Category: Church

  • Becoming human.
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    Becoming human.

    As we are well in to the Knightschool week of courage we have done confessions, it is remarkable how hard it can be to confess. Everyone of the squires (self included) wrestled with the “What will they think of me, how can I ever look them in the eyes again?” thought. It strikes me that…


  • We do so little!
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    We do so little!

    Yesterday I was struck with this thought, All our corps have such a large base of volonteers and people freely giving funds to our work and yet we have so little impact on the community around us. I am talking about the local corps here and not the Army as a whole. When I worked…


  • The non religious fanatic

    The non religious fanatic

    It is strange and almost humorous to watch Christer Sturmark argue against religious beliefs trying to sell the secular society as the only viable future of the world. In todays article in expressen Sturmark attacks  religous beliefs with what can only be likened to a religious frenzy as he explains that humanistic values are the…


  • The similarities between Christianity and open source

    The similarities between Christianity and open source

    Being a full time missionary and a certified Linux proffessional I cannot help but watch how similar these two areas of my life are. The passion and sacrificial nature of the followers and the resistance of the world Both communities … …Are run by a mish mash of volonteers and large companies (denominations). …Have highly…


  • The call for contemplative silence
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    The call for contemplative silence

    Tuesday night when I was talking at Metro I described the tension between our ministry driven church programs and the call of God to an almost monastic life. It is my firm belief that God is calling us to worship Him before we do any thing for Him. It is also my belief that that…


  • Aim lower, think smaller, give up & go, have a cup of coffe
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    Aim lower, think smaller, give up & go, have a cup of coffe

    What a great Christian slogan! All joking aside this is one of the best videos I have seen in a long while… Spread the word! [gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/v/KaI6wmapPIc”][/gv] This is why I am a youth worker for life! People where fine with me being a youth worker when I was 14 and noone even blinked when…


  • The king of Kings bled

    The king of Kings bled

    The king of rock, they say lived The king of lizards is surely dead, The King of Kings bled. -Audio Adrenaline, I am not the king We are watching the first season of Rome and while it is vile in that it very graphicaly portrays the sexual perversion and the pgan worship of the time,…


  • Calebs cadre on the move!
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    Calebs cadre on the move!

    So yesterday it happened the finale of our soldiers courses. nine soldiers where enrolled and two adherents where welcomed into the Riga one fellowship. It was a glorious day! The service was fantastic, the worship was heavy with the spirit of God and His presence could be felt in every note of worship coming from…


  • I would do anything… (Spiritual discipline part 2)
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    I would do anything… (Spiritual discipline part 2)

    We all have heroes of faith, people we look up to that are giants compared to ourselves. Many times have I looked at these giants and said I would do anything to be like him or her. It reminds me of teh commentSteve Martin made at the Oscars a few yeras back. Looking out over…


  • The race (Spiritual discipline part 1)
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    The race (Spiritual discipline part 1)

    There is a race on, theres always a race. Bring a bunch of people together and the game is on. Who is the best, who is the greatest who is number one. It is true outside the church and inside the church. Who is the holiest, who is the best preacher, who has the deepest…


  • Those pentacostals
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    Those pentacostals

    Reading the swedish Christian newspaper dagen today I found this article. It states that the goal of this years evangelist week is to “Reinstate (or maybe reintroduce) God and open up the churches for more people” It’s incredible what those pentacostals can come up with…. the nerve, to invite God to church. All joking aside,…


  • Oh how the great have fallen….
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    Oh how the great have fallen….

    A little more than a year ago I was present at Dataphones (A swedish [[ISP]] where I used to be a System Administrator) anniversary party. The secret guestspeaker was Christer Sturmark who spoke eloquently and with great panache about the information society and how we have arrived where we are today. I was impressed not…


  • Spiritual Vagabonds

    Spiritual Vagabonds

    A growing group in our society are the spiritual vagabonds, restless souls wandering from fellowship to fellowship and never settling down. Either on the constant lookout for the perfect church or treating organized Christianity like a smorgasboard where you pick and choose the bits you like and move on to the next dish. This begs…


  • YOU are the Salvation Army!

    YOU are the Salvation Army!

    Lats week as I was being interviewed by the vice principal of the Swedish officers school she asked me a question that ground me to a mental halt, – What is the Salvation Army, she asked? I started to think, then I started describing the army, the way I think it should be, not nessesarily…


  • Riga 1 youthgroup, Rocking

    Riga 1 youthgroup, Rocking

    This friday the Riga 1 youthgroup was transformed, having had between five and eight people showing up suddenly this Friday we had 24 people. What a fantastic night, worship rocked, tho we managed to break two guitars and play dreadfully out of key. Still everyone was having a good time and Gods word was shared!


  • Self-control

    Self-control

    Everytime I teach on Love, Joy and or passion I run into the same thing, someone comes up and tells me that, while it is true that love is joy and passion, love is also self control and you could surely use some. Many times I just take that as just criticism and get really…


  • Compassion on wheels

    Compassion on wheels

    One of my pet peeves is that the church seldom produces quality promotion material wich sends the message that our message is not really that important, not so with this fantastic video It really sends the message of the army, sends the underlying message that this is important/professional and it spells out, WE CARE! and…


  • One way

    One way

    Kicking of the “Riga 1” youthgroup for the fall yesterday and what a start we had. We had six new people there and three of them where not girls, wich as you know is a minor miracle here in Latvia. The Friday night group has been dubbed “One Way” so therefore our first message was…


  • Retorics does not a good teaching make.

    Retorics does not a good teaching make.

    I was teaching all day at one of the Latvian summer camps in Ligatne. We had a good time and I got to teach the same teaching four times in a row as the camps participants was divided up in four groups. I was teaching on relationships and specificly the road from singleness to married…


  • Our purpose is LOVE!

    Our purpose is LOVE!

    This is a follow up to this post on the gay pride parade in Riga. So everyone is talking about it, will there be a gay pride parade in Riga 2006? I am apalled at the stance the Christian churches in Latvia are taking to this. The Christian protesters are spreading hatred at town hall…


  • One way, Jesus!

    One way, Jesus!

    To be a Christian means to be Christlike. And since there is only one Christ there can only be one way to be a Christian…. while we are still very unlike our Lord and saviour the differences will be many but as we close in on holiness, as we get closer to him. As we…


  • Kingdom culture

    Kingdom culture

    Being a missionary is tricky buissness, the constant tention between infiltrating the national culture and promoting Kingdom culture. Knowing where to draw the line is difficult and sometimes downright impossible. Whenever I am out preaching I am constantly reminded of the fact that I don’t fit in. Wherever I go I am told, It is…


  • He’s MY daddy!

    He’s MY daddy!

    10:35 pm last night my second daughter Anja Trinity Olterman was born. This morning I went home to pick Up Angelina our oldest to take her to see her brand new sister. Though cautious at first Angelina seems to have accepted our newest family member, however whatever we do for the little one Angelina demands…


  • Limiting the Holy Spirit?

    Limiting the Holy Spirit?

    I had an interesting conversation with Mackan last night about the gifts of the Spirit and NCD. Mackan raised the question if we don’t limit the expressions of the gifts when we try to define them and explain how they work to the church. Now the gifts of the Holy Spirit requires us to recieve…


  • Hollywood fairytale or Hollywood heresy

    Hollywood fairytale or Hollywood heresy

    At coffe today our chief of administration loudly announced that he had seen the [[da vinci code]] yesterday and that it was an excellent movie. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about, no one in their right minds would actually believe in that stuff, he continued. The problem is too many people do.…