Speaking it out

"Everyone we pray for cry..." said the son to my wife after a meeting in a neighbouring church where we ministered. And the Spirit was really present in that meeting as were needy people, many from the nearby "asientamiento", settlement, which is a place where very poor people build their small shacks on given ground. That the presence of God makes us cry seems to be a universal trait.

What also struck me that night was the power of the spoken word. God used just basic affirmations from the Bible to touch and encourage people. They were built up and comforted by the words that we spoke out.

Last Sunday I prayed for a young man in our church and also then spoke out some things I had felt for him. In our conversacion yesterday he remarked on how that had impacted him and we spoke at length about those things.

Spoken words have a magic of their own, they create something. That can be misused, like in the election times in Paraguay at the moment. But when they are spoken with love and truth they can literally change someones life!

It seems to me that's there's a basic lack of affirmation and nice words in the world. And there's even more a need to speak out the truths of the Bible over our lives. And if the Spirit fills them and make them prophetic, wonderful!

But, and this is the challenge, there's an ocean of difference between having a nice thought and speaking a nice word. And right there's the decider if we're going to be important people for our neighbour.

Big or small government and paying taxes

The American election is now over. And the world sighs with relief. It used to be said that the US presidential election was often more important the a countrys own election, such is or was the influence of the US. These days perhaps what happens in China should be watched more closely.

A lot in the US battle centered on taxes and big or small government. As a European living in Latin-America I can feel I have a comment on that.

My home country Sweden is a typical big-government country, probably enormous by american standards :-) The post world war Sweden was built on a kind of cradle to grave mentality, where the state was involved in every level. The social democratic vision was one of equality and erasing poverty, among other things. These days we pay a lot of tax, at least 35% of your income and in return receive services like health insurance for all, free schools, care of the elderly etc 

My current country, Paraguay, sounds like a big government when you read the laws, but in reality it's a small government place riddled with corruption. It has one of the worst school systems in the world, the general health care is of low quality and a lot of people lack any kind of health insurance, and we could go on. But if you have money, well that is a different matter, then the doors are open for you.

Paraguay lacks any kind of income tax and Sweden has at least 35%, and after more than two years I know which I prefer!