Life is Fragile / SHIP May 26

 life is fragile.

Ask the important questions

Who am I? What am I doing here?

Deut 6: Love the Lord with all your Heart, Soul and Might

Ship is on May 26, at the church

Come out for worship

meet other young adults

 Coffee is on at 7.30

Faith / Ship / Summer in Israel

Is anyone of you graduating? What are your plans? And if you are home for the summer would you like to get together? Moria & I would like to do a small group “summer in Israel” study. For July and August, for young adults. We could do Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon for 1 ½ hours. We plan to show 55 pictures every time and (bible) stories to go with them. Let me know what time is good for you. We love to do this so please come You can come just a few times or every time. (there will also be a Wednesday evening group open to everyone)

This Sunday is SHIP Sunday at 7.30 refreshments and 8PM worship. It is in our church (the theater season has begun). The creative team has some great plans to give the church a “coffee-house" look. So come out and meet other young adults.

I love to listen  when I go for a long drive. Not so much to music but more to speakers. I was listening to Dwight Prior the other day about faith/faithfulness.

I have been told that you only have to believe, have faith in Jesus to be saved. But what does that mean? Does it mean if I know it and think it is true?

Did you know that the opposite of faith is not unbelief but disobedience? Makes you think that faith maybe should have been translated faithfulness.

^James:  But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

Resurrection Day Note

Resurrection day        

This year on March 31 we celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the death. But first we remember his death on Good Friday.

Romans 4: Because of our sins he was given over to die, and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God.

This is what the bible teaches us. But the bible teaches so much more. The whole word of God is important.

Luke 24: He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

 To prepare your heart for the message of the resurrection read one of the gospels in its entirety. Or listen to it on line. Or go to a Passover Seder. Maybe do all 3.

After He rose Jesus instructed his disciples:

Luke 24: Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Blessings,

Anja Noordam elder for young Adults

The SHIP for young Adults will be at March 24 Drayton Festival Theater 7.30 fellowship and 8.00PM worship starts.

Clean up, Throw out, February 2013 note

 What to do for Lent...
This year for Lent why don't you clean out your room.
Throw away some of your decorations or souvenirs like Buddha's or Dream-Catchers. Maybe you have a decoration "to keep out the evil eye", get rid of it.
Look through your book case throw anything out that isn't pleasing to the Lord.
Go through your Music, Movies even Jewelry.
Do you have any lucky charms? like a red string or chestnut, throw them all out.
I try to do it every year and am every time surprised by how much there is for the garbage.

1 John 5:21  Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

Did you find something to throw out? where you surprised how many things over time slithered into your room?

January 2013 note; The Den

Lately we’ve been watching some old episodes of the Dragon’s den. It’s a TV show where an entrepreneur tries to pitch his product to some human dragons in the hope that they will support the product with $$$.  Usually the dragons want a bigger share of the company for less money. They are not easily convinced to part with their money. This show is a picture of the world we live in. The key word is” more”

·         More Money

·         More eating, fast foods preferably

·         More texting, & tweeting,

·         More working, multi tasking

·         More consuming, big box stores

Are  we as Christians different or are we part of this rat-race? Listening to Walter Brueggeman giving 6 lectures about “the other way”

 Dr. Brueggeman calls it our Baptismal Identity. He looks at Daniel (from the Lion’s den) and how he decided to be different, Daniel1:8.  But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.  From the book of Daniel we can learn some strategies for living the other way.

How do we live the other way?

·         Try fasting (from electronics) 1 day a week

·         No production  (work) or consumption (buying) one day a week

·         No sports one day a week

·         Eat healthy

Choose some or all, try it out and see if you have more energy.  It is biblical to keep the Sabbath, we need more energy to be able to give; Mercy, Justice, Generosity ...Forgiveness. Living the other way is not easy, but worth it.

Have a break from the rat-race and instead practice your “baptismal identity”.

Honestly, this is hard, I try not to start up the computer on Sundays, but I do own a smart phone, so it is so easy to cheat.
Suppose we would be more generous and forgiving. I wonder... would it make a difference for our neighbours?

click for the next SHIP meeting

Jesus was born in the time when Herod was King

Jesus was born in the time when Herod was king

When you go to Israel and want to “walk as Jesus walked” one of the first things you find out is that there is very little left of anything connected directly to Jesus. There is a lot left connected to Herod.

 Herodian stones on the temple mount in Jerusalem

 Massada beside the dead sea, hanging pallaces on the left

 The Herodian near Bethlehem

 In Caesarea we picked up some pieces of marble, even after so many years there are still pieces of marble everywhere . Herod wanted the world to know that there was a Herod, and usually the only thing people know about Herod is that he killed the babies in Bethlehem

On the other hand  a living saviour; Jesus the Messiah. His kingdom is present everywhere on earth where people live in obedience to His word. Near Jerusalem we  went to a cave, used for herds of sheep & goats to be overnight. 

There are many pictures in the Christmas story. Mangers were used for water, Jesus is living water. Bethlehem = bakery, Jesus is the bread of life. 

We may miss many of the pictures and sometimes have a problem with the many pagan symbols used today at Christmas time. But the heart of the story is still true. Jesus came to earth for all of us. Emanuel=God with us.

Merry Christmas

Noveber note "What good is God?

It was a beautiful day when a rabbi and
a soap maker decided to go out for a stroll.
They were both enjoying the warm weather
when the soap maker abruptly turned to
the rabbi and asked, “What good is God & religion?The bible teaches all these highfalutin’
morals and all these lofty values and ethics, yet look at this
world!” Without giving the rabbi a chance to respond, the soap
maker continued his rant: “The world is corrupt. It’s filled with
pain and evil and wickedness. So I ask you, Rabbi, what good
is God?”
Before the rabbi could answer, out of nowhere a huge
rubber ball came flying through the air, headed right toward
him. Fortunately the rabbi had quick reflexes. He caught the
ball before it smacked him in the face! The rabbi returned the
ball to the apologetic young boy who had come after it. As the
boy ran off to join his friends, the rabbi said, “Just look at that
young child. He’s absolutely filthy! And you’re a soap maker,
so I ask you, what good is soap? There’s all this soap in the
world, and that young boy is still dirty!”
The soap maker protested. “How can you say that about
soap? You’re a learned man, Rabbi, so surely you understand
that soap is good only if it’s used.”
“Aha,” said the rabbi, with a slight grin. “And so it is with God's word. We can teach it, and people can say they’ve learned it,
but until they’ve used it and truly understand the meaning of
its lessons, the power of its teachings, and the weightiness of
its laws, then—and only then—can God make a positive
difference in the world.”