Jeannette and I just saw the wonderful movie Les Misérables, based on Victor Hugo's novel, again. What a wonderful movie. And what an excellent portrait of the contrast between grace (Jean Valjean) and the law (Javert).
Enjoy this little clip where a new man is born.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Les Misérables - a story of grace
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Identity In Christ
As I prepare for teaching about Identity In Christ in the Discipleship Training School (DTS) here in Kiev, I wanted to share three wonderful quotes with you regarding this life changing topic that continues to change me from within.
"My primary identity rests on what God has done for me through Christ" (Brennan Manning)
"Your real new self will not come as you're looking for it. It'll come as you look for Him (Christ). Only in Him will I know who I am" (C.S.Lewis)
"And now, with God's help, I shall become myself" (Søren Kierkegaard)
Amen, brothers!:-)
Torben
"My primary identity rests on what God has done for me through Christ" (Brennan Manning)
"Your real new self will not come as you're looking for it. It'll come as you look for Him (Christ). Only in Him will I know who I am" (C.S.Lewis)
"And now, with God's help, I shall become myself" (Søren Kierkegaard)
Amen, brothers!:-)
Torben
Arsenal - you've got to love them!
How can you not love a team that plays football and scores goals the way Arsenal do these days?!! Wow!!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Paul Potts - opera is only for old people.....:-)
Maybe it's because I'm 30 and I'm getting soft(er), but this clip always gets me. Look at the changing attitudes of the different judges, and enjoy this awkward, but extremely talented young man from England sing beautiful opera. Of course he went on to win the whole show, and is now doing very well with his first album. Good job! There is a touch of grace here, it reminds me of the wonderful movie, Forrest Gump. I love it when very unlikely people succeed in a world that's so caught up on appearance, smartness, etc.
Go Paul Potts:-)
God bless, Torben
Sunday, October 21, 2007
God is alive
I just returned to fall-beautiful-Kiev after a week of teaching about Discipleship at my old YWAM-base, Holmsted Manor, just south of London, England. It was a great week of teaching about life as a disciple. I was speaking about brokenness (2 Corinthians! I love that letter. The most personal of Paul's letters!), following Jesus as my Shepherd (Psalm 23) and growing in trust (all of my life!). It is always interesting to teach, and especially on the basis of what has become so clear to me these last six months: it is not about me! It is not about my teaching, my illustrations, my jokes, my material, my powerpoint or whatever. It's about Christ! It's about him working through me his precious, broken vessel.
And I hope and pray that God will bring more revelations in the days and years to come of what I was sharing with the DTS in England this past week. I have often seen in my life how I've heard teaching at some point that I wasn't really ready for, but how God has used the first encounter with whatever truths to plant a seed and help me be ready for it some years down the road. God's timing is incredible!
For me it was encouraging and humbling to realize that even though I taught about the same topic, Discipleship, in England in February and in Rostov-on-Don in Russia in May as I was speaking about this past week, I couldn't use any of my old notes anymore. I've learned too many new things with God. He is alive. He is alive in me. He is changing me. And his Word is alive!
Hallelujah! This past Wednesday it was so cool to see how God wanted to make sure that Jeannette and I felt united though we were physically apart, so he spoke to both of us through the same Psalm, Psalm 139, which we were talking about in both England and Ukraine the same morning! He is great!
Love, Torben
And I hope and pray that God will bring more revelations in the days and years to come of what I was sharing with the DTS in England this past week. I have often seen in my life how I've heard teaching at some point that I wasn't really ready for, but how God has used the first encounter with whatever truths to plant a seed and help me be ready for it some years down the road. God's timing is incredible!
For me it was encouraging and humbling to realize that even though I taught about the same topic, Discipleship, in England in February and in Rostov-on-Don in Russia in May as I was speaking about this past week, I couldn't use any of my old notes anymore. I've learned too many new things with God. He is alive. He is alive in me. He is changing me. And his Word is alive!
Hallelujah! This past Wednesday it was so cool to see how God wanted to make sure that Jeannette and I felt united though we were physically apart, so he spoke to both of us through the same Psalm, Psalm 139, which we were talking about in both England and Ukraine the same morning! He is great!
Love, Torben
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Our God Reigns
An excellent video featuring an excellent song. Do we remember that Our God Reigns in the midst of the seeming chaos around us? Do we believe in the God of Hope and do we share that hope with people who don't know him yet?
Torben - who will ask all to excuse the guy who did the video and obviously didn't get that the drugs Delirious sing about is medicine (for poor people in Africa), and not heroin or other narcotics....a minor mistake:-)
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Activist?
How tragic it is to read the news agencies' version of the story of Rami Ayyad's death. Most of them use the heavily loaded word "activist" to describe this young man who was murdered because he believed in Jesus and was spreading too much good news.
"Activist"? Running a bookshop, spreading good news, helping people with computer classes and other basic skills so they might be able to get a job, doing mercy ministries, helping, caring, praying....how does that make you an activist??
Peacemaker would probably have been a better term.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God" (Matthew 5:9)
God bless! I'm looking forward to meeting Rami Ayyad and many others who have gone before him some day on the new earth.
Torben
"Activist"? Running a bookshop, spreading good news, helping people with computer classes and other basic skills so they might be able to get a job, doing mercy ministries, helping, caring, praying....how does that make you an activist??
Peacemaker would probably have been a better term.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God" (Matthew 5:9)
God bless! I'm looking forward to meeting Rami Ayyad and many others who have gone before him some day on the new earth.
Torben
Pray for the Palestinian Christians!!
I have had a heart for Palestinian Christians living in the Gaza Strip - see the map - since I read Brother Andrew's "Light Force" a year and a half ago. There are 1,4 million Palestinians living in the little area called the Gaza Strip. It's 360 square km. (139 square miles), but only 5,000 Christians are still living there. Most of the Christians have fled to other countries, many of them fled during the long period of Israeli occupation of Palestine. The Christians who are still in the Gaza Strip are for the most part forgotten by everybody. 
PLO and Fatah fight for a Palestinian State that would be largely Muslim. Hamas, recognized by the United Nations as a terrorist group, want war with Israel, Israel to disappear from the face of the earth and a strong Muslim state in Palestine.
Christians in the West tend to pray for Israel, which is great, but who intercedes for our Christian brothers and sisters in the Gaza Strip?
The Gaza Strip is a very difficult place to live. There have been countless wars, attacks, occupations, etc. and people are tired, jobless and poor. The little Christian population have been allowed to live relatively unharmed by the Muslims for the past many years, but that stopped this Sunday morning when Rami Ayyad the leader of the Gaza Strip's only Christian bookshop was found murdered from multiple stabs and gunshot wounds. Ayyad, 26, leaves his pregnant wife and two small children behind.
Noone has claimed responsibility for the murder.
Read this article to get more information http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/octoberweb-only/141-12.0.html
And pray for the Christians in the Gaza Strip. Pray that they won't seek revenge. Pray that God will help them in this terrible and fear-provoking situation.
And pray that God, once again, will prove that even though the powers of darkness think they have won a victory, he'll show that he brings life out of death!
John 12:24: "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds" - pray that Rami Ayyads death will produce much life in the Christians and in the Muslims in the Gaza Strip!
God bless!
Torben
PLO and Fatah fight for a Palestinian State that would be largely Muslim. Hamas, recognized by the United Nations as a terrorist group, want war with Israel, Israel to disappear from the face of the earth and a strong Muslim state in Palestine.
Christians in the West tend to pray for Israel, which is great, but who intercedes for our Christian brothers and sisters in the Gaza Strip?
The Gaza Strip is a very difficult place to live. There have been countless wars, attacks, occupations, etc. and people are tired, jobless and poor. The little Christian population have been allowed to live relatively unharmed by the Muslims for the past many years, but that stopped this Sunday morning when Rami Ayyad the leader of the Gaza Strip's only Christian bookshop was found murdered from multiple stabs and gunshot wounds. Ayyad, 26, leaves his pregnant wife and two small children behind.
Noone has claimed responsibility for the murder.
Read this article to get more information http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/octoberweb-only/141-12.0.html
And pray for the Christians in the Gaza Strip. Pray that they won't seek revenge. Pray that God will help them in this terrible and fear-provoking situation.
And pray that God, once again, will prove that even though the powers of darkness think they have won a victory, he'll show that he brings life out of death!
John 12:24: "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds" - pray that Rami Ayyads death will produce much life in the Christians and in the Muslims in the Gaza Strip!
God bless!
Torben
Monday, October 08, 2007
Have you prayed for Osama Bin Laden lately?
An old hero of mine is the little Dutchman, Brother Andrew, who started the wonderful organization Open Doors (www.opendoors.org) and who has been travelling to closed countries (first Communist and in the last many years to Islamic nations) preaching the Gospel of Christ to everybody he comes in contact with (including fundamentalist Muslim leaders - read his excellent book "Light Force" to hear those incredible yet true stories of meetings with leaders from Hamas, Hezbollah, Yassir Arafat, etc.) and strengthening the Church where it faces persecution. I stumbled across an article on Christianitytoday by Brother Andrew, that I encourage you to read. It asks many thoughtprovoking questions, and the question: "when was the last time you prayed for Osama bin Laden?" requires an answer from you and me. Enjoy!
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/juneweb-only/125-52.0.html
God bless!
Torben
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/juneweb-only/125-52.0.html
God bless!
Torben
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Where Is The Love?
I don't listen to much (any!) hiphop normally, but this Black Eyed Peas' song from 2003 is so thought provoking that I shared it with the DTS this week. They ask the question "Where is the love?', and if you listen to the lyrics you hear that they can't find the answer anywhere in the world. And the chorus turns to a God that (as far as I know) they don't know themselves: "Father, Father, Father help us, send some guidance from above". If we as Christians don't know the answer to the questions posed in this song, nobody will, and all of us are truly doomed....but we know the God of love! And he is the one everybody needs to know. The God of love, life, freedom and joy! Hallelujah!
Excellent first week
Hey!
We've just finished our first week of this fall's Discipleship Training School (DTS). And it's been a great one! The staff have all told me that they have not been stressed during this week (definitely a first time experience for some of those who have many DTSes under their belts), the students seem open and are already asking many questions and we've had a wonderful week of scratching the surface of many of the topics that we will spend more time on these next 11 lecture weeks.
I had the privilege of speaking about Hearing God's Voice and spending time with God, and it came to me to ask a interesting question to the students that went like this: "How do you feel that God feels about you when you fall asleep while you're praying to him?"
Some interesting answers came forth that revealed that many of us still struggle to see God as a real Father who will not be disappointed or frustrated with us, but will just, like any good human father, be happy that we're spending time with him and will enjoy the closeness of having his child fall asleep in his lap!
Thank God we have next week to learn more about God's fatherheart. There is so much to learn for all of us whether student, staff or speaker. And we ask God to reveal his fatherheart to us this next week and the following.
God bless!
Torben
We've just finished our first week of this fall's Discipleship Training School (DTS). And it's been a great one! The staff have all told me that they have not been stressed during this week (definitely a first time experience for some of those who have many DTSes under their belts), the students seem open and are already asking many questions and we've had a wonderful week of scratching the surface of many of the topics that we will spend more time on these next 11 lecture weeks.
I had the privilege of speaking about Hearing God's Voice and spending time with God, and it came to me to ask a interesting question to the students that went like this: "How do you feel that God feels about you when you fall asleep while you're praying to him?"
Some interesting answers came forth that revealed that many of us still struggle to see God as a real Father who will not be disappointed or frustrated with us, but will just, like any good human father, be happy that we're spending time with him and will enjoy the closeness of having his child fall asleep in his lap!
Thank God we have next week to learn more about God's fatherheart. There is so much to learn for all of us whether student, staff or speaker. And we ask God to reveal his fatherheart to us this next week and the following.
God bless!
Torben
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)