#thomas hansen

The Boy Scout Software Development Principle

Leave your code in a better state than you find it, in every single pull request

Boy scouts have an easily understood philosophy, which is that they should always leave their campsites in a better condition than the state which they found it in. Cleaning away one piece of garbage each, or something equivalent, creates a situation where a visit from a boy scout group, becomes a great experience…

schliefije Zäng – Thomas Hansen

Am 03.11.2018 erscheint das neue Buch von Thomas Hansen. »schliefije Zäng« hat dort angefangen, wo Alte Kamellchen in 2012 geendet hat. Nach fünf Jahren des Schweigens hat es einen Grund gegeben einen weiteren Gedichtband aufzugeben, bzw. zu beenden. Die Euphorie und Verwirrtheit des damaligen Aufbruchs, die noch in Alten Kamellchen deutlich zu spüren war, hat diesmal in einer ernüchternden Ankunft geendet (ohne dabei jedoch zu realisieren, dass die momentane Ankunft nur ein Zwischenstopp nach Irgendwohin ist).

Auf 228 Seiten finden Sie Gedichte von Sehnsucht und Verzweiflung, vom Absurden und Unbegreiflichen, von Verrat und Trennung, von Zusammenhalt und Fernweh, von dreckigen Händen und billigem Weinbrand, von Resignation und Akzeptanz. Die Stimme der Mittelklasse. Auf der Suche nach Wahrheit und Erlösung. Mit einer Art Hoffnung, ohne jedoch zu wissen wofür sie gut ist.

Auf halbem Wege fing es an zu regnen

Der Gedichtband von Thomas Hansen mit 15 Texten auf 36 Seiten erscheint im Pionier Verlag. Gestaltung und Coverfoto von Alexander Fröde.

Die Veröffentlichung wurde Sonntag den 17.09.2017 mit einer Lesung gefeiert. Um 16 Uhr auf Gleis 9 im Gleisabschnitt D des Troisdorfer Bahnhofes. Bei den eigenen Vorbereitungen ist einzuplanen, dass das Kiosk des Troisdorfer Bahnhofes leider nicht geöffnet sein wird. Im Falle von Regen ist der Treffpunkt auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite des Gleises 9, am Parkplatz unter der Überdachung.

Okay, this is really it: the last Sunday at Irving Plaza, home to Hillsong NYC for 3 years. Manhattan Center Ballroom begins next week!

10 AM Irving

Pastor Thomas Hansen from Hillsong Copenhagen

Trust Me

What you think you know and what's actually happening in your life don't line up - have you ever had a situation like that? The definition of Hell to Thomas is flat IKEA boxes. These things are never ending boxes, pulling out little bags with gaff tape and creepy manuals, what you think you know and the reality you're faced with don't line up.

What we think we know about life, God, principles of living don't seem to be lining up with each other a lot of times. Many Christians spend too much time trying to understand God when we've actually never been called to understand or explain God. What we've been called to do is trust him.

Let's go to Matthew 5 in which Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus was outside the city of Jerusalem and 10,000s of people went to go see him. To understand about the content you have to understand the cultural context. His audience was mainly Jews who were occupied by the Roman Empire. They were disgruntled, angry, paying taxes to the Romans and living off 10% of their income.

So Jesus is speaking to the very definition of a tough crowd. He's about to deliver this sermon and everyone wants to overthrow the Romans but Jesus is addressing issues of a spiritual, not material kingdom.

So Jesus starts blessing different people, the hungry, the thirsty, the persecuted, and I bet he's getting lots of support. He knows how to win a crowd over! He's a man of the people. “Preach it!”

However, something odd starts to slowly happen. Jesus shows us how to lose a crowd as well. Suddenly Jesus starts talking about the Pharisees. Jews hated Pharisees almost as much as Romans and tax collectors. Pharisees were people who were trying to obey every single religious rule to have a relationship with God. But their hearts weren't in it - so they'd have no mercy, grace, love or sense of justice.

So in Matthew 5:20, Jesus says that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. The crowd must have thought Jesus was turning on them - blessing them in one minute and putting them down beneath the Pharisees.

Jesus is telling us basically that it's impossible to live the life God calls us to live.

The law came to deal with our behavior but Jesus came to deal with our hearts.

Jesus came to deliver heart transformation through revelation. Jesus knew that we can't keep up hitting up people's dos and don'ts but we have to go into the core of what makes a person do what they do - into their heart.

Let's stop focusing on what we're doing and focus on who we are.

Jesus says that if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all these things will be added unto you. If you could just learn one verse or thought and take one thing away - make the priority and top pursuit of our lives God. Our direction in life matters. It doesn't matter where you're at right now, it's where you're going.

What is your life pointing towards? You might be walking slow but at least you're walking in the right direction. Others can be running but they're running in the wrong direction. Seek first the kingdom of God.

“Seeking” is an active word. It's a pursuit, it's a walk - it's not getting you to a point where we convince you to raise your hand and that's it.

So many of us try to understand all the details of our lives when that's not what we're called to do. We're called to trust Jesus. One guy tried to understand God and his name was Job.

What Job knew about God and his reality didn't line up. His friends speculated on why Job was in such a deep hole but they didn't get it either. Look at Job 38: God tries to put Job in his place. God speaks to Job and tells him to defend himself because God's gonna question him, interrogate him.

God asks Job where he was when God made the world, and who measured it, who laid the foundations of the world. Has Job ever given orders to the morning or does Job know where lightness and darkness reside? Surely he knows because Job's lived so many years! Has Job ever entered the storehouses of snow and hail and seen where lightning is distributed?

Job again and again says, “I'm sorry - you're good. Sorry for asking.” And then God keeps demanding that Job answer him and his questions. Who has a claim against God that God must pay? Whom does God owe an explanation to? That's what God asks in Job. Please show God the person to whom he must justify himself.

In Job 42 after being hammered with questions, Job basically admits that he's an idiot. Job's eyes have seen God and he has no answers.

We get caught up because we think we need to understand why God does what He does. Right now, no one understand why God does things the way he does. People come up to leaders and pastors and ask valid questions like, “How come I'm still sick/ How come my wife left me/ How come I wasn't promoted/etc” Situations that are rough.

Again and again, Pastor Thomas has to admit that he doesn't know. God could have saved his brother from a car crash a few years ago but he didn't - so why didn't God? We're called to not understand him but to trust him. We're not called to justify and defend his actions either.

We have these questions and the questions are valid and the pain is very real. So real. A couple families at Hillsong Copehagen lost everything or got into fatal car crashes in the last few weeks and no one knows why.

In the midst of the pain, we're called to trust him. You're called to trust God. We're finite, limited human beings trying to understand an infinite God. It's like going to a Disney character and asking them to explain everything about Walt Disney.

We're dealing with things that are way outside our capacity. It's frustrating and infuriating when you read books that think they can explain how things work in an area that none of us really have any knowledge about. This is because we have such a need to define things and put things in a box, simple and clean.

Could it just be that we're not supposed to know? We're not called to understand God, we're called to trust him. And if there's one thing the cross is a display of, it's that we can trust our savior and God.

In order to understand the nature of the one who rules everything, you have to understand the cross. You can trust his heart, you don't have to understand his power or why he does or doesn't do something.

If I know that God loves me, you know that he's motives are pure. You know that God's able because he rose again from the dead. You might not know but you trust him.

We have to learn to look at our issues and questions in the light of the cross, in the light of the fact that there's a God who loves us, in light of Romans 8:28 saying that everything works together for good for those who love God.

If we could just stop spending so much time trying to explain and worry about things. In the light of the cross, can we just be happy that we're part of a church that's flourishing, can we just be happy that we're alive and redeemed? In the light of the cross, it seems like every question and issue I have becomes insignificant.

When we start entering God's presence, we enter by giving thanks. Don't we enter his gates with thanksgiving and praise? There's no place for bad attitude in prayers - should it be between thanking God for salvation and for a great church?

“Thank you God for putting me in a great church!” “Gosh Pastor Carl didn't even acknowledge me!” “Thank you God for a home!”

Doesn't quite flow.

God knows that we need the things we need. God is not trying to hold out on us. But sometimes Jesus will give us what we need in order to give us what we want. He'll take us through seasons that we need in order to get us what we want. While we're being baked in the oven, it's Jesus looking through the glass.

Jesus can see us sweating and roasting but you can trust Jesus, He knows you the best and he also loves us the most. He knows what we need and want. He'll take you through what we need to get us what we want. We have to lean into the journey that he wants us to take us through.

As parents, we get this. You wanna give your kids stuff and then they throw a tantrum. The kids want things now! Pastor Thomas has got 2 daughters.

They want ice cream NOW and what was supposed to be a beautiful gift becomes a monstrous yell. You wanna give your kids what they want but we're the ones throwing a tantrum, kicking and screaming, and we're prolonging our season.

The sooner you can trust God, the sooner we can go home and God can serve us some triple chocolate fudge ice cream if you just stop asking God to explain what the heck is going on.

Seek first the kingdom of God. Jobs, families, relationships, put it under him. His righteousness. Don't try to make it on our own. You can feel bad that you've done something wrong or great that you've done something right. That's not biblical. What makes you great is not that you were a super-Christian this week. Neither one gets you further or closer to Jesus.

Our right standing with God comes from Him, not us. Seek first Jesus. Make it about him. If you do that, then all these things will be added to you. It's int eh light of a life that is pursuing Jesus.

How do we do this? What's the outworking of this principle?

The other day, Pastor Thomas was driving his 2 daughters to preschool. One of his daughters asked why they prayed and why others didn't pray. Not everyone knows about Jesus.

Their daughters said that all they needed to do was stay planted at Hillsong Kids and keep praying It's amazing how kids often understand the most simplest of truths.

If we can just keep praying and focusing on Jesus, then we can continue to benefit from knowing God and knowing his will and purpose. Jesus knows what we need but our responsibility is to get back to the cross. Our responsibility is to step towards him.

But the only reason we can walk towards Jesus is because he gave us the ability. He took the initiative. Adam and Eve wanted to understand everything back in the day and they wanted to eat the apple. They didn't trust God.

Well, even then God came looking for them, not the other way around. Adam and Eve were hiding. In the modern day, we think that by doing the right things and being a good person we can hide our shame, but God doesn't care, he's still searching for us, asking us if we can trust him because he loves us.