My OperaA Pentecostal Experience
Monday, May 28, 2012 12:17:08 AM
When you are surprised by something really unexpected good. Nice!
Some days ago I was awakened by a grumpy sms from one of my superiours at work. Not a very pleasant start of the day and it made me quite grumpy for some days, too!
Not so today. Was awakened by an sms telling me I was going to have visitors. Ok, just time to get dressed and make myself some breakfast...
before the door bell ding-donged.
Outside were two of our immigrants, more spesifically from East Africa, a man and a woman that I've become acquainted with in church. Proud people that I respect a lot, for all they've gone through. The woman waiting for her husband to acquire a passport so that he can come too - after several years in African prison only for the sin of being a Pentecostal Christian. He has finally come out of prison, but his health hasn't been very good even if now improving. (everyone who knows a bit about African jails can understand why... ) It is not easy these days - we have a suffering church in the East. She is the serious one of the two, you can see she has had many worries. The man, fleeing for the same reason, a longer transit in refugee camp in Sudan, they have lost everything --- and have to start afresh at a new place. But he is strong in faith, always smiling!
So why did they come to see me?
Well, the reason is obvious, isn't it?? After all they've gone through, they had found that today was a good day to come and cheer me up !
So who is sitting in my coach, in my living room, reading the Bible to me, reading the Good Word and giving Hope? Who is giving me the comfort they've been comforted by themselves. I was so amazed. They don't come for anything. They don't want money, they don't want advantages. They just want to share with me the good news that God can change everything for the good. In the end.
Isn't that a miracle?? I think so - a pentecostal one
for these two did come for a reason, they knew it was the right time, they knew what to say and they'd come to tell me, come to give me good words from God, and then they left.
The woman doesn't know much Norwegian. But she knows a few words well, and this is what she tells me - after all she and her husband have gone through .... "Gud kan. Jesus kan." That is, in English, for those of you who didn't get it "God can. Jesus can"....
What can I say. We all have many troubles in life, but some of us DO have more. And when those of us who have experienced MORE come to comfort those of us who have experienced LESS, I think it is a gift!!
***********************************************************************************************
HAPPY PENTECOSTAL DAY, EVERYONE!
It seems the Holy Spirit is still around. It says in the Bible that He will show us everything, and also be our Advocate, our Comforter and our Translator. Not bad!! Who could imagine, God gives us the ability to receive all this from Him, when we are not able to ourselves. Because we are not able to really "reach up" to God like we want to - or like He wants us to!
And the best part of it; you don't need to meditate on a spesific mantra. You don't need to play drums or act like a shaman. You don't need to paint or write or dance or breathe in a special way to get this gift. It is given you for free, the minute you realize you need to be saved and that your poor heart needs some healing, and you ask Jesus Christ to be your Master and Boss. Because you think he still lives, and somehow will have the right to ask you in the end, "Do you KNOW ME?? " THAT is the work of the holy Spirit - to teach us about Jesus Christ, teach us about the Cross, teach us to know Him in your heart, and make us see what He has done for us when we are not able to see it ourselves. (not so easy for us to see, always...)
But, This is the work of the holy Spirit, AND HE WILL DO IT, not us!
We can pray, simply, to receive what the Holy Spirit wants to give us, as long as we are honest, HE WILL DO THE REST!
He even made people talk in languages they didn't know before, so that visitors could get to know this message in their own language. That's funny, I think, and quite inventive. I have to say, even if I was to be God for a day, I would never have come up with THAT idea!!
Some days ago I was awakened by a grumpy sms from one of my superiours at work. Not a very pleasant start of the day and it made me quite grumpy for some days, too!
Not so today. Was awakened by an sms telling me I was going to have visitors. Ok, just time to get dressed and make myself some breakfast...
before the door bell ding-donged.
Outside were two of our immigrants, more spesifically from East Africa, a man and a woman that I've become acquainted with in church. Proud people that I respect a lot, for all they've gone through. The woman waiting for her husband to acquire a passport so that he can come too - after several years in African prison only for the sin of being a Pentecostal Christian. He has finally come out of prison, but his health hasn't been very good even if now improving. (everyone who knows a bit about African jails can understand why... ) It is not easy these days - we have a suffering church in the East. She is the serious one of the two, you can see she has had many worries. The man, fleeing for the same reason, a longer transit in refugee camp in Sudan, they have lost everything --- and have to start afresh at a new place. But he is strong in faith, always smiling!
So why did they come to see me?
Well, the reason is obvious, isn't it?? After all they've gone through, they had found that today was a good day to come and cheer me up !
So who is sitting in my coach, in my living room, reading the Bible to me, reading the Good Word and giving Hope? Who is giving me the comfort they've been comforted by themselves. I was so amazed. They don't come for anything. They don't want money, they don't want advantages. They just want to share with me the good news that God can change everything for the good. In the end.
Isn't that a miracle?? I think so - a pentecostal one
for these two did come for a reason, they knew it was the right time, they knew what to say and they'd come to tell me, come to give me good words from God, and then they left. The woman doesn't know much Norwegian. But she knows a few words well, and this is what she tells me - after all she and her husband have gone through .... "Gud kan. Jesus kan." That is, in English, for those of you who didn't get it
"God can. Jesus can".... What can I say. We all have many troubles in life, but some of us DO have more. And when those of us who have experienced MORE come to comfort those of us who have experienced LESS, I think it is a gift!!
***********************************************************************************************
HAPPY PENTECOSTAL DAY, EVERYONE!
It seems the Holy Spirit is still around. It says in the Bible that He will show us everything, and also be our Advocate, our Comforter and our Translator. Not bad!! Who could imagine, God gives us the ability to receive all this from Him, when we are not able to ourselves. Because we are not able to really "reach up" to God like we want to - or like He wants us to!
And the best part of it; you don't need to meditate on a spesific mantra. You don't need to play drums or act like a shaman. You don't need to paint or write or dance or breathe in a special way to get this gift. It is given you for free, the minute you realize you need to be saved and that your poor heart needs some healing, and you ask Jesus Christ to be your Master and Boss. Because you think he still lives, and somehow will have the right to ask you in the end, "Do you KNOW ME?? " THAT is the work of the holy Spirit - to teach us about Jesus Christ, teach us about the Cross, teach us to know Him in your heart, and make us see what He has done for us when we are not able to see it ourselves. (not so easy for us to see, always...)
But, This is the work of the holy Spirit, AND HE WILL DO IT, not us!
We can pray, simply, to receive what the Holy Spirit wants to give us, as long as we are honest, HE WILL DO THE REST!
He even made people talk in languages they didn't know before, so that visitors could get to know this message in their own language. That's funny, I think, and quite inventive. I have to say, even if I was to be God for a day, I would never have come up with THAT idea!!
