Happiness is not a sin.

But if someone has condemnation in his heart,

he becomes very judgmental and will make sure

that everybody else around them will become

as miserable as they are.

Jesus said, "The poor you will always have with you",

and cared more for the poor than anyone else.

Thank God for the good moments of laughter 

and luxury. They are in God's plan,

designed to refresh us in the midst of all the

demonic warfare that's going on in the world.

He doesn't want us to worry about tomorrow.

He wants to teach us

 to laugh at the days to come.

Matthew 6:34

Proverbs 31:25

When something is good

and acceptable, there's no guarantee

that it is spiritual.

It's really radical to have a spiritual mind

in today's climate where everything is

measured by humanism.

It's the good things that keep believers from

stepping into the river of God, where 

good things have no power to separate us

from God's best.

Forgiveness, grace and faith don't always 

look so good and polished,

but they take us deeper and further.

Man Has To Change

in order to survive.

The theory of evolution is a superficial 

conclusion from that.

The human God on the cross is the right

and only acceptable conclusion.

Sometimes

people think , that they just 

got personally offended,

but maybe they were deceived.

They could be in danger of having a root

 of bitterness take over their soul.

Maybe they are at the brink of

 being knocked out of the race.

"Look carefully..."

Hebrews 12:15

Human Intuitions 

are so deceptive, because there are over seven billion

of them about everything. Probably most of them are

wrong most of the time. No wonder the world is such

a mess and so many people don't even notice it.

Jeremiah 17:9

God's work

cannot be stopped by man.

Many have tried and ended up fighting the air.

It's better to submit to it and enjoy the ride.

Isn't it humbling to think that, besides his works with

the galaxies and all his "Beyond Time" projects, 

he is working on you and me.  

The building

of the ark was a big project.

God did not build it.

It wasn't waiting ready-made  on the highest

mountain for Noah and his family.

Noah had to listen to God very carefully 

for all the detailed instructions in order to 

be saved on the earth.

His relationship with God was critical,

a question of life and death.

We often speak about the ark as an

Old Testament symbol for the church.

Without the right structures and caring

of the details it will not survive

the storms of our times.

The best

things in life are free, immeasurable and invisible.

It's a continuing temptation to go after the second

best things as they are expensive, measured

and very visible.

In due time

Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:6

In due time he rose from the death.

In due time he will come back again.

I like this "due time" concept.

It takes care of all worries.

Decoration

is sometimes considered to be sinful and worldly

because it's associated with temptations.

On the other hand decoration in the Bible was

also related to holiness.

God himself gave them detailed information

how to decorate the sanctuary  and it's furniture.

Exodus 25-28

Decoration added a special value to ordinary 

objects and made them holy.

Our life has become a battle ground between sin and 

holiness. Who can make a difference between these two?

Eve could not.

The line between right and wrong , between good and evil,

even between the useful and useless

is sometimes non-existing.

We cannot see it.

We need to hear from God.

Isn't this the reason, why we cry out to him daily.

Information

alone cannot remove the guilt from man's heart.

Even the right information cannot wash our sin away.

Only the invisible, irreversible, uncorrupted blood

of Jesus can bring us peace.

The plan of God

leads us sometimes to a cave,

 sometimes to a palace.

It doesn't even matter,

 as long as we don't let our

roots to grow into this world.

We are ready to go

 when he calls us.

Plan on

doing something unselfish.

It's the best preventive medicine

against depression and apathy.

It's a great escape from temptations.

Get busy in your availability for God's work.

You'll be amazed to find out

what abundant life is all about.

The gift of forgetting

is a wonderful God-given ability that enables

us to manage our thought-life and go on

believing and praising God.

It's one of the key elements in forgiveness.

Without it the remembrance of all our 

failures and sins would destroy us.

There will be no remembrance of sin in heaven.

Love thinks no evil.

My Finnish Bible says,

"Love does not remember the evil

it has suffered."

I Corinthians 13:5

God has given us, not just a supernatural 

ability to forget, but also a permission to do so.

Without it we could never laugh again.

Are lies a convenient standard

 for the truth?

Lies of convenience save us out of trouble.

They help us to avoid conflicts, difficulties,

persecution. Paul calls them a fair-show in 

the flesh in Galatians 6:12.

Martyrdom has certainly lost it's heroic value

in today's Christian thinking and so have people's

characters lost their guts.

Lies of convenience are an attempt to avoid

something, a way to defend oneself from 

painful and unwanted consequences.

Yes, often the truth is extremely impractical

and complicated. It doesn't fit in every situation.

Some would say, the truth is old-fashioned.

This is a lie. He, the Truth, is the same

yesterday, today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

Lies, even the white ones, have no future.

In long term they will always turn against us,

 if not in any other way, at least in effecting 

our character and trustworthiness as a person.

"A faithful man who can find?" 

Proverbs 20:6

The thought that a lie will become the truth, 

if you repeat it  long enough, is one of the worst

lies man has ever invented.

God desires the truth to the uttermost.

Psalm 51:6

He has not become more flexible nor

careless about the truth, that is the only 

thing that can help us to guard our freedom.

John 8:32

When you are not busy,

life doesn't stop.

All the sudden

 you have time to open your eyes

and appreciate the things that

 you've been neglecting, even escaping.

What a joy, not to go anywhere;

not to explain anything and not to 

try to fix anyone.

Is it possible?

A lot of people seem to think 
that it's impossible to live our lives
in perfect honesty, without hypocrisy.
Isn't it funny, that thought we all know, 
that no man can be sinless,
we all continue working hard on
giving an impression, that we are an exception.
Why is hypocrisy still so popular?
I think the greatest enemy of hypocrisy
is full confidence in God's love.
The fear of rejection leads us
to pretend and deceive.
Yes, we haven't been
 made perfect in love, yet.
I John 4:18

Borders 

are drawn for protection and control.

Man is not very good in it.

He is even worse when he is trying to fix the borders 

that God has drawn. 

When almost omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent

man tries to erase certain borders he actually ends up

building more of them.

In man's latest boom to erase the border

 dividing the genders,

he has created a new category, transgender.

In his scientific curiosity he wants to erase

 the border between

men and animals by growing human organs

 in animal bodies.

The result could be a dog with a human

 brain or a mosquito with the brain of Einstein.

The best animal activists in the

 near future might be the animals themselves.

Demons have always been interested in

 possessing a human body

and man has always been interested in

 leaving his body and it's limitations. 

We can only imagine how much this is going on 

in today's world's affairs.

God broke the greatest border between

 Himself and man by  becoming man.

He, who had drawn the border,

 is the only one who can cross it successfully. 

Jesus, the sinless God-man

 became our Savior.

I Timothy 3:16

Hey,

something's going on here.

This is the map of the New Chinese Silk Way

for commercial, cultural and touristic exchange.

From the Bible prophecy these roads don't

look very silky. The army of 200 million men

with a power to kill one third of the mankind

will be marching to the promised land in

the second part of the tribulation.

The stage is prepared.

Revelation 9:13-16

Revelation 16:12

Forgiveness

 is more expensive than money.

Anger and revenge are bad alternatives for forgiveness.

They widen the gap between people, best friends, even

between best believer friends.

God's answer to sin is not more severe punishment,

but forgiveness, always.

Forgiveness continues to be the greatest test in relationships.

Often the answer is simply to forgive more.

Forgiveness is not a period, it's a colon:

something meaningful follows.

New capacity to love, new motivation, joy, peace,

healing, new understanding, wisdom are all amazing

blessings born of forgiveness.

Man cannot do many things.

He cannot stop death.

He cannot reverse time, but

he can learn to forgive.

Good nutrition

is needed for our well-being.

In good nutrition consistency is important.

The diet must be balanced .

Even though there seems to be a lot of alternatives,

there are only a few things that are really nourishing.

“Why give money for that what is not bread?”

Isaiah 55:2

Obviously this applies to our body, soul and spirit.

Man is pneumapsychosomatic.

Without a good immunity system in all these areas we

become easily victims of our bad (often unintentional)

choices. Daily life gets out of hands into a destructive

routine. Bad habits settle in fast and firm.

Spiritual health seems to be the easiest to neglect.

It’s seldom mentioned in health programs.

It’s not natural for the fallen man.

Without spiritual nourishment man degenerates

gradually to a walking machine.

Spiritual fellowship with the Savior is the key to

our balanced well-being.

Jesus depended on that daily during his earthly mission.

“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me.”

John 4:34

Obedience is not a stressful following of instructions.

It’s a breakfast on the beach.

Often it’s a fantastic table set in the wilderness,

right before the eyes of our enemies.

Sometimes it’s a private dinner with

the one who really cares for you.

Rev.3:20

The plan of God

is so much bigger than us.

It goes beyond the beginning and the end.

Nothing in time should discourage

us from enjoying His eternal purposes.

Time touches eternity.

Right now, in this fast passing moment,

lies an opportunity to see further.

It's eternity,

the fascinating mystery,

inside each of us.

Time has too often managed

to enslave us under heavy demands

for better performances and

greater achievements.

Freedom comes from eternity,

from the caring Father.

His in-numerous thoughts have always 

beautified the heaven of heavens. 

I'm in His mind.

That's what really matters.

Sometimes

it's good

not to discuss

a relationship.

It would be an attempt

to empty the ocean

with a fork.

There is so much more

to human relations than

words,

that often end up 

just stealing 

the mystery 

of it all.

"The Lord is merciful and gracious,

Slow to anger and

abounding in mercy."

Psalm 103:8

I wish we could say this

 about ourselves.

It's false security

to be stuck in what you've already heard and

want to hear again. Repeating the same words

endlessly has no spiritual value in the quality 

of our lives. His words are eternal.

Psalm 119:89

Going back is not a solution to the challenges that 

the modern world throws at believers.

God is newer than anything modern, 

and Post-Modernism for him is like a narrow

man-made corridor next to the smallest possible

fraction of the Milky-way.

The world is not just coming to an end.

It's willingly or unwillingly, coming closer and

closer to God with all it's turns and hick-ups.

Transparent humility is beautiful.

Too often,

 when man has come to the end of his knowledge,

understanding and abilities, he starts blaming others.

In stead of turning to God,

 he turns within to his own angry soul.

People talk themselves out of responsibilities.

Theses endlessly talking people will find no time

to lay down their life for others.

"The humble shall inherit the earth."

Matthew 5:5

Humility doesn't look like a good solution now,

but even a little bit of it will strengthen our future

and release the resources of heaven.

Less Is More

In arts we sometimes speak about the power of omission.

The less words, thoughts, pictures and decorations we use,

the clearer our message becomes.

God has a plan to reduce our lives to Himself.

Not bad, when He is actually the one, The Only One,

in whom "all things hold together."

Colossians1:17

Losing things might not be such a bad idea after all.

It might be the only way to survive in

man's complicated and busy world.

The more they were with him,

the less they trusted themselves.

The disciples were daily surprised by the unusual 

deeds and teachings of Jesus.

Who wouldn't want to have a sinless leader?

I wonder how popular he would be in today's 

political debates.

The disciples didn't openly worship Jesus,

but I'm sure they were every day more and more

excited about spending time with him.

"Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Matthew 8:27

Finally Thomas says it,"My Lord and my God."

John 20:28

After that revelation, everything else was secondary.

The living church has the same testimony.

God indwells his people and it should

not be underestimated.

The church continues to be the reason, why 

the sun rises daily and shines equally on all people.

Changing one's opinion

is a confusing element in human behavior.

Politicians are not the only ones who do that.

We all change, influenced by other opinions,

by the winds of time.

Sometimes it's a change from ignorance to knowledge;

sometimes a change from inconvenience to convenience;

sometimes from the truth to a lie.

Another day I was arranging my visa to travel .

The lady at the consulate told me to come back on Wednesday.

When I went back on Wednesday she exclaimed,

"I said Wednesday, but I meant Thursday!"

Opinions come with responsibilities.

Does a changed mind give us the right to step out 

of responsibilities? We can do it, but not without consequences.

Our character, integrity and trustworthiness are at stake.

"but a faithful man who can find?"

Proverbs 20:6

Our credibility will be in danger every time when 

the motivation for our changed opinion

is something less than the truth.

In today's climate personal opinions and rights are

encouraged more than the judgment between right and wrong.

We need to continue running to the Rock that is higher than us.

Psalm 61:2