Silent Time

Who is the rock?

Have you gone through such serious situations where there seemed to be no more hope, asking “my God, why have you forsaken me?” Even in the most desperate times of feeling totally abandoned by other people, for example under serious persecution, God never leaves us alone. No matter where you are, no matter what the circumstances are, God does not leave you alone and listens to your personal prayer...

How much is enough? How much possessions and wealth is sufficient? Amazingly, most people will have a similar answer, whether very rich or very poor or in between, most will say “just a bit more”. But the bible has a different answer: It does not count so much how much we have. The question is more: what is your priority in life? Priority beats quantity. Proverbs 15: Better is a little with the fe...

What would you say spontaneously – is it interesting for you to talk to God? Is it a highlight to go the church service? Or is it more a kind of burdensome duty? As humans we may fall short and not live up to the covenant with God. Yet from his sides he always keeps up his offer and invitation to everyone of any background whoever humbly turns to him in faith. Praise the Lord that we do not need t...

Everything seems to be temporary. For example times of peace are always threatened by hatred, health threatened by diseases. Or a person may intend to settle in a place for good, yet one day may have to move to another place due to life’s conditions or due to external circumstances. What good remains really permanently?

What do you like to talk about? What do you like to tell to others? It might be the latest movie or game released. Or many other things and interests which can be nice and entertaining. Once someone has understood what ultimately counts eternally, the person will mainly tell on the good news to others.

People may keep their promises or they might not fulfil it. God’s promises are different: he always fulfils his promises. He may not fulfil all our wishes, he may not intervene in the ways we desire, his timing might be different to ours. Yet, the promises of God are firm assurances.

Children are lucky if they are taken care of well by the parents. The children may come with empty hands, yet good parents provide for them with love and care. But also as adults, even in the strongest years, deep down in the heart everyone has the desire to be taken care of well. Jesus explains that if we do not receive the kingdom of God like children, then we may not receive it at all.

Usually everything needs to be paid for. All goods have a price tag. But in the economics of God, it is different: more comparable to a baby crying and the parents providing for free. Though that comparison is not perfect yet is shows the economic logic of our relationship with the Lord Almighty in a much better way: he provides for free when we shout for help in our needs.

“Why have you done this to us?” Have you complained to anyone in such a way? Apart from the regular usage, let’s look at how that question is also top relevant for everyone.

To whom do you listen? From whom do you learn? Usually it is good to learn from the most successful people. However, in specific regards, we do well to learn from the good example that a poor blind beggar gave around 2000 years ago.

What kind of hierarchical structures dominate in your society? In some cultures there are nowadays hardly any vertical hierarchies anymore, in others the situation is still similar to what it used to be in the past with different levels. Take for example a hotel in the past, there used to be clear levels from the top manager down to the boy who had to clean the shoes and carry the bags. Jesus, des...

In many parts of human history there have been different kinds of pillars of scourging, where people got tortured. We may easily condemn the cruelties and those responsible.  Jesus had to suffer terribly up to the cross. We may easily condemn the cruelty and those responsible, but let’s be careful, because the son of God took upon himself the suffering on our behalf, in order to offer us the oppor...

We all would like to receive great promises from God. In fact they are available for everyone, the bible is full of such promises from God. The heavenly Father offers his love, help, forgiveness, hope, courage, strength and life in its fullness. All that and much more is available to everyone of any background, whoever humbly puts one’s trust in the Lord’s word. What can we learn from those, to wh...

Help and encouragement amongst confusion and fear: Whether we have navigated ourselves into troubling situations or whether it is imposed by others, among all kinds of confusion and fear, no matter how desparate, the Lord offers encouragement and help to everyone. Do you receive his help?

What are your life’s circumstances? Many people of our times have available more than enough food and other physical goods for the body in abundance. How about the status of the nourishment for the soul and mind?

God loves to help all people and he offers his support to everyone of any background. But many may argue “to me, he has never provided any help”. So who receives his help?

It is a fantastic news: God opens the door to everyone of any background, no matter what someone has done or is going through. The door is open and the Lord invites you. Do you enter that gate? Do you accept the invitation?

We often may not notice it, yet boasting and wanting to be relatively better than others is deeply rooted in our human being, we all tend to be “puffed up”.

Did you ever have to treat mildew at the walls of your house or building? Mildew may not only occur at walls and stones, it can also come up in all kinds of relationships between people, for example within the family. As the mildew starts slowly but might gradually eat into the material and gradually damage it, so conflict and strife might start slowly but gradually might eat into relationships an...

Many people would like to have a more healthy lifestyle. Some need to overcome their laziness. Far more important than all those things is the fact that we cannot ultimately overcome sin and temptation by our own will-power rather we need to receive the grace of God that will help us also in that regard. And then we can learn to overcome our own desires and rather follow the perfect guidance of th...

For which occasions do you prefer to meet other people?

Are you good at distinguishing between situations in which it is better to keep quiet and in which situations it is better to speak up? Among many other things, we can also learn in that regard from Jesus, who mastered that discipline as well.

Apart from all the acoustic noise such as from traffic or from machines, there is also another noise in the world: complaint.

What do you think of the prodigal son? Most may simply condemn his behaviour. And many may look down on the people who nowadays behave similarly. Yet there is so much to learn: For example the decisive point: at last, he came to his senses! At last he came to his senses. And how about his brother, who looked down on him?