It was great to share this first Christmas with you all.
We had wonderful moments of celebration and reflection on the unique birth and work of Christ. We need each other to get the whole picture and to experience the immense love of God more fully.
Now we are looking forward to new year 2009.
My personal quest for next year is to understand more fully and live out more passionately the work of Jesus in this world. I want to have a clearer vision of what His Kingdom is about and reflect it in all of life. How could my life look more like His Kingdom? How could this world be changed to look more like His Kingdom? These are the questions for my quest.
You are free to join me...
+++++++++++
Wednesday New Years Eve Party at Tedders 7-12pm
food
fun (bring a game with you)
fellowship (sharing of highlights from year 2008 and visions for 2009)
worship & prayer
PLEASE LET US KNOW, IF YOU ARE COMING!
e-mail me if you need the address: tedder.samuel@gmail.com
Friday Youth Evening 8-10pm
at Church
plans developing...
Sunday joint Communion service at 10am!!!
----------
See you on Wednesday or next year!
Samuel
Monday, December 29, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Any room?
When Jesus was born, it took place in an animal shelter.
Why?
There was no other room.
While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel. (Luke 2:6-7, The Message)
How are our lives?
Do we have room for Jesus?
Are our lives too crowded, too busy with other things that we fail to sanctify Lord Jesus in our hearts (separate our hearts for Him)?
I struggle with this often.
My personal aim is to develop my life to be totally centered around knowing Jesus. Not just knowing about Him and doing the right thing, but really living in a day to day relationship with Him, where I am aware of His presence and respond to His voice. I want to make more room for Him.
The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness. (Philippians 3:7-9, The Message)
-------------------
Friday 12/19 6-10pm Youth Christmas Party at Heiskanen's in Langley (Nina, can you e-mail me your address, tedder.samuel@gmail.com)
potluck style (bring some Christmas related goodies)
Gift steal (bring a gift worth around 10$)
We will also practice our Christmas celebration song (it's about the cross)
Sunday 5pm - Whole church Christmas Celebration (bilingual)
_____________________________
IMPORTANT:
Winter retreat is Friday - Sunday 9-11/1/09 in Whistler.
Sign-up for winter retreat starts now!
(Please, try to get ready to give me an answer on this Friday, it will help in the planning...)
_____________________________
Up-coming:
12/26 Friday - NO YOUTH EVENING
1/2 Friday Youth evening
1/9-11 Winter Retreat - Whistler
1/30-2/1/2009 Missions Fest
_____________________________
Celebrating Christ,
Samuel
Why?
There was no other room.
While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel. (Luke 2:6-7, The Message)
How are our lives?
Do we have room for Jesus?
Are our lives too crowded, too busy with other things that we fail to sanctify Lord Jesus in our hearts (separate our hearts for Him)?
I struggle with this often.
My personal aim is to develop my life to be totally centered around knowing Jesus. Not just knowing about Him and doing the right thing, but really living in a day to day relationship with Him, where I am aware of His presence and respond to His voice. I want to make more room for Him.
The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness. (Philippians 3:7-9, The Message)
-------------------
Friday 12/19 6-10pm Youth Christmas Party at Heiskanen's in Langley (Nina, can you e-mail me your address, tedder.samuel@gmail.com)
potluck style (bring some Christmas related goodies)
Gift steal (bring a gift worth around 10$)
We will also practice our Christmas celebration song (it's about the cross)
Sunday 5pm - Whole church Christmas Celebration (bilingual)
_____________________________
IMPORTANT:
Winter retreat is Friday - Sunday 9-11/1/09 in Whistler.
Sign-up for winter retreat starts now!
(Please, try to get ready to give me an answer on this Friday, it will help in the planning...)
_____________________________
Up-coming:
12/26 Friday - NO YOUTH EVENING
1/2 Friday Youth evening
1/9-11 Winter Retreat - Whistler
1/30-2/1/2009 Missions Fest
_____________________________
Celebrating Christ,
Samuel
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Waiting
Hi,
Just returned my last paper for this term and 3 tests to go!
It's only two days to go before Christmas break... tired, but grateful for all the opportunities to learn and grow.
It seems like waiting is really ingrained in our faith.
We waited for the 1st Christmas quite long
and are again in waiting for the final redemption of all creation.
Anyone who has been pregnant (or with a pregnant woman) knows that waiting can be painful but worth it!
And waiting is preparation.
It just does something to us. Puts trust and patience to the test...
Please read the following text and try figure where it's taken from???
That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
-------------------------------
Friday 12/12 Christmas Caroling
5pm meet and prepare at church
6-9pm Go bless the community around us with a Christmas blessing!
If the weather looks like somethings coming down from the sky, bring umbrellas and warm clothes! Also, decorate yourself with something christmasy. And bring something to eat before we go out caroling.
Sunday 12/14
English Service 11-1pm
Christmas Caroling at Finnish Manor 2-3pm
Friday 12/19 Youth pre-Christmas party at Heiskanens in Langley!
(potluck style Christmas goodies)
Sunday 12/21 Whole Church Christmas Celebration
----------------------------
Enjoy the wait!
Samuel
Just returned my last paper for this term and 3 tests to go!
It's only two days to go before Christmas break... tired, but grateful for all the opportunities to learn and grow.
It seems like waiting is really ingrained in our faith.
We waited for the 1st Christmas quite long
and are again in waiting for the final redemption of all creation.
Anyone who has been pregnant (or with a pregnant woman) knows that waiting can be painful but worth it!
And waiting is preparation.
It just does something to us. Puts trust and patience to the test...
Please read the following text and try figure where it's taken from???
That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
-------------------------------
Friday 12/12 Christmas Caroling
5pm meet and prepare at church
6-9pm Go bless the community around us with a Christmas blessing!
If the weather looks like somethings coming down from the sky, bring umbrellas and warm clothes! Also, decorate yourself with something christmasy. And bring something to eat before we go out caroling.
Sunday 12/14
English Service 11-1pm
Christmas Caroling at Finnish Manor 2-3pm
Friday 12/19 Youth pre-Christmas party at Heiskanens in Langley!
(potluck style Christmas goodies)
Sunday 12/21 Whole Church Christmas Celebration
----------------------------
Enjoy the wait!
Samuel
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
aFlame
There is just something in fire that is very attractive.
Fire can be so cozy and warm in a fireplace...
It can be so powerful in creating energy...
It can be dangerously wild when let loose...
Fire doesn't leave anyone cold!
My desire as a Christian is to be aflame for God!
I want to burn with passion and set people on fire!
I don't think it's a co-incidence that the Spirit of God is often referred to as fire in the Bible. Already in the Old Testament God's presence was manifested with fire (the burning bush, pillar of fire ...). Remember at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples, it was as if tongues of fire came on them!
I believe God wants us to have a touch of fire in our lives. To set us aflame with passionate love and boldness to live out our Christian calling. I believe this fire is set a blaze with intimacy. The closer we draw to the heart of God the warmer we get! My experience is that as I realize more and more how God's heart is totally poured out for me (us) in love, as seen in this verse:
"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
my heart responds and I want to pour my all for Him!
His love sets me aflame!
------------------------
This Friday Youth Evening @ Kotikirkko
7-8pm Practice for Christmas Celebration (everyone needed; check our song:
Go Fish - About The Cross lyrics | LyricsMode.com
8-10pm Prayer & Praise night: aFlame for God!
Saturday 6-?pm Finnish Independence Day celebration!
At Miika & Marja Mononen's house (thx:)
Welcome to celebrate finnishness...
food, fellowship, figuring out what finnishness means to us..., film, fun
Sunday English Service 11-1pm
------------------------
Coming up:
Friday 12/12 Christmas Carroling
5pm meet and prepare at church
6-9pm Go bless the community around us with the Christmas blessing!
Sunday 12/14
English Service 11-1pm
Christmas Caroling at Finnish Manor 2-3pm
Friday 12/19 Youth pre-Christmas party at Heiskanens in Langley!
(potluck style Christmas goodies)
Sunday 12/21 Whole Church Christmas Celebration
Fire can be so cozy and warm in a fireplace...
It can be so powerful in creating energy...
It can be dangerously wild when let loose...
Fire doesn't leave anyone cold!
My desire as a Christian is to be aflame for God!
I want to burn with passion and set people on fire!
I don't think it's a co-incidence that the Spirit of God is often referred to as fire in the Bible. Already in the Old Testament God's presence was manifested with fire (the burning bush, pillar of fire ...). Remember at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples, it was as if tongues of fire came on them!
I believe God wants us to have a touch of fire in our lives. To set us aflame with passionate love and boldness to live out our Christian calling. I believe this fire is set a blaze with intimacy. The closer we draw to the heart of God the warmer we get! My experience is that as I realize more and more how God's heart is totally poured out for me (us) in love, as seen in this verse:
"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
my heart responds and I want to pour my all for Him!
His love sets me aflame!
------------------------
This Friday Youth Evening @ Kotikirkko
7-8pm Practice for Christmas Celebration (everyone needed; check our song:
Go Fish - About The Cross lyrics | LyricsMode.com
8-10pm Prayer & Praise night: aFlame for God!
Saturday 6-?pm Finnish Independence Day celebration!
At Miika & Marja Mononen's house (thx:)
Welcome to celebrate finnishness...
food, fellowship, figuring out what finnishness means to us..., film, fun
Sunday English Service 11-1pm
------------------------
Coming up:
Friday 12/12 Christmas Carroling
5pm meet and prepare at church
6-9pm Go bless the community around us with the Christmas blessing!
Sunday 12/14
English Service 11-1pm
Christmas Caroling at Finnish Manor 2-3pm
Friday 12/19 Youth pre-Christmas party at Heiskanens in Langley!
(potluck style Christmas goodies)
Sunday 12/21 Whole Church Christmas Celebration
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