Set, let, put!

Today's headline is rather strange, don't you think? Set, let and put. If you know some grammar, you know that these words are verbs, meaning action. Something happens. And we find all three several places in Colossians 3. I'll give you the list of all the sets, lets and puts in the chapter, and then I'll explain my meaning with this.

• Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth (verse 2)
• Put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication ... (verse 5)
• Put off all these: anger, wrath, malice ... (verse 8)
• You have put off the old man ... (verse 9) and you have
• Put on the new man ...(verse10)
• Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering (verse 12)
• Put on love (verse 14)
• Let the peace of God rule in your hearts (verse 15)
• Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly (verse 16)

Nine commands to either set, put or let, that if followed, would make a huge difference in peoples' lives.
However, in most of these verses, the subject is missing. When it says put to death your members ..., who is the subject? Who is going to do the putting to death? The "hidden" subject is YOU. So the first point would be "You set your mind on things above!" It's actually not optional, it's a command. The headline of chapter 3 of Colossians in my Bible, is NOT CARNALITY BUT CHRIST. That means that to live Christlike and not in carnality, I must set, let and put all these things I have mentioned.
However, I have my free will to do so or not; but to reach my highest potential in Christ and to be able to fulfill God's will for my life, I have to be willing to do all the setting, letting and putting that God has laid out for me. It's in my willingness to do His will, and actually doing it, that my progress and victory lies.
So today I determine to set my mind on things above, to put to death my members, to put off anger etc., to put off the old man, to put on the new man, to put on tender mercies etc., to put on love, to let the peace of God rule in my heart and to let the word of Christ dwell in me richly!
I hope you'll do the same.

Glory to God!

This is the time of Advent - we're expecting someone to come. We're expecting the King of glory!
Who is the King of glory? Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle. Who is this King of glory? Jehovah of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah (Psalm 24:8+10).
He came as a baby, but the glory of God was upon Him. And because He gave us God's glory, we can give Him glory; "Give unto the LORD the glory [due unto] his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts. O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. Say among the heathen [that] the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously (Psalm 96;8-10).
In this time of Advent, let's be joyful and thankful and give God GLORY! He's worth it and He deserves it!

Who are you named after?

Names identify us. Names say a lot about our heritage and who we are. If you go into a hotel and present yourself as Mr. Rockefeller or Mrs. Kennedy, you might get more attention and better service than if you're Mr. Brown or Mrs. Black.
My name is Anne Hove Sunnarvik. Anne is after one of my "foremothers", Hove is my maiden name, and Sunnarvik is after my husband. My three names tell a lot about my family and background.
But my names don't give me any privileges, they just identify me.
However, I have other names, names that give me enormous privileges in the spiritual world. I am called after my Father God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. Surprised? Let's get it from a more reliable source than me, "... I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named" (Ephesians 3:14-15, my emphasis). I am part of God's family through Jesus Christ, and I am named after Him. When I married my husband, I entered into covenant with him, and took his name. When I became a Christian, I entered into a blood covenant with Jesus, and took His Names.
What are His Names?
They are Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, just to name a few.
A name is more than letters on paper, more than something that we need to get a passport. A name is who we are. A name is all that belongs to us. My natural names don't give me high standing in the natural world, but my spiritual names give me right standing with God, they give me eternal life and all I need for life and death. "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil.4:13) because "Strength" is one of His names. "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Phil.l4,19) because provision is one of His names.
The list of God's names goes on and on, I have just mentioned a few here.
Next time someone asks you: "Who are you named after?", you can answer with conviction, I am named after my Father.

Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving Day today, and people all over the US and Canada are celebrating. "Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the US and Canada. Traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. While it may have been religious in its origin,Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday" (from Wikipedia).
The Bible has a lot to say about thanksgiving, and I really like the idea of having one day every year where people are supposed to thank God for His mercies and goodness. The Pilgrim Fathers, who first started this practice in 1661, had a lot to be thankful for. And so have we today, both in the US, in Canada and in other countries. 
Here are two Scriptures from the Bible about being thankful,

• "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful" (Col. 3:15)
• "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe" (Hebr.12:28).

God's will for us is that we should have peace and be thankful. The Pilgrim Fathers fled their old countries and came to a land of peace and plenty, and they were thankful. We live in a country of peace and plenty; let us be thankful - today and every day!

What is the kingdom of God?

I believe today's headline is something many people ask every day. What is the kingdom of God - really?
Is it right conduct? Is it going around with a smile on your face? Is it to wear shabby clothes and no make-up? Is it to live in poverty and have low self-esteem?
No, no, no!!! None of the above has anything at all to do with the kingdom of God.
The Bible is very clear about what God's kingdom is. Let's read in Romans 14:17,
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
To know what something is, it sometimes proves useful to know what it is not. Here it says very clearly what the kingdom of God is not. It is not meat and drink. The Greek words for meat and drink, are bibrôskô, meaning food, meat, the act of eating, decaying and corrosion; and po'sis, meaning drink, to drink, the act of drinking. God tells us that what we put in us through our mouths are not His kingdom. We need food and drink to live and sustain our lives, however, we should never let eating and drinking be considered part of God's kingdom (except for communion, of course). I believe we could say that the kingdom of God is not material things.
What then is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

• Righteousness, or right standing with God, is obtained in one way, and one way only, namely through faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for you and me through His death and resurrection. And I know that very many Christians don't know fully (or partially) what righteousness really means. It is so grand, so over our carnal minds to understand it, that we need the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. But it means that you and I, who are born in sin and totally unworthy of God's grace, may come to God through Jesus' sacrifice for us. We can stand clean and free of sin before God and come boldly to the throne of Grace, as it says in Hebrews 4:16, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Maybe I'll come back to our righteous standing with God in later pieces here on the blog.)
• Peace. God's kingdom is peace. Do you see peace around you today? If there's one thing this world lacks, it's peace. Jesus said, "And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for [such things] must needs be ... (Mark 13:7). Jesus said that there will be wars (absence of peace), but that we (His children) should not be troubled. To not be troubled is to have peace. Jesus also said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27).
• Joy is the third ingredient in the kingdom of God. Many people mix joy and happiness, but they are far apart. Happiness is something you feel because of some external situation. Maybe you've been offered a salary increase or you've bought a new house or have a new boy- or girlfriend. Those situations are reasons to be happy. However, when the money is spent, the house is too expensive to live in or the new friend is gone, what then? Happiness is also gone. Happiness follows external situations. Joy, however, comes from within. Joy is independent of external situations or happenings. Joy comes from God. Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22 (and so is peace). Real joy can only come from a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Joy is from God. Happiness is of the world; joy is of God.

God's kingdom is as far from the worldly kingdom as east is from west. Eating and drinking may give you a temporal satisfaction and a moment's happiness; righteousness, peace and joy, however, are lasting "ingredients" that don't stop when this life is over, but they follow us into eternity.
I have chosen God's kingdom, and I hope you have, too.

Fear not!

Are you fearful? Are you afraid something bad will happen to you or your family, your country or the world? Well, naturally speaking it doesn't look good. The future prospects for this world are grim, and if you only see things the world's way, you're in trouble.
However, God's kingdom is not this natural world, and we who are born again are not of this world, even though we are in this world. The body of Christ, the Church or the saved ones (whatever you want to call it), is a group of people that doesn't have to be afraid no matter how dark it seems around us. Why?
Because "... ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom.8:15).
Can you imagine anything more peaceful and safe than a little baby in his or her father's arms? No matter what happens, the father protects and takes care of his baby. No need for the baby to fear anything around him, because "Daddy takes care of me!"
That's how safe we as God's children are supposed to be in this world. We are in His arms, and He will never forsake us and never leave us. He said so in Hebrews 13:5: "... For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
What is fear? Fear is a spirit, an evil spirit. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim.1:7). And the spirit of fear does not come from God. Jesus was very adamant about fear, He did not tolerate it at all, and He told everyone He met to "fear not!" How could He do that? Because fear is an evil spirit, and in Jesus we have power over evil spirits! So when fear comes and knocks on your door, take your authority in Jesus' name and command that "sucker" to leave, and he has to obey. Don't allow fear to enter into your thoughtlife. The second you feel fear knocking at your door, send it out in Jesus' name. Fill your thoughts with God's Word and see yourself in your Father's arms, safe as a little baby.
Don't let fear overtake you, you overtake fear!

Don't know what to pray?

If you are like me, you don't always know what to pray or how to pray according to God's will. However, there is one prayer in the Bible that is always according to God's will and wish for you and me, and that is what we call The prayer of Jabez. Several years ago a book about the prayer of Jabez became very popular, and "everybody" talked about Jabez. Then, when the news was gone, "nobody" talked about him any more.
However, I believe the two verses in 2 Chronicles 4 have a lot to teach us. So I want to review them today. Verses 9 and 10 read,
And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep [me] from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
Here we have two verses of Scripture about a man that seems to come from nowhere, and then disappeares into nothing. But Jabez' life was very real, and he left a mark on his contemporaries and also on us.
It says he was more honorable than his brethren. We don't know how or why he became that way, but I'm pretty sure it was a choice on his part. He chose to stay and live near God, and for that God gave him honor and granted his request.
What did he pray? The prayer in vers 10 is divided into five parts, let's look at them. Jabez' requests were

• Bless me indeed
• Enlarge my coast (or territory)
• Let Your hand be with me
• Keep me from evil
• Keep me from grief

Jabez longed for God's blessing on his life, and God granted it. We don't know what Jabez did for a living, but God enlarged his territory. If he were a farmer, he might have gotten more land; if he were a salesman, he could have gotten more customers. We don't know, but we know that his request was granted by God.
Have you ever prayed "Let Your hand be with me"? It's a strange prayer, but very "Biblical". The Bible has lots to say about the hand of God, (which is another study). God's hand might be outstretched both to judgement and to blessing. Jabez saw God's hand bless him.
He also prayed that God would keep him from evil. Evil and grief belong together. Where there is evil, there is grief. The only way to stay out of grief, is to avoid evil. And according to Jabez it is possible to stay out of both. How do I know that? Because at the end of vers 10, it says that "God granted him that which he requested".
Does God grant all requests that we send up to Him? No, not mine, anyway. But the five requests Jabez sent up to God, were granted. That means that they were according to God's will for Jabez, and I believe they are according to God's will for all of us. If we pray like Jabez prayed, we get results like Jabez did.
Don't know what to pray? Pray like Jabez and see the results!

Let peace rule!

Yesterday's text was titled Let peace be the umpire!  The focus was on God's peace. Today I want to focus on the small word LET. There are many Scriptures in the Bible where we find the word let. Let is a verb, and a verb needs a subject; someone to do the "letting".
Who is the subject in the following Scripture? "And let the peace of Christ be ruling in your hearts, as it was the purpose of God for you to be one body ..." (Col.3:15)? The subject is YOU, you let the peace of Christ be ruling in your heart.
I believe a lot of Christians miss out on many of the things God has promised us in the Bible because we think that it comes naturally, without an effort on our part. Unfortunately, that's not the case. To be saved, it takes an active accpetance of Christ on our part; to be forgiven, it takes an active asking of forgiveness; to be filled with The Holy Spirit, it takes our active involvement; and to receive God's peace, we need to let peace rule. We need to let peace in. It's like opening the door when someone knocks. You hear the knocking or the doorbell, you go to the door, open it and let that person into your house. God has made His Word so easy to do that not the simplest person can go wrong. You actually need a lot of help to miss out on God's best, and the "helper" in this case, is Satan. He tells us that it's so difficult to receive from God, it's almost impossible to do so.
But we know that when God says: Let peace rule, He has made a way for us to do so. And God's way is to say "yes", and open up our hearts for that peace.
However, to let something in, we must let something out, and if we harbor bitterness and hostility in our hearts, we must be willing to let that go first. Peace and bitterness cannot "camp in the same tent", so to speak. If we're willing to let go of our bitterness, we can then receive God's peace. As it says in Romans 14:19, "So then, let us go after the things which make peace, and the things by which we may be a help to one another". (My emphasis).
My prayer for you today is that you go after God's peace, and let it into your heart. Let peace rule! Let peace be the umpire!

Let peace be the umpire!

Have you ever wondered where to turn, what direction to take in life, or simply what to make for dinner?
I have. I have faced situations that seemed impossible, I didn't know where to turn or what decision to make. Some decisions, like choosing what to make for dinner, are fairly easy to make, and they don't carry too many consequences. Other dicisions, on the other hand, are vitally important; the decision we make at a certain point, might mean life or death for ourselves or someone else, or they decide what direction our life will take.
How do I know what is right at any given point? How can I be sure that the dicision I've made is the right one?
The headline for this text is Let peace be the umpire! I have found out that God's peace is the only sure and reliable guide or answer to all my questions, to all my decisionmaking and to all my uncertainties.
My line of approach is this: Let's say I have to make a decision about whether or not to go on vacation. I consider my finances and my timetable, and find out that I have the money and the time to go. But should I go? I certainly want to go (I always want to travel, so that's not a deciding factor), but should I? Is it right to spend the money and time on vacation now? Is is in God's plan for me to travel now?
I pray about it, and ask God to show me His will in the matter. I ask for His peace for the right decision.
If I feel God's peace for what I should do, fine; then it's up to me to follow that peace or not. If, however, I don't feel God's peace, and am uncertain as to what to do, I usually make a decision based on what I know and how I feel about the situation. Let's say I decide to go on a two week vacation to Spain. I make the decision, make plans, maybe look for options concerning transportation and lodging, while I search for the peace I know follows the right decision. If the peace comes, I go ahead with the plans, if not, I know that it wasn't God's will for me to go on this trip at this time.
Why is God's peace a reliable umpire? Because "... the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom.14:7), "... for God is not [a God] of confusion, but of peace" (1 Cor.14:33), "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. (Phil.l4:7) and "The things which ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God of peace shall be with you. (Phil.4:9) (My emphasis).
In all these Scriptures, we see that the peace of God is a deciding factor. If peace is present, the Kingdom of God is present and confusion is gone. I don't need to understand why, how and when if I have God's peace; I can rest!
Do you have to make a difficult decision today? Let peace be the umpire!

Problems? Here's the "fixer"!

Have you ever had problems? I guess you have. I certainly have had lots of problems; some were small and everyday irritations and obstacles I had to face and overcome; others were huge, seemingly unsurmountable mountains. However small or big our problems, there is one remedy for all of them. Read on, and I'll tell you!
This morning I woke up early, and the first thing I heard in my spirit was God telling me,

"There's nothing love cannot fix!"

He spoke right into a present situation that, for a long time, have seemed a big problem. And I knew exactly what He meant. If I let go of my own will, my own feelings and emotions, and let HIM fill me with HIMSELF, no problem can stand against me.
Why?
Because God is love!  "And we have seen and had faith in the love which God has for us. GOD IS LOVE, and everyone who has love is in God, and God is in him" (1 Joh.4,16). God is love. And He showed us His love by giving us Jesus to die for us so we could have restored fellowship with Him. But how does God's love help me and you fix our problems? How does it help me that God is love? How do I get this love? How does God's love come from Him to me?
The good thing about God is that He is a giver. And if He wants me to have something, He gives it to me freely. So also with love. It says in Romans 5:5 that
"... hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." (My emphasis). God has poured out His Love into my heart. Love is in my heart, and I can freely use this love in my daily walk with God and with everyone I meet. Actually, I decide if I want to live in God's love or not. It's like turning on or off a faucet. Turn on, the water flows; turn off, the water stops flowing!
What does love do in connection with my problems?
1 Cor. 13:4-8 tells us all that love does. I encourage you to read it, preferably in the Amplified Bible. Because of space, I will quote only one verse here, vers 4, "Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or  vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily." (Amp.). Let me ask you a question, that I have asked myself; If you lived like vers 4 says, would you have more or less problems? Or let me ask you the question a bit differently, What causes your problems?
If I were to answer that problem, I would say that most (maybe all) of my problems are caused by my human nature, my will, my emotions and my thoughts. If I let God's love in me be the leading force in my life, would my problems go away? In most cases (maybe all) YES!
So why don't we do it? Because  "... we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.(Ef.6,12). Our battle is actually not against our "enemies", wether they be human or inanimate objects, but our battle is against Satan and his demons.
The good thing is, however, that Jesus won a perfect victory on the cross, and He is the Victor over all demon powers. We just have to partake in the battle by letting God's love rule in our hearts. That's where our victory lies, that's where our problems diminish and we are free!

Remember this today: There's nothing love cannot fix!

How does faith come?

Many years ago I worked in a small office with only three people. We became very well acquainted and the other two knew that I was a Christian. Once in a setting where there were only my boss (an elderly man) and I present, he said: "I wish I could believe as you do, but I cannot. It's not in my ability to believe in God. I just cannot do it."
Of course this made me sad and I tried to tell Him about Jesus and how simple it was to just accept Him, but to no avail.
I have never forgotten that situation, and his sad opinion about how difficult, or impossible, it seemed to him to believe.
Is it really that difficult to believe in God? Has God made it almost impossible for us to believe in Him?
No, finding God is so simple that "... the simple will not stray from it" (See Isaiah 35:8). Are you a simple person? Then God's way is easy for you to find. But the question is, How do we find God; how does faith come?
When I want to bake a cake, I need a recipe if I don't remember how much flour, butter and sugar I need. And God has given us His recipe for believing. We can read it in Romans 10:17: "So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." It says that "faith comes ..." Faith is not something that is there naturally; faith in God comes through hearing the Word of Christ. In modern vernacular we would say that "faith comes when I read or listen to the Bible". There's no easy shortcut to faith. You can't push a couple of buttons to believe. You have to hear something to believe. It's the same way with the things of this world. You hear on the Weather Channel that it's going to snow, and you prepare for snow. You believe that what the weatherman said, is true, because he has scientific evidence that cold and snowy weather is on its way.
If you never listen to or watch the weather forecast, you will not know what the weather's going to be tomorrow.
It's the same way with faith. You have to hear it to believe it. The sad thing is that most people don't want to read the Bible to obtain faith. And they make excuses and say that "It's so difficult to believe, I just can't do it". No, the thing is they don't want to believe it. Just like my boss, he didn't want to read the Bible, and excused himself into a continued state of unbelief.
Don't be that way. Don't excuse yourself any longer, but read the Bible on a regular basis. And you'll find that The Word does its work. The Word makes faith arise in you, and you'll become a believer!

Learn to swim before you're drowning

You might be thinking, "What a strange headline!" But let me explain.
Your best friend has told you to learn to swim for a long time. He has tried to convince you that knowing how to swim can actually keep you from drowning, should a situation arise when you're out in a boat. But you refuse. "It's too much hassle, I'm almost never in a boat and I'll wear a life vest in case I'm on the lake."
Sounds ok? No? Why not? "Because it's stupid not wanting to learn to swim!"
Well, maybe the guy who refuses to learn to swim is just like so many people who don't want to learn to live by faith until they need it. When the doctor's report says that you've got 90 days to live, then you'd wish you'd "learnt to swim" earlier. When your spouse leaves you after 15 years of marriage, then you'd probably wish you'd "knew how to swim".
I'm talking about faith. When life is pleasant and you don't encounter the big challenges, you don't need much faith to survive. Just being saved and going to church on occational Sundays is ok. Your life is fine, and you're going to heaven!
However, if - or I should say when - some disaster strikes, that's when you need your faith. And you don't build your faith after disaster has struck, you build your faith before you need to use it. Exactly like knowing how to swim. You don't need to know how to swim when you're not in the water, but you certainly need to know the art of swimming when you're in the water and there's no-one around to help you.
Jesus referred to peoples' faith on several occasions. Actually, He said that it was the peoples' faith that healed them! Isn't that amazing? It wasn't HIS faith that healed people, it was THEIR faith that performed the miracle. Like in Matthew 9:22 and Luke 18:42, "Jesus turned and saw her. 'Take heart, daughter,' he said, 'your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that moment." And "Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." (There are many more examples of the same in the Bible, I just quote two).
When do you believe these people got their faith? I believe they had heard about Jesus and decided to believe that He was the Son of God and that there was power in Him to heal. And they acted according to their faith.
They had "learnt to swim before they were drowning", and when the situation arose when they needed to use their faith, it was right there.
Is your life fine today? No big situations that you need your faith to resolve? Fine! But this is the time to build your faith. Because sooner or later you'll need it!

No need to be worried about age

Are you old? Well, the answer depends on who's asking. When I was a child, I thought my grandmother was very old. She'd always been old in my mind. And now that I have become a grandmother, my grandkids think that I am old, and I am a younger grandmother than my grandmother was. But my mother, on the other hand, thinks I am young!
Old or young - it has less to do with the number of years we've lived, but a lot do with what we think about those years, and how we see ourselves.
Psalm 92 in the Bible has some wonderful words about old age. And I believe the Psalmist was thinking about old in terms of many years in this Psalm. Listen to these verses from Psalm 92, "The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, 'The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him'" (Verses 13-16).
There are some people who will bear fruit in old age (and obviously some that won't) and stay fresh and green and proclaim praise to the Lord. Who are these people? They are the righteous. If you and I are among the righteous, we can expect to live vibrant, fruitful and blessed lives when we get old in years.
But how do we get to be among the righteous? By being born again, by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and believing God's Word as His Word to us personally.
So today, if you're old in years, don't let that stop you from living life to the full, from being fruitful and stay youthful and healty, always ready to proclaim the Lord's goodness.
There's no need to be worried about age!