Worship in the park

Today I was in the park by the castle together with some friends. We had a great time there worshipping Jesus. We were playing, dancing and praising. It was guitar, flute and violin being played, and some people dropped by and said it was good to watch and listen to this. One man I talked to said it was great to see something like this in Norway. He found that our freedom and way of behaving reminded him more of some latin american country.

I Can

Every time you are
tempted to say
I can't,
instead say
I can, I can, I can

Every time you are
tempted to say
I'm not able,
instead say
With God I'm able

Every time you are
tempted to say
Just me,
instead say
Jesus lives within me

Every time you are
tempted to give up,
give it all to Jesus

Every time you are
tempted to say
Someone else is better than me,
instead say
No-one else is better
than Jesus within me

Visit: Maarit ja Eeva

On tuesday Maarit and ("and" in finnish is "ja") Eeva from Finland came visiting. I have had some really nice days with them and other friends. We have had times of worship and prayer. We have also played volleyball, prayed and danced on top of a roof, barbecued by the sea and had some really nice time in the park just by the castle.

When we were in the park, we basically just walked up to a family and hung out with them. We had a great time together. I made balloon-figures for the children, Eeva worshipped playing on the guitar and Maarit played freesby with one of the kids. It was a really nice family from Kristiansand, a city on the southcoast of Norway.

Friday night I had a problem sleeping and stood up and wrote a poem for Maarit named "I Can". I will put it next here on this blog. Saturday morning I followed Maarit and Eeva to the bus as they were leaving for a "princess weekend", meaning they are gonna meet some other christian girls and do some stuff, which I don't know too much about since I'm a boy :)

Balloon Clown

I have had a lot of assignments as a balloon clown the last two weeks. During the last time I have weighed to and from if I should get some "normal" job in addition to doing clowning. I'm still not sure about this, but having so much to do as a clown, it might be too much to have an additional full time job.

Some time ago, before I went to Finland, I used a lot of money I didn't have on marketing (that's actually possible when you get a bill). I don't normally do stunts like that, but I felt that God told me to do it and it seems like it is paying off.

Jesus is The King

The theme that Jesus is The King has been working strong in me lately. I think God want to reveal more about what it really means to have Him as The King. Not long ago, when I were praying with a friend, I realised I had to ask God for forgiveness... In many situations I have wondered more about what some other person thought about the things I was saying or doing than what Jesus thought. In some situations I have shared something I believed was from God, but I have still looked on some person for confirmation, instead of looking at Jesus.

Jesus is The King. I don't need confirmation from man, only from Him.

God is shifting us

One of the themes on the recent Connect Finland gathering was that God is shifting us. He want us to go from having organised religion to having fellowship with Christ. March van der Woude (NL) shared a picture: When the continental plates move (shifts), they create an earthquake that can produce a tsunami. Likewise God wants to shift us in a way that creates a tsunami of The Holy Spirit. God wants to rock the structures and the thoughts of men. He wants to do something new.

On Prayer for Oslo this morning Anne Lysen shared a picture that Geir Offenberg had received: He saw christians lie and sunbath happily with their hands folded on yellow air mattresses on the ocean. Then it came a big wave, like a ten meter wall, and hit the christians. Many christians are happy with status quo. After we had prayed into this picture, I shared the picture about the shifting. Anne shared it with the rest. She especially emphasized the problems with structures made by men in the different congregations. We used some time this morning in praying into this.

Jesus wants everyone to have a personal relationship to Him. Jesus wants everyone to learn to hear His voice and to obey Him as The King. We don't need any mediator between God and men. It is not Gods plan that just a few persons are active and use their giftings, while the rest sit and watch them. God wants all of us to be active and start fulfilling the task that Jesus called us to do. He called us to preach the Gospel and to make disciples, not to hide ourselves in some building.

Jesus March

On saturday we had a Jesus-march in Oslo. About 5000 people marched through the streets to declare the name Jesus. They went from Youngstorget, through Karl Johan and ended up on Universitetsplassen (university square). There were banners and flags declaring some biblical truths about Jesus. On Universitetsplassen there were praise and worship, prayers and some preaching.

I was in charge of getting 320 helium balloons delivered to people in the marching crowd. Me and my three helpers had some extra gas, so we ended up handing out about 380 balloons. They were in the colors red, white and blue according to the norwegian flag. Even though it wasn't many balloons for so many people, they were very visible.

Back in Oslo

Yesterday I came back to Oslo. I went almost directly and played volleyball with some old and some new friends. I felt pretty heavy after eight hours on the bus, but the game really got me going. Afterwards we met in the home of Anne Maria Langmoen. We praised Jesus, and I shared from the Finland-trip.

Travel: Turku

The last two days I have spent in Turku. I visited Petra Karilainen and I also had the pleasure of meeting some other good friends there. We used some time praying together. We also tried to make a blog for them. They plan to share a blog, where they can testify about all the great things that Jesus do in their lives. Unfortunately we ran into some strange problems. My good friend, The Blogger (www.blogger.com) didn’t accept ANY username. You can’t get a username that is already in use, but we tried the STRANGEST usernames we could think of without success. Well, hope the blogger people solves their technical problem soon, for there are some young people in Turku eager to share with the world (that is everyone in the world that speaks finnish) some of the great things that Jesus do in their lives.

I also joined Heli Saukkala on a pretty strange balloon job. She really has a heart for the alcoholics in Turku and use to go to their hangout place there. She wanted me to come and make balloons for them. I had some doubts about this project, but I wanted to support Heli in what she has faith in, so I joined. I made balloons and preached for them, and I experienced that Jesus gave me words when I did it.