Feb 10 2012
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Discipleship

Provision and faithfulness

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.

–Martin Luther

One of the good things about being an entrepreneur and a missionary is that you learn to trust the faithfulness and provision of the Lord. I started my first business approximately 11 years ago. I had no idea what I was doing. Had I known everything that I know now, I probably wouldn’t have done it. Because I would have been too afraid to do it.

I wouldn’t have known how much God would take care of me. I wouldn’t have known that I would never lack anything, and that He would always provide. I wouldn’t have learned the joy and the wonder of seeing Him step in and rescue me, every single time.

I wouldn’t have learned what it means to work hard, to invest in the future, not knowing what the fruit will be. I wouldn’t have experienced the feeling of not knowing where our income would come from the next month, or week or sometimes even day. But also wouldn’t have experienced the rest and the peace in the middle of that. And living like that does something. It stretches your prayer muscles. It stretches your faith. And so faith grows. Or more accurately, doubts fade away.

After all, Jesus has promised that God would take care of me, provide me and my family with housing, clothing, food and all the other stuff I need.

And Jesus stood behind His promise. I can now bear witness to that. What a joy!

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Feb 10 2012
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Get up and try again!

I am an entrepreneur. That means I try new things. That means I take risks. And that means I sometimes fail. Not all new ideas are good ideas. Not all new projects succeed, at least not at first.

But being an entrepreneur also means pushing on. It means trying again. It means getting up, brushing the dirt off of your knees, and trying again. And try something different. And go at it from a different angle, with a different idea. Until you finally do succeed.

Part of what I currently do is trying to help a local church in Helsinki navigate the huge changes that have been taking place in society over the last decades. The church in Finland, especially the big evangelical Lutheran church of Finland, has had a set place in society for the last centuries. That has started to shift. And so the church needs to adapt. The fundamental mission of the church is still to make disciples of all nations. And that includes Finland.

My current job is about finding a way to make disciples of Jesus that is culturally relevant, and that works in 21st century Finland. We’ve been working with that in Petrus for a while. We’ve been working on finding the way forward for a while now. We’ve tried many things. Some of what we’ve tried has worked, some has failed. But we’ve got up again. And tried again. And we will continue to fail, and continue to succeed.

Life is a journey. So if you’ve fallen, it’s not the end of the world. Get up and try again!

Jan 27 2012
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Hello world!

I am back in the blogosphere.

Will write sporadically, some in English, some in Swedish, and maybe some other languages as well.

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