August 2009 Blog Posts (16)

Pentecost 57 "Justa lookin' fora home, justa lookin' fora home" Isn't Everyone?

Pentecost 57 ‘Justa lookin’ for a home, justa lookin’ for a home” Isn’t Everyone?



Ps.84: 3 Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may have her young—

a place near your altar,

O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.



As a young teenager moving from the then pristine North Carolina of the 40’s to the crowded ugly amphitheater called New York City, I felt the crushing insignificance that comes as scurrying herds of… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 28, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Pentecost 56 Copies and Shadows of Things to Come

Pentecost 56 Copies and Shadows of Things to Come



Ps.84 1 How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD Almighty!

2 My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.



One of my truly fond remembrances from childhood was our many trips to Maine’s lower mountain wilderness where we would go in the Summer to fish. Our cabin was on a remote lake accessed only by boat. A real steam locomotive pulled… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 27, 2009 at 2:25pm — 2 Comments

Pentecost 55 "Your Very Life Depends on This Issue!" says Politico. Oh, Really?

Pentecost 55 “Your Very Life Depends on This Issue!” says Politico. Oh, Really?



The most explosive issue in the country today is the subject of health care and having it available not just when needed but when wanted. The subject has taken on a life of its own and consumes the media at every turn. Like all issues that are not eternal, it tends to absorb our energies as it looks for a place to live in the mind and heart. It searches for a cover to give it form. It develops spaces… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 26, 2009 at 11:14am — 3 Comments

Pentecost 54 When You Want to Get Your Head on Straight

Pentecost 54 When You Want to Get Your Head on Straight



“Have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus…(Phil.2:5).”



Think spiritually, think Holy Spirit, think Jesus, think Father, think Scripture, think prayer, think like Jesus. That is the sequence to practice wherever you go. Then pray it:

O God, show me spiritual reality, fill me with your Spirit, I want to see Jesus, Father, I come to you, help me dig in the Word, help me pray the Word, think and act through me… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 25, 2009 at 12:09pm — No Comments

Pentecost 53 What in the World Were You Thinking?

Pentecost 53 What in the World Were You Thinking?



When we lived in New Hampshire we met a couple at an estate auction (then a weekly social event in '60's' New England). The wife had come up with a slogan she sold that emblazoned bumper stickers, “Think Snow.” The idea was to see the world through the eyes of skier’s dreams, lots of snow. View everything while on the job, on the way home, off-season, with the hope of ski season arriving with lots of fresh skiable snow. You live for… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 22, 2009 at 9:00am — No Comments

Pentecost 52 Identity and Destiny

Pentecost 52 Identity and Destiny



If you don’t know where you came from you can’t know where you are going.



Every year on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina the Highland Games celebrate the Scottish heritage. Those who have Scot names identify themselves by wearing their clan tartans. There are traditional athletic events, food and the sounds of pipers accompanying old dances. My own heritage has taken me back to Norway to study, to find family and to get a feel for my… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 21, 2009 at 10:08am — No Comments

Pentecost 51 Inside Out, Upside Down, Right Side Up

Pentecost 51 Inside Out, Upside Down, Right Side Up



Jesus turned the world inside out, upside down and right side up. He turned the world inside out to show its spiritual emptiness thus shifting the focus to Himself in order to place God on top and the world on the bottom. For this He was condemned by the world to die on the Cross. As we have already established the world is secular society, human community without God. Personal and shared sin was the substance of all secular… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 19, 2009 at 8:55am — No Comments

Pentecost 50 The Pandemic of 'Optionitis'

Pentecost 50 The Pandemic of “Optionitis’



Multi-tasking, out-sourcing, overload, burnout, specialization and a host of similar terms describe the pressures individuals experience everyday. We live in a world so fragmented that we wonder from one minute to the next exactly who we are and what we are here for.



If we probe even further we discover that we live in a world of social diseases that are not physical but spiritual. One of those is what I call ‘optionitis.’ It comes… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 17, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

Pentecost 49 When God Turned the World Inside Out

Pentecost 49 When God Turned the World Inside Out



“So we are Christ's official messengers. It is as if God were making his appeal through us. Here is what Christ wants us to beg you to do. Come back to God! Christ didn't have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us (2Cor.5:20-21 NIRV).”



One year when I was in London studying at the annual Spring Bible conference I went to each year for about… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 16, 2009 at 3:42pm — No Comments

Pentecost 48 When Little Things Mean a Lot

Pentecost 48 When Little Things Mean a Lot



“In Christ God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God (2Cor.5:21 Message Bible).”



The shepherd’s gnarled hands reached out from his tattered sleeves weathered from years of exposure to the elements. He grabbed the young lamb as he had done many times before and brought it to the Levite to be delivered to the Temple for the Passover sacrifice (Ex.12:3-6). He made sure it had no physical… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 15, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Pentecost 47 Between Now and Forever

Pentecost 47 Between Now and Forever



“The message of the cross seems foolish to those who are lost and dying. But it is God's power to us who are being saved (1Cor.1:18 NIRV).”

“I made up my mind to pay attention to only one thing while I was with you. That one thing was Jesus Christ and his death on the cross (1Cor.2:2 NIRV).”



Please listen and sing a long with Michael Smith, attach to your address line:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX5X9SxRdT8



When… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 14, 2009 at 9:13am — No Comments

Pentecost 46 The Greatest Act

Pentecost 46 The Greatest Act



“Christ didn't have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us. (2Cor.5:21 NIRV)



There are two events that stand out in my mind.

The first one: As a young teenager I remember being on a work crew with ten other teens at a camp. I felt very much alone since I didn’t know the others and I was small and skinny besides. One of the kids on the crew was not really… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 13, 2009 at 11:43am — No Comments

Pentecost 45 The Truth, Nothing But the Truth

Pentecost 45 The Truth, Nothing But the Truth



Recently Matt Damon was in a movie called “The Bourne Identity” in which he played a secret operative found adrift half dead and unconscious in the ocean by some fishermen. He awoke an amnesiac. He started a tortuous trek to discover who, why and what he was. He found himself completely alone and a target of forces trying to kill him and he didn’t know why. As he went along he discovered he had the drive to survive and the skills to… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 10, 2009 at 8:30am — No Comments

Pentecost 44 The Stone the Builders Rejected

Pentecost 44 The Stone the Builders Rejected



According to news sources a seven-year-old boy jumps in his family’s car and drives it away because he doesn’t want to go to church. The police catch him and turn him over to his parents. Of course we all react and say the boy needs discipline and going to church is a good thing for growing children. To my surprise a totally unexpected Scripture popped in my mind, ‘…and a child shall lead them.’ Of course that event does not fit the… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 6, 2009 at 9:26am — 3 Comments

Pentecost 43 Leaving No Stone Unturned

Pentecost 43 Leaving No Stone Unturned



The big issue in witnessing is dodging stones. The stones are not those that will be physically thrown at you but the kind that we know as snubs, rolling eyes, polite listening, condescension and sometimes overt hostility that you would dare to ‘get religious.’ It is these kinds of stones that we are asked to take away too. They come from unbelief, past hurts, bad church experience, childhood and family struggles, no parental faith experience at… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 5, 2009 at 8:57am — No Comments

Pentecost 42 Stone Removal

Pentecost 42 Stone Removal



It was good to get a couple of replies and a note that ‘taking away the stone’ was a personal experience of removing the ‘stone’ of anxious hesitancy enabling witness to someone in real need of salvation. This described one of the stones that are in the heart that may need to be removed in the process of our maturing discipleship.



The ‘stones’ may also be seen as the strongholds we have built up in the course of our adapting to the world from… Continue

Added by HKHaugan on August 3, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

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