Persuading with Perfection

I tend to think very deeply, especially about ways I can prove to others with just a bit thinking that God exists. On my way to finding answers I think of questions. To be honest, in the Bible alone I have been able to find answers to all my questions, no place else. I want to share with you some questions I ask myself and what answers I find to them. It would be too much to share them all at once so I will need to do it step by step through my blog. Let us start with my first question:

What is perfection?

According to an English dictionary perfection is a perfect embodiment or example of something. When we speak of perfection in the imperfect world what are we comparing to? What is our perfect example? I honestly do not know what people's role model of perfection is. As I read the bible I am constantly in awe of the perfect God I read about. God wants us to become more and more like Him and reach perfection. In Mathews 5:48 Jesus says: "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." I know for sure that I am not perfect. I am not as confident as Jesus Himself to call myself perfect. Why? Well, because I don't always say or do the right things even if I truly want to all the time. When I compare myself to Jesus I realise that I am far from perfection. As king Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7:20: "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and
never sins." I have to agree with him. I have not yet found a perfect person. Since I am not perfect I find one reason of many for my need of God.
    When I think of perfection I think of a world where there is no more pain, no more suffering, selfishness, hatred or abuse. A perfect world is governed by love, full of harmony, happiness, peace, freedom, no limitation and is where all speak the same voice. I am sure that most people, regardless of religion or faith, have the same idea.
    How can my mind imagine a perfect world if it does not exist? How can I imagine and have an idea of what perfection is if it does not exist? It is hard, well impossible, to imagine this world coming from something that came from something that came from something and all the way to something never ending. The only logic for me is that there is a Creator who has always existed and who created everything we can see.
These following verses say it all:

Colossians 1:16-17...

For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through Him and and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.


1. Corinthians 8:6...

Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 


Hebrews 11:3...

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Perfection cannot be created from someone who is not perfect himself. It involves good things only and love is the source of all good things. God is love according to John 4:8 so God is the source of perfection. Perfection is good and God is good. Perfection comes from God alone. We all long for perfection, something that is above ourselves. Unfortunately, not everyone realises that God is actually what they are longing for. Creation longs for its creator. We will never know who we truly are or be fulfilled until we get to know our Creator.
    Another final though regarding all this is that everyone fears death and no matter what people try to tell you, all long for eternity. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says: "He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." I believe that God has put this desire in us so that we would find Him. Only through God can we receive eternal life. He gave His only begotten son so that creation could be with Creator for all eternity (John 3:16). My favourite author and writer of the Narnia books, C.S. Lewis, said: "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world". 
    With limited minds like ours we can never fully understand eternity or God or find all the answers. As the last verse I quoted mentioned, we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. But we can still have faith and believe in God and we can always find peace in knowing that our Creator knows the answers to all the questions we have. If we knew everything, we wouldn't need faith or God. God wants us to trust Him, depend on Him and need Him. Well, of course God already knows we need Him but we ourselves need to realise that we need Him. God is waiting for you to find Him and one of the clues He has already given mankind is its desire for eternity and perfection.

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My Prayer for You with R H Y M E !

I believe that you who are reading this now needs this prayer and encouragement  E V E R Y  day.

May the love of our Lord lead your way,
More so today than ever yesterday.
Cause others to find their Father and Friend,
Who feels their hurts, cures them and mends.
May all your smiles shine through souls,
Show them God's grace that ever flows.
May praise and worship be your first choice,
As you listen to His perfect voice.
Your battles are won, you are blessed,
Pursue His peace whenever you're stressed.
Your dreams are desires He shall fulfill,
Just follow His directions and do His will.
When you feel small, remember who's not.
God loves you so much, in case you forgot.
These are my thoughts as I prayed for you today, 
May they embrace you and brighten your way.

All love that comes from Jesus and flows straight to you!

- Sahara Rós Ívarsdóttir

Getting the Message A-CROSS

Today in bible school Joakim Lundqvist, the pastor of Livets Ord, had an ecouraging teaching about stepping out of our comfort zone and daring to trust that the Holy Spirit is always with us. In one of his testimonial stories he told us about a conversation he had with a nonchristian girl. During the conversation she told Pastor Joakim that she didn't realize that we Christians actually believe in a LIVING God! Surprised at her statement he asked her what she thought Christians did every Sunday during church meetings? She answered him that she thought they simply came together to reminisce

Jesus and all the good works He did.
      When I heard this story I was so surprised. I was so surprised that the wheels in my mind start turning so fast that you could almost see the smoke coming out of my brain. I started thinking about how we Christians could have inspired such a misunderstanding as believing in a "non-living" God. As for now, only one thing comes to mind. We Christians diligently emphasize that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and sickness, which is true. If Jesus had not died we'd still be hopelessly fighting sin and sickness unto eternal death and we wouldn't have a gospel to preach. However, as much as we speak about Jesus' death which became life for us, we need to stress the fact that Jesus Himself is still alive, active, powerful, loving TODAY as He was 2,000 years ago and has always been. He needed to die AND conquer the death in order for us to gain freedom from death through Him and gain a living relationship with Him.
      The fundamental symbol of Christianity is the cross. Of course we as Christians understand the meaning of the cross but do the nonbelievers around us? As Pastor Joakim also mentioned, we have our own "christianese" language that we use while communicating with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but if we use that same language to non-christians I am sure they will not have a clue on what we are talking about. I would never walk up to a nonbeliever and tell him, "Because of the final sacrifice of the Lamb your transgressions can now be forgiven you." We need to simplify our message and be clear about what we believe in.
      I am pretty sure that a cross is one of the first things a person thinks of when He hears about
Christianity. I see Christians post a lot of photos of the cross (and other Christian symbols too of course)

on Instagram and Facebook along with bible verses or other encouraging messages, so of course it is

normal that people who haven't heard about the gospel connect the cross to Christianity. I have the tendency to wonder if those pictures are more there to inspire us Christians or to give us an opportunity to share the gospel with our friends and followers. To avoid misunderstanding, I think those pictures are beautiful and the messages encourage me a lot. But my main point in this article is that there is a need for us Christians to be more clear on what we believe in and most importantly that Jesus IS ALIVE!
      I am not encouraging anyone to stop talking "christianese" or posting bibles verses or pictures of crosses, but that it is important for us all to stand together in unity and bring God's WHOLE message to people in a simple way. We need to be creative and put ourselves into their shoes of understanding. We need to find ways in every area of our lives to speak of the gospel in an understanding way so that we are prepared when the chance presents itself. 1. Peter 3:15 says that we should always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that is in us. Be simple, be creative and be READY!

Finally, let us get this message a-cross; Jesus is ALIVE! So simple is that.

Journal of Joy!

      A couple of years ago during some of the biggest valleys in my life I started my journal of joy. What is that you may ask. It's a journal where I write inspirational quotes from books I am reading,

song lyrics, important memories, prayers and most importantly scriptures that have nurtured my heart and that God has given me. I don't believe I will ever stop keeping a journal like this. Writing down things makes it easier to remember them and if you ever go through a tough time, or if you are simply having a bad day, you can always go back to your journal and be encouraged. 
      There have been days I really needed encouragement and when I looked into my journal I got the joy I was lacking since everything I read was something that had personally encouraged me before!
I highly recommend you to keep a journal for yourself. You will always be encouraged and as the years pass you will see every journal you kept as a jewel. It's always fun to look back at what God has done in your life and see you much you have grown as a person. 

The Little Forget-Me-Not

Forget-me-nots are my absolute favorite flowers, the prettiest ever. It is easy to create heartfelt symbolic meanings with them and I have done that many times in my own personal writing. I think forget-me-nots are quite underestimated; often referred to "just" being tiny weeds. But if you put in the effort to take a closer look at them, they are just perfect; the beautiful rich blue color, and what seems like a yellow crown in the center, symbolically the crown of life, and they stick to you no matter what!

      Faithful flowers they are indeed. I also love the fact that when they are developing, but not fully bloomed, they are purple. My favorite color. These flowers remind me of myself, to be honest. There have been times in my past where I felt like a little forget-me-not; easily looked past, small and tiny, fragile and different. The world may see me as a weed; different, old fashioned when waiting for true love, my godly standards, my choice of giving up my life so it may be lived for God… but "that's all right," I thought. I am in this world, but not of it. I should be different! I should contain things the world is looking for. They should yearn for the God living in me. 

      And I should be small and tiny; like a forget-me-not. That way God can grown strong and big in me and His strength in my weaknesses will be a testimony to all. The more time I dwell in God’s love and stick to Him, the bluer I will get and in the end I will fully bloom in Him.
I always imagine when the right man comes along, he will notice me, the little forget-me-not above all the other flowers, even the roses. When he picks me, I will stick to his heart forever. And God inside me should attract him. God always leads his men to pick the right flower.

     Out of this idea of the personification of the forget-me-not this poem was born. 

He found a flower by the sea,

Its fragrance called his name.

"My love, I am your destiny,

My heart is for your aim."

Reaching for the tiny flower,

He pressed it to his heart.

With so much beauty to devour,

His senses fell apart.

Forget-me-not tiny and blue,

Cried with tears from the rain.

In his hands a different view,

A world with no more pain.

Above all roses it was picked.

Rejoice! The day had come.

Never again by thorns was pricked,

True strength hardships came from.

He found her waiting, woman fair,

His true beloved one.

He placed the flower in her hair,

Her heart was aimed and won.

Pick Jesus and the right guy will pick you. God never forgets you and picked you before you picked Him!

Your sister in Christ,

Sahara Rós

Love: The Missing Piece

During the time of my life I was waiting to find my true love I enjoyed staying busy by being creative and blessing others. Creativity took my mind away from the waiting and gave me joy when I shared it with others.
    Almost two years ago I wrote a poem. I'm not a good painter so I use words to paint pictures and tell stories instead. The poem I wrote is a story I believe many can identify with. We love God with all our hearts and believe He is enough, yet there is this strong desire to find romance.
    I used to pray and pray to God to take my desire for romance away. I only wanted to want Him and yet I felt I couldn't be complete until I was united with my true love. I believed God was working on my love story but I didn't want to need love or feel the difficulty of waiting while I was waiting.
    Now when I look back I can clearly see that even though I didn't know who I'd marry yet God had started working on my love story!
I wrote this particular poem as a wedding gift for my sister the day before she got married. Today when I have found my true love, Emanuel, and therefore know when I met him for the first time, I can happily say that I met him the SAME day as I wrote that poem. And as me and Emanuel were getting to know each other he often quoted things from my poem without having read it or realising that he was quoting it in the first place! Therefore, I was even more sure that God had put him in my life and had given him those quotes in his heart.
    And with this story "poem-prophesying" was invented. Just kidding. Still, I think there's a truth to the thought of poem-prophesying because I still believe God can work through our words and hands. God is creative so He enjoys using our creativity.

Here you can now read the poem:

On a green pasture a little girl lay,

dreaming of love that seemed far away.

God was her all, everything she needed,

but desire for romance left her defeated. 

♡

Her heart was half, still missing one piece,

crying for hope, God's heavenly ease. 

Like a music box her life played a song,

waiting for someone special to sing along.

♡

The love the Lord has for this little girl

caused all the angels to dance, twist and twirl.

Her long awaited fairytale God would create,

a match made in heaven, her chosen soulmate. 

♡

One perfect day as the girl knelt in prayer,

a young man passed her, attempted to sway her.

He fell in love with her passion for God,

her purity, her fairness, he silenced and awed.

♡

"My life is like lyrics in lack of a tune," he then said.

"Sing your life song, and we'll dance under the moon."

Her song matched his lyrics, his heart matched her half. 

God peeked from heaven and happily laughed. 

∼ The End ∼

Singing Your Life Song

God has given you a life of song

He writes the lyrics all day long.

Be His instrument, play your part

Let Him conduct His perfect piece of art. 

(written April 15, 2011)

In Difficulties

Sometimes when things are difficult it can be challenging for us to wait for things to turn around. We even wonder if things will ever turn around. I have many times in my life been in situations where there seems to be no hope of change and all I have is trust in God. I can't deny that trusting God in such times can be so challenging that your faith needs a lot of strengthening. What can we do then to strengthen our faith?

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. 

∼ Romans 10:17

Faith

There is such truth in that scripture. According to John 1:1 God is the word. Through the word everything was created. What we can see is made out of things that our invisible to the human eye (see Hebr. 11:3). In other words, God specializes in creating things out of nothing. Therefore, through His word you can receive faith that you don't see and don't have. We need to fill our minds with the word so that there is no more room for doubt, disbelief or discouragement. Start believing what the Word or God says instead of what your thoughts and emotions say. 

The Lord is my strength and my song;

He has become my salvation.

∼ Psalm 118:14

Your Life Song

If God is the Word we can reword this scripture by saying: 'The Word is my strength and my song...'. 

One thing that has helped me through my tough times is to think of my life as a song or a book. Each song has a beginning and the end. God has given us a song we are to sing are whole lives. He is the composer and therefore He alone knows what will happen while we continue to live in the unknown for the rest of our lives. Our job is to keep on singing, praising God with our song. As we do that God will continue to give us the lyrics to our song word by word until the it is finished. Praise is so powerful that demons have to flee! It angers the devil when we praise God in our hard situations. Do what you can to irritate Him. If you don't believe me read 1 Samuel 16:23.

Your Life Story

If we look at our life as a book we know that it has a beginning and an end. The pages start out empty but God fills the pages with words and chapters, thus writing our life story. We go through different chapters in our lives; happy ones, sad ones, exciting ones, etc. Stories usually have a good ending, at least all God's stories do, so if you are going through a difficult chapter right now know that another chapter will come after this one. No book is good unless it has some sad and difficult chapters. The more experience you have the more you can help others. Live your life so that is may be a book others can read and be encouraged by.

Most important of all, let God be the conductor of your life song and the author of your book.  

He is my music, He is my song, 

writing my lyrics all day long.

In prayer for you,

Sahara Rós