Runebergsdagen - I Runebergs spår i Jakobstad

Runebergsdagen firas i Finland den 5 februari till minne av nationalskalden Johan Ludvig Runeberg. Han föddes i Jakobstad.

"Runebergsdagen till ära återvänder Johan Ludvig Runeberg (Jan Ehnvall från Jakobstads museum) till sitt barndoms Jakobstad och besöker de platser där han bott. Han besöker också den gamla fiskarstugan där det blev en ganska livad fest 1851. Besöket avslutar den alltid lika sötsugne J.L. Runeberg naturligtvis med en Runebergstårta på ett av stadens caféer. Foto och klipp: Sofia Grankull/HSS Media"







"I Runebergs spår" (5:14)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MxwRTzAcPU

Fänrik Ståls sägner:
http://runeberg.org/fstal/

Förutom att Runeberg skrev orden till vår nationalsång "Vårt land, vårt land" (som är första dikten av Fänrik Ståls sägner) skrev han många fina psalmtexter tex. "Bevara, Gud, vårt fosterland" (Psm 546) och "Han på korset, han allena" (Psm 74).

Fakta och foton:
http://www.runeberg.net/swe/a_1_i.html

Runebergs stuga:
http://www.museiportalosterbotten.fi/museum-a-o/museum/47-runebergs-stuga


Dagen till ära brukar man äta Runebergstårtor:

Foton: Internet

China - five years since Nobel nominee Gao Zhisheng disappeared

China aid news/Release International:

5YRS ON - FREE CHINA'S 'DISAPPEARED' CHRISTIAN LAWYER

"Feb 4 will be five years since Nobel nominee Gao Zhisheng disappeared, after defending persecuted religious minorities. Release is urging China to free the prominent lawyer, who claims to have been tortured under interrogation.




As China celebrates its New Year, a Christian human rights lawyer who has been kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured faces the fifth anniversary of his disappearance on February 4, 2009.

On that day, Gao Zhisheng, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for defending the persecuted, was snatched by a dozen police officers from his apartment. He has publicly accused the authorities of brutally torturing him behind bars.

Little more than a week ago, on January 26, China sentenced another prominent human rights lawyer, Xu Zhiyong, to four years in prison. Christian lawyers have also come under surveillance.

More than a year has passed since Gao Zhisheng’s family were allowed to contact him at the prison in Xinjiang, despite repeatedly begging for permission to see him. On his last visit, Gao’s elder brother was forbidden from asking about conditions at the prison. He said he was worried about Gao’s health and described him as emaciated, with a sore on his face.

‘Release partners are worried that Gao's health will deteriorate if he remains in the custody of the Chinese Government,’ says Colin King, the UK director of Release International, which serves the persecuted church. ‘Release is urging China to set him free and allow him to return to his family.’

49-year-old Gao Zhisheng has vigorously defended the rights of persecuted Christians, religious minorities and the poor. The authorities shut down his Beijing law firm after he wrote three open letters to China’s leaders, calling for an end to the persecution of the Falun Gong.

The authorities revoked his licence and found Gao guilty of ‘inciting to subvert the state power’. The lawyer later described in detail how he had been tortured under interrogation, including the insertion of a toothpick into his genitals.

On February 4, 2009, he was again arrested at his home in front of his family and takenaway.

At the end of 2011 he was sent to Shaya Prison in Xinjiang to serve out an earlier three-year sentence. There has been no news of Gao Zhisheng for more than ayear.

His family have fled to the United States for their own safety. His wife, Geng He, recently described her own ordeal to the US Congress: ‘The police have stayed at my home. They monitored me and my children and didn’t let my daughter attend schools, bringing great mental and emotional trauma. We finally succeeded in escaping from China. [Their] deeds… will forever be etched in our memory.’

On January 26, a Chinese court sentenced another prominent human rights lawyer, Xu Zhiyong, to four years in prison. Xu, who has campaigned against corruption, was found guilty of public order offences.

‘Other Christian lawyers have also come under surveillance and intimidation,’ says Colin King of Release International.

Through its international network of missions Release International serves persecuted Christians in more than 30 countries around the world, by: supporting pastors and Christian prisoners, and their families; supplying Christian literature and Bibles; and working for justice."

China aid:
http://www.chinaaid.org/2014/02/release-international-5yrs-on-free.html

Video (not for children) 7:15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yNgFioWEQU






Photo: Internet

Ukraine - Christians sing and pray for peace on the front line

* CBN/George Thomas
* CBN
* President Niinistö's tal 4.2.2014



"All churches, all denominations, with no exceptions they are here. They are spreading an important message on those barricades, and when the police started to attack, it was the Christians who stood and called for peace." ~ Anatoliy Gritsenko



CBN:

 - "Watch what happens when a Christian mother tries to share copies of Psalm 91 with Ukraine's elite Special Forces." (G.T)

http://www.cbn.com/tv/3145436397001

CBN:
"Jesus Christ is the answer for Ukraine (on biblical foundations)":
http://www.cbn.com/tv/3150212256001

Photo of CBN-logo and black flag: Internet

Photo of the Orange revolution: Kerstin Linden (the bandana is a gift from Kyiv, 2005)







"Det finns inget upplyst envälde. --- När man använder våld utan demokrati, är resultatet despotism."

 (republiken Finlands president Sauli Niinistö) 4.2.2014
http://www.presidentti.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=298086

"Arabvåren, Syrien och nu Ukraina, det finns många likheter mellan händelserna. Den officiella regimen, som även ansetts vara stark, har konfronterats med oppositionen, vars art och karaktär varierar enligt land. Utgångspunkten har dock varit nästan densamma på alla ställen. Människorna har fått utstå för mycket och blivit mer medvetna; förtroendet för makthavarna har försvunnit, i den mån det ens funnits, men samtidigt har tron på att den egna saken är berättigad stärkts.
Följderna har visat sig snabbt. Det som bara för en månad, vecka, eller till och med en dag sedan ansågs vara ofrånkomligt, oföränderligt och ändlöst har ifrågasatts på ett ögonblick. Vilket resultatet av 2010-talets folkresningar är vet vi inte ännu. Till likheterna hör tyvärr också att extrema rörelser överallt strävar efter att utnyttja oroliga situationer.
Det är inte svårt att se varifrån det missnöje som jag beskrivit väller.  Det finns inget upplyst envälde. När man använder våld utan demokrati, är resultatet despotism." (SN)



-  Njaaaa, ganska bra tal, men jag gillar ju inte våld - inte ens i demokratier!!!! Och jag anser inte heller att polisen bör använda våld mot demonstranter, inte ens i en demokrati. De får visserligen ta i med hårdhandskar mot anarkister som äventyrar säkerheten för andra, men våld (vapen, hot med hundar) ska undvikas till varje pris. Minns vad reportern Yrsa Stenius skrev en gång i Hbl om polis, hundar och en skrämselattack...

Ifall kravallpolis klarar av sitt jobb i en demokrati utan onödigt våld - då kan vi tala om demokrati, mänskliga rättigheter och ett gott rättssamhälle. Men bra i alla fall att presidenten öppet vågar stöda "Arabvåren" och Ukraina - Syrien är väl mera tveksamt? (Glöm inte att de kristna hade det bättre tidigare, även om det inte var bra då heller). Där heter det Exodus.

Och glöm nu inte igen bort Belarus (Vitryssland) som är så nära. Nästan så du kan se det från ditt fönster!


"Hos oss i Finland är den skala som jag nyss nämnde en helt annan, den lutherska anspråkslösheten har varit en dygd att hålla fast vid." (SN) - Litet oväntat talar han om "den lutherska anspråkslösheten", men troligen tänker han kanske inte på bekännelseskrifterna utan snarare på Angry Birds? Det är bra om vi lär oss att dela med oss, men det är också viktigt att uppmuntra fri företagsamhet som Österbotten är så känt för och skapa utrymme för innovatörer och nya arbetsplatser. Skyhöga skatter gör att INGEN vill driva ett företag eller anställa folk. Kommunala sparåtgärder är nödvändiga men detta gnäller folk över, utom kanske de som lärt sig att vara sparsamma pga tidigare erfarenheter.

"även små synder avslöjar mycket" (SN) - Ja, nästan ett bibliskt uttryck. Bra sagt.

"Finlands och Sveriges ställning och tankar om EU:s säkerhetssamarbete och utvecklandet av partnerskap med Nato är i hög grad samstämmiga. Därför är det bra att vi håller varandra noggrant informerade om läget och strävar efter att enas om en gemensam linje."

- Det låter bra.


- Men våld i demokratins namn kallar jag maktmissbruk.

ECI appeals to Vladimir Putin to open archives - what happened to Raoul Wallenberg?

European Coalition for Israel

"In an Ecumenical Holocaust Memorial Service in Brussels on Monday ECI director Tomas Sandell appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to open the remaining archives in Russia to enable researchers to determine the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews at the end of WW2. Wallenberg was later captured by the Soviet forces never to be seen again. However, nobody has been able to finally determine his fate.




This year will mark the 70th anniversary of the deportation of the Hungarian Jews and the Holocaust memorial was organized only one day prior to the arrival of President Putin in Brussels for bilateral meetings with the EU-leaders in Brussels today Tuesday."


ECI:
http://www.ec4i.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=210%3Aeci-holocaust-memorial-appeals-to-putin-to-open-archives




Photo: Internet

Syria - "in some areas no more Christians - we would like to stay"

Fox news:

"Fox News National Security Analyst K T McFarland spoke to Rev. Dr. Riad Jarjour and H.E. Bishop Dionysius Jean Kawak. Jarjour is a Presbyterian clergyman from Homs, Syria, which has beared the brunt of attacks between the Assad regime and opposition forces. Kawak is a metropolitan, or high-ranking bishop, for the Syrian Orthodox Church."







Fox news article and video (10:58):
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/01/27/syria-christians-on-front-lines-civil-war/
Christians want peace and no violence. Security.
"Jarjour says churches in Homs “have been destroyed or burned.” He said the occupation of the town center by militants has displaced 80,000 Christians who live in that Christian quarter. "



Syria:
http://www.arabicbible.com/for-christians/162-syria/1827-the-significance-of-syria-in-the-bible-history-and-civilizations.html






Photo: Kerstin Lindén

Christ's continual involvement - Real Presences

"He walked with His people in Tabernacle, sacrifice, circumcision, and suffering. In their weakness and wandering He was with them. --- They simply did not expect to see their God among them, but He was really present among them." (Rev. Dr Scott Murray/Memorial Moment)


Real Presences

"False dichotomies are dangerous things. Most intellectual dilemmas are not able to be resolved with a simple "either, or." Take for example the question, "When did you stop beating your wife?" No simple answer is able to be offered to it. The truth is always more nuanced, partaking of mystery, and deeper than we expect or can boil down into a couple of simple options. These false "either, ors" are used to simplify complex things; often for the purposes of instruction, but they must not be let stand as the state of the matter in the long run. Take for example the division between the two testaments in the Bible. The simplistic dichotomies divide this way: The Old Testament is what happened before Christ. The New Testament is what happened in the ministry of Christ in the world. The Old Testament is a set of laws and requirements. The New Testament is a proclamation of the gospel. The Old Testament is about Christ's forerunners. The New Testament is about Christ. And so on. All of these things include a great dose of the truth, but not the whole truth. The truth is always deeper and more interesting than that.



The New Testament testifies to Christ's continual involvement in the life of Israel, His people. He was always the Messiah of His people. He always was the Shepherd of Jacob. Speaking of the Old Testament, Jesus bluntly stated that they testify of Him (Jn 5:39). Elsewhere the Apostles described Israel sinning against Jesus when it acted in willful and unbelieving ways. Christ led the people through the Red Sea on dry ground. They passed over in Him. They drank of Him who was their Rock. Jesus is everywhere in the Old Testament. There is no point in reading it unless you are reading it for the sake of finding Him in its every page and syllable. This presupposition not only tells us how to read the text of the Old Testament rightly, it confronts us with the deeply mysterious reading of the Bible. This reading privileges the content which the one about whom it is written says is there to be mined by us. The great I AM who was before Abraham is the center of the Old Testament revelation.


It also confronts us with the divinity of the eternally pre-existent Son of God. From eternity, He existed with His Father and the Spirit, one God. All three persons together saw to the world's creation and its redemption from the catastrophe of the fall. God's intimate involvement with the world does not end when God banished Adam from Paradise. Israel's willful blindness made it impossible to see and recognize the approach of the Son of God to His people. He walked with His people in Tabernacle, sacrifice, circumcision, and suffering. In their weakness and wandering He was with them. Perhaps God is not invisible, just invisible to us. They simply did not expect to see their God among them, but He was really present among them."

Rev. Dr Scott Murray


Colossians 1:11-20
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1%3A11-20&version=ESV



John Cassian;

"When the Apostle wanted to make clear and patent to everybody [that Christ was with Israel in the Old Testament], he spoke as follows: 'Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe' (Jude 5). Elsewhere we read: 'We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents' (1Co 10:9). Peter, the chief of the apostles, says: 'Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will' (Acts 15:10-11). We know most certainly that the people of God were delivered from Egypt, and led dry-shod through a mighty expanse of water, and preserved in the vast desert wastes, by none but God alone; as it is written: 'The LORD alone guided [Jacob], no foreign god was with him.' (Deut 32:12). And how can an Apostle declare in so many and such clear passages that the people of the Jews were delivered from Egypt by Jesus, and that Christ was at that time tempted by the Jews in the wilderness, saying, 'We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents?' And further the blessed Apostle Peter says of all the saints who lived under the law of the Old Testament that they were saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.


"Get out then, and wriggle out of this if you can (whoever you are) you who rage with vapid mouth and a spirit of blasphemy, and think that there is no difference at all between Adam and Christ; and you who deny that He was God before His birth of the Virgin, show clearly how you can prove that He was not God before His body came into existence. For lo, an Apostle says that the people were saved out of the land of Egypt by Jesus, that Christ was tempted by unbelievers in the wilderness, and that our fathers, that is, the patriarchs and prophets, were saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Deny it if you can. I shall not be surprised if you manage to deny what we all read, as you have already denied what we all believe. Know that even then it was Christ in God who led the people out of Egypt, and it was Christ in God who was tempted by the people who tempted, and it was Christ in God who saved all the righteous men by His lavish grace. For through the oneness of the mystery (of the incarnation) the terms God and Christ so pass into each other, that whatever God did, that we may say that Christ did; and whatever afterward Christ bore, we may say that God bore. And so when the prophet said, 'There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god' (Ps 81:9), he announced it with the same meaning and in the same spirit as that with which the Apostle said that Christ was the leader of the people of Israel out of Egypt; to show that He who was born of the Virgin as man, was even through the unity of the mystery still in God. Otherwise, unless we believe this, we must either believe with the heretics that Christ is not God, or against the teaching of the prophet hold that He is a new God. But may it be far from the catholic people of God, to seem either to differ from the prophet or to agree with heretics. The people who should be blessed should not be involved in a curse, and be charged with putting their hope in man."



John Cassian, Seven books on the incarnation 5.9


Prayer:

Lord Jesus, Son of God from eternity, You walked with Israel and presented Yourself to him in weakness under the signs of sacrifice and suffering. Yet he was a rebel against You and did not see what was right before His eyes. Send Your Holy Spirit and grant us in our day to see You through the sight-restoring power of the divine Word. Help us to find You where You desire to be found, in Your Word and Sacraments. Amen.




Art: MEMLING, Hans  Adoration of the Magi (c. 1470)



Memorial Moment/Rev. D Scott Murray

Tanken med OS har kränkts: Torterades med järnspett av ryska polisen

OS i Sotji - Ett OS byggt på sorg och tårar.

"Mardiros Demirtjan klagar när han inte längre får någon lön. Då kallas han till sin arbetsplats. Där väntar civilklädda poliser. De anklagar honom för stöld och något senare våldtar de honom med ett järnspett. Det som hände Mardiros Demirtjan har satt skräck i arbetarna som bygger OS-anläggningarna i Sotji."


Uppdrag Granskning:
http://www.svt.se/ug/torterades-med-jarnspett-av-polisen
"Två av poliserna tar på sig boxhandskar och börjar slå honom. – Från varsitt håll började de slå mig. I ansiktet, mot njurarna. Jag stod ut så länge som jag orkade och sedan föll jag ihop och förlorade medvetandet, förklarar Mardiros Demirtjan och visar hur han höll upp armarna för att värja sig från slagen. När han vaknar får Mardiros Demirtjan ett glas vatten och en cigarett. – De sa ”Ta det lugnt. Erkänn nu som det var, annars slår vi dig igen”. Jag svarade ”Jag tänker inte erkänna, jag har ingenting tagit”. Då började de slå igen, fortsätter Mardiros Demirtjan. Gång på gång försöker poliserna få honom att erkänna. Mardiros börjar blöda och en träff i munnen slår ut en tand. När han gråter och känner att han inte kan ta mer stryk hämtar poliserna ett rött järnspett. – De sa ”nu kör vi upp spettet i ändtarmen på dig om du inte säger det vi behöver”. Jag sa ”jag vet inte, men tänker inte säga något”. De böjde ned mig, med en spade på huvudet så jag inte skulle se, lyfte upp min rumpa och förde in spettet. Jag gallskrek, då hällde de vatten över mig, så att jag kom till sans. Jag sa ”okej, jag skriver på vad ni vill, jag kan inte längre uthärda er tortyr”, berättar Mardiros Demirtjan. Till slut skriver han på ett papper. Under hot om att bli våldtagen av en flaska skriver han på fler. Och nu förstår Mardiros hur nära de samarbetar med arbetsgivaren."



Uppdrag Granskning:
http://www.svt.se/ug/


TV-programmet: OS - en mardröm för arbetarna (58:44) in Swedish and Russian:
http://www.svt.se/ug/historiens-dyraste-vinter-os-tiotusentals-loner-saknas


Photo: Internet