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Stockholm - Newsletter October 2020

A Word from the pastor  

Pastor Stevens repeatedly used to say ”failure is never final with God”. Those words have often encouraged me in various situations. 

Many times we allow failure to take us out of the race, or at least slow us down considerably. This is unfortunate since we are running the race to be winners, are we not? (1 Cor 9:24-27). Failures are commonplace in our lives as believers, are they not? How do we handle them and why does God allow failures in the first place?      
 

The problem

What is man’s real problem? The typical secular answer to that question is that the world is not fair. It is believed that man’s problems are just reflections of this unresolved dilemma called injustice. Thus, humanity would be okay if offered more education and if governments would only strive after social justice to a greater degree.  
The Bible disagrees with that assessment flat out. The Word of God tells us that man’s real problem is being independent of his Creator. Even as born-again Christians, we tend to be independent of our Lord and Saviour. This is our root problem. It causes us to stagnate in our growth process. God, as our loving heavenly Father, will not passively stand by and watch when his children get stuck in their spiritual development. In His love for His children, He does not hesitate to “provoke” us in this procedure.   
 

The plan  

We do everything in our power to avoid failure. However, God knows it is often necessary. Most successful businesses began with failure, sometimes even numerous failures. This principle applies to every area of life, especially our spiritual maturity process. Depending on whose perspective we view things from, failure and defeat can bring destruction and disaster or it can be the seed of success and triumph.
Almost without exception we are trying to weasel ourselves out of situations ordained by God. If we are repeating our failures, we must ask yourselves: is God trying to say something or show us something? God, being the ultimate “spiritual craftsman”, has an impressive toolbox. The Lord knows exactly what device is needed for any given situation and He is skilful in His use of it.

The purpose  

God wants us to live out our life in such a way that it reflects God on this earth. He wants us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29). This will not occur unless our self-sufficiency is dealt with. Faith is in essence dependency on God and His Word, the renouncing of all other loyalties.  

Therefore, the most obvious sign of spiritual maturity is dependency on God. The Lord took the self-willed Paul and allowed him to fail miserably to make him completely dependent on Him. The purpose was to equip him and then use him beyond his wildest imagination (Acts 9:15-16).
If we have been successful in this world, we often try to apply the same principles in the Christian life. We want to see “improvement” in our walk with Him, do we not? However, God expects death, not improvement. We are to receive rather than to achieve. God’s grace is undeserved, unattainable and sufficient (2 Cor 12:9-10). When we allow God to accomplish His purpose in us, we become examples of encouragement to others (2 Cor 1:4).  
 

Conclusion

Our real problem is thus independence toward God. Our Saviour’s plan is to allow failure to break that independent spirit, just as in the case of Paul. The Lord has a grandiose toolbox to accomplish this. The purpose of these failures is not to embarrass us, but to make us more like His Son. Only then can we be worthy ambassadors for Christ while still in this fallen world. Please remember: “failure is never final with God”.  
P. Mikael Toll

Contact: stockholm@ggwo.se

Focus on the Mission field

There are over 50 countries in Africa. Greater Grace has churches in several of the nations making up this vast continent, the second largest in the world. Join us in prayer for the African churches during the month of October.
This month´s prayer calendar...
This month Marie Ask is contributing to the content of this newsletter with a beautifully written and inspiring testimony. Read about how some of her recently made discoveries about Bible meditation thoroughly changed and enhanced her comprehension of the Word of God. Although meditation is a word both feared and ignored by many Christians, it is a recurring theme in the Bible, not least in the Book of Psalms (e.g. Ps 119:15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 99, 148). Consequently, it is of the utmost importance to understand biblical meditation as set forth in the Word of God.
Marie resides with her family in Stockholm where she, among many other things, is involved with the worship team and works as the secretary in our local assembly. Marie is the cofounder of a Swedish pro-life organization called “Livsval” (Eng: Life choice). She has earned a Master of Science in Business and Economics from the University of Stockholm. Currently, Marie is also pursuing a master’s degree in biblical counseling from Luther Rice Seminary in Atlanta, GA.
Read this month´s Food for thought...

New devotionals on Youtube

Dr. Mikael has published several new devotionals in Swedish and English, they are a little over 10 minutes long. Here we have linked to the latest devotional!
Devotional - Faithless versus Faithful

Sermons on Youtube and Facebook

We have started to meet again on Sundays at Pumpan. Please contact stockholm@ggwo.se for more information.

Every Sunday when we meet, we broadcast live on Facebook and we also post that sermon on Youtube a little later.

We try to publish the sermon in English on Youtube around 6 pm every Sunday.
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Upcoming events

October 2020
2-3 Women’s Seminar in Helsinki, Finland 
23-25 Creation Seminar in Götene, Sweden. Special guest speaker Professor Werner Gitt from Germany. 

December/January 2020-2021
31/12-3/1 New Year Seminar in Kiljava, Finland  

March 2021
9-13 Eurocon in Budapest, Hungary
Contact us for more information...
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M: stockholm@ggwo.se

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