Articles

Introduction to “Heavenly worship”

This is a sermon I preached in Turku Free Church in July 2008. It is based on Hebrews 12 verses 22 to 29. I share my understanding that worship in the New Testament church was considered to be a sharing in spirit with the worship going on in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. This is a very different concept than the inward looking one that I used to have, which has its roots more in Eastern religion than in the Hebrew worldview.

Introduction to “When God is silent”

This short talk I gave to a Lutheran congregation in 1996 just a short time before I passed into a seven year “dark night of the soul” in which I felt God had totally disappeared from my life.

Introduction to “Loving God”

This talk was given in 2004 when I had passed out of the seven year “dark night of the soul” and found that I could once again love God with my feelings whether or not I actually felt Him.

Introduction to “If no Holy Spirit”

This talk was given to an international congregation in Finland in 1995 when Finnish churches were being touched by what was often called the Toronto Blessing. The talk raised the question of how did the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost affect the early church and what difference does his presence (or absence) make today.

Introduction to “Gifts of the Spirit”

This sermon was preached in about 2002 to a Nazarene church in England trying to encourage them to see that the gifts of the Spirit still function today. This church did not accept their existence and I wanted to give my own testimony as someone well known to them in the hope it would open their eyes. It did not, and I was never asked to preach there again! But my mother, who attended that church, did receive the gift of tongues at the age of 85 after I prayed for her. It took about five months from when I prayed before the Holy Spirit actually caused this gift to function as a prayer language in her life. She was blessed by this gift for the last three years of her life.