Where I Belong

The thing I love about music is that sometimes it speaks to you in situations that you need it most.  This morning I've listened to the song "Where I Belong" by Switchfoot over and over again.  Here's a video with the song and lyrics...pay attention to these words:


What a great hope I have (and I hope you do too)  that (as the song says), "This skin and bones is a rental."

Lately, I feel like I've "been fighting against the tide" and have been getting absolutely nowhere.
Sometimes life hits us hard.  We go through things we'd rather not go through, and don't see a lot of fruit from our labor.
I think some people believe I have it made.  I work with youth, which means I eat a lot of pizza, drink a ton of coffee and goof off every day, but ministry is more than that.

Growing up I worked on a farm which is was probably the most physically labor intensive job I have ever had, but I'm finding ministry to be one of the most mentally labor intensive things I have done.  I'm not saying that that means it's bad, it's just more work than I planned on it being when I started.

Fortunately, I have the opportunity to tell people everyday of the amazing person of Jesus Christ, who he was and is and is to come.  We all have the opportunity to do this!

Life might not always be perfect, but even in our weaknesses may we continue to sing praises to Jesus.

"Until I die I'll sing these songs
On the shores of Babylon
Still looking for a home
In a world where I belong"

God has each of us here for a reason.  Let's persevere!  Let's sing on!  When he calls us home, here is our hope:

"And when I reach the other side
I want to look You in the eye
And know that I've arrived
In a world where I belong"

I can't wait for that day, I hope you can't either, but until it comes let's look forward to it and share with others our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Reverence

This past Monday, I had the privilege of serving dinner with my fellow HRC staffers to some older generation members of our congregation.  They bought the dinner at our church auction in the early spring and we were finally able to put it on for them.

Before the dinner our calling pastor, the Rev. Dr. Cecil Martens shared a short devotional with them and us.  As Cecil began reading the words from the Scriptures, something struck me to be quite interesting.
As I looked around the room at these seniors, I noticed that each one of them had closed their eyes.  Each person sitting around that table was giving full attention to the words that were being spoken.  These holy and inspired words became the main focus of the moment and each person wanted to make sure they understood what was being said.

As a younger person, I don't feel like I see a lot of that these days.  Being in youth ministry, a time of devotions or prayer seems to be more of a speed bump before fun and food than something that should be given attention.  Where is the reverence?  Where is the focus?

When I was growing up we'd go to my grandparents house for dinner occasionally (usually on a Sunday).  After devouring the traditional roast beef, mashed potatoes and jell-o my grandpa would open up his King James Bible and read to us the word of God.
During this reading I would find myself not knowing what to do with my eyes (and for that matter my mind).  I didn't understand a lot of the 'thees' and 'thous' and I never have been a big fan of awkward silences.
I remember occasionally trying to read one of my aunt's minds across the table or thinking about what kind of mischievous activity me and my cousins would get into afterwards.
However, I do remember hearing words that I hear today that I can now say mean something to me.

Today, I believe a lot of us have robbed God of the respect towards his Word that He deserves.  I mean sure we read it occasionally, sure we like to hear public figures quote it, but do we really want it to mean something.

In Psalm 119:105 the psalmist writes, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  The psalmist uses the imagery of light to give us a picture of how important God's word is to him.
I remember first hearing the words from this psalm from Amy Grant back in the day.

Have you ever been on a night hike before?  When I was in California we'd always take our 5th and 6th graders on a night hike.  For a lot of the kids, this walk, was their first time in real darkness (away from the city lights).  A lot of them struggled to stay on the path, but soon after a flashlight was turned on, their nervousness turned to calm.

When I'm not in God's Word a lot of times I find the worries in my life come on the strongest, the struggles I have become more of a struggle and the God I most dearly love is being disrespected.
God desires us to be in His word, that's why He has given it to us.

Hebrews 4:12 says:
"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Doesn't that sound powerful?  Doesn't that sound better than anything you can watch on TV or find on the internet?

God's word is to be respected and acknowledged like the older people at the dinner I was at.  May we not only hear it and pretend like it matters, but may we listen and do what it says!

Are you religious?

My computers dictionary defines the word religious as:

religious |riˈlijəs|
adjective
believing in and worshiping a superhuman controlling power or powers, esp. a personal God or gods : both men were deeply religious, intelligent, and moralistic.


The word religion or religious has always bothered me.  Hearing that word has always not sat well in my stomach when I've heard it spoken especially in question form:  "Are you religious?"  "What religion do you belong to?"  "Have you listened to Bad Religion lately?"

Okay, that last one I've never heard, but I gotta make examples of three right?  Anyway, as a professing Christian, I don't like this word defining me.  If we look in the Bible the religious people of the time of Jesus were the Pharisees.  The Pharisees spent their time making themselves look good, by observing the OT law and making impossible rules for others to live by.
Today when I hear, "Are you religious?" I tend to think people are asking me, "Am I a Pharisee?"

People like to say they are religious.  We may say that we attend church on a regular basis, have memory verses memorized, don't listen to the wrong kind of music or watch the wrong kind of movies.  Religious people pray before meals...occasionally, when others are looking, wear the right clothes and use the right words.
These things are not necessarily bad things, but I think that becomes where some people's "spiritual" lives end.  We can check the "Christian" box on a survey and move on with our lives.

This week a sign went up in Grand Rapids from a group of Atheist that says this,

Quickly after this sign went up, many Christians immediately took offense.  "How dare you put this sign up in Grand Rapids, we are a Christian community."
I did some quick research and in 2009 those involved with some kind of religious affiliation in Grand Rapids was at 52.86%.  Meaning almost 47% of the population in G.R. is either not affliated with a church (or any other religious group) or did not answer that question (Source: http://www.city-data.com/city/Grand-Rapids-Michigan.html).
Believe it or not...the atheist are out there, they are in your neighborhood and mine.  Do you feel safe?

I think it's good that this sign is out there.  I don't think it's gonna draw anybody in to this organization, but it certainly has people talking.  It makes people really consider what they believe.  However, I think some people take the wrong approach when they see a sign like this.  People see this sign and bark at the people responsible for it saying, "your going to hell!" and "you don't know what you're talking about!", but what good is that really doing?

Exodus 33:11 says, "As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?"
Later on in the gospel of Mark chapter 3, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees on healing on the Sabbath.  Jesus says, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill."  After the Pharisees are silent on the issue, Mark says in verse 5, "he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart."
In other parts of Scripture Jesus continues to urge the Pharisees to change.  Notice God and Jesus doesn't avoid these people.  He doesn't go hide in a corner or on a computer and blast away at their beliefs, He meets with them, He cares about them and He desires a relationship with them.

Jesus was not about religion.  Jesus was about relationships.  He was about meeting people where they were at, whether they had it all together or were completely messed up.  He didn't look for his buddies that all agreed with Him, He looked for people that needed a Savior, to save them from their screwed up lives.

The question I have is: Are we like that?  Do we desire to show people what a relationship with Jesus Christ is like? OR Are we looking to hang out with only people that agree with us and shun anybody that doesn't?
God's not looking for people who are trying to achieve their own agenda, He's looking for people that are looking to uplift his glory.

Are we religious, legalistic, moralistic do-gooders or are we people that want to see others lives changed as well as our own?
Jesus Christ came to this earth "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28)
He wasn't concerned with his social status or how He looked...He cared about eternity, He cared about people's souls.  So much that He died for them and for us.

Don't be a religious Pharisee!  Be a Jesus-centered, others focused Christian!

This post (like all my post) pertains to me just as much (if not more) as it does to anyone else that reads this.

Plan On It?

This past Saturday I went to the zoo with my sister. It was the first time in (I would guess) 20 years that I have been to the John Ball Zoo.




We had a great time with the kids. Clarissa loved looking at all the different animals she doesn't see on a regular basis and both her and Silas had a wonderful time with Anne's boys. (If you look just to the left of Clarissa there's a bear peaking out from the water).

Before heading to the zoo with Anne, I heard that one of our organist Sharon Vander Zouwen had died. Sharon was a wonderful organist and used her amazing ability of tickling the ivory to worship Jesus Christ. You could tell simply by the way she played that she enjoyed being in front of the organ. She was in her '70s and as some say, "she died too soon."

Sunday morning we had Silas baptized and celebrated Clarissa's second birthday.





We had a great time celebrating the covenant that God has already made with Silas as well as the joy he has given us with Clarissa.

Lastly I found out later in the day Sunday, that a couple in our church that was in their 7th month of being pregnant had lost their child.

So as you can see it was a very fun weekend, it had it's ups and it had it's downs, but the reason I write you these things is for a reason. It says in Isaiah 55:8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."

Lately I feel like a lot of people that I either know or have a connection with in some way have gone through death, disease and darkness. Sometimes I think to myself selfishly, "when am I next?" I feel like the world is crashing down on others and it's only a matter of time before it will be me. I also think, "why isn't it happening to me?" Why do others have to go through the stuff they are going through and here I am a man just as deserving of the things of these other people (if not more) and I have not experienced much of it...yet.

When I was at the zoo the other day it made me think about the animals living in the cages. (Now don't worry I'm not gonna go all anti-hunter on you). I'm gonna guess for the majority of the animals living at zoos all over the world, that when they were born, they didn't think their life was gonna come down to them sitting in a cage and thousands of snotty nosed kids and their frantic parents watching them. They probably thought they would live in their natural habitat enjoying the open areas of their native lands. Their life wasn't what they thought it was gonna be.

For Sharon the organist, I'm sure she was not planning on breathing her last breath this weekend. I'm sure she did not write down on her pocket calendar that this was gonna be the date that she was gonna meet Jesus. From the little I know of Sharon, I know that she was aware of her eternal home, but I'm guessing her plans were not to die when she did.

Moving on to the couple that lost their baby. What a devastating thing to go through. After preparing for months for the arrival of this new child, putting her room together, telling the other kids of the upcoming sibling and praying for the development of this child, how do you respond to the news of no heartbeat? It wasn't a part of the plan!

Even things like the baptism and the birthday party this weekend may not be what we had planned for. Looking at Silas during the baptism it brought back flashbacks of something we weren't sure was going to be able to happen after Susan had an ectopic pregnancy earlier. The same with celebrating with Clarissa, after the struggles of trying to get pregnant with her. On top of that knowing of so many people that are struggling to have kids right now.

We all have plans. We all have ideas of what we want to accomplish with our lives. We plan for what kind of house we're going to live in, what our family is going to look like, where we're going to spend our vacations. We may even have set plans/goals when we hit certain ages (a bucket list if you will).
When things don't go how we dreamed they would go. When our plans don't come to fruition like we thought they would, and if we don't recognize who is in control we can go crazy trying to figure out why things are happening the way they are.

God has a plan for our lives. He has known it from the beginning of time. He knew that we needed a Savior to mend the wound that sin caused way back in Genesis. God knows what our plans are (as it says in Isaiah 55), but His plans are greater! We may not agree with them, we may scream to him "It's not fair!" and chances are it's not, but God has it under control.

Jesus did not come just to make us feel better about ourselves. Jesus came to give us hope. To show us even though we will suffer, even though we will go through pain, in the end the pain and suffering will not prevail. Jesus died and rose again so that one day, (like Sharon) we will live eternally with Him.

I know I've written similar blogs on things like this in the past, but this has once again been pressed on my heart. I hate seeing people suffer, I'm not a big fan of people going through tough times, but this blog helps me remember (and maybe it will for you too) that death is swallowed up in victory.

Security Blanket

Every night, I go to bed late...I'm talkin' 12:30am to 1am on a normal basis. I do this for no particular reason whatsoever. I get up around 7:30am-8am"ish" every morning and yet I can't kick the late nights.

When I finally do go to bed each night, Susan is already fast asleep, as are both kids. I stumble up the steps, try to avoid Rosco, who is usually guarding the door and find my way to my bed. (It makes me appreciate what a blind person goes through on a normal basis.)
Upon dropping my "my lousy hide" (a term I remember my dad use to say) onto the mattress, I give an already slumbering Susan a kiss and tell her that I love her and roll over to my side.

After verbalizing my undying love for my partner in crime, I enter the next stage of getting prepared for my six (or so) hours of shut-eye:
All of my life I have had to do a few things to be successful in my rest. I must:
a) sleep on my stomach (this may be a t.m.i. moment for you the reader or maybe you do the same)-if I sleep on back I have nightmares. I have no idea what the sleepology is of this occurrence, but I avoid it at all costs.
b) have my feet covered by at least a sheet.-I hate having cold feet (no worries I didn't even think of leaving Susan at the altar...get it cold feet :-))
c) have my shoulders covered by at least a sheet.-Just like the feet, I hate cold shoulders (I hope I've spoken to you (the reader) everytime you've approached me...get it cold-shoulder :-))
d) usually I can't sleep if there is light, so I turn my eyes away from whatever window may produce any light.

I tell you these things, not because I figured you were wondering about my sleep patterns, but because it made me think about something the other day.
From time to time when I head up to hit the hay, I lay there and I hear noises. We live in an old house, near some train tracks, so there's always some noise coming from somewhere in the house. Anyway, some nights I listen and I hear things (I'm aware I've lost my 'man' credibility with my fear of noises, but let me continue). Every night I know that the chances of our house getting broken into are very low, yet I still hear these noises.
My thoughts and reaction always go from, "I better check that out." to "It's nothing C-noss go to sleep." When I do go to sleep though, I do something that made me want to write this blog entry. Even though I know things are safe, even though I know my family is not threatened, just to give me a little more protection I add an extra layer of blankets to put over me...an extra layer of protection if you will.
Hebrews 11:1 says,
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Faith and hope go together. What we have hope in is what we put our faith in. If we have hope in Christ and believe that everything that God said he was going to do he did, we should have faith that God's ultimate plan will come to fruition.
God has given us a type of "security blanket" in his son Jesus Christ. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
Jesus' substitutionary atonement of dieing on the cross for our sins, allows us as Christians to have faith that whatever comes our way, whether it's something as small as a noise in the house or seeing the stock market take a nose-dive or even being mocked and ridiculed for our faith, we have a security blanket...a hope...a faith, in knowing that what was done at the cross and the days to follow in the resurrection is our hope for our eternal future.

We all have fears, whether it's the dark, or spiders, crowds or tight spaces, noise or silence, we can trust that our God is bigger than all that:

"for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."

~2 Timothy 1:7

Role Models

Who are your role models? We all have them, right? Maybe it's a parent, maybe it's a different family member, maybe it's a teacher, maybe it's a coach or maybe it's somebody from the Bible.

I've always been a huge sports fan and contrary to what Charles Barkley once said...



When I was younger I looked up to players in all sports. I looked at the shoes they wore, the people they would hang out with, the words they would say. I wanted to be famous, but I didn't want to me self-centered!

Growing up, I also looked for the sports stars that were looking to make a positive impact on others and wanted to be the role model that I was looking for. When I was a kid, I had a subscription to this magazine:


I loved this magazine. I loved the stories it had in it and the positive message that it showed to me. It gave me guys I wanted to see succeed (even if it did involve rooting for a Yankee).

As I've gotten older, my role models have changed, but I still search for players that recognize whether they like it or not, they are a role model. I also enjoy hearing from players that see it as a privilege to be playing their particular sport.

Today I watched a video of a young man, that gets it! Kirk Cousins understands that being a team player, that putting others before himself is more important than the fame he could quite possibly have. He's humble in his talk, and calm in his demeanor...and it doesn't hurt that he's a Michigan State Spartan, but no matter who he played for, you gotta admit this guy has his head on straight.

Burning Bright

As we traveled the roads of Barry County this evening on our way home from my parents house we were treated to a couple of light shows that only our creator could give us. In the west, the sun had set and the sky was an amazing shade of orange. It was as if God had taken out one of his paint brushes and perfectly stroked the western sky with an opaque hue of vermilion.

We were also able to watch the luminous lights of the firefly this evening. Hundreds if not thousands of these little bugs pranced throughout the evening sky showing off their best moves for us and for their lady/boy friends.

These two forms of light were incredible this evening. They reminded me of how amazing my creator is and how small I am. It also reminded me to look at my own light. It made me think, what does my light look like?
As a kid, I sang the song "This Little Light of Mine" all the time, not thinking much of it. I enjoyed this song, because it required me to show off my finger as if it were a candle. At the tip of this imaginary candle held and imaginary lit wick in which I was to show off to all my other snot-nosed, fake candle lit friends.
The goal was to keep this wick on fire no matter the circumstances. My two personal favorites were/are "hide it under a bushel...NO" and "don't let satan blow (or actually blow) it out"
This song is such a simple song, but it's a song that I thought of tonight as drove north on Patterson Road.

Am I letting my little light shine? Am I showing off my Savior the best I can or am I hiding it under my thick skin? Am I letting satan get a little snort of his evil on my fire or do I have it protected on all sides?

Jesus says,

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

~Matthew 5:14-16

Did you read that? We are the light of the world. If you are a Christian you have something that many people would love to have a fire that should not be extinguished. This isn't something that appears occasionally, like the nightlight in my daughters room that turns on only when the other lights are off or the light that burns in a campfire, but must be put out after the s'mores and weenies are put away. No! Jesus is talking a flame that cannot be extinguished.

So what does your flame look like? Is your flame one of the trick candles that goes out for a time when your not at church or around your Christian friends, but turns back on as soon as you are around them? Does your candle burn on mission trips, during a difficult time in your life or when you hear that certain song on the radio?

I like what the second part of this passage says, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16) Notice Jesus doesn't say, "let your light shine so that others can see how wonderful you are."

Jesus points your flame to God's glory.

I think this is what makes keeping that flame going so tough. We want the recognition for the good that we have done. We want people to know that these things that are happening would not be happening if were not for us. Jesus disagrees. To God be the glory...not Josh! To God be the glory...not you! To God be the glory for the great things He has done!!!
God deserves all the glory for the things we do. We could not do anything without the amazing power of our Lord. We are a messed up people that need to recognize that our little light we have been given would not have even been lit, had it not been for the amazing mercy and grace that God has given us.

Let your light shine so that God will be praised.