AsgerP's Blog

Could it be like that, a modern way of saying Jesus words "Love your neighbour as yourselve".....something like that ? Well, I watched a modern Christian re-writing of 1. Corinthian 13 as a PowerPoint today, it was written into our time (send me a mail if you wish it with your mail-adress and I can hand it over to you if you interested....). Anyway...as you know, this week we have the subject about "relationship" and let me catch up on that one.
That chapter has sort of been the take-out point for the topic, the start-point if you want.....this chapter takes obviously about the character of Gods love, which our love has to be built upon. God is L-O-V-E, so knowing Him and knowing Him more, means that His love comes to grow in us, takes present in us and we become like a "container" of His love, a beholder, a vessel. (of course that means that we have to "empty ourselves" first, which is not only a "one-time-experience" but a continuing proces......).
It does not help much if we only understands love - we have to SHOW it out, no just talk about it, but LIVING it........ see, that is exactly why we need The Holy Spirit and The Fruits of The Spirit.
God loves us perfectly, He sets the standard, He shows the example - the example to follow!!! And we are called to be followers....right........
Whatever we do, it has no value, if it is not done in love.(Agape-love, Divine love, Godly love).that is kind of like the summary of 1. corinthians 13.
In the famous place of John 3,16 we see that God LOVES - so HE GAVE.....love + giving goes together..... love is unselfish (well, a true love....a love that has real value). That love calls upon us to give up our lives for others.....again, Jesus set the standard, He practised what He shared, He was not "only words", Jesus did......He showed it out.
God calls us to love like He loves!!! To have Gods quality of love...... so we can become more focused on rather giving than taking, so we can GROW in love !! (for our next-door-person....spouses, family, siblings, parents etc.).
The issue is, the challenge, problem if you like, is : WE ARE SELFISH - that is the not very pleasant to hear-truth, never the less THE TRUTH !
That is why we NEED TO GROW !!! And continue GROWING.....In Christ, In God, In the fruits of the Spirit etc.
So we can learn un-conditional love......which does not expect anything in return! If we love God, we show love. Let us grow in ability to love like God loves!! (john 13,35)
"How we live and show out love, is MORE worth than many words"....
From that way on, we moved forward to look at temptations, relationships between man and woman and I hope I can come back to share more about that continuesly....here in the blog....stay tuned !!
In the love of Christ - greetings from a more and more hot Thailand :-)

Life is certainly tiring sometimes, but maybe that is exactly why we need God â unless we just want to rely on our âown strengthâ and then reap the fruits of that. That is often, knowingly or not knowingly, what we choose to do and then our lives get only half the potentials they were meant to be. Sometimes we walk in our wisdom, sometimes we walk in the wisdom of God and even to know the differenceâ¦â¦.well, I think it is not easy to know, but might have to do with the fruits, what comes out of what we do, who does it honour, us or God ? There might even be times, ya, often is, when we get used by God without us even knowing that it is going onâ¦.I believe God in His love does this, to prevent us from walking in proudness!!
Tuesday was some eventful and challenging day for me.

From the morning lectures on brokenness, being broken people before God â how else can He use us, if not when we think, we recognize that there is ânothing good in usâ? When we realise that we are just empty vessels, that it is not about us but about Him â still we have to be the obedient ones, the âmessengersâ if you like.
About sanctification â that we are not âonlyâ saved, but STILL being savedâ¦â¦.God is STILL working on us, it is a âone-time experienceâ as well as a daily experienceâ¦(Luke 9;23) a life in daily âself-denialâ, a battlefield of the âfleshâ versus the Spirit !
That we are a new creation in Christ, a new person in Christ and STILL being renewed â been transformed but still being transformed, work in progress!
That we must allow God to teach us how to love others, how to love ourselves, that our focus must become more âwhat can I giveâ rather than âwhat can I getâ. So we can live lives where we âbring out the best in othersâ â âbring out the Godly thingsâ. The relationship between our ability of relating to other people as to how we relate to God and how He relates to us! The horizontal level as well as the vertical level in our lives as children of God.
It calls for us a challenge of being willing to repent and growing in changing out the things from our culture that opposite the values of God.
Mission is about nations, missions is about people as we can experience God in different cultures. Love is patient, love is not jealous and love is willing to learn from other people around us. This was just a few notes from yesterdayâs lectures, in a short form.

In the morning, I sensed that God wanted me to contact an âold friendâ, actually the guy who was best man at my wedding! So I wrote him a text-message on the phone and later we got in touch. We talked on the phone and it turned out that they were living here in Chiang Rai and he was to be a pastor here in a church, Lutheran though. They came to the school to pick us up in the afternoon and we went with them to a restaurant. You know I try to be pretty non-denominational and had to ask God to let me âbite my lips togetherâ for avoiding subjects where I knew we would look very differently at things!! That was certainly a challenge and I did not feel much freedom in doing so, not exactly relaxing when have to consider so much all the time.
Anywayâ¦.after the food we went to warehouse to buy a few thing and this is where it goes wrongâ¦.or should I just say, where our differences comes to bigger expression!! At some point during the small-talk he was sharing about a historical and very general view of thai people willingness or unwillingness to receive the Gospel of Christ, which I was not much agree in. He was looking at history background and I was building it on me/our experiences in Thailand being here and having shared â together as a couple â with several Thais about God, Christ and eternal life etc. Actually I find them very open and willing to talk about these matters as well. He did not have that view at all. I was half-jokingly asking âwho can change itâ â rhetorically and I was replying âyou and meââ¦â¦.(meaning we are supposed to share the Gospelâ¦being messengers for Christ) which he disagreed and I asked âso why you want to be a pastorâ (meaning if you donât believe people can change and that you and me can make a difference for God)â¦..which he did not reply on. From that on I just had to accept and limit myself to the perception that we were disagreeing and I had to leave it there, fine with me! For me it is not a matter of being agree about everything, I just have to share the truth and if not agree, that is okay also, no problems for me!
Anyway, then after coming back to the school we went with a group of students to the local airport and had some fun eating ice-cream and having a fun game. We enjoying that fellowship while I was reflecting that non-denominationalism is not that easy at all !!
Then later coming back again and my parents called me, another challenge as I sensed that this was not going to be easy as well. They miss us terrible, for me not being in Denmark for more than 2 years nowâ¦..money, visa etc. It seems pretty difficult for them to understand and deal with!
Anywayâ¦.this is how Tuesday looked like in the life of March 2008 here in Chiang Rai, Thailand. God has not changed, despite the circumstances, He is still my source of strength and hope, I wish He would give me more of His passion and heart. Iâll be backâ¦..yes and soon HE will be back alsoâ¦.Jesus is coming again soon ï Blessings out thereâ¦.in this dangerous, shaking and unstable world!

So, this week have started and the subject in our lecture-week here at the school, is "Relationships". Before I take out a few points, notice the word itself....it ends with the word "ship" (relationSHIP) it might be a picture of something moving, something that is continuing on its way........at least it talkes that way to me :-)
Anyway.....relationship is a part of the great commandment which actually includes 3 parts : 1) Love God with all your heart 2) Love your neighbour (friend, the one person next to you etc.) 3) AS you love yourself.......(wow...I guess you dont find that in many sermons, sadly enough.... it is NOT the same as being selfish).
In relationships we DO get hurt, we DO experience pain and disappointments and exactly that is why we need to have "a lot of ammunition" - which is MERCY......because both we and other persons is doing a whole lot of stupid stuff every day ! We need to show the same "mercy-attitude" as which Christ have showen us and continues to show us....we need to "look through the same kind of glasses as Christ", "to see with His eyes, His views" this is when we talk about how we perceive others but certainly also how we perceive ourselves !!! How much mercy do you show to yourselve ? How much mercy do you show unto others ? When you do stupid stuff and when others are doing stupid stuff against you.......
The things is that is there is LOTS of temptations out there, every day.....all the time...... temptation of anger, pornography, lust, revenge, hate, money, lies, alkohol (too much) etc. - the problem is NOT the temptations, NO !!!
You see, most of us, think that temptation is a problem and we tend to confuse temptation with sin, it is NOT the same........being tempted is NOT a sin....being tempted is a part of human life BECAUSE our flesh ("the old Adam") wants (of course being encouraged to by the devil, the liar, the enemy) to draw us in the opposite direction of God, it is revolving and only brings DEATH with it ! It finds sin attractive !!
The Spirit of God, our New Creation in Christ, our "new me", desires the things OF God, it wish to obey and apply the Word of God to our life !
Every day we are in that constant battle between the Spirit and our "flesh", our "old Adam"..... (Paul calls Christ "the second Adam") and it is up to our choices, our Spirit-led choices (because in ourselves we will always take bad choices...that is the bad news!!)....
The GOOD NEWS is that God has provided us with The Spirit of God who will teach us, guide us and lead us into Divine directions, Divine choices..........
The temptation is NOT the problem....the issue is what we do with the temptation, how we RESPOND to it ! The temptations ALL comes out of a desire, a desire that God has put down in our life. Behind every temptation is a desire and for every desire, there is a Divine fullfilling in Him !
A thing we need to learn more about and ask God for more revelation on........

In the deepest sense, Christ IS the example of being humble and what it means, when He - as the famous place in phillipians mentions - as a Son of God and forever-existing, humbles Himself and turn into a "lower level", a human-being. God Himself, so to say, comes down on our level, He takes the step from the "balkony" and on the "ground-floor". The Son of God steps down on ground zero! This is what being humble is all about.....to "lower yourself" and to have the right understanding about yourself and who you are......

Look at that like a foreword and think about how we need to BE HUMBLE before God - how we need to accept, to recognize and to have faith, that He knows better than me!
That I need to BE HUMBLE when I accept that I do NOT have all the answers as well as being HUMBLE to admit that He haves the answers!!

I even have to be HUMBLE to ask Him in prayer, to be HUMBLE enough to wait for God to answer (so I not just, because of impatience, hurry away to do my own things, thinking "God does not answer me").......

To be HUMBLE enough to accept, to have faith for, when He calls me out of "my comfort zone" and all the comfort things, to go where He wants me to be or what He wants me to do...... to be HUMBLE enough to accept that my life is NOT my own, but His.........

To be HUMBLE enough to live in, to accept, that I am crucified with Christ, risen with Christ and I cannot just do what I wish to do (my flesh, my Adam, ME.....).....to be HUMBLE enough to accept that His ways IS better than mine.......

To be HUMBLE in relationships......that at times other peoples needs is more important than mine, even when I dont feel like that....... to be HUMBLE enough for the people around me, because of Christ-love in me........... specially when think of how He put His own needs, desires, longings aside just for "little me"........

To be HUMBLE enough to admit that Im still "on the way", that I am far from perfect......to be HUMBLE enough to admit that I NEED a saviour......... to be HUMBLE enough to accept that God loves me and to be HUMBLE enough to know, that He wants me to grow in Him and that God never gives up on me!

To be HUMBLE enough to share some thing on a blog on Godtube, when I actually wanted to do some other things also......to be HUMBLE enough to believe, that God wants me to do this at this very moment...... :-)

Hi there.... :-)
You know, I think it is amazing as well as very priviligied to be on a school like this with so many nationalities and cultures....but certainly also a challenge! Cultural is a funny thing, where you discover that "what is funny for you, is maybe not funny for another person with a different culture background" and that is why it easy (and of course does at times...) creates friction......creates tension between humans!!
But if we try with some flexibility, tolerance and a LOT of prayer.....I am not one of these people who think that humans can "just do it, if we pull ourselves together..." (humanism)......then I belive it is possible!! And then I have not even said the MOST important word : MERCY - because we WILL do mistakes and others WILL do mistakes to us as well.....which also means that we WILL hurt other people and they WILL hurt us at times!!
So that is why the "mercy-receipie" is extremely important....yes, necessarily.....willingness to receive forgiveness, to give forgiveness and saying sorry, admitting mistakes/misunderstanding...... HUH....this is one of the BIG lectures of life!!
All this makes it interesting, challenging and wonderful at the same times....and Im sure it does not ONLY relate to living on a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) school in Thailand but a number of other places where humans come together..........
So the simple, but difficult, solution is to wear "Holy Spirit influence"....to ask daily (prayer etc.) for "Christ like character" from God......
That He will change our hearts, minds and souls and we be able to live in obedience, a learnful-mind, openness and continously transforming Spirit-life. Let me end here for today, with Romans 12, 1-2........
Blessings from a child of God, a Son of the Creator, a Holy creation......... (Holy means "set aside for a special purpose")......... /Asger :-)