The Da Vinci Google

Hey!

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

I've had some thoughts since I saw The Da Vinci Code on DVD a couple of weeks ago. I had some expectations when I sat down to watch the movie. I expected it to be somewhat original and interesting, but I have to say that I was very disappointed. The whole thing with Mary Magdalene that the storyline is built around is just an old fairytale that comes out in public every few hundred years or so. Nothing new there. No new material. Nothing that could even hint at any proof of Jesus Christ ever being married. And most of the material Dan Brown was using looked like it was simply found through the computer owner's best friend www.google.com. If you google Mary Magdalene you'll find the different stories that Brown built the book and the movie on, and I suppose it does take some talent to do that. That Brown sees himself as a historian is entertaining, but at least I have to give him that he gave a good introduction to Postmodern history and philosophy understanding.

Postmodernism in its extreme form which Dan Brown seems to support, tells us that EVERYTHING written in history books in the past needs to be re-written because it is flawed, based on kings and their victories, and does in no way tell the little man's story. So that's what postmodern scholars try to do now. They tell the little man or especially woman's story, and in that tradition The Da Vinci Code fits right in. I will leave it do you, dear reader, to find out for yourself, whether that's real history.

Even though I thought The Da Vinci Code was a royal waste of time, I'm happy that Christianity is so popular these days! Considering that most people in the Western World don't believe in the God of the Bible or Jesus Christ, it's impressive to see the amount of books and movies that are made these years to combat the socalled dead Christianity...(I am planning on buying The God Delusion and read that to see if the reknown atheist Richard Dawkins has come up with any original thoughts against Christianity)

I'm also happy that the challenges from books and movies force Christians to find out why they believe what they believe. As I always tell my DTS-students: "God gave you a brain, use it!". Maybe we'll get a little wiser and trust God a little more, if we examine the true roots of our faith? I believe so!

Torben

Going to America

Hey!

Wow...I've been a busy bee these past months. I don't know if you, dear reader, have been missing me, but I promise that I'll be back with more (hopefully) thought provoking articles on life and the kingdom of God soon. I have had many thoughts about various topics, but I haven't had the needed time to sit down and write them.

In a few days that will change though when we travel to America. Sunday we start one month of vacation in the United States, followed by a month in Denmark and a few days where I'll be teaching at my old YWAM-base (www.holmsted.org.uk) Holmsted Manor. Both Jeannette and I are very much looking forward to two months in more familiar surroundings.

The DTS lecture phase has been a massive success, and I'll definitely be writing more about this in a little while. I'm happy, but very satisfied with the outcome of the last three months - God has blessed us all in incredible ways!

Merry Christmas everyone! My first American Christmas awaits me!!:-)

Torben

Glory glory Copenhagen!!

We did it! FC København won against Manchester United!

"My God is so big..."or is he?

”My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there is nothing that he cannot do – for you” a well-known children’s song with the deepest theological message. “Jesus loves me this I know – for the Bible tells me so”. So simple. So profound. So true. That’s really all we need to know. We need to know, understand and believe that God is big, strong and mighty. And we need to know that Jesus loves me. That’s it. That’s Christianity. That’s what basic Christianity is all about. Living this out is living the way Jesus wants us to live. If I go about my day whether I’m in Oslo, Ohio or Oostende truly believing these simple yet difficult to believe truths my life will change day by day and I’ll get to know and live more and more like Jesus and people will see and respond to the change.

Hmm...isn’t that a bit simplified? No, I don’t think so. I truly believe that this is what we need to know and believe. This is what the Bible talks about. The Bible talks about God’s awesomeness, power and radical love. And it’s funny that the truth is in the songs we sing as kids, but doesn’t appear too much once we get older and wiser. Or do we get wiser? Don’t we just complicate things more and more for ourselves?

If I truly know and believe that God loves me, I will also know what it is to walk in the Spirit as it is described in Romans 8 and many other places. I would understand that walking in the Spirit means to take God seriously. I would understand that walking in the Spirit is extremely practical and not theoretical at all. I would know what it is to walk in the Spirit, because I would be doing it. So many millions of Christians are very confused about what it is to walk in the Spirit. They think it’s something extremely supernatural, and that you’re only walking in the Spirit if you hear God’s audible voice, receive an e-mail from god.com or see the writing on the wall or billboard. But that’s not Biblical, practical walking in the Spirit. Sure God can speak those ways and loads of other different ways, but most of the daily walking in the Spirit is simply believing God’s truths and walking and living them out.

Timeless truths

What truths? The timeless truths stating that there is no habit, no problem, and no sinful pattern in my life that can’t be broken! The timeless truth saying that there is not a single relationship, no matter how messed up it may be, that can’t be redeemed and forgiven. The timeless truth saying that there is nothing that has happened to you or will happen to you that can’t be turned around to be your most important ministry tool and your greatest weapon against Satan. But we don’t believe this do we...? Do we honestly believe this? I have met loads of Christians who don’t. Loads of well-meaning Christians who say they believe in God (and I’m sure they do), yet say that this relationship in their life cannot be redeemed and healed, this thing that happened to me in school was too terrible and I’ll never get over it and always use it as an excuse, etc. But if we say all of this and believe it, we don’t really believe in God! If God is big and mighty he can heal every relationship and every personal wound. If God is big and mighty he can heal your past so you don’t have to be held down by whatever problems you’ve been in.

Practical freedom

Let’s get practical...if God is big and mighty and if there is nothing that he can’t do for you that means that:
- you can get out of all sexual sins or other sins, large or small, you’ve been trapped in no matter how long you have been trapped in them, if you’re willing to: a) bring them to the light (1.John 1), and b) walk in the Spirit and say no to your old habits (Romans 8)
- you can get over all abuse (sexual, verbal, physical) that has happened to in your life. You can come to a point where you truly forgive whoever harmed you, and where you accept that God loves you and doesn’t see any shame on you, and that you can walk in complete forgiveness and freedom. No matter how horrible it was, what happened to you, it does not have the power to control your life, unless you give it that power!
- you can turn away from any old thought or action-pattern that has been controlling your life. You can get away from smoking, drug-abuse, alcohol, idol-worship, evil and lustful thoughts, talking behind someone’s back, stealing, lying, etc. You can receive complete forgiveness, and you can decide to walk in the light, helped by the Holy Spirit and walk in victory in any of these areas.
- you can come to a point where you can use all the bad things that have ever happened to you in your life as your best ministry tool and your most effective weapon in spiritual warfare against Satan. You can walk in the light and show other people who are still trapped, that it is possible to break free and walk in God’s light and you can wave your story at Satan and tell him to take a hike – you’re free now!!

Powerful statements. But all of this can only happen if we come to a point where we truly believe that God is who he says he is, and that I can walk in victory because of Jesus’ victory over Satan. If we only believe that God can help all other people, we will never ever come to a point of freedom. God doesn’t force you to dig deep and look at the deepest wounds in your life. You can always choose to cover them up and try to get on with your life. But there is a sad yet strong spiritual truth that says that Satan will ALWAYS use whatever circumstances you have been in or will come in, if you don’t live in the light with this problem or this horrible thing that happened to you. He will attack you with it, if you try to cover it up. Always. Satan walks in darkness, and whatever you keep in darkness, he can use as a weapon against you. You can be saved today and on Judgment Day and still live a life in depression and misery because you kept things in the dark and never dared to believe that you can walk in victory and freedom in that area. There is another profound truth saying that things, good or bad, always multiply. If you have some things in the darkness, they’ll multiply. The second lie is always easier than the first. The second person you sleep around with is always easier than the first. The second thing you hide from your spouse is always easier than the first.

Free from sin?

I’m not preaching a message saying that you will never sin again. We live in a world filled with sin. The consequences of the human race’s sin affect all of us, and we can’t get completely free from sin on this side of the eternity on the new earth. But if you look at the New Testament, and examine the teachings of Jesus, Paul, Peter and especially John you’ll see that they knew that as a Christian you can come to a point where a righteous and godly life is the norm in your life and sinning is something you do less and less. That’s a natural part of growing to become more like Christ. When you become more like him, you will naturally sin less. You can’t say that you are becoming more and more like Jesus, while still sinning at the same level and remaining as entangled in sin and evil desires as before. That doesn’t work.

There is freedom in Christ, but we have to step out into the fullness of the freedom that Jesus bought for us. Don’t stay in the darkness. Come out into the light. Light will hurt you at first, but you have to do it in order to come and experience healing. Jesus said that he came to: “ (...) preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight of the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4: 18-19).

Freedom is available. Freedom is bought at a high price. Come out into the freedom of Christ. I have tasted some, and it’s great. I want to taste more and break even more free from fears and troubles that hold me down from experiencing more of the abundant life that Jesus promises all of us. (John 10:10)

Jesus has promised the abundant life for all of us, but too many Christians stay in mediocrity and lack of life, joy and power because of fear.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1)

About communication and love

Communication
The creator of the universe is a communicator. God created the universe through communicating. He spoke, and it came to be the first book of the Bible, Genesis, tells us. More and more non-Christian scientists come to believe these days that there must have been an Intelligent Designer behind the creation of this planet. The myth of evolution that has ruled science the past many years since good, old Charles Darwin falls short again and again when scientists try to find out how it all started. But first of all, I’m not a scientist, and second of all the topic of creation is so large that I should probably save it for another blog (let me refer to Lee Strobel’s excellent book "The Case For Faith" where he interviews different experts who tackle some of the classic obstacles for people who reject Christianity).

He spoke
So back to the communication aspect. God communicated when he created the earth. God speaks each of us into being. God creates every day. Every sunset, every flower is a masterpiece that speaks to us about God’s creativity and love. The first chapter of the Gospel of John tells us about Jesus. John explains that Jesus is the Word. Jesus is God’s ultimate communication. Jesus communicates to us who God is. If you want to know how God is like you can look at nature, people, and history and see his fingerprints. But God’s primary revelation is Jesus. Look at Jesus, read about his life in the Gospels, ask him into your own life and you’ll experience the Best Communicator in the world communicating with you in just the right way. God doesn’t communicate with all of us in the same way. He knows us, he created each one of us, and he knows what communication- or learning style suits each of us best.

Communication is key in any relationship. There could be no relationship between my wife Jeannette and I if we didn’t communicate. Jesus communicates with his followers. John 10 talks about Jesus as the shepherd and his followers as his sheep, and Jesus said: “my sheep know my voice”. If you belong to Jesus, he speaks to you. If you never hear him, it’s probably because you’re not quiet enough or you don’t stop up enough to hear what he’s seeing, or it’s because you don’t have your eyes tuned in to see Jesus speaking to you through other people, through nature or through circumstances.

How do we communicate?
God is excellent at communication, but his followers aren’t necessarily models of excellent communication. Why is it so hard for so many people to communicate? Many churches fall apart due to something as simple as bad communication. Many friendships fall apart due to misunderstandings based on bad communication. Marriages fall apart because communication is lacking or because there is more yelling and screaming going on than sound communication.

Being a missionary in a foreign country obviously means being (far) away from friends and family. That’s life for all of us. That was life for the old heroes such as Paul, Peter, or David Livingston who went to Africa and many more throughout the close to 2000 years since Jesus gave his followers the Great Commission to go out into all the world and preach the Gospel about him.

There are multitudes of means of communication available these days. Old fashioned letters (remember those handwritten ones?), phone calls, text messages, e-mails, web-cameras, video conferences, instant messaging and chats, Skype (co-invented by a Dane, btw.), fax, etc. but ironically enough I don’t think we’re better communicators in 2006 than we were when I got my first e-mail address nine years ago or when my grandparents were young. Communication is difficult and it seems that it’s especially hard on those of us who live far away from what used to be our playground. “Ude af syne, ude af sind” an old Danish saying goes – “out of sight, out of mind” would be the English translation. And that seems to be the case for most of us. If we don’t see people on a regular basis it becomes very difficult to keep up good communication and relationships. Experienced missionaries tell me that their circle of friends get smaller and smaller until only the true, close friends are left in it. The rest gave up because they thought it too complicated to keep up good communication that would sustain the relationship and friendship.

“It’s the thought that counts” people say when they thought about getting something for somebody, but decided not to anyway. I’ve never understood that saying. In fact it has never warmed my heart to hear that somebody thought about doing something nice for me, but in the end decided that I wasn’t worth it – how can that be positive? And in the case of communication in a friendship the saying isn’t true either. An “I thought about sending you an e-mail, but then I thought about something else and I never got around to do it”-e-mail neither takes up any space in my inbox nor sustains a relationship.

Communication is like discipleship training it doesn’t just happen. We have to make the choice to make it happen. We have to show that we care enough about the other person to communicate with them. Many relationships end up on the ever-growing graveyard of Good Intentions. Good intentions that don’t turn out in good actions aren’t really worth anything.

Say it!
I’m from nature not particularly naïve. I doubt that my frustrations about communication will necessarily grow smaller. I hope that I can help God’s people to grow in communication skills. I hope that the students in the discipleship training school that I’m leading now will learn about good communication with each other and other friends. I hope that I can grow in communication myself. I want to become better at communicating and express more what I feel. We need to be better at encouraging each other and lift each other up. We need to tell each other what we see of God’s character in each other. We need to say it, e-mail it, fax it, Skype it, don’t just think it. Pray it and give thanks to the Giver of all Good Things, but say it to your friend as well. Why is it that it’s mainly at weddings, birthdays or deaths that we remember to say what we mean to each other?

God communicates, and God wants us to be better at communicating with him and with each other. In our DTS’s we try to work on both aspects. We want to grow in our communication skills with God, but we also want to be good communicators with each other.

Michael W. Smith "Give It Away":

"We can entertain compassion
For a world in need of care
But the road of good intentions
Doesnt lead to anywhere
'Cause love isn't love
'till you give it away
You gotta give it

There was a man who walked on water
He came to set the people free
He was the ultimate example
Of what love can truly be
Because his love was his life
And he gave it away
You gotta give it away"

About choices

Choices – some good, some bad

We make choices all the time. Some choices are fairly irrelevant. Some are very important. But all choices form who we are. Obviously it’s a bit more important what wife I end up with than whether I wear a blue or a red t-shirt tomorrow. But all choices form our characters. And my character is who I am. Commercials tell us that we are what we drink, eat and wear, and there is some truth to that. But generally speaking I am what my character is. My character defines me. For better or for worse. And my character is formed by all my choices. Choices turns into habits. I do or say the same thing over and over again. Some habits are good. Some are bad. All habits define us. Habits can, thank God, be broken. Breaking bad habits is a down-to-earth-way of saying: experiencing more freedom in Christ!

Renewed life is Christ always means renewed understanding with the head and with the heart, and it means new thought patterns and habits.

This Wednesday I have the privilege of leading 12 young men and women who come here to Kiev to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS). Our website, http://www.ywamkyiv.org/, tells us that a DTS is a journey into God’s Heart. And that’s true. We search God’s Heart trying to get to know him. We want him to renew our characters. We want him to search our hearts and point out where we have made bad choices and formed unhealthy habits.

And then the choice is up to the students and us as staff who’ll be in the lectures and participate in the DTS. I know God will do his part. God is God. He is incredibly good at pointing out our growth areas. But God is also a God of love. He doesn’t force us to grow. He’ll point out and ask to accept his challenge, his healing and his tips of how to form better habits for the future, but he doesn’t force himself upon any of us.

I’m excited to see God work. I am excited to see how we will respond. I need changed habits myself. God has been working a lot on my character my whole life, but especially since I joined Youth With A Mission (http://www.ywam.org/) three years ago. But there is still a lot of work to do.

I’m ready for new lessons in God’s School. He knows what he's doing, even when I don’t understand.

“On Christ, the Solid Rock we will stand. All other ground is sinking sand. On Christ, the Solid Rock we will stand. We will climb on Your back, take us to higher ground” (“Solid Rock”, Delirious?)

FC København in Champions League!!

The narrow path

Hello....Are you out there, readers?..........

Having just returned from four days of intensive street evangelism in Taraclia, Moldova I have many thoughts that I want to share with cyber space.

Our Youth With A Mission outreach team were in the 10.000 people town for four days and were out talking to people and inviting them to (healing) meetings at the church 4,5 hours every day. At the end of our days on the streets it seemed like everybody had at least two invitations to our meetings.

I personally, and our team in general, had many good conversations with people. We had many chances of sharing our personal testimonies of how Jesus Christ has changed our lives and we had many chances of challenging people with the good news of Jesus Christ dying for everybody's sins and shortcomings. I personally talked to many people where I felt in my spirit that they were very open to get to know Jesus and that these people realized (contrary to most Moldovans sadly...) that money (from the West!) was not going to solve their problems and heal their hurts.

Thursday we had a 2 hour program at the church mainly targeting the youth of Taraclia. I wasn't present that evening since I was in another Moldovan city preaching. A group of maybe 5-7 non-Christians showed up and saw our program and heard the challenge to receive Jesus into their lives. As far as we know only one young woman made the step of faith and became a Christian that evening.

This young woman was also present last night where there was a healing meeting. Sadly no non-Christians showed up last night! Not a single one. After 15-18 hours of solid evangelism and loads of dedicated prayer. Not a single one. Wow.........talk about disappointment!


Many good explanations

I work as a missionary and I've been a Christian many years, so of course I know my lines and know that I need to point to the fact that it's not always that we see immediate results of our work....that sometimes we get to sow and water, but not reap the fruit....that we have helped people one step closer to God and maybe they'll be more open next time they hear the good news about Jesus....and bla, bla, bla.....BUT right now I'm just good, old-fashioned disappointed. Disappointed that nobody showed up. Disappointed that people chose the couch and their tv and their mediocre and dissatisfying lives instead of coming and meeting Jesus and experience his full life.

The path to the kingdom of God is narrow and few find it, Jesus told us many years ago. And that's true. That's a sad, sad truth. Many people in Taraclia heard the good news, but they didn't have the courage to step out, take a step of faith and experience that Jesus is real.

I'll continue to pray for the many people I talked to and witnessed to. I'll pray for the Jehovah's Witness lady who admitted that she would be kicked out of Jehovah's Witnesses if she didn't witness and who couldn't explain to me how that policy corresponded to proclaiming the name of a God of freedom and peace. I'll pray for the two ladies who worked in an Orthodox Church whom we challenged to stop praying to icons and instead focusing all their (religious) energy on Jesus. We prayed for them standing in front of all the icons, and I'll pray that Jesus will become more real to these ladies. I'll pray for Lena, who admitted that her life and her marriage with a cheating and drinking young man was in ruins, and who understood that money wouldn't fix anything. I'll pray for Vitalik whom I had a long talk with and who seemed open enough to understand that I had something (Jesus!) that he was looking for.

I'll pray for these people. I'll pray that God will continue to call on them. I know he will. And I'll pray that these people will stop and listen and will have the courage to step away from Satan's and society's lies and step out into a life of freedom and truth with God! I'll pray and I'll acknowledge that God is God and I am not! He knows best. He has his timing. Maybe we were just there to plant seeds and water them.

Maybe we will hear reports from Taraclia that many people are coming to know Jesus and that they heard about him during our days there. Maybe I'll meet people on the new earth whom heard about Jesus these last four days.

I don't know. Right now I'm just sad and disappointed. But I'll still praise God!

And so ends this little insight into a missionary's heart.

God bless you all!
Torben

Water....you can't live without it!

Water...No water, no life...

We’ve had several experiences the past few months where we’ve experienced first hand how every change regarding water changes many things. First we lost hot water for a month in our apartment in Kiev and had to get used to cold showers during a time where it was definitely not hot outside. Then we came to a village out in the middle of nowhere (3 hours away from the big Ukrainian city, Dnipropetrovsk) where time had been standing still since 1930. We had to use a good old-fashioned bucket in a well to get our water for washing hands, and if we desired a shower we had to pull the water up from the well, have the sun warm it and then we could use it for a shower. This week, in Chisinau, Moldova, we have now lost all water in our apartment, and then life gets difficult. Have you ever thought about how important water is to every little household detail? Right now we can’t flush the toilet, we can’t wash the big pile of dishes that keeps growing, we can’t shower, we can’t wash our faces, we can’t make tea which is hard for Eastern Europeans to live without, and we can’t do any kind of cleaning. That’s life without water.

Hopefully the water will be back soon. Or we’ll have to buy many air fresheners....


Gives life and kills

Water gives life. Water is essential for all growth. No food on our tables if the fields are not watered. No life for us if we don’t get enough water. Hundreds of thousands of people die every day because they don’t get the water they need. We need water all the time. Our bodies are approximately 60-70% water the wise people tell us. We sweat, we drink, we go to the bathroom, we drink more, we have watered tongues so we can swallow and speak, and we have internal water pools for all our organs to be kept in. It’s all about water. Without water no life.

But water also kills. Water kills more people every year than any Kalashnikov-rifle or any other type of weapon. People die in the big oceans and the tiny lakes every day. People are hit by floods every month. Rivers go over their banks all the time. And then a tsunami hit and we really understood the power of water to give and take away life. And we cry. And we yell. And we despair. Water was supposed to bring life, but it can also kill.


Living water in Chisinau

Jesus talked about himself as being living water. He told a woman he met at a well (I imagine it looked a lot like my Ukrainian village-well) that if she received his living water she would never be thirsty again. She would never lack anything. I have tasted this water. I have tasted the living water Jesus talked about. It’s good. It’s filling. But it’s not all. I want more. Jesus was right. When you’ve tasted his water you don’t want anybody else’s water. When you’ve truly tasted what’s good, why would you take what Satan and the world can offer? When a Christian dies there is hope, because we have living water in us. Water that won’t dry out. And we offer that water of hope to each other. When non-Christians died in the tsunami, where was the hope? Where was the living water for them? They had tasted water, but it was the water of death and eternal life without God. That’s the reality of water. Water either kills or gives life. For eternity. You need to taste Jesus’ living water in order to have real life. Both here on Planet Earth and for all eternity. There is no other way to real life. It goes through Jesus’ living water. In all eternity we’ll live by the spring of the water of life that John saw in his revelation from God.

Last week we had a Jesus-festival here in Chisinau. Many evangelical churches had come together and invested a lot of money in renting the local brand new football stadium where the festival was held Friday and Saturday. A Zimbabwean Russian-speaking pastor from Kiev, Ukraine was speaking at these meetings and the thirst in the crowd was tangible. Moldavians were thirsty for living water. The living water that they haven’t found in the Orthodox churches here where tradition and rituals have dulled the living, ground-breaking water. They haven’t found it in the new waves of Western-style entertainment and luxuries that flourish in the city either. They knew that they needed more. And hundreds of them found it in an orange-green colored football stadium in July, 2006. They met Jesus. They got the living water that will never dry out in them. They met the giver of life. And they smiled. They smiled and cried the tears of joy that only Jesus can bring. Many experienced physical healing and gave glory to Jesus for that as well, but these meeting (as all good Christian meetings!) were about their hearts. It was about bringing the water of life to thirsty hearts. And the hearts that took the chance and opened up for this new, unknown water were washed and refreshed in a way they had never experienced before.


Plenty of water

There is plenty of water in Jesus’ well. The water of life doesn’t run out. It’s there. I want to bring it to people. People need it everywhere. People need it in Bangladesh where floods kill people every year, people need it in the Sahara desert where they cry out for rain every year, but receive very little. People need it in the West, where most of us live our lives thinking that we have all we need. We don’t need God. God’s living water is old news. But look how the West is drying out. Look how the spiritual life is disappearing in the West. Look how Westerners are financially blessed, but spiritually poor. Look how racism, homosexuality, promiscuity, fascism, Nazism, depression, abortions, murder, and other types of lawlessness is the order of the day in the West. We have water in our taps in our kitchens and bathrooms. And these weeks we even have enough water to water our thirsty backyards, but so few people in the West have living water. So few people in the West have ever tasted living water. So few people have experienced the abundant life that Jesus promised his disciples.

Bring people the living water. Dig deeper in Jesus if you need more water yourself before you have anything to bring. But bring it. It’s needed. Everywhere.

Finally free and a swastika

I’ve been fed up with contemporary worship songs for quite a while. The vast majority of them seem worn out, fairly shallow and a little bit too happy-clappy-Jesus-I-love-you-100%-all-the-time-no-matter-what-happens. I don’t think that most of them reflect the everyday experience of most Christians. But hey....that’s a longer debate I think I’ll save for another blog. I actually wanted to share an experience I had last night where one of these worship songs made some sense to me. “I could sing of your love forever” is one of the contemporary classics that is being sung in churches all over the world (sadly it seems like American, Australian and English worship songs translated into whatever language is the order of the day no matter where I travel in the world....come on...write your own songs in your own language!! I’m positive God would prefer that!). One of the lines of the song goes “and I will open up my heart and let the Healer set me free”. Yesterday I was with a group of people where the Healer had truly set them free. My outreach team was making a little program with testimony, skit and songs for a group of Christian ex-drug addicts here in Chisinau, Moldova. We started by sharing our names and a bit of our life story so far, and it was overwhelming to hear the stories from our Moldovan friends. All of them had the usual ex-Soviet Union names (Vadim, Sergey, Sascha, Dimah, Yulia, Natasha, etc.), but all of them had unusual and heart-warming stories of how Jesus Christ had set them free from their drug abuse. The church we work with here in Chisinau runs a rehabilitation center, and the outcome is impressive and wonderful. All 15 men and women we met yesterday had completed a rehab-program and had even met Jesus during their time in the center and now they had been free from drugs and full of Jesus for anything in between one month and five years.

“Finally free” and a swastika...

A woman who was there with her young daughter caught my attention in a special way. She was in her mid-thirties but had a face that looked much older due to her many years as an alcoholic and drug abuser. She was telling about how alcohol and drugs controlled her life and her family’s life for 10 years. Now she had been a Christian for three years and her kids kept telling her how wonderful it was to have a mother who was there for them and who was finally capable of showing them love. I’m sure the woman didn’t know a word of English, but still her t-shirt spelled out the truth in capital letters: “FINALLY FREE” it read.
Another young man had only been a Christian and off drugs for a bit more than a month and he still had a little swastika tattoo on his right hand. I hope he’ll have the money to have that replaced with a real cross soon.

The Healer had set them all free and now they were fighting for their freedom. After a time of worship and us showing a skit there was a guy who spoke about freedom. He shared some of his problems with being disorganized and frustrated and then we went around the circle and the ex-drug addicts freely shared some of their problems: lack of patience, lack of finances, problems with anger, problems with controlling emotions, etc. It was incredible to feel the honesty among these people. No masks. No Jesus-loves-me-so-I-don’t-have-any-problems-and-I’m-always(!!!!!!)-super-happy-attitudes that I seem to run into in most churches I visit. Good old honesty was the way of life for these people. Accountability and honesty and good friends to help them point to Jesus as the only one who can give them true freedom in every area of their lives. I left the place last night sensing that my new friends know in their hearts that Jesus will help them with absolutely every problem they have if they surrender to him. People who have felt the Healer set them free when they were in the darkest pit, have a lot of faith that he can help them with all other problems as well. One at a time. Healing for any of us is never a once in a lifetime experience, but a process that we walk through with each other and with Jesus.

Football, football, football...!!

Inspired by the ongoing World Cup in football in Germany(where Denmark sadly isn't playing:-(....), I've put down some thoughts about nations and football. Since football is the only real worldwide sport obviously the way nations work also show in the way they play the beautiful game. Here is a little information about selected football nations – and I’m sure you can see some of how the nations work in other spheres as well through these brief descriptions. I realize that some people could disagree with the descriptions given here, but that’s the beauty of football: it’s always up for debate! :-)

England: Working man’s nation. Filled with the confidence of a former world power. Honestly believes that they have been cheated from winning the World Cup ever since their only victory in 1966. Convinced that since they invented football they should win every time. Plays football like they play rugby. Hard work, fight, not a whole lot of technical skills, but a lot of energy. Classic player: Wayne Rooney – looks like any other British teenage boy. Nothing fancy about him. Young, attitude and character issues, not a high technical level, but he fights like a crazy person.

Norway: Very influenced by England. There is almost a greater love for British football in Norway than in England. Re-invented primitive, goal-oriented football in the 1990’s under Egil ‘Drillo’ Olsen’s leadership. Incredible nationalism drives the team. Classic player: Tore André Flo – tall target player. Named Flonaldo by the nationalistic, Norwegian press (comparing him with the Brazilian Ronaldo). No technical skills, but incredibly good with his head. Essential to Drillo’s style.

Sweden: Also very influenced by England. Plays a stringent 4-4-2. Plays like their big world-wide companies (IKEA, Volvo, and Ericsson). Effective, cool, not necessarily entertaining, but very efficient. Classic player: Henrik ‘Henke’ Larsson – very effective striker even in his older days. Cool and effective in front of the goal.

Denmark: Naive dreamers. Called the Brazilians of the North. Tries to play offensive, Brazilian-style football. Realistic expectations in the nations in terms of results. Important to play both entertaining and effective football. Always loses when faced with more cynical teams in World Cups and European Championships. Won the European Championship in 1992 when they played more cynical football and didn’t have their biggest technical star Michael Laudrup in the team...Classic player: Michael Laudrup – one of the best players of his generation and one of the biggest stars of Barcelona’s 90’s Dream Team. Excellent when his team was working well, invisible and disinterested when things don’t go well.

Holland: Pressure to play the Ajax-style football. Offensive football based on good and quick wingers and a cynical striker. Tries to entertain and pass the ball in a quick pace. Lost two World Cup finals in the 1970’s due to too naive football. Often experiencing problems because of personal conflicts within the team (and within the nation) between white and colored players (from Suriname mainly). Big egos come in the way of the success that the talent within the country would give. Classic player: Marco van Basten – incredible striker for A.C. Milan and Holland in the late 80’s and 90’s. Elegant and efficient, but not a strong player when the team was struggling.

Belgium: Plays like a factory. Cynical game based on aggressiveness and hard tackles. Tries to live up to big brother Holland’s results, but never comes close. The national team symbolizes the disunity in the nation where there are often conflicts between the different Belgian people groups. Classic player: Marc Wilmots – nick-named Kampfschwein (something like a fighting wild boar) by the fans of the German club, Schalke 04, he played for. Hard working fighter. Best with blood running from his face.

Germany: Play like their cars drive. No romantic ideas about football. Ordnung muss sein. It’s all about the result. Effective, reliable, controlled. Big egos in the team, but they submit to the team (which is why historically Germany always beat Holland). Big results based on organization and effectiveness. History shows that the more the big egos argue during the tournaments, the better the German team will do. Classic player: Lothar Matthäus – big talent, big ego, but submitted to the team’s interests he led Germany to the World Cup title in 1990. Arrogant on and outside the football pitch.

Italy: Dolce Gabbana team. It’s about the hair and the looks. More concerned about looking good and playing effective than entertaining. Always have technically strong and entertaining players, but in the national team they are forced into playing defensive, cynical, and result-based football. Have almost as many excuses for not doing well in the World Cup since 1982 as the English do. Classic player: Roberto Baggio – Italian icon. Buddhist, thinker, technically strong playmaker on club level for Juventus, but in the national team he never lived up to his level from his club performances. Missed the final penalty in the World Cup final 1994 and became one of the historical, tragic heroes of Italian (football) history.

France: Lots of attitude within the team. Huge belief in own abilities. Arrogant way of playing football. Quick, passing-style football. Beautiful when it works, but the arrogance can break the team (as shown in the last World Cup in 2002). Play like they own the world. Many different ethnic groups represented in the team. Classic player: Zinédine Zidane – led France to the World Cup title in 1998. A symbol of a nation of immigrants with his Algerian roots and his childhood in the suburbs of Marseilles. Excellent technical player. Arrogant, stylish and effective.

Spain: Big talents, big results for the club teams, beautiful football. Always playing incredibly well in the qualification campaigns and in friendly games, but lacks the cynicism to do well in the big tournaments. Relaxed, happy football. Siesta is important, not too hard-working. Always ends ups losing to more organized, cynical teams in the big tournaments. Spain has never won any big tournaments, and their best result remains a lost European Championship final in 1984. Classic player: Raúl González Blanco – star and icon for Real Madrid. Always performing well at club level, but despite being the biggest scoring national player in Spanish history, he never performs well in any World Cup or European Championship.

Argentina: Plays like Spain, but has the added cynicism. Many technical talents in the team, but play aggressive, fighting-based football. Known for hard tackles and attitude problems. The contrast to Brazil’s playful football. Have had many big stars that have been incredible, but they have all fallen at some point due to character issues. Arrogant and strong way of playing football. Classic player: Diego Armando Maradona – led Argentina to their last World Cup title in 1986 with incredible goals, cheating (his handball goal versus England) and mind-blowing technical tricks. Ended his international career in disgrace caught using doping during the World Cup in 1994. Has been through hell with drug abuse.

Brazil: Known for playful, Copacabana-style football. Joyful players with very high technical level. Only nation with 5 World Cup titles. Have struggled to perform well in World Cups in the 1980’s and 1990’s, but came back, re-adjusted their playing style to be more effective, and won the World Cup in 1994, reached the final in 1998 and won the World Cup again in 2002. Incredible amount of talent in the nation. Everybody plays football all the time. Kids play barefoot whenever wherever and that forms the nation’s team. Can have problems when physical stronger teams force them to play on their conditions. Classic player: Ronaldinho – generally acknowledged as the best player in the world these days. High technical level, friendly and goofy smile. Good team player, but also an incredible individualist. Scores many incredible goals.

USA: Very new football nation. Not a specific way of playing. Don’t have a football culture as such, but play a mixture of different styles. Strong defensive players with charisma and playful attitudes. Classic player: Alexi Lalas – Entertaining cult figure with his big red hair. Played his guitar and sang his way into all football fans’ hearts during the World Cup in the USA in 1994.

African nations: Used to play playful, happy, naive football. Would charm the world the way Cameroon did in 1990 where they shocked the world by beating the reigning World Champions, Argentina, in the first game of the tournament and went on to the quarter final before they were eliminated. In the last 3 World Cups the African nations have had European coaches that have taught them to be less playful and more effective. It hasn’t helped in terms of results since no African team have done better than Cameroon in 1990. Plays like many European teams without too much flavor (Serbia, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, etc.), since they tend to sacrifice their flavor of playing to try to be more effective. Classic player: Roger Milla – entertaining grandfather figure who at the age of 38 scored four goals in the World Cup in 1990 and became the player to invent the dance with the corner flag that is still practiced by many goal scorers 16 years after.

Worldview

Millions of Christians pray: ”Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” all over the world every single day. On markets and in souvenir shops worldwide you can buy cutting boards and beautiful wall decorations that show the Lord’s Prayer as it is found in Matthew chapter 6. In many Christian homes you’ll find this prayer on the wall somewhere. We have the prayer memorized in our different languages and can recite it at 3 in the morning if needed.

Maybe we have forgotten what we are praying? Do we honestly believe what we pray when we pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”? Do we see God’s will in our nations? Do we believe it is possible to experience the will of God in our nations, in our neighborhoods, in our families, in our friendships? Or is it just empty words? I sadly think that a vast majority of all Christians are thinking that “your will be done” is a prayer about the future. A prayer about heaven. A prayer about a new re-created earth. Because we don’t see God’s will here on earth as it is in heaven, and it’s never gonna happen anyway...

But Jesus wasn’t teaching his disciples to pray about something impossible. And he wasn’t teaching them to pray about something that wasn’t possible to achieve on earth either. There is no real reason to pray for God’s will to be done on the new earth. It’ll be done anyway. We know that from the book of Revelation. That’s a done deal. But what about our lives here on Planet Earth? Is the will of God possible?


What's your worldview?

Do you have a Biblical worldview? Or do you just follow the world and agree with everything non-Christians say? I sadly know a good number of Christians who never seem to have any problems in the company of non-Christians. They never seem to disagree with what non-Christians say or do. Sure, they’ll tell you that they don’t have sex with their boyfriend or girlfriend and you can hear that they don’t swear and you know they have secret opinions about being against abortions (but it’s not something they would ever share with a non-Christian....”we’re not called to be condemning...”, they’ll tell you...), but other than that they watch the same movies and soap operas, vote the same way, go to the same concerts and clubs, view society the same way, drink the same way, have the same heroes and read the same books and magazines. They see no problem in having a non-Christian girlfriend or boyfriend. And why should they? They are not that different from non-Christians anyway. There is no real significant difference. They are born-again Christians, but their worldview is not a Christian worldview. Their souls are saved, but their minds are unchanged by Christ and his teachings. A more scary thought is that I think that a lot of people who think themselves Christians because they said a prayer once probably are not Christians at all. If there is never any fruit from a tree of faith, is it even a tree that God has planted?


Dualism

Most likely these Christians I mentioned are caught up in dualism. Dualism seems to be one of the biggest challenges for the Church in the 21st century. Dualism tells you that as long as you’re spiritual, sing the right worship songs, lift your hands in church and maybe even witness, it doesn’t really matter what else you do. Following dualism you can lead worship at church on Friday and sleep with your girlfriend on Saturday. You can talk about God, love, unity and humility until the cows come home, but you’re still hard, you’re still hostile to other people; you still think that American Beauty, Wedding Crashers, Sex in the City and Friends are wonderful to watch and semi-pornographic tabloid magazines are okay and fun. “It’s just entertainment”, you say, “and besides everybody watches it”. This type of dualism is known as Gnosticism and is hardly a new concept. A lot of the New Testament and especially John’s letters are written to battle the understanding that as long as you are doing fine spiritual things, it doesn’t matter what you do or what you don’t do.

Dualism also comes in other ways into our Christian circles. Many Christians believe that there is a clear and strong line between what’s secular and what’s Christian. Jobs are neatly divided into Christian or spiritual jobs such as being a pastor, a Bible teacher, an evangelist and a missionary (I notice how many Christians think that only a pastor or at least somebody who has studied theology can tell them anything worthwhile about God and his will). The secular jobs are the rest: teacher, nurse and doctor are okay because at least you can help in missions. Carpenter is kind of cool since it was Jesus’ occupation. But working in a bank, owning a business, selling clothes, working as a journalist, working with kids or old people and all other regular jobs are considered secular and seen as a necessary evil that you have to get through in order to earn money for the church and to earn your Sundays with God’s people away from the annoying non-Christians......I realize that few people would express it exactly this way, but isn’t that how many of us think? But is that Biblical? Has God labeled some jobs Christian and some jobs secular? No. God wants all of us to work and witness wherever we are. God wants us to be in the world and influence the world. God wants us to show Kingdom of God-values to a world which desperately needs it. God wants us to be in the world yet set apart from the world. Jesus’ longest recorded prayer in John 17 talks a lot about this. Jesus realized that it would be difficult to be a Christian in the world. If you never find it difficult to be in the world and be with non-Christians you probably don’t have a Biblical worldview, and you’re probably not living out your faith.

“It’s all going to hell anyway”

I could write a lot more about dualism, but I also want to mention two other obstacles that we as Christians face in coming to a place where we have a truly godly worldview. Fatalism is a big problem. Many Christians are fatalists. They’ll say things like “it’s all going to hell anyway, we can’t do anything, we’ll just have to make sure that we’ll be saved on Judgment Day”, or “I’m the way I am and I’ll stay this way” or “things have never been worse than they are today and they’ll continue to get worse, we can’t do anything”. In Denmark where I grew up there are many Christian fatalists. I’ve grown up believing that there is no hope for Denmark. We were one of the first nations to legalize abortions and pornography. Where other nations are post-modern or maybe even modern still, Denmark has moved way past that and today it’s a post-post-modern country where Christianity is as irrelevant as belief in the old Nordic or Greek gods. And Danish Christians have given up. Not officially of course. Not many people would admit to have given up, but that’s still the case for many Christians. Christians will say things like “God has moved his lamp from our country, there is no light left and all we can do now is to hope and pray that we’ll be saved ourselves”. There are very few visions for making a difference in society. Obviously there is some talk about witnessing to non-Christians, but there is not a lot of talk about making a real, lasting difference in society at large. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we also pray in Denmark. But few believe that God’s will can be done in Denmark. Few believe that positive, godly things can happen. Some take up the challenge and fight for kingdom values and righteousness, but most have given up due to fatalism. Denmark is like many other countries. Many American Christians are fatalistic and dream about the good, old days where everything was much better....The same applies to Christian in many other countries. Romantic fantasies about how wonderful life was 20-70 years ago control a lot of Christians’ mindsets. But are these romantic ideas realistic? Were things really that much more wonderful 50 years ago in the West. Sure, most evil was hidden from the public sphere. But were there less immorality, more godliness and more true faith in God 50 years ago? I doubt it! Maybe there was more religious Christianity. But religious Christianity doesn’t save anybody. To put it frankly: a nice religious grandmother-type is just as eternally lost as a young, hard child rapist if none of them know Jesus Christ as their personal savior! There is no difference.

Individualism is another challenge, especially in the West. The individualist says that he doesn’t need other people, she’s got her own little “personal Jesus” and he certainly doesn’t need the fellowship of other believers. The individualism is within the church where it’s all about me: “What can I get out of this? When will I see a miracle? When will cool things happen to me?” Me, me, me, me. God’s Word tells us about the Body of Christ being the Church. The Church is God’s tool to reach lost people. Whether we like it or not. We need each other. We need each other to sharpen each other. As it is put in Proverbs 27, 17: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”.


God’s will?

Where are you in all of this? Are you dualistic? Are you a fatalist? Are you living your individual Christianity? “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – do you believe that God’s will can be done in your country? In your neighborhood? In your family? Among your friends?

So what is the will of God? Hmmm....that’ll require a very long blog or maybe a book:-) I might come back to that topic later on, but for now I’ll leave you with these thought-provoking Bible quotations:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7, 21)

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12, 2)

“Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1. Thessalonians 5, 16)

...and finally....

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Ephesians 5, 17) ...and then the rest of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a wonderful instruction book about living according to God’s will!

Beautiful spring days

Here we are a couple of weeks ago in the beautiful city of Uzhgorod in Western Ukraine:-)

Plumb line, Satan and the Church

Three weeks ago we had a week of teaching called the Divine Plumb Line. The name of the teaching (which is a fairly classical Youth With A Mission-teaching) comes from the Old Testament book Amos chapter 7, where God tells that he’ll put a plumb line against Israel to see if they are measuring up to his holy standards.

The week was about the lies we as Christians still believe. It was about the different building blocks in the walls all of us build which separate us from true freedom and intimacy with God. And it was about ministry, healing and restoration of truth. It was a powerful week. The lecturers did a very good job explaining the different lies we believe and where these come from. And that’s what made me mad that week. I got really angry. At Satan. And at the Church.

I’m angry at Satan for being so good at doing his job. I’m angry that he’s so excellent at stealing, killing and destroying (John 10, 10). I’m so angry at how good he is at deceiving and paralyzing God’s children so that even though they’re saved and born-again-Christians they are also more or less completely useless to the Kingdom of God, because they are held back by fear and lies about God and about how God sees them.

Passive parents, sin and abuse

The students were openheartedly sharing stories about how passive parents, bad father figures, mockery in school, insecurities about being too fat or too beautiful (!), legalistic theology at church, sexual sins and all kinds of other things have happened to them that have made them A: hate themselves, B: not trust God, C: not trust other people completely (“they’ll end up hurting me”)

We live in a fallen world. Life on this side of the new earth is not going to be perfect for any of us. But still. We make life too easy for Satan. We either don’t take him seriously enough (naivety) or take him way too seriously (paranoia). But far too many Christians are not aware of the fact that the “fight” between God and Satan is not a fight between two equal opponents. God is far stronger than Satan, and he does not want his beloved children to live in captivity. We were bought at a huge price when Jesus died for us. And he bought complete freedom from us. We do not have to live in captivity here in the world. But Satan has a couple of different strategies when it comes to human beings. He prefers to keep people away from God so they will eternally be lost (this week’s speaker, Pastor Bob Forseth from the United States stated that approximately 150.000 people die and are eternally lost every single day!! The greatest of all tragedies, but one that is never reported on...!)

What do we spend time on in the Church?

I’m really angry at the Church for not doing enough. Or not doing a good enough job. I’m angry at us (myself included!) for spending so much time debating little issues such as baptism and other minor theological soap box-issues, this or that strategy for this or that project, budgets, types of music, etc. instead of focusing on helping people to see freedom in Christ. It doesn’t help you at all to have all the head knowledge in the world about God as your loving father. It doesn’t help you at all to sing beautiful worship songs about God’s love. It doesn’t help you at all to witness right and left about how much God loves everybody. It doesn’t help.....if that’s not what you truly believe! I have a very simple definition: “You truly believe what you believe when the door is closed and you are all alone with yourself and your thoughts”. What you believe in that situation is what forms your life. It’s not what you profess in public or what you repeat somebody else has said. That won’t help you. You can’t live in somebody else’s understanding of love. You can’t live in somebody else’s freedom. And this is what we as churches should focus on. Jesus announced at the beginning of his public ministry that he had come to “ (...)preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4, 18-19). Preach good news....Proclaim freedom....Freedom should be our message. Jesus put it this way in John 8, 31-32: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”.

Freedom!

Freedom is more than freedom from eternal death. Freedom is freedom in life. Freedom is not about freedom to do stupidities and be free to stay as far as way from God as possible. Freedom is not a license to sin. But true freedom in Christ is freedom to live in victory over sin. Freedom in Christ is freedom to work through the things that have hurt us and will hurt us and choose to walk in the freedom that Christ has won for us. Freedom is a way of living. Freedom is choosing every day to say: I know who I am. I am God’s beloved son (/daughter) and today I’m going to walk in that freedom with him!

That’s what our churches should be known as. Houses of freedom. People should come to our churches, and we should help them to a life in freedom through pointing to Christ as the giver of all true freedom. Life here on Planet Earth hurts, but we don’t have to be held down by the different blows we all receive. We don’t have to believe lies about who God is, about who we are and how God sees us. We can know God’s love and freedom in the deepest hurts of our lives. There is no relationship or hurt that is beyond God’s repair, if we surrender to him, and let his healing power work in us and among us.

I could go on for many pages about this subject, since it’s very close to my heart. I hope and pray that if I meet these dear DTS-students in five years from now they’re living in their freedom and helping others to live in freedom. If that’s the case then discipleship training is worth all the effort. I don’t want the students to have a notebook with cool-sounding notes and a bunch of spiritual stories to impress their friends with. I want to see changed hearts. Hearts that are being set more and more free to live for Christ wherever they are and whatever they do.

I want my life, and the lives of the students, to measure up as closely as possible to God’s sovereign and holy plumb line. Not because of our great efforts, but because we live in the freedom that Christ has won for us, and because we believe who God says he is, who he says we are and how he says he views us.

Sprechen vous English?

We are up and running with the Youth With A Mission (www.ywam.org, www.ywamkyiv.org) Discipleship Training School (DTS) here in Kiev. We started the school March 22 with 14 students and 8 staff from countries such as Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, the United States, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Denmark, Poland and Moldova. All in all a very interesting mix of very interesting and different people. Spoken languages in the group are a bit easier to account for, since everybody but half the staff speaks Russian. Our Polish guy and the American girl speak quite a lot of Russian, but prefer to speak English. So....what do you do, when you’re a Dane who speaks English, but still doesn’t know much more Russian than how to describe what kitchen utensils we have in our apartment, and you meet people who freeze and look like I just asked them to jump in the river when faced with the question: “how are you doing?” in English? Hmm....you have to use your imagination and your non-verbal-communication gifts. Wise people claim that 70-80% of all communication is non-verbal. Being someone who enjoys talking, I’m sure that those statistics are hugely exaggerated, but still there is a place for non-verbal communication. And then there is a place for making up your own languages. I get by with a weird mixture of mainly English, a little bit of Russian, and a few Danish words thrown in here and there.

Today I was leading process group here in our home with a group of students. I do manage to pick up more and more of what they say in Russian, as long as I know the topic they’re talking about, but most of the Russian-speakers don’t really get my English. Today, after the serious talk about Bible study and other school-related topics, we made progress though. I pointed at pretty much all the different items that are in our living room and told people the English names, and some of the Belarussians in the group seem to improve their vocabulary drastically through that little exercise. My wife Jeannette has put small pieces of paper on a lot of items in our apartment with the name of the item in English, Russian and Danish. Jeannette is also trying to improve her Danish skills. Thankfully I only have to worry about my Russian:-)

There are many times throughout a day where it’s incredibly frustrating that we just don’t understand each other, but we’re learning and growing all of us in our language skills. So I’m sure that by the end of this school we’ll all have developed our very own versions of English and Russian. So Dobre Morning to everybody :-)

Why Christians don't burn down Mecca

Here is the article that I have been working on for some time. It was inspired by the whole Muhammad-drawings-uproar, but the thoughts presented in it have been circulating in my head for several years. Comments are welcome. Torben

Why Christians don’t burn down Mecca

Danish flags have been on fire all over the world the past month. For the very first time in recent history Denmark, the little kingdom in Scandinavia, has been on everybody’s lips. People all over the Muslim world have been and are still protesting, demonstrating and burning Danish flags and boycotting Danish products. As a counteraction people in the West started campaigns encouraging customers to buy more Danish products. And all of this because of some drawings in a Danish newspaper which is normally read daily by approximately 153.000 readers[1]. Now this Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, is probably the most sought after newspaper on the Internet. The drawings were published in the newspaper to show how people imagine that the greatest prophet in Islam, Muhammad could have looked like. In classic Danish sense of humor style the drawings were closer to caricature than regular portrait drawings. My job is not to defend Jyllands-Posten, and why they decided to publish the drawings made by different Danes. You can check out their website www.jp.dk where they have an English section where everything about this case is filed.

Crime and punishment

I personally don’t think that it was the best idea in the world to publish the drawings. There is already a lot of tension in a lot of Western European nations between the different ethnic and religious groups, and I don’t think that this will improve the way problems are debated. But the punishment hardly fits the crime! Lies have been circulating on Arabic-speaking television (especially Al-Jazirah) and in Arabic newspapers about Denmark and this whole case. And sadly a lot of these lies have been started by Islamic imams[2], who live in Denmark, but who have been traveling all over the Arabic world spreading lies about their new home country. Just to make a few things clear let me say that: A. Jyllands-Posten is not a government controlled newspaper! It’s a privately owned commercial newspaper just like all other newspapers in Denmark. There have been no state owned newspapers in Denmark for centuries. When Jyllands-Posten print drawings or speak, they DO NOT speak on behalf of the Danish nation. B. Most of the drawings that have caused most uproar in the Muslim countries WERE NEVER published in Jyllands-Posten, but made up in an attempt to cause even more uproar than the original drawings would. C. There is nobody in Denmark who is making falsified copies of the Quran or burning Qurans or anything of that nature!

That being said it is also important to stress that 5.5 million Danes cannot be held responsible for what one Danish newspaper decides to publish. We have a completely free press in Denmark and a very strong tradition for protecting the freedom of the press. A boycott of Danish products seems like an overreaction, and the attacks on Danish embassies are pure madness, but we can only hope and pray that no Danes will get killed because of these drawings.

On the surface this whole uproar is about some drawings, but if we examine it a bit closer, we will see that it’s not about drawings, and it’s not even so much about the fight of Islam versus the Western world. It’s about differences between religions. It’s about grace.

Jesus as a homosexual

The cartoons, art pieces and movies where Jesus is being mocked and laughed at are numerous. When Jesus lived here on earth he was laughed at and labeled “friend of sinners”[3], and the Pharisees and the other religious people of those days didn’t mean that as a compliment. When he was judged for a crime he didn’t commit, he was laughed at, spitted at, beaten and finally crucified. And since his death the laughing has continued. My feelings are hurt, my heart gets sad and I weep inside when I see the way Jesus is being treated. An American photographer makes a piece of art where a crucifix is hanging in a container with the artist’s own urine[4]. A Danish film director makes a movie where Jesus is portrayed as a promiscuous man who is also involved in homosexual relationships[5]. I become sad and I clench my fists, but I don’t start to hate these people. When Jesus was hanging on the cross he was praying for the people who crucified him saying that they didn’t know what they were doing[6]. I feel the same way, or try to feel the same way, about the American photographer, the Danish film director and the countless others who are mocking Jesus with their so-called art. It causes uproar in Christian circles when people step on our toes and mock the man we claim to follow. Some Christians shrug their shoulders and pretend it never happened, though. But the majority of us get angry, hurt and some people end up hating. Some people write letters to newspapers communicating messages of hatred. Others again choose more extreme weapons when the fight for Christianity and Christian values is being fought.

Blowing up abortion clinics

We have all heard the stories of how Christians have done un-Christ-like things while claiming to do all these atrocities in Christ’s name. The classic example is of course the Crusades where Christians marched all over Europe and in the Arabic world on a quest to bring Christ to all pagans whether they wanted him or not. Much has been said about these Crusades, but I think it’s important for our generation of believers to admit that they were terrible and to seek reconciliation with anybody we know whose country and family were touched by these many cruel acts[7]. There are also more recent examples of Christians responding in wrong ways to their Muslim neighbors. Christians revenging other Christians being killed by Muslims in Indonesia or by Muslims in the former Yugoslavia are two examples that come to my mind.

Of course we also see other examples of Christians taking revenge and judgment into their own hands even though it’s clearly stated in the Bible that God is the one who is judging men today and will one day make final judgment on all people of all times[8]. We hear about Christians committing violent crimes against abortion clinics and abortion doctors. We hear about Christians flashing their hatred against homosexuals in America and other places. In his bestselling book “What’s So Amazing About Grace” Philip Yancey recalls an experience he had at a march for gay rights he attended with one of his homosexual friends in Washington, D.C. where he saw people protesting against the homosexuals yelling things like “AIDS, AIDS...it’s comin’ your way” where as the homosexuals sang “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so”. Things turned upside down. The “sinners” singing about God’s love. The “righteous”singing about death and judgment.[9]

Abortion is as much murder of innocent children today as it was, when it was illegal in most countries. Now the tide has turned and in most civilized, Western nations abortion is a part of everyday life and not something to be discussed. American Christians are still fighting a hard fight against abortions, and sadly some of these Christians go to extreme methods and threaten abortion doctors and women who are going to have an abortion. It’s all wrong. It’s not what Christ would have us do. But Christianity without a true understanding of grace and complete forgiveness will end up like a hollow religion, where it’s also possible to hate people and say that it’s done in Christ’s name. Ironically the apostle John says directly in his first letter that it’s not possible to hate fellow human beings whom we have seen and still claim to love God we haven’t seen[10].

The uniqueness of Christianity

The British author C.S. Lewis was at conference for comparative religions where experts from around the world were debating the differences between the religions. Lewis walked in and heard the experts were discussing what Christianity’s unique contribution to the world religions was and said: “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace”[11]. Exactly. You can only find grace in Christianity. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism or Secularism don’t have any doctrines of grace. In all religions you get what you deserve. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. You steal a piece of bread you lose your arm as it is stated in the extreme Muslim Sharia-law. But not in Christianity. In Christianity you do not get what you deserve. If I got what I deserved, I would have God’s judgment on me now and for all eternity. Grace is about getting what I don’t deserve. Grace means that we can’t do anything to make God love us more or less. At this very moment he loves me as much as an eternal God can love a finite being. So when Christians are not displaying grace, and when it’s not grace that Christians are known for, we as God’s people are miscommunicating God’s message to all people.

Reconciling the irreconcilable

Thankfully there are Christians who do understand God’s message of reconciliation between two irreconcilable parts, a holy God and sinful man, and spread the message of grace and reconciliation. A few years ago I visited the former Yugoslavia for a month, and I was glad to see many Christians being involved in reconciliation ministry. I met a Christian Norwegian freelance journalist who had been doing reports from war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan and who had spend a few years in ex-Yugoslavia, who told me that the more he studied the civil war that took place in ex-Yugoslavia in the late 80’s and early 90’s the less he understood it. Reports about how good neighbors all of a sudden decided to shoot each other are numerous, and mass graves still being found today more than a decade after the war officially ended paint a sad picture of a nation that fell apart due to nationalism and hatred. My Christian friends in Serbia-Montenegro were involved in projects where they brought Christians from Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina together and taught them about grace and reconciliation and urged them to forgive and forget the crimes committed between the different regions and countries in the civil war. They started with the evangelical Christians and hoped that the message would spread to the Muslims and the Orthodox Church. Another example of reconciliation work takes place through the Messianic Christian organization Musalaha[12] that works to bring Israelis and Palestinians together and experience understanding and reconciliation. One of the projects they are involved in is organizing trips where they bring young Christians with Israeli and Palestinian background out in the middle of the desert and sit them down around a bonfire to talk. For some of the young people it’s the very first time they have an actual conversation with a believer from another background. In Israeli schools the kids are taught that all problems in the Middle East are due to the Palestinians, and vice versa in the Palestinian schools. Again the organization starts with the Christians and hope that the message of reconciliation will spread. In Denmark Christians run free Danish classes and show people from all nations and all religions that there are people in Denmark who go against the mistrust and suspicion they meet in society at large. Small drops of grace. Small drops of reconciliation. Small signs of God’s heart for all people. But does that really make any difference against the hatred we see from Muslims these days and saw in 9/11 and in many other cases?

Love your neighbor

I am by no means a scholar of Islam, and I don’t have the needed knowledge to dissect Islam and look at the good things and the problems of the religion, but I know one thing: Jesus called me to love my neighbor even if he is a Muslim fundamentalist! According to Jesus we’re called to love all people. Even our enemies. Muslims are enemies of Christ’s cross. They don’t recognize him as the son of God. They don’t worship him, and they are eternally lost if they don’t turn to the true God of the Bible. But they are no more lost than the mail man who lives with his girlfriend, your grandmother who is nice lady, but doesn’t believe in Jesus, the person who goes to church every Sunday, but doesn’t know Jesus or Anton Delavey who wrote the Satan bible. According to the Bible we have all fallen short of God’s commands, and our only hope is to believe in Jesus and through him attain eternal life with God[13]. Many Christians of 2006 seem to operate with a worldview where Muslims in general and Muslim fundamentalists (which for many Christians seem to be most of the Muslims!) especially are in a special category of lost people. But they are not. Muslims need Christ, so does your nominal Christian-neighbor and your street corner-prostitute.

Will it get worse?

I think we have only seen the top of the iceberg with this Muhammad-drawing-uproar. There will be more clashes between Islam and post-Christian Europe and America for that matter. It could possibly get worse next time. What will Europeans do next time? What will Muslims do? I don’t know and I don’t really want to think about it either. Thinking about it and fearing it doesn’t produce any positive results, only headaches and wrong conclusions. Fear is never the answer. Millions of people in the Western world live in fear for the next terror attack. I’m sure my country’s capital, Copenhagen, has moved closer to the top of the hit-list for the next terror attack, but fear won’t help anything. If a bomb explodes in a Metro, people die whether they are afraid or not. A terrorist doesn’t board a bus and ask people who are afraid to exit, because he’s going to blow up a bomb. Fear doesn’t protect you, and God doesn’t want any of his children to live in fear. He says that his perfect love drives out all fear[14]. We have a Father in heaven that cares for us and who is protecting us and loving us. He knows our needs, and we can lean on him no matter what happens. Jesus said that we would have trouble in this world, but he reminded us that he has overcome the world and we have received his victory[15]. The irony of the whole situation with the Muhammad-drawings is that maybe some of the Islamic countries are digging their own political grave. The people living in all the Muslim nations have seen the freedom of the press in action in free countries, and it must be difficult to avoid comparing with their own situation where freedom of press is as likely as a snowstorm in the Sahara desert. Maybe this will lead to political uproar in these oppressed nations where the people will demand more freedom to speak and act they way they want? Only time will tell.

We have rights

All this being said I want to make clear that I am not saying that we should just let Muslims or other people step all over us, just roll over and let them walk all over us again. I’m not talking about not caring. I’m not talking about not taking personal and political stands against the grotesque things that Muslims have done against Danish embassies in this case or in similar or worse cases. I’m not talking about not trying to talk to Muslims and show them that violence, hatred and terror can never be the right answer no matter what the problem may be. My point is just that whatever we do; we must do it in love. Paul advocates in 1^st Corinthians chapter 13 for a unique understanding of love where we as Christians are to do absolutely nothing if we don’t do it in love. He says that even if we give up our bodies and lives for a righteous course but don’t do it in love, we are nothing.[16] So we are to speak the truth in love. We are to tell the Muslims and other people who don’t believe in our democratic rights, that we are not going to move an inch. We stand on our rights to speak and believe what we want. We believe in respect for personal rights. We believe in respect for other people to believe what they want. And we’re not going to tolerate hatred and terror in our countries. But we are to do all of this in love. In the Western world there are countless politicians and media people who are succeeding in closing down any real debate about the obvious problems with refugees and immigrants in Western European nations. They either claim that anybody who addresses a problem is a racist, or the other side claims that all problems can be solved if we just kick out anybody with a different skin color and religion from our countries. I want to fight against political correctness and fight for real debates, but again: I am to do it in love.

The Muslims seem to enjoy burning the Danish flag also because it symbolizes Christianity with its white cross on a (blood) red background. They feel they’re burning the very symbol of Christianity. Would Jesus want us all to travel to Mecca and Medina and burn all the Islamic holy places? Would he want us to make another Crusade? Would he want us to live in fear and hatred? He would want us to use this whole case to show, once again, that he is different. That he is the only answer, also in this present conflict. He would want us to show our love in practical ways in our everyday lives with Muslims wherever we meet them. Jesus died for all Muslims. Also those who burn down embassies and fly planes into buildings.

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[1] According to www.jp.dk the newspaper has approximately 153.000 readers during the week, and approximately 200.000 on the weekends.

[2] An imam is a leader of a Muslim community (often the leader of the local mosque)

[3] Matthew 9,10-11and Matthew 11,19

[4] ”Piss Christ”, Andres Serrano, American photographer, 1989

[5] ”The Love Affairs of Jesus Christ”, Jens Jørgen Thorsen, 1973

[6] Luke 23,34

[7] For more insight on the subject of reconciliation regarding the Crusades see ”Living As People Of Hope”, Jeff Fountain, Initial Media, 2004

[8] Dt. 1,19 and Rom. 2,16

[9] Philip Yancey: ”What’s So Amazing About Grace”, Zondervan Publishing House, 1997, pg. 165-166

[10] 1 John 4, 19-21

[11] Philip Yancey: ”What’s So Amazing About Grace”, Zondervan Publishing House, 1997, pg. 45

[12] www.musalaha.org

[13] Rom. 3,23-24

[14] 1 John 4,18

[15] John 16, 33

[16] 1 Cor. 13, 3