They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Ez. 37:11

Sad words Ezechiel wrote. Have you ever felt that way? All dried up? Without hope or future? When everything seems to go very wrong? Rom 5:3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. When all hope seems to fail, what is Paul saying? He says that lasting hope is product of suffering. Shortly put. So Paul said he gloried in his sufferings for through them God builds character and in the end hope. Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. So be patient in affliction and trust the hand of the potter. - Often, when I have pain, I am searching some fault within me, something hidden in me, that produces this suffering. Paul does not say so. He says: If the suffering is undeserved, glory in it and trust God. His Spirit is the only hope that will not fail.

Gen. 40:7 So he asked..., “Why do you look so sad today?”

Why do you look so sad? Joseph asked this the two officials who were with him in the prison. They had had dreams and Joseph interpreted them, one was for relief, the other for great distress. They came true. So only one man of the two had a reason to be sad. But the dreams had been troubling them, as much as later they troubled Pharao. The one who should have been sad was Joseph. He was in prison for 20 years. No trial, completely innocent. No lawyer, no one to help. He could have given up on life. Sold by his brothers into slavery, put into a dungeon by an unjust master. Can life be any blacker? And yet it is this Joseph who offers advice. He worries for others. And - even though much later, having done so brings back his freedom. - Have you ever been blue? Felt treated unjustly? Been treated unjustly? Have you ever wondered: "Why me, Lord? Why is all this happening to me?" I often have. Until I found some answer in scripture. For the sins we committed, be they as insignificant as may be, we deserve much worse. And hell will be much worse than anything you - or I - would even want to imagine. If God allows our suffering here, as bad as it may be, and as sad as it may get, he is never giving us what we truly deserve. Instead, he has opened a door of grace and a door of honor. The honor to suffer for his name's sake. Please, don't let anyone take this away from you. Instead, turn and help somebody else. It truly helps to do so. It eases pain to ease somebody's pain. To agree with God will bring peace to the soul. Ecclesiastes 7:3 Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.

John 16:33 “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Having made a couple of pictures of my three friends, this one came to my mind. How quickly togetherness seems to be overshadowed. Some rain, dark clouds, lots of cold wind and many humors turn sour. Virtue often isn't so much a quality of character, but of a well filled belly and a sunny sky. (Quoting C. S. Lewis very freely.) Trouble will show what someone is made of. In trouble true character, true virtue will shine through. Everybody is kind of a nice person as long as nothing stands in his way or is clouding his mind. It is in contrariety that the true colors shine through. But be of good cheer. Those, who are truly God's children, they will stand even in the midst of torrents of rain and twisted storms, ripping life apart like a tornado rips a house apart. As much as the house doesn't need it, the character does. Thus proven it can continue to grow closer to God. So, God's word says there will be trouble. However it will be spelt. It is how someone stands the storm that will show his firm beliefs. Those truly walking with God will not fall. They will be able to find shelter in God's shadow. Then, and only then, many will find, what David found so many years ago: Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Ps 23:4)

Matthew 18:20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Have you ever felt like being totally strange or out of place? Trying hard to fit in? Only to find out much later that everybody else feels as strange and tries to fit in just as desperately? What happens, if three persons then try to adapt their strangeness to anothers strangeness? Being in some deep water of their own? The useful thing to do is to adapt to God's mould of who a person is or could be. And in a gathering of three strange people to not envy this or that about another, but to know they are working as hard as anybody else on fitting in or moulding their life according to God's word. Everybody is strange and a stranger in some way or another. Then, when this can be acceppted without judgement of how different one is to another, or envy on what might be perceived as an advantage, then two or three getting together can acheive great things in prayer. This, unluckily enough, is very rare, for it is so rare that two or three amid God's people truly agree to pray for the same thing and agree with each other. So please, agree to the otherness of the other. And be one in prayer. Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” What happens, when two or three of us strange people get together?

Amos 3:3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?

Amos 3:3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? If someone is lonely, walking all alone, which isn't the same, and has been used to do so for many years. Even if the water gets high, will that person be able to accept the presence of anyone else? Togetherness is a difficult thing. Deuteronomy 22:10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. The fear of being yoked up with someone unfitting to whatever standard a person goes by is big. And very justified. Scripture says, that it is no good to yoke together an unfit pair. Many have interpreted this a meaning a believer should not joke his life to somebody who doesn't believe. And what about all the factions of the church, that so often seem insurmountable? Is it easier to be drowned alone than to be saved by another? What if that other is Jesus, who wants to save all. Can he be accepted? Can another be accepted as Savior? As the one one owns his life too? Many, even in church, struggle with having to do it all. To be perfect before allowing a perfect Savior to come to the rescue so much needed and craved for. There are things in life, chains, spiritual chains of the mind, that cannot be broken unless a stronger one comes to the rescue. Let that one be Jesus. And swallow the fear and the pride. It will not be easy, though. A bird that has been caged for most of his life will have to struggle to live in freedom and may sometimes come to regret his cage, the safety of food. So are the children of God. Like the Israelites, they may regret the meat pots of Egypt. If you do, pls go to God and pray. he will show you the glory of this freedom and the beauty of this scary freedom, the freedom of togetherness.Psalm 98:8 Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; Psalm 98:7-9

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21

Have you ever been too deep to get out? Been in deep waters with no possibility of a return to what was? When the waters are rising and the forecast is bleak? Have started a thing that grew too big to be kept under control? Found yourself in more trouble than you bargained for? I do. I had this wish to write my book, it had been on my heart for several years before I gave in to the longing of my heart. And I did, what no every wise person will tell you NOT to do. I quit my job, thinking I had enough savings to get over the year or so of writing. And then the writing seemed to take a good hold of my life. .. Now, more than 10 years later, I sometimes wonder what happened. I wrote the book. But there is no way back to where I came from. Nothing is as it used to be. Did I die? Did the world around be die? It broke, that is sure. Not in very lovely pieces always. But I understand. To die is gain. Though I sometimes still don't understand what happened, I have won Christ, have been given grace in sometimes traumatic circumstances. Have you been there? Dying is not as easy as it sounds. But like in physical death this life has to be given up, which is hard, to win eternal life, so dying to this world will be gain. God's word says so. I found it true. Though I still wonder what hit me. Please trust God, it is much better to give up even a right, to hold the other cheek, even if you don't know why or what hit you.

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. Gen. 12:1

Abraham's story has always held many mysteries to me. How could he, hearing the voice of God, recognize it as God's voice and do as he was told? Being so puzzled made me read many documents and this is how I piece the story together, much coming from archeological discoveries. So Ur in Chaldea was the king's town. He had a huge palace there and there were many temples, the biggest one was to the Moon-God. The Moon-God's name was "Sin". Does that ring a bell? They had built pyramids for temples, pyramids like the south-american ones and the offered sacrifices on top of the pyramids. So, what if Abram was of royal lineage, one of the high priests of the Moon-God, thus used for sacrifices, even to sacrifice the eldest sons? It makes archeological sense and biblical sense too. But has Abram then, while living in Ur, sacrificed human beings to the Moon-God? If he was a priest or a prophet, observing the rituals of his god, this may be possible. But because of his service to a god he may have been open to a call from God, which he could recognize as a different God and yet worship. And it explains, why God would ask Abram to leave all behind. All the other gods, the sacrifices, the royalty. And when, much later, God asked Abraham to offer his only son, Abraham would know about the custom of gods asking for the blood of a male child. He would bow to God. Only to learn, that this God is like no other God. After Abraham obeyed, he gave a ram for sacrifice, showing thus that he wanted no human blood on his altar, except the blood of Jesus. This is so full of sense and further thoughts on how God came to reveal himself, pointing already towards the sacrifice of his son as the only sacrifice able to free us from sin.