In Between

Most of us prefer beginnings and endings.  The start of something is full of hope and possibility.  When we get to where we are going, it feels like we can finally relax and celebrate.  We prefer black and white, hot and cold.  Grey and lukewarm are challenging for us.  We often call this the “messy middle.”  It’s the place in between the start and finish where things are much harder to define.  It’s the place where decisions aren’t obvious.  Things are pretty clear on the day we declare war, and on the day we win.  On the days in between, we can find it nearly impossible to accurately size up a situation.

And yet that’s where life is lived - in between.  That’s where the battles are fought, the muscles are built, the grit is developed - in between the beginning and the end.  The Bible locates us in this “in between” space as well.  We are in between the promise and the fulfillment.  We are not who we used to be but also not who we will be.  This is indeed a messy place to be.  It lacks the concreteness and hard edges that we seek.  It is filled with pain and sorrow and temptations that will finally be vanquished by the destination.  Still, this in-between path is a good one.  In between is where God makes us who we are.  In between the full bloom of summer and the barrenness of winter is the beauty of fall colors that delight us.  As we walk toward our destination, our destination walks with us.  The Savior we are becoming like is not just the destination.  He is also the Way.

An Extra Hour

Saturday night we gained an extra hour by setting the clocks back.  This got me thinking about having an extra sixty minutes and what we do with them.  I’ve used this extra hour differently over the course of my life.  A few times I’ve used it in ways I’d rather not get into.  But mostly I’ve either stayed up later or cashed in on an extra hour of sleep.  

What’s interesting is that we can be pretty specific about how we would spend extra money.  If I gave you $100 and asked you how you planned to spend it, you could give me a pretty concrete answer.  But if you were given an extra hour one day, how would you use it?  Can you answer that question in specific ways?  I’m guessing that’s a harder question.  Hopefully most of us have some idea about budgeting our money.  But time is a very valuable commodity too.  It is well worth budgeting the resource of time.  As we move toward the holidays, it might be worth a look at how you budget your time.  Are you in the red?  Are you being generous with your time?  Are you making wise investments?  Each of us has a different level of income.  But when it comes to time, our “income” is the same - 24 hours a day for each of us.  

More Than a Gift

by Drew DeVries

Inspired by Christ’s love, Children's HopeChest connects churches and other communities in the United States with communities overseas through its Community-to-Community model. Rather than simply sending assistance from a distance, these partnerships build lasting relationships, coming alongside local leaders who know their communities and are working toward a stronger future for their children. The goal is not ongoing dependence, but lasting change that builds on the gifts and resources already present.

But the invitation goes beyond financial support. HopeChest encourages connections through prayer, letter writing, sponsorship, and opportunities to visit. These are ways for people to move from knowing about a need to knowing one another. HopeChest calls this “two-way transformation”—the belief that a relationship can change both communities, not just the one receiving financial support. That challenges the way we sometimes think about helping. We do not have to arrive with every answer. We can listen. We can learn. We can recognize that the people we meet have gifts to share, faith to encourage us, and experiences that may stretch our understanding of God’s work in the world. Our generosity can become something more than a transaction. It can become friendship. This Sunday, November 1, we have the opportunity to step into this relationship!

Addition by Subtraction?

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

-Jim Elliot

Jesus implies things that defy conventional wisdom.  Things like not storing up treasures on earth.  Things like not worrying about provision and finding life through death.  While we hear these statements and nod our heads, it is tough to be confident in these counterintuitive teachings.  One way we can discover if these things are actually true is to try them out.  It’s like taking a few steps out onto a bridge to see if it will hold you.  Ultimately, we need to decide whether to trust Jesus, but there are ways we can get more comfortable with entrusting things to him.

One area of life where we can test the waters a bit is through generosity.  We don’t have to give everything away to see if what the Bible says about giving is true.  By simply giving a little more, we can judge for ourselves if there is gain.  We can decide if being more generous makes us more joyful.  Do we find a greater freedom from our worries and fears when we give more away?  The Bible is filled with examples of God replacing our material possessions with even more valuable forms of wealth - relational and spiritual wealth - while still meeting all our needs abundantly.  Our church family is full of these stories too.  So why not give it a try?  You know what you have to lose.  Now you can find out all that you can gain.

Christian and Celebrity

Last week, a musical artist named Robert Ritchie, also known as Kid Rock, released a new album.  A Christian album.  The first single is called “Jesus Is King.”  If you know anything about Kid Rock, you know that this is a dramatic departure from his catalogue of songs.  Until now, his songs mostly glorified alcohol and drug use and objectified women.  With this latest release, Kid Rock is singing about the freedom he’s found in a relationship with Jesus.  It’s fair to question how Kid Rock’s previous songs square with the kingdom of God.  But we also need to acknowledge that the power of God can change a human heart.  Good for you, Kid!

While I’m happy for Kid Rock, I have some concerns about what this means for the movement.  There is a sentiment among Christians that when a celebrity becomes a Christian, it validates our faith.  When Kanye West or Kim Kardashian or a professional athlete expresses a faith in Jesus, it goes to show that our beliefs are legitimate.  But Jesus doesn’t need an endorsement from celebrities to be our Savior.  Furthermore, when a celebrity goes public with faith in Christ, it’s usually a mixed bag.  It will challenge some to explore the claims of Christianity while further alienating others.  I contend that the most powerful testimony is not that of a celebrity, but the love of Christ expressed through you and me to the people in our lives.  Our faith has only one true celebrity.  And it’s not Kid Rock or you or me.  It’s Jesus.

God Is at Work

God is at work, especially when we don’t see it! When I was talking with the students on Sunday, we got on the topic of how we recognize that God is with us. Most of us agreed that it can be really difficult to notice God when bad things happen. When life gets hard, it can sometimes feel like God is distant or that we are facing our struggles on our own. But the difficult circumstances we experience don’t change the fact that God is there with us.

That is such an important truth to remember because God never promises that we will live without struggle. What he does promise is that he will be with us when we struggle. Deuteronomy 31 puts it this way: “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Jesus gives us the same promise when he tells his disciples that he will be with us until the end of the age.

God is not only with us right now; he is also going before us. He knows what is coming; he knows what we are facing, and he promises never to leave our side. So as you walk through this week, remember that no matter what is going on, God sees you, knows you, and loves you. Even when you can’t see what God is doing, you can trust that he is still at work.

By Drew DeVries

Seasons

Michigan is one of the places in the world where we get four real seasons.  When we lived in North Carolina, people talked about having four seasons, but they really only had two-and-a-half (hot, sort of hot, and chilly).  In Michigan, the places we go in the summer look like a completely different place in the winter.  It’s amazing how shorter days, cold weather, and snow can completely change a landscape.  The exact same trail, beach, or field can look completely different.

There are seasons in our lives too.  Although we remain the same people, when our circumstances and resources change, we can look very different.  These new conditions call forth different parts of ourselves.  There are seasons of planting and preparing (spring).  There are seasons of growth and productivity (summer).  There are seasons of reaping and contentment (fall).  There are even seasons of stillness and rest (winter).  It’s fall in Michigan.  But what about you?  What season are you in?  And how is that season changing the landscape of your life?  

Reasons to Go to Church, pt. 3

Most of the places we go are for us.  We go to the grocery store to get what we need.  We stop at the gas station because our vehicle needs gas.  We go to the theater to be entertained by a movie.  We gather with friends to enjoy their company.  Even church falls into this category.  We go to church to find encouragement and fellowship and to connect with God.  These are very legitimate reasons to go to church.  God designed Christian fellowship to meet some of our most important needs.  It would be a struggle to attend a church that offered a miserable experience.

But there’s more to church than meeting your own important needs.  Church doesn’t exist just for you.  Your existence is also for the church.  The church needs you much the same as you need the church.  Every Sunday you attend, you make a contribution to God’s family.  It’s not just how you give money or serve, but simply by being present.  The fact that you are present on a Sunday is important to someone in our church family.  Your presence is a source of encouragement to your sisters and brothers.  And who knows, but that God might have a kind word for you to speak, a guest for you to welcome, or a hug for you to give someone?  Yes, you need the church in your life.  But the church needs you too! 

Reasons to Go to Church, pt. 2

One of the most interesting developments in employment is the emergence of “remote work.”  I have a neighbor from Central California who bought his home in Spring Lake so he could enjoy summers here.  All his work is remote, so he can live wherever he chooses.  There are a lot of advantages to remote work.  You can avoid the daily grind of traffic and wasted time commuting to your place of employment.  Working from home also trims a lot of the fat associated with a work day.  Chit-chat around the water cooler or copy machine is no longer cutting into productivity.  This can also save the company a great deal of money by having a smaller office (or no office at all).  As many as these advantages are, I’m still left with a question: how does physical, human interaction impact the quality of our work?  Does it make it better?  Or do we lose something?

I think there is a lot to gain from the emergence of “remote church.”  Members who travel or go south for the winter have been able to stay connected to our church through the weekly live stream.  People on vacation can watch from their hotel room or campsite or go back later to “go to church.”  But I have the same question: how does physical, human interaction impact the quality of our experience of church?  Church is more than music and a sermon.  It’s the collective beauty and brokenness of the gathered saints.  If attending a live worship service isn’t for you anymore, please make contact and community with your brothers and sisters in Christ in some way.  There is something about standing in the same physical space, seeing and hearing each other, that makes the body of Christ concrete and tangible and more real.

Reasons to Go to Church, pt. 1

I’ll start with a confession.  I never made it to a worship service during the three Sundays I was off this summer.  We were traveling out of town, and for various reasons it just didn’t work out.  But missing church taught and reminded me of some important reasons that I maintain the practice of going to church.  (Yes, I know, it’s my job to go to church, but beyond that…)  Over the next few weeks, I’d like to share some important reasons to gather with other Christians regularly.  Here’s the first: We need to be reminded of who God is.  It’s remarkable how easily we can forget the character of God.  As we go through our weeks and months, God can grow more and more distant.  As the rigors and challenges of life happen to us and around us, God begins to shrink into a distant deity who maybe keeps an eye on things, but isn’t all that involved.  We start believing that we’re alone in this endeavor called life.

Gathering with others who are in Christ is a critical reminder that God is not far off or disinterested.  God is near.  He is with us and among us.  He is directing history and our lives and working all things together for our good.  A worship service is designed to remind us of this.  It recalibrates our understanding of how the world works.  It is God’s world.  He is over all.  He is present in our lives with his love and providential care.  There is a lot to be gained from personal, daily devotions and Christian media.  But going to church helps us see this in a more intense and impactful way.  Gathering with brothers and sisters in Christ reminds us that we’re not alone in this.  In addition to a spiritual family, the sovereign God of the universe is with us.

Community and Codependence

Psychological terms have found their way into everyday language.  Words like “boundaries” and “issues” have become part of normal speech.  Another term that gets used a lot is “codependence.”  Codependence occurs when a person attaches their own mental well-being and value to another person.  This happens when we can’t be happy unless our spouse or child or parent is happy.  We take on the weight of making sure these people are okay and happy.  Our state of mind is tied to the plight of others.

So when the Bible tells us to “rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15), is it asking us to be codependent?  Christian community is not at all codependent.  Our happiness and joy are not attached to another person, but to God’s promises and goodness.  Christian community recognizes that life is hard.  Out of love for a sister or brother, we share their tears.  Out of a desire to see God’s best for them, we rejoice with them in their growth and achievements.  But our happiness is never staked on another human being.  Our only comfort lies not in the happiness of someone we love, but in the fact that we belong to Jesus.

I Believe

I believe pain and suffering are a part of the broken world that we live in.

I believe that, like stars require darkness to be visible in the night sky, joy requires suffering and struggle to become real in our lives.

I believe that there is no sorrow, pain, wound, or tragedy that God cannot and will not redeem.

I believe that God’s power is mostly found at the end of ours.

I believe that the kingdom of God is visible, like the glow of the eastern sky before dawn.

I believe a life lived for that kingdom is far fuller than a life lived for oneself.

I believe that the little things make a difference and that even the smallest act of kindness ripples into eternity.

I believe that each one of us was created for such a time as this.

Communion

This coming Sunday we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  We invite anyone who has a saving relationship with Jesus to participate by taking a small piece of bread and a swallow of juice in a tiny cup.  We are called to prepare ourselves to receive communion.  The Bible warns against taking the body and blood in an unworthy manner.  And so we have often used the week prior to communion as a time to take an inventory of our lives and assess them against God’s will.  Unfortunately, this has left the impression that a Christian needs to be good enough to receive communion.  If there is sin in our lives that we aren’t addressing or if we haven’t lived up to biblical standards, we are disqualified from taking the Lord’s Supper.  

But this is all backwards!  Communion isn’t a sacrament just for obedient people who are living at the center of God’s will.  It is a sacrament for sinful, disobedient people who are grieved by their failures or are even unaware of them.  Communion is for people who don’t feel worthy to receive it.  It is a sacrament for people too dense to understand all the ways they fail.  We are invited to the meal completely by the grace of the One who provides it.  This is the irony of communion: we are the most qualified to receive it when we realize how unqualified we are to receive it.  So come to the table! Taste the glory of a gift that you aren’t worthy of, but are given anyway!

God In Every Season

As summer begins to give way to a new school year, many of us feel the shift in our routines. The days seem to move a little faster, calendars begin to fill up, and families start preparing for what's ahead. Season changes remind us that life is always moving, but God remains steady through it all. In every new schedule, every new classroom, and every new responsibility, the Lord is present and faithful.

As we step into this next season, we can hold onto the promise of Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Whether we are getting every moment from the slower pace of summer or have started gearing up for school, God is still at work in our lives. May He give us peace for the transitions, wisdom for the days ahead, and grace to trust Him in every season.

Honoring the Coast Guard

Well, it’s Coast Guard week.  I know some people love the festive vibe of this time of year.  For those who grew up coming to the festival, it brings back great memories.  But to me, because I’m a bit of a curmudgeon, Coast Guard Week is just a lot of extra traffic.  I’m happy to be out of town for it this year.  Several years ago, it was the city of Ferrysburg’s turn to host the Coast Guard banquet.  They asked me to give the invocation for the meal.  Sitting there with high-ranking officers and hearing about all the ways that the Coast Guard benefits us, I realized that this is more than a carnival.  It is a thank you to the men and women who are willing to risk their lives to defend our shores.  It is a celebration of people whose everyday duty is heroic.

If you head out to the festival this week, watch the parade, or take in the fireworks, remember: this is more than an excuse to throw a party.  Say thank you to a “coastie.”   And when you get stuck in Grand Haven traffic this week, maybe you can find it in your heart to be a little more gracious and patient out of respect for the US Coast Guard.

Identity

How do you introduce yourself to people?  When you are trying to explain who you are, what kinds of information do you share?  You might talk about your occupation or the place where you work.  You might talk about your children or grandchildren.  In the course of conversation, you might describe your hobbies, your favorite sports teams, or your political convictions.  All of these are interesting tidbits about your life.  None of these things define you.

I realize it would be a little awkward to go around introducing yourself as a child of God.  But it would be worth taking a moment or two every day to remind yourself of that basic truth.  Introduce yourself to… yourself as a child of God.  And not just because it’s true, but because it’s the only identity strong enough to hold you.  You can lose your job.  You can be disappointed by your family.  Hobbies come and go.  Sports teams lose.  Politics is a rollercoaster.  But we have a Father whose love never fails.  We have a Father who has chosen us to be his permanent children.  That’s who you are: a child of God.  It’s the most true thing about you.

Summer: A Destination Season

Summer is a destination season.  Spring and fall are seasons of transition.  They are marked by change.  The start and end of spring and fall look very different.  But summer (along with winter) is a season that stays much the same.  We work hard all spring to plant our gardens and flowers and get the lawn ready for summer.  We clean our homes to remove the signs of winter dormancy.  But once summer comes, we enjoy the fruit of our labors.  There is still work to be done in the summer.  But it is the work of maintenance, rather than preparation.

Ever since the resurrection of Jesus, we have been in the springtime of history.  We are planting and sowing, cleaning and repairing.  We are getting ready for a destination we call the new creation.  In much the same way that spring creates a longing for summer, we live in anticipation of the final summer.  Our labor will no longer be in preparation, but rather in celebration of this final, beautiful season of life.  We will have arrived.  The damage of sin will be cleaned up forever.  Jesus will be there.  God will be with us.

Summer: School's Out!

This is one of my favorite memories from when I was a kid.  It was the evening on the last day of school.  It was getting dark, and I came in from playing with my friends in the neighborhood.  Normally I would be thinking about school the next day.  Then it hit me: there was no school tomorrow.  For a whole summer I would not have to sit in class, ask permission to use the bathroom, and do homework at night.  But let me be clear.  I didn’t stop learning just because school was out.  I learned just as much in the summer.  It’s just that the subject matter was different and the style was far less formal.

When I think about the age to come when everything is made new, I imagine waking up in the first morning in heaven and rejoicing for all the things I won’t have to do anymore.  All the frailties of this body and the dysfunction of this life will be gone for good.  But in the age to come we will keep learning.  For eternity we will explore great mysteries and learn the mind of God.  The classroom of this life will give way to the heavenly laboratory where we will discover answers to our nagging questions.  We will find new questions to ask and discover those answers as well.  We’ll have an eternity to learn the greatness of God.  And it will take an eternity to learn the greatness of God. 

Summer: Light

This week marks the official start of summer.  In honor of this season, I will be sharing some reflections on its significance over the next few weeks.  Yesterday was the longest day of the year.  Technically, every day is just 24 hours.  But in mid-June we get a good 16 hours of daylight.  Contrast that with Christmas when we barely get 8 hours of daylight.  One of the reasons that December 25 was established as the date for Christmas is to remind us that, as the prophet writes, “people living in darkness have seen a great light.”  In the midst of our greatest darkness, Jesus comes as the light of the world.  From that point on, daylight hours grow longer and longer until June 21, when we experience the greatest amount of daylight.  

What started in a manger 2000 years ago has been growing.  That light has been dawning.  Summer is a symbol of the fullness and maturity of light.  In Revelation, John describes it this way: “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.”  The longest day of the year reminds us of the eternal day when darkness will be no more. 

Rainforest Falls and FCC Vision

Our vision at FCC is to become more like Jesus by growing closer to God, deeper in his family, and louder in his world.  Everything we do is aimed at that.  So how does Rainforest Falls VBS fit in with our vision?

Closer to God - our kids and volunteers hear the stories from God’s word, worship, and reflect on God’s work in their lives throughout the week.  

Deeper in God’s Family - relationships are formed among kids, student volunteers, and adults.  This week especially prioritizes intergenerational relationships.

Louder in God’s World - many of the kids who come to VBS don’t have a church family.  Every day they hear the Good News and have opportunities to respond to God’s love.

Rainforest Falls isn’t just a one-off, unrelated event that we do each summer.  It is powerfully pursuant to our goal of helping people become more like Jesus.  It is one of the most important things we do toward growing closer to God, deeper in his family, and louder in his world.  Rainforest Falls begins today.  Please pray that we can live out our vision this week!