The little foxes

Happy New Year to you!

It's more than a month since I last wrote on my blog. Time flies and we are already in a new year. It was great to start it off with a week of prayer and fasting as a church. We do two of these every year, one in the beginning of the year and one in the fall. God always does a lot of amazing things when we pray and fast, and this week was no exception. There was a lot of excitement when we prayed, strong praise and worship and people having encounters with the Lord. In one of the services the glory of God came so strong that I couldn't share what I had planned to share. I felt the anointing so strong that I had to go and share it with everyone present, laying hands on them. People had visions, there were prophetic words and one lady was so strongly under the presence of God that her husband thought he has to carry her to the car. She told us later that she was touched in a very powerful way in Kathryn Kuhlman's meetings years back, but this was new and different. We're expecting God to move in our church in a mighty way in the days, weeks, months and years to come. The best is yet to come!

On Sunday I felt led to preach about "the little things". Many times we want mountains being moved in our lives, but in so many cases the mountains that stand in our way have started as something very little. There is a very interesting verse in the book of Song of Songs. The whole book is about Solomon and his wife to be, and it is also a beautiful picture of the relationship between Jesus and his bride, the church, us believers. In chapter 2:10-14 we can read about Jesus speaking to us about a wonderful season that has come. Winter is past and the time of singing has come. Flowers appear on the ground and everything looks beautiful. In the middle of all this he says:

"Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom." (Sgs. 2:15)

The blooming happens right before the fruit starts appearing. And as much as we love flowers, we want to see fruit! In John 15 Jesus speaks about him being the true vine, the Father being the vinedresser and us being the branches. And then Jesus goes on to teach about the importance of abiding in him so that we can bear fruit. Have you ever been in a situation in your life when you feel like something great is about to happen in your life, a breakthrough is on its way, it's like you're in that spring season, but then the fruit still never appeared? Let me ask you, could it be that there were some little foxes, some little things that came and spoiled and ruined your vineyard before the fruit could appear?

Sometimes small things make a huge difference. And if we don't catch the small foxes, those often become wolves, then lions, then bears and so on. Eventually things are out of control and we wonder why. The reason is that we didn't catch those small things at the beginning stage.

I won't share the entire sermon here, it would be too lengthy, but let me encourage you to let God show areas in your life where maybe some small foxes are devouring your intimacy with Jesus. The Bible says: "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." (1 Cor 5:6) It doesn't take much. If we catch those foxes and guard our hearts, we will see beautiful spiritual fruit in our lives. So let's go hunting!

God bless you!

Ps. Feel free to comment if you'd like!

Not how you start - but how (and that) you finish!

Preached last Sunday a message entitled "It's not how you start - but how (and that) you finish. I have realized that it's often way easier to begin something than to actually complete it. And sometimes when we start something, we are full of excitement and joy. But it's a completely different story to finish what we've started.

One area where I can see this in my own life is in regard to books. I get excited about reading something, and then 3 chapters into the book, I'm already eying the next book. I do finish books (gotten better at it!) but still, I have to be conscious about continuing and following through.

I've been saved since I was 5, baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit in my teens, started serving in my church at the age of 12, went into full time ministry at the age of 20 and have now been in full time ministry for 16 years. Although that is not a long time yet, I've still seen some things during these years. I can think about many friends from my youth and ministers I've had the privilege to serve with, who once were on fire, but all that remain now is smoke, if even that. That deeply saddens my heart. Maybe some of these people never realized that the Christian journey is described in the Bible as a race.

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." (Hebr 12:1)

We need endurance and steadfastness to finish this race. Sometimes I've described the Christian race as a marathon, but it's still a picture that halts a bit. A marathon is finished in a couple of hours (if you're good at it), whereas our walk with the Lord for most people takes decades to complete. Many things can happen during that time. The two main hinderances are sin and encumbrances (unnecessary weights, burdens). Sin easily entangles, and it is always sad when someone quits their race because of them falling in sin. King David fell badly, but he also repented deeply, and finished his race well. Yes, he paid a price for his sin, but he still didn't stay at the sidelines. He continued to the very end. His son Solomon was a sadder story. He started out as the greatest, richest and wisest king of all time, but when he got older he started worshiping idols because of his foreign wives. He started well, but finished terribly. Sin entangled him.

Encumbrances (unnecessary weights, burdens) are another reason for people not finishing their race well. Those can be "lawful but not beneficial" things. Good things that take the place of the best things in our lives. It can be relationships or hobbies that just don't seem to lead us closer to the Lord, but even further away from him. Still, they are not necessarily sins. Lot lived in the sinful city of Sodom, and the Bible says that he was tormented in his righteous soul by the things he heard and saw. Still I have to wonder, why didn't he leave the city? Although he kept his purity, he lost his wife, and his daughters were so affected by the perversion of the city that they decided to get their father drunk, and get kids with him. How sick is that?

Prov 24:16 says: "For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again."

If you fell and were sidelined because of sin, hurt, or wrong decisions, please don't stay there! Rise up! You have a race to finish. I love what Paul writes in his last letter to Timothy. If he lived today, this might have been his last blog post, Facebook post or tweet.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith." (2 Tim 4:7)

We need to envision ourselves at the end of our race and to be able to say like Paul: I've finished the course. What a way to end our lives! To know that we didn't just start, but we finished, and finished well!

Let me finally throw in what Joyce Meyer just wrote today on Facebook:

"It's never too late to begin."

Costa Rica

I must admit that I haven't been a very successful blogger so far (2 posts in 1,5 years), but thought I'd give it another shot. With Facebook and Twitter, we just write a line or two, but sometimes I feel like telling a bit more. So if you're interested in what's going on in my life, my heart and my head, here we go:

Costa Rica was a great experience. I got the invitation to go just some weeks before I actually went, and I thought it would be impossible at this time. I presented the invitation to the elders of our church (my employer) and let them decide. I thought that they would say no, but they were all for it. So I decided to go!

Costa Rica was the 20th country I've gone to, and the 15th where I've had the privilege to serve the Lord, in worship or teaching/preaching the Word of God. What a beautiful country it is! Reminded me a lot of Hawaii where we spent our honeymoon 7 years back. Didn't really have time to see a lot since the schedule was very busy, but among many of the experiences was seeing an anteater in the backyard, fireflies for the very first time in my life, a spider in my bed, seeing an iguana killed with a machete and a gun, hearing monkeys in the distance, eating coffee beans fresh, plus much more. I love doing missions trips. You get to experience a lot of new and different things, but the main thing is definitely the spiritual part, preaching, worshiping, teaching, ministering. Got to do it a lot this time! Taught about 16-17 hours about thanksgiving, praise and worship, and led worship 2 times. If the Lord wanted me to do just this the rest of my life I would gladly do it. To see God's children get a deeper understanding about praise & worship is worth it a hundred times over.

It's Thanksgiving week here in the US and Thanksgiving Day is just two days away. When I was in Costa Rica teaching the young students about praise and worship, I spent quite a while just speaking about foundational things. One of them is thankfulness and thanksgiving. In the end of the week when I asked what had been helpful for them, many of them stated that the teaching about thankfulness and thanksgiving had been very helpful, even life changing. One of the things I asked them to do, which I've also done in other places when teaching about this subject, was to write a list of things they are thankful for. (You'll see the creativity of one of the students in the picture to the right) In one of the sessions we just spent about half an hour only thanking God for His goodness in our lives. Many broke out in tears (including myself just listening) as they gave thanks to God.

Psalm 100:4, Amplified version says "Be thankful and say so to Him." I think that pretty much sums up what thankfulness and thanksgiving is all about. Having an attitude of gratitude, and also expressing it. May we all live like that, then we glorify and honor God with our lives, and besides, we will be much, much happier and content.

Have a great week!

Back home

What a wonderful day I've had today! 3 services, friends visiting, lots of birthday wishes and just a great time all together. Turning 35 is a pretty good thing I guess. :)

The day started with Caroline and Esther singing for me (Reuben was still sleeping...) and it continued the same way in the church. Both our Finnish and our English side of the congregation sang for me, and there was a surprise cake made. Thanks to all you precious people for the Facebook messages, cards, text messages, hugs and everything else. It is such a precious thing to know that you are loved.

One of the precious things was when the old people in the Finnish rest home sang for me. That was touching. Some are very, very old, but they stood up and wanted to sing for me. That was very humbling indeed.

Ok, and then a short update from my trip in Colorado. Let me just say it again - Colorado Springs was absolutely astounding. I loved the nature, and it was fun to see it snowing for the first time in a few years. One of the days there was more than 10 deer in the backyard of the Palonen's house. If I was a hunter I guess I would have been very happy!

The recording of my vocals was not as easy as I had hoped. The day before I left to Colorado, I could feel that my voice wasn't feeling OK. I know a lot of people prayed for me, and after drinking probably a million gallons of water, taking medicine, asking people to pray, and working hard I think we got it all together. Jukka (my producer) will start editing everything next week. The grand piano sounded amazing - and the background vocals too. I'm amazed at what God is doing, and for the privilege to be part of something like this.

I'll try not to write too much, but I have to share this one really cool thing, that I would like to call a God-thing. I wrote this song here in Florida, that is partially based on the Psalm that talks about us lifting our eyes to the hills/mountains, to see where our help comes from. For those who don't know Florida, there are no mountains here. It's super flat. Anyways, this was the first song we started recording. I could literally look at the Rocky Mountains as I sang that song. Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I will be looking at some of the most beautiful mountains in the USA recording that song that I felt the Lord give me in flat Florida. :) But that's just one of those "God-things".

God is good. And I love Him so much. Tomorrow is a day off. Will spend it with my wonderful and precious family. :)

Time to start blogging

Hi there!

Well, I decided it's time to start blogging! It was some maybe 6 months ago that I opened my Facebook account, and have enjoyed it ever since. My problem though is that I feel like I have more to say many times than what the status update allows me to! :) So I decided I must start blogging then. :)

One of the current reasons for me starting this blog is also because I'm in the middle of recording my next album. I'm so excited about this project, and I feel like I want to share with my friends and all who are interested how everything is developing. It's a CD that will be released mainly in Finland again with 9 songs in Finnish and 1 in English. But it is being produced here in the States, and I have some amazing people helping with this project. All I can say is that I'm truly blessed and thankful to the Lord for all that He is doing!

I'm writing this first post in Colorado Springs. I left warm Florida and the palms yesterday morning and a few hours later I was looking at Rocky Mountains and snow on the ground. Colorado Springs is absolutely stunning.

We will be recording my vocals and piano while I'm here. My producer, Jukka Palonen, (an absolutely amazing musician) has this beautifully sounding grand piano. My only concern has been my voice, but I know that many people are praying for me, and I know things will turn out well!

Thanks for visiting my blog! I'll try to update often.

Love and blessings,

Petri