In communion with God, through the Word,

I am learning to know God and myself.

I discover who I am in my fellowship with God.

He calls me by name.

He tells me who I am in him.

He calls me to follow him

That I may become everything he has intended me to be.

In communion with God,

When the Word comes to me,

I find my right identity in Christ.

In the light of the brightness of the glory of God

That is seen in the face of Jesus Christ,

I see myself created to his glory.

I see myself created to reflect Him.

The word that comes from God

Gives purpose and meaning to my life.

The word from God is my source of life

From where I daily can draw new life.

The word of God is the fountain of salvation

From where I, with joy, drink deeply,

Allowing the Word to form my identity,

By believing and confessing what he says

He has done for me in Christ.

It is so good to believe what God says about me.

It is so good and decent to shout it loudly

And confess that I am what God says I am in Christ.

I am a child of God through faith in Christ!

I am born again by the power of the Holy Spirit!

I am a brand new creation!

I am righteous before God!

I am the heir of God and the co-heir of Christ!

The last week our little grandson Jonathan have been staying with us. His little sister Mathilde is in hospital and her mother is with her. Jonathan’s father is in Stavanger where they live, he has to work but will come to Bergen later when Mathilde has been through the surgery she needs.
Little Jonathan is a very kind and nice boy, he is sweet and smiling. He has behaved so well and is so obedient to us. He is a very precious boy! Jonathan has been much ill when he was younger and he has been many times to treatment and surgery in hospital. But I am so grateful to God that he is fine now.
Jonathan prefer me to stay in the bedroom with him during the night, but after praying and singing he very soon falls asleep.
This morning I woke up by a little voice saying next to me “ How are you grandmother, are you fine?” He is so cute! Sometimes during the day he will ask the same question to us, he is a caring little boy.
Jonathan loves to play with small pirate boats and captain “Sabeltann” is the big hero. He is also very clever in drawing. He is a bit wondering when I tell him that Jesus is the strongest one. But often in the morning when I am reading from the Bible his favourite is the story when Moses and the people escape through the Red Sea. He is a good listener.
We love our grandchildren, they are all so dear and special to us. We pray that what we invest in their lives must be important and valuable for their coming days and years. But these days it is Jonathan, 4 years old that get most of my time, care, love and attention.

I have been reading through the new Norwegian translation of the New Testament in my daily reading recently. Today I started on my last book for me to finish reading through the entire NT. As I was reading the Book of Acts I was struck again how central the message of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was to the early apostles and believers.

Because of their conviction of the Resurrection they allowed nothing to stop them (Acts 5:42). They even rejoiced in being counted worthy of suffering for the name of their resurrected Lord. This one sentence hit me this morning: They allowed nothing to stop them. They continued day by day to teach and to preach the good news that Jesus is the promised Messiah, even in the midst of persecution!

They allowed nothing to stop them! This statement challenged me this morning. Do I allow things to stop me? Do I allow circumstances to hinder me in sharing the good news about Jesus?

Today I have had a very good time with the Bible School students as I have been trying to paint a portrait of Jesus. I have been looking at how the people viewed him, like his enemies, the sick and suffering people, and his friends. We have also been looking at what characterized him, like strenght, meekness, love, purity, etc. As we tried to understand his mindset and thoughts about God, people, life, and ministry, his presence was felt among us. We were all touched in our hearts as we more clearly could see how marvelous he is!

David and Lene came to stay with us for the weekend. Their youngest daugther, Mathilde, was admitted at the hospital yesterday. However, we had to take her to the hospital for some help on Sunday evening. She needed a plastic pipe down her nose to the stomach. Two nurses did the work while her mother was holding her. I will never forget her big eyes looking at me for help. She was suffering in the hands of the nurses, but only for a short moment. The painful treatment was for her good.

Still, her eyes were crying for help, but there was nothing I could do to relieve the pain. Her suffering became my pain. It was so painful to watch her suffer. I could feel her pain deep down in my innermost being. It seems like she is needing surgery. But more than anything she is needing prayer and divine healing! She is less than two years old.

Sunday morning Per Arne Gjerde gave a wonderful message at Kristent Fellesskap in Bergen. He was teaching on Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. His teaching is in line with what God has been speaking to us recently on Personal Disciple Fellowship (PDF). All the leaders on all levels are practicing this in a new way and are being refreshed.

Today I had a email from a friend of mine from Switzerland. He was telling me: We experience a new deep love among each other in the church. I started to preach about “fellowship”. I believe that I preached during the last 4 months about Acts 4,29-33 only. God is speaking and revealing new things in a new clarity to me. And the church wants to learn, to change and to grow. It is fantastic.

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Last week I was attending the Norwegian DAWN conference in Oslo. It was a good time with a lot of good information and some inspiring stuff as well. The most important thing is to meet fellow Christians from many different backgrounds with the same burning desire to extend the Kingdom of God through discipling nations through church planting.

One of the most inspiring experience was the visit to the Jesus House that is run by Jesus Revolution.

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An enjoyable Christmas gift

One of the Christmas gift given to Erling and myself surprised and exited us both. We got an invitation card from a nice young couple in the church, Eli and Werner. They wanted to bless us by serving us dinner and they also wanted to get to know us better. We could choose a day in January and yesterday was a good day for all four of us.
We arrived to their nice home at Nesttun to “open” and enjoy the gift. Eli and Werner have been married for 1 ½ years but have already managed to by a house of their own. They have rented out one part of the house. They are both studying but Eli has also got a small job.So they are busy but doing fine.
They gave us a delicious, homemade dinner which we enjoyed very much. Afterwards we had freshly brewed coffee and tea and sweet ice cream. We had a good time of fellowship and talking together. We talked about many things, also about marriage and they were interested to know of our experience, being married 40 years more than them! We had a good time, I think all of us enjoyed it. It is so refreshing being with young people, we can all benefit from it and I think the younger generation get something in return being with the older ones.
The time in good company went fast and we had to say good bye, being so much enriched and blessed by Eli and Werner, this young, lovely couple.
The good thing is that this kind of Christmas gifts can be given all year through!

I started to read the book of Revelation this morning. It is a facinating book with a very clear introduction. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave Him to show His slaves what must quickly take place. He sent it and signified it through His angel to His slave John.

This introduction tells me that the entire book is about Christ and what is doing quickly and suddenly in the world.

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