Peace

We all want peace, we pray for peace, there are peace organizations; in fact Jesus came to the earth described by Isaiah as the Prince of peace. I have been doing some reading on the birth of Christ and a devotional I read struck me, Matthew 10:34 says," Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Jesus states in John 15 that the world will hate you because of him. So what is the peace that we all talk about and pray for? Christians recognize there is a battle being fought in the heavenly realms. Can there really be peace when both good and evil exist? can peace happen when both God and Satan are fighting in the realms when we are torn to do good but sometimes do evil. Should we pray for peace or should we pray for strength to handle the evil one? Then what did Isaiah mean when he called Jesus the prince of peace? How can that be full filled to let prophecy come true?
It is only 3 days till Christmas and if you are like me I picture that first Christmas as, you guessed it, peaceful. But was it, have you been around a birth? it is not peaceful in the room with nurses and doctors and everybody making sure all things are good and healthy, no imagine that without the help of nurses and doctors, I would not be at peace, have you been on a farm around livestock? it is not my idea of peaceful. yet we look at the birth as quiet and peaceful, maybe just maybe we have pictured it wrong or I have pictured it wrong. When you are together with people over Christmas how is it peaceful? Maybe it isn't peaceful then think of the battle being fought for you in the heavenly realms, maybe that is more real, maybe that is a better picture of Christianity and what the Prince of peace come into. Take heart Isaiah did not lie, Isaiah did not misunderstand God, we have not made a mistake for the last 2000+ years Jesus is the prince of peace for his kingdom. it is the future glory to look forward to of peace for all. Pray for strength as you talk to those who don't know Jesus, those who are not understanding of who Jesus is and wants to be to them. Keep fighting and being a warrior for the kingdom you will see peace maybe not on the earth.

Impossible

Have you heard the phrase "I can't", if you are like me it happens a lot. My son says it a lot when he is frustrated and is having a difficult time trying to do something. We say it when we are frustrated and maybe it is more out a laziness that the phrase comes. I have found myself driving down the road recently and passing a person walking on a cold snowy day, my words were "I can't pick them up" why, because I was being lazy and didn't want to stop and try. On a mission trip this past summer we were rock climbing and one of the teens was having a very difficult time and kept saying, you guessed it, "I can't", the woman in charge of the group who was helping us rock climb was very frustrated because she knew the teenager could do it, so for every time the teen said, "I can't" the teen had to try 5 more minutes, until they rephrased their situation. The teen actually climbed higher than they thought they could and finally changed they vocabulary from, "I can't" to "I am trying my hardest but I just can't do it." How much do we try are hardest but we just can't do it. I think of situations in my life where I felt like I couldn't and kept trying only to find out I could.
When I look at an impossibility, there is always a possibility, im implies possible. When it is impossible to rid my life of sin God provides the possible through his son Jesus. When it is impossible to pay the bills God has provided angels who have given money when they had no clue what life was like. When it was impossible to... have you said "I can't" or have you said, "God show me yourself." Possible comes when we give it our all, when we pray and seek his face and when we submit our life to HIM. That is when things change from im to possible. What is impossible for you today? have you worked at it? have you sought HIM? have you prayed? have you talked to somebody about it? Philippians 4:13 " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Christmas time can feel like impossible to get everything done, it may feel impossible to enjoy it. Whatever it is for you, Stop! Look, Listen, have you sought his strength? When things are impossible for us they are not for HIM.

Thanks

Well Thanksgiving is next week Thursday, yes 8 days from right now. I have been pondering what thanksgiving is all about. I have been thinking of things that i am thankful for, i have thought about what i have. First of all have you thought about what you have? the question i want to pose is this, are you thankful for the thing, or for the giver of the thing you are thankful for. For example when you are given a nice bouquet of flowers by your spouse and you say thank you, what have you said thank you for? the flowers. Or your spouse that they are in your life and they are around to enjoy community with. I think thanksgiving is much the same and for me being a believer in Jesus Christ i often tahnk him for a house, food, clothing, friends etc. but am i thankful for those things or am i thankful for the giver of those? read in the Bible Luke 18:9-14 who was thankful for the giver and who was thankful for the things? I am not saying don't be thankful for things, don't love things, but hold them lightly because just as fast as you have recieved you can be taken from. What are you thankful for and where did each thing you are thankful for come from? Are you just as thankful for the person? have you thanked your employer for starting the business you work at? be thankful for the giver not just the thing.

Greatest commandment

Luke 10:27 says that the greatest commandment for belivers in Jesus Christ is to Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, soul, mind and strength. Basically Jesus is telling his people he wants all of you, not just soem of oyu not just your strength to do actions, not just your mind to think and reason with people and have all the knowledge, Jesus in essence si saying that he wants all of who we are.
All of who i am, is hard when i may be struggling to find out who i am, first it is importnaty to know who you are then you can know how to give who you are to Christ, I am still working this out, trying to figure out what is teh difference between the heart, the soul, the mind and the strength of us a individuals. There must be a differnece and there must be a rason why Jesus broke down, those aspects of our bodies. There must be a reason why he started with the heart.
The heart is what keeps us alive, it is what makes us tick, it is what lets us do everything we enjoy doing, without it we can do nothing. I guess it all starts with the heart have we given that to him?

PRAISE THE LORD

I wouldn't usually do this but we have asked for prayers and I feel when God answers, people need to know. We just received word from Shohannahs Hope adoption foundation and we have recieved a grant from them!!!!! PRAISE THE LORD. We are so blessed, thank you for all your prayers and support in our adoption process

What is a servant?

Luke 17:7-10 is a very interesting passage of scripture and very troubling to me. It talks of having servants and if a servant comes in form the field and is done plowing you would make him make and serve you a meal so you are filled and feeling good, after he has served the meal then and only then can he eat. This is troubling to me, I am not familiar with servants and what servants do. I don't think like this passage, I try to care about what people may be feeling and how i can help them not how they can help me. Then I think of Jesus and what he asks of us. Doesn't Jesus ask us to be servants for him and his kingdom? Does a servant know his masters business? Look at John 15. Does a servant do his duties to be praised and applauded? I think sometimes we get it all screwed up, sometimes we work, or do a task or help somebody out with a thought in our mind that we want o be thanked. It is good to be thanked and it is good to feel rewarded for your work, but is it the motive that makes you do the task or go to work? What about living for Christ, do you do it for a reward? do you do it looking for recognition? A devotional by Chris Tiegreen says it this way," Our attitude of service indicates the degree in which the gospel has penetrated our hearts." WOW that is said in a humbling way to get your attitude right. What are you doing for God today, this week, this month and why are you doing it? If it is to get a thank you or to get a promotion or to be praised what of that gives glory to God? Those are all self focused and not Kingdom focused. I pray that i may have more of a servant attitude in all I do and let his gospel penetrate my heart.

Dossier sent

So today is an update on our adoption. Our dossier has been sent to Ethiopia. Some of you may read dossier and wonder what that is. I would do the same if i was not adopting and have no clue of the process. The dossier is a huge packet of information about you and why you want to adopt. It is our home study, pictures of our family, our house, letters of reference, government background checks and criminal background checks. A lot of information that is used to help match us up with a child. But really it is actually God matching us up with a child. Some of you have asked, "so now what?" Now we pray for our child, we pray for God to work in us as a family to prepare ourselves for the new phase of our journey. And we wait for God to pick our child. We are also writing grant letters to help with the financial aspect of the adoption, our God is a BIG God and he as confirmed so many times in us that we need to continue in Faith and that is what we are trying to do. We would appreciate your prayers for the child, for our patience and for God to work in us but also our family as we prepare to change the look of our family a little but, even though the outside of our child may be different than us he or she is still made in the image of God. We are all made int he image of God.

Worship

So I was reading today and I read a statement I didn't agree with at first then I gave it some thought and I still and wondering is it true or not. The statement is, "The greatest pleasure of the Christian life is worship." What do I think about that? and what do you think about that? when I think of pleasure as a Christian I don't always got o worship. Or maybe my idea of worship is wrong. I guess if we want to understand this a little more fully we need to understand what worship is. What is worship? the dictionary describes worship as respect, reverance paid to a divine being. That is how the dictionary describes it.
If worship is not my greatest pleasure than what is? what is your greatest pleasure as a Christian? is that worship? maybe the statement is true I am not sure but something for you and me to chew on and run our minds thru

What are you

I recently read a devotional that has me thinking about who I am and what I live for. I will give you a little bit of my thoughts on it and hopefully you can ask yourself the same questions.
You have to start by reading John 12:23-26. After reading this passage I was posed with the question. Am I a believer or a follower? at first I thought and of course I am both I follow Jesus and Ibelieve in Jesus, then I got to thinking what does it mean to follow? The disciples were not asked to believe they were asked to follow, Luke's gospel talks about following being an act of taking up my cross and loosing my life for Jesus, have I done that? as I got to thinking more about this believing and following I put myself in a boat I wasn't thinking I was in and a boat that I don't think Jesus really wants me in. His ministry is all about being a follower and trusting HIM. Have I taken my cross? Have I gave up anything for HIM? or am I just a believer? This simple truth and simple question has got me thinking, it has be evaluating who I am and what I am to Jesus. I pray that Jesus will show me who I am and how I can move from that to what he wants me to be. I pray for you as well that God may show you who you are and what he wants you to be. Be who God wants you to be not who you want to be

Papers sent

Yee Hah, we have finished out dossier paper work for our adoption. If you are not familiar with adoption the dossier paperwork is a huge packet of information with all your personal information that gets reviewed in the country you are adopting from. This is the final piece and now we pray and wait to get a referral, the referral is our child. They say the referral takes anywhere from 12-15 months, once you have the referral you wait 2 months until you travel and pick up your child. So we are realistically thinking that we will have our child that God has picked out for us sometime in the winter of 2010. In the waiting time we are praying that God will pick the right child and he will work out his plan for us and the child we know he has for us. This has been a time we have been waiting for and now it is another hurdle that has been crossed. Praise the Lord.

Adoption

Some of you have been asking for an update on the adoption. I will do my best to bring you up to speed on what is going on. We are adopting a child from Ethiopia, the child will be 24 months or younger. We will be sending in our dossier paperwork in the next month and a half or so. From that time on we will be waiting and praying for our referral, (our child). This will take 12-15 months, once we have our referral it will take 2-3 months until we travel to go and pick up our child. Realistically we are looking at the winter of 2010 when we will come home with our child. We greatly appreciate all your prayer and words of encouragement as we continue down this path that God is leading us on. It is definitely a new journey and there are things we learn each day and each week about ourselves and about who God is. It has been good for Gwen and I to apply for grants. Some of the questions in there have made us think and ask some tough questions. For example, what do you believe to be the most important thing you can impart to your child? What desires do you have for your children as they grow up? What does the Bible mean to you? Who is Jesus to you? Just to name a few of the questions that we think about and you know in your head but when you have to put it down on paper it becomes a little thought provoking to work out your answer to these questions.

golf

This is for those of you that enjoy golf. I have the privilege of playing 63 holes of golf in 48 hours this past weekend. You talk about being tired after a day of fun that will get you tired after a weekend. My Friday scores were not what I wanted them to be. They were, well, above my average and did not help my team win any pride in what we have deemed the pride cup golf outing. Golf is a game of focus and a game of keeping yours eyes on the little white thing flying through the air. The better you do that the better the day is. if you play golf or have seen golf played you know that many people start each hole with a drive as far out as they can get it and a swing as hard as they can swing. Sometimes the ball goes where you want and sometimes it does not go where you want. Let me tell you a little bit about what i did to stay focused and bring my round back around. For starters I will tell you on Friday I had a nine holes that added up to 64 strokes. (WOW that is a lot for a guy like me, but then again i got my monies worth and as a dutch man that is good it was not a lot of money per stroke to play that day. ) Saturday i had to get my focus back and I had to stay on track, I did not use my driver and I did use my 5 wood only one time. It was a day of the 5 iron to get my focus back, a day that I decided I would rather be straight and in the fairway playing a little white ball off some nice grass rather than becoming a ball hunter in the woods. So I hit 5 iron after 5 iron after 5 iron to get my way through the course. I made it with great improvement and great confidence being focus on my game and what i needed to do, not what other people were doing around me, because they were hitting drives of 250 yards and some over 300 yards and mine, lets just say I was there in 2. So did the focus pay off? i can say yes it did because that 64 i told you about earlier on Sunday that became a 45. What can focus do for you it can take your eyes and ideas from other people and put them on you and what you need and enjoy and even get a great score. My golf game was not an exciting game or a flamboyant game but it was a game that got the job done. Sometime we get too concerned about how we look to the people around us and forget what we need to do as and individual. I was who i needed to be and stayed focus on my game and it worked. So what about you what are things you do to please others and look good but may not be what you need to do and may not be the best thing for you? Focus on what you need, what you are called to, not what the person next to you does. Be focused be a Hubble!

Hubble telescope

So what do I and the Hubble telescope have in common? nothing at first but then as i have been going through life and figuring things out as i go i feel i have some things in common or maybe better stated want to have things in common with the Hubble. If you have not seen the Hubble's web site check it out,http://hubblesite.org/ the pictures on there are great and will give you a little glimpse into what is beyond what are eyes can see. Focus, yes, right focus is what this is all about. Amounts are different but I have heard that we have spent as much as 900million dollars on the Hubble telescope. One telescope and only one. Why do we spend so much money? Until this past year I thought it was a waste and a dumb use of the money that I pay in taxes. But maybe it is some of the best use of money we have done with our taxes. The Hubble has given us looks at space that we have never seen before, it has showed us stuff we never dreamed of, imagines that are beyond description and images that are great to look at and see God's creation. So what do I and what do you have in common with the Hubble. We need to become Hubbles of ourselves. You see some of us have a hard time focusing on life, some have a hard time focusing on school some just plain can't focus and have a label of ADD or ADHD. As I have discovered in life in the past three months the more focused our lives our the better we go through life. The more we enjoy life and the more we can get out of life. You know what I am talking about when you have been chasing from place to place and going here and going there and at the end of the day you get home and ask yourself what have I done today? What about life what I have Idone in life? the Hubble has one mission and one thing that it is suppose to do, it does it well. I believe God has created each one of us with a purpose and a mission, sometimes we go through life trying everything and nothing seems right. But when we find that right thing it clicks and you find meaning and purpose. So like the Hubble focus to give scenes to us what is you would focus on one thing on what God has called you to. what God has gifted you in and what if you did that? Let other people do things they are gifted in; and you do the thing you are gifted in how much value could you bring to the people around you? Could you give value like the Hubble gives value? Try it I dare you, iIam beginning to do it, beginning to say no to some things to be more focused to bring value to people around me. Be a Hubble.

Adoption

So i have been writing about things going on my life and i have failed to mention one of the most exciting things to happen. Gwen and I are in the process of adopting a baby. It has only come through God. We have discussed this for many years, even when we were dating we discussed the possibility of adopting. So now that we are ready we met with a couple different agencies last fall and decided to go with Bethany to adopt a baby. We wanted to adopt a baby from Gr area. Our mind was, why adopt from over seas when there are kids right here that need a home. But to make a very long story short adoption agencies really don't need us, we have 2 kids of our own and we are not a prime family to adopt locally. so we are adopting from Ethiopia. Our projected time to get a baby will be sometime in the winter of 2010. It will come quick.

Where is God?

Some people go crazy asking this question. have you thought about where he is in your life today. Stop and take in what has happened today. Have you seen him? what has been good about today? what has been bad about today? Do you see him? Recently i had the opportunity to talk to a teenage young man who wonders why he doesn't feel God's Presence. He has friends that feel it but he does not. He has a friends whose mom died of cancer and where is God? A few years ago i was at my parents cottage laying on the Beach and looking up with a couple other guys and one of them said you know we see all this around us and people say that God is everywhere where is he right now. So as you look around your day where do you see God. I friend from church said she saw God in the hospital, i have seen God in thunderstorms, on mission trips, i have seen him answer prayers of adoption for Gwen and myself.
What about you?

Cisterns

Today, I was up early, like always on Thursdays for a men's Bible study that i am apart of. You never know where discussion will lead at 6:30 am. But this morning there was a comment in the notes of our study, it went something like this. The problem with evil and people today is they have abandoned God in their lives. As a man who tries to live with Christ in my life i feel this is an accurate statement.
Some people realize they are missing something some people don't realize it. I was walking through Rockford for the start of summer celebration parade; we had a float in the parade for the WELL. We were handing out water bottles, because our theme for the WELL is all whoa re thirsty come, and a well is the source of water. Anyways as we were walking down the parade route people could see we were passing out water and they were chanting water, water, water. It was an unbelievable experience. The WELL exists to guide all of us the the source of living water so we will thirst no more. Little do some people know that as they were chanting water they were really being honest with themselves and admitting what they are missing in life.
So what does all this have to do with broken cisterns? Look at Jeremiah 2:12-14, it says there that we as God's people have committed 2 sins we have forsaken God the Spring of living water and we have dug our own cisterns.
there are times in my life that i try to avoid God and try to do things on my own, i dig my own ideas and cisterns to put my thoughts in. I do turn from God at times, which in my opinion is wrong, it is sin, anytime we turn from him we sin. Do i recognize the problem in me, do i see the things i do that turn myself from God? I am working on not forsaking Him and not digging my own cisterns but letting him be my one and only cistern that is filled with his living water.
how is your cistern?

Love one another

If you look in your dictionary for the word love. I am sure not many of you do look in a dictionary for the word love because we now how to spell it and we “know” what it means. Love is a verb. A verb is action. I think of jumping. You cannot say you jump unless you do something. You have to jump to jump. I know that seems so obvious, like why are you saying that. I say this because 4 days ago my wife left for Guatemala on a mission trip. Like I say almost every day I left her with the words, “I Love You” what does that mean. If love is an action then while she is gone what do I do. What is love when your spouse or loved one is away for a period of time. I am beginning to understand a little bit about what love is. This past week has been a difficult week. I have been with my 2 kids and taking a week off of work. Yes I have had the blessing of parents taking them a couple days. There has not been a tougher week in my life than this past week. I was joking with my wife before she left that I was going to just ship the kids off and spend time by myself. I did not do that this whole week but being a man of integrity I am doing that tonight at the present. I dare any of you men who are husbands and who work hard to make money to put food on the table and to provide a house to live in. I dare you take a week off of work and spend time with your kids, pay for your wife to go and be pampered, or if she is like my wife who loves missions send her on a mission trip or whatever it is that will help her re energize. As I have been thinking about those words we use so much, “I Love you” what would happen if you would stop saying I love you and start doing I love you, this is not erotic love you but what is that you can do to make those all important words a true verb.

What would happen in our marriages and in our homes if instead of saying I love you, you start doing it. Tonight as I spent some time by myself I mopped the kitchen, dining room and front entry way. I have done laundry this week and been able to be with my kids. I have been pondering those words since my life left, so men start loving your wives by doing love rather than saying. There is nothing to great or to small for you to do to show that love. Try to be with your kids for a week, if not a week maybe a couple days then you will understand the work that our stay at home wives go through each and every day. Maybe then we as men will understand what our wives do for us.

Stop say love and start doing love.

Miracle

Have you used the word lately? I was talking to a friend yesterday and he is leaving Monday for Guatemala. I had the opportunity to drive a Hummer H1 and my friend saw me in it and drove up by me to ask what i was doing driving that. I was letting a friend borrow my car and he let me use his. Anyways we were talking about the trip to Guatemala and i asked if he was ready and he said,"ready to see miracles." that is a man who is optimistic. A Man who understands you get what you seek for. If you look for them you will see them. I have been on the trip my friend is going on and he is right he will see miracles happen. So what is a miracle anyway? Webster defines it as, "An effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause. " are they rare? Can you think of a time that something happened with you or someone you know that would fit into this category? The friend that needed my car was going to Ann Arbor to see his nephew who is 3yrs. old and having a hole in his heart repaired. To repair the hole they sow Gore-Tex to the hole and it is healed and covered. This little 3yr. old had to have his sternum broke to due the surgery and he will be up and walking and probably running around in 3-4 days. That is beyond me to comprehend. So this trip to Guatemala that my friend is going on my wife is also going. There are 18 people from our church going, and as my Friend said going to see miracles happen. What about us whoa re living our ordinary life are we going to see miracles happen? I will stick to my thoughts before you see what you seek and you get what you look for and prepare for. If you want to see a miracle i be live you can if you seek it and look for it. Miracle what is it?

Relay for Life

I had the privilege to be apart of one of the greatest events that i have been apart of in my life. It was the Rockford Relay for life. This past weekend May 16-17 for 24 hours thousands of people come together for 1 thing and one thing only. Raise money for cancer research for the American cancer society. Wrap your arms around corporations, churches, families, and friends spending 24 hours together doing everything from archery, to football throwing to silent auctions to golf to fishing all to raise a few hundred thousand dollars. One thing, one interest, one goal, one day. The power of one. I have been trying to figure this out in my own life. The power of being focused. Relay for life is that power. Relay is that momentum. Sometimes in life we can get so busy doing multiple things and trying to be everything. Maybe your not. I am guilty of that and i and suffering form the effects of not focusing on one thing. What would happen if we all focused on one thing. What can be done in the world around you what can happen in your sphere of influence if you focused on one thing and did one thing with excellence and with drive and ambition. One thing is not lazy as some may think. One thing is not taking the easy way out.
Are you focused on one thing? what does one thing mean to you?

Who do you work for

As I was going through this past weekend, spending time at a golf outing and enjoying the great outdoors of a golf course then going out with soem friends at a resturant. I can't help but think of all the work that is done a daily basis, the golf outing helped to raise funds for Calvin Christian Schools and each hole was sponsored but a person or a company. Many people work to be able to put a sign up at a golf hole. I wonder at times who do i work for? i think of one of my favorite passages of scripture, Genesis 1:26-28, we are all created in God's image to have relationship with him. As i think of work and what i do i think of this verse. Do I do things as I am dong it in Gods' image. Do i do things to boast of who God is?

May 7

Focus, it is a word that is used in our language. When we hear focus we always hear something about focus. But what if you just had to focus. Do you find it hard to focus? What si my life focused on? i recently was at a conference at Western Seminary in Holland MI and the leader of the conference, the great Mark Yaconnelli stared the conference doing a little Lectio Divina. a Great ancient art of readinga nd praying and mediataing on the scriptures. He read a passage that has helped me to focus my my work in the Body of Christ with the church i serve. I am presently the YOuth Pastor and Pastor of The WELL a new service we have at Rockford Reformed Church. Take a look at Mark 10-16 What do children focus on? the present day and whta do i need to do to be like a little child and focus my life like one of the little children to enter the kingdom of heaven? Focus is what microscopes do it is what telescopes do it is what binoculars do and each time you use one you always have to re focus it. what are you focused on today and what do you need help to focus on?