Making a choice

It is intriguing to see how God can use people. Many of us perhaps can understand king David’s amazement that God would use him. David knew who he was, his own shortcomings. But he also knew how mighty God was. And he trusted that. Even when he messed up royally. 

We have always tried to remember that God is using us however He sees fit and in ways that He sees as possible. We try to be faithful in simply continuing to follow Him and speak of His wonderful love. As we do this, we try to remember that each person makes their own choices in their lives. We cannot change people. They must allow themselves to be changed by meeting the amazing love of God. 

Years ago we met several of our next door neighbors when we offered a chance to “Get to Know Jesus” by looking into the gospels. The house next to us is used as a half-way house for patients dealing with mental struggles and transitioning back into society. Some of these neighbors grabbed the chance to meet someone they had heard of but never really known anything about. 

One of those neighbors was Jan. He called himself a speeding train that always moved at high speed. When we met him he was coming down off of extreme medication. He had grown up attending a Jesuit school and was very intelligent. Hen enjoyed the group reading in the gospels and was familiar with the story of Jesus. Finding Jesus in his own life was more of a struggle. 

After he left the house next door and went on into society, some of his struggles returned with a vengeance and he ended up in prison in Antwerp. I would visit him there every month and try to encourage him and remind him of Jesus who we had met. He chose to do things his own way, which was often quite confusing (including making his own religion of which he was the pope). 

About two weeks ago he called in the evening. He regularly called when he had enough telephone credits and asked me to look up addresses and phone numbers on my computer. This time he mentioned that he had set up his cell to die. I let him know that he was not alone and that God was mightier even than his situation. But later in the week I got news that he had continued with his choice to end his life. 

We know that God is able to change things to help us. We know especially that God is able to change US to be the people that He knows we can be. But our choices influence further what direction we will take. We can choose to follow Him or go our own way. And those choices will determine where we end up. We will miss seeing Jan and are pained that we will not see him again. And we will double our efforts to remind the people around us how important it is that we choose to follow Jesus now, today. 

We are not given tomorrow. We have today. Jesus has proven that He is able to keep us safe if we walk with Him. He has done all that is necessary to free us of the troubles to which we are enslaved. But it remains our choice. We pray that you, too, will choose to walk with Him, get to know Jesus in your life. 

Mighty is our God

This past weekend several members of the church in Maastricht organized a Youth Day. We do this for our own kids, but also so that our kids can see their friends from around the country - many they have met during a Bible camp week or other youth activity. We planned our youth day in the middle of the country so that more kids could come (Maastricht is in the fa South-West corner of the region). And we prayed for good weather so that we could have the kids outside as well. 

As the day approached, the weather was looking horrid. We had some summer days the week before which got everyone’s spirits and hopes high. But then the real April weather returned. We do, after all, live in Belgium where rain is quite normal. The weather report on the day didn’t look great. 

But we are used to being flexible as well and our theme was how mighty God is. So we trusted that we would be able to do whatever we were planning - in one way or another. And that was how things worked out. The kids arrived, all of us wearing jackets because of the cold, but it stayed dry while we worked through the first part of the day. And what amazing views we had of God’s might and beauty. The trees and flowers were in bloom, the rain clouds waiting in the distance were imposing and we could hear the birds all around us. 

The lessons on the day came from Isaiah 40 which begins with a comforting of Israel, letting them know that He, their God will save. Our God is mighty to save and knows what we experience. It was fun to be able to do plenty of object lessons with the kids, helping to show the truths that we were learning. I had them as teams make a goalie. But of course the goalie couldn’t keep the simplest ball from going in the goal. Most of them could not even get to the goal (one was helped by the team). Why do we think that we can make God, but forget that He made us? 

Later in the second lesson (inside), an object lesson showed that although some things can keep us stable, only God can keep us stable all the way. A bottle of water on a string, a toothpick and two matches proved this point. A very clear lesson for everyone there. In the meantime the teens were upstairs talking about God’s might that can be seen in creation. The example was the most recent eclipse (which we didn’t really hear that much about over here, but the kids knew about). 

The questions in Isaiah resounded throughout the day: Haven’t you heard? Didn’t you know? He is God eternal! We are thankful for our wonderful God, our Saviour and for these kids who want to know about Him. Pray for them and their hearts that they will remember the things they are learning not only from these sort of youth activities, but also from their parents and those around them in the church. We were thankful that we could host two young men whose parents are not members of the church, who do not come from a believing home. 

Next weekend we are looking forward to going to a day with Mike Houts, a NASA scientist, who will talk about science and God. We are thankful for people who are willing to speak truth in a world where truth is hard to find. And we are thankful for people who are looking to hear truth and willing to hear that truth in God. And for our brothers and sisters willing to organize activities like this and the youth days we are able to use to encourage our young people. 

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Isaiah 40:28-29

Disrupted

It is probably nothing new to you. You probably already know. I did, but I had forgotten. When things just go along as they should, or as I think they should, when everything is normal, we tend to fall asleep. I remember traveling with a recruiting group from York College called “Friends”. We would often travel from a summer camp in Wisconsin or Minnesota to a camp in Kansas or Texas, driving through the night to get there on time. We all shared the driving duties, but the night shift was for our manager, Scott Lambert and Brett Osborne, who was reliable. We didn’t want anyone falling asleep at the wheel. 

“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14)

It is interesting to see that when God is saving His people, He never does it the way that they anticipated. As a matter of fact, it is almost always in a way that no one expected and most have difficulty accepting. The people fleeing Egypt ask Mozes why he brought them to this sea where they are caught between a watery death and death by Pharaoh. But Mozes hadn’t brought them there, God had. 

When the disciples finally come to Jesus and ask/plead to send the crowd away to get something to eat, Jesus has other plans. He is the one who talked so long and knew that it would come to this. He knows what He can do with a young boy’s lunch. And when the disciples tell Jesus about his friend Lazarus who is sick, Jesus decides to wait a bit longer because he knows what he is going to do. God likes to surprise us. Or is it that we simply have a hard time expecting what God can do and are thus always surprised?

It is not God’s purpose that we all have a nice quiet life together. That is not why we are here. We have come to Jesus to join his kingdom and fight to free ever more people from the slavery of sin and death. Paul tells Timothy, “No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.” (2 Tim. 2:4). So I shouldn’t be surprised when my life gets turned upside down. I should hunker down and move the direction God is taking me. After all, that is why Paul mentions the footwear of the Roman soldier in Ephesians 6 - the gospel of peace. 

God is the Master of using disruption for good. Satan likes to disturb and destroy. There are all sorts of ways that Satan keeps us busy. And sometimes he just wants us to fall asleep. But that is not why we are here - and God makes sure that we know that. So I am trying to see best how God can use me in this time. Wait a minute - let me rephrase that. I don’t need to see how He is going to do it. I don’t need to understand. I simply need to keep doing what I know He desires and trust in His strength and might. Then He can use me mightily - however He wishes. 

We still cannot get across the border, where most of our work was going on. We are trying to keep in touch with seekers in other ways - using computers, phones or good old snail mail. The church has jumped into the silence, stirring up the ‘everyday’ with all sorts of ‘unique’. We are talking to each other more now than before, concerned with each others spiritual health and growth. We are praying not only for the good health of those around us, but are more than ever aware of the need to pray for spiritual salvation. 

The sun is shining outside and has been for the last several weeks. We have started to get used to the way we do things in these corona days. Each day often looks like every other - so much so that we sometimes have a hard time remembering which day of the week it is. Time for this to be disrupted. The government here has communicated their plans to move out of isolation. I am excited and wondering what God will do next. No matter what, I am trying to remain faithful and ready to follow wherever He will lead in the coming days. 

Maybe we will go back to some of the activities we had before. We are still hoping that our summer Bible camps will be allowed to continue. Maybe we will be forced into some completely new ways of doing things. But no disruption will be able to take me away from Him who has conquered and makes me a conqueror. 

It is time to wake up, O sleeper. Walk in the Light, every day. Here is one of my favorite songs (written by my colleague) expressing this mighty passage: Romans 8:31-39.  

Let's get started!

Although we were far from idle during our Home Assignment – we enjoyed visiting with life groups, taking part in prayer breakfast’s, preaching and reporting on our work, and doing what we could from a distance via email or phone – it is good to be back and able to get back to work. When people ask what I do, I tell them, “I tell people about Jesus.” And although we do that wherever we are, we are thankful to be able to do that in this area of the world.

So, in the last week since we have been home, we have jumped right back into the activities we left in May. We are starting up various studies with those who are getting to know Jesus and with the congregation. We were so thankful to be able to see our sister, Willemien, again. She even remarked, “Oh, are you home already? I thought you weren’t coming back ‘til next week.”

In addition to the studies we had before leaving, there were several projects taking shape when we left. Now we can give these our full attention. We want to see how we can best serve the refugee population, which is arriving everywhere in Europe. The books we helped translate into Dutch will be a help in letting them meet Jesus. Now we just need to start making contact in earnest. Your prayers for this effort would be greatly appreciated. There is a workshop planned in Athens in November which we are considering attending. The church there has already had quite a bit of experience, which they can pass on.

In October we are planning a singing workshop for the congregations in Belgium and the Netherlands. This will be a day (hopefully this will be a twice-yearly event) to learn how to read music, learn new songs, practice singing, and enjoy singing together. In September, we in Maastricht will get together again with the church from Cologne, Germany to sing together for an afternoon. We did this last year and not only enjoyed the fellowship, but were encouraged by the opportunity to share Christ’s love with visitors in this way.

At this moment our summer Bible camps have started. The older teens are just finishing up their week and the younger teens will be starting tomorrow. The Benjamins are the week after, and during Family camp I will be bringing two of the lessons from 1 & 2 Peter. In the meantime, we have also already gotten together to think about and plan the youth activities for the coming year.

Sometimes it is easy to fall back into old patterns after a break. That can be good – if they are good habits. But we were greatly encouraged by some good ideas during our travels as well. We want to implement some of these changes in our lives – so now is the time, before we get too settled in our old routines. Thank you for your ideas, encouragement and challenges! We appreciate your prayers for strength and perseverance in serving each day.

It has been especially good this week to see all the people we so missed while away. It is a real blessing to have so many ‘homes’ with people whom we love and who love us. We have already had a great afternoon visit with our colleagues, Ruud en Karla, who just returned from the wedding of their daughter in Korea. And we have been able to worship wholeheartedly, singing with loud voice, with the congregation in Maastricht – although not everyone is yet returned from vacation.

Although our travels sometimes seem a distant dream, we hold fast to the encouragement they brought us as we move forward today, and tomorrow. There is work to be done God is mighty working through His body, His children, everywhere we all are!

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.  1 Corinthians 16:13-14