Nice band from Scandinavia

Kalevala quotes...

Reading the Kalevala for class.  Basically a series of Finish songs, or a long lay.  Here are a couple quotes I found today:


"God starts the race, the Creator determines the finish, not the skill of a human being, by no means the power of a strong man."


"I am not moving by virtue of my own muscles, I am moving by virtue of my Creator's muscles; I am not moving quickly by my own powers, I am moving quickly by the Almighty's power; I am not speaking with my own mouth, I am speaking with God's mouth.  If I have a lovely mouth, God's mouth is lovelier; if my hand is fair, the Creator's hand is fairer."

``Mercy means that you don`t receive the punishment you deserve, but grace means that you do receive the blessings you didn`t earn. This was all paid for when Jesus died on the cross. Jesus didn`t just die for you; He died as you.``
- ``Purity, the New Moral Revolution.` by Kris Vallotton.

The singing God

Zephaniah 3:17 "For the Lord your God is living among you, He is a might savior.  He will take delight in you with gladness.  With his love, he will calm all your fears.   He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."

When we look at the Old Testament it seems easy to look through its pages and pick out the times when God pours His wrath on the wicked people.    We tend to see the Old Testament as a time of God's anger, and the New Testament as that of God's grace and mercy.   But nothing could be further from the truth, as we can see in these few verses in Zephaniah.   

God gives hope to His people who have been in exile, exile brought onto themselves.   God restores his people, and we have one of the most beautiful passages in scriptures, and yet one that is hidden in a little book called Zephaniah. 

"With His love, he will calm all your fears.

He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."

Not only is God willing to take back His people after they have fallen away from him, but He gathers them with His love -- and He sings to them.

God is a singer!   God is a song maker, a singer to the lost, and those that feel far away.   How amazing this is.  We are not the only ones singing praise to God, but He sings joyful songs to us.

Somehow this has been lost in my thinking (or it has never come up before in my mind in the first place), and when we realize that we are a product of the likeness of God, then how could we not think that God sings, and that he sings joyful songs to us?

What a great image.    May we continue to dive into the word and come closer to the singer of our souls, the maker of songs!!

Beowulf (2114-24)

"The Lord disposes

all things on earth

and always will;

foresight, therefore,

and forethought are best,

and mental balance,

since men who inhabit

this weary war-ravaged

world experience

many good things--

and much evil"

1 Peter 4:1-6 Body dying, Spirit living

As we just celebrated Easter weekend, we can still have that vivid picture of Christ hanging on the cross, dying for our sin, and this can also be seen as a way of living for us today.   Not that we start hanging ourselves on a tree with spikes, but the illustration that Jesus was done with sin on the cross because it was His decision, His will to do that for us.   We too need to do the same and be done with sin.

Peter calls the church to not live as 'the pagans do', but to 'live according to God in regard to the spirit' (vs 6).   Peter does also talk about the fact that we are going to have to give an account at judgement time in regard to our actions.   We are not living to fulfill our desires, but to live according to the ways of God.  

That's what makes us different, and sometimes that's what makes life harder.    Peter encourages believers to live a holy life (1 Peter 4:4) and that some people will think us strange.   This is were the Church needs to encourage each other, lift each other up, instead of tearing down.   This is were we are called to encourage each other in our faith because we face the same choices every day .. whether or not to follow the ways of the world, the way of selfishness, or the way of holiness that God has set before us.

1 Peter: 3:18-22 Baptized in Freedom.

Christ died for our sins once and for all ... what a great promise/revelation.   That no longer are we bound by the laws of sin, with no choice of doing what is right, but we are now free from the bonds of sin that easily entangles us.   Peter also uses the flood in Noah's time as an illustration of baptism, how the old and corrupt of that world was washed away, so that Noah and his family could begin anew.    Christ has saved us from the old ways.   We now can have a new life, a new beginning because of what He has done on the cross for us.

This passage also mentions that Christ preached to the spirits in prison whom had rejected the ways of God back in Noah's time.    Jesus was proclaiming his victory over death, that sin no longer has hold over us.   I'm also wondering if he preached redemption to those spirits in prison (3:18-19).    What did he preach?    Peter doesn't tell us in this letter, but his emphasis was on the symbol of baptism, and letting us know that Christ is at God's right hand "with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him."   

Peter tells us that Christ is sitting at God's right hand with authority and power.    What a great hope we have in Christ, but it is real hope, not a hope that is wishful thinking, but a hope that is built on the promises of God, and the knowledge of what God has already done for us.