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

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!!

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

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

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:-)

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

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

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

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

How Great Is Our God

Great song by Chris Tomlin. Watch the video, enjoy the song and the pictures, and worship the Creator of the Universe who dwells within each one of his children. What a wonder!:-)

Torben

When God Ran

God is not disappointed with you, mad at you, angry at you, disinterested in you....he is running to you! The God of the Universe, the Mighty Warrior of Heaven runs to you! He loves you just the way you are. No matter how many times you've behaved like a prodigal son or daughter, he still loves you. He always has, he always will! He will never reject you!

God bless you as you listen to this song!
Torben

Revelation needed

We're now 15 short days away from the next Discipleship Training School (DTS) starting here in Kiev. We've had a wonderful time of preparation as staff, where we've focused a lot less on leadership principles, techniques, laws, etc. and a lot more on God, God's character, God's grace and God's ability to work through our brokenness.

The school verse is from Ephesians 1:17 - a wonderful verse that shows our dependency on God!

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better"

We need God's revelation. Without it all we have is words. Lot of them. But the students and ourselves don't need more words and information, we need more revelation.

So that's what we pray about, and we trust that God will give it!

God bless!

Torben

A place called grace

Listen to this wonderful song, enjoy the video and come to the place of Grace and know that your heavenly Father is always out searching for you! He loves you just the way you are!

God bless you!
Torben

Uhhh...what did she just say??

Some questions are just really hard to answer...;-)

About loneliness

If there is one topic we as Christians try to avoid it's definitely loneliness! The truth is that all people are lonely. C. S. Lewis once said that we suffer from "lifelong nostalgia". We know we were created for the Garden of Eden, and we long to be back there. Paul, in Romans 8, talks about all of creation groaning and looking forward to the day where the life we were created for will be revealed.

If you google loneliness+Christian you'll find that apparently the only people who are lonely are: singles, divorced people, and people with counselling-worthy depressions......!....

I did, however, find one gold nugget out on the world wide web, that I'll link to and encourage you to read. The author has a lot of the same thoughts about loneliness that I do, so I'm just gonna let him speak on my behalf for now.

Enjoy http://www.adventistreview.org/2003-1501/story2.html

God bless and meet you in your loneliness! "Our souls are ever restless until they find their rest in you" - St. Augustine

Torben

What God wants from you?

What does God want from me? What are his requirements on me?

The disciples asked Jesus that question and he gave an interesting answer.

John 6:28-29: "What must we DO to do the works God requires? Jesus answered: The work of God is this to BELIEVE in the one he has sent"

That's it. It's that simple. All you must do is believe in Jesus. Abide in him. Rest in him. Be who you are in him. Be the Beloved son or daughter of God.

That's it. He is the vine.

Why is it that the Church so often puts heavy burdens on Christians? Why are so many Christians so tired? When Christ said these words: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28)


Abide in Christ!

God bless!
Torben

Leading from brokenness

It just hit me how Peter is a wonderful example of somebody who had to lead in his brokenness. Everybody in the early Church knew Peter as Christ's apostle, and one of his closest friends, but first and foremost he was known as the disciple who had failed Jesus on the evening of Christ's crucifixion through claiming not to know him and even swear that he didn't know him.

Talk about brokenness....being known as a deserter of the one who called you to lead a Church that was gonna change the world upside down.

I love Peter. I love his openness, frankness, big head, faith in himself, and how through his life as a disciple he came to the point of brokenness. He came to the place where all of us need to come to, where we're at the end of our rope, at the end of our own strength, and we have to surrender to Christ and accept the fact that we can't do it, we need Christ to live through us.

And then he was ready to lead. Ready to lead not out of his own strength, but in Christ's strength.

Many Christian leaders have told me that you should never say "I don't know" to people you're leading. I firmly disagree. I've also been told that you can't show weakness, and that you're struggling with different problems when you lead. I firmly disagree.

A good, Christian leader is open about his own brokenness. Is open about the fact that him/her does not have it all together. Is open about the fact that he is on the journey with Christ himself. He hasn't arrived.

If I as a leader want my students/followers to know what openness and brokenness is, I need to model it. And thank God, I have a man like Peter to look at.

God bless!

Torben

Law vs. grace

I have to admit that the more God reveals his grace to me, the easier it is for me to see law all around me and in me. There is so much law being preached in the worldwide Church. I work with discipleship training, and I see it over and over again, in students, in staff, in other missionaries, and in myself too.

Law. People have come to know Christ, and he has taken away their sins. Hallelujah! But they start in grace and continue in law. How do you recognize people who live by the law and not in grace? Look at their faces and their fists! Not too happy, very concerned, negative about many things, always quick to point out problems but rarely part of the solution, tired, frustrated at all the others, talking about experiences with God that happened 10 years ago, they suck life out of you, you get tired from spending time with them.....and clenched fists: angry, wanting more people to do more, they respond aggressively and defensively to criticism, they rarely express what they really feel but are often very sneaky with their criticism and judgments, they display I'll show them-attitudes, and they are controlling....oh so controlling! Maybe control is the primary characteristic? Ever since the fall in the Garden of Eden that has been mankind's primary problem: I want to be in control!

So people of the law who belong to the Church (whether they actually know Christ as their Savior is up to God, I have no clue with some of those I've met in my life) stick to control.

If you know grace, you live in freedom. You give people freedom to make choices and make mistakes. You accept that things are not always the way they seem. You understand that you've never seen a motive, only God has! You don't just see problems, but you want to be a part of the solution. You have fresh experiences with God, because you know him and you know he loves you. You can be tired, but you understand that Christ in you is your strength, and it's not a matter of you pulling yourself together.

You are not afraid to let other people run their lives. You understand that you can't control anybody anyway. You understand that you have rebellious tendencies in yourself, so you relinquish your right to be in control over yourself or others to your heavenly Father. You take criticism lightly. You accept that you make mistakes from time to time, and you can take responsibility for your own actions without fearing that people will reject you. You're not afraid, because your identity is in Christ. When you confront you're direct and loving, not sneaky and beating around the bush.

I love it when I encounter grace-filled people. I've only met few compared to all the law-based people I've encountered in the worldwide Church. But when I meet the grace people, I feel my spirit come alive. I'm attracted to them. To their simple and living faith. I see freedom and I long to know God better.

Thank God for the little group of broken, failing, incomplete people who are not afraid to let their Master's light shine through their brokenness!

I owe those of you I've met a lot of gratitude, and I know that you'll just pass it on to your Creator and Friend.

God bless!

Torben - I pray that God will keep me on the road of brokenness. It hurts. It doesn't feel good. My flesh protests. But I know that there is life here. I know that only when I accept the fact that I'm a cracked pot, but God loves me just the way I am can God's life freely flow in me and through me!

Two wonderful years

What a joy it has been for me to be married to my wonderful wife Jeannette for the past two years! What a blessing she is! We celebrated our second anniversary yesterday, and I can only say that I'm falling more and more in love with her.

As you can read in the rest of these blog entries we learn many new things about who we are in God and how he loves us, and that gives us new freedom in our relationship with each other as well. I'm getting to know the real Jeannette more and more as we share life together. And what a joy that is!

There is freedom in knowing who you truly are. There is freedom in sharing that with your spouse. There is freedom and life in seeking God together and knowing that he's always there for you.

There is freedom in our marriage. A freedom that's growing as we see more of who we are in Christ. Our marriage isn't always perfect, but it's wonderful, challenging, encouraging, full of blessings, fun, and crazy at different times and all at once some times :-)

I guess I just wanted you, dear blog readers, to know how much I love my wife!

Torben