{"id":22020,"date":"2026-01-13T19:40:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immanuel.se\/en\/?p=22020"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:32:44","slug":"newsletter-1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immanuel.se\/en\/2026\/newsletter-1-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsletter #1 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On the Threshold of a New Year<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a new year begins, we are invited to pause, look back, and discern the traces of God\u2019s presence in what has been. Through love, presence, and commitment, we are able to glimpse hope even in a time that holds darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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READ MORE<\/summary>\n

It is a special feeling <\/strong>to stand on the threshold of a new year\u2014to file away the old year and to look ahead to what is to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, at the end of each day, I make a review of the day, something that in Ignatian spirituality is called the \u201cexam.\u201d I ask myself: What were the situations that brought me warmth?
How have I been able to see Jesus\u2019 presence\u2014how he has come to meet me\u2014in the events of the day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it is in an encounter with another person, a song, or in something unexpected that happened.

Sometimes it is in my own inability that I have seen his outstretched hand. For me, this has helped me to see his presence right in the midst of life.

We have just been given a new year. But before we rush into the new, why not pause and do a kind of \u201cmega-exam,\u201d a look back over the year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were the warm points of the past year, and what might that tell me as I now take on a new year? How have I been able to see Jesus\u2019 presence during the year that has gone by?Sometimes it is only when we look back that it becomes clear to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I look back on my year, it becomes clear that I have often seen his presence in encounters with other people. Perhaps that is not so strange. In 1 John 4:12 it says: \u201cNo one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.<\/em>\u201d Could it be that even if we cannot see God with our eyes, we can experience something of God himself in our love for one another?

What, then, does it mean to love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is much to say about that, but in the time we live in I think that one of the most precious things we can give another person is our presence and our commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes it is about giving of our time; sometimes about staying, even when it costs; sometimes about raising our voice when people are violated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A great deal of love is needed in our time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much can feel dark in our world, but love is the strongest force. I heard someone say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt can feel hard to influence the big world, but it is impossible not to influence the small world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we live our lives matters.
It begins with each of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you give the world some love today?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though there is much that worries us, we may place our trust in the fact that, despite everything, there is Someone who holds our lives and this world in his hand<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The God who has promised never to abandon us and who, for every situation and time, calls to us through the words of the prophet Isaiah:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook, I am about to do something new; <\/em>
even now it is coming. Do you not see it? <\/em>
Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, <\/em>
rivers in the desert.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carin Dernulf,<\/strong>
Senior Pastor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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