Shining Light into Darkness

Sometimes my friends swear on my Facebook page.

And, naturally, it could make me self-conscious, or keep me on my toes, knowing that whoever “from church” that was scrolling through Facebook now knows I associate with someone who does not live every moment like Jesus Christ. Recently, I have stopped feeling the need to apologize for it.

Before I continue, I assure you this blog is not about Facebook. I’m not here to talk about complacency either. And, NO, I’m not even CLOSE to trying to tell you what is acceptable to say and what is not. I am not a Bible, but I suggest you consult one if you ever do find yourself coming to my blogs for answers on how you should live [because you’ll be broke in a month and probably somewhere in Africa.]

Rather, I’d like to highlight an issue that comes to mind every time a friend of mine has dropped a four letter bomb in the comment section of my Facebook. It’s the issue that comes up every time I don’t go home when a friend of mine starts recounting a “wild weekend.” It’s the fact that every time I get into a friend’s car with a rap song playing on the radio, I don’t plug my ears and shout, “LALALALALALA.” The issue lies in culture, the Holy Spirit, and our reaction to both.

On Sunday, Pastor Aaron mentioned the subculture of Christianity that formed after the Scopes Trial decision. Becoming of this was a collection of Christian-specific media, education, business, and overall interaction that many of us participate in. In no way is it wrong to listen to a Christian artist or buy from a Christian-based business. However, we have a tendency to abuse it, making it a fortress from the outside instead of an invitation to come in.  As Christians, we love to talk about how we are “in the world but not of it.” The problem is we often seem to forget that we are IN the world. For me, many times this comes from forgetting where my own faith comes from; within.

We should not be afraid to live in the world in which we exist. The strength and salvation of Jesus, along with the power of the Holy Spirit, dwells IN us. It is internalized in us every day we make the decision to trust and follow Him. In this way, it is possible for us (as followers of Christ) to walk in truth and righteousness. We don’t need to live in a Christian bubble. Because we have been given authority, through the gospel and the power of Christ, we can carry His presence with us regardless of our environment. If we truly believe this, we have no room to fear that living in an environment of less than holiness with less than holy people who do less than holy things will defeat our own spirits. WE have been transformed by an alive, victorious God.

It is because of this transformation that we can go boldly, just as God challenged the refugees in Jeremiah 29 to do. In verses 5-7, Jesus challenges the captives with the command,

⁵ “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. ⁶ Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! ⁷ And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare. (NLT)

Like the refugees, we are to make our homes, settle in, and make connections with the broken world around us. We are not to fear going deeper. Though we, ourselves, have not come FROM it, the world is where we are supposed to be. So let’s be present. Let’s be impactful.

No longer do I feel shame for my friends who say dirty things on the internet, or my friend who dresses a certain way, or my friend who lives a life that disobeys a God they don’t fully know yet. Rather, I have found that if things aren’t a little messy, you’ve been still for too long.

This week, I encourage you. Let’s examine our lives, and see what we have become reliant on. Is it our own “bubbles” we have created, or the Savior that lives within us? Let us go boldly, as we have been given authority to, to be a light not in more light, but in darkness.

Written by: Brianna Vanderveen

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant

Truth

I am kind of a nerd. In fact, when I realized it was my week to blog on the topic of “truth” it was all I could do to not focus my writing around a catchphrase from my all-time favorite conspiracy theory- based sci-fi show.

But I decided to spare the readership that torture.

However, I will torture you with my current nerdy obsession: talk radio podcasts. I love podcasts about science and technology or criminology or just the art of storytelling. This week, incidentally, two days after Sunday’s message, I began listening to one particular podcast that examines thoughts and how these shape human behavior.

In the first episode, the story followed a man struggling with very dark thoughts that were bombarding him – violent thoughts about harming and even killing people he loved. He began to worry that these thoughts defined who he was and that he’d eventually succumb to the actions suggested by his brain. These thoughts began to disrupt his normal life.

The young man began seeing a psychologist who helped him understand that these thoughts did not define him. The psychologist taught him various techniques to drive away the troublesome ideas and thus resume normal life. He had to come to the realization that these thoughts were not true.

Our message this past weekend centered on “truth.” We learned that the idea of absolute truth is a fleeting notion in a postmodern society. The “relativity of truth” is rampant and creating “one’s own truth” is the norm. In 2015, the lie that society has accepted is that our thoughts determine our truth.

On Sunday, we also learned that absolute truth can be found, it must be acted upon and anything untrue must be rejected. If you missed the message and haven’t had a chance to listen to it, I would encourage you to do so!

As I further meditated on Sunday’s message and then began listening to the aforementioned nerdy podcast, I was also reminded of part of the life group teaching from our Transformed series on mental health: Don’t believe everything you think.

Yes, our thoughts are not always to be trusted, as obviously demonstrated in my opening story about the man in the podcast. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” The world would tell us, follow your heart. Do what you think is right for you. The Bible tells us just the opposite.

Scripture also tells us that we need to take action over untruths that pop into our heads. 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us that we are to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

It is increasingly vital as Christians that we study the word voraciously. We need to know exactly what it says in an effort to battle not only the onslaught of ideas and worldviews that press in on us from every side, but also our own internal thoughts that attempt to formulate false truth for us.

So this week, let’s focus on the truth of God’s word and let it sink deep into our way of thinking:

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Psalm 119:11.

Written by: Jaime Hlavin

Edited by: Jenelle Kelly

Righteousness

I grew up in church, so I can remember oo-ing and ahh-ing at the “ultra-holy” prayers spoken by many of my leaders in children’s church and youth group. The more “Father-God’s” thrown in there, the more likely it was that their prayers were reaching God. The whole concept is a bit ridiculous, but I always admired someone who could pray “well.” For years, if I knew I was going to have to pray in front of people I would rehearse in my mind what I was going to say. I wanted to sound righteous, after all! The more I did this though, the less sense it made. The God I had heard about and grown to know was someone who was considered my counselor, my teacher, and my friend. So why was I talking to Him in such a way? My prayers may have been eloquent, but they weren’t always real. I often spent more time thinking about the words I was saying than I did the recipient of the prayer.

This type of attitude is more common than we’d like to admit in Christianity. Although you may not have jumped over this particular hurdle, perhaps you have acted in other ways to display your “righteousness.” Have you ever had an explosive argument in the car on the way to church, then waltzed in with a smile on your face and a Bible in hand, looking ready for a little Holy Ghost Hoedown? Or perhaps you’ve lifted your hands during worship just at the right time with the sole purpose of ensuring that nobody knows you’re really just daydreaming about what’s for lunch.

Artificial righteousness could be a little more discrete though. You may even follow everything a Christian is supposed to do. You may read your Bible, pray, and attend church with good intentions, but never put anything you learn into action. It’s far too common for Christians to sit on the outside of society and criticize, meanwhile putting no effort whatsoever in to change the flaws within themselves.

Whatever category you may fall into, I think we could all bear to be a little more real with ourselves, and a little more real with God. In Matthew 6:9:15 (The Lord’s Prayer,) we are taught four important principles. To have a good relationship with God, we need to:

1.       Honor His name (Matthew 6:9)

2.       Follow well (Matthew 6:10)

3.       Learn dependence (Matthew 6:11)

4.       Remember forgiveness (Matthew 6:12-15)

Incorporating these principles in our day-to-day life is vital to our spiritual health. In order to grow and get to know God better, we really have to put in the work. That means praying and spending time in the Word when nobody else is around to see it. That means abiding by His direction in circumstances where we could easily get away with doing our own thing. That means trusting God even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. That means forgiving people even when they don’t deserve it.

To be righteous is not to sound or look like you’ve got it together. To be righteous is to be real, and to be free from guilt or sin. I challenge you to examine your life this week, and see if you can find an area to work on that you may have a righteous exterior, but lack a truly righteous interior. 

Written by: Tamara Sturdivant

Edited by: De Ann Sturdivant

Trust

As an American citizen living in a suburb of Michigan with a Walmart just within driving distance, I am extremely blessed and privileged. That sentence alone covers just about every basic need I have. I don't have to worry about where my food will come from, where I will sleep tonight, whether my family will be safe, or even how to get an education.

And you know what? I trust God for all of it.

Sounds pretty grand of me. That's like a level 316 Christian statement. I should take a trip to Israel or start a devotional Instagram account now (you know, because my devotional life is different than my real life, but that's another blog for another time).

But really, we make statements like this all the time, and they're slightly ridiculous. Have you ever seen a mob movie where someone brings in a suitcase full of money, sets it on the table, and the mob boss says, "I don't know if I trust these guys to follow through on this money sitting right here"? No! So why then, when we vocalize our "trust in God," do we default to trusting Him merely for everything we can go home and find in our houses already?

I've questioned myself on this for a few weeks now, actually, and this Sunday I figured it out. I think my life is too complicated for God's provision. The Bible says not to worry about our clothes, our food, or our homes because God cares for all of His creation. He provides for the birds and the grass, but what about us? What about our medical expenses? What animal has those? Or the electric bill after you've been laid off? What about that credit card debt? Is the grass of the fields living paycheck to paycheck as well? What about where I'm going with my life? What about these new ideals and cultural shifts? What did the birds do with those?

As Matthew 6:25-34 states,

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Sometimes, as Christians, we bring our problems to God, but fail to really trust Him to provide. We pick through our struggles and realize how the Bible never mentioned this, or that. But it is through this mistrust that we harm our own faith. To question God’s nature of provision overtime is ultimately to suggest to ourselves that the Bible IS dated, and there is a “relevancy” expiration date on the New Testament. Sure, maybe the writers of the Bible never anticipated our world evolving like it has, but God absolutely did.

No matter what time we live in or the struggles we have, we are instructed to not worry about the tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). Like the Israelites trusting God for the manna and quail, we should stand firm and confident in the knowledge that God has provided for us TODAY, and will do so again tomorrow.

This week, let's all reflect on what areas of our lives we thought were too complicated for God, and put our trust somewhere it can actually do something.

Written by: Brianna Vanderveen

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant

Wisdom

Does any among you need wisdom, brethren? Let him seek it -- from one William S. Preston Esquire, and Theodore Logan.

Bear with me a minute.  You may not recall the heinous protagonistic dudes of Bill and Ted’s excellent cinema franchise, unless you were also in high school when those films landed in theaters and caught Pastor Marcus’ message Sunday on 1 Kings as well. But if you’re going to talk high schoolers and ageless wisdom, well, middle age doesn’t bring everyone to maturity and some of us are going to go there in our minds.

Solomon in Proverbs 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” A surprisingly similar conclusion is found in the vein time-travel of Bill and Ted. They discover their history book as they search ancient Athens for Socrates (or So-Cratez) and learn that, “the only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing.” To which Ted exultantly replies, “That’s us, dude!”

Waiting for the connection? Here it is. Fearing the Lord, and seeking his counsel and wisdom, often begins with our own realization and acceptance of how little we know without Him. Recall in 1 Kings 3:7, after God tells Solomon to ask Him for whatever he wants. The new king replies, “God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.” Pastor Marcus parked on this sentence briefly in the message, and I want to do the same for a minute. This moment of humility is the beginning of Solomon’s greatness, and only in this state is he able to receive God’s amazing gift.  This works much the same as His other gifts – who receives salvation without first knowing you’re a sinner, or is able to minister effectively without first knowing our brothers and sisters need His help more than ours? Why should the gift of wisdom be any different?

Now if you went to school at any other time period and got a less dude-ified take on Greek history, you may recall Socrates a little differently. He begins his philosophy career after someone reportedly asks the Oracle at Delphi who has the most wisdom in Greece, and is told no one is wiser than Socrates of Athens. The incredulous Socrates, a stone-cutter by trade and recent veteran of military service, doesn’t believe this omen and spends much of his life trying to disprove it. Why? Because Socrates knows he knows nothing – and this self-awareness, as he tests the knowledge and beliefs of others through his famed dialectic method, gives him the advantage over other Greeks’ whose knowledge is founded on poor assumptions.

Be honest with yourself, about your need of God’s help and how far beyond your own thoughts His always are. That also came up in the message, and I find that principle best illustrated in an interlude of Job that reads, “When He (God) he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and appraised it, confirmed it and measured it out. And to the human race he said. ‘The fear of the Lord is wisdom. And to depart from evil, that is understanding.’ “(Job 28:26-28). A startlingly simple truth, from an infinite Creator who carries thoughts in His mind you and I could never grasp.  No one has understanding more than He who created it all – and such is his grace, then when you and I begin to shed our vain and feeble thoughts we can actually receive some of His own.

That’s us, dude!

Written by: Chad Halcom

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant

Transformed- Vocational Health

 I have a weird confession.

Many, many mornings over the course of my work history, I have stumbled out of bed toward the coffee pot with the words of Todd Rundgren’s 1983 Bang the Drum All Day playing in my head:

I don’t want to work
I just want to bang on the drum all day…

I know….that’s really weird on many levels. It’s an annoying song, I don’t play the drums, it doesn’t make sense, it’s from the 80’s, and the list goes on. Obviously, work isn’t something we always bounce out of bed in excitement to accomplish each day. 

And “work,” or this concept of “vocational transformation,” can be an emotionally complicated idea. It may be easy to check out of this final week of Transformed if you don’t view yourself as fitting into an area in the traditional workplace.  However, I view “work” as a broader concept than the morning commute, the 9-5 or the business owner. I encourage you to do so, also.

While, yes, work is made up of the things I mentioned, it is also school, an internship, stay-at-home parenting/managing of a household, etc. The concepts we learned on Sunday, the small group sessions and the devotional can help us transform the way we view all of these areas of our lives.

Sometimes, we are living the dream. The internship turned into a full time position for a company you really believe in! Your children are thriving and your home is in order! Your business venture has really broken through to the next level!

But more often than we care to think about, work just feels like work.  You feel dispensable. Your kids are struggling to make good choices. You’re not doing fulfilling, fruitful work. And the days start to run together. You feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.

The Giants in the workplace loom large:

Delay. When will your dream job finally come to fruition? When will work feel meaningful? When will the day-in-and-day-out of laundry, Cheerios and diapers end?  I went to college for this?!

Discouragement. You were overlooked for the promotion again. Your review was not as “glowing” as you thought it would be. The principal called for another meeting about your child.

 Disapproval.  You got let go for poor performance. Your child was excluded from the play date because he plays too rough. Your group is angry with you because your lack of effort cost them the project grade.

Doubt.  I can’t do this. I’m too old. I’m too young and inexperienced. I’m too exhausted and worn out.

We were given four ways to face the vocational giants in our lives.

1.       Remember how God has helped you in the past.

2.       Use the tools God has given you.

3.       Ignore the “dream busters.”

4.       Expect God to help me for His glory.

While all of these are excellent points, I want to focus on the first one: Remember how God has helped you in the past.

When I first graduated from college and got married, I entered a series of “unfulfilling, low-paying, dead-end, entry level jobs.”  As I type those words, I’m embarrassed. Such ugly words. Because at 22, fresh out of college with no experience, I deserved so much more, right? But that’s how I viewed those jobs at the time. They were “below me.” I was “too educated” for those positions. I was waiting for the better gig to fall in my lap.

The Bible has a few things to say about pride, no? So, I wandered in the wilderness of those jobs while God worked those ugly things out of me and I learned dependence on Him. I look back at that time and reflect on how God helped me. He taught me humility and hard work. He showed me how to be reliable and punctual. He enabled me how to work well with others.

Aaron and I got to a place in our life together where I needed to launch out into a different line of work with a higher salary. So, we began to pray. An opportunity presented itself. I submitted my resume and was called for an interview. The interview seemed promising.

We joked about what the offer would look like. “Wouldn’t it be ridiculous if they offered me $___________?” we laughed. The amount was nearly double what I was currently making.

Several days later, I received the offer.

It was the exact amount we had laughed about.

I worked for that company for almost six years. The boss was generous with raises, flexible with hours, liberal with maternity leave and even transformed my position into a part-time thing with an unbelievable hourly rate so I could be home with my daughter more. That job was a gift-wrapped, hand-delivered present from the Lord.

But of course there were days when the stupid song about the drum played in my head. Management changed. Policies tightened. My job description morphed into something I didn’t like.

And I started to gripe and complain about the manna and quail God had provided. I needed to remember how God had helped me in the past. We forget this so easily.

I need God to help me daily to remember what he has done for me vocationally in the past so that I don’t get blinded by the temporary unpleasantness of the present. My hope is that this week you, too, will learn a significant way to become transformed in your vocational health!

Written by: Jaime Hlavin

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant

Transformed-Financial Health

To possess some sense of security, we must rely on a source for finances. This is inevitable. I think most of us know this and act accordingly. However, I have found that it is so easy to fall into the trap of believing that our finances determine our future, and money dictates our decisions. Although there may be some truth to that statement, it is bypassing our most significant source of provision and stability-- God.

Our possessions are fleeting, but God is everlasting. Our finances may fail us, but God never leaves us. God has given us everything we have, and He could take it all away. Therefore, we must trust in Him to provide for our needs, as He has trusted us to steward our money.

In the book of Job, every possible health and financial burden is illustrated. Job, a follower of God, is stripped of all his possessions, his family, his health, and his friends. Throughout the book, Job gets angry with God (as pretty much anybody would given the situation). Meanwhile, his “friends” relentlessly point out all the reasons they believe he has been “punished.” My initial thought in reading this book was, “Why would God allow such a faithful servant of Him to suffer so greatly?” However, I think God was testing Job on a truth we all need to remember. The truth is that whether we have nothing or we have everything, God must remain Lord over all. Job, although he was angry, did not veer from holding his trust and stability in God.

The story concludes with Job repenting for questioning God’s wisdom, and declaring that God is in control (Job 42:2-6). After this, God chooses to bless Job with twice as much as he had before (42:10). Although I would never want to go through what Job did, my hope is that I, too, would remain faithful to God despite all of the challenges.

Being good stewards of our finances is essential to our well-being. Likewise, in order to be good stewards we must remain faithful to God with (and despite) our finances.

Therefore, let us give control of our finances and possessions to the One who gave us them in the first place. For He is our provider, and He is our source. 

Written by: Tamara Sturdivant

Edited by: De Ann Sturdivant