Henceforth Expecting

Pastor Scibelli arrives Thursday (Tomorrow), here in Helsinki. He'll be with us all weekend preaching and teaching on Missions and I believe God's heart will be revealed for sure. I fly with him on Monday to Budapest for the conference. It will be so great to spend the week with the family that we have all over the world. There will people coming from America, Europe, Russia, and Central Asia to join in the fellowship. After this, I'll be flying to Berlin, Germany for a few days and then to Romania. After that trip I'll be headed back here for more! It should be a great time and anointed for sure. Keep us in your prayers and maybe I'll even see you at Budapest. God Bless. 

Report from the Field: Jyväskylä

  What an awesome time we had in Jyväskylä this past weekend. Our hearts were stirred to see young people come from 5 cities (Jyväskylä, Hämeenlina, Helsinki, Vaasa, and another city, which I can't remember the name of) to gather together in joy and listen to God speak to us. 

Matti Kraama and I landed at Jyväskylä's TINY airport Saturday night and headed straight for the meeting place. I was blessed to see the room filled with about 30, or so, young joyful Finns, Filipinos, American's, and Africans gathered together to worship Christ. We had songs, food, and a message on having changed lives. As the rap ended, we realized we had been there for about 5 hours, and we still were standing around wanting more. 

Here in Finland, the hunger for the Word is so great among many young people and definitely growing among others. My prayer is too see many of these young people be raised up as missionaries, preachers, counselors, teachers, Bible students, prayer warriors, and most importantly manifesters of the Life of Christ everywhere they go. If they keep living through the cross, drawing near, delighting in God and His word, and receiving from Christ, their source, than I believe this will most definitely be the case. These young Finns will go all over the world, bringing this most amazing gospel to lost souls, just like P. Matti Sirvio, Heidi and Arto Niukkanen,  P. Ben Turkia, and many other amazing servants of God.  For I believe it will be even as God has said it. 

He is for us... so tell me... who exactly can be against us? (Rom. 8.31, I John 5.18b, Ps. 124, Acts 5:39) 

" Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies." 

Psalm 108:13

On the Road Again

It seems like we just got back from Sweden, but here we go again! On our way to Jyväskylä this weekend to have like a mini youth conference with about 30 people. Praying for an awesome time, anointed by God, and moving forward in oneness here as a ministry in Finland. Thanks for your prayers and your lives. Two words: Eternal Is ... think about it.

Other Upcoming Events: 

 - Pastor Scibelli and the Missions Conference here next weekend

 - EUROCON (with trips to Berlin and Romania following)

 - Easter Conference in Vaasa in April

 - Weekly outreach to student housing on Thursdays 

 - Youth meetings on Saturdays

 - Young Men's Bible Studies on Mondays

 - Other Meetings, trips, and events as God leads

Changed

"... nor turn again by the same way that thou camest ..." I Kings 13:9b

I was thinking today while strolling the sunny streets of Helsinki, people need change. We saw in our last election in the States that the people of this world seeking the reality of the word that graced almost every billboard and newspaper in the country for months: CHANGE. I think everyone in the world is searching for it in some way. Why do you think women worry so much about their hair, or businessmen about their new car and new suit? It always has to be different and better. I believe there's some real truth to that search. 

It says in the Bible that we're created in God's image, but because of sin we've been changed. We've fallen from that image. Now it's God's mission to take us by Grace and to conform us into a new image: His Son. Our entire being is yearning for that change. God has a certain individual design for each one of us and He is in the process of transforming us into it. Every single situation that we go through is an opportunity for God to transform us, whether by sight it seems good or bad. How does He do it? "How is this change possible?" you might ask. I'll tell you, it's by going through the cross, losing all consciousness of self, through death, entering into resurrection life and seeing the glorified face of Jesus Christ. When we see that face, then we are like Him. We don't realize as we look at Christ, the Holy Spirit is within us, changing us from the inside-out. He's changing us into His image. We look into the mirror of Divine Perspective and we see our face, but at the same time it's His.  This is what Paul says in II Corinthians 3:18 and I John 3:2. This is the amazing paradox of the kingdom of heaven: we are 100% ourselves in our individuality, yet 100% Christ's very image. AMAZING! 

I feel, as many of us are preparing to go to Eurocon and many other trips, that God is saying a similar instruction to us like the one he gave the man of God in I Kings 13:9: "you shall not return again the same way that you came." I stumbled upon this part of this verse and I thought about how true this is for us. God is sending us out, whether it's Eurocon, Africa, Asia, Baltimore, work, school, whatever it is, and is saying, "don't come back the same way that you came, but let me take you a new way, just trust me." God want's to refresh us, change us, because He doesn't want us to live in a mechanical routine, but in the newness of His Life. Even if I've done something before or read something before, it's not the same, because I have changed. I see it differently because I'm walking in the newness of life. 

People in the world are looking for change but are only finding themselves becoming conformed to a system. What they really need is not a new car, or a new suit, or a new hair color, but it's a new heart and a new reality. They need a transformed life from the inside-out. Let's walk in new paths, fresh ways to look at the things we do and and know, let's be transformed by the renewing of our mind.