Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Simplicity








Simplicity, silence and solitude are the three Spiritual Practices that I need to grow in the most this year. I made it one of my New Year’s resolutions to do all 12 Christian Spiritual Practices with excellence this year. One lifestyle change I want to make to create a life of simplicity is to spend fewer hours on social media each week. I’ve decided to stick to only Instagram and Facebook in the future. I won’t be blogging anymore after this week, but I’ll leave the blog up for another 6 months or so, in case anyone wants to read through old blog posts. On Instagram my account name is: the_futuristas

I badly need to establish simplicity in my “online lifestyle”. I look forward to focusing on only two different accounts from now on: Instagram and Facebook. I don’t need to spend time and effort on updating a blog, Twitter, Snapchat or a Youtube channel every week. Life is about so much more than spending time online. I love social media, I just want to spend fewer hours online every week and more hours face to face (in real life) with all the people I love.

Simplicity, silence and solitude are the areas where I need to grow the most, but I aim to see growth in all 12 Christian Spiritual Practices during 2018. Here’s the whole list:

1. Simplicity
2. Silence
3. Solitude
4. Prayer
5. Confession
6. Meditation (on the Word)
7. Study (of the Word)
8. Fasting
9. Sabbath
10. Giving
11. Service
12. Worship


Criticizing





Words are powerful. They can beat us down and lift us up. They wound and they heal. And the right words at the right time can be exactly what we need to hear—or what we need to say. Pastor Craig Groeschel from Life Church preaches an excellent sermon about the topic of criticism.


When We Fail at Love






The word “sin” is one of the most common bad words in the Bible, but what does it really mean? In this video, we’ll explore the concept of “moral failure” that underlies this important biblical word. Get ready to discover a profound and realistic portrait of the human condition.


3 Tips for Marriage





Both romantic comedies and the last episode of every TV show seem to end with the same thing: the main characters get married and live happily ever after. Hollywood movies are fun to watch but they paint a very unrealistic picture of what marriage will be like. Our modern culture seem to think that a romantic relationship will satisfy our souls, in reality that is far from the truth.


Marriage was created by God as a tool that he uses to form and shape us toward holiness. Marriage is ultimately not about happiness, it's about selflessly serving another person. If we get good at serving each other in marriage happiness arrives as a very nice "side effect" of that lifestyle.


It's easy to love people that you only see once a week, it's much harder to love when you share your life with another human-being. This is why marriage and parenthood are two of the main tools that God uses to shape us toward holiness during our lifetime. Few things are more efficient at shaving off selfishness from our souls than becoming a wife and a mother. Marriage and parenthood reveals to the human-being that the universe doesn't revolve around her. We learn that this life is all about love, and that love is not self-seeking nor proud.


Friday, March 23, 2018

Jesus: Who is He?





Jesus, the whole world counts time from the year when he died and rose, 2018 years ago. He died on a cross and my home country Finland took that so seriously that they put the cross symbol on the national flag, a blue cross with a white background. The so-called Scandinavian crosses on the flags of the Nordic countries–Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden–also represent Christianity. Why have people cared so much about a man named Jesus all throughout history and why do people still care about him today? Episode 2 of Alpha explores who Jesus is.



Philippa Hanna's Story

Alex Wood