Erling Thu

Category: Journal

  • The Kiss of God

    There was a season in my life when the world I had built collapsed.

    For years I had lived inside a Christian world filled with sermons, conferences, worship, prayer, and ministry. My days had been shaped by faith, vision, and expectation. Then, almost overnight, everything changed. Disappointments accumulated. Relationships broke down. Dreams dissolved. The future I had imagined disappeared.

    I left the ministry and found work in the construction industry. It felt as though I had landed on a different planet. The language was different. The values seemed different. Instead of worship and prayer, I heard swearing, complaints, and crude jokes. The sounds echoed in my head. I felt like a foreigner among people who spoke a language I barely understood. I carried my confusion with me to work each day and returned home with the same unanswered questions.

    Who was I now? What had become of the calling that once gave direction to my life? Had I misunderstood everything? At night the questions became louder. Sleep often stayed far away. Problems multiplied in the darkness. Old wounds reopened. The future felt uncertain, and I could see no clear path forward. I lay awake wrestling with fears and disappointments until, finally, one night, a quiet cry escaped my heart.

    “Lord, how is this going to work out?”

    The answer came unexpectedly. Not as a sermon. Not as an argument. Not as an explanation. Just a gentle whisper:

    “Do not be afraid. We will manage this together—you and I.”

    I smiled in the darkness. For the first time in many months, I felt hope. The questions did not disappear. The circumstances did not change. Yet somehow everything felt different. I was no longer carrying the burden alone.

    Looking back, I realise that God often came to me during those difficult years in simple ways. Sometimes he felt like a strong hand leading me through fog when I could not find my way. Sometimes he felt like a protective presence standing behind me when fear threatened to overwhelm me. Sometimes he came as a friend when loneliness became almost unbearable.

    And sometimes he came through his Word. There were mornings when I opened my Bible feeling exhausted, confused, and empty. I was not looking for theology. I was not searching for answers to difficult questions. I simply needed God. Then something beautiful would happen.

    A passage I had read many times before would suddenly come alive. A familiar verse would shine with unexpected warmth. The words on the page became more than words. They became a meeting place. It felt as though God himself had drawn near.

    I have often thought about the creation story. God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and then breathed into him the breath of life. That first breath awakened a living soul.

    In moments like these, I felt something similar. Whenever God’s voice reached my heart through his Word, it was as though he breathed on me again. His life touched my life. His heart touched my heart.

    The only image I can find for it is a kiss. A heavenly kiss.

    Not a kiss of romance, but a kiss of love, acceptance, and life. A kiss that healed wounds I could not heal myself. A kiss that awakened hope when hope seemed lost. A kiss that reminded me that I was still known, still loved, and still held by God.

    The greatest miracle was not that I gained new understanding. The greatest miracle was that I met him.

    Questions that had seemed impossible became less threatening. The tangled threads of life slowly began to loosen. What had appeared closed started to open. Not because I suddenly understood everything, but because love had entered the room.

    I discovered that God’s Word is more than information. It is encounter. More than instruction. It is communion. More than truth. It is the voice of the One who loves us.

    Even today I come to Scripture with that same longing. I open my Bible the way a thirsty traveller approaches a spring. I come hoping to hear his voice once more. I come longing for the touch of his grace.

    For once the soul has tasted the kiss of God, nothing else can fully satisfy it. We simply want more of him.

    His words become sweeter than honey. His love becomes better than wine. And deep within, the heart continues to pray: “Lord, I long for the kiss of your Word.”

  • Fosen Mission Update 6

    Our days at Fosen is coming to and end, but our mission will continue. God has led us in a wonderful way and we have met with some very precious people. We have names and telephone numbers and a lot of follow up work to do when we return home. We don’t know how this will turn out. The fruit of this mission trip is in the hands of God. But we know that his word will never return to him empty.

    Yesterday we went to Stokkøya. Actually, we didn’t know what to do in the morning. The day was kind of open as we had not made any specific plans. Early in the morning we had a message and a phone call from someone we never met before, inviting us for an evening meal. The we talked with Roald, a Christian leader in the Lutheran prayer house in Åfjord (NLM). He was very kind and helpful. In his understanding all the free churches and most of the Lutheran prayer houses in the coastal villages had been shut down and turned into ordinary houses for people to live in. Some had become summer houses. The only free church that was not closed down, according to Roald, was the Baptist Church at Stokkøya.

    Therefore we decided to go to Stokkøya yesterday. On the way I called a Baptist preacher, a friend of mine, who was from Stokkøya and recently had moved back to his native place. He was not at home but told the amazing story of his greatgrandmother who became a baptist in 1890 and had been praying for revival. In 1930-1934 the revival came. 100 people out of the 600 inhabitants on the island repented and was baptised as believers. Almost every family on the island was touched by the revival and had some baptists among them. But today the church consists of mainly elderly people praying for a new revival.

    When we came to the centre of Stokkøya we went to the local Coop store and asked for direction. Then we had a very good conversation with the people at the store and was able to witness for them. They were very friendly and open. One of them had attended the Sunday school in the Baptist church.

    According to Wikipedia about 300 people live on the island today. That is only half as much as the number of people who lived here a hundred years ago. The same thing has happened to all the coastal villages of this area. The number of people has been drastically reduced as many families have moved away to sette in more central areas of Norway. But God loves the people in islands and distant coastlands. The precious people of these villages scattered along the coast are longing to hear the word of God. Who will bring them the Good News of the Kingdom of God?

  • A new person

    This morning I was reading Romans 12. This verse caught my attention: “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of ths world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then yoiu will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

    Praise God, we don’t need to copy the behaviour of the world. We don’t have to follow the customs of the society in which we live. Christ has redeem us. He has set us free from slavery to the basic spiritual powers and principles of this world. Now we are free to bring our bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice that is acceptable to God. This is truly the way to worship him.

    Praise God, we are not even stuck with ourselves. We are not stuck with our old and stubborn personality. We can let God change us into new persons by letting him change the way we think. As a person thinks in his heart, so he is. Therefore we need to lear to think God’s thought about us. He will teach us his ways. We can learn to know God’s will for our lives. His will is good and pleasing and perfect.

    What a privilege! We can let God transform us into new persons by changing the way we think! Hallelujah! God is good!

  • Fosen Mission Update 5

    Again, we have had a wonderfulday in Åfjord. We have met some very good people who has given us valuable information. First we met with a believer at the same age as Solveig and myself. His name was Roald and he was from Roan. He had probably been to some of my meetings about 64 years ago. It was such a blessing to talk to him. He knew a lot about the Christian churches and activities in this area. He confirm what we had discovered, that many prayer houses and church buildings had been turned into family houses as the churches had been closed down and no longer existed.

    Actually, the spiritual situation in the coastal area is quite sad. The numbers of born again believers have been drastically reduced since the time I was ministering the Gospel in this area. Lots of people have moved away from the small villages scattered along the coast, in the fjords and on the islands. So naturally the numbers also have gone down, but is seems like the free churches and mission organisations have been more severely hit. Roald did not know of any living, born again believer at all in his home village of Roan. The pentecostal church no longer existed and their building was turned into an ordinary house.

    But he gave me names of some of the children and grandchildren of the families I stayed with long ago. Now I will be able to contact several of them. One of them is actually living not far from home. He was very helpful and helped us to a better understanding of the spiritual situation of the area which is in a desperate need of revival.

    We have spoken a lot of local people. They have all been very open ond friendly. As we have told about the goodness of God and shared the Good News of Jesus Christ, the people have been listening and open to our message. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. We feel a real burden for the people in this area. They are kind and friendly, they are longing but do not understand what they are longing for. We will pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers to the many villages in this area without any living Christian fellowship. Many of these places don notm even have a state church building. And in the few state church buildings there seemed to be only one service in every three weeks or even more seldom.

  • Longing and praying

    I was reading the words of the apostle Paul this morning: “The longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.”

    There is a very close connection between the longing of my heart and my prayer to God. This truth runs throughout the entire Bible. God is the only one that can fulfil the longing of the human heart. He has created us for himself and we find no rest or satisfaction but in him. The longing for the heart is always expressed in prayers to God.

    As Solveig and I are in Fosen on a mission, the longing of our hearts and our prayers are for the precious people of this coastal area to be saved. We are soon leaving our hotel, going to Bessaker, looking for opportunities to share the Good News with people.

  • Fosen Mission Update 1

    What a wonderful day! What a blessed start to our mission to Fosen!

    We have had a wonderful weekend with the covenant community in Trondheim, together with Ruth and Matthew Ling from England and many brothers and sisters from Norway. It was a great blessing to spend some time even with our son Karl Enok. 

    After leaving Karl Enok at the railway station we drove towards Flakk to take the ferry across the broad Trondheim Fjord. We easily found our hotel in Åfjord, Fosen Fjordhotell after a nice drive through this beautiful area. We were praying together in the car and our hearts were full of expectation to the Lord.

    After some rest and a delicious dinner, we decided to go to a village called Roan. I was preaching the gospel there for nearly 64 years ago, and I stayed with a family and they had a small church building just across the road from their farmhouse. In my memory I still had some idea about the place and how to find it. On the way from Trondheim we had some heavy rain but as we were approaching Roan the weather was very nice with even some sunshine.

    A few days before we left home in Stavanger, God gave my dear wife a vision of a house, and as we approached Roan she expectantly was looking for the house.

    I had some memory of the road, and I saw a farmhouse and a building across the road that reminded me of the place I visited, but I was not fully convinced about it. But Solveig shouted: “This is the house I saw!” 

    An elderly man was walking with his dog on the road, so I stopped the car and spoke to him. He was very kind and friendly as I introduced myself and asked about the people at the farm and the house I thought might have been the church building. He confirmed everything. The house Solveig saw in the vision was the house I stayed in and the building across the road had been a church building, but was now turned into an ordinary family home. 

    We thanked him and blessed him, as well as witnessing for him. I only remembered Nikolai, the name of the old grandfather living with his son and his family who was running the farm, but this man knew the names of the entire family and could tell us the name of the one daughter of the family that was still alive.

    I told him about one incident that I will never forget from that church building. I had been fasting for a couple of days. In the afternoon I had held a devotion at the old people’s home. As I walked back to the house I was very tired, but had no time to rest, for I had to minister in a meeting. After a few songs I was called forward to preach. As I stood up, I nearly fainted, but was able to hold on to the pulpit. Then suddenly the power of God came upon me. My tiredness was wiped away in a second and the fresh anointing of the Spirit moved me to speak. It was like a rushing river. I invited people for prayer and several people had a powerful encounter with God through the laying on of hands.

    After the meeting, Nikolai told me that he had seen two tall angels standing, one at each side of me supporting me. I never saw the angels, but definitely I was strengthened by them. I will never forget that experience.

    The man at the road was very moved when we told him about the goodness of God and we were very blessed on our first day in the Fosen peninsula.

    Solveig found the house she had seen, I found the farmhouse and the church building where I preached the Good News. But the best part was witnessing to the elderly man.

  • Mission to Fosen

    We have been given a mission to Fosen. When I finished Bible School i November 1962 I traveled together with av experienced preacher, Samuel Gjertsen, to the Fosen penisula in Trøndelag, Norway. I was only 19 years old, but I felt the call upon my life to be a preacher. The coastal area of Fosen became my first mission field. I spent about half a year in that area.

    Now God has sent me and my dear wife on a new mission to coastal area of the Fosen penisula. Islands and coastal lands are waiting for his word. God will pour out his Spirit in a fresh way in these distant areas. Our mission starts today. I will try to update every day and tell how God is leading us and what is doing. We have no other plan than to be led by the Spirit to meet with the right people and give the the Word of the Lord.

    If we store the commands of God in our hearts, he will give us a long and satisfying life. I am only 83 years of age and still expect many satisfying years in serving the Lord Jesus Christ, my Saviour! I am trying to write his word deep within my heart.

    After sixty three and a half years we are going to my mission field with the Word of God, expecting him to move powerfully as we do what he tells us to do. Walking with God is very exciting!

  • Trying and failing

    To move to a new blogging plattform is to enter into unknown territory. It is quite challenging. Everything is new. I am struggling to find my way. It is not easy as I have to unlearn the old ways og my previous plattform and learn a complete new way of doing things. It is flying from one universe to a completely different universe. I have migrated from one world to another world.

    As this is a new world to me, I have a lot to learn. Hopefully my grandson, Jonathan, will be able to help me along. He has some knowledge of this new universe and will hopefully be able to teach me how the WordPress universe functions. Then he will have to enable me to manage my blog effort in such a way that I will be able to develop a community of friends with my writings.

    In the meantime, I am trying and failing at the moment as I am exploring this universe on my own. However, I realize, I really need someone to guide me.

    I also realize that new believers need someone to come along side them and train them in living a new life from the inside. New believers are leaving an egoistic and individualistic life style behind as they are entering into the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is totally different. The thing that matters now is the relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, and with his covenant community.

  • I can still see!

    This week I had my annual examination of my eyes. This have been going on since my right eye was damaged by AMD – Age-related Macula Degeneration about six years ago. Then I lost the ability to see sharply on that eye. Everything I focus on, I can only see a black cloud, but I still have some side sight on the right eye. I cannot read a singel letter on my right eye! My left eye has been perfectly well until now, and I am very grateful to the Lord for the blessing of eyesight!

    I can still see! Ever since I had the examination and the following message that my left eye also has been affected by the AMD, I tell my wife every morning: I can still see you! When I discovered that my right eye was affected by AMD, it only took 3-4 months before that eye was damaged beyond repair, humanly speaking. Therefore it really hit hard me when I was told that now my left eye was affected by the same wet AMD as the right eye. Many negative thoughts went through my mind. The worst scenarium is that within six months I will not be able to drive my car, nor will I be able to read or write any more.

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  • My favourite tea is finished

    At Christmas time I finished my last packet of my favourite tea, Taj Mahal. I usually buy my supply for several months when I am visiting India. Since we have not been to India for awhile my supply went empty in May 2019. However, my covenant friends Brenda and Zephry D'Souza brought me several packets when they visited us last summer. But everything has an end. My supply of the gorgeous Taj Mahal tea ended at Christmas. I really miss it.

    I have been given some nice masala chai, which I also have finished these days. Now I have one packet of pure Darjeeling tea to enjoy the next days. After that I will have to drink green tea for awhile, as I will be looking forward visiting India buying some more Taj Mahal tea. 

    I love tea and drink a lot every day. 

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