Silent Time

Freedom – what would you like to be free of? God wants us to have freedom. He could have created us like puppets, but he created us humans with a free will. We often take away our own freedom by either putting us into chains of wrongdoing, sin and devil. Or – by contrast – we take away our own freedom by putting ourselves into the chains of rules and by trying to obtain salvation by our own good d...

Water is necessary for life – we become aware of it especially in dry places like when walking through a desert. Not only does our body need physical water to drink, also our soul needs water, even if we are not aware of it, our soul needs the holy spirit. We become aware of it especially in “dry phases of life”, when burdens make us feel like walking through a desert.

We all look forward to better times. But what do we do in order to achieve it? Do we only pursue fun and pleasures in order to seek short term distraction from the troubles of life? Or take also steps towards lasting, eternal joy?

As humans we naturally want to go upwards, to gain honour and favour with people or to accumulate more possessions and so on. Jesus did the opposite, he went downwards – in order to help us!

What do you do, if you have too many things to do, a long list of tasks, and there is not enough time? A clever person will set priorities and focus on the most important things. That is a useful principle. Yet in the eyes of the Lord, sometimes other things are more important than from our point of view.

What do you reply if someone says “it does not matter which religion one follows”? Many people imply that it is more important to do good deeds. And most religions claim that the major point is the effort of a person. But God does not judge us based on our accomplishments. Rather in his mercy he sent his son Jesus into this world, who washed the feet of the disciples. He offers all that is necessa...

What do you think about compromises? Are they good? Are they bad? Often compromises between 2 conflicting opinions are useful to find a solution and a way ahead. Pilate also knew that sometimes compromises are necessary, he tried to find a way in between the conflicting expectations. But towards Jesus, a compromise is not possible. There needs to be a clear decision. Whether consciously or unaware...

Have you ever done a small favour to someone, and that person made you a much bigger present of incomparably more value? Whatever we can do for Jesus is much smaller than the tremendous gift that he offers us.

What is your reaction to that great news? – “He has risen!” The greatest news of history about the decisive victory of all times and for everyone personally: “The Lord has risen!” Are you interested? Or do other topics of daily life continue to fully occupy your mind alone?

Do you have anything to eat? To most people of our times sufficient food supplies are available. Less obvious, beyond the need for food and other physical stuff, there are also other types of needs that we are sometimes not aware of.

Where is God?

What can technology do? More and more things. The advance in development is amazing. Technology can do things that were thought of as being impossible in the past. What can technology not do?

“Ill-mannered behaviour” – what comes to your mind? The behaviour of a small child? Or your own moods, tempers and unreasonable desires? Blessed is the person who recognizes wrong behaviour not only in others but mainly in oneself and who takes the right consequence to turn to God.

In the past, the festival of reconciliation was a great day for the people. What can we learn from that for the life nowadays in our current times?

Are you sometimes sad about how people behave? It can be especially disappointing if beloved people like family members ruin their lives, such as teenagers and young adults taking wrong decisions that ruin their health, their career, their lives, destructive decisions that they will regret later on. People of all times got sad when seeing the destructive behaviour of others. We can learn from thos...

Some people easily get our attention and they might fascinate us with their rhetoric or visions. But let’s be careful not to follow the wrong persons and ideas. In order to distinguish, it is good to ask “what are his motivations?” and “what are her targets?”.

Is it possible to cheer up a person, who bears a lot of sorrow in mind? What is the major factor, whether the good intentions to help will succeed or not?

To what do you give the highest priority in your life?

Which logic do you follow in life? Do you still only try to maximize your own benefit as most people do? Or have you already understood that there is more to life than that?

Who is Jesus? What would you say? Some say he started a religion, others say he gave good moral teachings, others say he was a prophet. When we do not know for sure, let's turn to the most original sources.  The results are amazing.

Which sports are you interested in? Similar to the full concentration in many other sports, as far as the discipline of running concerns, the runners run fully concentrated straight towards the target. How disappointing it is, if someone in the middle of the race suddenly gives up. To give up is bad enough in sports, and even worse if someone gives up in life.

Do you also wait? That question might be asked at the bus stop or when queuing up in a line. Do you also wait? That question can also be asked in a much more significant regard!

What comes to your mind with regard to the words “cooperation” and “partnership”? There are many kinds of cooperation between individual persons, in private and in public, on government level and so on. Often good things come out, when people cooperate. In spiritual terms there is a different kind of cooperation, that all those have experienced who have walked closely with the Lord over the centur...

How do you see the world? As most of things going on well and tendencies in the right direction? Or more a pessimistic view considering all the deficiencies in the societies, with major factors in the world deteriorating? Whatever is going on, one thing is clear: we need help. And even if there are a lot deficiencies in many regards, there is still a true hope for the future.

One of the most common way that people are challenged and get doubts in their faith is by bad things happening. For example if a family looses a relative, a beloved person who even might still have been young, then naturally we are tempted to ask “why did God allow that to happen?” And then the devil easily can send negative thoughts and doubts that lead us away from God. The devil even tried to t...