The living Word

It is exciting to both os us to see how God works in our lives and others through His word, the Bible. When we get to know who Jesus is and begin following him in our daily lives, we are walking in the light, walking with the living Word. This is something that we just can’t keep from others. It is always wonderful to share with others and be encouraged by what we learn from the Word and what we learn through how others grow in the Word. 

We are thankful that we have various opportunities throughout the week to share this with members and seekers. On Monday evenings we are with a loving couple from church who live about an hour away from us. We began meeting with them years ago when they could not make it to the Wednesday evening study but still wanted to keep growing. They also wanted to learn about how to share what they were learning. So we have visited with them and continue to share what we know and learn from what they are learning. 

On Tuesdays Scott has a time at the building when people can come to ask questions about God. Through the years this has meant studies and conversations of all different kinds. Most recently he has been meeting with a woman studying about the old and new covenant, meeting with a mn who wants to understand his faith and daily choose to follow Jesus, and also takes time to encourage a sister in the faith who is shut in. 

Tuesday afternoons have become a time for a group of younger people who want to be encouraged and encourage one another. This is an English-speaking group and is held online. There are folks from nearby (our young Ukrainian couple who libre about 30 minutes away) and further away (two ladies from France and another even from Curaçao. Tuesday evenings we meet in person with a younger sister from the congregation who wants to grow in her faith. 

Wednesday evenings are what is our normal weekly Bible study. IN the past this was held at our house, at the building or at a different member’s home. But since Covid we began meeting online. This has meant that more members can be present. We still head over to our colleagues’ house (10 minutes away) and get online while sitting in their living room. This study (done in Dutch) is a great encouragement for all those who are able to attend. We are so thankful that so many are able to get online and encourage one another in this way. 

Thursday morning I head back over to my colleague’s house (in the summer I might even bike over, like I did last week) for a study we have with a man who wants to know more about the Bible and has plenty of questions about society, science and God’s will. I also uses this day about once a month to visit some people who nee encouragement - in prison in Antwerp and in a psychiatric hospital nearby. These are not Bible studies, but are conversations about the living Word. 

On Friday mornings Shirley gets online with the other ladies of the congregation for a study and prayer time together. As we let people know on our website (www.gvcmaastricht.nl) this is a study by and for women. It is exciting to see how the ladies take the time to help one another and encourage one another. 

We have always prayed that God can use us in the way that He sees fit while we are here (or wherever we are). These are moments that we can share so much of the beauty that we ourselves find in God’s Word. It is also so good to be able to discuss how the things we read fit into our daily lives. God’s Word is not just a study (a word we use a lot), but a discovery of how God works in our lives and what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Thank you for praying for the various opportunities we have to share this glorious news.

How does God’s word influence your live? What challenges have you experienced recently in reading and following Jesu as the living Word? How do you share what you find so beautiful? 

Leave your jug behind

We have been reading through the gospel of John in our weekly study with the church here in Maastricht. This past Sunday the topic at the Lord's Supper mentioned the woman at the well (John 4). It was an interesting point I had not often stood still by: she left her jug. This woman who already had a difficult existence and was going to all this trouble to get what she needed that day (water) left her water there at the well after talking to Jesus.

This is the question for each of us as well. Is what we are running after, the ways we are trying to get what we think we want, really working for us? Are we willing, like the woman at the well, to give it up in favour of what Jesus is offering? Even more, do we truly understand, like that woman, that what he is offering IS much better? And that it is so important that we have to go tell others?

We have contact almost every day with people who are looking for love, looking for happiness, looking for fulfilment or acceptance. In their search, they end up in all sorts of places and positions in their lives that only make things worse. We know how it goes, because we have been there too. But we know better now. We know that what Jesus offers, really IS better, because He really is who He says He is. So we share this wonderful gift of grace - living water. A strength to be completely created anew - not into something we are not, but into that which we were meant to be.

Not everyone can see the reality of this gift. Some are too lost in what they have been doing all along for so long. "If I leave my jug, how will I get water again?" "If I leave this running-after-these-things that are supposed to make me happy, how will I be able to be happy ever again?" Some people have heard and go running, like the woman at the well, to proclaim to their neighbours: "Listen! This is important!" For us it is simply important to keep presenting what Jesus is offering: living water.

Jesus was simply himself, connecting with this woman. He offered her what is true, but unbelievable to her. We are offering what seems unbelievable, but is true. When she had questions, he answered honestly, without being politically correct. And he was clear without being judgemental when he let her know that he knew her real situation. He did not pretend it did not exist, he named it and left it with her. 

We are so very thankful for the people God brought into our lives to speak clarity and truth to us so that we could see the offer of Jesus. And we are so thankful that God wants to and is using us to do the same for others wherever we are. We keep praying for people to be willing to just leave the jugs behind.

A friend and brother

At Bret's wedding

Today is my brothers’ birthday. My older brother Chris and my brother from a different mother. Not that I have a half-brother. Bret is not really my brother. But he is truly my brother. He is the one who introduced me to Jesus and showed me what it means to do just that (introduce others to Jesus). 

Bret and I have been best friends since 9th grade. We have shared a love for science fiction and tastes in music. We have played in bands together, driven all over the country together and grown in faith together. He loved me enough as my best friend to tell me something that cut me to the core. And because of that I was able to go to God’s word and find out that I really did need forgiveness and salvation. 

We don’t see each other in person very often. Ever since meeting up again at our York College reunion in 2017, however, we DO see each other almost every week. We share a video call each week, touch base and pray for each other. I can talk about how God is using us and challenging us here, about our kid's lives, or about the newest story idea I have heard or book I have read. He can talk about his two little girls, his pregnant wife, his writing or his work with the congregation where he preaches. Across the miles (or kilometers) we remain not only best friends, but truly brothers. 

Cherish the people God has put in your life. Be for those around you the grace that God has brought into your life. I am so thankful for how God can change lives completely using such imperfect tools (us) in such amazing ways. Then again, this is God, who through Jesus calls us friends. He knows what it means. 

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.You are my friends if you do what I command.I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:12-15