Yuck...

I have a cold. I think it's funny how you can really have itchy, watery eyes, runny nose, stuffy nose, sneezing, headache, sore throat, coughing and body aches. (Prayer, Puff tissues, tea, Locket lozenges and a Dayquil/Nyquil mixture work wonders, by the way) AND all you want to do is sleep BUT...the Oslo police department decides to do their riot training literally RIGHT outside your window.  Seriously, 100's of policemen in riot gear for two days straight! Sirens and big trucks..crazy.  Really, I am not sure how many riots will happen here but at least at my expense of sleep while having a cold the city is well prepared.

Friends from around the world

Here I am sitting on a couch with my BEST friend Tanya Hoff from Montana. She came all the way over the pond just to visit ME!! Wow, don't I feel special??  We met 10 years ago as interns at the Teen Mania Honor Academy.  God has blessed me with her friendship that has lasted this many years and many miles between us. 

Anyway, don't want to waste too much time that I can be with her.  I'll post some pictures of our adventures later in the week.

Be blessed!!

BJ

Pickle ball among other things....

So, sometimes I get the privilege to teach gym class at the Bible school.  It's actually quite fun.  I can't say that I am the most naturally talented athlete but I like to exercise, sweat, and push myself to do better each time.  Anyway...it's hard for the students to be so motivated early in the morning but I love to exercise first thing in the morning.  I think this friday was fun...we did a lot of running games and then I brought out all my rackets: badminton, tennis and pickle ball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickleball).  It was really fun to see everyone running around trying to hit the birdie.  In the end it was a great idea.  For a few minutes just before we left my best friend, Brandon, and I got to play pickle ball.  Wow, it brought back a lot of fun memories from summer camp, tournaments every summer and good ol' fun.  LOVE IT!

I watched Lord of the Rings 2 yesterday night.  I have only seen the trilogy once and it's been awhile.  I really liked it and can't wait to see the 3rd.  I was watching it with the intention of trying to see more of the Biblical parallels than I noticed before.  They weren't as obvious as Narnia for example but they were there, this made the movie even better for me.  LOVE IT!

Here in Norway today is mother's day!  I guess in the US it's in May.  I have made 100 chocolate chip cookies that I will put together to make little gifts for the mother's in church and since we've had a new baby almost every month for the last like 10 months there are A LOT of mothers....LOVE IT!!

It's quite late here and I need to sleep now so I will sign off....

Have a fabulous day!  :)

Oswald Chambers

I am not sure how long ago I received Oswald Chambers' devotional, My Utmost for His Highest, but I am guessing some time in Jr. high or High school.  I am pretty sure I received it at summer camp because  it was the only other option besides a Bible which I already had anyway. Even though it looked pretty boring I thought I could try it. I am so glad for my choice!

I can't begin to tell you of how this daily devotional book has changed my life and perspective on things about God.  I have read through the whole book but not at once everyday. I go through seasons where I read some of it here and there throughout the years. I always go back to it when I know I need a kick in the butt or just to read something that I know will make me think and challenge me. 

I haven't read his biography yet, something now I will probably do very soon.  All I know is he was a Scottish minister born in 1874. He traveled during the last years of his life teaching and preaching around the world.  He died at only 43 years in 1917.  He had a few books published before his death but his most famous, My Utmost for His Highest, is actually a compilation of his journal entries created into a daily devotional by his wife.

I appreciate so much the depth yet simplicity of his explanations and thoughts towards God's ways. It is so refreshing to read something and feel like the author knows exactly what I am thinking and exactly what situation I am in.  LOVE IT!   

You will have to read it for yourself but I wanted to give some excerpts for you here (these are from the month of January):

• "My utmost for His Highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and for Him alone."
• "If the crisis has come to you on any line, surrender your will to Him absolutely and irrevocably."
• "Guard jealously your relationship to God."
• "Am I so in love with Him that I take no account of where I go?"
• "If we have never had the experience of taking our commonplace religious shoes off our commonplace religious feet, and getting rid of all the undue familiarity with which we approach God, it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence."
• "Never run before God's guidance."
• "Worship is giving God the best that He has given you."
• "We receive His blessings and know His Word, but do we know Him?"
• "There are whole tracts of stubbornness and ignorance to be revealed by the Holy Spirit in each one of us, and it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone.  Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can expound nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him." 
• "The one thing for which we are all being disciplined is to know that God is real."
• "Sometimes we are fresh for a prayer meeting but not fresh for cleaning boots!"
• "Being born again from above is a perennial, perpetual and eternal beginnings; a freshness all the time in the thinking and in talking and in living, the continual surprise of the life of God."
• "The outstanding characteristic of a Christian is this unveiled frankness before God so that the life becomes a mirror for other lives...You always know when a man has been beholding the glory of the Lord; you feel in your inner spirit that the is the mirror of the Lord's own character...The severest discipline of a Christian's life is to learn how to keep 'beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.'"

I feel like I could write the whole book.  I hope you're inspired like me!

BJ

What I am learning...

This morning I was watching Joyce Meyer online and wouldn't you know, I felt like her message was just for me! It's incredible sometimes when she preaches and what she has to say just strikes you right in the heart and literally you feel like her message was made entirely just for you. Crazy.  Here are two verses from her sermon entitled Heart Test part 1. 

Deuteronomy 8:2 (Amplified Bible)
²And you shall [earnestly] remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to prove you, to know what was in your [mind and] heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

Habakkuk 3:19 (Amplified Bible)
¹⁹The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!

The gist of her teaching was about how God won't tempt us but He will takes us through different tests.  He wants to see how we react and watch as we choose to do the right things and grow in him.  He doesn't want to give someone responsibility and then see them crack under the pressure but He will first test them.  If we fail a test the good thing is that we will have enough opportunities to repeat the test as needed until we pass.  When we are able to pass many tests we grow and begin to see how God begins to use us in new ways because He can trust us more and more.  There is a lot more to say about this but, wow.  Joyce has hit it right on again!  AMEN!!

You can find her preachings on itunes where you can download her free podcasts or from her website www.joycemeyer.org


So, as I promised before SNOWY pictures of Norway!! These are from my time in Trondheim, Norway with my friends Lise and Maria.  Enjoy!! 

Happy New Year!!!

I am excited that a new year has come.  It's exciting to think about all the new possibilities and to dream about where things will go in the coming months.  It's also a great time to think about how to learn from all the mistakes from the previous year too.  I am totally ready for my best year yet!!

I promise when I get back to Oslo tomorrow that I will post some of my holiday pictures, especially the snowy ones from my holiday here in Trondheim.  I have had a beautiful holiday and I realize more and more that I am so blessed.  Between all the good food, relaxing and endless hours of Sequence with Lise, I have managed to read 5 books:  

Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery

Land of a thousand suns -Khaled Hosseini

Three cups of Tea - Greg Mortensen

Israel: beloved and hated - Ulf Ekman

Daughter of Destiny: Kathryn Kuhlman; biography by Jamie Buckingham

An interesting selection to be sure but definitely thought provoking to say the least.  Did anyone else read any good books during the holiday?  

As I am returning to Oslo tomorrow I am already thinking about the busy week ahead.  I am actually looking forward to get into a schedule again.  It will be nice to see everyone at the Jesus House and be creative in the kitchen once again.  

Hope you all have a wonderful first week of 2011!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

God Jul alle sammen! (Merry Christmas everyone!)

I am sitting in the living room of a lovely Norwegian house enjoying the fabulous Christmas tree and AMAZING snowy view of the trees outside.  I arrived last night to spend my Christmas holiday with the Løvbutken family. What a blessing!!!!

We have just finished watching the ever so infamous "Askepott" movie (Cinderella).  The awesome thing about this version is that it is a Czech movie that is dubbed in Norwegian and the same voice is speaking for every character!  It's a traditional Norwegian classic that is aired EVERY year on the national tv station on December 24th.  It has become one of my favorite Christmas movies.

I am looking forward to relaxing and enjoying this holiday.  This is my 4th Norwegian Christmas and I can say that I am quite fond of Christmas in Norway.  It is different and there are definitely some things that I miss but the warmth, kindness and family atmosphere is most important.

Next week I guess Bobbi will have another opportunity for skiing and probably a lot of snow time.  The weather is quite cold and here just outside the city there is more than enough snow.  I will have to post pictures very soon of the wintery wonderland.

I pray that everyone has a blessed and wonderful holiday season.

BJ