Pastor's blog - Hope Reformed Church

Set Free to Welcome

2012-02-02T20:57:00Z

In fact, every friend that everyone of us have were strangers at one time. Everyone that we know we had to take the time to get to know. For every person that we have come to care about, there was a time when we didn’t care about them at all. All of the friends we have were strangers and they would have remained that way if we didn’t take the chance and share conversations and spend time together. Many strangers have become friends. But even though that’s the case, we still treat strangers as strange.

Set Free to Suffer With

2012-02-02T20:55:00Z

You’ll remember that our theme for this year is “Living Faith Fully.” We’ve talked about how faith is this combination of belief and trust; believing that Jesus is God’s Son and trusting all of God’s promises in him. We’re spending the next few weeks exploring those ways that we can be filled with faith. We’re looking at those ways of life that helps us know what we believe and grow in our trust. Compassion is one of those ways. Compassion literally means “suffering with.” Compassion means walking with someone else while they struggle and struggling alongside them. You feel it in the pit of your stomach and it gets you all twisted up inside, but it’s more than just a feeling. Compassion means taking on some of the risk, taking on some of the suffering. Compassion means shouldering some of the burden and letting someone else’s life have an impact on your own. Compassion is what we find Jesus living in the gospel story we heard this morning.

Tithing & God

2011-11-23T17:00:00Z

Robbery takes away your freedom because you feel like you have to be extra careful with your possessions. You never feel free to leave anything open or out. And, robbery creates these feelings of frustration and anger, of “that’s mine and you have no right to take it.” Unfortunately, many of us have experienced that before. So, when God says, “You are robbing me!” Maybe we can relate to how God feels.

Tithing & Others

2011-11-23T16:58:00Z

Tithing can feel merely institutional, like a financial obligation, like just another check to write. And that’s sad because it’s supposed to be so much more than that. There’s supposed to be more power in it and there’s supposed to be great grace in it. Like Ameena, we are called to be interrupters. So, our tithes are meant to interrupt those cycles of sin and suffering out there and set people on the path of salvation in here. Like Barnabbas, God has called us to encourage. Our tithes are meant break our addiction to our wants and draw our attention to other’s needs. Our tithes are meant to bring hope to history. Our tithes, whether big or small, whether $1 or a thousand, are meant to be part of a tidal wave of justice rising up to reshape the world. Our tithes are part of the great sea change of God’s Spirit, rushing like rapids through these city streets.

Tithing & You

2011-11-23T16:58:00Z

“In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine and your oil as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock.” You shall eat it. You shall eat your own tithe. Have you ever heard that before? You will take 10% of all of your harvest and yield for the year and you will eat it in the presence of the Lord. You’ll have this big, abundant, over-indulgent feast, you and your household. This is how we’re going to learn the fear of the Lord? By eating? By eating our own tithe?

Benefits of Faith: Eternal Life

2011-11-07T20:27:00Z

The mistake the Christians make is that they come to church only so that they are ensured of eternal life. But they forget that there is an abundant life available today. They come to church so that they can be with God in the next life, but forget that God is already with them in this life. They forget that God hasn’t just addressed the death that is at the end of this life, but also done something about the dark and dreary and depressing parts of this life as well. Just about everything we long for when we long for eternal life, God is making abundantly possible in this life.

Benefits of Faith: Adoption

2011-11-03T19:28:00Z

The headline might read, “Steve Jobs Saved My Life.” It might read that if the story ever made it into the newspaper, but I don’t think that it ever did. The story is about Joe. In elementary school, Joe was not like most kids. Instead of sports, Joe liked music. Instead of TV, Joe like art. Instead of video games, Joe liked fantasy games. In a lot of ways, Joe and his friends were different. His differences were fine for a while, but you know how kids can be. After a while, differences mean dumb. Joe would be ridiculed for the different things that he liked. He would be picked on for being different.

Benefits of Faith: Holy Spirit

2011-11-03T19:26:00Z

Riley Waggaman grew up hearing about the benefits of a good, liberal arts education. Riley grew up in the northeast, but if he had grown up hear, he would have heard about the benefits of a Hope College or a Calvin College. Riley believed this message. So, when he graduated from high school, he went off to get a good, liberal arts education. He believed that he would graduate from college well-rounded, ready to take on the world. He believed that he would be able to change the world. When he graduated we found a job at a newspaper. It didn’t matter that he was $120,000 in debt. Riley was a journalist ready to take on the world and change it.

So...what is faith?

2011-11-03T19:25:00Z

First there was Forrest. Then there was Eddie. Now there’s Paul. Paul is a guard on death row and in charge of overseeing the prisoners there. His block is called the green mile. The mile is green because that’s the color of the tiles on the floor outside of the cells. It’s not really a mile long, but I imagine it’s called that because it feels like the longest walk anyone has to take. By now you may know that I’m talking about the movie of the same name. Tom Hanks plays Paul in the film The Green Mile.

Why Jesus?

2011-11-03T19:24:00Z

Last week we began with a movie character named Forrest Gump. This week we’ll begin with a movie character named Eddie. I don’t know his last name. To see Eddie is to see knotted, snarly hair and poorly fitted clothing. To smell Eddie is to smell stale odor and cigarette smoke. Visiting Eddie is to visit a small apartment with dishes stacked up, clothes thrown all over the place and furniture tossed about. Visiting Eddie, you would think he’s just been robbed. Just smelling and looking at Eddie, you would never know that he has a book contract. Yes, Eddie is a starving writer.

Where Does Faith Come From?

2011-09-21T19:01:00Z

To believe and to trust seems to us to be the more hopeful path to take. But, how did we get here? What brought us to this place of faith? That’s the question for this morning. How do we get faith in the first place? The Bible is pretty clear on this one. We heard the answer this morning: faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word about Christ. As we explore this idea, you’ll find that it’s pretty simple, but I hope that we can reconnect with how important it is.

What is Faith?

2011-09-21T19:00:00Z

Matthew and Adily and Zach gathered with other college students from Calvin and Grand Valley State University in a coffee shop. They are the generation of people who have grown up in the world with a “war on terror” and “homeland security.” As far as most of them are concerned, these things have always existed because they’ve seen there as long as they’ve been aware. A reporter from the Grand Rapids Press gathered this group of students to record their thoughts and feelings on what we simply call, “September 11^th.” I was surprised to read the reporter’s response.

What does it mean that 'love covers a multitude of sins?'

2011-09-21T18:59:00Z

Becky was the town sweetheart. The town is called Vinyl Haven. It is on the small island off the coast of Maine. By small I mean 9 miles by 13 miles. By small I mean only 1200 people. There is no bridge. You have to take a ferry to get there. As you can imagine Vinyl Haven is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else, where everyone hears everything, and where nothing goes unnoticed. So, Becky was the town sweetheart and everyone knew it. That was fine as long as it lasted, but when she stopped being sweet and started doing drugs, everyone knew that too.

Have A Little Faith: Winter

2011-09-21T18:55:00Z

Today, we seem surrounded by dark and dreary news. Voices on the TV and the radio continue to warn about the dangers of national debt. It only goes up as our country fights three wars in three different countries. Meanwhile personal debt continues to grow as people try to make do while their jobs are cut and very few new ones are created. So, we have more children living in poverty now than we did ten years ago. That’s more children without healthy meals, more children who struggle to learn, more children who will be cold. Turn on the TV and you just see the leaders positioning themselves for power rather than using their power to improve everyone’s position. Poverty, joblessness, homelessness; these are forms of winter. We wonder where God is in all of this.

Have A Little Faith: Summer

2011-08-01T14:10:00Z

“Albert! It is forbidden!” the woman shouted down to the young boy. The boy was thinking about stealing an apple from the fruit cart on the street. He thought that if he just bumped into it and an apple fell from the cart it wouldn’t count as theft. The wise woman a few floors above him knew differently. He warning kept Albert on the straight and narrow path.

Does God love me more than he hates my sin?

2011-08-01T14:09:00Z

“You are the man!” Nathan shouted. It was a kind of “gotcha!” Nathan had just caught David in a trap. Here’s the short version of the story:

Drink Up

2011-08-01T14:08:00Z

Josue Lajeunesse is a 40-year old custodian at Princeton University. I heard his story this last week. His story really begins as a young boy in a small town in Haiti. Like a lot of young children Josue and his brother had chores. It was their job to fetch the water for cooking and cleaning and drinking. The only problem was that there wasn’t any clean water in town. Josue and his brother and everyone else that lived in La Source needed to walk about 15 miles up a mountain to spring. It was a hard walk and it wasn’t always a safe walk.

Don't Just Stand There

2011-08-01T14:06:00Z

There once was a man. People called him Lord. Many people believed that his father was the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. They called him the Divine one. He looked down from the heavens and ruled over all the kingdoms of the earth. When his son was old enough he gave all the kingdoms of the world to him. Even though he was only a man, he called himself “son of the divine one.” It’s a very convenient title when you want to rule the world.

Resurrecting Hope

2011-05-16T14:24:00Z

Last week and this week and the next few weeks we are listening to the last group of Psalms in the Bible. We’re listening to those songs that begin and end with a joyful, “Praise the Lord.” We’re calling them Psalms of resurrection because they cause us to raise our hands and lift our hearts. They call us to resurrect in our lives those qualities and characteristics that are worthy of the Lord’s praise. At the same time, they call us to lay down traits and behaviors that get in the way of praising the Lord. Last week, Psalm 146 called us to lay down ideology and resurrect theology in praise of the Lord. This week, Psalm 147, calls us to lay down that sense of accomplishment so that we can resurrect hope. Psalm 147 calls us to stop pursuing accomplishments and start living into hope.

Resurrecting Theology

2011-05-16T14:23:00Z

When we think about praising God one of the first things we need to resurrect is theology. Theology? Really? What does theology have to do with praising God? We’ve all seen big, dusty theology books and it’s hardly the kind of reading that lifts our hearts to the Lord or raises our hands with shouts of joy. I understand. But before you get out your pen and start working on your grocery list, maybe it will be easier to understand our need to resurrect theology if we understand what we need to put away.