Monday, 16. March 2009, 23:03:18
.. my good old Sunny car. It has served me faithfully for yeah, quite some time. You (almost) never refused to start. (We're not talking about the last days now). You had no problems with the cold and never let me down any morning
Hopefully my ever-so-good Sunny gets a good life on the heavenly roads, and is now soon rolling about on Streets of gold, totally renewed from top to wheel. Totally without rust or bumps, with a shining new polish and the best gas there is. You've totally deserved it all! ... (I'm not sure if the man at the car wreck store (what's it called??) deserved you. Me getting lousy 1500 NOK from the state for turning you in, is a shame in itself thinking of all the years in faithful service....)
"Well, it's just a car..."
Saturday, 14. March 2009, 09:53:32
Sorry about the language, may be some things here that sound stupid in English...
It is never easy to give hope. For some reason you can count on a lot of trouble if you try to give hope to people.
I’m not quite sure of why, I just know that if you try to give hope and especially if you talk about God as someone who can help you in a situation, a lot of people will “see red”. And many people will even get rather aggressive…. I know because I’ve been there myself. It can even be a bit frightening to listen to people who try to give you hope. It’s like you just want to press your hands against your ears. Because – what if that hope is never fulfilled?? New disappointments, broken expectations. Crushed hopes. Maybe that’s part of the reason why people can become rather aggressive if you try to give some hope. All the old bitterness just surfaces. Your laughter isn’t nice. And you get that special bitter air about your face and mouth.
And bitter words come out of it…. Like:
“Well, I hear you’re talking…. You, who haven’t the faintest idea of what I’ve been through! ”
“"Who are you, trying to talk fairy tales… You think you’re a magician? ".
"Life was never so easy!!”
We all recognize these ways of speaking. Most of us have been there, some time in our lives. Most of us had had experiences in life that makes it hard to grasp that HOPE, or the belief that things can get better. Especially if things have been like that for a long time..
Still….
We are called to give hope to people, all the time. We just have to stand and tolerate and understand that anger, that frustration many people give as their reaction. We have to stand the fact that we often won’t be heard, won’t be believed, won’t be respected for our attempts to give hope. It’s also a fact that the Devil will never be too happy with people trying to convey hope to others.(And if you don't believe in the Devil, just mentioning him will possibly also get you going!) One just has to continue. After all, we’ve been there. We know what it’s like, not being able to believe in something better. Maybe we also should talk more about the fact that to change a situation, we often have to change a pattern of behavior as well. And that’s not the easiest thing…...!!
Still…
I believe... there’s Someone who really wants to help you to change the things that are necessary to change! With God’s help, many “impossible” things are possible. If you’ve read some blog posts before you’ll know that I’m talking about the Son of God, that is in my belief, Jesus Christ.
If you have had just too many disappointments in life, just reading these words can be like waving a red flag in front of you. But before you go ahead bully me 
,
Consider, WHAT IF…. There is a way that you still haven’t tried?? 
Thursday, 12. March 2009, 23:03:36
Å gi Håp er alltid skummelt.
Av ein eller anna grunn må ein rekne med masse trøbbel hvis ein prøver å gi håp til folk.
Er ikkje heilt sikker på årsaken.
Men hvis ein for eksempel prøver å fortelje at Gud kan hjelpe i ein situasjon, er det mange som vil sjå rødt. Og som kan bli veldig aggressive. Eg veit det fordi eg har vore der sjølv. Det er alltid skummelt med folk som gir håp. For tenk om det håpet ikkje går i oppfyllelse? Ny skuffelse, nye brutte forventningar. Håp som brest. Kanskje det er noko av grunnen til folk blir temmeleg aggressive hvis ein prøver å gi håp om at ting kan bli betre. All gammal bitterheit berre veltar fram. Hånfliret ligg på lur. Geipen ligg om munnvika:
"Ja, det seier du, det... som aldri har opplevd ... (det som eg har opplevd)".
" Kven er du som prøver å gi meg håp. Trur du kanskje at du er ein slags magiker?"
"Det er nok ikkje so enkelt, nei!"
Vi kjenner oss alle igjen i desse talemåtane. For dei fleste av oss har vore der. Dei fleste av oss har opplevd ting i livet som gjer at det ikkje alltid er så lett å gripe eit HÅP, eller trua på at det er håp om at ting kan bli betre enn det er no. Spesielt inngrodde ting som har vore på same viset veldig lenge.
Likevel er vi kalt til å gi Håp til andre, heile tida. Så må vi heller ta støyten ved å ikkje bli høyrt, ikkje bli trudd, ikkje bli respektert for det. Vi må berre fortsette å gi Håp til folk. Vi har jo vært der sjøl. Vi veit jo kordan det er å ikkje makte å tru på noko betre. Å vere redd for Skuffelsen nok ein gong. Vi veit jo kordan det er. Men kanskje må vi også vere flinkare til å presisere at hvis ein vil endre ein situasjon, kan det hende at ein må endre eit handlingsmønster i samme slengen. Og det er ikkje det lettaste....!!
Likevel...
Berre fortsett å gi Håp. Vit at Gud er med deg. Tru at dag for dag, ettersom Gud arbeider med folk, vil Han gi dei eit innblikk i sine evige Håp. Dei som berre varer og varer
Lykke til!!
Wednesday, 11. March 2009, 23:57:57
This picture is from the same trip to the North..
Wednesday, 11. March 2009, 23:42:31
Our choices are important.
Do you believe in destiny? That your choices don't matter, really?
You have to choose whether you will believe this or not.
Doesn't that in itself convince you about the power in your own choices??
Don't you believe it?
YOU choose what to believe.
You don't have a choice, when it comes to the fact, that every person has to CHOOSE from time to time. What to believe, how to act...
To some extent, we are what we choose.
This gives us a special responsibility.
If we don't take that responsibility, but are just pushing it away - where will that lead us?
In the hands of other persons, in the hands of your own desires only, or in the hand of some distant fate. Is that what we want??
It's your choice.
God says: Choose me, TODAY!!
Monday, 2. March 2009, 22:45:42
Am going to put some more pics from the trip to the North last summer. Had a great time then, hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did. This picture is taken from the night bus, it's about 23.00 PM
Thursday, 26. February 2009, 00:17:38
... as long as I have this car! Guess what,
...today I managed to get my car started. A collegue of mine sat inside, turning the key. Me with the head into the engine banging with some metal thing I found in the back. At first it didn't work. But I just kept on hitting that poor contact thing and suddenly it started!!
It has even started twice after that tonight. A bit reluctantly, but it started.
I' m going to be a car mechanic 
Monday, 23. February 2009, 23:27:35
Today my car broke down - again.
Could this be a SIGN?? 
For the half of the last week it has just been standing in center city, totally dead. That is, there were lights, and radio, but no start. The start booster borrowed from local gas station didn't work, and I gave up.
Today a friend of mine came around and do you know what he did??
He just took a tool and hit on something in the engine. Something with a lot of contacts in it. "Now turn the key", he said, smiling. I turned the key, and - voila!! The car started!! It was like magic. "Now, you see", he said, "Dust and dirt have grown around the contacts. When you hit right here (he pointed) - you will kick away some dust and the contacts will work. If this happens again, you just grab something and hit right here".I believed him. What else could I do? He seemed like a wizard to me.
I drove to the working place. I worked my shift. Then I went out and tried to start my car again.
The car didn't start.
A bit worried, but still optimistic, I pulled out something from the back and started to kick right on where I thought he had hit earlier the same day, as hard as I could. After all, I didn't have such a weighty tool as he'd had.
I tried again.
The car didn't start.
The car. just. didn't. start.
It's definitely time for getting that .... car purchase done!
In the meanwhile, all I can do, is thanking God for this great opportunity to have some more exercise, asking all my friends for a lift (with some good will I can say that enhances my social life! and make myself a nice cup of tea!! 
Good night everyone!!
Thursday, 12. February 2009, 00:31:13
Sorry about the corny headline folks, couldn't help myself, I just had to make a word spell there...
"The woman at the Well" - do you know the story?
Ok, this woman is collecting water at a well somewhere in the old Israel. There she meets this man that we've become used to call Christ, he sits at the well.
He talks to her: Give me some water, he says. She's astonished 'cause it was unusual for a Jewish man to ask a Samaritan woman about anything; Samaritans are a tribe that weren't accepted by the Jews: Don't you know that I'm a Samaritan woman, she asks... Then Christ starts talking about living water and that she ought to ask Him to get Living Water from him instead of anything else. She becomes even more surprised, and cannot understand what he's talking about.
She continues talking about water as we know it, and asks him seriously - Sir, you don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get this living water? (So would I, I wouldn't have had the faintest idea about where He was heading!!)
And then she gets this very special answer from Jesus - Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never become thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become a well of water for him, springing up to eternal life.
What on earth is He talking about??
I guess the woman was thinking the same, cause she responds: Sir, give me this water, so that I won't get thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.
She's still talking about "water" in the common sense (who wouldn't?), something that we drink when we're thirsty.
Ok, Jesus knows that He's talking about a different kind of thirst, so to lead the woman on track, it seems that He's changing the subject.
He starts asking her about her husbands, and it turns out the lady had been quite active on the market: She's had 5 husbands, and is not married to the present man she's holding on to. This is not something the woman tells herself, Jesus just says to her that this is the case, and she has to give him right.
EVEN more astonished by him knowing this without her telling it; she states that he must be a Prophet, and asks him the longlasting question about where to worship (this had been a long term - typical theological! discussion between the Samaritans and the other Jews) on a mountain here or a mountain there???
And here is the answer that she gets:
- Believe me, dear lady,the hour is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. (...) Yet the time is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him. God is spirit,and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
The woman says then: I know that Messiah is coming, who is being called ‘Christ’. When that person comes, he will explain everything.
Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
NOW, are you wiser??? 
*********************************************************************************************************
I have to say, I've read this story for years, and still it amazes me and makes me wonder.
In my early years, I didn't recognize the woman's thirst for life, I just saw her "immoral conduct"....(sorry about that folks...) as the years go by, you understand more of it, and have more identification. First of all, she is so incredibly slow in seeing that Christ wants to give her something spiritually more than something she can collect in the well and carry in her bucket. Maybe she doesn't even see that she needs something spiritually.
Then Jesus starts pointing at her loss & longings in life.
Because obviously, when you - in that culture - have had five men and has not dared to marry your present man, you've experienced great loss in life, and have a deep longing - and I think Christ knows exactly what He does when He calls it a thirst - for a functioning relationship. Is that so different in our culture today? Really?? And Jesus says that He can answer this longing, this Thirst in her! Doing so by talking about "Living water"! And talking about worshipping in Spirit and Truth! This is actually what He says.
Eagleview has one perspective on this in her blogpost:
http://my.opera.com/eagleview/blog/show.dml/2929000
Read it if you like - make up your own opinion.
A friend of mine said she thought Living water in this context means the satifaction we feel when we read the Bible and understands it in a deeper way that we haven't done before. And that this happens when The Holy Spirit makes it alive inside of us.
I myself am still pondering , though I think both friends above have given some good keys to it all.
My interpretation is something like this: Jesus Christ wants to give us something that He calls living water, that He says will be like a Well inside of us, that will spring up to eternal life. And obviously this will meet some of our deeper spiritual & relational needs in life, whatever that will be for each and everyone of us. And the fulfillment of this will be felt when we worship the Father in Spirit and Truth. (Whatever that means - Ask God! )
In short: Jesus identifies the deepest need we all have, and tells us it is a spiritual one more than anything else. And He simply says; I have what you need. I have it. Just ask for it. "If you knew who were talking to you, you would ask for the living water...."
Whether you are ready to do so or not, only YOU can answer that question.
On my part I can just say: It's true. Christ's answer will not fill up every need you have in life. But it will give you Peace on the most important one.
NOT BAD, eh?? 
If there's something you want to check out here for yourself, have a look in John 4, 1 - 42
of seek it up here: http://bibletab.com/Comments are welcome.
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40 of 81.
2. doing something fun together 
3. a nice cup of tea 
4. ... and strength to listen (God, give me patience!! 
) 5. ... and ability to say stop when it's enough 
If you're allowed...
WIDGETIZE