Grace and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to all the saints!
Because of sickness (nothing serious) in our family and extended family, I have not been able to put as much time into work as usual. I have had to take care of our son while no one else has been able to, and now my son is having a cold, so I am taking care of him again. My wife also has a persistent ear and vertigo problem. We keep praying that she will be spared from further trials from this and that there may be a way out, by a miracle or natural means. Please make mention of this in your prayers.
There is no end to the work that needs to be done here and it seems now that in God’s providence He is opening doors to scale up our work. For instance, I am starting up my own publishing house so that I will be able to publish the books and other things I have translated. I worked with the publishing house Reformedia when I still lived in Sweden, but here in Finland, I have only worked on a small scale with booklets published without needing to register.
Right now, I am translating J. C. Ryle’s book Holiness, a bigger book compared to what I have been translating lately. He writes about his own time in the 19th century, but it sounds strangely similar to our own time:
A Scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to the extravagantly broad and liberal theology which is so much in vogue at the present time. The tendency of modern thought is to reject dogmas, creeds and every kind of bounds in religion. It is thought grand and wise to condemn no opinion whatever, and to pronounce all earnest and clever teachers to be trustworthy, however varied and mutually destructive their opinions may be. Everything is true — and nothing is false! Everybody is right — and nobody is wrong! Everybody is likely to be saved — and nobody is to be lost! The atonement and substitution of Christ, the personality of the devil, the miraculous element in Scripture, the reality and eternity of future punishment — all these mighty foundation-stones are coolly tossed overboard, like lumber, in order to lighten the ship of Christianity and enable it to keep pace with modern science. If you stand up for these great Bible verities — you are called narrow, illiberal, old-fashioned and a theological fossil! If you quote a Bible text — you are told that all truth is not confined to the pages of an ancient Jewish book, and that free inquiry has found out many things since the book was completed! Now, I know nothing so likely to counteract this modern plague as constant clear statements about the nature, reality, vileness, power and guilt of sin. We must charge home into the consciences of these men of broad views, and demand a plain answer to some plain questions.
A couple more booklets have been brought to the print shop, but they have not returned yet.
I am also keeping on with preaching through Ephesians and have taken the Church through the first three chapters so far. It is a joy to see the Lord speak through His Word, blessing us and teaching us all. As the Apostle Paul writes how he received the grace to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, I am thankful to God for the privilege and grace I have also been given.
