Speech day

For many years politicians and the schools in Sweden has been against that speech days should be held in churches.
Strange I think and many parents all over Sweden want the speech days back in the churches, as we grown ups remember them to be.

OK says the Education Administration but if it is a speech day in a church, the pastor or the priest would not be allowed to bless the children or talk about God.

Some congregations now don't want to buy in to this and the pastors don't want to play marionettes, which I really understand.

I wrote an email to all the different political party's who are in charge here in Sweden and I got an answer back from two of them.

The answers were not as I wanted them to be and to be honest I don't get what they are writing.
I asked two specific questions

*Do you think it is OK to have a speech day in a church?
*Why can the schools set the agenda for the pastors in a church and force them what to say and what to do in their church. What do you think?


Two straight forward questions, no real answer.

In Matthew 5:37 Jesus says:All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

It is true politicians are afraid to be honest, they are afraid to be "political incorrect".

Totally opposite of Jesus....

Online

I took the bus the other day to a meeting down town, a 30 minutes long ride.
It is not very often I take the bus and it was very interesting to observe people.

Ive seen it many times before but on the bus it was so obvious that people cant let go of their mobile phones.

The surf on them all the time. Back and forth, up and down.

Just like when you were a small kid and had a loose tooth and could not stop fiddle on it..

One girl did not look up a single time during the whole buss trip. She even surfed on the phone while stepping out of the bus ...

People are afraid of missing out on something. They want to be on line all the time. They want to stay connected.

People in general overestimate Tomorrow, and underestimate Today! (John Maxwell)

They don't value today, to be in the present. They are always somewhere else. Not here and now. We don't take advantage of the moment.

because what we do today will have a great impact on tomorrow.

Let us lift up our eyes, let us be in the present. Turn of your phone or your computer for a while. Read a book, spend time with your friends and family.
Lets focus on one thing at the time sometimes and

relax you wont miss a thing , believe me...

April

April 1 Sunday and yes today it was "April fools day" but hey no one tried to pull my leg! We had a nice service. Our Canadian friend Linda spoke at our international gathering.

April 8 This Easter Sunday we had a combined service. Nice message, nice fellowship

April 13 Today I went to the youth gathering without my son who was a bit under the weather today. I went because I wanted to introduce the gathering to a young girl from Hong Kong who really would like to hook up with teens in our city..

April 15 Our International Pastor Terry Hoggard spoke at our service today. Continue with " get a grip and get going". Today the Filipino fellowship joined us. They did some nice worship music.

April 16 Monday and Pastor Terry and I did two radio programs. Living hope... You better tune in!! Later on Pastor Terry took our son out for a nice Italian dinner. Our son Linus just recently had his 18th birthday. Thank you so much Pastor Terry......

April 21 Linus, our son had a nice big concert at St John's Church here in Malmö, Sweden. Linus plays for "Mazzetti chamber orchestra" Nice performance really!!!

April 22 Today I lead a bible study on the theme "Get a grip and get going" I started the study by telling people that "You are not what you think you are, what you think you are". How you think, how you act and response to things that's you. The Bible says in Proverbs 23:7, "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." You will eventually become what you think. And you can't think one thing and become something else. If you allow yourself to think negative worried, fearful thoughts, then you will become a negative, worried, fearful person. You cannot think defeat and expect victory. You can't think poverty, and expect wealth. You can't think the worst, and expect the best.
You've got to be extremely careful and extremely aware about what you allow your mind to think about. And what you choose to dwell on.

April 27 Friday and as usual I pick my son up from the youth gathering. Our head pastor preached there today...

April 28 Saturday and this sunny day we went over the bridge to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. My son had a nice concert at Tivoli. Very nice I have to say!

April 29 Sunday and we had our own gathering today. Today's preaching was on Prayer. Prayer, that's a powerful thing...