Today I want to share one powerful word of God. Spoken out by Jesus Himself when He was nailed to the cross at Calvary. Before He gave up His life and died He shouted out: "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing."(Luke 23:34)
Even if they were killing Jesus and tormented Him, He knew the Father and He knew the Fathers heart. He knew that they were doing wrong. He even knew that this was why His Father sent Him to the world. Even if He was in heavy pain He carried the Fathers heart and shouted out "Father, forgive them. "They don't know what they're doing." Jesus knew that they needed forgiveness to get saved and to get to heaven when it came to their time. He knew that the only one how could forgive their sins were The Father and He knew His mission on earth. He came to die at the cross so YOU and ME could be forgiven and get eternal life. It was our heavenly Fathers heart in Jesus who saw these people, not as sinners and not as who they were. He saw their possibility to get saved and to get to spend the eternity together with GOD in heaven. This is what I call true and powerful love!
How many times in our lives do we come to a point when we need to ask GOD to forgive us for our sins. I know that I asked GOD to forgive me for my sins five years ago when I gave my life to Jesus but even since that I am sinning and personally I have to ask my Father in heaven to forgive me for my since on a daily basis. I think that we all sin every day, even if we are Christians or call ourselves Christians. Many of you know that I have a big mouth and that my nerve endings is not the best. Very often, too often I get upset because of this and that and because I don't give to much time to GOD to daily change my mindset my own mind creates a reaction. Most of the time the reaction is not in the Spirit, but in the flesh. Sometimes I fight for the truth but using hard and bad words is still not actions of The Holy Spirit it is all from the flesh. These are issues that I am fighting with and it is nothing I am proud about.
Many times it comes to a point where I have to defend myself or another brother, sister or friend. Many times I do this in the flesh and it gives other people the wrong picture of me. Shouldn't I be peaceful, filled with the love of God and not change my face what ever comes before me? I don't think so. There are NO perfect people on this earth. When I act like I do I actually show the truth, the right picture of me but I am still NOT proud of it. It all has to do with that we all are different. We are all on different roads with Jesus even if we are on the same road. I would not say that someone could be living closer to GOD than another but perhaps some people have more wisdom in their relations with Jesus through The Holy Spirit. I am in my very beginning on my road and my biggest hunger is to let Jesus change me more and more for each day. My biggest thirst is to get to know Jesus more and more for each day. I am desperate to get closer to Him in MY relation to Him. We will never be perfect as long as we live on this planet and we can never say we are. We all fail and we all fall but no matter what we do we always have the possibility to repent for our mistakes and for our sins and actions before GOD. Every time we do this with a pure heart in repentance GOD will forgive us and the best thing with GOD is that when HE forgives HE also forgets! Imagine how powerful that is! If you today go before the Lord with your sins, confess them and name them by their names and ask HIM to forgive you HE also does. The good thing with GOD is that HE is not like us people we won't forget. GOD will NEVER take up our forgiven sins with us again as HE has forgotten them. Wow! That is awesome!
We people have a hard time to act like GOD and forget after we forgive. We might bring it up again when we have another issue further down the road. Another big thing in our lives is not only to forgive but also to ask for forgiveness. So many times I have felt down and I have wondered and prayed about why I feel down. IF there is something that I haven't forgiven it will bind me. Same thing with things that I have not asked for forgiveness for. Last week I wrote about being upset and in a battle including a good friend of mine. Because I did not immediately ask this friend to forgive me for my actions I was stuck. This week when I asked him to forgive me for things I have said and told him that I also have forgiven I felt freedom. Yes, something happened in the spiritual realm and I was free. Imagine that GOD have made it so easy for us to be free and the secret word code for freedom is to forget and to ask for forgiveness. Most of the time it taste like crap to ask people to forgive me but the taste I get is a taste of myself, my own pride.
Today I am a happy man. This week I asked people to forgive me for this and thats and even if they don't want to forgive me I am free as I took the step in the will of GOD. Un-forgiveness can bind us so much that we might end up in hell if we don't take the word of GOD serious. Jesus told us how to pray and we all know that He commanded us with the following words; "Forgive us as we forgive others." (Matthew 6:12)
Well I think I made myself clear. I am NOT perfect and will never be perfect! Only a fool can say he is perfect. It is still a big difference who we are in this world and who we are in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus we ARE perfect but as long as we breath we are still carrying on our flesh witch makes it impossible for our creation to be perfect. I am looking forward to be perfect the day I move home to my Father in heaven. But before that I am looking forward to grow in Christ day by day.
Studio sessions
As you see in the pictures we have been in the studio working on the album. Last thursday I laid down some of the first vocal tracks. Some of the are good but some of them I will work on. What we do, we do for the Lord and what we do for the Lord we want to do as good as we can. I am actually looking forward to get my vocal tracks down so we can start working on the background vocals. That is always such exciting as different people are entering the studio with their own voice and their own style to sing. I am blessed to have many wonderful friends, brothers and sisters who are going to be featured on this coming album. I am thankful and happy for my old time friend and "Rubbish Brothers brother" John J. Kulju. He promised to come and sing some of the harmonies as I really loved rockin' with him in the past. Our voices works perfect together and on some of the songs I am actually looking for that "Rubbish Brothers" vocal sound. Those were the days, purple haze!
Another brother who is coming is Janne Stolpe. He is another friend and brother from the past life on the road. He was among those first ones who actually told me about Jesus and I am thankful for him as well. He is a great singer and also a great guitar player. I wont let any of these dudes, John J. or Janne play guitar on my album as then I have to taste my own pride again :) They are great pickers, professionals compared to me who have been playing bass most of my life. Camilla Cederholm and Elisa Keltto are also coming to sing harmonies and I would also love to add Henna Hellman to this bunch of wonderful voice. She has a great voice and she sounds like an angel. The only one who gets to play a guitar solo except me on the album is my little brother Marko Pihlajakallio. For years I did not know I had a little brother but now I have four of them. GOD is good! As one of them is playing guitar it is a done deal. My little brother is going to play one solo on the album. I am proud of him!
The coming weeks
We are still looking at having the album out this summer. The release party will be held at Orisberg in Isokyrö june 4th. This is also when our Ambassadors For Jesus Christ brothers from Texas are visiting us so we are waiting for an exciting and hot summer in the name of Jesus Christ.
The next coming weeks are not that hectic as the last months have been. I am continuing working in the studio and I will also take up the work on our house, our home as the spring is here and the weather is getting warmer. Some meetings are coming up and also the Exhibition at Botniahalli is coming up. It will be the fourth year in a row we are there as Ambassadors For Jesus Christ giving away Bibles to the people and sharing the awesome news about Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Love ya'll!
Pontus
