A new baby in the family?

“You must be born again”.
This is what Jesus told Nicodemus, the Jewish leader who had come to him at night to talk with him. We find the story in the gospel of John, chapter 3. We sometimes use the term “born again” in the sense of being a bit fanatic, like a “born-again football fan” or a Christian who is a bit over-enthusiastic about his faith. But what does Jesus really mean when he says that “no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” and that “no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit”?

Just as a baby can’t decide to make his own entrance into the world, but has to be born by his mother, in the same way you can’t understand anything about God unless God reveals it to you. You can’t decide to become a spiritual person. God has to do something with you. He has to make you into a new creation. This is what we call the new birth.

God is the father of everything he has created. God created us to be one human family. But because of the fall and rebellion of the first human beings, we no longer have that father-child relationship he intended for us. We must be born again into the new family of God that Jesus Christ started. The world-wide church, in all her varieties and denominations, is the family of God. We are born into this family when we are “born of water and the Spirit”. The Holy Spirit gives birth to our faith in Jesus Christ, and baptism confirms and seals this new birth by the symbolic cleansing with water.

Taking care of the baby
Can you imagine a hospital where the children are born, and then they are carried out through the hospital doors and put down on the street, and the nurses say, ‘bye bye, take good care of yourself!’? Of course you can’t.

Well, just as we need to take care of a newborn baby, we need to take care of each other as well, especially when there is a new spiritual birth in the family. We must make sure that the new child of God is breathing properly, that he or she gets the right nourishment, and is learning to walk.

For the next few weeks we are going to look at these practical things together here in Bergen International Church. So whether you feel like a newborn baby or you care for some new believers, I believe it is going to be fruitful for us to see what the Bible teaches us about these things. For the breathing of the child can be compared to prayer, the nourishment is the word of God, and learning to walk has to do with learning what God wants for our life.

Windsurfing

This is not me. I just wish it were!
Well, I have been windsurfing this summer, but I have almost been more under water than on top of the waves.
Still, I love those moments when the force of the wind gets me going, when I get the feel of it and when I can lean back and just let myself be blown across the bay.

Life can be a bit like windsurfing. It takes a lot of effort to learn how to balance on top of that shaky board, and you fall into the water quite a lot before you get the hang of it. But once you learn how to master the sail, it is not your own power that moves you forward. It is the strong wind of God.


Picture: FreeFoto.com

God's Dream for Europe

I'm enjoying a long summer holiday this year. Have already spent two weeks, then worked for a week during the NMS (Norwegian Missionary Society) General Assembly in Bergen, and have now resumed my leisurely life for another few weeks. It is good to be able to take one day at a time without having to prepare a sermon all the time, although I do enjoy my work!

Last week in Bergen was good. We were around two thousand people - from all across Norway and with many International guests - gathered for the General Assembly, under the headline "God's Dream". I was responsible for a small gathering for those involved in mission in Europe. Two of the BIC members came and presented our church and the Chinese fellowship. Together with missionaries in Paris, London, Estonia and other places we are doing our part in making God's dream for Europe come true.

Rest in peace, dad!

My father died yesterday. What a great way to go! It was a very peaceful, though emotional experience for us who were gathered around his hospital bed. He was always so strong, and now we watched him as he grew weaker for every hour. We all just hoped he would stay alive until my sister returned from a journey abroad. He seamed to hear us, as we told him to hang in just a few more hours, and two hours after she arrived, his spirit gradually left him.

Father was ready to go. He has always had a secure faith in Jesus Christ, knowing that his grace is enough to carry him to God. His faith and his joyful attitude influenced all of us, even the nurses in the hospital ward. Two days before he died he received Holy Communion for the last time, administered by the hospital chaplain. Yesterday we recited Bible texts to him as he lay with his eyes closed, but we knew he could hear us. And five minutes before he drew his last breaths we sang a hymn to him.

Mother is alone now, but she has a large family, and in Jesus she has a friend who never fails.

Where is the outpouring?

Where is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? In my ordination as a pastor more than sixteen years ago, we asked for the Spirit to fill me and equip me for the pastoral ministry. I often feel the signs of the presence of the Spirit are few and rare, and I long for a fresh outpouring of living water into the church where I serve.

The last month many Christians have looked to the "Florida outpouring" and they ask if this is the beginning of a new, great revival. The preacher in the centre of the revival, Todd Bentley from Canada, with his tattoos and his piercings, is not the typical image of an American TV evangelist. (See video clip) He has introduced some rather interesting new vocabulary, like "bam!" and "boom!", which is probably not going to be taken into the Lutheran liturgy.

The question is - for those of us who manage to look beyond the cultural expressions that we are not comfortable with - if it is God who is doing this, or if it is only a show. When I look at the TV broadcasts and listen to what he tells us about his past and how he has been led into the ministry, I must say that he seems honest. He seems to be driven by a strong urge to be in the presence of God and to experience his glory, and to pass this on to the people he preaches to. And when you see and hear the testimonies of the people who are being healed from all kinds of diseases and infirmities, you can't help but feel the joy.

The Holy Spirit comes in many different ways. Not only in the "bam!" and the "boom!" He comes with the still voice that creates faith where there used to be unbelief, and he comes to the small gatherings, not only the big celebrations. He certainly does. But... Our greatest danger is if we become complacent and say that we don't need any new outpouring. And to be honest, most Lutheran worship services could need some blasts to wake us up from our deep slumber.

I have had a good Pentecost this year. In the Chinese worship service on Pentecost Eve we invited the Holy Spirit to come. Nothing dramatic happened, but the whole congregation came forward to receive prayers, some tears were falling, and we felt His presence among us. It has been wonderful to see how the Lord has built up this small congregation year by year and how he is equipping the new believers with his gifts.

A step in the right direction for the church

The political parties in the Norwegian parliament, the "Storting", have agreed to give the church more independence. This is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go. According to the agreement, the church will still be a state church, but the state will no longer appoint bishops and deans.

Not yet, by the way. We have to wait until 2012. But then of course this isn't a long time, when you remember that we have had some sort of a state church in Norway since AD 1024, when the church was officially established at Moster, a couple of hours' drive south of Bergen.

There's a condition to the agreement too: The church must be "more democratic". What does this mean? It means that more of the church members must be involved in the election processes. Today only 3-4 percent of the members actually vote in the church elections. In other words: The politicians want those who are not active in church to elect its leaders. Today, 82,9 % of the people are members of the church through their baptism, but how many of these people are believers? It is obvious that the majority of the politicians include this condition because they want the church to continue to develop in a more liberal direction. They want to make sure that the active church goers will be unable to elect leaders who still belive in the Bible and dare to teach what it says.

Anyway, I'm glad the politicians finally have agreed on a change. It is far from the best solution, but still a step in the right direction.

Fitna - the movie

I have just watched the controversial film made by the Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders. ”Fitna” is an Arabic word that can mean strife, upheaval or civil war. With the combination of Qur’an quotations and images it creates the impression that Islam is a religion of terror and violence, and naturally it has caused a lot of reactions.

While the film claims to portrait Islam, in reality it only portrays a particular stream within Islam, a stream that has many names: Fundamentalism, islamism, extremism among others. There are as many sides to Islam as there are sides to the Christian civilisation. If we say that it is this violent kind of Islam that is the real Islam, we say the same as the islamists themselves, those who claim to be the only true Muslims.

Muslims can do the same to us if they want – and many do. The image most Muslims have of Christianity is a religion that occupies their countries, bombs their cities and kills their children. The ”Christian” countries are societies that permit immorality of all kinds and that are doomed to destruction.

”Do to others what you would have them do to you”, our Lord taught his disciples. If we want Muslims to speak truthfully about us, we need to be truthful when we speak about Muslims. Showing a one-sided picture is not being truthful. Muslims and Christians live side by side in many countries of the world. We must do all we can to live peacefully with each other. The movie ”Fitna” does not help create an atmosphere of peace.

On the other hand – Muslims who respond with treaths and violence to this film, only confirm the one-sided image people in the West have of Islam and Muslims – that Islam is a religion of violence and hatred. Muslim leaders in Norway have responded wisely to the film – condemning it as insulting and divisive, but denouncing violent responses.