Reflections

People I Admire

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Pieter Stok

This is the first in an occasional series entitled, “People I Admire”.

My friends, a married couple who have seen more than five  decades race past, have not always had it easy. On a number of occasions they have been traumatised by events in the church, yet serve the Lord assiduously. His Kingdom, the needs of the less fortunate and the care of friends are not just on their minds but, more importantly, part of their daily actions. My friends’ faith is a positive constant challenge to my life before the Lord.

Up to this point, their children, on the whole, are indifferent, though not antagonistic about faith despite the example their parents. In the midst of this my friends resolutely honour God with their lives. They take God’s commands seriously and live the gospel to their grandchildren, taking every opportunity bring to life the covenant injunction to teach our children and grandchildren. My hope, prayer and trust is that God will bless that faithfulness in time.

Cornwall_157

Somewhere on this beach in Cornwall my friends are engaged in their fetish of collecting rocks.

Over the years their extended family has grown through unusual circumstances. Step relatives have been added to the family tree in droves. Some of these people have incredible physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Yet that has become another opportunity to live for, and reflect, Christ. I am constantly humbled by their grace.

They have impacted our life, as a family, to the extent that our children see them as aunty and uncle. They have supported us deeply over many years with practical, emotional and spiritual support. I could go on about the many, many lives they touch in their daily walk – because they are legion, but I wont.

I admire these friends because Jesus shapes their lives. They are not perfect, they are still this side of heaven, but every time I see them I have a glimpse of what Jesus is like.

The true treasures of life are relationships: family and friends. These friends are true treasures who reveal what it means to live a life of Christian thankfulness!

Categories: christian, Christianity, Church, Devotional, Faith, Family, people i admire, Reflections | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Our Little Coves

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Pieter Stok

The Mousehole Haven

Along the coast of Cornwall there are a myriad of little harbours worn out of the coastline by wind, wave and flood. They are little oases from the turbulent sea. Each cove has its own characteristics. Some are more protective than others and some are easier to access, but each is a haven.

What havens do you have? A good book or TV show, a hobby or craft – something in which you escape from the harsh or busy realities of the day? Or is it a relationship, your family, wife, husband? Some of us seek coves that turn out to be more dangerous than the seas: drink, drugs, sex, gambling – addictions that start as an escape but end up turning into raging internal battles.

In Matthew 11:28 we read: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Here we read of the haven that God sent us – Jesus. Our God knows what our lives are like – He himself lived one in Christ. God is aware of the human condition. It is not as though His divinity inures Him from it. Jesus is the God-Man, the divine and human and He knows our need for sanctuary, from the brokenness of the world, each other and ourselves.

Have you taken up this offer? Have you sought protection from the haven that Jesus offers – that Jesus is?

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Unity With God Through Christ

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Pieter Stok

The other day a friend directed me to an article in Christianity Today:

The Key to a Purposeful Life (click to follow link)

It’s not imitating Christ, but union with him that makes the difference.

It is a great message on how we can be connected to God through Christ and how that in turn reflects in the way we can live our Christian life. The Author, Sarah Lebhar Hall begins by reflecting on our fears and dashed hopes and then states:

“The good news from the Scriptures is this: No follower of Jesus is an isolated entity, living out a solitary, potentially tragic plot line. The life story of a disciple is inextricably linked with the life story of Jesus.”
 

Another line that particularly jumped out at me:

“Because of our union with Jesus we can join the Trinity’s family embrace”  

What an amazing truth to reflect upon!

This article is both challenging and encouraging and well worth reading in its entirety.

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Muesli

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Pieter Stok

It was Muesli’s 35th birthday yesterday. He has had numerous face transplants and repairs. He has also had some fancy clothes made for him over time. His internals have been replaced on a few occasions – coconut husk was replaced with rice. I have no idea what it is today. His eyes are still original – but slightly glazed.

Muesli on a holiday to Tasmania. That is his friend Hot Milk in the foreground.

At 35 Muesli is frail, precious and a constant companion to my second oldest daughter. Muesli is like a member of the family.

When my daughter was about one year old she discovered him in our local Chemist’s shop window in Tasmania, with the perfumes, cold remedies and lotions. In her one year old way she made sure my wife knew that she had fallen in love with him.

1977 was the year we celebrated Christmas a month early as we were going to be travelling on Christmas Day. That is how we remember that Muesli has his birthday on the 25th of November. He was a special gift that year. Since then Muesli has travelled far and wide. Without a doubt he must be one of the most constant companions anyone has ever had. Every now and then he comes home so my wife can repair him or give him a face transplant.

Muesli is the elder statesman of a collection of inanimate but very real companions in our family. Fiona, Jessica and Grover are just some of the others. And do I have one? Do I have a cute stuffy toy to drag around like some toddler!? Excuse me! I am a respectable 62 year old teacher and ex – pastor. I have a reputation to maintain. Umm,  Sequoia is a cute little brown bear cub I found in the Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Park in California. He has been travelling with me since 2003. My kids have brought me up well.

Categories: Family, Reflections, Toys, Travel | Tags: , | 3 Comments

The Fickleness of the Human Heart

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Pieter Stok

At an unearthly hour this morning I was awoken from my precious slumber by screaming and caterwauling as a domestic dispute turned the air blue a few houses away. This was a very unusual experience in our quiet neighbourhood. What makes two people who must have had some attraction towards each other descend into such an undignified and vicious state?

But even “respectable” people have disputes, that may not be so public, but are just as deeply broken.

In Dutch church history there was an ongoing debate about “presumptive regeneration” that continued through church synods in World War 2 even as the Germans occupied Holland and people starved and died through the “hunger winter” of 1944. It caused the church to divide.

The human heart, created for relationships, struggles to maintain them. Pride, greed, envy ( add your own special weakness) weasel their way in to destroy marriages, friendships, churches, businesses and so on.

Yet the triune God is a being of relationship. Relationship is at the very heart of our creator. The understanding of the trinity is one of the key factors that differentiates the Christian understanding of God to that of Muslim and Jew. It is an important understanding because it is in our God’s very nature to restore and heal broken relationships – with Him and with each other.

Christ’s sacrifice, God’s amazing love,  reveals to us  just how important restored relationships are to Him.

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My Nomination for the Worst Song Ever Written

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Pieter Stok

My nomination is: John Lennon’s “Imagine”

“But it argues for peace and harmony,” you might protest. I’ll give you my reasons. It is not because it is boring and maudlin, although that might be reason enough. It is not because it is played ad-nauseum, for some reason, at Advent and Christmas time.

My main reason is because it destroys hope in the very first verse:

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

It might seem easy to sweep away heaven and hell but in the process Lennon brushes aside a transcendent God who comes to earth to deal with the causes of war, conflict, brokenness and death. To create harmony we need to deal with the cause of our disharmony – our brokenness. Lennon’s approach is akin to putting a bandaid over an infection without dealing with the underlying problem.

Advent and Christmas are reminders that we have God whose desire is to heal our brokenness – to go to the cause of our human illness. He sacrificed His son for our brokenness. This goes beyond “living for today” and leads to an eternity of perfection, peace and joy.

OK, it may not be the worst song ever but it is certainly shallow and not at all fitting for a time when we celebrate the incarnation of God.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Faith, Reflections, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 11 Comments

The Coming of Grace

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Yesterday, in a short poem, I reflected on the promise of a Messiah in Genesis 3:15. This is often called the Protevangelium, that is, the first announcement of the Gospel.

But in a real sense we see the good news before that. God’s very act of creation is an expression of His character and nature. God creates a magnificent cosmos – the size of which is beyond our comprehension, and yet in the midst of this He plants earth with it plants and animals. He crowns it with humanity. We have a triune God of relationship who creates a being who can also share relationships and intimacy. For me, this is a declaration of “grace” – undeserved love.

So as we come to Advent soon, it is a good time to ponder the character of a relational God who would plant a creation, but also inject himself into that when his creatures had turned their backs on Him. That is truly amazing grace!

Categories: Advent, christian, Christianity, Devotional, Reflections, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

The Church, The Industrial Revolution and The Family

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Pieter Stok

What do the three things above have to do with each other? A lot it seems.

Have you noticed that the body of Christ in many, particularly larger churches, has morphed into a series of “departments”: children’s, youth, men’s, women’s, singles and etc. Sadly this is also, too often, reflected in worship services. Children have their own “Children’s Church”, youth have theirs and so on.

I am told that many modern parents don’t want to be annoyed by their children in church.

To be honest, this is a tragic state of affairs and the church can only be poorer for it. The church should be the epitome of an integrated, mutually dependent body, functioning for each other’s good and promoting the Kingdom as one in the world – not a loose connection of independent limbs.

Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times

The industrial model may work well on assembly lines but not the church. The older members need to be reminded of the calling they have to nurture the young through word and example. The young remind the older members of the wonder and naïveté of faith. We need each other. We weren’t meant to be separated – just as a family is not meant to be compartmentalised.

Of course there are times when separate activities are sound and worthwhile, but this shouldn’t characterise the church. To have integrated worship services and activities can be difficult. It requires us to think carefully about the needs of each member and their relationship to the whole. But isn’t that the very challenge that makes it worthwhile! And finally, how many Sunday Schools, Youth services, and specialist departments can you find in the New Testament. I could only find one, the Deacons.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Church, Devotional, Faith, Family, Reflections, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Living Word of God

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Keldby Church, Denmark

Before anybody gets me wrong, a caveat: I am really pleased we have the written Word of God available to us daily!

Now to my point. Universal literacy is a relatively modern occurrence. Going further back to the period covered by the Old Testament, the stories, history, laws and commandments were carried by word of mouth from generation to generation.

In medieval times church attenders were often reminded of the stories through pictures on the wall or windows. I love the naive pictures on the walls and ceilings of village churches in Europe – particularly Scandinavia. Without books and literacy there is the need to know and remember the stories in order to pass them on. For that to happen, the stories need to be an integral part of  the person so he or she can share them with children and others.

Is it possible that we have become lazy because we have the Bible in a book, on a shelf which can be readily accessed. We have concordances (even easier now with computers) which help us look up a word, text, passage or name in an instant.

Keldby Church, Denmark

How do we encourage each other to know the Word of God deeply and to eschew our C21st  habit of using Scripture as we do a fast food outlet – quickly and superficially?

I have observed some good programs and apps that encourage memorising the Bible. I have also heard of friends who challenge each other to memorise a chapter or book of Scripture

One of my favourite memories is of an old lady dying of cancer and she was nearly blind. She only spoke Dutch. So, as a keen young pastor I would practise a Psalm in Dutch. When I read the Psalm to her in my halting Dutch she would continue from her memory and get to the end before I could. Over a number of months I tried to catch her out with a Psalm she didn’t remember. She never failed. She had learned all the Psalms as a small girl on a barge that plied the canals of Europe 100 years ago. She had very little schooling, but the Word of God was in her heart and mind.

Would we be able to call on our memory to recite God’s Words to ourselves in a time of need?

Categories: Bible, christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Reflections | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

If Only Time Travel Were Real

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Pieter Stok

If you enjoy history you must have had the desire to go back to a particular time or place in the past. After watching “Dr. Who” or “Back to the Future”, there is that desire to see history as it was happening; naturally with out the plague, guillotine or other deadly problem!

Fountains Abbey

Two places that always rekindle that desire are the Cistercian abbeys of Rievaulx and Fountains. Both are in sublime locations in North Yorkshire, UK. and enough remains (despite the efforts of King Henry VIIIth) to give us big clues as to their daily life and activities. But in the end we can only make well considered deductions from the ruins, archaeology and historical documents.

How great it would be if you could go back to these places when they were at their peak!

We tend to look at history through the lens of our culture and its values. We weigh things up with our 21st century mindset. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could ask the monks what their hopes, fears, dreams, motivations and aspirations were. What was it really like living in these remote and secluded places? How did they see God and His impact on their lives? What did they hope to achieve and … what was it like to pray for hours on end in a frozen Yorkshire winter?

Rievaulx Abbey

Nobody will ever wonder about our generation. We have written, blogged and videoed all our angsts and desires – ad nauseum. But these people can only be seen through the fogs and shadows of time. We can know them – but only just.

In the meantime, for me, these old abbeys exude a mystery and allure that keeps me fascinated.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Church, History, Reflections | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments

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