Category: Trials and Errors

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Grabbing Lisbon with My Grubby Mitts

To call Lisbon a great place is to insult the beauty of this marvellous sunny city almost to an libellous degree. As soon as I arrived here, I knew that it was here that I was going to fulfill my God-given mission. Not only was it free from that punishing northern darkness that had been numbing my mind for so long-the city was close to the beaches where Europe's best waves for surfing splashed ashore.

I felt alive for the first time in along time. All my senses that had been numbed by the monotony of a grey city existence life burst violently into life.
I was blind, but now I could see. I felt reborn.

The next month was one the happiest of my life. Life was simple and life was great. Occasionally, I'd have another beer, and order some wonderful seafood with crabs, or have a surf in those cold wawes.

Why for God's sake was I and everyone else in Northern-Europe putting up with another hideous winter rabbiting about unimportant shit and getting stressed?

We spend our lives working in jobs that we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. No more of that.

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The Roman Character: Confidently Facing the Future, Conserving the Past

ROME NEVER FOUGHT TO IMPOSE a political idea or a religious creed. On the contrary, she left local institutions and manners of thought untouched.

In Rome's imperial expansion, self defence was accounted the first motive; but trade inevitably followed and the first motive was mingled with that of commercial exploitation. True, reasons of safety safety were sometimes alleged in order to hide greed and ambition.

Rome fought to 'impose the ways of peace' and by peace she meant the positive blessings of settled order and security of life and property.

We can't say that a religion such as the old Roman religion promoted greatly the religious development of man; it carried no intellectual appeal and was therefore unable to contribute a theology. But it is certain that with the associations and habits which clustered round its contribution to Roman character was great. Great men were almost canonized for their characters or for their achievements.

To the beliefs and manners of these days we must ascribe that sense of subordination  or obedience to exterior power, whether a god, or a standard, or an ideal, which in one form or another - marked the Roman to the end.

To the same source must be traced the feeling for continuity which preserves the constant, assimilates the new and refused to break with the past. For the future could be be faced with greater security if the values of the past were conserved.

 

Photo by Vek Labs

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Interactive map of asylum seeker flow to European countries

First click on the picture - it will take you to the interactive map.

Each moving point on the map represents 25 people. Only a small fraction of refugees fleeing their homes make it to Europe. Hover over countries to show details. Click on a country to lock the selection. The counts shown on hover represent the number of people who have left or arrived in a country since 2012.

Please feel free to leave a comment or share with others who might be interested to grasp the scale.

Published 26.10.2015 | By Ville Saarinen and Juho Ojala| http://www.lucify.com/the-flow-towards-europe/

Photo by Alessio Lin

 

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Christianity is proclaiming the good news. Then why are so many Christians unhappy?

Why it is important to face this question is because we are living in a pragmatic age. People of today are less interested in truth, and more in results. And they ask - does Christianity work?

Well. Does it?

Many say of Christian people: 'Look at Christian people, look at the impression they give. They look so unhappy and troubled and downcast. They have written on their forehead - I'm not good enough'. All this while the people of the world are excited and thrilled about football matches, museums and culture - and they sure want everybody to know it!

There is no doubt that this 'display of unhappiness' by Christians is a big reason why large numbers of people have stopped to be interested in Christianity - and let's honestly admit that there is some justification in their claims. Christians too often give the appearance of unhappiness and of lack of freedom and abscence of joy.

There are large numbers of these Christians, or more specifically - miserable Christians, in this unhappy situation. Their Christian life seems to them be a constant problem, they read books, attend conferences which are meant to give instruction about the Christian way of life - yet they always seek this something which they don't find and seem to live a life of defeat. Astonishingly, most of them have a clear perception of the Christian faith, and here is often the problem. They often focus more on the question of sanctification and being righteous and doing good works - than justification. They have assumed they are on the right tracks and have forgotten or ignored about the basics of salvation and justification. The question they need to ask is 'Do I know God' not 'Do I believe in God'. 'Is Jesus Christ real to me' not 'Do I believe in Him'.

The best remedy for overcoming doubts, discouragements, regrets and fear for the future is learning to live the Christian life wholeheartedly. This is of course not easy. It is not an act of righteousness. This demands that you take time to explore whether you are humble or just play a game of appearing righteous! No, this is not in fashion today with all the social media hype about appearing so cool, right?! We are all in such a hurry to congratulate ourselves - and, we have to have everything at once. We also think that all truth can be stated in a few minutes, all questions answered immediately without contemplation. The answer to that is that it cannot, and so the reason why so many today are living superficial Christian lives is because they will not take time to examine themselves. Before we face anybody else, we must really face ourselves.

Conviction of sin: If you have not a conviction of sin, and if you do not realize that you are unworthy before God, and that you are utterly condemned and a complete failure before God - pay attention to nothing else until you have it, until you understand this because you will never get rid of your depression until you are right about that.

In other words: It does not matter if you have nearly entered within the gates of hell, if you are guilty of murder as well as every other wicked sin, it does not matter from the point of being justified with God. Because you are no more hopeless than the most respectable self-righteous person in the world!

Do you wish to be rid of your spiritual unhappiness? Then say farewell now once and forever to your past. Realize that it has been covered by Christ. By his blood to be more specific. What you need now is not to make resolutions to live a more holy life, to start fasting and sweating and praying. No, you just need to begin saying ... 'I rest my faith on Him alone'.

Therefore the conclusion is that a man is justified by faith without deeds of the Law.

 

Photo by Steven Kamps
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Darkness on the edge of town

THE LAST RAYS OF THE SUN are closing in on the Soukka beach in Espoo, Finland at 15.18pm on December 2014. The sea is covered with a thin ice.

I hate the winter darkness. Not the winter but the darkness. Winters are no more like when I was a child-plenty with snow, the white pushing away the dull grey. That's why I prefer living more south. The grey of Nantes in France contains more light than the sun up north in December.

There is darkness and then there is November in Finland. The latter is far more mind-numbing. Darkness attacks first the mind, then enters the soul.
Far-away foreigners flicking through Lonely Planer assume the Nordics are living a life to die for. No crime, much space, wild nature next to the cities, a party with the health services...

But in October, the warm summer nights are long gone and forgotten-then darkness and frost arrives. Short, colourless grey days, and a chill that is felt to the bone ensure the mind won't be able to reach for much light either. And as if THAT wasn't enough, by November the dark brown sleet on the motorways and eternal lack of sunlight dispatches the most vulnerable and weak into the 'recharging department' at the country's numerous mental institutions. Many foreigners are little aware of the dull and mentally mediocre life in darkness people put up with most part of the year in Scandinavia. Uninterested faces, grunts as greetings, avoidance of physical contact at any price. The security and efficiency of a northern nation turns into an isolated and silent zombieland.

Then Spring. Suddenly Helsinki wakes up to a March morning - alive and with a promise of something new. Temperature is still below zero at 7.30am, but it doesn't matter because the sun is already high. The grumpy and silent inhabitants turn into smiling sociable companions. People looking past their feet, which is pretty much said of a Finnish person. After the dark, cold winter, the Finnish turn into open human beings, ready ro talk anytime and anywhere. Almost compassionate.
Relief of the returning light. The shrill cry of the seagull. The world is again open and full of opportunities. Chatter on the street. Feeling of a weight being removed. How do you explain this to somebody living in Brazil or in the Caribbean? You don't because anybody who hasn't been through a Nordic winter can't understand what it is.