Peter’s Thoughts

Hello, remember me?  I am the guy who blogs once in a blue while.

Guess what, I mentioned once about gas and how much gas our Suburban drinks and the high cost thereof.  When we moved to Salt Lake City, gas price was around $3.5, if I remember correctly.  I made our budget based on that price.  Soon it increased to $4.5 and even higher than that.

Today, gas is down to under $2!!!!  We are now saving over $300 per month!  That is awesome!

So, please rejoice with us!

What would happen in a recession like the one we are in, if we, according to biblical tradition, forgave all people their debt?

Sorry about the design.  I will fix it once the server accepts my changes.

Hello,

As I am commuting to and from work, a couple of things strikes me.  One thing is how seemingly stupid and irrational some people seem.  I have to travel south on one highway, then go east on a 9000 street  in order to get to my office.  If I keep going 100 yards east of my office I come to another highway going north and south.  So, there are two highways crossing the street of my office. 
As I am driving either direction, in the morning or the afternoon, there is some rather long lines of cars since people are merging onto the highway or coming off the highway.
What strikes me as rather irrational would be the cars infront of me or behind me that, after sitting in the line for a coupel of minutes (the line is rather fast) make a U-Turn (in middle of rush traffic!!!) to turn and go the opposite direction.  I suppose they drive a block or two and then take a street going north or south and then turn to drive towards the highway again on another street.
I don’t know if you get the picture of what these people are doing.  But in essence, they take a detour of many many many more minutes than waiting for the line to clear up.  It must make a difference for them, where they are loosing, maybe ten minutes or more (remember that they have been sitting in the line for a while too).

What makes people make decisions like this?  Are they not smart?  Are they so stressed so that they do not realize the reality?  Someone once said (Svante Rumar) that we normally give up the wait for our miracle/breakthrough one we have the miracle within reach.
Is that how it is?  I do not know if it really works that way but I do know that we need more patience and wisdom in our lives.

Gotta tend to some kids here….over and out

Interesting comments on living like a Christian. 
Do we need a lot of time in order to live like a Christian?  Think about this, if living like a Christian means to pray, read the Bible, and worship God, or to be still and rest in awe of God, then we need time to be able to accomplish this. 
If the above is the core of a Christian life, than Jan B and Johan H would be right when they say that a busy life would be hard to combine with Christian life.  However, if we look at Jesus, we can see that he taught by words and also taught by example.  If the Christian life is a lifestyle or an attitude, then it would be something that we lived–always!
When do we see the fruits of the Spirit in our lives?  When do we have a chance to be the merciful Samaritan, or when do we get to bring people to Christ like the Samaritan woman by the well, in John 4?
I would say that the life of a Christian is a WAY OF LIVING.  How often did we see or hear Jesus read the scripture?  That is a trick question.  Jesus knew the scripture and meditated on it daily. 
Jesus had a very busy lifestyle, but the Bible shows how he acted in wisdom, compassion, love, understanding, patience, longsuffering, and all other good ways. 

OK, enough for this time.  I think we need to see that we are not to “practice” Christianity, we are to be transformed into Christ’s way of being.

Love you and miss you!

Have you ever felt like you do not have time to update your blog?  Or, have you ever lacked time to write those emails?
For the past month I have been so swamped that I haven’t even had time to read blogs  or to read emails. 
I started a new job as the I.T. Manager for a local company a month ago.  Our church is also in the process of expanding into new facilities.  Tammy and I have spen a lot of time at church doing some dirty and wonderful construction.  Life has been extremely intense lately!
Since I am strive for change and for betterment of the body of Christ, I try hard to live a different life than the common.
One promise I have made is to take time for my family, my wife and kids.  I make an effort to spend relaxed time with my family both morning and night.  If there is one area I refuse to fail, it would be my family.  They are extremely important to me, as I think we are important to God.

There is no doubt, most parents in families with three kids (soon four), a dog, and both parents working, will experience a time like the one we are experiencing now.  We wake up before 6 AM, pretty much every day, and our day is full speed ahead untill we go to bed around 11 PM. 
How do we manage to LIVE the life of a Christian in times such as these?  What is a life of a Christian?  Is it a matter of practicing rituals, attending church and its activities, is it a matter of reading the Bible and pray every day, or . . .?  What does it mean to be a Christian to you?

I will make an effort to reply to your comments on this question.

I was not going to do any blogging today.  I am cramming and preparing for two interviews later this week,  But after listening to the http://mediaplayer.livetsord.se/?ID=2281 Livets Ord’s 25 Year Festival Medley.

For me, this medley resulted in 25 years of edification, revelation, correction, relationship, growing, and lots of fun gushing over me.  The presence of God came over me as a am sitting here listening and watching.
Memories of God’s goodness and mighty being came to me and I could not hold my tears back.  Here I am, sitting at Barnes and Noble in Sugar House/Salt Lake City in the Mystery and Science Fiction/Fantasy department, with some pretty interesting people around me.  Here I choose to let my tears come down my face.

Livets Ord, Thank you for the past 25 years.  I am so looking forward to the next 25.  God Bless you and may God keep you on his awesome path.  The ending song by Jarle and Anna was awesome.  The non-changing God in our so ever changing world.  We can see how the church has changed in the past 2000 years in general and how Livets Ord has changed in the past 25 in specific.  God entrusted us with the development and organization of his kingdom on this earth.
Well done LO and all Loare!  You Rock!

 Wish we could be there and celebrate this summer!

Dear Friends,
Revivals are being talked about   a little bit everywhere.  Aletheia writes about it, I write about it, Ulf Ekman just wrote about renewing/revival.  And it is all good with an outpouring of the Spirit or, a “fire-upping” of the Spirit. We all get tired and weary from treading our lives.  We are looking to the hope that we have.  We look to the promises we have.  Often it seems like we never receive the “promised land.”  My experience is that the promised land is always coming, as promised, it might just take a little longer. 
While we are waiting, some times failing, it is nice to get a touch from God, don’t you think?
We might be chasing for a spiritual shower, running after Holy Spirit preachers and other events, to get that “high.”
I have found that the best source, and most reliable, is a few minutes with  my Bible, a few minutes of prayer, a few minutes in praise and worship, or simply a few minutes in silent awe of our mighty Creator.
A few minutes meditation on God’s goodness and awesomeness will renew and revive you more than enough.  God is available to touch you at anytime at any place.  When you or I reach for Him, he reaches for us. 
The best Revival is not the one we have to travel to, the one where we need a third person to deliver the anointing to us (sometimes we do need someone to carry us and our burdens, we need help!) the best Revival is the one where you take some time in reverance and meet God on his terms on his soil.

I have read a few articles about the revival in Lakeland, Florida.  Some are positive while some are critical.  Remember that all critical do not have to be negative! Some are simply being critical based  on things such as Bentleys theology etc.

Anyways, I read today that we have to wait and see whether or not Bentley is from God–The fruit of his work will tell!
This is interesting.  We all claim that the Azuzastreet revival was from God.  But the fruits from this revival was not the best.  The revival in itself was very successful…..but then itcrashed and W. Seymore almost lost everything.  The entire “movement” almost diminished.  Can we judge the fruit of this work?
Paul was rather unsuccessful as he tried to start a church in Cyprus, was he not?  Does that mean that Paul was bad?
Let us take this a step further, Jesus was rather unsuccessful in his hometown…..Can we always judge on the fruit?

 My QUESTION to you is Can we always judge based on the fruit? If so, what would the fruit be in Lakeland that we can judge based on?

Some people thrive in talking about other people’s mistakes and sins.  I often refer to Jesus and what he would do.  I think it is obvious that He did not talk about the sins and mistakes of  others in public.  Take the taxcollector as an example.  Did Jesus tell him as he sat in the tree “You sinful man, yes you who sit up there, you who steal and rob, lie and cheat, come on down.  Listen all!!! If this man does not repent . . . , You shall all demand of him that he beggs for your forgiveness….” Or, did he, in John 4, after talking to the Samarian woman at the well tell his friends about the sins of the woman?  After she had brought a greater part of the town out to him, did he then tell them about her sins???

The point with Eph 5 is to edify the body of Christ.  The work in the kingdom of God is individual.  Each seed that is sown grows individually.  Each tree that it grows into is pruned individually.  This whole chapter is written to edify the individual.  It talks about how I AM to live MY life.  Hence, verse 11 talks about how I have to confute, rebuke, the works of the evil one and the darkness in MY life.  Sorry guys, we are not to publish the mistakes of others. 

There are cases where we have to protest against things.  There are times where we have to talk to our sinful brother once and twice and if he does not change his behavior, we bring him to the church leaders etc.  To gossip on the internet about stuff is not the Christlike way of dealing with things.

I guess it is determined based on our goals, do we want to edify the body or do we want to do our own thing?  Aletheia and others, do we want to see the body of Christ (organized in a church or not) to be pruned into something better, or do we want to ridicule it?

 All people have a redemption to claim
Long ago Jesus died a redemptive death on a cross
Everyone is free, however, to choose to accept THE CROSS
Though the death and resurrection of Jesus was the redemptive work
His cross still stands as a loud voice shouting out the victory over the eternal death
Everywhere is this cross a symbol, not for the death of Christ, but for his resurrection
In times like these when everything holy about God is questioned and compromised
All of us must remind ourselves of that cross, not its shape, its material, but of its meaning.

I don not claim to be a man of words; hence the poor poetry above.

It is for me very hard to understand how people, that claim to live in forgiveness, cannot accept anything that comes from Livets Ord.  As Livets Ord, finally, raises a cross, then it’s all wrong and bad.  Some claim that it is raised due to pride!!!  How lost these people must be.

It is my prayer that these people will be able to open their eyes, ears, and hearts to see the truth.
To see beyond the possible hurts they might have and accept the work of the Lord that is going on at Livets Ord.

Yes, I do have the right NOT to read Aletheia and all its garbage.  But I do have compassion to reach out to my brothers and sisters and help them understand the truth.
I also think that Aletheia has a few good things to say and can be used for something good.  It will take some work but it’s worth it.

Aletheia, Pro Christo et Veritate