness is in its path. Jesus is the One who saves.

            But the ‘liberal’ train, with its festive cars of gay passengers, with its selection of bishops and theology professors, brings their faithful down a horrid trail to the abyss. “Love”, their leaders say, ”love is what drives this train.” What kind of love, I wonder, will encourage anyone towards Hell? Blind love, perhaps?

The church of Christ has seen many heresies, many blind paths, many horrid practices in course of time – but somehow it has survived and become renewed and redirected. I may fret like a mad cat, but the Lord Jesus has led me to prayer.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church. He is in charge. He will raise up leaders and people to speak truth. He will pour out His Spirit on us, and strengthen us in the faith. Every generation needs to answer His call.

People may cause violations of the sacred, and they may cause great harm to many. They may hijack the sanctuaries, defile the symbols, but they can never destroy the sacred heart.
Repent, my friend. God showed his love towards us by letting Jesus die for us while we were still sinners. He died to set us free.

I will dress in cheerful colours, I think, for my future is bright:)