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Is God angry with you?

We are placed in time in this world. There is a before and an after, a yesterday and a tomorrow. Things of the past and things of the present. When reading the Old Testament we find God angry with His people when they sinned. Even punishing them in different ways.

But there is a Cross standing there in history. A time divider, a game changer! There is a before and after! We are living after the Cross where Jesus the Son of God took God’s wrath for our sins, failures and shortcomings upon Himself. God’s anger flushed over His soul on the Cross. It was mine and your sin He took, He had no sin of His own, He was without sin. He carried our sin upon that Cross and God’s anger over His sins was Gods anger over our sins, and through a perfect sacrifice God’s anger was pleased, sin had been punished, righteousness established, Salvation won!

God is no longer an angry with man. He loves man (As He always loved of course) Who reveals His Mercy and Grace to us through Jesus Christ. God is happy with you and me. He is happy we received His plan of Salvation by believing in His Son Jesus Christ. Salvation becomes ours through faith in Him and Him alone. There is only Salvation through Jesus Christ, not through the deeds or our own efforts but by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God’s innocent Lamb.

You are forgiven and you are loved by God. He has accepted you because of the Sacrifice of Jesus. Every day and every moment of your life God loves you and His love is eternal for you and me.

 

Matsjan

The defender of the weak

’And everyone went to his own house. But Jesus went to the Mount of Loves. Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a women caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, ‘’Teacher, this women was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?.’’
This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself and said to them, ‘’He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.’’
And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who had heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the women standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw on one but the women, He said to her, ‘’Women where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She said ‘’No one Lord.’’ And Jesus said to her, ‘’Neither do I condemn you; Go and sin no more.’’

Life can be though and difficult to cope with many times. It does not always turn out the way we want and expect, we do not always do what we desired we should have. This women find herself this particular day standing in the midst of a bloodthirsty crowd led by the defenders of righteousness. Her life had fallen apart in a day. She had failed morally publicly.

She is a women and it seems like the defenders of righteousness always goes for the weaker ones, those with less chance of defending themselves. They were a bunch against one single women.

Jesus was obviously a problem for those defenders of righteousness because they were seeking a reason to accuse Him for something, finding a way to get rid of this problem. Their whole ‘business idea’ was finding sin, judge, execute and eradicate the sinner as well as the sin. Their idea of dealing with sin was simply to either kill or excommunicate the sinner from among them.

This was the situation Jesus came into and started His mission, instead of judging sinners He forgave them, instead of excommunicating, He included people, instead of rejecting, He accepted people. He was the son of David, the king who began his rule with a bunch of misfits (1 Sam 22:1-2), and His mission was one of salvation not judgment. So in a spiritual tradition of measuring people by the Law of righteousness and then executing accordingly He kind of didn’t fit the spiritual form of a Rabbi. He was different!

This day they brought a women who obviously had broken the most serious of all spiritual requirements, she had committed adultery, broken the covenant she had with a man. It is emotionally for everyone involved a trauma of course, it’s a tragedy and a moral failure in every sense. She is brought to Jesus for judgement, they wanted Jesus who claimed to be a rabbi, a teacher of the law, to pass judgement on her. His answer astounds me to this very day, it’s beyond what my natural mind screams!

‘Let him who has no sin cast the first stone!’ They leave one after the other shameful because their own conscience convicted them and reminded them of their own dark moments of sin and failure, so one by one they left the place. The oldest went first, the longer life the more sin and failure been committed. Finally the women stands there alone with Jesus, maybe there were a crowd of people because it says she was standing in the midst of them still. Everyone waiting for Jesus to open His mouth again! You can sense the breathtaking silence and anticipation.

Jesus looks up and says, ‘Has no one judged you yet? Neither do I judge you! Go and sin no more’

‘Wait a minute, how can you do this!! She’s guilty and there got to be a punishment, a consequence of her actions’. Well, there probably where effects in her own life with broken family relations, long and difficult talks about divorce, crying children (if there were any), angry husband, lots of pain and grief. No doubt! But Jesus forgave her!

You see, law requires punishment, but grace gives undeserved forgiveness! Grace doesn’t keep records of past failures and sins. Grace forgets and releases people out of bondage.

Grace welds relations together again, grace heals broken hearts, grace puts the pieces together again. Jesus gives grace to the humble, to those who ask Him for it. Admitting our weaknesses and shortcomings to God and to each other. There is no one righteous, no one perfect, neither preacher nor pastor, neither layman nor priest, we all need salvation through Jesus Christ. The righteousness we stand in is not our own but His, the righteousness He gave to us by dying on a cross, carrying our sins, failures and shortcomings.

He is first and foremost our savior and our healer. The only one perfect is Jesus, the only one without sin is Jesus.

And He is the defender of the weak!

 

Matsjan

Let the ruins come to life!!

Listening to a what I think a highly prophetic song ‘Glorious ruins‘ by Hillsong. So many people today experience their life have fallen in ruins, broken by own and others sins, injustices and falseness present in this life.
Jesus is still the restorer of our souls, the healer of our memories and the mender of broken hearts. I believe we will see, and are seeing, a move of a highly passionate Saviour flooding the earth with love and mercy healing the wounded and the fallen lying slain by the road of life. Jesus is walking by turning sorrow to joy, desert to a blooming garden.

I can see and hear how God is moving among the young people around the world, tens of thousands are turning their hearts and souls to an ever loving and merciful God, tears of healing flowing causing brokenness in which the enourmous love of God is revealed.
A still small voice speaking into darkness, whispering miracoulous healing words of redemption and salvation.

Come Lord Jesus heal my heart and let me again see Your lovely face and feel your warmth and strength, amen!

Matsjan

Facing the giants….Part 1

In Mark 10 Jesus said to His disciples they by faith could cast mountains into the sea. Mountains of course represents unsolvable situations, when we come to a dead end in life, no way out.

In the OT its like David facing Goliath, or his mighty men facing Goliath’s relatives, also giants. We can find 4 of those beaten by Davids mighty men. They all represents a mountain we can face in life. Those mountains are not found in our circumstances but are inward, emotional and mental conditions causing where the mountain dictates our our response. Here are the four cousins of Goliath (Goliath which can mean ‘to strip’)

1. Ishbi-Benob = Discouragement. He was killed by Abishai, the faithfulness of God. The first giant hitting our lives is most often discouragement. God’s faithfulness will defeat him. God always takes you through to the other side.

2. Saph = The destroyer. Killed by Sibbechai, the supernatural intervention of God. God will always intervene. When the mountain of destruction comes against us God will supernaturally intervene.

Hold on to Jesus, He will see you through

 

To be continued next blogpost

 

Matsjan

Included or excluded…

In Matthew 9:9-10 Jesus first calls Matthew and then in verse 10 He sits down at the table and is immediately joined by certain people, of course His disciples but also tax collectors and ‘disreputable’ sinners as the Message bible puts it. And then of course the Pharisees. What a crowd! And Jesus took them all in, He included them. No one excluded.

To be excluded by your own is among the most devastating a person can experience emotionally. To be rejected and excluded from fellowship. Maybe because he/she said or done something someone disliked and is punished with icing silence and gentle removed and put out side with no explanation or chance of changing, repenting if needed. Left with a big question mark within his/her head wondering, Why am I excluded? What have I done wrong?

I’ve experienced this many times by myself and its truly a torment. It might also serve as a warning example for those included, Behave well or else your excluded!

Jesus was not like this! I am so blessed and thankful He is inclusive, sinners, Pharisees, disciples and others where all welcome to share the table with Him. Jesus doesn’t judge by the outside apparel but He see’s the heart of man.

Let us be inclusive not exclusive! Include the sinner and Pharisee in your prayers and your parties, let them all into your fellowship.

 

Matsjan

In London again…

Yesterday I arrived in London once again. I have come to love this great melting pot of city. So many nationalities and cultures live and work here. This time I am here by invitation to speak at a Christian conference organized by a group of different churches with different ethnic backgrounds. Last night we had the opening service and I spoke about the Holy Spirit and His personality. The Lord blessed us with His own presence, revelation and lots of joy.

It seems to me it pleases the Lord when people from different ethnic backgrounds come together to worship the one and only Savior Jesus Christ. In the book of revelation we see people from all tribes, nations and tongues standing before the throne of God worshipping together. Matter a fact in a city like London lives lots of unreached people, many from nations where the gospel is deficit, churches practically nonexistent not talking about evangelism to reach them with the Good News of Christ.

They are no within reach to hear about Jesus and we have to take the challenge to proclaim Christ to them. Secularism is not the answer, Jesus is. New church planting initiatives are needed all over Europe, new barns for a new harvest in a new time. And then new workers are needed, equipped for such a time as this. Able to use the cultural language of our day to communicate the Good News to these big city people.

The church cannot and should not be a place for politics nor exclusive interest groups but it’s for all Gods people. Focus is Jesus and His glory. Salvation in no other name and worship of none other than the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Church must be a place of worship, fellowship, joy and freedom. It is supposed to be a fountain of Salvation, where we meet Jesus, having a great time together! All in honesty and without hidden agendas, everyone included no one excluded. Not a place for perfect people but non-perfect seeking to be Christ like in their unique, god-given personalities. The bible tells us to not be conformed to this world but we are also not to be conformed to each other but to be transformed into the image of Christ.

Now I have to run, the service begins and I am not even in the service!!! God bless!

Matsjan

A crazy world…

I guess the summer of 2014 will go to history as the summer when the world went totally crazy. First the Ukraine crisis turned to full scale war, Israel attacked by Hamas and finally the ISIS army arises in Syria and Iraq.

Pictures of women and children killed and mutilated floods social media, some fake, but still the reality is brutal. Tens of thousands fly in different directions to find a safe haven. After spending many years in both Ukraine and Azerbaijan with people of different religion and culture I have learn a few things about people. Most common people just want to live a normal, peaceful life. Work, eat, love and laugh once in a while. The ambitions are not so tremendous at all. In fact most people strive daily just to fill their basic need of shelter, food and clothing. No dreams of being a billionaire, or even millionaire, just a decent happy life is desired.

War puts a dramatic end to the very basic need of a human being, safety. If live’s ended everything is ended, its final and its very brutal.

Having lived in Ukraine and traveled a lot in the areas where a full scale war is now raging having some of my closest and dearest friends there this summer has been very special for us as a family. Every single morning I open webpages and read about what has happened during the night. Same morning same reading. Bloodshed, death, destruction and millions of speculations, propaganda and anti-propaganda about who is guilty of what.

My heart has breaks for the people under shelling from either side, for those young lives ended in battle, mothers loosing their sons. Again blood is flowing in Ukraine!

As I opened my bible this morning I read in 2 Cor 4:8-18 ‘We are hard pressed on everyside, yet not crushed…’. As long as there is breath there is hope. God is able to turn a crazy summer into His glory. How? I don’t know but I have to believe He can because He promised to do so.

‘Lord, let the power of Love and reconciliation defeat the powers of darkness and bring forth your eternal light and life’

 

Mats-Jan

A stinking attitude….

A few years ago while still serving as Lead pastor for Word of Life Baku I was apart of a group of people from different ministries and churches, mostly foreigners. Good people who felt the Lord had called them to Baku for some kind of outreach or ministry.

Now for some reason someone wanted to create an umbrella organisation for all the others to be apart of. When I prayed about it I felt very clearly the Lord leading us a church in a slight other direction. Due to that I started to agitate and influence this group of people in a certain direction. This didn’t no really turn out so well and they kind of ignored my attempts, which I didn’t like at all of course:), an due to this I developed a stinking attitude in my heart toward those brothers and sisters. The more I prayed about it the more I was convinced the Lord was leading us in a slight other direction (later it became evident it was the right thing for us to do). And I got more and more upset about the direction they where taking this ‘umbrella organisation’.

My attitude really started to smell bad before God I guess. But still I was more and more convinced I was walking the right direction, but with a stinking attitude! One day as I was having my daily devotion one scripture popped out of the bible from Psalms 50:23 ‘Whoever offers praise glorifies Me’ and I suddenly realized all those people I was so upset about actually praised God everyday. I got so convicted there by myself in my prayer closet so I repented and decided to go before them and and change my decision to not be apart of that particular Umbrella organisation.

Then something happened in my heart, I kind of heard a small voice saying, ‘The problem was your attitude not the decision you’ve made on which way to walk’. I realized the Lord was leading us a different path forward and I had wanted them all to take the same road, and I had tried to make them do so. But the way was mine to follow, I can’t say about them nor make decisions for them, it had to be their choices and whatever choice they made, whether I agree or had another opinion about it I had to still love them and keep my heart clean before God.

My point is I made the right choice but with a bad attitude! I had to change my attitude not my choice.

‘Lord help us to walk before you with a clean and open heart’

Matsjan

The Evangelist…

Recently I’ve been talking and pondering the necessity of the Evangelist. This ministry carries a high profile in the New Testament and should be regarded in importance accordingly. When the evangelist been scorned and ridiculed using expressions like evangelastic and so on I think it grieves the Holy Spirit of God who has anointed the evangelist to be the ministry in the forefront.
In our early days in former Sovjetunion the evangelist always played a crucial role in breaking through preparing the way for the next ministry, teacher or pastor to step in to form and build new believers in their walk with Jesus.
The fivefold ministries are grace given to the church for its equipping and development and they have their place and time for ministry to build the house of God. No ministry carries the fullness but minister according to the grace God has given them, not more or nor less.
The evangelist fires up the church and releases passion and vision for reaching the lost. A church’s highest calling is to reach the lost, in the neighborhood and in the city. The evangelistic fervor and spirit is absolute crucial. When we stop making altar calls inviting people to repent is a sign our priorities have changed and we are slowly leaving the evangelistic for a more cozy church life where we become like a subculture having lost all our natural connections to unbelievers and as result our services become irrelevant filled with church vocabulary hard for unchurched people to grasp. Jesus becomes elitistic and separated from daily life as a result.
We need revival and the evangelist is often equipped for releasing this to the local church. He also carries power and especially the power gifts of healing and miracles to set people free from bondage and sickness which we need to be renewed among us over and over again.

No Other Name than Jesus saves!

Matsjan

One day in Malmö…

Yesterday I visited one of my favourite cities of Sweden, Malmö. I had the great privilige to speak at Malmö International Church where Ingmar and Tina Aronsson is pastoring. Ingmar started the church from scratch quite some years ago and is still keeping up the good work.
It is quite successful church plant in Sweden. During our dinner after the service we touched on the subject church planting. We both agreed about the desperate need of new churches in Sweden. I heard someone say not so long ago that a new started church are between 6-8 time as a effective in reaching out with the gospel than any older church. The enthusiasm and passion in a newly started church is contagious. It rubs off!

I don´t think the one and only answer is megachurch, huge extremely influencial sometimes even draining smaller churches of their members. Of course I believe in megchurches, they have their place.
But also smaller churches, neighbourhood churches should not be despised at all. They can have a tremendous impact in their neighbourhood. We need lots of small neighbourhood churches all over sweden. I believe its time to rethink some of the ways we think church.
A church with 100 members might not have the strength to send tonnes of missionaries overseas, but they can impact their neighbourhood strongly. Faithfully bringning out the message of Jesus to the people around. In our suburbs and small towns we need hundreds of such a churches. With pastors faithfully serving year after year giving testimony about Jesus Christ.
I want to thank and honor all those pastors who year after year faithfully serve in their churches. Maybe no one will ever give them recognition or they might never be bestselling authors and world famous preachers. But that is not the calling either, but it is to make Jesus known to every man and women on the planet which includes our neighbourhood as well.

Matsjan