Wednesday 29 April 2020

A good hug!

A good hug!
I shared these thoughts with the officers in Eastern Europe earlier this week - I pray for you who read this, that they may also give comfort and hope to you!

Some of you, we are used to meet physically quite frequently. Others we may only see in person twice or three times a year because of the geographical size of our territory. Therefore, it is hard for Magna and me not to be able to do all the trips we had planned from March to June.

Even when we these days meet some of you because we live in the same city, the principle of “Social distancing” makes it impossible to act as we normally do. So I asked myself, is there something that can overcome “social distancing”? – The answer came quickly:

“Spiritual embrace!” 

Nothing can stop me, or you, from embracing one another in prayer. We always pray for you, however, in these days even more as we try to embrace you with God’s love.

In the last part of chapter 8 in the letters to the Romans, Paul wrote a list of many of the difficult things we struggle with in our lives, and he concluded that he was convinced that nothing in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:39 
That is a great spiritual hug.
I know that some of you also feel anxiety and distress in these days, and you may even feel guilty about it because you feel that you should not feel this way when you are a believer, and in addition a spiritual leader. God knows that we are human. Even the disciples were scared even though Jesus was in the same boat. However, if we deny our feelings, we are not true to our own humanity. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus also faced his own feelings and fear, so if Jesus ever was in the same boat with humankind, it is now!

Paul also faced his fears, I am sure that is why he also placed anxiety and distress on his list of the things that could not separate us from God’s love, and His love remains forever (1 Corinthians 13:13).
A warm spiritual embrace from your brother in Christ

Jostein

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