Newsletter from Tore and Mawkkham, April 2017

Now the summer holiday has started here in Thailand, and we are in the two hottest months with temperatures that rise above 40 degrees celcius.
After about 19 months where I have not been quite as active in reaching out to the Shan people, for various reasons, such as a sabbatical year, establish our family and ministry, so it feels good to start up full time again. In the past two months, we have started up activities in some rice fields and orange farms.
I will write some interesting stories from the past two months in this newsletter.
I also want to write something about or family life, and that we will take a trip to Myanmar.

Read more: Teaching English at Rice Fields

Written by Tore Johannessen

There are two fundamental questions we need to ask:
Who is God? And who am I? This two questions are connected to each other, it is also connected to who are they?
If we get the first question wrong, we also get the second and third question wrong. Because your picture of who God is determent how you look at your self and then others again.

If you think God is a strict and law demanding person, looking down at you from heaven and judging you for every bad things you do. The picture you have about your self will also then be distorted, and your relationship with your self and others will also be wrong. I meet a lot of christian hating themselves (and usually they are not aware of it) and are very judgmental towards other people.

This teaching will help you to get tings right.

Read more: Who is God and Who am I? A Teaching About Identity

Written by Tore Johannessen

What does the Bible really say about emotion? Are emotions something that is negative or positive? Does God want me to be happy? How can I control my emotions? What connection is there between feelings and fears?

Emotions can be our best friend or our worst enemy.

In this teaching, I will give you some truths about feelings and emotions that can help you to manage them in a correct and good way, and how you can feel the way that God wants you to feel.

What I want with this teaching is to show you that the emotions are there and they are given to you by God. You can either lie or ignore them, or you can learn to do something with them. 

When we understand why God has given us emotions and we can use them properly, we can apply them in a good way.
If

I can learn how to handle my emotions, I can also deal with life and what comes my way.

It is one thing that is certain about emotion: We all have them. But unfortunately there are times when the emotions have us. It is when the emotions have us that they become a problem.


Read more: God Gave You Emotions

Written by Tore Johannessen

Even as Christians we can have a lot of different fears.
It can be worry, which is a form of fear, or fear for the future. We might have phobias or habits that are rooted in fear.
We might have fear of getting late to work, oversleeping, fear of what we eat, fear of sickness or not getting healed and so on.

As a Christian, we try to encourage each another by saying that we don't need to not fear anything, it is even written 356 times in the Bible, one for each day, we say, so that's why we don't need to fear anything.
But weekly I meet Christians and I get responses from my web site from people who have a great, great fear, even though they may not be aware of it themselves.
Can I tell you what kind of fear this is?
They have a fear that God will not hear their prayers, protect them, heal them, forgive them, provide for them or it may even be that they are afraid that they have lost their salvation because of a sin they did. Or it can also be that they have not read their Bible lately, gone to church, prayed for a while or not obeyed and followed God's perfect will in every way. They have a fear that God is dissatisfied and that they are not pleasing to him, and because of this God will reject them in some ways.
Can I tell you a truth? You've been lied to! You believe in the lie that you are still under the law, in some ways!
This might even be the main reason why you have not seen your healing yet, not that you have not done everything perfect before God.

This sermon also include my personal testimony of healing, and it is translated into Thai.

Read more: The Grates Fear of a Christian

Written by Tore Johannessen

This is a teaching seminar about freedom, and this is the first part!

In my life I have tried to live holy, and according to a religious standard I have probably done quite well. I have never committed adultery or fornication, I have not murdered anyone, I have done pretty well when it comes to not lying. The only thing I can remember I have stolen was a chocolate from a grocery store and  some money from my mothers purse when I was 10 years old.
But I still did not feel free, because I also knew that even if I was quite good it was not good enough.
I still had thoughts and emotions and also sometimes action, even though they were not too bad, they were not holy.
I also struggled with a sickness for many years, and also thought that if I only manage to live holy enough or get enough faith God would heal me. I tried and tried, but good was never good enough. I did not feel free. I did not experience the freedom that the Bible was talking about. What was wrong? What more should I do to be free?

One evening I sat frustrated in a hotel room in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I was quiet sick and felt I had come to the end of my self. I had tried all to get well, confessed all sins I knew of, tried to live holy, spend a lot of money both on doctors, seminars and had travel to healing seminars and meetings all over the world. Why was it not working for me? I have heard of many people that got healed, why did it not happen for me? Had God forgotten me? Was there still things I had to do, or things I had not done?
In my hotel room I cried out to God: What more must I do?

Watch the video or listen to the teaching.

Watch the video or listen to audio: Part 1 You Are Created for Freedom

Written by Tore Johannessen