Third Way

Recently our Wed. night meetings have been listening to the Rob Bell series "Calling all Peacemakers". The series was held last Christmas season at Mars Hill Bible Church. We have Podcasted and saved the three part series.
A very brief overview would be that we have been programmed and offered only two ways of response to acts of aggresion or violence against us. Those two would be 1. passiveness or 2. revenge. We explored the benefits (or lack of) to each response. Then Rob took us on a journey of Jesus offering us a "thrid way". I wish you could all listen to this series. It has been a life changing set of teachings for myself. I have been learning to keep an open mind to things of faith and really break God out of this comfortable box I've held him in. I am expiriencing a new freedom the rule laiden Christianity I've been exposed to most of my life. Anyways here is a breif snipet of some stories he told that were very different than I had been taught.
**Turn the other cheek** This story that Jesus was telling was a story of defiance, not passivity like I had always understood it. In the culture of the day your right hand was clean and the left was unclean. You would only slap or hit with your right hand. Slapping meant they felt superior to the person. Hitting would say we are equals. Only using the right hand meant you could only slap one cheek. If you turn the other cheek he would have to hit you wich meant he would have to recognize you as an equal.

**Carry the pack two miles** This story also is an act of defiance. If you carried the pack more than a mile it was seen as brutality. The Roman soldier could get into big trouble if he allowed you to carry it more than a mile. Jesus is telling us to get creative in our responses and explore a different way of response.

Our mens group discussion brought other names and examples into the picture. Names like Martin Luther King, Gahndi, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa ect. Jesus message to his followers would have been genious to the people of the day. It's genious for us today!

So here is the practical part of the story:
This has been a horrible week to be in the generator business. We have had storms and many thousands of customers without power. Of course some generators did not start and run like they are supposed to. I will say that the majority of them did but some didn't. So naturally the homeowner is not happy upon my arrival.
Such was my story of a couple living at Gull Lake. They were both well into there eighties. He was early in the stages of Alzhiemers (sp). She had just come home from the hospital with quadroupal bypass surgery. Their generator didn't start and it was the first time they had ever needed it. Well needless to say they were very anxious for me to arrive and fix it. I had bad news for them because it wasn't fixable. It was 10:00p.m. at night and a four hour job if I had the parts anyways.(which I didn't)
At this point the lady started down the negative aggressive path with me. She started bad mouthing our company and product. I could have just stood there and took it...I could have lashed back at her and told her she shouldn't have cancelled here service contract with us and we would have caught this.
But why not try a "Third Way"? I told her "mam I just feel horrible for you and your husband. I'm not sure what more I can do for you. I feel like I should just stand here and pray for you!" At this point the lady says "We've been praying all night!" I told her I have been a Christ follower for six years. She said they had been followers for much longer. She at that point ask me what my name was and said she was glad I was such a nice young man.
We parted ways as friends...still sad and dissapointed...but friends. I think of it now..If I had just took it..she would have stayed mad. If I had lashed back we both would have been mad. Using Jesus third way made things much better!

Looking for more THIRD WAYS,
Randy

Journeys End

Well first of all thanks to those of you who have commented on the previous posts. Lots of good discussion and wisdom!

This week has seen the ends to a couple of journeys in our family.

1. Stephanie made the volleyball team! woohoo! She has been working hard for this for the last two years. She has played the last two years in club volleyball just to make the high school team. Last year she broke her finger just before tryouts.
2. I have purchased my new lens for sports! For those of you who know, I've saved my pennies for two and a half years to be able to get this lens. I had to pay a little more than I wanted but I had to have it for this years sports season.
3. Finally on a little less happy note we are officially going to be leaving our church. We have been a part of Allendale Wesleyan for about 17yrs. now. We are so grateful for the impact people have had in our families lives. There are many emotions surrounding this decision. Through many events recently it has been made clear that it is time for a new adventure in serving God. As long as the doors continue to open we have made some plans for an exciting future of servanthood. We are currently going to plug into City Life Church in downtown Grand Rapids. The plan here is to serve here for the next year. We will be training in urban ministry to get us ready for our next adventure. In the summer/fall of 2008 there will be another opportunity for us to partner with a new church plant. Overflow Community Church is a new church being started in the St. Joe/Benton Harbor area. We have met a wonderful young couple that will be leading the charge to bring the kingdom to this area. We have seen God opening some doors already as we have been contemplating this move. There are plenty of doors that still have to open but we will keep walking through until it slams shut. (boy I hope it doesn't!)

On a personal note: I would ask you to keep us in your prayers when you think of us. This has been a big decision and will require a huge step out of our comfort zones. I'm excited and scared at the same time. But I'de rather be excited and scared than comfortable and bored!

For the AWC'ers reading this Blog....We love you guys and hope we can keep all our friendships! I know it becomes harder when we don't see each other each week but you can call anytime!

Love to you all,

Randy

Long way to go

I was listening to the news tonight and they talked about violent crime increasing by 21% from last year. Three young college guys were made to get on their knees and were shot in the back of the head. It just makes me sad....Our world is so confused. I remember sitting there thinking about my question in the last blog. (by the way you can now comment I didn't realize I had to format it) Is there any chance to the idea of heaven on earth?

But there is hope! More and more people are hearing the call to move back into the cities. They are passionate about bringing Jesus message of love and hope to the nieghborhoods they are now living in. The mostly younger generation has abandon the materialistic lifestyles and are learning to live in community and sharing resources living a more simple life. We have a group of young people in Grand Rapids that are doing just that. They have childrens ministries on Wed. nights for the nieghborhood. Fridays (in the summer) are cookout nights for the community and Saturdays are praise and worship nights in the prayer house.

I forgot to mention there are six guys and six girls living in seperate homes next door to each other. The first floor of the guys home is a prayer house. It also contains a kitchen and laundry that anyone can use. Homeless people and nieghbors frequently get food or wash their clothes there. This gives the kids an opportunity to begin a relationship with them.

I remember the first time I ever went to their praise and worship. I was frankly ashamed...I was not ready for what I was witnessing. In this small room were about 35 mid twentyish kids. Most of them were carrying a bible and a prayer journal. Between songs, one by one these kids would get up and either read scripture or pray passionatley about the lost in the city. Or they would pray for us....yes us. They would pray that God stir the comfortable church's in the subburbs. They prayed for the help of the silver hairs...(thats my generation and older)

I walked away from that night quite changed and troubled. I somehow now feel fake or guilty when I go back to "comfortable" church. I see people half heartedly going through the motions(much like I did) or they have some neat programmed response for all the questions. They get real nervous if you take God out their box. I just get sad. I used to get angry..but now I'm just sad.

Do I think the kingdom can come to earth as it is in heaven? I think some of it is already happening... go visit my friends in the city! But we do have a long way to go!

Love to you all,
Randy

Kingdom of God

"may your kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven"

"Kingdom" and "Heaven on earth" seem to be the buzz words lately in my world of study. I have enjoyed learning and studying some of the thoughts on these subjects. We have been having some great conversation and "aha moments" with some other men that are now coming to my house on Wed. nights. We have been listening to a teacher of the Bible who I believe is leading the way into the new culture that is upon us. Although controversial within the mainstream circles, I have yet to hear valid arguments that prove him wrong. But that is a discussion for another day.

A perfect example is a sermon from a different teacher I heard not to long ago. To give a quick summary of the talk was a statement that he made. I think it was, live life eternity minded. (not sure of exactness to the words) While this statement in itself is not a bad thing....we have a great party to look forward to. He never gave us any real hope for living our lives on our way to that eternity. This is the same message I've been hearing since I was little kid. He kept talking about how it was a long marathon and how we need to pace ourselves. My point to this rambling is that it is sad that we weren't given any hope of happiness or joy while we are here on earth! We might as well skip the long terrible journey and go right to heaven!

I know all you bible theologians will give me 15 reasons why that is wrong to say. But I think you get my drift. I just know in my heart that Jesus is saying you've got it all wrong! I know if he were here with us he would say that he was here so we could experience life to the full! Oh by the way let me turn that water into wine so we can celebrate a little longer!

I think I'll concentrate on loving my neighbor as myself and blessing any body God brings my way. Heaven is there waiting and when God sees fit I'll go to be with him. So here is the topic for discussion.

1. Do you believe we can achieve Heaven here on earth?
2. What are some tangible ways to achieve it?

Have an adventure with God!

Randy