sola gracia

Abandoned but not forgotten.

joseph — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:29:10 +0000

When the Israelites were captured by the Babylon they felt abandoned by God (Isaiah 40:27 – 27 Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? ). There is was a true separation for them that took them away from the only place they could worship God, the temple. The exile was more than being captured out to another county as slaves, but it was a departure from their one point that they could touch the living God. Many of them at the time however had taken that temple for granted and were not to appreciate the loss of it until it was gone. It’s difficult to accept that the Sovereign God is over all of these circumstances and issues in our lives.

This is our picture today as exiles in a foreign country. We are constantly surrounded with a godless culture of similar to the Babylonian culture. Paul describes us as ambassadors to this land. Representatives of the true King called to make much of Him. There is a movement or temptation to consider this place to be our home and therefore we must reform the heathen culture around us. We cry out for a political salvation or a economic Savior. Thus the hope is not in the Lord to save us for our true Home with Him but rather they want to reform the surrounding “Babylonian” culture around us. Shadrach , named after Babylonian Gods, didn’t even venture to change the culture but rather defy the culture because their hope was in the Lord.

This is our call as well as Christ has called us to make much of Him and His Kingdom coming and not to try and gather the pieces of this fallen kingdom together and make into something. I’m catching myself do this with my hedonistic tendencies. The comforts of Babylon are comforting. Yet we try to make it work. I have a key to my truck that is on the verge of snapping everytime I unlock the door, its so soft and squishy I have to be so gentle with it so it doesn’t finally bite the dust. One day I know it will and hopefully it will be nice outside when that happens. If as it so often happens we experience the loss of fellowship or just the brokeness of the world we have a habit of trying to make it work and assure ourselves that it is all OK. Everything we have is broken. This world is fallen.

So everyday we are confronted with a choice. Am I living to make this temporary home a more comfortable place for me to live? ~~Am I gathering those who are like-minded around me so I can feel good about myself?~~ Or am I hoping in the Lord’s eventual return that One Day we will come to the New Jerusalem and worship the King of Glory Himself?

This isn’t a choice we can keep to ourselves. A pluralistic world wants us to do that. To keep our religion confined to our homes, but the beauty of choosing trust is we can’t keep it inside! It will pour out in the actions we do and make. What we cherish reflects our beliefs. If we cherish our possessions for ourselves it is evident we consider this life to be important, but if we cherish Christ then our possessions, time and energy can be freely given without hesitation.

C.S Lewis said “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Here’s to living for His Kingdom and not for this broken one.

(Disclaimer: Nor should we disregard this home as a place to dump on because it will all go away. There is no excuse for lack of stewardship for the earth. )

Where I Am-written 2/3/2010

kelly — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 01:51:31 +0000

Lately I’ve been looking out the window and wondering, “will the grass ever be green again?”. While I’m stuffing 56 broken crayons into the coloring box and looking for another shelf to stash textbooks on I muse, “public school is not so bad?”. After the third load of laundry today I think, “are nudest colonies allowed in Montana?”. As my sweet children declare their battling cry “MINE!!” I ponder, “is it neglect to wear earplugs while watching my kids?”.
But, my dear friend’s mother past away last night and all of my worries and frustrations about my blessed life melt away. What cause do I have to despair or feel neglected? God has poured out innumerable blessings and I have chosen to find a way to ruin them.
So, when the snow seems unending, if the school supplies dishevel the house, as the laundry piles high, or when my children war against one another, will I chose to proclaim, “blessed be the name of the Lord”?

What’s in a name?

kelly — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:46:04 +0000

I was curious the other day about the meaning of our family names. So here is what I found:
Joseph (Hebrew) He will enlarge
Nathaniel (Hebrew) Gift of God
Kelly (Gaelic) War, strife, bright-headed
Elizabeth (Hebrew) My God is a vow
Nilla (Hebrew) She who succeeds or aquires
Elise (Hebrew) My God is a vow
Isaac (Hebrew) He will laugh
Ryan (Gaelic) Little King
Abigail (Hebrew) Father in rejoicing
Joy (English) Jubilation
Have you thought much about the meaning of your name? Long ago they put great thought and prayer into children’s names, sometimes waiting several years before naming a child. What heritage have you been given in your name?

Christmas 2010

kelly — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:11:37 +0000

The Montana Swenson Clan
Year In Review – 2010
It’s always hard to recall what happened over a year’s time. These days I have a hard time even remembering what we did yesterday let alone 8 months ago. I guess that’s why it’s good to write things down. Although it seems impossible and trite to capture life in a short Facebook status update. We still do it anyways and have found it to be a useful tool when putting together Christmas letters.
We had a whirwind year of staying and going with many eventful visits from Sadie and her husband Todd and their two boys (and now one girl!) from Great Falls. Summer was a great time filled with hiking , fishing and barbequing. We were blessed to have the Lone Pine trail so close to our house. Nilla enjoyed her week long summer camp in August. We also went to see the Engstrom clan in Sidney , Montana for Kelly’s grandpa’s 90th birthday. The following week we celebrated Kelly and I’s 7th anniversary and took the kids out to Silverwood and visited Kelly’s cousin Rick and Savannah. Through our many travels we always hurried home to make sure our chickens hadn’t wandered into the neighbor’s yard.
Nilla is a 6th grader this year and has transitioned from piano lessons to learning the clarinet for band. She is an avid reader and has been devouring as much fiction as she can. She also enjoys all things 80s’ related. If it’s neon or pink, she likes it!
Abby is happily attending kindergarten this year and is learning ballet. She enjoys being the youngest and likes to do pretty much everything her big brother and sister do.
Isaac is our big 1st grader this year and he and all the kids are enamored with legos and the things they can build. He has been the chicken caretaker and is learning the responsibilities and wonder of raising food. He also lost his first tooth this year!
Kelly took this fall off from homeschooling the kids to focus on her health. She is using the time to go to the gym and help her mom Dee who lives in nursing home in town.
Joe is thankful to be working for NXGEN in Whitefish. On the weekends he is reading about conspiracy theories on the internet, playing video games, and finding new crazy music to listen to. His friends have been helpful him build a new shed/chicken coop in the backyard.
In trying economic times as these we are most thankful to God for you, our family and friends. We love you and wish you the warmest Christmas and New Years.
Best wishes,

Joe & Kelly Swenson
Nilla (12) & Isaac (6) & Abigail (5)

Hiking up to Lone Pine

joseph — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:06:55 +0000

Was totally out of breath…lol

Family Christmas Letter 2009

kelly — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:44:54 +0000

Greetings and Merry Christmas! Here is our humble little update for the year! Joe continues to work for NxGen in Whitefish as Vice President of the I.T. department. What a blessing to have a job in these difficult times! Kelly continues to stay at home with the little ones and has begun the venture in home schooling this year. Nilla turned eleven this winter and is in the fifth grade. It was a big transition from the elementary school to the middle school in Whitefish, but she adjusted quickly. She is enjoying piano lessons and looks forward to expanding her skills as an artist. Isaac turned five and began Kindergarten at home. He and Abigail are enjoying Bible Study Fellowship with mom this year. Abigail turned four in the spring and is now learning alongside her brother at home with mom.
Our adventures this year were of the traveling kind. Early in February led Kelly and the little ones to eastern Montana as her grandpa Engstrom had heart trouble. Then in March, Kelly’s grandma Hiatt died unexpectedly and that led Joe and Kelly to drive the two day trip to Oklahoma. In April we traveled as a family to Billings, MT for Joe’s mom’s family Easter gathering and great-grandma Ruth’s 80th birthday. When July came around, we loaded the van to the max with all five of us plus Joe’s parents and headed for Wisconsin. There we celebrated Joe’s Uncle Dick and Aunt Linda’s 50th wedding anniversary with all of the Swenson clan. On the trip home we stopped in eastern Montana to visit the Engstrom family. In September, we were visited by Aunt Erin Engstrom. In October, Kelly took the kids back out to eastern Montana and then traveled on to Iowa with her aunt and uncle for medical treatment. Lastly, we had a surprise visit from Kelly’s brothers for her birthday in December.
Overall, it has been a big year full of travel and we are ready to plant our feet at home for the next five years at least. May the chill of the season bring your hearts ever closer to the warming hearth of the Lord’s unfailing love!
~Joe & Kelly Swenson

God vs. Science

joseph — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:23:56 +0000

“Let me explain the problem science has with religion.” The atheist
professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his
new students to stand.

“You’re a Christian, aren’t you, son?”

“Yes sir,” the student says.

“So you believe in God?”

“Absolutely. “

“Is God good?”

“Sure! God’s good.”

“Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?”

“Yes”

“Are you good or evil?”

“The Bible says I’m evil.”

The professor grins knowingly. “Aha! The Bible! He considers for a
moment.. “Here’s one for you. Let’s say there’s a sick person over here
and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?”

“Yes sir, I would.”

“So you’re good…!”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“But why not say that? You’d help a sick and maimed person if you
could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn’t.”

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. “He doesn’t,
does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he
prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Can you answer that
one?”

The student remains silent. “No, you can’t, can you?” the professor
says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the
student time to relax.. “Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good?”

“Err…yes,” the student says.

“Is Satan good?”

The student doesn’t hesitate on this one.. “No.”

“Then where does Satan come from?”

The student falters. “From God”

“That’s right. God made Satan, didn’t he? Tell me, son. Is there evil
in this world?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Evil’s everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything, correct?”

“Yes”

“So who created evil?” The professor continued, “If God created
everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to
the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.”

Again, the student has no answer. “Is there sickness? Immorality?
Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this
world?”

The student squirms on his feet. “Yes.”

“So who created them?”

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his
question. “Who created them?” There is still no answer. Suddenly the
lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is
mesmerized. “Tell me,” he continues onto another student. “Do you
believe in Jesus Christ, son?”

The student’s voice betrays him and cracks. “Yes, professor, I do..”

The old man stops pacing. “Science says you have five senses you use to
identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?”

“No sir. I’ve never seen Him.”

“Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?”

“No, sir, I have not.”

“Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus?
Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for
that matter?”

“No, sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.”

“Yet you still believe in him?”

“Yes”

“According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol,
science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?”

“Nothing,” the student replies. “I only have my faith.”

“Yes, faith,” the professor repeats. “And that is the problem science
has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.”

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of
His own. “Professor, is there such thing as heat?”

“Yes.

“And is there such a thing as cold?”

“Yes, son, there’s cold too.”

“No sir, there isn’t.”

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room
suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain. “You can
have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited
heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don’t have anything
called “cold”. We can hit down to 458 degrees below zero, which is no
heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as
cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458
degrees. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or
transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or
transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat..
You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of
heat.

We cannot measure cold.. Heat we can measure in thermal units because
heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence
of it.”

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom,
sounding like a hammer.

“What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?”

“Yes,” the professor replies without hesitation. “What is night if it
isn’t darkness?”

“You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence
of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light,
flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and
it’s called darkness, isn’t it? That’s the meaning we use to define the
word. In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were, you would be able to make
darkness darker, wouldn’t you?”

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will
be a good semester. “So what point are you making, young man?”

“Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to
start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.”

The professor’s face cannot hide his surprise this time. “Flawed? Can
you explain how?”

“You are working on the premise of duality,” the student explains…
“You argue that there is life and then there’s death; a good God and a
bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite,
something we can measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a thought.”
“It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully
understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be
ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.
Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.” “Now tell
me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a
monkey?”

“If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man,
yes, of course I do.”

“Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?”

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes
where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

“Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and
cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not
teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a
preacher?”

The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion
has subsided. “To continue the point you were making earlier to the
other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.” The student
looks around the room. “Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen
the professor’s brain?” The class breaks out into laughter. “Is there
anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s brain, felt the
professor’s brain, touched or smelt the professor’s brain? No one
appears to have done so.

So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable,
demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due
respect, sir…” “So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust
your lectures, sir?”

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his
face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man
answers. “I guess you’ll have to take them on faith.”

“Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with
life,” the student continues. “Now, sir, is there such a thing as
evil?” Now uncertain, the professor responds, “Of course, there is. We
see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man.
It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world…
These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”

To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at least it
does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is
just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the
absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what
happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s
like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that
comes when there is no light.”

The professor sat down.

PS: the student was Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein wrote a book titled God vs. Science in 1921…

(I can’t vouch for the validity of this story as it was sent to me in an email. The Einstein portion is garbage. He never wrote a book titled that.)

Marriage Endurance

kelly — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:34:42 +0000

When I received my Spring TEACH magazine, I glanced at the theme, “Marriages Made Marvelous”. My first thought was, oh no they’re going to show me how I’m failing at my marriage! I was reluctant to read anything past the cover, but since I was on a 26 hour driving trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma I figured it was the best time.
As I was reading through I found much more encouragement and less scolding than I expected and was excited to read the next article or story. A particular favorite, if I had to pick one, would be the story “The Long Goodbye”. As my husband drove us through the long stretch of flatlands in Kansas, I asked him if he’d mind turning off the music and listening to a story I was reading. So, we both shared the wonderful story of a husband battling Alzheimer’s disease while his wife devoted her life to caring for him until he died. It was a story of great hardship, but a story of commitment.
Here is a quote made by the wife that really sums up the entire story,
“Decades ago I vowed I’d be there for him whether he was sick or well. It wasn’t always the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing.”
It is so moving to hear stories of marital endurance like this one. With the way our society is painting marriage so many people believe it to be an optional commitment instead of a lifelong one.
So, thank you Lord for that long road trip and the Teach magazine that was tucked in my purse. It was a joy to read stories of encouragement and words of wisdom from other daughters of the King!

To be counted worthy to suffer

Joseph — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:20:57 +0000

Prosperity Gospel

joseph — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:25:18 +0000