Faster Unto Thee

Rerun: 7 Reasons to Go to Church Even While on Vacation

The post below is from last May, but with a few changes.  It seems so fitting for this time of year as people play their summer vacations. 

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My family and I are on vacation this week with extended family. We are having a wonderful time on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The scenery is breathtaking, the weather is perfect, and we are all having a wonderful time relaxing together.

My family and I always plan ahead to attend a worship service every Lord’s Day that we are on vacation, whether we are staying at home for vacation, visiting family, or on a “real” vacation like we are now. This practice is not driven by some legalistic notion that I simply ought to be in church on Sunday, but by a real desire to be in the Lord’s presence amidst his people in worship.

Here are my top seven reasons to attend a worship service on the Lord’s Day even when on vacation.

1. To honor God.   This reason stands head and shoulders above the rest and is sufficient in and of itself to compel one to go to church while on vacation. God is worthy of worship at all times and in all places and he commands that we believers gather for public worship, not neglecting the assembling of ourselves. In our day, too many believers hold God in such low esteem that they carry no healthy, biblical “fear of the Lord” in their hearts. And so when they are on vacation, they take a vacation from God as well, as though suddenly their lives during vacation may now be lived without reference to God. May God give us a more Puritan view of the Lord God Almighty who simply must be worshiped without interruption. I have often said to my congregation, “do not take a vacation from God when you are on vacation. And be glad that he never takes two weeks off from you.” Is God such a burden to us that we need a break from him?

2. To keep life ordered around God. The second reason is an issue of discipline. As the hymn writer says, “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” The discipline of regular attendance at worship services on the Lord’s Day except for times of sickness or true emergency is a powerful tool in keeping one’s life centered around God. We need a day of the week to plan our busy lives around; we need a fixed day to submit our schedules to lest we begin to center our lives around ourselves. Making the commitment to be in church while on vacation forces the vacationer to plan ahead by looking for a church to attend, organizing the travel schedule around worship, and maybe even shortening time at the beach. In other words, it keeps vacation time from being all about self-indulgence and emotional escape while reminding us that God is always to be the center of our lives.

3. To teach my child. One way children learn the value of something is from a routine established by parents, for we make regular what is important to us. If I say I love God and they should too, but act like God is someone to be vacationed from, I teach them the opposite. My little three year old already is watching what I say and do and keeping a mental journal of how daddy’s actions reveal what is really important to him. She needs to see me leading my family to worship even when it is inconvenient and not do so begrudgingly but with joy and love for a wonderful God. She needs to see me lead her to live against the grain of our self-indulgent culture and against the low standards of many believers. She needs my example to teach her, to haunt her when she is on her own and to prove to her that devotion to God is something that can and must be lived out in practical, routine ways. She needs me to show her that love for God is meaninglessly hollow without practical expression.

Parents, every choice we make tells our children what we think of God.  And every choice we make tells us our children what they should think of God.

4. To witness. It amazes me how people stand up and take notice that we go to church when on vacation. People see you leave the hotel or other accommodations and head out church. They see you go to bed at a decent hour on Saturday night so you can be up on time for worship. They note when you ask where to find a church. And the people you might be staying with are impacted by the fact that even if they don’t go, you do.

5. To experience the joy of meeting other Christians. There is great joy in meeting other Christians in some place other than your home church, in experiencing what God is doing in some area of the world other than your own, in hearing of common struggles, victories and hopes. In world that seems too dark at times, one hour or so spent in someone else’s church reminds me that God’s light is everywhere his people are.

6. To experience a timely word. While I certainly have heard a few dud sermons while on vacation, I have more often heard a timely word from the Lord in a sermon or through some other element of a worship service. It amazes me how readily God speaks to me if I just pay attention! What insights and instruction and direction and affirmation and rebukes I would have missed if I had skipped church while on vacation! What believer does not want to hear from God?

7. To give in to holy desire. Pastor John Piper is famous among believers for writing about  "Christian hedonism."  He makes the point that true, deep happiness is found only in full surrender and service to God. When we are fully enraptured with God happiness is the natural result. As I said at the beginning of this post, I go to church while on vacation because I really want to. My heart wants it. And I figure that giving into a holy desire is rarely a bad thing.

 What do you think? What would you add to this list? Do you wish to take me to task for anything said here? Submit a comment and let’s talk.

Not As Those Without Hope

We biblical preachers are constantly proclaiming that doctrine has practical implications for life.  On Wednesday, I found out personally that what I had preached the Sunday before really worked.

Just this Easter Sunday I was explaining to my congregation the meaning of  Jesus being the "firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20).  I explained that the resurrection of Jesus was an indicator, a promise, that God did indeed do resurrections and that more were to come.  Just as the very first produce a farmer sees is a promise that the full harvest is right around the corner, so Jesus' resurrection is a promise that all will be raised one day, some to the "resurrection of life" and some to the "resurrection of judgment" (John 5:29).  This means that death as we know it is temporary.  It is still a painful, grief-filled experience for believers, but we do not grieve as those without hope, for there is only a relatively short wait before the resurrection comes.

I then illustrated the point by referring to a beloved saint in our church who died this year.  We had prayed for her healing and yet cancer took her from us.  "But I say to you that her healing is coming," I preached to the congregation.  To further illustrate the point, I explained that I have two grandparents and one beloved great aunt left.  "At their funerals," I said, "when I am sitting in the church pew, I know that I will feel grief, for death is a terrible thing.  But I will also feel joy, because all three are believers in Christ, and that means that they are not lost to me.  For one day, when the trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ will arise first ...." 

After our morning Easter services I came home and saw that there was a message on my answering machine.  It was my mother, letting me know that grandpa had died that morning.  "I just referred to him in my sermon," I thought.  Would what I just preached less than a couple hours ago hold up?

The funeral was Wednesday.  And as I sat and listened to the preacher, viewed the body of grandpa and felt the grief, I did experience what I just proclaimed to my congregation 3 days before: joy.  I knew that death had lost its sting, for death had been defeated with the resurrection of Christ, and that the coming resurrection meant the separation between my grandfather and I was only temporary.  I did not grieve as someone without hope.  By God's grace, the sermon I preached a few days earlier was being proved true in my own experience. 

Praise God that his truth does indeed make all the difference in the world.

Parents as Disciple-Makers

Today I began a new sermon series that unpacks the ideas in our church's vision statement, which centers around developing distinctively Christian families.

The sermon today focused on family discipleship, and in part expounded Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 20-25, and Ephesians 6:4.  The two texts put the burden of responsibility for the spiritual training of children squarely on the shoulders of parents.  In the sermon, I argued that there are two actions parents must take for family discipleship to be successful.  One, that the parents see themselves as disciple-makers, and two, that the parents implement a strategy for discipling their children.

As I wrote out the sermon, I found myself summarizing my own approach to discipling my daughter with these words:

I must live in such a way that my child is persuaded of the relevance and truth of Jesus Christ.
I must teach in such a way that my child learns the Word of God.
I must speak in such a way that my child learns to show respect for God.
I must pray in such a way that my child will see her own desperate need for Christ.
I must exhort in such a way that my child responds to God with repentance and faith.
I must encourage in such a way that my child will serve God without reservation.
All this I must do, with God as my enabler.

   

Bishop Bastian sermons available

For those of you interested, the MP3 files  of Bishop Bastian's sermons duringour Family Life Weekend have now been posted on our church's website. 

For a few of my thoughts regarding these excellent sermons, scroll down two posts and read my thoughts there.

And for Wikipedia fans, I have been correcting and expanding the entry on Bishop Donald N. Bastian. Check it out.

Eulogy for a Great Grandmother

My maternal Grandmother, Erla Van Til, died on December 28.  You can read her obituary here. Pictured above are my daughter Kiran and Grandma Erla just a few months before she died.

A memorial service was held for her on January 2 in Newaygo, Michigan. Below is the eulogy I shared in her honor:

For the eulogy I would like to share a few of my memories with you about my grandmother.

My grandmother knew what little boys liked. When the movie Star Wars came out in the late ‘70’s, my grandmother took me to see it. I was so happy to see this trailblazing movie that I went home and built one of the vehicles from the movie out of cardboard. I was equally happy when she took me to see The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi years later. She made sure I saw the whole trilogy and enjoyed making me happy with those gifts.

Grandma knew boys needed to learn to do grown-up things, too. So she often saved some of the easy repairs to her dock on Hess Lake for me to do. I  would pull up the broken boards with a hammer and nail the new ones in place after painting them.  It was simple work, but it was good for me to feel useful and she knew that.

Grandma also knew boys liked creepy things. And so a few times, upon my request, she took me aside to show me her “magic teeth.” To a little boy seeing incisors come right out of their gums was really cool. I’m sure I was not the only child to see the magic teeth.

Grandma knew as well how important birthdays are to little boys. One January my mother had scheduled a family birthday party for me but a snowstorm kept everyone away. Everyone, that is, except Grandma Erla and Grandpa Wes. I still feel impressed to this day that they braved the roadways just for me.

Grandma knew boys needed exercise for their health and to get the wiggles out. So we went for walks along Hess Lake, always stopping at the nearby bridge to have a look. We also took many paddleboat rides, peddling nearly halfway around the lake at times, maybe stopping to go swimming or to fish. When I was worried that we would not have the strength to peddle back home, she would always say, “Let’s go a bit farther out, THEN turn around.”

It was important to grandma that I have a sense of family history and an appreciation for the past as well. She made sure I knew a bit about my grandfather who died before I was born, about her parents, and about the Fellows family. We looked at old family pictures and even saw a family member or two in pictures at the Newaygo museum. I remember seeing a high-school graduation picture of grandma and noting the year (1937).  That triggered an earlier memory from the 1920’s and she said, “We really liked Calvin Coolidge.” She paused and then commented, “I guess I’m old.” I thought (but did not say), “Well, anybody who remembers Calvin Coolidge is definitely not young.” It was important to her that I appreciate the past.

Grandma knew the importance of one’s spiritual life, so we always went to church when we visited her over a Sunday and we always prayed before meals and other things. Through her church attendance she also taught me loyalty - she stayed with the Newaygo church through thick and thin for her 87 years of life.

Good grandmothers know how to nurture and how to teach through example. I thankful to the Lord for giving me such a grandmother.

 

 

 

 

Gerald Ford and George Veldman

My Aunt Shirley sent me a note this week regarding the passing of Gerald Ford. She reminded me that Gerald and Betty Ford knew my great-grandparents, George and Mary Veldman, quite well. That prompted me to dig out my box of genealogical materials in which I found a photocopy of a letter Ford wrote to my great-grandfather. You can see a scanned image of that letter below.

George Veldman was mayor of Grand Rapids, MI from 1954-1956, but before that was close friends with the Fords. Then congressman Ford even campaigned for my great-grandfather in his mayoral race. My great-grandmother Mary received a birthday card each year from the Fords and loved to talk about it. And Gerald Ford was a classmate of George's daughter, Helen.

UPDATE: for a great summary of Ford's presidency, see an article by Fred Barnes here.

UPDATE: for a great post from someone who knew Gerald Ford and his minister son personally, see Ben Witherington's blog.   This is really worth a visit.

The Definition of Cute

We had our annual Christmas program at church today.  The program began with children saying a few lines. If you need warm fuzzy  moment, click Download kiran_xmas_part.MOV to see my daughter Kiran say her part.  This clip may take a while to download.

Pictured in their Christmas dresses here are my daughter Kiran to the left and her good friend Jerika Begley on the right.  Feel free to click on "comments" below and gush.

More of Kiran

Four new photos of Kiran have been added to the Kiran 2006 album.

Zero Impulse Control

My daughter is now 2 years old.  And I am now convinced that as parents approach the 2nd year of their child's life there ought to be a big sign that reads: "Welcome to the world of zero impulse control."

They don't call it the "terrible twos" for nothing.  My daughter has always been precious, sweet and well-behaved.  But now the well-behaved part is crumbling as two new emotional issues have arisen in regards to being two: fear and anger.

Her ability to experience fear is new to us.  Before a few months ago, she did not have enough life experience or emotional development to experience much fear.  But she does now.  Storms bring it out.  She is scared of them and calls for us in the middle of the night if there is thunder.  She calls thunder "boomies" and has become quite paranoid about boomies.  If an old truck drives by the house and backfires (something that happens daily in our neighborhood) she speaks up and says, "boomies?"  We reassure her that it was not a boomie and she looks at us suspiciously as though she thinks we are trying to deceive her.

Then there is the anger.  Now, when she does not get her way, she throws a tantrum.  My wife and I used to brag about how good our child was in stores.  That is over.  The little hulk gets very angry if she is not allowed to push the cart or walk freely or do whatever in the store.  She is like the hulk because the angrier she gets the stronger she gets.  Other young parents see her fits and give us a look that says, "I understand."  Older folks look at us like we must be terrible parents and act like their kids never threw tantrums.  Sounds like selective memory to me.  According to the "how to raise a child" books we own our little one is developing autonomy.  I think she's just getting better at expressing original sin.

Now, don't get me wrong.  Our daughter is still wonderful most of the time.  But now I know why they call this time the terrible twos.