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Devotionals

A Conversation Gone Awry

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The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:15

Have you ever been in a meeting with a group of people, and the topic you wanted to talk about never gets brought up? Instead, the other people keep sidestepping it by talking about everything else. You have certain questions you need answered or problems that need solutions. But instead of getting any work done, the group talks about food or the weather or the latest controversies in the news.

That is how reading this dialogue between Jesus and the woman at the well feels. As readers, we know who Jesus is, and we want to see this scene explode with his marvelous glory. But what really happens is a conversation with a woman who would rather talk about anything else than what Jesus wants to talk about. She tries to throw him off track by bringing up a controversial and somewhat political matter. She is also striving to find safe, neutral ground rather than letting Jesus take the lead.

Jesus doesn’t try to get the conversation back on track but uses the opportunity to teach her about who he is. Eventually, the woman starts to catch on and she says, “When the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us.” Jesus then reveals his true identity by saying, “I am he.” This means, “I Am is the one speaking to you.” It’s the term God uses for himself when speaking to Moses from the burning bush. “I Am.”

“Give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here,” the woman requests of Jesus. She is thinking of the household task of drawing water every day. Jesus is thinking of the deeper matters in her life that had isolated her in the first place so that she must come to the well at a time when no one else did.

She doesn’t want to talk about the inappropriate relationships. They are too disappointing and too shameful. It was much safer to keep the conversation on the well. But Jesus wants her to understand that the water he offers her will heal her of everything that happened in her past. She must first come to terms with who he is, then agree with him about the truth of her life, otherwise called repentance. When we agree with God about the things we’ve done and the choices we’ve made, we can see our lives for what they really are and then take the steps to make changes. Then, like the woman at the well, we can be free from sin. The river of cleansing that Jesus offers will flow into us as soon as we start to confess.

In this disjointed conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus seizes the opportunity to talk about the nature of God and of the worship he deserves. True worship, according to Jesus, is defined by our relationship to God. We adore a person, not a philosophy or idol set up in his place. We express praise, gratitude, and love to a real, live person.

The twists and turns of this dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman cover a lot of ground. How do the topics of life-giving water, repentance, and worship relate? It begins with the presence of God. He appeared that day in Samaria, near Mount Gerizim, in the form of the human Jesus. He invited a woman into conversation with the goal of helping her see her life accurately so that she might make changes. When the repentance and confession was completed, she was then released from sin and able to worship God in a proper way.

The presence of God invites repentance which in turn invites worship. We see what God has done for us and then our hearts respond with outpourings of love and gratitude. This happened in the woman’s life when she left her water jar and went back to town to invite her neighbors to come and see Jesus. She took action as a result of having been in God’s presence.

We can follow the same pattern in our own lives. At some point, we encounter the presence of God because he is searching for us, the lost sheep. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans says. Then God helps us see, by the gentle power of the Holy Spirit, what our lives are really like. We make changes by confessing and allowing him to wash us clean. We are released from sin and free to take action, to move in faith as a result of being in God’s presence. This can happen when we first become a Christian, and also every day of our lives as we grow in relationship with him, praising, serving, and loving him with our worship.

Of a Woman in Ministry

The Liturgy of Fall

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October has been a lovely month where I live. Day after day, the skies have been blue, the wind has been mild, and the temperatures warm. The leaves stayed green until just last week. Then, within hours it seemed, the maples in our yard turned a golden yellow and began losing their leaves.

In the fall, there are certain practices I enjoy such as the participation in the harvest, tasks that care for my home, and the various ways that I engage with my favorite time of year. One of those practices involves washing my windows. After the rain showers of summer and most of the dust of harvest has passed, the windows are spotted and very dirty. Some of them have cobwebs matted in the corners.

The timing is important when washing windows. Just the right day must be chosen that is sunny with a bit of a breeze to help dry the glass, but not so chilly of a wind that my hands get cold from the water. This window-washing day must occur after we’ve had a freeze so that the spiders and many of the bugs are gone. Otherwise all my hard work will need done over again because the cobwebs would reappear.

This past Saturday was just such a day. Temperatures were in the upper 60’s, the sun shone bright, and the golden trees reflected in the clean glass as I worked. The whole job takes about three hours but I stay motivated by the thought of sitting by a sunny, clean window in the winter months and looking through glass that is clear of streaks, dust, and any evidence of insects.

Saturday was also a perfect day for harvest, and my husband, his brother, and nephew were making good use of the warm fall day. When my window project was completed, I went to the farm and rode along with my husband as he drove the combine. I try to get at least one day in the field at some point during the month of October. It brings back good memories of riding with my dad when he harvested corn on the farm where I grew up. The crop is planted in the spring, grows to maturity in the summer, and then dries down during the fall. We watch it through all the stages and then find satisfaction in bringing it in from the fields at harvest time.

A Thanksgiving hymn comes to mind that expresses the waiting, the hoping, and the gratitude:

Now thant we all our God with heart and hands and voices

Who wondrous things has done, in whom His world rejoices;

Who, from our mother’s arms, has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Apples are another practice in my habitual fall work. I buy them from a local orchard to make into sauce and filling for pies. My usband and I enjoy a good apple pie in the fall and winter months. A baking pie makes the house smell so delicious and inviting.

Tending the garden and digging the root vegetables, canning the last of the tomatoes and planting tulip bulbs also bring me great joy during this time of year. They are projects I can work on in the evenings during the last light of the day following my working hours in the office. This year has been so warm that even these late hours have been comfortable for working outdoors.

Sunday evenings I enjoy putting together puzzles depicting fall scenes. Two of my favorites are artwork by Charles Wysoki filled with pumpkins, an old mill churning water down a stream, and stone barns. When I get them completed, I hang them up as part of the fall decor in my home.

That is another practice that helps me engage with the autumn season–decorating my home. The bright orange of the pumpkins and the complimenting colors of leaves and Indian corn extend the season indoors. This picture on my mantel is work done by Billy Jacobs. He paints farm scenes in all seasons. I like this one featuring the farmhouse with the weathered barn in the background. I can feel the wind blowing the colored leaves and even imagine the scent of a corn harvest in the breeze.

Fall is a rich season deserving our pause to pay attention, to interact with it, and to celebrate its beauty. I used the word liturgy in the title for this blog because that is how these practices help me. In worship, there are certain things we do to interact with the Lord, to celebrate beauty, and to express gratitude. We can take these patterns beyond the church doors and into our own lives to cultivate a greater awareness of God’s presence in the world and his design for it.

Another hymn comes to mind, so I will quote it here to close:

This is my father’s world and to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me ring the music of the spheres.

This is my father’s world, I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas His hand the wonders wrought.

Devotionals

Drink the Water

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“Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

The larger story this verse comes from takes place around a well. John uses this physical well where water is drawn from to show us something really important about Jesus. In the Old Testament, wells provided water as a source of sustenance in the dry desert. They have been places of meeting, and of offering the relief of community and emotional connection. Wells also act as places of rescue for travelers and for animals. The safety of the water felt like an oasis in the desert. It quenched thirst and gave renewed strength.

The Israelite community was familiar with the stories of their patriarchs involving wells. In Abraham’s day, Sarah’s runaway slave girl is met by the angel of the Lord at a well. Later on, Abraham sent his trusted servant on a journey to select a wife for Isaac. He meets Rebekah when she waters his animals with a drink from a well. In the next generation, Jacob is fleeing for his life and arrives at a well where he meets Rachel and waters her flock of sheep. Years later, Moses flees Egypt and arrives at a well in Midian where he meets his future wife and waters the flock of her and her sisters.

Based on these stories, we could make the case that wells were romantic from all the matchmaking done around them. While that may be true, the Bible wants us to see that wells were a place of relationship and community building.

Jesus knew the heritage surrounding wells, so it is no surprise that he would turn up at Jacob’s well at some point during his time on earth. He comes at midday to a small Samaritan village. He knew what would happen, and he knew who he would encounter. John wants us to understand that Jesus is a well himself, of the very things the physical well provided. He is sustenance in the wilderness, a source of deep and satisfying relationship, and the rescuer from desperate thirst. That day in Samaria, he knew a weary traveler along a lifelong road of parched hopes and the fine dust of futile pursuits would come here to draw water. Jesus settles discreetly on the side of the well and waits.

The source of living water has come to the source of the town’s well water, and now this unsuspecting woman will get the chance to draw water from the well she has always longed for. She gets hung up on his ethnicity, his lack of utensil with which to draw water, and the local history that entitled her to use this well. But Jesus invites her into something else completely. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.”

Living water was water that flowed. It had a source, a direction, and a destination. It was of better quality, purer and clearer, than the stagnant waters of a pond or cistern.

Jesus offers living water that cleanses and frees. He offers to the Samaritan woman a new life. It is one connected with the activity of the Holy Spirit. If she accepted this water and drank from it, this living water would flow within her too. It would be a spring welling up of its own accord from a source beyond her. Always fresh. Always abundant.

Jeremiah describes God as the spring of living water, and John uses a similar phrase in chapter seven when he quotes Jesus. “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whomever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

To come to Jesus and drink is to believe. To come to Jesus and drink is to long for cleansing. To come to Jesus and drink is to accept the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives the invitation for the thirsty soul to come to him and drink. He is the only one who satisfies our thirst. We don’t have to look anywhere else for the answers to the longings that ache deep inside us. Everyone who drinks the water he gives them will never thirst.

History and Research

History and Research Blog Post #2

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Introducing Jacob Grandia and Maria Colyn

The Souvenir History of Pella Iowa 1847-1922 mentions Jacob Grandia on page 146. There is no picture of him, but there is a paragraph describing him. It says, “Jacob Grandia was born in Schravandelen, Province of Gelderland, Netherlands, in 1826. At the youthful age of nineteen, he emigrated to America in the spring of 1847 and was among the very first to arrive in this community. He was a lad with ambition and usefulness. He, with Henry Hospers, assisted the surveyors in platting the town of Pella. He was united in marriage to Miss Marie Colyn, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leendert Colyn. To this union were born six sons and three girls … Mr. Grandia died in June 1868.”

Early in my marriage, when I was a new resident of Pella, I knew I had ancestors with the Grandia name, but I didn’t have much information on them. I’d purchased a copy of this book to learn more about the Van Zante family, but when I discovered this paragraph about a Grandia with roots in Pella back to its very beginning, I was intrigued. I spent time doing the research until I had his story pieced together.

Jacob and Maria Grandia are my great-grandmother’s grandparents. I know that goes back a little way, but it also forms a strong link down through the generations of my family. My great-grandmother, Adrianna Granda Van Zante, was the daughter of Jacob A. Grandia, and he was the fifth son of Jacob and Maria.

The Souvenir History of Pella claims that Jacob was nineteen when he left Holland for America. In researching his life, I’ve found some discrepancies on his age. This resource lists him in his teen years, genealogy on the Grandia family says he was born in 1822. The ship logs show his age as twenty-four, and his marriage record to Maria, occurring in Pella in February of 1850, says he is twenty-seven. Since the marriage record is the most concrete of any of the sources, I used that age to determine his birth year, and also his age at the time of immigration.

Many people have done diligent work in researching this man’s life, so I certainly do not want to discredit any of those records. However, putting his birthdate in the year 1823 makes him twenty-three at the time he sailed for North America. A hero in his early twenties serves the story well, so since this work is fictional and isn’t necessarily an exhaustive record of a person’s life,  I’m going to keep him at the age of twenty-three.

Genealogy shows his birthday to be September 1, so he will celebrate it and turn twenty-four upon his arrival in Pella.

According to the same genealogy, informed by the Grandia family website (familiegrandia.nl), Jacob was born in ‘s Gravendeel. The spelling of the town given in the Souvenir History of Pella was likely the way the name sounded when it was spoken, so it looks a little different typed out than the actual Dutch spelling does. This little town is near Dordrecht, south of Rotterdam a few miles. This would have located his birth in South Holland and not in Gelderland like the Souvenir History book says. But Dordrecht is very near the line between the three provinces of South Holland, Noord Brabant, and Gelderland.

Fiction writing allows scope for creativity as long as the finished product is plausible. Since the group that immigrated with Scholte was a close-knit community, I am going to have Jacob in friendship with the Van Zante brothers, five of whom sailed for America in the 1850’s. They lived in Gelderland, so approaching the story in this way gives Jacob the connections with the Gelderland folks to say he was “from” there, as history implies, even though he may not have necessarily been born there.

His typical costume would have been long pants, a vest, a striped shirt, and a flat hat, all in dark colors.

Jacob’s father died in May of 1826 when he was three years old. His mother died in 1832 when he was nine, and his brother John, born in 1826, died as a child. Jacob was alone in the world, so he went to live with a lady named Jenneke Reedijk who died in 1846 at the age of seventy-four. Her relationship with Jacob was unknown. She may have been a relative or only a housekeeper.

The last mention of Jacob is on April 3, 1847, when he was officially removed from the civil administration of ‘s Gravendeel. The column titled “left for” says “to North America.” He sailed on the Nagasaki, one of four ships secured by Scholte for the transport of the colony. It made the trip across the Atlantic in thirty-six days, on the route from Rotterdam to Baltimore, Maryland.

Curiously, his name is not listed with the ship’s passengers in the Pella Souvenir History Book, but it is shown in the large volumes of Pella History Books where the ship logs are published. His age is given here as twenty-four and also confirms his presence on this particular ship. He likely traveled in steerage, so may have been a more transient, elusive passenger than an older married man with children who functioned as the head of a household. Jacob is listed on the ship log with other young men who probably all made the journey together.

Jacob Grandia settled in the Pella area and farmed on the border of Lake Prairie Township and Black Oak Township.

Maria Colyn

Maria’s story is more subdued than Jacob’s. She is mentioned only in the list of passengers on the ship Pieter Floris that sailed from Amsterdam to Baltimore. Her trip to America took quite a bit longer, requiring two full months at sea until reaching their destination.

She was born in 1826 in the province of Noord Brabant. Her father likely farmed since the majority of the people who came to Iowa with Scholte were farmers. At the time of immigration, Maria was a twenty-one-year-old unmarried woman. She traveled with a cluster of family members, including her father, Leendert, and her mother. The ship log only gives her the initial L., so I invented a name for her and will call her Lana in the book. There were also two brothers and one sister, all in their teen years.

From her mother’s side of the family came J.W. de Moor, his wife, and his school-aged daughter. From her father’s side of the family came Huibert Colyn, and his four-month-old daughter Alberta Jacoba. It’s easy to assume Huibert lost his wife in childbirth, so I am going to use that theme as part of the overall plot of the story.

The Colyns and de Moors all survived the trip and reunite with the other Dutch travelers in St. Louis. There, they are given a bit of a respite from travel while the Land Committee starts its exploration to Iowa in search of farm ground to purchase. Maria and her family, along with Jacob and many other friends, join in worship services at a Presbyterian church they are allowed to use during their time in the city.

Maria, her mother, and the other Noord Brabant women would have made quite the impression on the Americans dressed in their dark Dutch dresses and the lacy headgear known as poffers.

Maria’s brother, Jacob Colyn, is mentioned in The History of Marion County as a farmer and stock raiser. He was born in 1829 on the line between North and South Holland. He spent his boyhood days on his father’s farm and attending school.

This brief summary of her brother provides clues to Maria’s origins and childhood as well. She and Jacob Grandia are among the first couples to marry in the new world, and then they settled on a farm and raised a family.

A quick note to end this blog post relates to the sources I quoted here. Blog Post #1 mentions all of the books I used to research for this project, so I will refer the reader to that article instead of formally citing them here. I will draw on those sources many times going forward, so will continue to encourage my readers to refer back to my first blog post to learn more about the sources I relied on to gather my information.

The photographs in this blog post are taken from Dutch Costumes, a Look into the Past, by Jacki Craver, and Phyllis Zylstra. Photography by Desha Bruxvoort. Printed in Pella in 2007.

History and Research

History and Research Blog Post #1

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Research Materials

As I mention in my August newsletter (coming soon!) I’m working on a new book. For a long time, I’ve wanted to trace the lives of various members of my family when they left Holland, traveled to North America, and settled in Pella, Iowa. Researching genealogy has helped me understand the forces influencing their lives. The process of research fascinates me and grows my awareness of who I am and where I came from.

This new book focuses on the life of the main character and hero of the story, Jacob Grandia. He’s a young man who emigrated from the province of Gelderland, Netherlands, in the year 1847.

The heroine of the story is Maria Colyn, a young woman who emigrated with her family from the province of Noord Brabant, Netherlands, also in the year 1847. I will share more about their characters in future blog posts, but for today I want my readers to know that they were real people, and these are their actual names. I plan to use their real names in the finished book unless an editor or publisher would suggest otherwise.

Jacob and Maria were married in Pella a couple of years after arriving in Iowa. They fit into my family as the grandparents of my great-grandmother, Adrianna Grandia Van Zante. That’s a little ways back, I know. I believe that gives my family six generations between me and Jacob and Maria as the first arrivals.

As I found more information on their lives, I realized that their story is woven into the founding of Pella, which is the town where I live. I’ll get into more details on that in future blog posts, but in this first post about the historical research behind this new book, I thought I’d share the resources I’ve relied on to make this story as accurate as I possibly can. This new book won’t be a comprehensive history of the settling of Pella. That hasn’t been my goal. The style of writing required for fiction uses only the facts necessary for developing the characters and their motives, revealing the setting, and ultimately moving the story forward.

I trust that the descriptions I include in the book will give the reader a glimpse into Dutch life and culture, their piety and devotion, and their experiences of settling in the American Midwest.

This book hasn’t yet found a publisher, but I trust that the right team of people at the right publishing house for this story will help me at just the right time. In the meantime, I will enjoy sharing with you the behind-the-scenes research and writing process.

Today, let’s take a look at the books I’ve acquired that have helped me with research. Each one has its own story, so they add a rich dimension to the characters and the overall theme.

Local History

The first category is local history. A book that has been really helpful to me in understanding the politics in Holland in the 1830’s and 1840’s is Hendrik P. Scholte, His Legacy in the Netherlands and in North America by Eugene P. Heideman. It is one of the books in the Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America, and is published by Van Raalte Press in Holland, Michigan. I have a signed copy because the author came to Pella as part of a conference held at the Opera House in August of 2018, which also happens to be the year my first book Hope for Tomorrow was published. This conference focused on H.P. Scholte and featured presenters from Pella and from Amsterdam, and also authors who have written on the topic of Dutch immigration.

Another helpful book is the Souvenir History of Pella 1847-1922. It has early town history, lists of families and which ship they sailed on, and brief biographies on notable citizens. Jacob Grandia is mentioned on page 146 as one of the surveyors in platting the town of Pella.

I’ve also enjoyed reading through volumes one and two of the Pella history books. I don’t own a set, but I am able to access them at the Pella Public Library. These volumes contain stories of pioneers, letters, and much good information on the families that helped to establish Pella.

Dutch Immigration

The next category of books covers the topic of Dutch Immigration to America. They include Netherlanders in America by Jacob Van Hinte, Dutch Transplanters on the Grasslands by Brian W. Beltman, and Iowa Letters by Johan Stellingwerff. I have a signed copy of this book as well because the editor for the work, Robert P. Swierenga, presented at the conference I referenced above.

A delightful book I have enjoyed perusing is Dutch Treat by Rien Poortvliet. He is a Dutch artist, and this book serves as his own illustrated memoir. It contains drawings of the Dutch countryside, animals, buildings, and people. I like the house on the cover. The shape of the roofline and the colors on the shutters are reminiscent of building design in Pella.

Psalters, Liturgy, and Doctrine

The next category of research I’ve done is on the topic of psalters, liturgy, and doctrine. I will devote a separate blog post to this subject someday, but here I will list the titles of books. The Psalms, and Hymns, with the Catechism, confessions of Faith, and Canons, of the Synod of Dort; and Liturgy of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in North America is a thick book of psalms and liturgy. The lengthy title pretty much covers it. The book contains information dating back to 1847, and has been helpful to me in knowing what kinds of prayers were used and what lyrics were sung during worship services in the era when my story takes place.

The Heidelberg Catechism published by Faith Alive in Grand Rapids, Michigan is the copy I received in high school when the catechism was taught at my home church during the Sunday school hour.

The New Genevan Psalter published in Canada by Premier Printing is a book that shows the printed music of each metered psalm. It is the best resource I can find that shows the original lyrics and melodies from the Genevan Psalter, inspired by John Calvin and composed by assisting musicians in the 1550’s, during the time of the Reformation. These metered psalms are what the Calvinist Dutch immigrants would have sung in their worship services. An accompanying website, genevanpsalter.com, has recordings of choirs singing each psalm. So beautiful!

Family Heritage

The last area of research I’ve done is on my own family’s heritage. During my grade school and teen years, my grandparents lived one mile away in the large house on their farm. Grandpa grew up there, and also raised his family there. Many artifacts were stored in the house including the Bibles belonging to his parents, my great-grandparents. These Bibles are a small 5 x 7 size in the Dutch language. They contain the New Testament, the catechism, and a full psalter in the back. These Bibles are special to me because they signify the heritage of faith that has been passed down through each generation. The Bible from my great-grandmother has written inside the front cover

Adrianna Grandia, Pella, Iowa, December 25, 1889.

This makes me wonder if perhaps she received it as a gift.

The research of the topics of local history, Dutch Immigration, and psalms and liturgy has been so fascinating. The writing of this new book is going well, and I look forward to someday sharing the finished product with readers.

Devotionals

See, Enter, Start Fresh

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Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” John 3:3

Under the cover of darkness to save himself the embarrassment of being seen in the same room with Jesus, Nicodemus visited at night. This devout, prestigious member of the Jewish ruling council expected to take the new, young rabbi in hand and settle him down a little bit. He wanted to shape him, help him find his way in the religious leadership of Israel, and redirect him so that he quit offending the religious elite.

Nicodemus’ visit and his tone implied that the establishment was against Jesus. But, if Jesus was willing to submit to some instruction, Nicodemus would school him as he’d done with others, and welcome this inexperienced rabbi onto his team.

But Jesus isn’t interested in joining the ranks of the Sanhedrin. Instead of accepting the compliment implied in Nicodemus’ visit and offer of time, Jesus doesn’t agree or even try to convince the Pharisee of the anticipated outcomes to his miraculous signs.

He changes the subject, and the first words out of his mouth are, “I tell you the truth.” He goes on to say that no one can see the Kingdom unless he is born again.”

Consider who Jesus is saying this to. Who does he say needs to be born again? It’s the person who is respected for his religious education and authority. It’s the person who is already practicing devotion to God and teaching others how to do it. It’s the person who is looked up to and trusted for their counsel and wisdom.

But isn’t that what we strive for? When these traits are present in our lives, doesn’t that mean we’ve arrived on our journey of faith and are finally starting to get things figured out?

Not according to Jesus. The call to be born again isn’t an invitation to become more religious. It’s the call to start over, and to begin a new life with a whole new source. Jesus wants Nicodemus to understand that he needs a spiritual rebirth, a second birth that only God’s spirit can accomplish. For the loyal Pharisee, careful observation of the law is the way of salvation. But according to Jesus, this misses the Kingdom’s entrance. More law isn’t what is needed, but rather the power of God working within a person to remake him or her completely.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 say, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees.”

When the Spirit is poured out, it is a new source of life from above. No one can enter the Kingdom unless the reality of the spirit born of water and Spirit come about. Then a person experiences a deep-rooted change with Jesus as the foundation. Nicodemus, and all of us, need a new life with a new root. We need a savior, not a teacher. We all need a new spirit, God’s spirit.

Later in chapter three is one of the most famous Bible verses of the Christian faith. John 3:16 is, for some of us, the first passage of Scripture we memorized, and it has stayed with us since our earliest days of Sunday school. During this meeting in the dark, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

God’s love is wide enough to embrace all people from the religious elite who tell others how to keep the law all the way to the thief who hung next to Jesus on the cross. His love isn’t confined to any national group or spiritual experts. It’s meant for you, for me, for everyone. It’s a love that flows from the fact that God is love. Loving comes natural for him. He loves people because that is just the kind of God he is. His love is shown in the gift of his Son. It isn’t a vague, sentimental feeling, but a love that costs. God gave what was most dear to him. The death of his Son shows us his love as the Father. Believers are rescued from their own death by the death of the Son. Because of this, they have eternal life, a fresh start, and a new Spirit breathed into them by God himself.

Devotionals

A Wedding Invitation to Celebrate Faith and Glory

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This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. John 2:11

The scene John describes is a wedding feast in a community where friends and family are getting together for a celebration. Jesus attends with his newly acquired disciples and with his mother. They join in the festivity until a problem starts to brew behind the scenes. Somehow Mary found out about it and then she brings the concern to Jesus. “They have no more wine.”

Jesus isn’t interested in getting involved. He’s just completed a big week in which John the Baptist solidified his identity as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He also gained five disciples. His public ministry has barely started. It seems a bit premature to jump right into performing miracles.

Maybe Mary thought Jesus would comfort the people in distress. She may have expected him to have a quiet conversation with the groom and his family to encourage them and to smooth the situation over. But that isn’t how the events played out. Discreetly, Jesus holds a conversation with the servants. His work was completely hidden from the hosting family and from the bridegroom. He didn’t draw any attention to himself as he completely exceeded Mary’s expectations. Her request for him to do something to ease the problem turned into a divine act that transformed the party.

The master of the banquet was quite impressed. “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you have saved the best until now,” he said to the bridegroom.

He knew nothing of where this high-quality wine came from, but the disciples did. Jesus’ glory was revealed to them. In a common family living in an obscure town, glory shines. While saving simple, poor people from a disaster, glory quietly spreads in the form of kindness and compassion.

The disciples witnessed a miracle. It was done with the purpose of growing their faith in him and helping them to believe that he really was the Lamb of God, the Son of God, and all those other things John the Baptist said about him.

Can you remember a time when you were healed, or when an intervention occurred that protected you or provided for a need you had? Any of those situations would qualify as a miracle worked in your life. They don’t have to be big, awe-inspiring events. Miracles can be subtle, taking place in our common everyday lives. We may not even realize we’ve received a miracle until later when we look back and see that our circumstances could have gone very differently from what they did. We could have ended up with worse health complications or with harm done to ourselves or someone in our family.

But instead, we have this sense of being spared, of being rescued, and of being favored. We can’t explain it and we don’t understand it. We can only thank God for his attention to us and celebrate the blessings he has poured into our lives.

The disciples probably felt the same way. They saw Jesus doing his natural activity. To the disciples and to us, miracles are amazing and supernatural. But to Jesus, they are easy, and they are expected. Miracles are intended to help us believe and to grow our faith. Like Mary’s life, the lives of the wedding couple, and the lives of the small-town guests, our lives are filled with the simple, the common, and sometimes the disastrous. Jesus provides when our resources run out. His ways of working are discreet and sometimes hidden. He transforms problems brewing under the surface into invitations to place our faith in him.

Devotions for the Church Year

Hosanna to a New Kind of King

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They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” John 12:13

This verse comes from the scene in the New Testament where Jesus is entering the city of Jerusalem at the time of the Passover feast. Ever since Peter’s statement, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), Jesus had been talking about his death by explaining to his disciples that he must “go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matthew 16:21). This kind of discussion filled the disciples with grief. As Mark mentions, “the disciples did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it” (Mark 9:32).

His last public miracle happened in Bethany when Lazarus died. Jesus ordered the stone rolled away, then he prayed, then he told Lazarus to come out of the grave. To the astonishment of everyone present, Lazarus appeared before them alive. Resurrected.

John tells us that “when it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts, they asked one another, ‘What do you think? Isn’t he coming at all?’ But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him” (John 11:55-57).

And now Jesus has appeared. He is riding into Jerusalem not as a military hero on a war horse, but as a man of peace on a humble donkey.

The crowd’s question is answered. Jesus has come. His raising of Lazarus from the dead was widely known. The people from Bethany who had seen it happen told other visitors to the city. Pretty soon, Jesus’ notoriety grew, and a massive crowd goes out to meet him. The energy and excitement among the people that day was so powerful that the Pharisees complained. “Look how the whole world has gone after him!” (John 12:19). They are jealous. They are disheartened by their loss of authority, and they are failing in their efforts to arrest him.

But the crowd knew Jesus was worth going after. His teaching and his miracles proved he was the Messiah. And now, entering Jerusalem in this public way, he was acting as they had always wanted him to. They were looking for a king, a savior to come. The palms they waved were a symbol of victory. “Hosanna!” they shout. “Save, I pray!” is the approximate translation. They are praising him and asking for deliverance.

The apostle John, in this moment of insight, views Jesus as entering the city on a mission of salvation. It’s a royal, triumphant mission with Jesus, the messianic king, at the forefront receiving the homage he deserves.

For Jesus, this entrance into Jerusalem has another meaning entirely. He’s coming as the prince of peace. This arrival is about more than the events of the few days involving Passover. It was about the establishment of a whole kingdom. This kingdom institutes a different kind of power from that of worldly kings who flaunt their authority and lord over their subjects. Jesus’ kind of power is that of the servant.

He modeled it for the disciples during their last supper together. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:12).

The kingdom Jesus comes to establish has its beginnings in Jerusalem, known as the City of David. King David ruled there as royalty. God promised him that he would never cease to have a descendant on the throne. As we see from the genealogy in the book of Matthew, King David is an ancestor of Jesus. His throne was in a palace. His conquests were made on the battlefield. His renown was gained through political victories. At the time of his death, his body was buried.

During Holy Week, a new kind of king has come. His throne isn’t in a man-made palace, but in heaven. He entered the city in peace and made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-7). He is a king acquainted with grief, and a man of sorrows (Isaiah 53:3). His conquests are made in human hearts, freeing us from the bondage of sin. His strength doesn’t lie in the renown of political victories, but in love. John writes about love in a different place saying, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us,” and that “now we can love because he first loved us” (I John 3:16, 4:19).

At the time of his death, his body was buried in the tomb, but it didn’t stay there. In the words of Paul, “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and he was raised on the third day” (I Corinthians 15:3-4). “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption” (I Corinthians 1:30).

During this Easter season, may we together shout “Hosanna! Save, we pray, our hearts from unbelief and our lives from destruction.” May we turn to the servant king who gave up everything for us and suffered in our place. May we place our trust in his resurrection. His love is stronger than death, and his kingdom is forever.

Devotions for the Church Year

Lenten Expressions of Lament and Love

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But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Earlier this month, we entered the season of Lent. This is the forty-day span of time leading up to Easter. The church has observed this season of fasting ever since its earliest beginning in the 300’s A.D. The fast started as only a two-day fast, taking place on Friday to commemorate Jesus’ death, and on Saturday to remember the time spent in the tomb. Over time, the fast extended to the six days prior to Easter. By the mid 300’s A.D., some churches were observing a forty-day period, inspired by Moses’ forty days with God on Mount Sinai, Elijah’s forty-day sojourn to Mount Horeb, and Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness.

The word “Lent” comes from an Old English word “lencton,” which means the lengthening of the days, like what happens in the spring when increasing hours of sunlight make the days longer. More sunlight creates the right conditions for the sprouts of the next year’s growth to appear. The change of seasons in the natural world acts as a picture to us of the promise of new life through Christ’s resurrection.

We observe Lent hopeful of God’s plan to regenerate us, and yet aware of our mortality and sinfulness. When a minister says to us on Ash Wednesday, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” those words mean that we live for a certain amount of time, and then we will die. The ashes spread on our foreheads are a symbol of this mortality, and they are a sign of our desire to be honest with God about our sin.

The season of Lent has two goals. The first one is to lament the sin that placed Jesus on the cross. The second goal is a deeper personal understanding of the work Jesus did there. By his death, forgiveness and eternal life are secured for us.

When we take the time for lament and meditation, we see meaningful outcomes. I appreciate the season of Lent as one of the most significant periods of spiritual formation of the entire year. Lent helps us to make sense of our lives. We need the sort of reflection and lament that Lent offers in order to understand the purpose behind the things that happen to us, and also to grow secure in our identities as children of God. It’s vital to the well-being of our souls to look inward and admit our areas of vulnerability. As we progress in our journey of faith, we must look outward to weigh the cost of discipleship. As we come face to face with our behavior and motivations, we repent of our wrongdoing and turn toward God.

This is ultimately what we want for our lives. Each year, as Lent recurs, we move closer to God in our relationship with him, and we get a little farther along in the sanctification process. Lent doesn’t leave us unchanged. It is a season intended for restoration and healing. The themes of Lent help us understand that we must look to God for our salvation.

God loves us and he welcomes us. Romans 5:8 highlights the truth that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This verse is from a larger passage in Romans 5 that relates to the themes of Lent because it mentions the benefits of salvation, such as the things we want to have and know will be ours through repentance. Romans 5 also mentions the things we know we need due to our sinfulness. We know that we can’t get any of them on our own and that saving help must come from somewhere outside of ourselves.

According to Romans 5, we have so many benefits given to us through faith. We have been justified. We have peace with God. He has given us the Holy Spirit and has poured out his love into our hearts. Christ died for us while we were powerless. We are saved from God’s wrath. We are reconciled and saved through the love of Christ.

Romans 5:6 says that Christ died for the ungodly. This is the point of our Lenten lament. Our sin cost Jesus his life. When we fully realize this, our hearts are touched with conviction. Then we turn away from sin and toward God.

This is as it should be. The only appropriate response to this act of love is repentance. Christ gave everything for us. We ought to choose to place him above everything and everyone else in our lives. He loves us deeply, completely, and with great passion. In Romans 5:5 it says God has poured his love into our hearts. We must keep our hearts open to him so that we have room for this love to enter us. Only with this help from God are we able to love Christ fully, in the way he deserves.

Romans 5:2 says we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Rejoicing flows out of our hope in God’s power to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. We know the glory will come someday, but it hasn’t arrived yet. We are confident enough in its arrival that we celebrate now. The work has been done in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The payment is complete. We rejoice because God’s promises stand firm.

We’ve been justified through faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So many benefits are ours because Christ died for us, the ungodly. As you observe the season of Lent this year, may it be a time of spiritual renewal bringing about change in your heart and in your life. May you grow in your understanding of the work that Jesus has done for you. By his death, forgiveness and eternal life have been secured for you.

Devotions for the Church Year

Liturgy of the Autumn Season: Giving Thanks

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Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 107:1

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 tells us there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven, such as birth and death, planting and harvest, weeping and laughing, and mourning and dancing. In the same spirit, I’d like to suggest that there is also a time for giving thanks.

The actual holiday arrives late in November, at the close of the fall season. The autumn time of year follows an order much like a worship service does. The prayers and confessions, statements of faith and benedictions used in the worship service are called the liturgy. Funeral services have them. Christmas and Easter services have them, as do each weekly service throughout the year.

Liturgy is commonly referred to as a work of the people. We as worshippers engage in the songs, the prayers, and the statements of faith. We don’t sit back and watch worship being done for us. Instead, it is accessible to us and carried out by us as the gathered body of Christ.

Through our participating we proclaim the gospel as God comes to meet us and his presence stays with us. The liturgy puts words and meaning to it as well as giving a bit of structure so that the work is accomplished at the proper time. By the end of each worship service a cohesive round of story, of confession, of declaration, and of praise has happened. It flows in order and holds a place in our ongoing sanctification.

The autumn season holds many of the same elements for me as an ordered service. Many opportunities for worship crop up in the months of September through November. I’m not just talking about the weekly Sunday services, although there continues to be a number of those. What I mean are the activities that bring meaning to our lives and help us sense the presence of God, like being in nature or spending time with family.

The fall season has always begun with marching band. I marched in the band when I was in high school. So did both of my sons. Now that they are graduated and gone to college, I find that I still need to follow the bands, to watcher their progress, and to enjoy their programs.

September, the weeks of early fall, are the days of warm sunshine and low humidity. Geese start to migrate. The humming birds leave. Even the birds follow their own order in the work of migrating with the changing of the seasons. The sunflowers are still blooming, and so are the mums. If I’m lucky, one more batch of rose buds will bloom and last into October.

Then the harvest begins as soybeans are picked. Apples turn red and are gathered for sauce and pies. The hostas are transplanted. The corn dries down and is brought in from the field. Grapes, pumpkins, squash, potatoes, and the last of the tomatoes are preserved and stored in preparation for cooler months.

The leaves turn colors and fall to the ground. Rakes and winds work together to move them off the lawn and away from flower beds. In among this mix of fall activities my birthday arrives, along with the birthdays of nieces and nephews. Fathers, uncles, and brothers vacate the combine seat long enough to enjoy cake with a cup of coffee or a Sunday family gathering.

The weather turns cool and the days shorten, ushering us into the month of November. There is an order, a flow to our work, and a structure of the harvest season that lends itself to praise as we see what God does on our behalf. Bringing in a harvest is our statement of faith that the seeds planted earlier in the year would provide an abundance. Prayers and confessions arise from our hearts as we spend time with those we care about, spurring one another on to good works.

The time for giving thanks arrives as the benediction to it all. It’s the blessing we give to God out of the awareness of the blessing he gives to us. It’s important to take time to truly express our gratitude for God’s mercy and his abundant ways of taking care of us. We must be intentional about pausing to focus on God’s grace to us, even if for one day.

The verse I quoted from Psalm 107 was written to those who had been gathered from captivity. They were restored to their own land from every part of the world. the psalm uses the metaphors of travel in a wilderness, prison, sickness, and storms at sea to tell the story of everything these redeemed ones had been through.

The refrain, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love,” repeats throughout the first half of Psalm 107. Every time, it is followed by a situation too large for the people to escape by themselves. The first time, in verse 9, thirst and hunger are mentioned. God rescued them by filling them with many good things. He looked after both their physical condition and their spiritual one. While satisfying their appetites, he offers them mercy and grace, forgiveness and redemption.

In verse 16, the refrain to give thanks is followed by the statement, “He breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.” God performed the impossible for the ones he redeemed. When they couldn’t break out of a prison of sin or destruction, God delivered. When they faced obstacles, God made a way.

In verse 22, the deepest most sincerest form of gratitude is called out of them. “Tell of his works with songs of joy.” God is our Heavenly Father full of love that never runs out and will never fail. He works wonderful deeds on behalf of those who trust in him.

This season of giving thanks invites us into the flow and the order of worship. The work we do becomes the service we offer to the Lord by our faith in him, our confession of his forgiveness, and the declaration of his truth. Our ordinary lives are turned into a liturgy of meaningful occupation and awareness of God’s presence. May we not only declare our thanks for God’s unfailing love, but also live it. Tell of his works with songs of joy. Follow his order. Flow in the grace of selfless worship. Share gratitude.