Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39).
Recently a volcano in Iceland erupted through a sheet of ice and the resulting plumb of ash and smoke almost single handedly shut down air traffic in Europe and separated people from their friends and family as they waited for air travel to resume. An oil platform in the Caribbean catches on fire and the ensuing oil spill causes a natural disaster not seen since the grounding of the Valdez in Alaska. A coal mine in West Virginia experiences an explosion and 29 families lose loved ones. It is amazing that in this age of advance technology and machinery that a simple act of nature or an accident stops us in our tracks and causes so much disruption in our lives.
We still have death and loss of life facing us all day long, but there are also other personal hardships and persecution in everyday life that don’t make the headlines on CNN. If we think about it, we realize that even some everyday actions can have a decimating effect on our relationships. What are the volcanoes that are erupting in your life. Certainly a loss of a loved one or loss of a job can put a family into a tailspin, out of control and separate people one from another.
Our connections with each other are sometimes a fragile thread but our connection with our creator is a bond that is made in Heaven and cannot be destroyed by volcanoes, earthquakes, fires, or anything else on this earth. Sometimes, when disaster hits, we feel helpless or we look for something or someone to blame. Certainly some disasters can be avoided but in the end it is our ability to regroup and help each other start over that allows people to cope in the face of adversity.  Blaming God or anyone else is unproductive at best and at worse does not allow love to reach out and begin healing not only people but nature as well.
Let us all reach out in love to one to one another to conquer adversity through Him who loved us.

Pastor Herb Vanderbilt
East Nelson United Methodist Church
9024 18 Mile, Cedar Springs

Have you ever suffered persecution because of your stand for Jesus Christ?  Unfortunately, this is a reality that we must all face.  In 2 Timothy 3:12 we read, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” We should expect persecution from the world because when we become a new creation in Christ, our values and all that we stand for has changed. We are different from the world in more than just what we do; at the very core of who we are, we have become different.  Persecution from the world is expected. As a matter of fact, it is a reality and there is no getting around it. But what about those times when we end up enduring persecution from our own family—the family of God? What about when the persecution and the attacks aren’t coming from the world, but from within the Church? We are completely taken off guard, and we often don’t know how to respond. Because we are taken off guard, our first response is to attack back. We lash out in anger, and then we create a division in the body that only hurts the cause of Christ. Maybe you have experienced this kind of persecution, and you have been left clueless as to how to deal with it. I propose to you that the way we are to deal with this type of persecution doesn’t differ much from how we are to deal with the persecution from the world.

As a Christian, one of our defining characteristics is to be our love for one another. John 13:35 says, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Later in 1 John 4:20,21 we read, “If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” It is clear that, as a child of God, we are to love one another. We are to seek love above everything else. King Solomon gives us some perspective of how to seek love in the midst of being attacked. Proverbs 17:9 says, “He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends.” The word translated “cover” in that verse literally means to conceal, or to hide.  If we want to be one who seeks love among the brethren, then when we are attacked or persecuted from within, it will be our mission to conceal those things, to hide them from others. Our first response is quite often the exact opposite. We want to tell as many people as possible to get them on our side. This doesn’t solve the problem. It only causes division, which ultimately ends up hurting the cause of Christ and our effectiveness in reaching the world. The one who seeks love doesn’t repeat a matter, but rather he covers it. I know this approach tends to step on our pride a little bit. But remember, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
So, the next time you are faced with a situation where you are under attack from within the Church (or from the world), remember, seek love and cover up that transgression.  Don’t worry, God knows what you are going through and He has promised to repay evil (Romans 12:19). He has not asked us to repay evil for evil, but He has commanded us to repay evil with love! Above all seek love, and then sit back and watch God be given the glory! That should be our purpose for everything that we do (1 Cor. 10:31), but that’s another article.

Rev. Kevin Reed, Senior Pastor
Grace Evangelical Free Church, Rockford

What is the valley of Achor? This was a valley near the city of Jericho. It was the place in the Old Testament where a man by the name of Achan was stoned to death. At this point in this article, you are saying to yourself, “what is your purpose in writing about this?” If you will bear with me, I trust you will see how the Lord works in and through our times of trouble, even if we bring them upon ourselves like Achan. The name “Achor” in Hebrew means “trouble.”  So, this valley was actually the valley of trouble.
Joshua  7:24-26 reads, “Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today.” Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since” (NIV).
We see at the end of this verse that God eventually turned from His fierce anger. Why? It was because the price for Achan’s sin was paid. Achan paid the “high price” of death.  This is an amazing picture of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ paid the high price of death for sin. His death, like Achan’s death, paid the price for sin and caused God turned from his anger. This is the simple truth of the loving message of the Gospel.  God’s not mad at you! Jesus Christ’s death satisfied God’s anger.  If this is true, why are so many people, including Christians (God’s own children) walking around all the time thinking God is always angry with them?
Let’s see some other truths about this valley of trouble, so when we ourselves experience times of trouble, we can find encouragement. There were two prophets who had some very profound things to say about this valley. The first prophet was Isaiah.  Isaiah 65:10 says, “Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me” (NIV). Wow! The Isaiah was saying that our valleys of trouble, our times of difficulty in life, can actually become a place of rest.  How can this be? We must bring them to the Lord. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” Matt 11:28-30 (NIV). Again, we see our valleys of troubles can become a place of spiritual rest.
The second prophet was the prophet Hosea.  Hosea brought to light even more amazing truth about our valleys of troubles. Hosea said, “There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt” Hosea  2:15  (NIV). He said that in our valleys of troubles, God actually produces hope.  In the places we seem to feel the most hopeless, God brings us hope. Not just happiness, which is based on the happenings of our life, but real hope that sees past our troubles. I think this is what the Apostle Paul understood when he wrote, “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Rom 5:2-5 (NIV) Paul wrote that real biblical hope often stems from sufferings, yet it never disappoints us.
In closing, if you find yourself in a “valley of trouble” right now, remember these principles. Jesus paid the price for my sin, so God’s not mad at me. I can actually find rest and hope in this valley. Lastly, I do not need to remain disappointed, because God is producing a “door of hope” for me right in the middle of this low point in my life.  So, do not be afraid to step through the door he opens.

Pastor Craig Carter
North Kent Community Church
1480 Indian Lakes Rd., Sparta
Church Office (616) 550-6398
Service Time: Sundays @ 10:00am – Nursery & Children’s Ministry provided.

My wife and I recently attended a fund raising event for an international women’s charitable organization. Through wellness, educational, and economic programs they meet the most pressing needs of women in the developing world. As their founder and president shared her heart concerning the plight of the world’s poorest women, the Lord began to share His heart with my wife, Shelley. Afterward, as she discussed with me what came to her, we began to receive an even greater revelation.
At one point in her discussion, the founder of this organization shared a couple of stories about the ladies she encountered who were wearing what is called a burka. According to Wikipedia, the burka (also spelled burqa, or burkha) is described as “an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions for the purpose of hiding a female’s body when out in public. It is worn over the usual daily clothing (often a long dress) and removed when the woman returns to the sanctuary of the household, out of the view of men that are not their husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles, sons and grandsons. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman’s loose body-covering, plus the head-covering, plus the face-veil.”
In her stories, the founder spoke mainly about the oppressive nature of, in particular, the face covering. Talking with the women behind the veil proved to be very difficult, not being able to see any type of body or facial expression. They are the faceless women whose identity is hidden behind a veil that separates them from the outside world.
They are not the only oppressed women in the world. Strangely, a similar tragedy is found within the church in America. Christianity has its own version of a face covering. The Christian “burka” has also been around for years, oppressing the Bride of Christ under its identity removing “head covering.”
Frank Viola, in his book “Who Is Your Covering?” states; “It is my contention that a great deal of confusion and subnormal Christian behavior is connected with a modern teaching known as ‘protective covering.’ This teaching holds that Christians are protected from doctrinal error and moral failure when they submit themselves to the authority of another believer or organization.”
In Matthew 20:25-28 Jesus said to His disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Our leadership model in the church should be the opposite of the world’s. Presently, our leaders are on top of the organizational flow chart when they should be on the bottom, serving and under girding everyone else.
The Greek word for “lord it over” in this passage is “katakurieuo”. It means “to bring under one’s power, to hold in subjection, to be master of, to exercise lordship over.” Total control often lies in the hands of a select few who bring everyone under their control. Unfortunately, many of God’s children like it this way. They have less responsibility, choosing instead to sit complacently in their usual pew.
The Bible clearly teaches us to submit to one another, but never through a top-down, clergy-laity system modeled after the world. In the present system, a leadership’s positional authority becomes threatened when the sheep begin to grow up in Christ, realizing that they too have a face to bear and a voice to be heard. They are often told to kindly put their veil back on and be quiet, deferring to the “anointed authority” over them who knows what’s best. The Bible says that all true Christians have been anointed by the Holy Spirit, not just a select few. We must break the silence and remove the oppressive head covering in order for others to see the Lord’s glory through His Body. (To read the full article, go to http://capstone-ministries.com/articles.html)

Pastor Tim Bauer
Capstone Ministries

Each day the North Kent Service Center enters the mission field, where we ask the Lord to use us to make a difference in the lives of others. The North Kent Service Center will celebrate 37 years of ministry, “Helping our Neighbors in Need” on June 5, 2010.  We are excited to share some of our information on how we have assisted families through out the years. “Give, and it shall be given unto you” (Luke 6:38); “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord”(1 Corinthians 15:58).

In 1973, when we opened our door, we served 35 individuals and operated on a $1,000 budget. In 2009, we provided service to 40,596 individuals and operate on a $550,000. Our emergency food distribution in 2009 was 732,448 pounds, up from the 324,000 pounds in provided in 2002. “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land” (Deuteronomy 15:11).

In the past 6 years we have experienced a tremendous growth of families seeking services here at the North Kent Service Center. These families come to us with stories that will break your heart. We do every thing we can to provide the needed services each family is requesting. We have had families living in tents, cars, losing everything they have worked so hard for. Some families have never had to seek assistance before and walking through our door is hard for many. These new families are our neighbors, friends, family and even possible yourself. We all can make a difference in the lives of others. “Give  and it shall be given unto you” (Luke 6:3;8). “Pray about everything . .. If you do this you will experience God’s peace. . . .His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quite and at rest” (Philippians 4:6).

The North Kent Service Center provides the following services to individuals living north of 6 Mile up to 22 Mile—the entire width of Kent County. If you know anyone living in these geographical boundaries and needs assistance with food, clothing, household items, shelter and utility assistance, please have them call to see if they qualify. Eligibility is based on income.

•    Emergency food assistance
•    Emergency utility assistance
•    Emergency shelter assistance
•    Senior Meals on Wheels
•    Senior Pantry
•    NOW Pantry
•    Referrals to one of our 6 support pantries
•    Federal Commodities – 4 times per year
•    Mobile Food trucks

We need your help to continue this very important community ministry with food drives, cash donations, household donations, furniture and volunteering your time. We are currently seeking volunteers to drive for the Senior Meals on Wheels program, our front desk registration and customer count out area.  If you are interested in volunteering or setting up a food drive please call the North Kent Service Center at 866-3478 ext 103.

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:17-18).

God Bless—wishing you a lifetime of blessings and smiles.

Sandy Waite, Executive Director
The North Kent Service Center
10075 Northland Drive, Rockford

Today, there seems to be an increase in stress, anger and uncertainty in our world.  Much of this can be attributed to health problems, terrorism, high unemployment rates and a financial crisis; most notably in the housing market. When we’re faced with adversity it’s easy to fall into that dreadful thing called fear. But in difficult times, is this what God had intended for us? Fear? Or is there something else God wants us to turn to? There is… faith!

On a daily basis, every child of God makes a very important choice. Will they live in faith or fear? Fear is something that does not discriminate. Man or woman, child or adult. At some point in our lives, we all have to come face to face with it, and Christians are no exceptions. But why should we fear fear? Fear is a thief! It is a spirit that God did not give to us. It starts out by stealing God’s peace from our hearts. And, if we let it paralyze us from action, it can rob us of our true destinies in Christ.  However, we should not be surprised. The Bible says: “we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world…and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12 NLT). As a Christian, fear should be your enemy.

Our Bible says: “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).  Many Christians have mastered the first half of that verse. We believe that God does exist.  However, it is the second half where we fall short. We must believe that He rewards those that seek Him with their whole heart. That is a part of faith and, without it, we are not fully pleasing our Lord. As Christians, when we realize we are afraid, we must stop and ask ourselves an important question. At that very moment, do we listen to God or Satan? God says He will reward you for your desire to seek and obey Him. He says He’s counted the very hairs on your head, and that He alone is your Provider and Protector. Satan says, you are unworthy of God’s rewards. He says that God must be using His wrath to teach and train you. Satan often whispers to you that the details of your life are too trivial for God to be bothered with and you must ultimately fend for yourself. There are times in our lives when we feel these things to be true.

Fear can sneak up on you when you least expect it, and once it has you, it can be hard to get free. Many Christians don’t realize it, but faith and fear are very similar in nature.

Both faith and fear are an unshakable belief in an unseen future. Neither is merely emotional, but both are spiritual forces. The only difference between the two is that one believes God will come through for you; the other believes He won’t.

God says that He has not given you the spirit of fear, but He has given you love, power, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). They are your most powerful weapons in your battle for freedom as you master controlling emotions of fear, doubt, and worry.

How do you begin controlling emotions and thoughts? This comes from discipline. The more that you discipline yourself to meditate on God’s Word, the easier it will become to reject thoughts that don’t line up with it. And, that’s what fears are; thoughts that do not line up with God’s promises to you. Fear says God will not help you this time. Fear says your children won’t come back to the Lord. Fear says that your finances will never improve. Fear says that your marriage is ruined. Fear says the opposite of what God says.

There are five steps to controlling fear. 1. Recognize the fearful thought as a threat. 2. Think of God’s promise for that situation (if you don’t know what it is, find out!) 3. Pray and tell God your concern. 4. Praise God for His promise to provide your needs. 5. Refuse to worry about it any more. If it comes to your mind again, confess that you have given it over to your heavenly Father in prayer. Then begin praising God that He heard your prayers and that the prayers of the righteous avails much (James 5:16).

No matter what situation or problem you’re faced with, you need to know that faith in God overcomes the fear of this world. However, it must be complete faith. You can’t believe Christ is your healer and then fear you’ll die of cancer. You can’t believe God is your provider, and then fear you’ll go bankrupt. That is being double-minded. As I’ve said before, fear is a spirit. It is a sign of a spiritual attack from your enemy, the devil.  However, knowing this should not bring on more fear. God’s power is living inside of you, and He has given you the power to stand against the enemy’s attacks. This power is used through faith.

Pastor Ryan Black
Cedar Springs Christian Church
340 West Pine Street, Cedar Springs

Sometimes my mind runs away with the idea that “enough is enough,” so why doesn’t God show up down here and take care of this mess?  We all have times in our spiritual journey when we tend to get anxious and it feels like we’re all alone in our troubles.
There is an old spiritual song that was recorded by Lena Horne in 1946,  “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,” which pretty much sums up how we so often feel, especially in the times we live in now. Most of us know the first line by memory (it’s the same as the title), which states the problem. But the second line opens the door to our understanding. It reads, “Nobody knows but Jesus.”
Christians who read their bible know that this is a solid biblical principle. Jesus does know all about our troubles. We know that he is an ever-present help in time of trouble, but our difficulty is having patience as we are “waiting upon God.” We know that God’s word is true and inerrant, yet we tend to sometimes think in our heart that if only God knew what we know in our situation, he would act immediately. Waiting on God can sometimes be difficult, even challenging to our faith but it will not harm you.
The Psalmist wrote “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”  Wow! You would think maybe the Psalmist (King David) could see all the way to the 21st century. Wait patiently for him! Waiting on God is extremely important to our growth as a Christian.
Which brings us around to the question of the day, “why does God make us wait?” Our heavenly Father is an all-loving God, so why doesn’t he just bring us some relief and answer our prayers immediately?  The answer to that is that what God does in us while we wait is even more important than whatever we are waiting for.
Scripture tells us “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Waiting isn’t just something we have to do until we get what we want; waiting is a key part of the process of becoming the person God wants us to be. God wants the very best for us, yet we should be careful to ask of the Lord what will bring glory to him, not just to get things that will only bring pleasure to us.
Waiting requires faith, and while we wait, God grows our faith. Faith doesn’t just sit around with our hands in our pockets or twiddling our thumbs. We must be active in serving God and willing to work toward the goal, reading scripture, praying, and helping others. It is about God’s timing and God’s results, not ours. Think of Noah’s faith (patience in waiting). God gave him a project to build an ark for 120 years, and what about King David’s faith (patience in waiting) who was anointed king at the age of 16, but had to wait until he was 30 to actually take the throne.
Many of God’s faithful waited patiently for God’s promise, and received his mercy and grace while waiting. Folks, God is worth waiting for, and he rightfully expects us to use our time of waiting to pursue a closer relationship with him and discover what it is that God may be trying to teach us. In that period of waiting, God can change our mind, he can change our heart and even our passions if they’re not in line with his.
Waiting in faith (patience) means trusting that God knows what he is doing.

Pastor Dick Nichols
Cedar Creek Community Church
2969 14 Mile Road, Sparta

Easter is about coming alive. The night before Jesus Christ was crucified He made a very strange statement that nobody understood. He said, “In just a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you’re going to see Me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive.” (John 14:19 The Message). What in the world did He mean? His disciples must have been thinking, “What are you talking about? We’re already alive.”

Jesus said something similar to a religious guy named Nicodemus.  Jesus told him, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s kingdom.”  Nicodemus said, “But if a person is already old, how can he be born again?” (John 3:3-4 NCV).

What does it mean to be “born again”? It means to be born spiritually. It means we need to come alive spiritually. When you were born, you came into this world spiritually dead.  You were alive physically, but dead spiritually. Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, you came into this world separated from God. And Jesus says in order to get reconnected to God and be a part of His Kingdom, you need to have a spiritual birth.

Jesus uses a brilliant word here to explain this deep spiritual truth to us. It’s a Greek homonym. A homonym is a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. Examples of homonyms are stalk (which can mean either part of a plant or to follow someone around), bear (animal) and bear (carry), or saw (past tense of see) and saw (tool used for cutting).

The word translated “born again” is a homonym. It can mean both “born again” and “born from above.” And Jesus used it to explain to us that we need to be born a second time, but this time we need to be born from above, born spiritually. Our first birth is a physical birth, but our second birth is a spiritual birth. The first time we come alive physically, the second time we come alive spiritually.
Maybe you’re thinking, if this is true, “How can I be born again?  How can I come alive spiritually?” Jesus explained to Nicodemus, “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NLT).
That’s the point of Easter. God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. No one will ever love you more than God does. Because He loves you and wants to have a relationship with you God gave His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for your sins. And if you believe in Jesus and trust Him to take away your sins you will live forever in heaven with God.
Do you know that you were made to last forever? One day your heart’s going to stop beating. That’ll be the end of your body, but it’s not going to be the end of you. God made you to last forever. God says I want you spending eternity with Me, not apart from Me. But here’s the bottom line. If you want to spend eternity with God in heaven, you’ve got to come alive spiritually while you’re here on earth by believing in His Son and building a relationship with Him.
So how do you live between now and when you die? You get to know God a little bit better. You let Him get to know you better. And you start living for Him.
1 Peter 1:3-4 (The Message) says, “What a God we have!  …Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven, and the future starts now!”
When you begin a relationship with Jesus Christ your past is forgiven, you’re given a brand new life right now, and you get a home in heaven in the future. What a deal!  Forgiveness for your past, a purpose for living, and a home in heaven. Nobody else can give you that.
Come alive this Easter. Ask Jesus to forgive your sins and be the Leader of your life. If you do you will have everything to live for!

Pastor Barry Briggs
The Springs Free Methodist Church
135 N. Grant St., Cedar Springs

The Christian season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday (February 17) and ends on the Saturday before Easter (April 3). It is a 40-day period (Sundays don’t count in the 40) of reflection and action based on our relationships with God, each other and ourselves. The last week of Lent is called Holy Week where the drama and conflict in Jesus’ life reach an ultimate point. Holy Week is often the time when theological controversies about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection surface as well.
Barbara Brown Taylor, author, preacher and former Episcopal priest, reflects on the effects of conflict in the congregation she served: “Once I had begun crying on a regular basis, I realized just how little interest I had in defending Christian beliefs. The parts of the Christian story that had drawn me into the Church were not the believing parts but the beholding parts.
‘Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy…’
‘Behold the Lamb of God…’
‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock…’
Christian faith seemed to depend on beholding things that were clearly beyond belief, including Jesus’ own teaching that acts of mercy toward perfect strangers were acts of mercy toward him. While I understood both why and how the early church had decided to wrap those mysteries in protective layers of orthodox belief, the beliefs never seized my heart the way the mysteries did” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church, 109-110).
In conflict we may retreat to beliefs or standards outside us so that we are less vulnerable to others. That is not the approach of Jesus. Holy Week begins with Palm/Passion Sunday. It is a day that recognizes Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey and his betrayal, arrest, trial, conviction, abuse and death on the cross.
During Holy Week we see that Jesus does not hide behind anything to protect himself in the conflict because of his deep, abiding sense of God’s presence, and commitment to love. The story leads us to another beholding part while Jesus is on the cross, a day we call Good Friday.
“Now when the centurion who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’” (Mark 15:39)
Holy Week is full of divine-human drama. We experience a profoundly moving story that invites us to personally enter Jesus’ final earthly days, and behold love’s redeeming work in his death and resurrection. Logical explorations and explanations only go so far to describe God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. We are then left to wonder at the amazing grace and mercy of God. I invite you to find a way to walk through Holy Week with your home congregation or a church near you.

Pastor Jeff Williams
Courtland-Oakfield United Methodist Church
10295 Myers Lake Ave., Rockford

Every year the Cedar Springs Post dedicates a whole section to the many special events that occur on Easter Sunday and the days leading up to it. We will often find listings for special sunrise services, mentions of any Easter dramas or special music events, as well as the inside scoop on any Easter egg hunts for the kids. Easter Sunday is certainly the highlight of the Christian calendar and rightfully so. It is a time to remember Jesus’ victory over the darkness; His resurrection from the dead!

But even though we are still a couple of weeks away from those special events, it shouldn’t stop us from reflecting today on the meaning of Easter. These next two weeks give us a wonderful opportunity to prepare our hearts for this special time of year. It gives us chance to really reflect on the work of Jesus and how that affects our lives still today. John 10 is a wonderful place to turn for such reflection. In John 10 it describes Jesus as a good shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep. What a wonderful thing to think about even before Easter. After all, before we celebrate the resurrection, we must first remember Jesus death and burial. How difficult it must have been for Jesus to go through such pain that was required to die upon a cross to pay for our sins.  Yet that is the nature of Jesus as we see in John 10. There you will find that He does not abandon us, instead He cares for us. While a hired hand would run should a wolf come stalking the sheep, Jesus instead stays and protects us.

But perhaps most helpful if we were to begin a pre-Easter reflection from John 10, is the fact that the Shepherd knows His sheep.  Jesus knows us and knows us well. He knows everything about us. I like to think that I know Cedar Springs pretty well, but I’m sure Mayor Watson knows the town much better than I. But not even Mayor Watson knows this town like God does. And that is how well God knows us. It’s kind of like the way that parents know their children. Parents know their kids’ personalities, tendencies and interests. I encountered an example of this a week ago when my son got hurt while playing outside. He came running into the house crying, but before he got to me I could tell how serious it was by the sound of his cry. You see, my son has three levels of cries. The first is the crying he does when he is in trouble and has been sent to bed. The second is when he is hurt, but its not too serious, he’s more scared than anything. And the third level of cry is where he’s really hurt and there is probably blood and he probably needs to go to the hospital. Without knowing what happened outside, I could tell that this was a level 2 category cry, and it was. How did I know? Because I know my son. And that’s how well God knows us, but much more so.

But even more shocking than this is that we know The Shepherd. John 10 says we know His voice. He’s not so vast that we cannot know Him. He’s not so distant that we cannot reach Him. In fact, He is very close. And if we can know His voice, than we are called to follow it. Not just at Easter or two weeks before, but all year long. We have the wonderful privilege of knowing Jesus Christ in our lives. Maybe we have started young and have experienced many years following the Lord like my retired friends Leon and Ruth. Or maybe we are making a decision to follow Jesus today. Either way, we can be certain this Easter that He is a Good Shepherd that has laid His life down for us and He leads us and guides us every step of the way.

Pastor Jim Alblas
Pioneer Christian Reformed Church
3110 17 Mile Rd, Cedar Springs