Faith arise!

Without vision (for our lives) we perish

Recently I read Bruce Olson's book called Brucho for the third time. I really like the book as it describes how he lived among the Motilone people in the jungles of South America and shared Christ with them in a way that the identity and society of these Indian people was healed and restored, but remained Motilone. When they chose to follow Jesus they said that they want to follow His path since all the Motilones had their own pathways in the jungle. As they started to walk Jesus' path, they started to discover who they were in Christ.

It is essential part of salvation that we discover the plan God has for our lives in Jesus(Ef.1:5,11).Recently I have met many people for whom this is THE QUESTION they've been looking answers for. It makes me sad to hear how many clever people turn to fortune tellers to hear who they were created to be. My question is: "Should we forbid people to go and ask these questions from people who SEEM to provide an answer OR should we do something to be the ones who answer their questions with the wisdom of God?"

What can I give to a person, if all I can give is to forbid an honest question? I think it's crucial for us as Christian learn to communicate/speak God's destiny into peoples lives. This includes both teaching them about their identity in Christ but also about the destiny God has for every one of us personally. There is a specific role for everyone of us in God's plans, part to play, through which many lives are affected, and destiny of many people is changed. I sense it's God's heart-cry at this hour to have a company of people who know who they are and can help other people, both Christians and non-Christians to come into their destiny.

This is also connected to God being a PERSON with identity, the great I AM. God has called us to be, and we worship Him already BY BEING who he created us to be. And only when we really know who we were created to be personally, can we effectively become part of something corporate.

Following God is not about being saved so that you can go to church meetings for the rest of your life, but it's about starting to walk "in his paths". And there lies the secret; without teaching this, people are only saved to religion. That's why Jesus told us to "make disciples", teach Jesus-followers to hear his voice, to know his presence in their everyday life, be the kind of people others recognise as the followers of the way even without words. This is why it says that we perish without revelation (Amplified Bible: vision, redemptive revelation of God) , without understanding destiny for our lives (Prov.29:18).

The Message translation says:

"If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves;

But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed."

Sámi nuorat Jesusin- the gathering

Our friends arrived on Saturday, so we shared about life and the need for living personal relationship with God instead of religion.

No empire spirit and the language barrier in the gathering with Sámi people; though the core group consisted of five people, we used flexibly five languages: English, Norwegian, Swedish, Saami and Finnish!

On Saturday morning we as a group facilitated the meeting in a small church. I spoke on the need to know God afresh every moment, because he's like the wind that no one knows where it comes from and where it goes. And the Kiwi missionary family now moving back to the other side of the world was just perfect example of "...so is everyone born of the Spirit". It's so easy for us to start to keep "household- gods", that we try to keep happy and forget about the Lord who wants to have all of us, and wants us to do what he says and live for him, not just to try to keep him pleased. We can't store the wind in a box, so that we can watch it and be reminded of how He is. Moment we do it, the wind has lost it's "windiness", and we have started to build religious system instead of FOLLOWING him.

I'm going to miss the life style there is in Kauto: nothing is dependant on time/clock, and like one man said to us smiling: "I've never known stress, what is it?"

After the gathering we spent one more day with the Kiwi missionary family, who are leaving Kauto after living there for one and half years. They told us a lot about their time there, and I also learned a lot about being missionary with a family by watching their kids in action. I felt very grateful for having met them.

Later in the evening I experienced a personal adventure: I was given a piece of raw reindeer meet so we could cook it for dinner! No idea which part it was, no idea how to prepare it...and I don't think reindeer with pasta is the most traditional Sámi food, but it was good anyway. In the night we talked with a young pioneering Sámi woman Lena a lot about God's ways, calling to indigenous peoples, using joik to worship God and how to deal with religiosity without insulting people.

Beautiful Sámiland

As we arrived to the little Sámi village on Thursday night, we saw the most beautiful northern lights. Actually, one person said he hadn't seen so beautiful northern lights during the two years he had lived there.

Only the next day in Kauto I realized God had led us there the best time of year: now the autumn colours were at their best, but only in few weeks comes the permanent snow, that stays for next eight months...The village is located in the middle of nowhere in arctic tundra, and the only threes there are birch trees that don't get taller than I am.

We spent Friday on preparing for the weekend, but got also to go to Juhls' silver gallery, a familiar place for everyone visiting the village. We also visited the family of my friend for the dinner. When the sun was setting we went to pick lingon berries on the back yard. Wow, I agree with my Sámi friends, who thank God that they are allowed to live in the most beautiful place on earth.

On Saturday morning we drove outside village to tundra. I got to think Kauto is a very- let me say interesting- place spiritually. Whereas people in Tampere and other cities in Finland tend to have difficulty to believe in supernatural things, here beliefs and spirituality are mixed with almost everything. Actually, this is much easier for me to understand, but I realise people need to be confronted differently in this context.

Kingdom and empire

This weekend I spent nice days at the summer cottage of very good friends of mine. I felt God again highlighting the verses from Acts 17: 6-6; These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also...And they are ignoring and acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, asserting that there is another king, one Jesus! (Amplified Bible).

I think God is speaking to us about the spiritual ownership. Two people are mentioned, Jesus and Caesar. Jesus is the one who has got the Kingdom, but Caesar's got the empire. It struck me to start to understand what that empire actually means. Empire is about owning things, whereas Kingdom is about being owned by the King. Empire is about diversity being ruled from a single centre. In God's Kingdom he is the Ruler, but we as different people are to submit to each other.

Take the language for example. In Pentecost when Holy Spirit fell on people, they started to worship God in their own oppressed languages instead of Empire language of the time (Greek). That's because there is room for diversity and weakness in the Kingdom, but in Empire you speak the language of the strong. Even when we notice that diversity makes things much more complicated, Holy Spirit creates unity that is not imposed to others. But we're called to speak the language of weakness of our time so that through our love (not through our power) the people may understand who Jesus is.

I think one of the most radical statements we can make these days as the community of Jesus-followers, is to separate yourselves from all kind of Empire-thinking. Claiming that Jesus is King means that he's the only one who's Kingdom we are to serve, so there is no need to start to build our own name to help him or start to manage the people who're involved in "our ministry". He's the KING and he is well capable of reigning his Kingdom (despite of all the insecurity we might feel).

I think even that the embracing of our poverty (that we're owned by someone else, and are not building anything own) is something that will be a mighty weapon as it frees us to recklessly advance growth of HIS KINGDOM by making disciples who know ONLY ONE KING to whom to go for advice.

Jason Upton says in his song Poverty

There's a power in poverty that breaks principalities

And brings the authority's down to their knees

There's a brewing frustration and ageless temptation

To fight for control by some manipulation

But the God of the Kingdoms and the God of the Nations

The God of creation sends this revelation

Thru the homeless and penniless Jesus the son

The poor will inherit the Kingdom to come

Who will we praise when we've praised all our lives

men who build Kingdoms and men who build fame

but heaven does not know their names

Connect Sámiland 2

My Sámi friend Máhtte from North of Sweden opened a blog called Worship Jesus in your own way. It is so good to see what God is doing among young Sámi people. There will be a gathering in couple weeks in Kautokeino, that is a cultural capital of Sámi people, and I plan to travel there then.

Leadership in postmodern world1

Yesterday I found a thought provoking article from Leonard Hjalmarson on the changes in leadership culture in our days. It is a long article, but worth reading and digesting. Let me share some of the quotes:

He writes about team work replacing the one pastor leadership: "Instead of Lone Ranger, we have Frodo. He and Aragorn are self-questioning types who rely on those around them for strenght, clarity and purpose. Indeed, while they have a sense of the need and willingness to sacrifice themselves, they may not even know the first step on the journey. This is a far cry from the self-assured presentations of the johnmaxwells of the world."

And about the difference between leadership cultures and leadership cult: "The only kind of leader who can lead institutional people is the "hero", the type of leader who can create followers but not empower disciples. But we don't need more leadership cults; we need to build leadership cultures where the DNA itself is spread through the tribe. The DNA of The Lion of Judah produces prophetic and priestly communities, immersed in a common story."

"We need enduring communities that witness to the reality of the Gospel and its life transforming power. These communities will not be built by charismatic leaders, because those leaders build audiences and followers, not families and priests. "

"Furthermore, our failure to build authentic and invitational missional communities where each individual owns the collective vision will mean that vision will continue to be enforced from above. But this is self-defeating, since it results in a few doing and owning the ministry again. Self-organising responses only exist where individual iniative is fostered and free."

"We need new kind of leader, unconcerned about issues of marketing and structural maintenance and focused instead on discipleship and transformation, faithfulness, brotherhood and authenticity."

Continuing the journey

For some reason, unfamiliar to me, simple earthling, the great Typepad removed my blog when I was in Prague. But being a persistent girl (believe me!!) I'm back again. So please update my new address on your links!

I think I'll republish some of my earlier postings (at least about Indigenous peoples' gathering and some other postings) to help you to follow the story. Because that's all it's about ...stories, that I see intertwining more and more these days as we continue the journey together...

Back from Prague

I spent last weekend in Prague in Connect Europe gathering. It was very blessed time with many new friends, but also learning how much there is we still need to unlearn (our old patterns of being a church) in order to model something new that is more Kingdom centered. It's a long journey...

Check out the reports my friends Marc and Jan Inge wrote about the gathering.