A time for everything - and now it's time for something else

NORSK
The plan was to do the exercise for 9 weeks when, on 1 April 2009, I decided to blog my daily 'manna' - which simply means sharing with others the thought the word of God gave me to ponder upon for each day.
 
More than eight years is a long time, and I have regularly considered to 'quit'. However, the blogging has been a blessing for me, and helped me expressing my faith with my personal words.
 
Along the way, I have also experienced several 'Aha!' discoveries that have helped me seeing clearer things that were previously filed in the ‘mystery-box’. At the same time, the contents of the mystery box have not been reduced. On the contrary, I have seen even more of the mystery of salvation and grace. I actually like that I do not understand everything, and I even think that also is a part of the grace of God.

I do not stop blogging because I have a ‘writer’s block’. The truth is that I am full of thoughts about topics and books that deserve my devoted attention. However, I am now at peace with the decision to prioritize differently - at least for an undefined period of time. There are several reasons for this. They are not important to anyone, but myself. All the same, I share some reasons in the footnote (1).

Part of the mystery of grace are the testimonies that the blog postings have helped others too. I thank God for this, and I am glad that the internet gives the opportunity to be present with testimonies about the good news. My challenge to you is therefore to use the internet to spread a message of hope and love, and I share this promise:

Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days.
Eccles 11:1

To cast the bread upon the water is like sharing the 'manna', more specific: 'the bread of heaven' = Jesus (2) with others. When I share him, the return is always a blessing. Until now, the record for a return is 30 years before I saw a concrete result of something I felt led to do. Fortunately, we do not always have to wait so long. Sometimes it happens right away.

‘Manna’ for today:

There is always an opportunity to share the life of Jesus with others!

NB - You will find overview over my blog-postings in English HERE
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(1) Here are some reasons:

• A lot of time during a workday I spend sitting working on a screen. In addition to long working hours, blogging takes at least one hour extra screen-time every day.
• I want to release time without losing the personal devotion it is to write the blog. My intention is to improve one of my languages, and now I will spend my devotions studying the Bible in Russian.
• Over the past ten years I have written very much (not only the blog), and there has been little time for reading. Now I will prioritize reading again, because I feel that I need it.
• I have peace of mind to make this decision
• There are already almost 3,300 posts on the blog. These are available on Bibelportalen, where the posts are sorted in 66 books of the Bible (in the right-hand column), so it is still possible to have access to all previously published reflections.

(2) See John 6:35-40

What is so special with the believers?

NORSK
Believers are simply ordinary human beings. In many ways the only thing that distinguish them from nonbelievers, is the fact that they believe. Their faith will influence their values etc., but it is the salvation that is the core of their faith and the “trustworthy saying” they proclaim.

Because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all people, and especially of those who believe.
1 Tim 4:10b 

Today’s verse, which Timothy is challenged to “command and teach” (1), does once again proclaim that God is “the Saviour of all people”. There should be no doubt that salvation is for all.

So what did Paul mean with “especially of those who believe”?

It is because it is the faith that makes the salvation valid. When Jesus spoke about “the bread from heaven”, he encouraged his listeners to for “food that endures to eternal life”. They immediately response was a question: “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus’ answer was simply:

“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
John 6:29

It is interesting that Jesus turns faith into “work”. This has been a growing understanding of my personal conception of faith. Faith is acting as if that which is written, is true. When the Bible says that I am saved through the saving acts of Jesus for all people, I act and “command and teach” accordingly.

‘Manna’ for today:

God is the Saviour of all people

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(1) 1 Tim 4:11

It is about Christmas the whole year

NORSK
When I drove to the airport a couple of nights back, I discovered that the Christmas-lights are already up on the main road here in Chisinau. It is likely that they came up so early due to yesterday’s annual celebration of the city, but it is good to see light in the dark autumn nights.

In a spiritual sense, I want to celebrate Christmas every day of the year.

Yesterday I made the statement that “Holiness is communion”. Communion is ‘the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level’. 

If holiness is to be part of this world, it presupposes that I am in communion with Christ in the world. This again presupposes incarnation, which means that Jesus comes to the world through me, and every individual believer.

When this happens, the whole world becomes a “Bethlehem” = a “bread-house”.
Jesus referred to himself as the bread of life (1). When I share my life in communion with this world, through ‘the exchange of intimate thoughts and feelings’, it is the bread of life I am sharing. 

It happened in a restaurant in Sofia last Tuesday together with two new friends from Norway. It will happen as I live my life here in “Bethlehem” today, because “Bethlehem” is where Jesus comes to the world. It is the miracle and the mystery of the ongoing incarnation, and it is the very core of what holiness is all about.

‘Manna’ for today:

Holiness is about allowing the Bethlehem mystery to come true every day

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(1) Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”
John 6:35