Been living over a week in Jakomäki now - getting to know new family, getting over my fear of speaking Finnish, learning about spiritual atmosphere (have to reject the spirit of heaviness and put on garments of praise) ...
I've also been reading some books recently:
- "The Forgotten Ways" by Alan Hirsch (half way through) - really good but challenging (both to actually read and in content), about the dna of missional church, for example how for 1700 years our methods of doing church were based on the idea that everyone in Europe was 'Christian' (hence little need for mission).
- "Praying the Bible" by Wesley and Stacey Campbell (started and finished in the last 2 days, couldn't put it down)- inspiring stuff, examining how people throughout the Bible and Church History have prayed, basically they prayed Scripture (usually aloud) in a regular, disciplined way (seems simple, but somehow I'd pretty much missed this fact)
- "The Bible" - just a couple of random things that I've noticed recently: Joseph learned to be leader first as a slave (Gen 39:3-4), then as a prisoner (39:21-23), and finally as a prime minister (41:39-42) - I'd never noticed that he was given leadership in the prison.
Mark 5:1-20 - just questions really... Why do the demons want to go into the pigs? Why does Jesus agree? Why do the people beg Him to leave without asking for an explanation of the whole bizarre incident? Will write if I get any revelation on this.
Off to Ylläs (in Lapland) on Saturday for a week - prayer, chillaxing, maybe sledging, getting to know new friends ...
Haven't been to Lapland before, so I'm quite excited.
I want to leave you with this truly amazing song (yeah, again by Sufjan Stevens)
The lyrics are pretty genius (and reminiscent of bits of Psalm 139)
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