26th May 2026
Developments in the days of Noah
„As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. “
Matt.24:37NIV
Emanuel Minos
I don’t know what you think about the time of Noah. You may think that a simple man walks around with a stone axe, a wooden axe or an iron axe and is about to build the ark. But the time of Noah was a highly cultural and sophisticated time in a period of rapid development.
I have traveled and have been to the USA many times. On my last trip there I had been to several cities and visited Scandinavian congregations and then I returned to New York. There I greeted a building designer who is one of the most distinguished designers ever in the USA. He showed me around New York and showed me the high-rise buildings in Manhattan, which he had helped to build, among other things. “These are built with all the high-tech knowledge that exists in the United States today. But we are not able to build like they did in Noah’s day,” he said. I stood there gaping in amazement. I’d better tell you a little about my background so that you can understand this a little better.
I was born in Africa. My biological father was Greek and my mother was of Egyptian descent. To make a long story short, my family was hit by poverty and illness, which led some Norwegian missionaries to adopt me.
This building designer had heard this and his interest was piqued, so he showed me around New York. Then he said that when it came to the Pyramid of Cheops, which was built about 200 years before Noah lived, even with all the knowledge we have today about building construction, you couldn’t build anything that even roughly corresponds to the Pyramid of Cheops. They were so advanced scientifically in Noah's day, and they may have had some tools that have been forgotten. I don't know if this man was a believer, but then he adds: "Noah's time was a time that was full of sin, immorality and corruption." It is not for nothing that Jesus says: „As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. “
I have told God that I will not go around preaching morality because it saves no one, but I want to preach about the blood of Jesus that cleanses from all sin and that can put us in heavenly places, so that we can walk with God, even in a time like ours.
Effie Campbell translated
25th May 2026
Walking with God
„But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. “
Matt.7:14NIV
Emanuel Minos
The time of Noah is characterized by the lack of revelation from God. From Adam to Noah there are 10 generations. It is believed that the population in Noah’s day was 3 million. If we read Genesis 5:3-29NIV we come across a lot of names there, but only two of these names had a living relationship with God. In verse 24 it says: “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. ” Enoch experienced the first rapture that any human being had ever experienced. He did not die. The prophet Elijah experienced the second rapture and we are now waiting for the third rapture. I am so naively optimistic that I believe we may experience it. An entire generation will not see death but will be caught up into the air to be with the Lord, and then it is written: „Therefore encourage one another with these words. “ 1Thess. 4:18NIV
I am not waiting for destruction. I am not waiting for atomic bombs. I am not waiting for terror. I am waiting for him to come again in the clouds. I am waiting for my Savior, who will come again and bring back with him the blood-washed crowd. But we must walk with God. In Genesis 6:9NIV we read: „This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.“ Among all these thousands and thousands of people and up through all these 10 generations, there were only two who walked with God. There were only two who received this signature on their lives: they walked faithfully with God.
Oh, if only we could experience a sanctification revival that penetrates the depths of our hearts, so that we too may walk with God and have a living fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
In those days, traditions characterized the worship of God more than a living relationship with the Lord himself. Many buried altars have been dug up and found. There is a sorrow in my heart that God today only has grandchildren. People must become children of God. They must be men and women who have a living relationship with God and who walk with Him. There is no highway to heaven. The gate is small and the way is narrow, but blessed are those who find it. Now I say to you: “Do not seek the easy way but seek the heavenly way that leads to God, so that you too may walk with God, so that you may experience the presence of God.” Effie Campbell translated
24th May 2026
Whitsun
”But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ”
John.14:26NIV of John14:23-31NIV
Pentecost is the great holiday commemorating that the Holy Spirit came here to earth, sent by our heavenly Father in the name of Jesus.
Before he left his disciples, Jesus had said a lot to them about the Holy Spirit and his work: he was to be their advocate, to guide them into all truth, teach them everything, remind them of everything, be with them. They were not to be alone and fatherless, but Jesus was to be with them in God the Father's Holy Spirit.
At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came. Then the Christian church (not the building) was founded, which the Holy Spirit must have as a tool and live in. Then Christian history began, which has continued ever since. Then a new community and new coexistence between God and man was ignited, which will last until the end of the world.
The other major holidays, Christmas and Easter, are just one time. Pentecost is always, because the Holy Spirit is always here and his work continues as long as there is life.
The work of the Holy Spirit is twofold. One is to bring God's kingdom to the whole world, to make the gospel of Jesus known to all peoples, to make the whole world Christian. The second is to put God's kingdom into each individual human soul, to ignite, strengthen, promote and sanctify the life of God for each individual human being. These two sides of the Holy Spirit cannot exist separately, but they coexist.
It may be appropriate and beneficial at Pentecost, on the birthday of the church, to stop for a moment at each part of the work that the Holy Spirit is doing here, so that we learn to be more happy and grateful for the work of the Holy Spirit, and always pray and long to receive more of the Holy Spirit's power and blessing.
Jákup Dahl, Faroese dean and Bible translator
23th May 2026
Question marks and exclamation marks
”Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Matthew 22:37-39NIV
Emanuel Minos
What was it that particularly characterized the time of Noah, and which will also characterize and characterize the end times? Indeed, a gradual apostasy from God. The apostasy is in two stages. The first of these we read about in Genesis 3:1NIV, and I will just read one line: “ … “Did God really say that you shall not ... ” This is the first time that theology enters human history.
It is said that when a poisonous snake attacks its prey, it rises up and bends its head forward before striking and injecting its poison into the prey. At this point the snake looks exactly like a question mark. When we have the fall in the Garden of Eden in mind, it is not merely a fruit that is eaten and a tree that is stolen. No, the apostasy begins gradually with a question: "Did God really say ...? You don't have to take it that seriously! You shouldn't take it that literally! Maybe you misunderstood!"
When Jesus was tempted by the devil out in the desert, something wonderful happened out there. Instead of the snake depicting a question mark preparing to inject the poisonous load, we see with our spiritual eyes an exclamation mark, as Jesus cries out: "... It is written"!!! Matt.4:4NIV
If we look more closely at the fall, we see that the sense of responsibility and charity disappear. We read in Genesis 4:9: ”Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
It is the Lord who asks Cain this question. Cain knows where he is because he killed him. God also knows it, but He asks Cain the question, because He wants Cain to take responsibility for his misdeeds. “Where is your brother...? This question cuts deep into our relationships with our neighbors.
But Cain answers back: “… “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Well yes, we are to guard and care for our brothers and sisters. In 1 John 4:11NIV we read: ”Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” It is said that this word "guilty" can be translated as being guilty or forced to love our neighbor.
Oh, how I long for an outpouring of the Spirit, where love of neighbor reaches deep into our hearts in our time, where we feel that the same spiritual forces that were present in the days of Noah are also present today. Listen carefully to what I am saying now: Faithfulness to the Word of God and love of our neighbor are the most important things in a true relationship with God! The Pharisees were faithful to the Word of God but lacked love of neighbor and then it becomes hypocrisy. We must be faithful to the Word of God and have a true love in our hearts for our brothers and sisters and the people around us. This forces us out into the mission fields with the good news. It forces us to spread the gospel to all parts of the earth. Because God has loved us so much, we are also forced to love our neighbor.
In his speech about the end times, Jesus says: ”Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ” Matt.24:12NIV
We mock and slander those who fail and fall. We boast that we do not have the death penalty here in Norway and we should thank God for that. But friends, often the media can be compared to a public gallow and people are unable to resist the pressure. It is about life. I pray to God for a revival that also reaches the ranks of the media. We have a responsibility for each other. God has put it in us that we have to preach the gospel, but we must also love one another in our own time, which is also the time of Noah, and which will correspond to the time before Jesus returns.
Effie Campbell translated
22th May 2026
Blessed
„“‘“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”’“
Numbers 6:24-26NIV
Hear and see
When I was a child, we used to pray the following evening prayer, which the Danish actor Peter Thun Foersom wrote back in 1813:
Now my eyes are closing,
God the Father in heaven
in custody of me.
From sin, from sorrow, from danger
your angel preserve me,
who has guided my foot today.
My parents sat on the edge of the bed and prayed with me. Before the prayer, they had read me a story.
Finally, before we fell asleep, mom and dad shone a blessing on us that was many thousands of years old. I understood that shining was something completely different from reading, but what it really meant, I still can’t quite explain.
I thought it was like stepping into a ray of sunshine on the floor and standing there and turning golden from head to toe. And since the blessing is so old, I liked to think that both my great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather and even Jesus had stood in the same light when they were little children long, long ago.
The Lord bless you and keep you
the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace
(Numbers 6:24-26)
“Krigsropet” Effie Campbell translated
21th May 2026
The end of the age
„As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” “
Matthew 24:3NIV
Emanuel Minos
The disciples asked Jesus: What will be the sign of the end of the world? Matthew 24:3. Jesus answers the question directly. „And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.“ Matthew 24:14NIV We have only had missions for about 200 years, but Jesus says that the end will come when all people in the world have heard the gospel.
We are not allowed to set either the day or the hour when the end will come, because Jesus himself says that no one knows, not even the Son of Man, but God alone. But it is interesting to think about the time when Jesus sat at Jacob’s well in conversation with the woman from Sychar in Samaria. As a Jew, he was not allowed to go there, but the Scriptures tell us that he had to make his way that way. Jesus evangelizes, he tells this pagan woman the gospel, and he stays there for two days, as we read in John 4:40. A thousand years is as one day, and one day as a thousand years with God, writes Peter in 1 Pet. 3:8. And now 2,000 years have passed since that time.
In the end times, the Jewish people will become a sign to all nations, a test, a testing stone. When Jesus tells about the day of judgment in Matt.25:31-46 he says to those who are welcomed into glory in v35: „For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, “ and when they ask in surprise when they did this to him, v40 says: „“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “
Who were Jesus’ brothers at that time? The Jewish people! The Jews gave us Jesus, who at the well in Sychar said: “… salvation is from the Jews.” John 4:22NIV. So friends, let us therefore bless the Jews and pray for peace for Jerusalem, as the Bible reminds us to do in Psalm 122:6. Then we ourselves will be blessed, for God’s Word says, „I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” “ Genesis 12:3NIV
Effie Campbell translated
20th May 2026
Hudson Taylor's Vision
„Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”“
Matt.28:19-20NIV
Hudson Taylor was from England. He went to China as a missionary. There he founded the “China Inland Mission”. In 1889 he was in England and while he was standing and speaking there, he suddenly fell silent and closed his eyes. When he then began to speak he said:
“I have had a vision. In this vision I saw a great war in which the whole world was involved. I saw this war end and then begin again. In reality there were two wars. After this I saw great unrest and rebellion which was to affect many countries. In some places I saw a spiritual revival. In Russia I saw a spiritual revival coming over the whole country. It will be so great that there will never be another like it. From Russia I saw this revival spreading to many European nations. Then I saw a universal revival followed by the second coming of Christ.” Effie Campbell translated
19th May 2026
The fig tree and all the trees
„He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.“
Luke 21:29-32NIV
Emanuel Minos
The fig tree is the Jewish people and Jesus said that when the fig tree sprouts, the kingdom of God is near. There is much to indicate that this is the generation that is living on earth today, because the state of Israel was established in 1948, and Jesus said that the generation that was alive at that time would not die before Jesus returns in the cloud and takes the believers home with him. Matt. 24:34
As I said, the fig tree is the Jewish people. A professor of science and anthropology told me that when you spread a people among other peoples, it will only take 2 to 3 generations for them to lose their language. And that is true. Just look at the Scandinavians in the United States. They do not speak Norwegian or Danish today, because they do not know the language anymore. But Jews have been scattered among the peoples for 2,000 years now and they speak not only Hebrew but also Hebrew with dialects. “How is that possible?” the professor asked me.
“Well, it is because God Almighty chose this people,” I replied. This people gave us the 10 Commandments, the holy prophets and the apostles and Jesus and the holy Scripture, the Bible.
We read that then the fig tree and all the trees will sprout. The fig tree sprouted in 1948, when Israel was founded. All the trees are all other countries. And what about them? Now there are nations that have never been nations before. It started with Israel, then came India and Indonesia. Then came a lot of new nations in Africa, Asia and South America. More than 100 nations have become free in these years.
The same professor asked me: “Minos, you have such strange thoughts about many things. Can you tell me how it is that so many countries have been established since World War II? Something similar has not happened before?”
“Well yes, I can, because it says so in the Bible.” Then I told him that Jesus says that the fig tree will sprout and all the trees will too.
“Is that in the Bible?” he asked in surprise.
“Yes,” I said, “and one thing I can tell you, all of Eastern Europe will become free.”
“I don’t believe that, because they have the Iron Curtain.”
“Just wait and see, because it will happen. Jesus himself said that all the trees will sprout too.”
And about 35-40 years ago, the Iron Curtain fell and the countries of Eastern Europe became free. Israel is the great prophetic beacon, and all the other countries are like small beacons that remind us that the prophetic word will come to pass. Reading the Bible is like reading the newspaper. The signs of the times are clear. Oh, what a time we live in. It is important to have oil in the lamp. It is important to evangelize. The end is near. The end of time and the end of this earth.
Effie Campbell translated
18th May 2026
The three stages before God's call
„God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. “
Exodus 2:24NIV
God's promise is the first stage in every process, in every prayer, in every work. If we are heading into something that is not confirmed in God's Word, then we are heading into difficulties or worse.
The stay of the Israeli people in Egypt was announced in the Word prior to the event and also the difficult conditions the people would face there. It was also written that God would save them out of the land along with great treasures of silver and gold, which they would receive from the Egyptians.
The second stage in the process, when the Israelites were saved and redeemed, was the Hebrew midwives, who are mentioned in Exodus 1. Two of these are mentioned by name, Shiphrah and Puah. Pharaoh demanded that they kill all the boys as soon as they were born so that the population growth of the Israelites would be stopped.
But the midwives' fear of God was greater than their fear of Pharaoh. Therefore, they refused to obey Pharaoh. God blessed the midwives for their work, both personally, and also because one of these boys was Moses, who later became a savior and leader of the Israeli people.
When the midwife stood there with the newborn baby boy and refrained from strangling him, she did not know that she was holding one of the greatest statesmen in world history in her hands, but that is what she did.
We call today's Denmark an elderly society with too few young people. We can only blame ourselves for that, because we have killed hundreds of thousands of defenseless boys and girls before they even saw the light of day. Think of the many "Moses" we have parted ways with and who are now missing from us. God also blesses all doctors and midwives who today refuse to perform these fetal interventions, which are a disgusting act and an abomination to God.
I find the third stage in Exodus 2:23-25NIV, where it is written: „During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. “
The prayer that the Jews sent up to God was more than just a habitual act that prayers can easily become. It is possible to pray with your brain, your knowledge, but where the heart is not involved in the prayer. The Jews had such conditions that the prayer became a prayer of the heart that was expressed through groaning and lamentations and with a deep and heartfelt cry to God. And it was this cry that moved God and caused Moses to be called.
Now I ask myself and you two questions: Is it possible that the revival from God is not coming because God does not hear any cry from us on behalf of our country? Has welfare blinded us so that we are not able to see the need, so that our prayer comes from our consciousness and not from the heart? May God open the eyes of our hearts so that a cry was born for our country.
These three parts of God's plan were: 1. God's promises - 2. The midwives, who feared God more than Pharaoh and saved the newborn boys, of which Moses was one. 3. The cry of the people of Israel to God to fulfill His old promise to Abraham.
These three parts led to God calling Moses at Mount Horeb. In Exodus 3 this event is discussed in more detail. When we keep in mind how directors, supervisors and leaders are chosen today, it was a peculiar choice that God made.
In our best judgment, Moses was too old and ill-equipped to express himself, his education had not been updated, and he had stayed away from ordinary city life for far too many years. In addition, his criminal record was tarnished, for he was a murderer.
Can you imagine someone recommending a man like the Faroese magistrate? In that case, that person would have been exposed in the media as a ridiculous fool.
Let us thank God that He is a different employer. He does not look at age, appearance, financial status, credentials, education, speaking gifts or social rank. God is a God of the heart and always sees people whose hearts are with Him. When He finds such people, men or women, young or old, with or without education, with many or few talents and abilities, God equips them for these tasks. He calls them to Himself. Let us therefore say with confidence: “... ‘Here I am, send me!’” MH. Effie Campbell translated
17th May 2026
Liberal Theology
"So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."
Rev.3:16NIV
Several students studying theology at Norwegian universities and learned colleges are giving in and starting to relax their faith because the textbooks are so liberal.
In order for the educational institution to receive state funding, the teachers must teach in special textbooks that the state has approved, and these are often extremely liberal regarding being faithful to the teachings of the Bible.
This means that there is a real danger that the college will “sell out its soul” in order to be approved and get the necessary funding. If the students are not very firmly grounded in their belief in the Bible as a book without error, then the foundation may begin to waver under them, so that they will develop into a crisis of faith and later perhaps leave the educational institution as wounded or “wingless preachers” without anointing and zeal for God’s word and its everlasting truth.
Svein-Magne Pedersen. Translated by Effie Campbell
16th May 2026
Jesus’ Witness
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
Matthew 28:19NIV
Those who love Jesus are not content to merely sit on a church pew, but they long to go out and see the power of God at work. They put all their energy and strength into helping people, both when they are at work and when they are off. They say things straight, whether it is well received or badly received. They thrive best out there on the battlefield, where the war is fought and where the victories are won.
Effie Campbell
15th May 2026
Accidents
„“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. “
Matt.25:13NIV
How is it that man only questions God when a terrible disaster strikes? Isn’t it important to have God with us always? God is not responsible for natural disasters that have a natural explanation, but He has more than once used a disaster as a warning, such as the flood in Noah’s day or the plagues in Egypt. God allows something terrible to happen so that it can shake people to their core and awaken them from their indifference and lethargy and to awaken their moral conscience.
Effie Campbell
14th May 2026
Ascension Day – Dying is gain
”For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. ”
Phil.1:21NIV
Martin Omdal
This is the testimony we get from Paul in Philippians 1:21. Maybe we dismiss it? Well, because is not death our "last enemy?" This is how it is written in 1 Corinthians 15:26. For our body, death is most likely the “last enemy,” but for our immortal soul and eternal spirit, then death is the last gain for us, who are the children of God, on this earth. Death comes to us as a savior who saves us from the body, which is “our earthly tent,” and we move into our new home, a house, a building that is from God in heaven and that was not created with human hands. Read 2 Corinthians 5:1 and onwards. Thus, death becomes the last servant that God sends us, a servant who carries us from this earthly life and into the heavenly.
Here I come to think of an event that I will never, ever forget. I came home from America with the vessel "Bergensfjord" in 1961. We sailed across the Atlantic for seven days. Then we reached our destination and called at the container port in Kristiansand on the stroke of 24 Ascension Day. The church bells in the cathedral struck its 24 heavy beats and it was midnight. Down at the harbor stood the many familiar and dear faces waiting for us. They waved and shouted, "Welcome home!"
In a hurry they put the gangway up to us and we went ashore. We had all returned home safe and sound. At that moment, the Lord spoke to me, “Martin! There will be an ascension day in your life. When the clock strikes its 24 beats in your life, you will experience your Ascension Day. Then I'll lay a gangway down to you so that you can disembark and you're home in heaven. And the gangway I will lay down for you, it is death. Then you shall meet all your loved ones and those who have gone home before you, again. Then you will be at home in heaven forever. ”
Death - a "gangway" – a servant of God - a gain!
Bishop, Håkon E. Andersen, once put it this way: "Death was greedy and swallowed Jesus - but died in so doing!" Indeed, this is in agreement with Paul's words from 2 Timothy 1:10NIV: “... who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. ” On the day of remembrance for those who died at sea, we in the Faroe Islands usually sing: "Tí deyður er deyðin, og horvið er hav." No. 579. (English: "For death is dead, and the sea gone.") What a wonderful message for us mortals! Then we do not have to be afraid of death. In love there is no fear. Perfect love drives away fear, even the fear of death, and we can thank God our Father for all things, even for death, for it is a "gain." This promise includes all those who can testify with Paul, "For to me to live is Christ." Is Christ Jesus your life?
The "letter" E.Campbell translated
13th May 2026
Shoot if you dare!
„All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. “
Isaiah64:5NIV
In a Spanish-speaking city in South America, a British citizen was arrested for involvement in a riot in that area. He was sentenced to be shot and was transferred to a manning department. The British and American envoys protested in vain against the man’s execution.
As the officer was about to give the order “shoot,” the British envoy rushed in front of the condemned man and wrapped him in the British flag, shouting: “Shoot if you dare!” The American envoy also ran in front of the man and wrapped him in the American flag.
The soldiers now lowered their weapons and released the man into the custody of the English authorities.
This is a good lesson for us, a fine picture of the verse in Rom.8:1NIV: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ” We can sing with Isaiah: “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, …” Isa.61:10NIV We are under the protection of the Most High and are clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness. The King of kings says: “This one is free. He is cleansed in the blood of Jesus. Satan, sin and death are forced to flee. No one can condemn him.”
What a robe! Shining white, spotless and without wrinkle. Completely clean. When we are to appear before God, the Holy King, it is of no use to come in our own clothes. We must take off our dirty clothes, our rags. Naked and stripped of everything, we are put on the robe that Jesus won for us sinners on Calvary.
My friend, have you put on this garment? Or do you think you are good enough as you are? You read the Bible, pray, sacrifice, listen to God's word, live as righteously as you can. Do you not know that all your righteousness is as filthy rags? (Isaiah 64:5NIV) You are not worthy. God cannot accept it. When you stand before Him you are filthy and disgusting in yourself. Allow God to strip you of your own filthy garments, sewn in self-righteousness, and then allow Him to clothe you with the "royal robe." Blessed be Jesus, who paid for such a precious and dearly paid garment for us. It is woven in His own heart's blood, but you get it by pure grace. If you do that, you will fit in and be a part of the great multitude. Then you will fit in for heaven.
E. Campbell translated
12th May 2026
The Torn Book
„ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. “
Luke 15:18NIV
A few years ago, there was a man in France who went around selling books. One day he stopped at a small cottage in the countryside and offered a New Testament.
The woman in the house, Jeanne, hesitated. Would the priest be pleased if she bought the book? She could not take her eyes off this beautiful little book.
“Don’t be afraid,” said the salesman. “The priest would have sinned against God if he had tried to prevent you from reading about the love of Christ.”
Finally, she pulled out a 50-cent coin, reached out for the little book, and said, “I cannot resist it. May my sin be forgiven me.”
A moment later, her husband, Jacques, returned from the forest, where he worked as a charcoal burner.
When they had had a cup of tea, Jeanne approached him, a little uneasy, and showed him her little book. And just as she had feared, he became angry. He was tired and in a bad mood, and now he reproached her for wasting money like that.
“But,” she protested, “you don’t own all the money. I brought my share when we got married. That franc was just as much mine as yours.”
“Give me the book!” Jacques shouted angrily, snatching it from her hands. “Half the money was yours and half mine, you said. All right. So let’s do this with it.” Then he opened the book and tore it in two. He slipped one half under his shirt and threw the other to Jeanne.
Several days later, Jacques was sitting out in the forest near the charcoal fire. Time went slowly for him, and he felt alone. Suddenly he thought of the torn book. He thought, I will now examine it. His rough hands had torn the book about halfway through the Gospel of Luke.
He now sat down to read from the beginning: „I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ “ Luke 15
Moved, he read the story to the end and asked himself a few more questions. “What had he done, the poor prodigal son? Why had he left home? Where had he been? What made him return home now?” He could not let go of these questions.
“I would have liked to have had the beginning of this story,” he sighed. But his pride prevented him from going to Jeanne and asking her to borrow her part of the book.
The days at home in Jeanne’s house also seemed long and boring. Every time she had a moment she sat down to read it, and by the time she reached the end she had become very interested in this book. She also thought about the younger son – his stubbornness, his sin, his poverty and need and the wonderful change that had taken place in his mind: “Here I am starving to death. I will set out and go to my father…” Here the story ended.
But what would happen in the sequel? Would the father accept him? Her heart longed for the answer. She could not hold back her tears, but she did not have the courage to talk to Jacques about the book.
One day it was pouring rain and Jacques came home tired. He ate the soup and the bread as usual, but in the end he could not hold back any longer and said: “Jeanne, do you remember the book I tore into pieces?”
“Yes,” I said a little anxiously.
“My part has a wonderful story, but I only see the end of it. I cannot find peace until I have read the beginning. Can’t you get your part?”
“Yes, Jacques! How wonderful!”
“Why do you say that?”
“Yes, the same story has also been on my mind, but I don’t have the end of the story. Was the father willing to accept his prodigal son?”
“Yes, he was, but what was it that caused them to part?”
She now turned to get her part of the book and knelt by his chair. Together they read this wonderful parable, and the Spirit of God, who had been working in the hearts of the two, now helped them to understand the meaning.
This was the first Bible lesson in front of an open fire after supper, and many Bible lessons followed after this one, and this couple gave their hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.
To them the parable of the prodigal son was great news. You may be familiar with this parable, but has it ever raised the same questions in your mind as it did in theirs? Effie Campbell translated
11th April 2026
The Eternal Wisdom of the Bible (Part 2 of 2)
You shall love your neighbor as yourself(Lev. 19:18)
Many people believe that this noble thought first appeared in the New Testament, but the word is found in the Book of Leviticus. Among other things, what arouses the interest of a psychologist here is the knowledge that a spiritually healthy person must love both himself and others.
Lack of self-esteem is probably the most common emotional disturbance that I treat. In many cases, it is pressure from the subconscious that is the cause of this feeling of inferiority. Let us consider for a moment that a woman comes to me burdened with guilt. What she has done, I cannot of course undo. But perhaps I can help her understand why she did it and how she is paralyzed by her conscience mechanism, which works below the conscious level, and I can ask her to read and examine the story of the prodigal son. How can any human being feel eternally condemned and rejected in a world where this wonderful story has been heard for centuries with the message that God’s love is strong enough to bear all our sins and transgressions?
Do not worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34NIV)
A modern formulation of these thoughts could be: “Stop being afraid of the future.” Worry and fear cause you to tense up, and this stiffness causes the energy of creative forces from the conscience to cease. And when the creative energy weakens, the difficulties multiply.
Most of us know that it is of no use worrying about the future. Yet many often fear tomorrow. “Sufficient for each day is the trouble of its own,” says the Bible in Matthew 6:34. There are plenty of difficulties today that need to be solved now and then. It is only in the moment that we truly live. So try to make the most of it! Try to trust that the power that has brought us to where we are today will also help us overcome all future crises. “But those who hope in the Lord,” says Isaiah 40:31, “shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” And why? Because their faith helps them overcome fear and worry.
Saying one thing but thinking another (Proverbs 23:7)
It is in the Proverbs of Solomon that we find this wise allusion that it is not so much what you say, but rather what you think. What matters is what you truly think. I can confirm this in the office every day. Last week I spoke with a woman who had married during the Korean War. Her husband was a reserve officer and volunteered for service. When he went off to war, she was pregnant and her husband died, and all the responsibility for the newborn son now rested on her. After a few years she remarried but now she had problems with her now fifteen year old son. It was clear that she treated him very strictly and coldly.
“Why are you so strict and hard on him?” I asked.
“Because I don’t want to have a spoiled son,” she replied immediately.
“Have you ever considered,” I said, “that when your husband volunteered for the war and fell, while you were left alone with your hands full, you became angry and began to hate him? And isn’t it possible that some of that hatred is now being transferred to the child he left you with? Look within yourself and try to find the truth there, beneath the understanding that is happening on the conscious surface. Until you do that, we won’t get out of your problems.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21NIV)
Well, of course. It is of the utmost importance what we learn to love in this life, because it is so easy for us to become a mirror of what we crave. Do you love money? Well, then you judge everything by a materialistic standard. Do you love power, yes, then your aggressive and provocative mind will gradually take over. But if you fear God and love your neighbor, then you will preferably never need to seek help from a psychologist.
We psychologists warn against holding anger and hatred down. We know that unresolved disagreements in the subconscious can make us physically ill. How does it say in the Bible? “ “In your anger do not sin ”Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” Ephesians 4:26 and „A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. “ Proverbs 17:22 Exactly! There is no end to the eternal truths that we find here.
If I were asked to find the Bible verse that has more meaning to me than any other, it would be the following: „“
„Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” “ (John 8:32) In this one telling sentence, the entire teaching and method of psychology is hidden. People come to me, tormented by guilt, gripped by anxiety, weighed down by unresolved hatred, and in nine out of ten cases it quickly becomes clear that they do not know the truth about themselves.
Then it becomes the psychologist's job to remove the wrapping and clear away the self-deception and excuses. The psychologist must take the disagreements out of the subconscious and let common sense take care of them. As Freud said, "The voice of the conscious mind is not very loud, but it is persistent." As soon as the client begins to know more about himself, healing begins - for the truth can truly set us free." Dr. with Smiley Blanton, "Maran Ata magazine" Effie Campbell translated
10th May 2026
The Bible's Eternal Wisdom (Part 1 of 2)
“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”
Isa.40:31
My new patient noticed that I had a Bible lying on my desk. “You psychologists, don’t you tell me that you read the Bible?” he said in surprise.
“I don’t just read it,” I replied. “I study it. The Bible is the best textbook on human behavior ever written. If people were truly capable of understanding its message, many psychologists like me could just close our offices and go fishing.
“Do you think about the Ten Commandments and the saying to do unto others as you would have them do unto you?”
“Of course, but there are so many other words of wisdom,” I said. “Again and again we find passages in the Bible that demonstrate the deepest spiritual knowledge. Let’s just look at a few examples. For a whole hour now you’ve been sitting here telling me how you’ve struggled to no avail. It seems to me that you’re going into a deep depression, don’t you?”
I opened the Bible. “Let us look at the advice Paul gives to the people of Ephesus to resist in the evil day and to stand after all has been done. What does that mean? Yes, exactly what the words say. You have done your best. What more could you do? Struggle and toil without moving? Plow the same furrows over and over again? No, what they really need—much more than a solution to this particular problem—is in the mind. And here is the procedure for achieving the goal: Take it easy, let peace fall upon them. Do not try to solve the problems with your conscious thoughts. Let the creative forces of the subconscious come in—they can solve all their problems for them if they will only stop circling around their own feet. They can solve all their difficulties for them if they will only stop walking around your own feet.”
The client sat back in deep thought. Then he said, “Perhaps it would be good if I just read a little of the Bible?”
“Of course, it is foolish not to absorb the wisdom that has been accumulated over 3,000 years. Hundreds of years before anyone even mentioned the word psychology, the Bible knew that “the kingdom of God is within you.” We psychologists call it the subconscious—but that is just the word used, not the concept. From beginning to end, the Bible teaches us that the human soul is a battlefield where good fights evil. We call it hostile and destructive forces that fight against the impulses of love in the human mind. It is exactly the same thing.
Psychologists and other investigators of the human mind have done nothing more than simply compile a list of scientific words for the same thing that the Bible explains in its literature, imagery, and parables. What did Freud and the other pioneers discover? That the human mind works on both the conscious and the unconscious levels. That what we call the conscience works in the same way and that much emotional unrest and anxiety comes from how the conscience works in the subconscious.
It is exciting to read the Bible, even without any foundation other than a superficial knowledge of psychology. I will now mention some of the scriptures that have taught me the most. These are words so full of wisdom and insight that everyone who wants to maintain a sound mind and good spiritual health, in my opinion, should learn these scriptures by heart and repeat them to themselves at regular intervals.
Down here are the everlasting arms of the Lord (Deut. 33:27)
For centuries, people in need and distress have found comfort in these words from the Book of Deuteronomy. And rightly so. One of the anxiety thoughts we are born with is the fear of falling, so the idea of caring arms always ready to grab us and hold us up is the answer to the need we all have, so that we can feel safe and find protection. Otherwise, “touching” is one of our strongest forms of attachment. That is why this biblical image gives a feeling of deep peace. If you are suffering from insomnia and your nerves are tense to the point of breaking, you should try repeating these words to yourself as you go to sleep. They may help you much better than some sleeping pills.
9th May 2026
Prophetic Milestones
„“He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. “
Dan.7:23NIV
Two of the Bible books, the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, clearly show that the historical Roman Empire will be restored in the last days and will be the last world empire before Jesus returns and establishes his Messianic Millennial Kingdom.
It seems that the significant event on the path to the fulfillment of the Bible, namely that the Roman Empire will be restored, has completely bypassed the attention of Christians in the Faroe Islands.
The development of the EU, the United States of Europe – which most supporters of the EC and the EU have said will never become a federation – has always had something to do with Rome, even though the EU capital is still in Brussels.
What laid the foundation for the first EC and then the EU was the Treaty of Rome, which was adopted in the Campidoglio Castle in Rome on 25 March 1957. This treaty, which created the large internal market, where goods, services and people can move freely across national borders, was the first major milestone on the journey that is now towards the fulfillment of the biblical prophecies that the Roman Empire will be rebuilt in the last days.
On 29 October 2004, another prophetic milestone was reached in the same Campidoglio Castle in Rome. At that time, all 25 EU member states, as well as the 4 new applicant countries Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia, signed the EU's new constitution, which in reality makes the EU the United Nations of Europe with its own president and foreign minister.
The new EU constitution did not include any reference to its own Christian European cultural heritage, although the Vatican and the Catholic Church strongly opposed it.
Such intolerance with strong prejudices against the attitudes that have characterized the Christian cultural heritage in Europe throughout time does not bode well.
The Proof of Faith (abridged) Effie Campbell translated
8th May 2026
And if you have a kind word then use it now
“But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ ”
Luke 10:33-35NIV
One Monday evening in December, the Faroese officer with the Salvation Army in Oslo, Njál Djurhuus, was down in the Blue Cross Café. He told me about many things, including the following incident.
One Friday, there was an addict sitting in the square in front of the Storting in Oslo. He was begging for money. A woman passed by. He also asked her to give him a piece of cake.
“No, no, no!” she shouted angrily back directly into his face. Then she walked straight and towering on. But after taking a few steps, her conscience began to nag.
“Why should I stand there like a crazy chained bitch and bark at him in his face? Why couldn’t I have just spoken to him nicely?”
She now turned back to talk to him. They talked for a long time. Then she says: “I won’t give you any money, because I know you’ll spend it on drugs. But I wish you a good weekend from the bottom of my heart.”
Then he replies: “Thank you for talking to me. No one has spoken to me in six weeks. You’re the first person in six weeks who has stopped to talk to me.”
This woman felt so guilty about her reaction that she immediately went into the Salvation Army meeting room and told the story.
But what kind of people are we? We can go to the moon and back, but we can’t talk to the person who is lying in front of us in the ditch along the highways of life.
Effie Campbell
7th May 2026
God has wanted you!
„In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, “
Eph.1:11NIV
In the Danish Bible “The Book” it says in Eph.1:11: “We have been chosen to belong to Christ and have obtained an inheritance according to the purpose of God long ago!”
In an English translation, “The Message” it says: “It is in Christ that we gain clarity about who we are and for whom we live. Long before we first heard about Christ, his eyes rested on us and he had a plan for a wonderful life for us, as part of his overall plan, which he will bring to pass in everyone and through everything!”
This verse tells us three things about our purpose in life:
1. God thought about you long before you ever thought about Him. He had thoughts about your life long before you were conceived.
2. You can choose your job, your spouse, and many other things in life, but you cannot choose the purpose of your life.
3. The purpose of your life fits into a greater purpose that God has set for eternity.
You are not an accident. Your birth was not an accident. Your parents may not have planned to have you; but God did. Long before you were conceived in your mother’s womb, you were conceived in God’s thoughts. He was the first to think of you.
You are alive because God wanted to create you. God decided everything about your body—what nation you were to comee from, what color your skin would be, what your hair would be, and everything else about your appearance. God also decided what talents you would have and what your personality would be.
Psalm 139:13-14 says, „For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. “
Help me to be grateful that you made me the way I am! Indeed, God had a plan for you to come into the world. Psalm 139:15-18 says, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. ” (The Book)
Regardless of the circumstances of your birth or who your parents are, God had a plan when He created you. God knew that these two people had the exact genes, the genetic makeup, that were necessary to create the person you are. Even though they may be “illegitimate parents,” there are no “illegitimate children.” Many parents did not plan to have their children, but God did. God allowed for human error, even sin. God never makes or is ever wrong. He has a plan for everything He creates. Every plant, every animal, and every human being was created for a specific purpose. The reason He created you was His love. Indeed, God even thought about you before He created the world. (Book)
Ephesians 1:4NIV says, „For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love “ (Book)
God created this planet precisely so that we could be here. We are the center of his love—we are the most precious of his creatures. James 1:18NIV says, „He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. “ (Book)
Today you have to know that God has planned for you, wanted you, and loved you!
“The Rainbow” Effie Campbell translated
6th May 2026
Jesus healed me of terminal cancer
„“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,“
Matt.6:9NIV
The Norwegian, Per Næss had a rare and life-threatening type of cancer (Von Recklinghouse disease – neurofibromatosis), which attacks the central nervous system, skeleton and brain.
Ten years ago, he collapsed at his workplace and was rushed to the hospital. 47 malignant cancerous tumors were found. "The doctor opened the top lid, cut and patched me back together. First I was sent to a rest home and then home," says Næss.
It wasn't long before I became quite ill again and was admitted to the Radium Hospital. There he received "cell therapy" for three weeks but his condition worsened.
Per Næss was then transferred to Lovisenberg Hospice. Those who come there usually never come back alive.
One day some people from the Evangeliesenteret in Oslo came into Per's room to pray for him.
"I prayed too. When I prayed, the room lit up like a ball of fire. In one corner I saw Jesus standing and waving to me. Jesus came over to me, and I felt him lay his hands on me. My whole body became hot. Jesus said: "Per, you will not die. Your time has not come yet. Get up from the bed and walk."
At that time my weight had dropped to 38 kg. The next day he left the room without anyone to support himself.
Per Næss was 100% cured of cancer. The chief physician at the Radium Hospital, Jan Vincent Johannesen, wrote the following about the miracle: "We do not understand anything about what has happened to Per Næss."
Per is now back in the workforce. He works 25% in a job in the transport sector, helps at the Evangeliesenteret and travels around and gives lectures together with the Cancer Society.
“I am happy. Jesus has completely changed my life. Life is not obvious or a matter of course. It is a gift, and we only have it on loan. It is so important for me to be allowed to tell about what has happened to me, and I have seen him heal me. Jesus is with me 24 hours a day,” Per emphasizes and then he continues: “Remember! When you encounter adversity, then fold your hands and pray the Lord’s Prayer. Seek Jesus. It is possible to find him!”
“Friend of Home” Effie Campbell translated
5th May 2026
The Bible and the newspaper
„Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. “
Eccl.4,6NIV
and
„Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man
will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” “
John 6,27NIV
A morning battle:
There they lie, both
My Bible and my newspaper
Am I wise,
What do I take first?
Is my choice okay?
Human words and the Word from God -
They are both interesting
But what I choose first
probably quenches my thirst best
It shapes me all day
The newspaper talks about violence and war,
Where one steps on human jealousy
The word tells of what
God has done:
reconciliation, love, work of salvation so great.
I don't have time to examine both of them in one morning.
"Seek first the kingdom of God,"
that is what Jesus wants,
but where I so often have to give way...
So help me now YOU, who are the water of life,
yes, the bread of life and the Word
that I first choose the healthy food
over worldly entertainment so flat
they both lie there on the table
Unknown
4th May 2026
The power of the written word
”So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. ”
2. Thess. 2:15NIV
Bjorn Olav Thune
Most of all, it comes to mind how often the Bible says that messages were sent to people and persons in a letter.
It seems that Paul equates letters with the power of personal sermons and preaching when he says: ”So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. ” 2. Thess. 2:15NIV
King Hezekiah sent messengers throughout Israel and Judah with letters calling the people to repentance everywhere. 2 Chronicles 30:6
Mordecai and Esther wrote a letter of freedom on behalf of all the people in 127 provinces or tax lands from India in the east to Ethiopia in the west. ” … to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language.” Esther 8:9NIV
These things came to our attention the other day when a young believing woman came to us and told us that her father had been saved by a passage from “Sunnudagsblaðið”, which is a spiritual booklet that is distributed free to households in the Faroe Islands.
Thank you, dear God! Effie Campbell translated
3rd May 2026
Temporal need
„He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. “
Ps.91:15NIV
As a young girl, I left home to train as a nurse. I did not have much money because I came from very poor circumstances.
I had worked all I could, but when I began my apprenticeship at the hospital, I was all alone. No one from my family was able to send me money. I took on overtime work but still could not afford to buy myself a pair of shoes and socks, which I truly needed.
Sometimes I would peek into the trash can to see if there might be a pair of shoes for me there. If I did find a pair, they either did not fit me or were in such poor condition that I could not use them. So I put a cardboard sole in my old shoes so that I could extend their lifespan a little. But then the heel and toes stuck out through the socks, even though I had tucked them in several times, so I cut off the heel itself and attached a piece of the sock with a band-aid over the heel. We should be fine.
In the end, I needed to get something new, but where would I get it from? I was completely desperate. I didn’t know anyone who could help me. One day I didn’t show up for my class but instead went up to my room to ask God for help. I had no idea how I was going to get help, but in Psalm 91:15 I read: “He will call on me, and I will answer him…”
I took this as an answer to myself and after I had put my affairs in God’s hands, I ran down to class so as not to be too late.
Not many hours passed before I received a letter from my oldest brother, who lived far away. He wrote that he had the idea to send me five dollars, which he sent me with the letter. At that time, I could easily buy a pair of shoes and socks for that amount.
Several days before I had asked God to help me with this, my brother had received a strong conviction that he should send me this money.
How happy and grateful I was. And then the following Bible verse came to me: „Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. “
Isa.65:24NIV
Through human need, we often see God’s great love and goodness toward us.
Effie Campbell translated
2nd May 2026
You Can Feel Safe
„This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.“
Genesis 6:9NIV
You are wonderfully safe when you walk with God! While Noah was building the ark, he preached to the people. His thoughts were with God and he talked with Him as with a friend. This is what is meant when it is said that Noah walked with God. He was made a fool of and reviled, but God saved him and his family while millions perished.
About 1,500 years later, three Hebrews walked with God. They read Scriptures daily and prayed to God three times a day. They resolved not to do anything that God would disapprove of. The enraged king threw them into a fiery furnace, but God was with them in the furnace and they all came out unharmed.
When I was a little boy, I was often a afraid to walk alone after dark. But when I walked with my father and mother and put my little hand in my father's big hand, all my fear disappeared. I thought he was so big and strong and could handle anything. But what do you think about God? He who walks with God can truly feel safe, because no one can stand up to Him.
Have you ever heard of Desmond T. Doss? He was only a humble nurse during World War II, but he too walked with God. He put God first every day of his life, praying and reading the Bible.
At first, the other soldiers made fun of him for reading the Bible, and they often called him a mother's boy and threw their boots at him.
But when there was real danger, something changed. Then came the famous battle at a ravine, when the American army landed on Okinawa, a Japanese island. There were 155 American soldiers who had asked Doss to pray for them before they climbed up the cliff in a rope. A few days later they returned, but now there were only 55 soldiers left.
Doss was the last man to leave. He dragged one by one his wounded fellow soldiers to the edge of the cliff and then lowered them down in a rope. “Come down, Doss,” the officer shouted to him. “You’ll just get killed yourself.” But Doss replied: “Just give me a little more time. I can’t leave these wounded men and just leave them to die alone up here.” And single-handedly he lowered 75 men down. In the end, he himself was seriously wounded, but he escaped alive, returned home and was greatly honored by President Truman himself, who presented him with the “Congressman’s Medal of Honor” - the highest award a country could give to one of its heroes.
It pays to walk with God. It pays to take God with you wherever you go. It pays to stay away from places where God and the angels are not. Won’t you also make the decision to walk with God every day of your life?
E.Campbell translated
1st May 2026
Great Friday and B vitamins
”They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
Acts 2.42 NIV
For many Danes, Great Friday is a welcome spring holiday, and for many others it is almost a great confirmation day, as many churches across the country hold confirmations.
For more than 300 years, the fourth Friday after Easter has been a fixed day of prayer in the Danish church until 2023, when the Danish Parliament passed a resolution to abolish it. Although it has now been abolished with great popular opposition, it is still in the minds of many Danes.
For many Danes, Great Friday was a welcome spring holiday, and for many others it is almost a great confirmation day, as many churches across the country hold confirmations. It is a special holiday because we do not share it with other countries.
The story of the Great Prayer Day
Hans Bagger is the mastermind behind the Great Prayer Day
But in fact the day is meant to be a special day of prayer, and behind the day was the 17th century comet in the theological starry sky in Denmark, professor and bishop Hans Bagger
Hans Bagger (1645-1693) was born in the city of Lund, while Skåne was Danish. He became a professor of theology at Lund University and at the age of 29 he was given the highest ecclesiastical office in Denmark as Bishop of Zealand. King Christian V quickly noticed Bagger's abilities and involved him in the revision of Danish Law, among other things, but from an ecclesiastical point of view it is Bagger's revision of the so-called altar book with the church's rituals that he is remembered for.
Dean Holger Villadsen, who wrote the Great Prayer Day article in the Great Danish Encyclopedia, is almost obsessed with Bagger and, for example, has an original copy of the bishop's more than 400-year-old altar book standing on his shelf. Villadsen says that Hans Bagger's revision, among other things, introduced the entrance and exit prayers in the church - and thus also the Great Prayer Day.
All work was prohibited on the new holiday
The Great Prayer Day was heralded the evening before by ringing the bells in the church. When the bells rang, it was a signal for inns and other places to close, and that no more trade was allowed. In this way, there was hope that people would be able to come to church on time and sober the next day. The fast lasted until the end of the service.
As part of the new holiday, all work was prohibited and one also had to refrain from traveling, playing, gambling and all kinds of "worldly vanity". The bakers therefore came up with the idea of baking wheat buds the day before, which could then be warmed and eaten on the Great Prayer Day.
The day was officially called "extraordinary, ordinary prayer day" and has been fixed on the fourth Friday after Easter since 1686. This statutory Great Prayer Day was only one of many. There were several smaller prayer days spread across the calendar.
Great Prayer Day is not Struensee's work
Holger Villadsen says that as far back as the ancient church writing Didaké from the 100th century, Wednesday and Friday have been known as days when Christians fasted and prayed. He adds that it is a widespread misconception that Great Prayer Day was the result of Struensee's reform of combining many different holidays into a few in 1770. At that time, Great Prayer Day had been a reality for almost 100 years.
"I do not think that the placement of Great Prayer Day on the fourth Friday after Easter is coincidental. At that time, so-called walking days were held in the spring, where people walked in a holy procession across the fields, where the crops were in full growth. There were church rituals and text readings associated with the walking days, which were almost a spring festival as a counterpart to the autumn harvest festival."
Great Prayer Day only exists in Denmark
When the current altar book of the Danish Church was revised, Holger Villadsen was secretary to the bishops, and he says that at that time there was a discussion about whether to abolish Great Prayer Day altogether, but it came to nothing, even though the holiday is not known from other countries.
"If the day were to have any justification, one would have to draw the line up from the ordinary days and make Great Prayer Day a church spring festival. That would not be completely strange, because we sing many spring hymns at this time," says Holger Villadsen.
Bishop Niels Henrik Arendt does not believe in abolishing Great Prayer Day either, even though it actually has nothing to do with the church year.
"It is one of those holidays that the population will fight for to the last drop of blood, because it is so conveniently located here in the middle of spring," he says.
What about the wheat buns?
The background to eating warm wheat buns in Denmark the evening before Great Prayer Day is that Great Prayer Day itself was supposed to be a day of penance and prayer for everyone - including the bakers.
Therefore, they baked wheat cakes the evening before, which people could buy to eat the next day. But it quickly became the case that the wheat was eaten while it was still warm and crispy.
But whether we stick to Great Prayer Day or not, let us, together with the first Christian congregation, which we read about in the Acts of the Apostles in our Bible, consume our spiritual food daily, the four C-vitamins, which are so crucially important for us to become and remain in Christ Jesus.
C-VITAMINS
Emanuel Minos
I have many friends among Lutherans, including Professor Wisløff, who has given me this Bible, and Dr. Ejnar Lundby. When me and Ejnar Lundby were young, he spoke of the four C vitamins from Acts 2.42: The Confession (the teachings of the apostles), the community, the communion (the breaking of bread ) and the prayer community. Oh, the four mighty C vitamins that we Christians have in the end times, while we are waiting for Jesus to return.
I tell you I'm not waiting for the destruction. I'm not waiting for atomic bombs. I'm not waiting for terror. I'm waiting for a broken cloud. And while we wait, we must take these strong C vitamins, and I just want to say something about the last one, namely the prayer or the community of prayer.
Let's pray for relatives and friends who have not been saved. In our family we have decided to gather once a week to pray for those in our family who have not been saved. I believe in the power of prayer, I believe in the wonder of prayer. We live in the end of times when everything that happened on Noah's days will happen. But we have promises. The promises belong to you and your children, says Scripture. (Acts 2.39)
For 40 years, the Israeli people were in the desert. Then they conquered the Promised land. One of those who participated was old Caleb. He was 80 years old when he began his deed. Let's gather about the Lord's cause and take the land of the promises. We will experience revival and the outpouring of the Spirit. We must prepare to meet Jesus in the cloud. But we must be cleansed in the blood of the lamb, whiter than snow.
Effie Campbell translated
26.1.2014
Evangeline Booth
26th January 2014
WHO WAS IT THAT KISSED ME?
“Dear friends, let us love one another,... " 1.John 4.7
See video of Evangeline Booth
Evangeline Booth stood outside a court building and watched various prisoners that came out of there. A moment ago she had heard someone in there shouting, squalling and swearing, and now she saw a feisty looking woman being led out of the courtroom accompanied by six police officers. Two went in front of her and two others behind her, while two held in her arms. The woman struggled to get free. The clothes she had on was torn and full of holes, her hair was woolly and bristly, and her filthy face was clotted with blood. What could she do for her?
Evangeline knew there was no time to preach to her. It would be a crime against her to give her money, and to sing for her would be useless. In a minutte this woman would be far away. Powered by a sudden impulse Evangeline ran onto this dirty, cursing and ugly smelling woman and kissed her.
The woman slipped her hands loose and searched with a wild expression the field with her eyes." Who was it that kissed me?" She shouted. "Who kissed me? Nobody had done that since her mother died."
She raised her torn apron to her face and burst into heartbreaking tears, and as a mild lamb she followed the officers into the wagon, which drove her to jail.
Some days after this incident Mrs Booth went on a prison visit to see the woman. Her face was now clean, and she now looked quite handsome. She looked at the stranger and asked, "Do you know who kissed me?"
Then she told Mrs Booth her life story. "When I was a baby my father died, and when I was 7 years old my mother also died. She died in a dark backyard in a poor neighborhood. When she was dying she called to me, took my small face between her hands and kissed it and said: "My poor little girl! O God, be merciful to my little girl and take good care of her!"
From that day until now, no one has kissed my face until the other day."
Then she asked again: "Do you know who it was that kissed me?"
Evangeline Booth replied: "It was me."
She told this lost woman of God and how he loved her so much that he was willing to die for us on the cross, where he wore all our offenses. He was wounded and disabled, so that he could save everybody from their sins.
This was something completely new. The woman had never imagined that Jesus loves so much. She opened her heart to Jesus, and before she got out of prison, she had also learned many other prisoners to love Jesus.
All this happened because Evangeline Booth kissed her. Fantastic, and what a beautiful and good deed! Evangeline Booth was the daughter of the man who founded the Salvation Army, William Booth.
Let us show our fellow human beings our love and learn the many unhappy and broken people that God truly is a God who saves sinners.
E. Campbell translated
25th January 2014
THE WAY - ALSO INTO THE THIRD MILLENIUM
"For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believs in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16
The way is a messiah-description, which is used throughout the Bible, from Abraham to Moses, from the Psalms of David to all the prophets. The Patriarchs and the Prophets spurred the Israeli people to follow the path and not deviate from the way. When Jesus came as the living Messiah, he said: "I am the WAY! "Therefore followers of Jesus in the New Testament did not name their faith Christianity, but the Way. There are many passages in the book of Acts, where the Christian faith is called, "The Way" and "the way of God."
Jesus is the Way, and not the roadside. There is good reason to warn against the 2000 hysteria and their deviation from the Way. The world needs the Gospel of Jesus, not the many oddities, tall tales or Christian laws.
An example of the essence of the gospel is the Apostolic Creed and John.3.16.
The creed reads: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.
And John 3:16 reads: "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believs in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Jesus and the apostles also warned against false prophets, the false Messiah, the Antichrist, and other aberration in the last days. The so-called Christians waves from the U.S. Also knock on our doors in the Nordic region with all sorts of weird stuffs
What is from God puts Jesus in the center and acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God come in the flesh, while all that is false deny Jesus.
The great danger, where "chosen" Christians are being misled, Jesus and the Apostles connect with the Jews and their reception of the false Messiah. Jesus said, "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him." (John 5.43 )
The false Messiah, which the Bible calls "the Antichrist" will sit in the temple of God.
The believers must follow the Way, preach the Gospel and show Jesus' love and friendship to all.
In the Hebrews, Jews believing in Jesus were in danger of going back to animal sacrifices in the temple and reject Jesus' sacrificial death as the only foundation of salvation. They had already been warned not to tread on the Son of God and hold the blood of the covenant unholy, and again crucify the Son of God ( Heb. 10.26-29 and 6,4-6).
Animal sacrifices in the Old Covenant could not take away sins (Hebrews 10, 4)
Only when we stick to the Way, Jesus, we avoid falling into the ditch in those last days.
Aril Edvardsen, "Troens bevis".
E. Campbell translated
24th January 2014
SAME RELIGION AS THE OLD BY BLOOD
The then known persons representing materialism and atheism, Professor KW, Mr HB, Mrs KD and several others had announced with a large anti- biblical lecture at Viktoria Hall in Stockholm March 19 - .
After the lecture, the word was given freely to the audience.
The hall was crowded to bursting point, most of them godless people. Then Professor W. Rose to the pulpit, and people clapped eagerly to honor him. He confirmed once again that there was not a single evidence that Jesus ever existed. The only thing people relied on, in terms of the historical Jesus was something that Josephus had written down, but this turned out to be a forged supplementary document, and therefore there was no longer any evidence that Jesus ever existed.
Then the word was given free to all. An elderly man stood up. He father wore the distinctive red jacket of the Salvation Army. The moderator watched him scornfully as did quite a few others of the audience, who shouted that they had not come to a Christian revival meeting, and therefore it was best that the old fellow kept silent. But he demanded to speak since they had advertised it, or did they fear their counterpart? So they let him speak. With clear and powerful voice, he said:
"It seems to be a matter of great concern and distress with these professors and this science. How does the professor know that Jesus didn't exist?"
The professor said mockingly: "Well, how do you know that he lived?" And even more condescending the audience chimed: "Well, how do you know? "
But then the old man thundered : "Should I not know that Christ is? Should I not understand?"
"We demand proof! Give us proof!" Someone shouted from the audience and from the podium.
" Yeah, I will give you proof" he replied with a resounding voice." I am a proof myself that our precious Savior lives. Some years ago I was the most shabby drunkard in Stockholm. I drank and used every penny I could get my hands on on booze, and when i became drunk I ended up in the detention at the police station. From there I was sent to the judge, and since I was unable to pay the fines, so I had to back to prison. But hardly I was outside again until over and over I repeated this miserable cycle, from the pub, to the court and imprisoned and so on back to the pub. I signed up for every possible and impossible temperance society and took a sacred pledge after another, but the problems just got worse. I sank deeper and deeper into a bottomless misery.
“But then one day in my deepest despair I met the Lord Jesus Christ, and he liftet me with his pierced hand out of the muck and purified me with his blood. And since that day I have been saved and preserved in the faith, and I have been a hard workin, valued and useful citizen since then. Should I not know better than anyone that Christ exists? "
There was a complete silence in the hall, and everyone seemed to be moved by this personal testimony. After a long pause Mr D. B. Was given the word, but it was not easy for him to maintain his usual arrogant attitude when it came to spiritual matters. He noted:
" Ladies and gentlemen, if I had to think about religion – obviously that will hardly happen - but nevertheless if it was occur for me to think of such a thing, I would want to have the same religion as the old man by the blood!"
It was obvious that the testimony had also hit him.
" ...and when I see the blood, I will pass over you." Exodus 12.13 or as it says in a Swedish Bible: "And the blood shall be a sign unto you to salvation!"
E. Campbell translated
23th January 2014
NOT OUTSIDE BUT INSIDE !
They stood on a street corner and discussed. One was a man of faith, and the other was active in politics. The latter was convinced that the party he represented would be of greater benefit to people and society than all Christianity and belief in God.
The politician came with one argument after another and became more and more eager in his view of things: "You do not change the social conditions in this world by going around and preaching about a possible eternal salvation! It is here and now that we need changes and improvements that can stem corruption and rottenness, and that can create equality and justice for all - and make it possible for everyone to live a decent life ... "
As soon as he had said this a very dirty and tattered homeless man past by. The politician, who by now was really worked up, observed the man and said, "Take for instance that man. Society has failed! Our political program can save men like him: We will provide new clothes for such people!"
Then the man of faith answered: "The Gospel works the other way round. It gives new people to such clothes!"
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"
2 Cor. 5.17 NIV
"Tro & Fakta" No. 6/ 1997.
E. Campbell translated
22th January 2014
THE BIBLE - THE HOLY SCRIPTURE
That's the name of it - and it's contents!
The Bible is a divine book. The words are full of spirit - God-breathed!
Paul:
"All Scripture is God-breathed"
2 Tim. 3.16
I believe everything that is in the law, and what is written in the prophet.( Acts.24,14)
Peter:
"For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
( 2.Pet. 1.21)
Prophets have pondered and searched when they prophesied what the Spirit of Christ showed them. (1.Pet. 1.10 - 12).
People have written down what they got from God. How far does human thoughts go in this? Find the answer in the parable that the Bible itself set between the Word and Jesus! Joh. 1.1 and 1.Joh. 1.1 etc.
As surely as Jesus was true man, yet without sin, the Bible is true human, yet without fault!
Jesus was God and man in one body - the Bible is divine and human in one volume!
Just as Jesus was different from us - the Bible is different from all other books. The true humanity of Jesus was, among other things, that he was born by a woman, the son of man. He may have resembled his mother immensely. He was tired and hungry and tempted, but God was his model, "Father, if it is your will ... ?"
The true human of the Bible is among other things-, It bears the mark of the period and of the writers who have written. However, always guided by the will of God : "For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets"
2 Pet. 1.21
"The Bible through the ages" V. Munch.
Effie Campbell translated
21th January 2014
HOW DO WE FIND GOD?
"...no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Joh. 3.3 NIV
There are many who do not know what it is to be born again, nor what rebirth truly means in the life of a human being.
Being born again is more than merely to accept Christ in your consciousness and your mind. Even if you live a "decent" and a morally irreproachable life where you live and behave the very best you can on your own, then it is not and will never be enough for wether you make the so-called "small sins" or large, you are still a sinner on the road of perdition. "... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..."
Romans 3:23 NIV
When a child is born, the proud parents announce this great news far and wide. This newborn child starts a life in a world that is totally new to it. When a sinner is born of God's Holy Spirit - reborn - we also bring the happy news to others. The newborn “child of God” also enters a world that is new to it - a new life. The heart and the mind is totally changed, he or she has been given new wishes, a new setting and meaning of life, new interests and new thoughts.
Imagine, a life of victory over sin, and peace instead of strife and temptations! What a marvelous life!
Perhaps you ask, "How can I experience this new birth? "You must turn away from sin and come to God with the intention fully to give him your life. Simply pray the Lord to forgive you and save you.
When you are born again, then you will know it. The condemnation has gone.
E. Campbell translated
20th January 2014
SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS
"And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them."
Mark 10.16
Fanny Crosby was born in New York ( 1820-1915). Just six weeks old she lost her sight and was blind for the rest of her life. 12 years old she went on a blind school, where she stayed for the following 23 years, first as a student and later as a teacher.
Fanny Crosby wrote more than 2,000 songs. The impact Lina Sandell had on the Nordic region Fanny Crosby had for the English-speaking countries.
The song "Safe in the arms of Jesus" was written 30 april 1868. Fanny tells that on this particular day one well-known music artist, W.H. Doane wisited her.
He brought along with him a new melody, which was missing a text. When he played the song for her, she said : "This tune says: Safe in the arms of Jesus."
After a while Fanny went for herself to be alone and in silence. She then remembered an incident that she had been told two days before. On a street in New York, which swarmed with people there was a mother with her child and they came into this great human multitude. In this congestion the child lost his mother and the child began to sob fiercely and was completely inconsolable right to the point when it again lay in his mother's arms.
There in the arms of the mother it was safe and sound – here the weeping seized. This one small everyday incident became a picture for Fanny Crosby of how human beings can only be safe in one place, in the arms of Jesus!
Twenty minutes later, Fanny handed the music artist lyrics to this song, "Safe inn the arms of Jesus." Doane wrote it immediately, and the original text has never been changed since then.
You can hear the song on the following link .
"Safe in the arms of Jesus."
E.Campbell
19th January 2014
ARE YOU IN TROUBLE
If you are in trouble, then hook you on this promise from God: "For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."
Isaiah. 41.13
E.C.
18th January 2014
MY GOD DIED
" Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”
Joh. 15.13 NIV
That was what my God did for me at Calvary. There he paid for my sins, so I do not have to pay with death, which means being separated from God forever, lost.
Throughout history, there are many who have been appointed as God, but where is the God who died for you, he, who, when the wolf and the bear came, fought to the death? No, they were only hired workers.
My God died - but he lives! On Easter morning, he was raised from the dead, the tomb is now empty, the living, who were to keep watch over him, were like dead. Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords - he lives!
This is what we will testify just as clearly and simply as Paul, when he testified for both young and old, "that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”
Acts 26.23 NIV
We must never evade the blood because "and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
Heb. 9.22 NIV
How it is difficult to understand why there are so many who decline the offer that Jesus gave to each of us, which was completed when he broke the power of death on Easter morning and rose from the dead. Will you accept His gift, a brand new life, even a life of abundance?
E. Campbell
17th January 2014
WHERE IS THE LAMB?
Genesis 22.7
Everything was ready for the sacrifice, but "where is the lamb?" Isaac Asks his father, Abraham. We have good reason to pass the same question on to many people today.
Nations have their gods, Islam has its prophets, Israel has its laws and worship of God, but where is the lamb?
And all the nominal Christians in the West, they often have everything in order. They are baptized, and sometimes they come to worship and communion, they have a God, a God up in heaven - but where is the lamb?
They have no lamb. They have never had a moment, not one moment when the Lamb of God, the slaughtered Lamb became their lives, their salvation and peace - all of their Christianity.
That is why they are lost in everything else. For only in the Lamb there is salvation. Only in the blood of the Lamb there is atonement and access to God. And in heaven with God himself all is about the Lamb. The song up there is "the song of the Lamb ," the bride is "the Lamb's bride" and the wedding is the "marriage of the Lamb."
Revelation . 15.3 and 19.7
You expensive soul - is the "Lamb of God" your only access to heaven. Otherwise you'll never get there.
The Lamb that was slain, is Jesus Christ. Jesus said:
"I am THE WAY ... No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14,6
Believe in him and let him guide you.
E. Campbell
16th January 2014
NOW JUST A WORD FOR JESUS
The chorus of one of Fanny Crosby hymns reads:
Now just a word for Jesus,
’Twill help us on our way!
One little word for Jesus,
Oh speak, or sing, or pray!
Yes, it is as true as it is said. If we say a word about Jesus, then it may be for the salvation of someone, often perhaps without our knowledge about it.
So it was with the English speaker Spurgeon. He was to have a sermon in the Crystal Castle in London for a large crowd. Before he had to go live on the podium, he would like to know how his voice sounded in this huge hall. The day before the sermon he went into the hall and stepped up to the podium and said loud and clear the following words: " credible is the word and worthy of all acceptance For Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”
1 Tim. 1.15 NIV
Spurgeon uttered these words two times and then turned back home. He was convinced that the audience would hear him .
Then 25years later. One of Spurgeons employees were then asked to come on a visit to an old laborer, who was dying.
" Are you prepared to die," the preacher said.
" Yes, the Lord be praised," replied the patient happy, and so he began to tell how he had been converted, and his face was beaming with joy.
"I was a skilled laborer occupied with laying lead roofs. Many years ago I worked under the dome at the Crystal Castle. Back then I was not a believer. I lived my life without God and without hope. I thought I was alone in the building, but then I heard a voice loud and clear that I almost thought came from heaven, saying: "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”
These words convinced me that I was a sinner and that God is merciful. I learned to trust in faith in Jesus, and from this day I have only built all my hope of salvation on him."
E. Campbell
15th January 2014
THE CHALICE
An old story from Scotland tells of an old man sitting at the altar of worship and felt unworthy to participate. He sat there and felt miserable and in such sad state of mind, that he dared not participate in the remembrance of the Lord's death on the cross.
During the aisle he saw a very young girl burst into tears. She then passedd the chalice without drinking from it. Suddenly, all his fears vanished, and he whispered clearly to the girl: "Drink from the chalice, my friend! It is for sinners!"
"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."
Joh. 6,54 NIV
E. Campbell
14th January 2014
THREE WORDS FOR THOUGHT
Some years ago I sat in a bus that drove through London's city streets. During the trip, I noticed a man who swept the streets. He had a big sign on his back. The sign read: Without God - no hope.
In the north of Scotland I became aware of an embroidered image on wall in an ordinary living room, which read: "prepare to meet your God."
Back home I found the same word in the Bible in Amos 4.12.
Once I saw the following sentence in a Danish teacher's Bible: This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you away from this book.
Effie Campbell
13th January 2014
ENDURANCE
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”
(Hebrews 10.35 to 36 NIV)
Impatience, discouragement and unbelief can hit people so hard that they resign and let their hands fall down because they have prayed and labored for the Lord so long, and it turns out to be fruitless. They are tempted to give up.
When we feel like this we must cling to the word of God, which helps us and says, "So do not throw away your confidence" There is a real danger of throwing away confidence, and thereby lose what God has promised to those who believe.
Yes, we need endurance to do God's will. Jesus says in Luke 21.19: "Stand firm, and you will win life.” Bible calls endurance for a commandment.
Thus we read in Revelation 3.10: "Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial”
Daniels prayer.
Daniel had to wait 21 days before the answer came, but from day one, after he gave his heart to seek Gods wisdom and humble himself before God, his words were heard (Daniel 10:12). But he had to struggle in prayer against "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”( Eph. 6:12) , but the "prince of the Persian kingdom" resisted 21 days, but then came "Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me" (Daniel 10:13). Not until all obstacles had gone God granted his prayer - there had to be a struggle in prayer first.
Jeremiah's prayer.
Jeremiah had to wait for 10 days before the answer came, when people begged him to ask the Lord to show them which way ought to go and what to do.
Abraham's prayer.
Abraham had to wait many years for the promised son, Isaac. "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations...Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
(Rom. 4.18 to 21 )
God's answer to perseverance in prayer also in our days.
A female missionary had a brother who was not saved, and it troubled her deeply. However, he was an alcoholic. One day she read in
2.Mos.10.26: "Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind."
“Not a hoof is to be left behind." She repeated this and got such faith in this word that she thanked and praised God for this promise.
The letters that was sent to her the following months only told how sad his brother's condition was, and in the last letter the message was that now his condition had deteriorated significantly.
However, the missionary didn't let this throw her off balance, and still she praised God for the promise she had in his word. Then one day there came a letter with great news. The brother had been saved, and all his craving for alcohol was gone.
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
(Galatians 6:9)
12th January 2014
INVITATION FOR A WEDDING
A pastor's wife once told me this story:
There was an old man who dreamed that he died.
The angels came and carried him up and carried him thus into heaven. Jesus himself received him, and many people who had gone home before him flocked to him and welcomed him.
The old man suddenly remembered one person that he did not see anywhere. " Where was George ?" He asked.
Then Jesus eyes was filled with tears. "No one has invited him ," the Savior said.
"Oh, please give me permission to go down to earth a short moment, so that I can invite George! " the old man said.
The moment he woke up. He ran immediately to the hot-tempered and irascible blacksmith, to whome almost nobody dared to talk.
"I greet you from Jesus and invite you into heaven, " said the old man.
At first the blacksmith became angry, but guess what , it ended up that he received the invitation and began to walk on the Heaven Way.
You cannot say that you are not invited to Jesus. But today he sends you once again a new greeting: "Come to the wedding banquet”
(Matt. 22.4)
You are invited to an eternal celebration and salvation . Do you know how often the word "come" is repeated in the Bible? An avid man found out that the word "come" occurs 479 times!
Einar Lyngar . E. Campbell trans .
11th January 2014
Verily JESUS COMES
Matt. 24.32-33
Have you ever experienced a winter that never came to an end? It felt like spring would never come.
Perhaps this is why Jesus chose to use exactly this picture to assure us that he is indeed coming.
"“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.”
Matt. 24.32-33
Early in March, while we still wear coats buttoned up to the neck, and while we still have to go on ice and snow that we see a tree with bulging green buds, and we feel a little warmer because knots clubs tells us that spring is imminent.
Jesus knows this feeling. He longed for spring. And he promises that he will come back for us, just as unerringly sure as spring follows winter.
E. Campbell translated
10th January 2014
PROVE IT
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
Mat. 7, 24
A painter, who traveled around Switzerland was stopped one day by some inspectors who demanded to see his passport. "I didn't bring it with me," he said, "but my name is Doré." "Prove it," said the inspectors. They knew this famous artist name, but were not sure that it was him.
Doré took a piece of paper and drew a sketch of some peasants who were nearby. This he did so outstandingly well that the inspectors had to admit: "It's OK. You are Doré."
The world does not care about our oral testimony. We need to show that we are Christians by our lives and our actions.
E. Campbell translated
9th January 2014
Almost persuaded now to believe;
Almost persuaded Christ to receive;
Seems now some soul to say,
Go, Spirit, go Thy way,
Some more convenient day
On Thee I’ll call.
Almost persuaded, come, come today;
Almost persuaded, turn not away;
Jesus invites you here,
Angels are lingering near
Prayers rise from hearts so dear;
O wanderer, come!
Almost persuaded, harvest is past!
Almost persuaded, doom comes at last!
Almost cannot avail;
Almost is but to fail!
Sad, sad, that bitter wail—
Almost, but lost!
P. P. Bliss.
Press here to here the song
Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”
Acts. 26, 28
Bliss wrote both lyrics and tunes to some of our songs. He was born in 1838 in North Pensylvania in a godly home.
His interest in music was awakened already at the age of 10. About this the story tells: One day as he strolled along the way he heard music that he had never heard before. He stopped - a door was ajar and he went inside. Soon he was standing by a door that opened into a sitting room where a woman was playing on a black wooden box with black and white " buttons " (piano ) . When she was finished he shouted enthusiastically : " Play more, please play more! "
After working a few years of farming bet he solely turned on the music and started at a school where he could train in music.
14 years old, he came to personal faith. He now lived in Chicago and was a Sunday School teacher there. Here, his musical talents benefitted him particularly well because he wrote songs that the children understood and could sing. When Moody became acquainted with this young music virtuoso he urged and supported him to accompany him on his meeting tour around the country.
However, his working day was short because he died in 1876 in a railroad-accident with his wife, just two years after being hired.
Bliss was often captivated by a particular word or a particular phrase, which he heard in a sermon. The serious song, "Almost persuaded" Bliss composed after hearing a sermon about being an almost Christian, almost on the way to Heaven - and yet not to be with.
Has this song spoke to you?
You can hear the song by pushing this link
F. Campbell translated
8th January 2014
DO YOU TURN DOWN?
A gang leader in the United States were arrested some time ago. He was very hard of hearing, so he had to go with a hearing aid. Every time he was wheeled into the courtroom and his case was treated, he muffled the sound of his hearing so that he heard nothing of what was said.
No one could understand that he was so calm and that nothing seemed to touch him of what he argued. Then came the last day on which his case was to come on. This was the day in which he was to be sentenced. As he approached the courtroom, he turned down the volume so that he could not hear. Then the sentence was passed. He was condemned to death in the electric chair, but he heard nothing of what was said, so he was quite unaffected by the circumstances.
When the day came that he was to be executed, the guards came after him. He was quite calm. He did not know where they were going. But when they arrived and he noticed the electric chair, he was quite beside himself. He yelled and screamed like mad, because now it occurred to him how stupid he had been, because he would not listen and therefore had turned down the hearing aid.
God calls on us in many ways, and he uses every opportunity, because he loves us with an everlasting love. God can call you through another person, a hymn, a treaty or any other Christian literature. If in your heart you feel a warm alluring force and you have a desire to be good and pure, then it is God who is calling you. If you, while you 're having fun with others, feel that everything is empty and worthless and you are overwhelmed by a longing to be free of sin, which only inhibits and binds, then it is God who calls.
Al longing for the good comes from God. He would like to get in touch with us. But quite often we are like this abowe man. We turn down and do not want to hear. So he will have to send hardships, sickness, sorrow through a close family member's death, so that close relationships are interrupted.
Do not turn away from him, do not screw down. He only wants the very best for you. He wants to fill your life as a Christian. And soon he comes back, and takes you back home with him, because you are the heir to his Kingdom. (Jak. 2.5)
E. Campbell
7th January 2014
I WAS NOT DIVORCED - BUT SAVED!
After being married for 15 years - we had at that time a 14 year old son - I was misled by the evil tricks and wanted a divorce from my husband. The final papers had been handed in, and I already had plans for a new marriage. But inside me everything was in turmoil and in total chaos. Then something happened, something that was nothing short of a revolution: I received Christ!
Laila Heimli tells: "3 days before this revolution in my life, two believing women met in the city. One of them was my mother in law. She told the other that I and my husband, Kari, had split up and that there was no longer any hope for our marriage. But the other answered, "Yes! For God there is nothing impossible. Let us immediately pray for Laila and Kari!"
So they went together in prayer for us, and the burden was heavy on them while they stood there in Bergen city center.
Three days later I was invited to a meeting at a congregation. Such a thing as attending a Christian meeting was totally new for me, and I was very much in doubt. Anyway - after a conversation in confidence, it ended up that I agreed to go. At that time I did not understand that it was God's Spirit that worked in me.
At this time there was a bible verse that spoke to me. The reason was that our 14 year old son went to the pastor while we were separated, and one day he came home with a New Testament. On the front page there was a greeting and a reference to a scripture. I was curious and came up with this scripture in Rome. 13.8: "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another" NIV
These words both intrigued me and tormented me and made me feel that my situation was even more messy.
When I was at the meeting and heard the song and testimony this evening, I was so moved that I just could not hold my tears back. A servant of the Lord came gently towards me and asked: "Are you unhappy, my dear friend?" - "Yes," I stammered out through my tears. - "Do you want us to pray for you tonight?" - "Yes, please!"
That evening, I gave Jesus my heart. I did not understand much of what happened, but a miracle happened, a salvation miracle! This is the truth. Oh, how unbelievable and wonderful to be allowed to fall on your knees and become small and receive the Savior's forgiving grace!
As soon as I got the chance, I told my mother what had happened. My new life gave me the courage and desire to share what I had experienced. Kari was very surprised. He was equally unknown about Christian life, just as I had been! Yet, despite the fact that he was not able to follow me on the road of faith right away, we both got through this a new perception of life and of each other. We cut off the connections we had with previous relations and started a completely new life. All honor and thanks belongs to my Lord and my God!
I got to start all over again - both as a wife and mother, in a brand new home, and now we are building on faithfulness and show each other confidence. And you who are reading this testimony, let me tell you that my husband has now chosen the Heaven Way. I 've been prayed and waiting for this for 17 years, and all the believers have also prayed! To God belongs the glory. In October 1997 we held 40th wedding anniversary. Thank God !
Our family was blessed with a precious daughter, exactly a year after I was saved. As a gift from God, she came to us. Today, 1998, our daughter is also the mother of our two grandchildren, and for all this we thank and praise Jesus, our precious Savior.
Yes, conciliation and reconciliation and a new start that is the will and ways of God! However, in cases where this is no longer possible, then the Word of God is at any rate unwavering - also for you:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:”
2 Cor. 5.17 – 18 NIV
(also reconciliation ministry, both to God and the Father and between us humans.)
TF - magazine
E. Campbell translated
6th January 2014
THE RIGHT CHOICE
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matth. 7,13-14 NIV
Every day we are faced with choices, whether we are to choose this or that. When we are out doing our shopping the question is often: what would be the bestt to buy now, the cheapest or the slightly more expensive and better?
But there are also times when we are faced with choices of far greater importance, which may have serious consequences if we do not choose the right way. God has given us the choice whether to go the broad way that leads to hell, or the narrow road that leads to heaven. There is "no middle ground", as is so often asserted. Here it is either – or.
"But how can I know what is right?" Many do say. "There are so many religions and many different Christian churches. How do I know which of these has the right teachings?"
Jesus said to Pilate, "Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
John. 18.37
Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" V. 38
He stood actually opposite to him who said "I am the way and the truth and the life" ( John 14:6 ), but Pilate "Wanting to satisfy the crowd" (Mark 15.15), and therefore he gave up Jesus to the crowd to be crucified.
And while he( Pilate) “sat on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him and let say," Stay out of this righteous man . For I have the night had many bad dreams because of him . "
Matt. 27.19 NIV
God had warned him, and several times he(Pilate) had said to the crowd that he found no fault in Jesus, but nevertheless this prefect chose wrong. He was more afraid of going against the people than to go against the will of God.
Everyone can find God, just by searching him with all your heart. This is stated in Jer. 29.13 and in Matt. 7.7 Jesus says to us: "seek and you will find;"
So there is no excuse to choose wrong. Therefore, walk the narrow road that leads to heaven.
E. Campbell translated
5th January 2014
THE WORLD'S MOST MIGHTY POWER – PRAYERS
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
Luke 18.1
This is the parable that Jesus himself told us that we always have to be persistent in prayer, and not faint. Luke 18.1
Some years ago there was a couple in Sweden, who had a half-grown son. One day he had an errand to a neighboring town. It was winter, and when the boy had left his parents he fastened his skies firmly and left. The hours passed by, and the mother became increasingly worried because her son did not return. She opened the door again and again to see whether she could see anything outside. But no. The evening came, still nothing and now everything was dark. The boy had not yet come back. The following morning the father went out to search for his son along with the village men. The search was done very thoroughly and they searched everywhere, but in vain. The boy was not found.
It is always tragic to lose a child, but it gets many times worse when you do not know what kind of death, you child had had.
One day the husband says to his wife: "I am desperate to know what has happened to our son and what kind of death he has had. Therefore, every morning when you pray your morning prayer, you must ask God to show us the death that our son has been given. I will do exactly the same. Like this the same prayer will come to God's throne twice a day. This may take time, but you must not lose faith.
The years passed. In fact there were 7 years without anything happened. God had not given them what they had asked for. One day the husband says to his wife: "From now, we will also carry this prayer to God in our evening prayers. Then the same prayer will come to God's throne 4 times a day. We must endure in prayer, like the widow, then God's answers will come, this Jesus has promised us."
So they prayd faithfully the same prayer each morning and each evening. How many years went by like this, that I cannot remember, but one day God answered our prayer. The weather was so good that the husband had dragged the boat out of the boat shed.
He was to go out on a lake near here to fish. This was in the spring, the sun shone on the blank and calm lake. All of a sudden the father becomes aware of something on the bottom. He then throws the fishing net down and pulls it up. He finds out that it is a human skeleton. He threw the net down several times to get it all up and noticed that there was a fragment of a sock on one leg. On the verge of this sock he read very clearly the sewn initials of their son. His wife always used to sew the name on the socks. 'Then it was all quite clear for the father. The son had wanted to take a shortcut to the neighboring town and had gone off gliding over the lake.
The ice had not been thick enough and had given in, and the son had drowned. All these years he had been there and had long ago dissolved, but part of the socks with the initials, God had left intact to the parent that had been so persistent in prayer to know what death, their son had got. The father folded his hands and thanked God for hearing them. Yes, verily, God is in full great, and he hears all prayers. Do not be discouraged, but be persistent. Then you will get God's answers.
Effie Campbell
4th January 2014
The story of the song: "There is might in the small folde hands"
Press this link to hear the song
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
Matth. 7,7-8 NIV
We let the author Trygve Bjerkheim even tell how this song came to be.
Some years ago I sat in Forbundsshallen in Oslo one Sunday morning and heard a young missionary speech. One phrase he used, I wrote down. " The strongest superpower in the world at all times is the front with small folded hands."
The small decorated card with this phrase was in my French New Testament, and so it was that I was constantly reminded of these words by seeing them again and again. I wanted to write a song about that phrase, and thus it worked continuasly in my mind.
2 - 3 years later - or maybe 4, I woke up one night and came to think of the words of " the strongest Superpower " - the folded hands. When the phrase, “ There is might in the small folded hands."
There was a verse, a chorus and one more verse. I was almost finished with the song before I turned on the light and wrote them down. These verses were then printed as a small poem in the yearbook of the Mission-Union in 1955: " Deeper Down". They fit in well with the cover photo - a little chinese girl standing with her head bowed and holding her hands together in prayer.
When this book came to Dronningborg College in Grimstad early in 1956 teacher Haugen discovered this little poem, and he soon after that got a tune that matche the poem. This tune made the song widely known. But the song has 3 verses. A little later a retired officer from the Salvation Army, Colonel Linderud, turne up at the office in Mollergata 19.
Han sagde, at han var blevet så glad for digtet og havde skrevet en melodi til dette og spurgte så, om han kunne få lov til at bruge teksten til denne melodi.
Det fik han naturligvis lov til; men så tilføjede han: ”Min kone og jeg ville ønske, at du digtede et vers mere, hvor du medtog forældrene, der beder for deres børn.” Jeg lovede at forsøge. Da han var draget videre, nedskrev jeg et nyt vers: ”Du som be'r for dit barn, dine kære-.
He said that he had become very fond of the poem and that he had written a tune for this. Then he asked if he would be allowed to use the poem-text of this song. Naturally, he was allowed, but then he added: " My wife and I wish you wrote one more verse in where you included the parents who pray for their children." I promised to try. When he had gone on, I wrote a new verse: "You who pray for your child, your loved ones...”
Colonel Linderud came by again a few days later and then got this new verse. That was the last time that I saw this strange man. Shortly after that, he was with his wife and visited some old friends in Egersund.
Before he was supposed to leave the house for a meeting at the parish hall later this evening, he sat down and relaxed a little in a deep armchair. Suddenly his head fell backwards, and he passed away. After the funeral a large memorial service was held, and the song was sung with his melody.
E.Campbell translated
3rd January 2014
AN ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY OF A YOUNG STUDENT
"You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived" (persuade) Jer. 20.7 NIV
A young student in the USA was on his way home from the university. Along the way he entered a hotel. The host turned towards him and said:"Sorry, but we only have one room left, and it is located right next to a sick room. A young man is dying in there and there is only a thin wall between thoes two. I do not know if you like it?"
"Well, that doesn't bother me," the student replied. But when he went to sleep, it was impossible for him to fall asleep. The groaning of the sick and the nurse's footsteps back and forth could be heard very clearly.
He could not fall asleep. A strange uneasiness fell over him that made him ashamed. He was known as a free-thinker much to the dismay and sorrow for his parents. His father was a priest and had been looking immensely forward to the day that his son would become a priest. He still remembered his father's deep sorrow and his mother's tearful prayers when he last time he was home on vacation told them that he did not believe that there existed an afterlife.
The unrest plagued him, but he could not let go of the thought that on the other side of the wall, there was someone who was soon going to die - and what, if there should be something after death? What had Ellison thought if he had seen him in his present state of anxiety? Ellison was one of his friends at college. It was particularly his views and convictions that had caused him to be a freethinker. Well, what would he think? - "It is foolish. I have nothing to be afraid of," he said to himself.
On the other side of the wall the plaintive sounds of the sick had now become weaker and weaker. Eventually total silence. But this young student still could not fall asleep. The night seemed to be endless. Finally, it was morning. When the student came down he asked the host how things were with the sick.
"He's dead, poor thing. The doctor had actually said that he would not survive the night,"was the reply from the host.
" Do they know who he was? " the student asked. - "Well, it was a student from the High School in Providence, he got sick on his journey," said the host. It gave a jolt to him, because he went at the same school. "What was his name?" - "Ellison," the host replied, "did you know him?"
This young man was as stunned. It was his friend, the friend who had brought him to deny. Many hours had to pass before the student could stand to move on again. All the way home was this repeating sound inside his heart:"dead - and how? - Lost, lost!" His whole conviction and thought of existence was now totally overturned. He came home to his parents, completely changed - heartbroken, challenged, in anxiety and depressed by guilt. His old man had a gratifying task the following days to tell him about God's promises until his son found peace in believing in Jesus. This son was later to become one of the previous century's greatest missionaries: "The apostle, Burma". His name was Adoniram Judson.
"You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived" (persuaded) Jer. 20.7 NIV
E. Campbell
2nd January 2014
THE ENTRANCE OF TEMPTATIONS
It was very interesting to read of the Age of Chivalry in world history. Back then many of these men made great fortunes, and for that money they built themselves castles. Times were troubled, and therefore they had to think of defending themselves and as good as possible. Many of these knights therefore built castles on an islet or small island in a small lake. They used a drawbridge to connect the castle with the mainland. In this way they could keep the enemies at a distance, because when the enemy approached the castle they only had to raise the bridge, thus preventing the enemy free passage. Like this he could be standing there on land without having to worry. - He also made the walls very thick. But perhaps the most important thin was the windows. Those he made very small. Therefore, it was very difficult for the enemy on land to hit these small windows with their arrows.
Have you ever thought that the human body is just like such a castle? The windows of the castle are the eyes, ears, mouth and nose. Our enemy is Satan, and he always aims to send his arrows through the window openings to damage and destroy our soul. And he has succeeded with this many times.
Through the eyes TV and video images enter, which in large part deal with adultery, murder and brutality. This is corrupt and rotten food for the soul. Rarely it is far from thought to action. What people see, they also often do in their daily lives. "When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1.13 to 15)
Or this to let his eyes linger on someone else's spouse. I think there are many people who can talk about this, even King David, who was tempted by Bathsheba, Uriah 's wife. Like this David despised the word of God and did what displeased God with many unpredictable and far-reaching sorrows as a result of this ( 2 Sam. 11 and 12). So Satan succeeded in shooting his destructive arrows through David's eyes, and he fell.
Job was more cautious.
“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.
“If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, then may my wife grind another man’s grain, and may other men sleep with her. For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged. It is a fire that burns to Destruction; it would have uprooted my harvest."
(Job 31.1 . 9-12) . NIV
Through the mourth, Satan sends his deadly arrows in the form of intoxicating drinks. A secular saying goes, " When the beer comes in, reason goes out." And it is correct. People can be drunk to do things they would never dream of doing if they had been sober. But God also has something to say about these substances that deplete the body and destroys creation.
"Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple." ( 1 Cor. 3.16 to 17 ) NIV
Through the nose young people do sniff, and it can be fatal. It paralyzes the respiration and can cause sudden cardiac arrest. It is sad to see young people lie in bed without being able to eat or do anything that young people who may be cared for as diaper children due sniffing. Yes, indeed, Satan has luck.
The last window, we mention here is the ears. We must not listen to bad advices and temptations from our fellowmen. Similarly, there are also music which is both harmful and destructive.
There is help to get if we repent, yes, we have full redemption, God showed us His love in Jesus. His blood cleanses from all sin. We are purer than snow (Psalm 51.9 ). Sin will be lowered into the deepest sea (Micah 7.19 ) and Corrie ten Boom used to say : " A sign with the words " Fishing prohibited "hanging over there. So these sins will never again return and accuse us someday. The sins will not come to God's thoughts again.
Yes, you must understand, for he says of King David, who was a murderer that took someone else's wife, that he was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13.22 ). So great is God's forgiveness. You get a new beginning, a new life, the old has gone (2 Cor. 5.17 ). Does not that sound great ? But then you must also come to him, repent and ask for forgiveness.
Effie Campbell
1st January 2014
BIBLE VERSE IN OUR MODERN AGE?
Isn't it oldfashioned to learn Bible verses by heart today? However, many parents and teachers have told how Bible verses have been a blessing to their children.
In Copenhagen I taught a children's ring with appx. 20 children. One day a girl came to me and told me about the importance that a Bible verse had for her. " At my school I often recite the verse from John. 6.37: Jesus said " ... All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away."
She had seen the value in the fact that she could always come to Jesus.
We have seen that children have attended only a few times in the children ring, but that they had learned a bible verse back then that later bore fruit. People whom we met later in life, still remembered the Bible verses they learned as children in the ring.
Kresten says: "I could cite many examples, but I will restrict my self to mention only one example. One day I was at a car dealer. There was a "Hells Angel type” in black leather clothes and with a long ponytail. He looked at me a few times, and then he said: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke. 19.10 NIV
I smiled at him, but he noticed on my face, how amazed I was.
"Yes," he said, " I've met you once before. You spoke to a family worship, and you taught all in the church this verse." - I was pleased to hear that and I knew that I had not only taught them the Bible verse, but I also carefully had explained to them the context so that the verse could strengthen them, when the audience later in life were in need of the Word of God. "
A mother says the following: "Last summer we were at a family camp. The children taught the kids a memory verse from the Bible. Lea was just 4 years. The 4 days we were there, Leah did not say a word, but when we got home, she said : “because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” Hebr. 13.5 NIV
How I was happy, touched and grateful because she had remembered the word of God.
I would recommend anyone who has contact with children in their work, to teach the children memory verses, for it is God's truth. Teach them even a few memory verses a year, so that they stick in their memory.
"Focus on the child ."
E. Campbell translated
