At this site I hope to share from the hope I have found as well as practical life experiences and fun as we move to Finland
In thinking and praying about our decision to serve as missionaries in Finland I desire deeply for our family, close friends, and church family to understand why we would choose to spend our retirement years (late 50’, 60s, and possibly some of our 70s) in a foreign place that is beautiful but frankly cold and dark much of the year. I believe many will conclude that the late-life DNA revelation I experienced in March of 2021 set us on this new trajectory to sell our worldly possessions, pack up, say goodbye to our adult children and extended family and church family, and depart for Finland. That would only be part of the truth. Like most things in life, the truth is rarely as black and white as we think in our youth. Life is much more nuanced and grey if you will. For Peggy and myself, the motivation for missionary living was put in motion in the morning of our adult lives.
When I left Woodstock Georgia and many dear high school friends to play football and attend West Georgia College I had very little spiritual insight or understanding of biblical Christianity. Almost all of my experiences with church or Christianity had been profoundly negative and I was content in my life and way of living. However, it was at training camp during my first year at WGC that I was introduced to the teachings of scripture firsthand through teammates and bible studies. I was assuming I was a Christian because I believed in God as far as I knew of Him and I was trying to be a good person. Like most, I believed my good life and good deeds outweighed my bad life and deeds and I would be accepted into heaven when I died. Death seemed so far away frankly I gave very little mental time and energy thinking about it. Life was to be lived now while I was still young. I wasn’t doing drugs or other obvious reckless and self-destructive behaviors and the world was my playground it seemed.
As I opened the Bible with my teammates I was confronted by the scriptures. I began to see that the Bible revealed God to be Holy and mankind to be unholy or sinful. It wasn’t just the people committing murder and rape that were sinful. Jesus says you have heard it was said to not commit adultery, but I tell you if you even look at a woman lustfully you have sinned. He said the same kind of thing about murder. If you even look at a person in anger you have committed murder. God’s standard for man to be Holy was unattainable. As I read the Bible I realized God hated man's sin because He was Holy and that same Holiness would lead him to judge justly all men's sin. I realized for the first time that God was at least as much a Holy Judge over man's sin as He was a loving father with open arms willing to forgive anyone. A just judge doesn’t simply wink at a murderer and let him go free. So God, being a just judge cannot wink at our sins and let us go free. Your sin and mine are magnified by who we sin against. For example, if I slapped a classmate in the face for making me mad I would be wrong for using physical violence against him, but if I slapped the King of England in the face I would most likely spend some time in prison. Who we sin against matters. In mankind's case it is against the God of the universe and therefore eternal punishment is at stake. Christ taught more about hell than any other character in the Bible.
Heb 9:27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
For the first time in my life at 20 years old I realized that my views of God were not biblical views of God. He would not grade on a curve so to speak. God would one day judge my life and I would be found guilty before a Holy God for my sins in thought, words, and deeds. If this was really what the Bible was teaching I was in big trouble. I had some big decisions to make at this point. I wrestled internally with the question of did God exists or whether creation was put into motion by a “Big Bang” that ultimately led to humans being born and living random chance lives with no bigger story or meta-narrative. Tim Keller quotes Shakespeare saying
On the hopelessness of the world without God
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
– Macbeth in Macbeth
Bible refs: Ephesians 2 v 12; Ecclesiastes
Something deep inside was saying there was more than this. Life cannot be a walking shadow that is here today and gone tomorrow with no reason or purpose. If this were the truth it would be the cruelest of worlds and realities it seems. I chose then to believe there is a God and I realized the scriptures have reliable manuscripts and the most manuscripts of any literature passed down through the centuries. The words of scripture ring true and the wisdom is unparalleled by other books. The more I read and thought the more sure I was that this was God Himself speaking to His creation through these words and this book. This culminated for me in Feb 1987 at a Winter Conference with a campus ministry called Campus Outreach. As I sat there in my chair in “nowhere” Alabama I knew I needed to ask Jesus to forgive me for my sin and I needed to trust Him to begin to live and walk out the Christian life. Orthodox biblical Christianity teaches that God’s Spirit enters into the life of a new believer and never leaves him from that point forward. The Holy Spirit of God then guides, convicts, and directs the Christian and is a pledge or down payment of our eternal life and forgiveness of sin. I did not have some mystical experience but rather a sense that I was right with God and that He had adopted me as His son.
I began to see through scripture and discipleship with other Christians that
2 Cor 5:17 was indeed true
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
I was changing in my desires from the inside out. I had tried to stop doing bad things before this experience but I never seemed to have the power to stop. Now life seemed much different. I was able to cut things out of my life that had been impossible before it seemed. I felt free and whole like never before.
I knew in my soul I was right with my Creator.
I could die and be sure I was right with Him. I began to look around me and noticed that there were so many people who did not have this relationship and sadly many did not want to hear about this new life in Christ that I had found. I began to see in the scriptures exactly why I did not want this before and why others did not want this now.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” is a verse from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 1:18
This passage captured my reality and interpreted it for me. God knew people would think it was foolish, and they do, and so I did until His saving work was revealed to me.
“I thought Jesus was some European White man with a golden halo hovering over the top of his head or perhaps He was the obnoxious bumper stickers or road signs that people put up in Jesus' name but so often have little if anything to do with the God revealed in the Bible.”
There is a cultural Christianity in America that makes my skin crawl to this day.
It is not biblical Christianity and Trump is not our savior. Syncretism has crept into the church and into the hearts of so many that fill the church on any given Sunday.
The scripture teaches that God is saving and redeeming a people for Himself. He has another kingdom that is not of this world and that is the meta-narrative that is playing out when we turn on our televisions and see the wars in the Middle East, and Russia and Ukraine. It is not obvious that God is working in all and through all but indeed He is. There are so many world religions and so many more world views that it can be very confusing. Perhaps they are all right like the bumper stickers that have a symbol for all the world religions and say “Why can’t we just get along?”
I can certainly appreciate that idea but it was Jesus himself who said
John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The key idea here is that there is only one way for man to be right with God and that is through the person and work of Jesus Christ on the Bible's terms. When other books are used to teach Christianity other than the Bible it is heresy. Only the Bible is God’s word reaching down to mankind to show us how to be right with our wonderful Creator. Other books teach a false Christ.
Matt 7:15
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves
Rev 22:18
8 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,
Before Christ would ascend to take His rightful place at the right hand of the Father until his second and final coming He said to his people
Matt 28:18-20 The Great Commission
8 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
I was 20 years old and on a summer project in Panama City Beach Florida when I first memorized this passage of scripture. It is a call to God’s people to go and make disciples of all nations and that He will be with us. This passage is the soil in which our decision to go to Finland found its roots almost 40 years ago. Peggy and I have been doing our best with God’s strength to live out this great commission our entire lives. This has been our marching orders and our soul's delight since we were young adults. We were once preparing to move to South Africa in 2007 until we believed God was closing that door. I was also planning to move to Mexico City after college graduation in 1991 when that door closed as the team leader and the team decided not to go. For us, it would be a tragedy to spend our retirement years playing golf or as John Piper has famously said collecting Sea Shells at the Beach. Some might think it would be a tragedy if we arrived in Finland just in time for Russia to invade and perhaps take our lives in a bombing of Helsinki. We think a real tragedy would be to piddle here in the USA trying to “Make America Great Again” or simply trying to be comfortable in our golden years while the world needs someone to tell them of God’s plan for redemption.
We fully understand that our decision is not what God is calling everyone to do and we each must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling but we believe He would have us do this and we are trusting that He has
As it says in
Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Join us in praying God would be at work in the life of the Finnish people. We have reason to believe God is doing a new work there and is calling people like us to join Him in this work. There seems to be a groundswell of young Finns coming to faith in Christ and beginning to lead for God’s Kingdom in the Nordic countries. We desire to join this work and humbly serve in any way possible to see Christ be Treasured as the all-important treasure that He is.
The DNA Discovery that Changed Our Lives
It was Mar 8, 2021, and I opened my email from 23andMe to find out where my ancestry had started once and for all. I had been a weekend warrior years ago regarding family trees on ancestry.com trying to trace back to my roots. In 2006 or so, I pulled together a Watson family tree that was impressive dating back to the 1500s or so and tracing my family of origin back multiple generations. It was about as much as I could learn at the time and I had satisfied my itch to learn more about my family so I stopped my research then in January of 2021 my kids decided to purchase a DNA kit for my 54th birthday. The 23 and me kit sat on my dresser for a few weeks. I was unsure just how involved it would be to give them a sample and get it back into the mail for their processing so it sat for a few weeks. Finally, I spit in the small container, followed the instructions simply enough, and waited for the results. I was curious but never would I have guessed what I was about to uncover in a million lifetimes. At first, it was merely interesting as I studied the results. Hmm, it says I am 41.2% Finnish, 34.0% British and Irish, 12.7% French and German, 6.5% Scandinavian (Sweden), 4.6% Broadly Northwestern European, and then a few small trace amounts of less than 1% from a few sources. I am mostly from Finland. Where is Finland again? Aren’t Finland and Sweden next to each other? As I studied the 23 and me “closest of keen” I noticed I had several cousins popping up who lived in Finland. This was curious to me because in my prior research back in 2006 I did not see one single person from this part of the world in all my research. This prompted me to send 23 and me a post and ask if could there be a mistake in their findings.
Their response and others online with 23 and me was that Finnish DNA is very distinct and it would be highly unusual for there to be a mistake.
The responses online were it was much more likely that someone in my family has a secret.
It was brought to my attention by one post that for me to have that much Finnish DNA I would have to have one parent that was 100% from Finland.
The results I am looking at do not fit with everything I have ever known. WOW, what if one of my parents were adopted from Finland? Their adoption seemed to make the most sense, so I grabbed my phone to call my mom, the only living parent.
My Father Tom Watson died on March 14, 2007, with me beside his hospital bed in Carrolton Ga at Tanner Hospital. He was 68 years old at the time of his death. My father had been an anchor for me in my younger years. I was now 40 years old with young kids myself as each day I sat in that amazingly uncomfortable hospital chair in his ICU room. I slept and lived by his side for those 10 days or so. He had been there for me when I needed him for 40 years. Now he needed me and it felt like there was nothing I or the Doctors could do. His lungs were failing him and causing stress and strain on all his other vital organs. He had been a heavy smoker through the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. At least 25 years of chain smoking had caused his lungs to become sick and die. He had stopped in the ’90s but it seemed unfortunately it was too late by that time.
This wonderful, supportive, loving father had just died, and the reality of how final death is was beginning to overcome me. He was gone.
No more late-night phone calls on my way home during drive time from the University of Georgia where I often drove home to Duluth from around 10-11 pm after a Campus Outreach event. The organization I worked for and founded in the Atlanta area.
My parents had divorced when I was 5 or so years old only to remarry and divorce in that same year. My dad said he remarried to be back close to the kids, and my mother rightly told him that would not keep the marriage alive and their second marriage only lasted weeks. I lived with my mother and older brother Jimmy and younger sister Renae from 5-10 years of age and we had some hard things happen to us during these years. My mother had only a 9th-grade education from the hills of Chattanooga Tennessee. She married at 14 and had my older brother Jimmy by 15 years of age. When I was 10 years old, I went to live with my dad due to his stability and loving support until I left for college. I was the first in my family to graduate from college.
So, I called my mother and asked her if she or my dad had ever been adopted and she assured me that they had not. I shared with her the results of the DNA test and asked if she could think of a reason why I would be 50% Finnish. My mother tried to assure me that I knew who my parents were and she asked why I was so interested in the DNA stuff. I told her that I had always been naturally curious about my ancestry and where I was from. At this point in the conversation, my mom told me she had a headache and wanted to get off the phone. The timing of her headache seemed very suspicious to me so I texted her immediately after we hung up the phone and asked if I could drive over to her home and talk in person. Initially, my mother told me no that she didn’t feel up to a conversation and this seemed to further reveal she was hiding something. The next day while Peggy and I were attending a conference in Atlanta I received a text from my mom saying I was ready to meet if I would like to. I immediately told Peggy and we packed up our stuff and headed for her home which is about 1 and a half hours from Atlanta.
The drive to my mother’s home was surreal.
I was thinking about the DNA and Finland and what could this possibly mean. Whatever the story was it seemed pretty certain I was 50% Finnish at this point. The question was where did I get this DNA from? Was Tom Watson not my father? How could that possibly be true? He was my anchor and the most stable person in my young adult life. He was a wonderful loving father and yet I knew he had adopted my older brother Jimmy. Had he adopted me as well? This felt almost impossible but perhaps true.
When we arrived at my mom’s home and she opened the door she had already been crying and she hugged Peggy and asked if we hated her.
At this moment I think I realized it was true and that Tom Watson wasn’t my dad.
She had confessed in her opening apology. Now the question was who was my biological father and how did they keep me in the dark for 54 years? Did my biological father know I existed at all? Did my dad know I might not be his biological son? Did my mother have any information that might help me find my biological father? Soon after this day, I typed an email to some friends explaining my circumstances and asking them to remember me in prayer.
This is the email I sent to them…
Mar 26, 2021
“Your words, calls, and texts were a great encouragement to me in these last days and hours. Since I last texted most of you I have found my biological father through the help of a DNA detective who volunteered to help. She has been an angel. I always knew I did not favor my siblings and even asked at times who I favored in the family. Turns out my mother sat next to Antti Erick Nordlin on a bus traveling from Los Angeles to Los Vegas in the spring of 1966. He was attractive by all confessions and a great conversationalist. A businessman from Finland. He had only been in the States for a brief time but would eventually make the west coast his home. My mom told me they had a wonderful evening together but that he soon departed back to Finland.
She met my father who raised me that same week and began a relationship while now calling Los Vegas her home. Within weeks she knew she was pregnant and when she told my dad he was excited and wanted to move back to Atlanta and start a family. She confessed to him that the baby might not be his but he said he wanted to move forward and not mention that again.
As I grew it became more obvious to my mom that I was Erik's son because she said I looked just like him. My mom confessed through tears, shame, fear, and embarrassment. Within days the DNA detective found the man she believed to be my father and I personally messaged one of my biological sisters and told her the story. She agreed to send me some pictures of him. I will attach them as well as a picture of Kristina my Finnish sister who has been helping me the most.
I have 4 siblings from him. 2 boys, 2 girls.
Markus Nordlin, Kathy (Nordlin) Jaquez, Michael Nordlin, Kristina Nordlin
Why I believe the Bible?
By ERIK RAYMOND | APRIL 13, 2017 TGC
As Christians, we are always to be ready to give a defense of the hope that is within us (1 Pet. 3:15). The basis of this hope is our confidence that the Bible is God’s Word. It is trustworthy and sufficient. I’ve put these five points together as something of a quick reference notecard for why I believe the Bible. They can serve as a quick reference for personal evangelism or devotion. That is, they can help you to tell others why you believe the Bible while also reminding you (amid seasons of doubt) why you believe it.
(1) The Biblical Argument
By this, I only mean that the Bible claims to be God’s Word. This claim is not just in a remote passage or book but throughout. We read in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The source of the text, the Word, is God himself. There is no flinching on this fact from Genesis to Revelation. The fact that the Bible claims to be God’s Word and proves to be so throughout history needs to be on my mind when dealing my doubts or a skeptic’s.
(2) The Historical Argument
In short, the people and places in the Bible show up in history. When we read of descriptions of times and events we often find these same things in extra-biblical history. Further, when archeologists dig and uncover ancient artifacts it often shows us that biblical events that were not previously discovered were in fact true. And finally, the history of events from within the Bible concerning prophecy, they happen. Consider the Babylonian captivity, King Cyrus, and the details concerning the life of Christ. Within the canon of Scripture, it unfolds with historical consistency.
(3) The Empirical Argument
Personally speaking, I have experienced a substantial change. The day I was converted I walked out of my house cursing God, and then I came home praising him. How does this happen? My experience tells me that this is not some ordinary book. I’ve been moved to tears reading other books, but this book actually reads me, wrecks me, and rebuilds me. What’s more, I’ve seen and experienced this same thing with other people. This change is not limited to gender, ethnicity, geography, or even time. This book claims to change lives, and it actually does.
(4) The Logical Argument
There is a single, coherent theme throughout the book that the glory of God is paramount. If God were to write a book, this is how he would write it. If man were to write a book, this is not how he would write it. It has the “ring of truth” as C. S. Lewis would say. Man would tend to diminish his defects and exaggerate his virtues; the Bible seems to do the opposite. It maintains the dignity of humanity but also shows its brokenness. Here we see the glory of God on display. This brings me to another aspect of this argument. If you survey world religions, most will agree that there is a problem, and they exist to help us with this it. However, only biblical Christianity actually maintains a God who does not compromise. Every other plan of salvation has God bending his righteousness to show love. Man and God partner together to achieve salvation. However, with the Bible God does not compromise. He maintains and demonstrates his righteousness while showing forth his love! On the cross, God is both the just and the justifier (Rom. 3:26). This means that he does not compromise. Think about this: the Bible maintains that all of God’s attributes are intact, no dimples, defects, or deflation! However, without the cross (and outside of the Bible) you have a god who compromises something to bring salvation. This reminds me of God’s infinite wisdom, love, mercy, and grace—as well as his authorship of the Bible.
(5) The Christological Argument
This one seals the deal for me. Here it is a nutshell: since Jesus rose from the dead he is God; therefore, his view of the Bible is the right one. Jesus believed the Bible was divinely inspired (Mt. 4:2; Mt. 22:31-32), authoritative (Lk. 4; Jn. 10:34-36; 12:47-48); powerful (Mt. 5:17-18; Jn. 6:63; Jn. 17:17); and about him (Lk: 24:25-27, 44-47; Jn. 5:46-47). Furthermore, he believed the Bible was historically accurate. “In the Gospels we see Jesus reference Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sodom and Gomorrah, Isaac and Jacob, manna in the wilderness, the serpent in the wilderness, Moses as the lawgiver, David and Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, Elijah and Elisha, the widow of Zarephath, Naaman, Zechariah, and even Jonah, never questioning a single event, a single miracle, or a single historical claim. Jesus clearly believed in the historicity of biblical history.” (DeYoung, Taking God at His Word). Having Jesus’s bibliology is never a bad idea.
Conclusion
After all of this, we must remember that there is nothing wrong with the Bible. It is perfect and clear. Our problem is with our reception; we are fallen.
I was reminded of this recently during a discussion with a waiter during a lunch meeting with some friends. As we got to talking with the gentleman, we came upon the subject of the Bible. In time he let us know that he didn’t accept the Bible, because he couldn’t be sure that it was God’s Word. He didn’t trust it ultimately. In another round of conversations, our waiter began telling us about his cat. Without blinking, he relayed how his cat talks to him and how he can understand it. We clarified to be sure he meant actual words, and in fact, he did. He was sure that his cat was speaking to him in a clear, understandable way.
The effects of sin are pervasive and persistent. However, God can and does use his powerful Word to bring us to faith in him. It is this Word that we must be ready to share and even defend with others.
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