I have spent some time recently with the students at Bergen Bibelskole looking at the church of God as a covenant community. The last day I asked them to find all the "one another exhortations" in the New Testament and choose the three most important to them and then tell me why. Finding the exhortations is quite easy today with the many Bible computer programs available. However, deciding which one is the most important and explain why is not that easy.

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Today I had the privilege of attending a  very special funeral service. The mother of my close covenant friend Noralv Askeland had gone to be with the Lord and we were gathered to bring her body to rest in the grave. There are always lots of emotions involved when your mother leaves this world, even when you know that she has gone to a better place to be with the Lord.

From beginning to end this funeral service was filled with thankfulness and hope. Noralv gave a wonderful speech in which he honoured his mother by describing how she had been a loving and caring mother, faithful spouse, a zealous intercessor, an encourager, counselor, and helper to many people. A lot of people later gave testimonies of how she had been a blessing to them in many practical ways. Her life had been a great blessing and therefore the funeral service was filled with thanksgiving and praise to God for everything he had done through the mother of my friend.

Our visit to Tromsø is over and we are already back home in Bergen, but the effects of what God did during that weekend will last a long time. We have had a wonderful time in the presence of God with the precious covenant people in the capital of the North.

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From Oslo we continued our journey to Tromsø, beyond the Arctic circle, where our son Karl Enok lives with his family. He moved to this city in the northern part of Norway together with some other believers from Kristent Fellesskap in Bergen to start a church here, according to a prophetic word from God. The church in Tromsø is born out of the prophetic word and has a prophetic edge to it in its very nature. I love being with this church which I have followed from the very beginning. In fact I was traveling to Tromsø to pray for the city a long time before the church was born!

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Yesterday we were meeting with a young church in Oslo. I had been invited to share with them what God is saying and doing in our day. When we read the Bible we find a lot of references to time. In fact the Bible tells us that there is a time for every activity under the sun. We must understand the times to know what to do. Jesus cam to proclaim a new epoch, a new age, a new year of favour from God. He started by proclaiming that the time had arrived for the promises of God to be fullfilled.
We need to know the timings of the Spirit in our life in the world and in the covenant community. Solveig brought a prophetic word of direction to the young people. The prophetic word will always lead us to progress and fruitfulness in our life together as the people of God.

It is spring time in Bergen and the western part of Norway these days. I love this season when everything awakens to life and the flowers come out. There is no place as beautiful as this part of Norway in May. The leaves of the trees are fresh and green and full of life, different from the rest of the year. The fields are covered with all kinds of colourful flowers and evrything is full of beauty. The creation is exuberant in praise to the Almighty Creator. All the birds sing their praise to their God and all of nature is filled with adoration of the Life Giving God.

The last two days I have had the privilege of having a meaningful dialog on the nature of the church with a group of young students. We have been trying to go to the Bible and to apply it to our situation today. So far we have been talking about the divine and human nature of the church which is mysterious as incarnation itself. We have discovered that the church has its origin in the heart of God from before the beginning of the world and that it will bring glory to God in endless ages to come. At the same time the church is all about people that are not perfect yet, but are in the process of maturing and becoming more like Christ.
AS we have been talking on the deep issues of the very nature of the church I have been blessed by the insight I have found in the group of young students.

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