Posts Tagged With: Faith

What Can You Take To the Grave?

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Pieter Stok

What can you take to the grave? Anything you like, it seems. I asked a friend who has worked in the funeral industry if people take their mobile phones with them when they are buried? I was thinking of the discredited rumour that Mary Baker Eddy had a phone installed in her mausoleum. The truth, it seems, is far stranger.

Extra clothes, food, gardening tools, X rated films and a whole host of other paraphernalia are placed in coffins. Some more elaborate coffins and caskets have photos and paintings on the inside of the lid. One wonders why? These arrangements make even the Pharoahs’ preparations seem quite reasonable.

It is apparent that many people have some vague concept of an afterlife. But what sort of afterlife is it if you need to take these things with you? Is it just another version of planet earth as we know it? If it is, why bother?

Scripture gives us a far more glorious picture than hare-brained human fantasies. The resurrection of the dead is most clearly witnessed in the life of Christ. He is our chief evidence for its truth. However there are other passages too. 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 are just two that remind us that there will be a resurrection. The dead will rise. However it is fascinating that we are given no instructions as to how people should be buried.

I believe the Bible consistently points to both the mystical and miraculous. The resurrection is not about a rebirth into a broken human condition, but an overcoming of all that was sinful and broken. Christ will take us into the presence of God for eternity. Scripture gives us many tantalising but incomplete glimpses which point to a certain hope. What we see, though, is exciting and amazing. It also strongly suggests that we can leave the mobile phone, gardening tools and videos behind. What we are called to do to make this resurrection a glorious reality is to trust completely in the one who showed the way – Jesus!

Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Stars and Sand

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Seeing that nobody corrected me I thought I had better do it myself.

Categories: Calvin, christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

We Did Not Follow Cleverly Invented Stories

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Pieter Stok

“For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.“ 2 Peter 1:16

Lord’s Prayer at the Sagrada Familia

When Peter starts his second letter which is aimed at false teachers, he clearly makes Christ the anchor of his authority. Peter speaks from the foundation of knowing Christ and and the Old Testament. This is his measuring stick for truth and sound knowledge.

It amazes me how often Christians are distracted and misled by “invented stories”. In the last generation we have had the “prosperity gospel”, gold dust descending on believers, the virgin Mary appearing in toast, trees and a whole host of other places, as well as many many more unsound and unhealthy ideas.

But there are more subtle “invented stories”, such as, the middle class materialistic lifestyle is a Christian life style, right wing politics is Christian politics, it is ok to pilage the environment and, once again, there are many many more perversions. We have been conned by celebrities, populist preachers and glib advertisers, as well as our own desires.

Peter’s solution is still the best: Measure all thing we hear and see against Christ and Scripture. The question is, “what is God’s intention?” and not “what is my desire”? Our desires will, time and again, lead us astray.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but chapter 2 alerts us to the destruction that false and misleading teaching produces. Our aim, in contrast, is to seek God’s will and promote His purposes. In our “Me Centred” generation the calling of the Christian and the Church is to point to Christ. That simple focus will prevent most of the “cleverly invented stories” arising.

Categories: Bible, christian, Christianity, Faith, Second Peter, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

What the Future Holds

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Pieter Stok

A few days ago when I was writing about the joy of family life I included a photo of my grandparents, my mother, an aunt and two uncles, taken in the late 1920s. Later as I reflected on that picture I thought to myself that my grandparents had no idea of what lay before them at this time.

Soon after this photo was taken the world would be gripped by the Great Depression (The Global Financial Crisis on steroids) and then would come the second Great War. They had lived through the first as children. Two of the children in this photo would emigrate:  one to Australia, and later, one to Canada. The daughter (my mum) travelling to Australia would take the only grandchild (me) they would ever see.

One of the uncles in the photo would die of starvation in a home for people with special needs during the later years of WW2. This period was known as the “hunger winter”. My grandfather was incapacitated by heart problems and both grandparents would be dead before 60 years of age.

They did not know what the future would bring. One of my uncles, who was born just after this photo was taken,  often reminds me that it was a tough time. But for all the seeming bleakness of this story there is a bright shaft of hope. These amazing people left a legacy of faith in their family. Despite the hardships there was a trust in God and His promises for His people and His Kingdom. They were faithful in bringing their children up in the knowledge of God and were members of a church.

Even though they had no idea of what the future would bring, they prepared their family as best they could, for it. All the people in this photo are now dead. Earlier this year my mum was the last to pass on. But I am convinced that they live on in the presence of God right now and their faith lives on in many of their children and children’s children.

We do not know the future either, but like my grandparents we do have the opportunity to sow seeds of hope and eternity.

But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children —
with those who keep his covenant 
and remember to obey his precepts. Psalm 103: 17 & 18

Categories: christian, Christianity, Faith, Family, Future, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments

Confirm Your Calling

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,  and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1: 10-11

For those of us who are happily married, we confirm our marriage often by saying, “I love you,” to our spouse. We support this with acts and words of support and kindness. But do we confirm our calling in Christ and His Kingdom? Is our life a hymn of thanksgiving to Christ for the love He has shown us? Does our life confirm this with willing acts of devotional obedience – serving in, and promoting His Kingdom?

Peter reminds us that a life lived this way prevents us from stumbling (over sinful acts) and confirms our place in the kingdom/family of God. Now isn’t that a great reason for making “every effort”?

Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Second Peter | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Family – The Simple Joys

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Yesterday, to celebrate my birthday, we had a family day. Most of the family were able to get together and we did a host of simple things. The day started with an old family tradition in which the “birthday-ee” gets his or her presents in bed. After breakfast we went for a walk along the coast, then we had a picnic in the bracing air of a seaside town and in the afternoon I built Lego and some baked or read. In the evening we had a family meal, watched old super 8 family movies and finished off with a telephone call to an overseas family member and watching “Cool Runnings”.

It was a simple day. But the joy of having family together and enjoying each other’s presence was fantastic.

So I weep when I see families pulling each other apart or living in each other’s company with constant tension or anger. Families are intended to be places of refuge, comfort, support and encouragement. They are places where warm memories can be shared and enjoyed.

My constant plea with young couples is that they work together on the purpose of their family. Sure, there will be tensions and moments of anger, however, encourage each other with a picture of what the family can be and should be. If you are struggling, seek wise mentors – people whose marriage has blossomed in time and one you would like to emulate. Ask them for their secret for success.

Work at your family as a team. As I was reminded yesterday, it is such a precious treasure.

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

Pushing Through Curtains

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Pieter Stok
Pushing back through curtains
upon curtains
billowing in a foggy past
there have been
people whose sepia faces
bring back faint memories
of times and places
now hovering
between reality
and imagination.
There were
school yard boasts
and pranks
too energetic now
for the memory to understand
Friends gone
in distance and death.
Vocations
have come and gone
and come again.
My first students
now have faces
as worn as mine
but their fresh faces
live in their children.
Years hold blessings and pain
hopes and failures
joy and aches.
But when I turn
And stop pushing
At the curtains
There is a future
a timelessness
… and a perfection.
Categories: christian, Devotional, Faith, Poem, poetry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Promise and Deliverance

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Image: Courtesy Amazon

Yesterday I quoted from the dutch classic by Abraham Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit. There is another work that many English speaking readers may not be aware of: Promise and Deliverance by S.G. De Graaf. This was written in the first half of the C20th as teaching tool to assist in the teaching of young people and translated into English a number of years ago. This 4 volume set is in fact a brilliant excursion through the Old and New Testament looking at the centrality of Christ throughout Scripture; the promise of Christ in the Old Testament and the Deliverance of the promise in the New. Christian school teachers, parents and Sunday School teachers will find this a useful tool to stay out of the trap of moralising Biblical stories but rather remaining centred on the “main story”.

These books are available as PDFs at  Paideia Books along with many other wonderful books – many from the dutch Calvinist tradition.

Below is a quote from the first chapter on Gen1-2:

1: The Kingdom of God
Genesis 1-2:3
In this first section of Genesis we are not just told that God created
all things. What is revealed to us first and foremost is the Kingdom of
God. At this point we cannot speak of this Kingdom as the Kingdom of
God’s grace, for by grace we usually mean the favor to which we have
lost all claim, i.e. the favor of the forgiveness of our sins. To avoid confusion,
therefore, we should speak here of the Kingdom of God’s favor.*

The institution of the Kingdom of God is central to this chapter. In
preparing the earth in six days, God repeatedly brings forth the higher
from the lower and makes the lower subservient to the higher. Finally He
creates man and makes him king (Gen. 1:26-8). With the creation of
earth’s intended king, God reaches the culmination of His work. We
hear something of His rejoicing when He says: “Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion.” These words
give us the impression that God is saying: “Now let Us make man. Now
We are reaching the climax of Our work.”

Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Work of the Holy Spirit – Abraham Kuyper

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Pieter Stok

The Dutch Minister/Statesman, Abraham Kuyper wrote a wonderful series of devotionals on the Holy Spirit entitled The Work of the Holy Spirit which initially appeared in a weekly Christian publication. It is a detailed and thorough explanation of the development of the work of the Spirit through the Old and New Testaments. Over a hundred years later this is still a wonderful and inspiring work. It is available online at CCEL.org.

The first quote is from chapter 1 and the following quote comes from chapter 37:

“The need of divine guidance is never more deeply felt than when one undertakes to give instruction in the work of the Holy Spirit—so unspeakably tender is the subject, touching the inmost secrets of God and the soul’s deepest mysteries.

We shield instinctively the intimacies of kindred and friends from intrusive observation, and nothing hurts the sensitive heart more than the rude exposure of that which should not be unveiled, being beautiful only in the retirement of the home circle. Greater delicacy befits our approach to the holy mystery of our soul’s intimacy with the living God. Indeed, we can scarcely find words to express it, for it touches a domain far below the social life where language is formed and usage determines the meaning of words.

Glimpses of this life have been revealed, but the greater part has been withheld. It is like the life of Him who did not cry, nor lift up nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. And that which was heard was whispered rather than spoken—a soul-breath, soft but voiceless, or rather a radiating of the soul’s own blessed warmth. Sometimes the stillness has been broken by a cry or a raptured shout; but there has been mainly a silent working, a ministering of stern rebuke or of sweet comfort by that wonderful Being in the Holy Trinity whom with stammering tongue we adore as the Holy Spirit.

….

“The Church has a calling in the world. It is being violently attacked not only by the powers of this world, but much more by the invisible powers of Satan. No rest is allowed. Denying that Christ has conquered, Satan believes that the time left him may yet bring him victories. Hence his restless rage and fury, his incessant attacks upon the ordinances of the Church, his constant endeavor to divide and corrupt it, and his ever-repeated denial of the authority and kingship of Jesus in His Church. Altho he will never succeed entirely, he does succeed to some extent. The history of the Church in every country shows it; it proves that a satisfactory condition of the Church is highly exceptional and of short duration, and that for eight out of ten centuries its state is sad and deplorable, cause for shame and grief on the part of God’s people.

And yet in all this warfare it has a calling to fulfill, an appointed task to accomplish. It may sometimes consist in being sifted like wheat, as in Job’s case, to show that by virtue of Christ’s prayer faith cannot be destroyed in its bosom. But whatever the form of the task, the Church always needs spiritual power to perform it; a power not in itself, but which the King must supply.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Ladder of Faith

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Pieter Stok

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;  and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  2 peter 1:5-7

The Christian life is not some inert situation. Faith, as Peter reflects, is a doorway to a whole new way of existing, no, more than existing, truly living. In this passage, which has echoes of Paul’s “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22-23) we see that we have a responsibility in this new life to build our spiritual muscles. By God’s “divine power’ there are steps we can take to me more Christlike and productive in the kingdom.

The first after faith is

  • goodness or excellence: this describes the expectation that the character of Christ now grows in the person of faith,
  • then the next is knowledge or wisdom, the ability to distinguish good from bad – especially important at the time of writing as false teachers were having an impact. This is an importance that is not diminished today.
  • The third is self control. This is the ability to have authority over our sinful nature. Some believed if they were saved they could do anything they liked. Peter stresses that the child of God reflects a control over their actions rather than abandonment to their desires.
  • That in turn enables endurance – the mature Christian is resolute and determined to maintain this new life,
  •  and exude a godliness – a way of living that shows reverence to God and a right attitude to those around him –
  • mutual affection or brotherly love. As John writes, how can a person love God and hate his brother (1 John 4:20)? The two are inseparably linked.
  • These all culminate in the fulfilment of the law – love. Our lives are to be witnesses to Christ’s agape – sacrificial – love. This is the love for the lives and souls of people around us that empowers the mission of the church.

Above are three short verses we can all spend a life time in practising and the more we do, the more we will see Christ.

Categories: Bible, Christianity, Church, Devotional, Faith, Second Peter | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.