I grew up in the CRC, and am still here, along with my family. I'm married to Daryl, who has a construction business. I had a CPA license for 10 or so years, then I added EX to the front, and MOM to the back, so now I'm an EX CPA, MOM =). I am MOM to Duncan, Ian and Samantha. Our family also owns a raspberry farm, and in the summers we get to work out there together.
being "all alone" is such a common method of the enemy to bring discouragement and hopelessness... I'm reminded of Ms. Martha's pity party in Luke 10:40, "...alone" or "...by myself?" can relate at times and have indulged in similar pity parties... but as believers we can recognize it for what it is...
LORD, continue to connect those who are reaching out in loneliness, that feel isolated and like they are the only ones that are struggling with something, we pray for Divine connections that only You can orchestrate, and give you the glory and thanks, in the Name of Jesus.
re-reading your posts, Henry, I have another question for you... how did you know you were called to be a pastor (maybe I'm wrong about you being a pastor, but that's what i understand from you "entering the ministry" in your 20's)? You say God has never told you what call to take, or what car to buy... so then when pastors are "called"... what do they mean?
Well Henry, I agree that as the Church, we need to focus and proclaim more of Jesus and His sacrifice - that's why I love the Moravians and Count Zinzendorf... yesterday's devotional by Oswald Chambers in his My Utmost for His Highest also confirmed what you have shared...
but I think there is a place for personal testimonies as well,even in their weak, imperfectness, to encourage fellow believers... recognizing that each testimony is a gift as well, and so giving God the glory... we can have contempt for our part in it, but I think we have to be careful about being contemptuous of what God via the Holy Spirit is doing when He gives us Divine insight/direction/leading/guiding as Scripture tells us He does and will..
in another post you mentioned something about how do we know if it's God or self, or the enemy, and you gave an example of a father killing his children... a simple test of lining it up with scripture would discern that is not God, He is life, He tells us to choose life, He commands us not to kill... but some might argue that God allowed His Son to be killed and so indirectly He killed Jesus, because He could have prevented it... but we know Jesus willingly went to the cross for the joy that was set before Him...
and yes, some/many might use it so they can disregard their own responsibility... I think of the convictions the Spirit has put on my heart, that made sense with Who God is, but were totally counter intuitive from an intellectual perspective... ie giving/tithing whatever you want to call it, particularly in a struggling economy... cutting back on my work, so I could be more available for my family... made NO SENSE economically... by my budget, we should be broke and out on the street, with no assets left... that hasn't happened, although it has been tight for the last several years, but He has been training us in Prov. 3, spending a lot more wisely, and investing in His Kingdom, instead of our earthly kingdom.. it has been a difficult, but incredible journey of trusting Him and drawing closer to Him, we have seen His outpouring of blessing on our lives so many ways, most significantly with Proverbs 3 wealth aka wisdom (v13-18)! So those are my weak and imperfect words, but the amazing journey He gave us, is because of Him and Who He is... for His Glory which includes the supremacy of Christ! (Col 1:18)
blessings Brother, hope you feel better soon... I don't wish being sick on anyone, but if this is what came out of being sick ... ;)
and bless your heart for being willing to admit this (publicly) as a pastor...
when we pray "less of me, more of You, Jesus"... we do need to be ready for what that might look like when God answers that... because our "toes will get stepped on", we won't be "recognized", won't get the credit, etc.... and our reaction is indicative of our hearts.
one of the things I struggle with in the Church, is pastor idolatry, I did some research on this recently, and was stunned, I hadn't thought about it much before, and then find out that it is a fairly significant issue in the Church...
it is so easy for us to talk about the "dynamic" pastor and his message/ministry, instead of how the "dynamic" Holy Spirit ministered to us through that person. It seems we can often be more drawn to our pastors than to Jesus... we fail to recognize the anointing of the Holy Spirit it seems... instead we are impressed with the dynamic, winsome ways of the person... if we think about it, of course we will say, those are their gifts from the Holy Spirit, that's a basic assumption that doesn't have to be spoken.... but I do struggle that our language when how we talk does not reflect that... we are to acknowledge Him in all our ways (Prov 3:6).
wow, yeah, this does hit on a nerve for me... recently I've been contemplating the structure of worship services, with one person getting most of the focus/attention, and wonder where is the prophetic table where EACH brings something for edification, where ALL will prophesy, so that ALL may learn, and ALL may be encouraged (I Cor 14:26,31 NKJV)... your "community group" gathering sounds like that is where something like that happens more so than the during the Sunday order of worship...
Preach the Fire, Brother... I recently read on article on the Holy Spirit from a CRC perspective, and I was surprised at how intensely I reacted to it... it mentioned the Holy Spirit as the "shy Member of the Trinity"... ohhh, it seems He's so misunderstood in our tradition...
Earlier this week I was wrestling with why are some pastors so "anointed" and others just don't seem to have it... one of the conclusions I came to, was it has to do with the pastors openness to the Holy Spirit, his sensitivity and seeking of the Holy Spirit, and that comes through prayer, soaking in the Word, for personal growth, as well as studying for sermons, extended times of worship, purity/holiness and humility. These pastors are walking/operating in their anointing. We need to intentionally recognize the Holy Spirit (not our intellect - although He works through our intellect) as the Source of our gifts. It's a basic assumption, but practically speaking is not being acknowledged. Just wrote something on another thread on pastor idolization... that's an entire topic on its own...
and yes Jesus will be glorifed when the pastors, who ALL have His anointing are operating in it!!! But it takes intentionally pursuing and acknowledging the Holy Spirit, Who will increase one's hunger for the Word, Who will add intensity to our prayer life, and Who will convict us in areas where He's calling us to holiness and purity.
wow, there's so much to say on this article, so I'll mostly respond to this line BOQ...intuitively, it (prayer summit) feels like a good idea." EOQ
you're right...
that's because it's scripturally Acts 6:4... and it opens the door to the prophetic table mentioned in I Cor 14:26-33 (NKJV)
historically -I think if we are honest with ourselves, prayer and the prophetic gift of the Spirit have not been strong marks of our denomination for various reasons. The extent of our limitations in each area is debatable - I'm not saying these haven't been there at all, because God as a generous and loving Heavenly Father has given us His Spirit to help us, even though we are often unaware and not intentionally seeking Him, and even though we have not been eagerly pursuing ALL the gifts of the Holy Spirit due to cessationism. These gifts include those unexplainable "mystical" promptings that in the natural we have no way of knowing, which it seems often still receive much skepticism, if not outright unbelief that God doesn't do that anymore.
So, Roberts Rules and Church Order is the default method of operations... again, not saying the Spirit doesn't work through these... He does, because of God's generous nature! But there is a more intentional, more purposeful prophetic table of having the Holy Spirit lead, where leaders come together, worship, pray, listen to God and to each other and discern what God is prophetically telling them for this time, this place, this situation, these people...
now do we throw the intellect out? no, wisdom is part of the gifts as well... but sometimes we have let the intellect/man's way/human effort/human agency, etc trump the Spirit's way, for various reasons.
I seriously hope we/crc are shifting to a more intentional leading by the Holy Spirit, especially through the prophetic gifting, and that will be released through prayer... If one studies the OT prophets, one key characteristic, is that they were intercessors.
and yes, the face to face interaction/sharpening/testing is very important... I've had wonderful discussions with people on the internet and i'm thankful for those opportunities, but the relationship goes to an entire different level, it is so much more, when I get to meet with them face to face. It is a rich dimension of relationship/fellowship that we cannot experience very well through technology. The face to face connection is priceless!
and yes, it's quite possible, that as (not if ;) the crc continues the prayer summit, it will transition and converge with Synod in some Spirit directed way ;)
would love to engage on the rest of the article, but that's enough for this comment!
DV I will be following synod online again this year...
interesting for a number of reasons, one of the reasons is because one of my prayers has been, LORD, what does it mean/look like to "glory in Your Holy Name" I Chron 16:10...
and yes, I've been "surprised" by the NIV translation more than a few times as well...
studied the Hebrew words for praise, and had a "surprise" on NIV Ps. 149:6, where the translation of the Hebrew word "rowmemah" was not included
and recently did some research the greek words for "minister" and "worship" and "serve" based on Acts 13:2
studied the Names of God, and realized the NIV does not translate YHWH Sabaoth as "Lord of Hosts"... the NIV preface explains why, but I didn't think that was a good reason. I'm not saying that He isn't Almighty, but that is another Hebrew title of El Shaddai which is used for example in Ps 91:1... again, the preface addresses this, but when YHWH Sabaoth is one of the most frequently used titles that God uses for Himself in scripture, I think it's important we know what that Name means!
the "secret place" in Ps 91:1 nkjv is another concept i've studied, and realized the niv uses "shelter"... not a huge difference for many, but to me, it was significant... the Spirit has used both concepts to minister to me and others, but I personally generally prefer "secret place" and that has made a significant difference in my devotional time with Him.
Hello, just spending a few moments going through some older network posts here via safe church, and the link to the CRCNA 2005 emotional abuse report did not work... just wondering what happened... thanks. Bev
oh He does open the floodgates of heaven when we give our tithe!!! I was going to respond last week, and I didn't get to it... had the link open for several days as a reminder ;/...
I hear people often, "we aren't suppose to test God." Wrong!!! in Malachi 3 God gives us very specific permission to test Him in our giving!! Tithes, offerings and gifts are God's economy... Giving (particularly in a struggling economy) is totally backward to "rational" thinking, totally counter-intuitive... He is so amazing... our family has tons of testimonies/God stories about finances, but I would like to recommend a book by YWAM founder, Loren Cunninghma, called "Daring to live on the Edge: The adventure of faith and finances" =)
One comment I wanted to make last week, is that it seems some/many in the crc do not think tithing is for the modern day. I was surprised in a discussion on tithing with several pastors, and they didn't think it was a concept continued in the NT.
I do believe God is still asking for our tithe and sees it as a valuable principle for us to follow, along with our gifts and offerings... because of Jesus response to the Pharisees telling them not to neglect the tithe, along with ministering love, mercy and justice to those in their sphere of influence... I see tithing as giving an estimated 10% to where you worship and where you are trained for warfare... then gifts and offerings are above that, to other ministries and those in need...
I know this is suppose to be about money, but I'm going to share a fun little testimony on how God values the support of prayer. This came through a telemarketer of all people! Bless his heart.
So, several years ago, I was working at my desk when the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID, and it said "unknown number". I debated about answering, thinking "it's probably a telemarketer, but it might be family", so I answered. It was a telemarketer. He went through his "spiel"/monologue about raising support for children, and then asked if we would be willing to give on their behalf. I told him that we supported children in other ways, like through prayer. His reply astounded me. He says, "why didn't you tell me you were one of the top donors?!?! You have a good day Mrs. Sterk." and he hung up. My mouth fell open, I was so surprised. This man understood prayer, and shared with me that very encouraging message from the LORD, on how God views our prayers.
anyway, I know we need the practical side of the $ as well, and we have lots of cool testimonies on that too! I'm sure as a result of our prayers. Just the other day, a crc council cut the rent in 1/2 for a non crc ministry I'm involved with on their campus, and the decision was made in 3 minutes. WoW!! I joked, most times, any decision in a crc setting takes 3 mos- 3 years to get anything done =)!! Thank You Jesus!!
Posted in: One is the Loneliest Number
being "all alone" is such a common method of the enemy to bring discouragement and hopelessness... I'm reminded of Ms. Martha's pity party in Luke 10:40, "...alone" or "...by myself?" can relate at times and have indulged in similar pity parties... but as believers we can recognize it for what it is...
LORD, continue to connect those who are reaching out in loneliness, that feel isolated and like they are the only ones that are struggling with something, we pray for Divine connections that only You can orchestrate, and give you the glory and thanks, in the Name of Jesus.
Posted in: Why Are Believers Not Declaring the Gospel?
re-reading your posts, Henry, I have another question for you... how did you know you were called to be a pastor (maybe I'm wrong about you being a pastor, but that's what i understand from you "entering the ministry" in your 20's)? You say God has never told you what call to take, or what car to buy... so then when pastors are "called"... what do they mean?
Posted in: An Open and Shut Case
FYI... that quote is not from Augustine, although that is a common misconception...
see link...
http://theflamingheretic.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/in-essentials-unity/
Posted in: Why Are Believers Not Declaring the Gospel?
Well Henry, I agree that as the Church, we need to focus and proclaim more of Jesus and His sacrifice - that's why I love the Moravians and Count Zinzendorf... yesterday's devotional by Oswald Chambers in his My Utmost for His Highest also confirmed what you have shared...
but I think there is a place for personal testimonies as well,even in their weak, imperfectness, to encourage fellow believers... recognizing that each testimony is a gift as well, and so giving God the glory... we can have contempt for our part in it, but I think we have to be careful about being contemptuous of what God via the Holy Spirit is doing when He gives us Divine insight/direction/leading/guiding as Scripture tells us He does and will..
in another post you mentioned something about how do we know if it's God or self, or the enemy, and you gave an example of a father killing his children... a simple test of lining it up with scripture would discern that is not God, He is life, He tells us to choose life, He commands us not to kill... but some might argue that God allowed His Son to be killed and so indirectly He killed Jesus, because He could have prevented it... but we know Jesus willingly went to the cross for the joy that was set before Him...
and yes, some/many might use it so they can disregard their own responsibility... I think of the convictions the Spirit has put on my heart, that made sense with Who God is, but were totally counter intuitive from an intellectual perspective... ie giving/tithing whatever you want to call it, particularly in a struggling economy... cutting back on my work, so I could be more available for my family... made NO SENSE economically... by my budget, we should be broke and out on the street, with no assets left... that hasn't happened, although it has been tight for the last several years, but He has been training us in Prov. 3, spending a lot more wisely, and investing in His Kingdom, instead of our earthly kingdom.. it has been a difficult, but incredible journey of trusting Him and drawing closer to Him, we have seen His outpouring of blessing on our lives so many ways, most significantly with Proverbs 3 wealth aka wisdom (v13-18)! So those are my weak and imperfect words, but the amazing journey He gave us, is because of Him and Who He is... for His Glory which includes the supremacy of Christ! (Col 1:18)
Posted in: The Unnecessary Pastor
blessings Brother, hope you feel better soon... I don't wish being sick on anyone, but if this is what came out of being sick ... ;)
and bless your heart for being willing to admit this (publicly) as a pastor...
when we pray "less of me, more of You, Jesus"... we do need to be ready for what that might look like when God answers that... because our "toes will get stepped on", we won't be "recognized", won't get the credit, etc.... and our reaction is indicative of our hearts.
one of the things I struggle with in the Church, is pastor idolatry, I did some research on this recently, and was stunned, I hadn't thought about it much before, and then find out that it is a fairly significant issue in the Church...
it is so easy for us to talk about the "dynamic" pastor and his message/ministry, instead of how the "dynamic" Holy Spirit ministered to us through that person. It seems we can often be more drawn to our pastors than to Jesus... we fail to recognize the anointing of the Holy Spirit it seems... instead we are impressed with the dynamic, winsome ways of the person... if we think about it, of course we will say, those are their gifts from the Holy Spirit, that's a basic assumption that doesn't have to be spoken.... but I do struggle that our language when how we talk does not reflect that... we are to acknowledge Him in all our ways (Prov 3:6).
wow, yeah, this does hit on a nerve for me... recently I've been contemplating the structure of worship services, with one person getting most of the focus/attention, and wonder where is the prophetic table where EACH brings something for edification, where ALL will prophesy, so that ALL may learn, and ALL may be encouraged (I Cor 14:26,31 NKJV)... your "community group" gathering sounds like that is where something like that happens more so than the during the Sunday order of worship...
Posted in: The Holy Spirit and the Sermon – A Friendly Reminder For Those Who Preach
Preach the Fire, Brother... I recently read on article on the Holy Spirit from a CRC perspective, and I was surprised at how intensely I reacted to it... it mentioned the Holy Spirit as the "shy Member of the Trinity"... ohhh, it seems He's so misunderstood in our tradition...
Earlier this week I was wrestling with why are some pastors so "anointed" and others just don't seem to have it... one of the conclusions I came to, was it has to do with the pastors openness to the Holy Spirit, his sensitivity and seeking of the Holy Spirit, and that comes through prayer, soaking in the Word, for personal growth, as well as studying for sermons, extended times of worship, purity/holiness and humility. These pastors are walking/operating in their anointing. We need to intentionally recognize the Holy Spirit (not our intellect - although He works through our intellect) as the Source of our gifts. It's a basic assumption, but practically speaking is not being acknowledged. Just wrote something on another thread on pastor idolization... that's an entire topic on its own...
and yes Jesus will be glorifed when the pastors, who ALL have His anointing are operating in it!!! But it takes intentionally pursuing and acknowledging the Holy Spirit, Who will increase one's hunger for the Word, Who will add intensity to our prayer life, and Who will convict us in areas where He's calling us to holiness and purity.
Posted in: The Why in Synod
wow, there's so much to say on this article, so I'll mostly respond to this line BOQ...intuitively, it (prayer summit) feels like a good idea." EOQ
you're right...
that's because it's scripturally Acts 6:4... and it opens the door to the prophetic table mentioned in I Cor 14:26-33 (NKJV)
historically -I think if we are honest with ourselves, prayer and the prophetic gift of the Spirit have not been strong marks of our denomination for various reasons. The extent of our limitations in each area is debatable - I'm not saying these haven't been there at all, because God as a generous and loving Heavenly Father has given us His Spirit to help us, even though we are often unaware and not intentionally seeking Him, and even though we have not been eagerly pursuing ALL the gifts of the Holy Spirit due to cessationism. These gifts include those unexplainable "mystical" promptings that in the natural we have no way of knowing, which it seems often still receive much skepticism, if not outright unbelief that God doesn't do that anymore.
So, Roberts Rules and Church Order is the default method of operations... again, not saying the Spirit doesn't work through these... He does, because of God's generous nature! But there is a more intentional, more purposeful prophetic table of having the Holy Spirit lead, where leaders come together, worship, pray, listen to God and to each other and discern what God is prophetically telling them for this time, this place, this situation, these people...
now do we throw the intellect out? no, wisdom is part of the gifts as well... but sometimes we have let the intellect/man's way/human effort/human agency, etc trump the Spirit's way, for various reasons.
I seriously hope we/crc are shifting to a more intentional leading by the Holy Spirit, especially through the prophetic gifting, and that will be released through prayer... If one studies the OT prophets, one key characteristic, is that they were intercessors.
and yes, the face to face interaction/sharpening/testing is very important... I've had wonderful discussions with people on the internet and i'm thankful for those opportunities, but the relationship goes to an entire different level, it is so much more, when I get to meet with them face to face. It is a rich dimension of relationship/fellowship that we cannot experience very well through technology. The face to face connection is priceless!
and yes, it's quite possible, that as (not if ;) the crc continues the prayer summit, it will transition and converge with Synod in some Spirit directed way ;)
would love to engage on the rest of the article, but that's enough for this comment!
DV I will be following synod online again this year...
Posted in: To Glorify God
interesting for a number of reasons, one of the reasons is because one of my prayers has been, LORD, what does it mean/look like to "glory in Your Holy Name" I Chron 16:10...
and yes, I've been "surprised" by the NIV translation more than a few times as well...
studied the Hebrew words for praise, and had a "surprise" on NIV Ps. 149:6, where the translation of the Hebrew word "rowmemah" was not included
and recently did some research the greek words for "minister" and "worship" and "serve" based on Acts 13:2
studied the Names of God, and realized the NIV does not translate YHWH Sabaoth as "Lord of Hosts"... the NIV preface explains why, but I didn't think that was a good reason. I'm not saying that He isn't Almighty, but that is another Hebrew title of El Shaddai which is used for example in Ps 91:1... again, the preface addresses this, but when YHWH Sabaoth is one of the most frequently used titles that God uses for Himself in scripture, I think it's important we know what that Name means!
the "secret place" in Ps 91:1 nkjv is another concept i've studied, and realized the niv uses "shelter"... not a huge difference for many, but to me, it was significant... the Spirit has used both concepts to minister to me and others, but I personally generally prefer "secret place" and that has made a significant difference in my devotional time with Him.
Posted in: An Ounce of Prevention
Hello, just spending a few moments going through some older network posts here via safe church, and the link to the CRCNA 2005 emotional abuse report did not work... just wondering what happened... thanks. Bev
Posted in: The Stewardship Series: I'm In Debt And I Can't Afford To Give
oh He does open the floodgates of heaven when we give our tithe!!! I was going to respond last week, and I didn't get to it... had the link open for several days as a reminder ;/...
I hear people often, "we aren't suppose to test God." Wrong!!! in Malachi 3 God gives us very specific permission to test Him in our giving!! Tithes, offerings and gifts are God's economy... Giving (particularly in a struggling economy) is totally backward to "rational" thinking, totally counter-intuitive... He is so amazing... our family has tons of testimonies/God stories about finances, but I would like to recommend a book by YWAM founder, Loren Cunninghma, called "Daring to live on the Edge: The adventure of faith and finances" =)
One comment I wanted to make last week, is that it seems some/many in the crc do not think tithing is for the modern day. I was surprised in a discussion on tithing with several pastors, and they didn't think it was a concept continued in the NT.
I do believe God is still asking for our tithe and sees it as a valuable principle for us to follow, along with our gifts and offerings... because of Jesus response to the Pharisees telling them not to neglect the tithe, along with ministering love, mercy and justice to those in their sphere of influence... I see tithing as giving an estimated 10% to where you worship and where you are trained for warfare... then gifts and offerings are above that, to other ministries and those in need...
Posted in: The Stories Are Out There
Thanks for your post Karl.. always good to hear your thoughts... looking forward to what God is going to do with us through His Spirit =)
Ha... I think I've heard somewhere the following concept labeled the "Spock syndrome" = )...
BOQ ...our rigorous rational organizational scientific ways of being together in congregations and in meetings, in projects and in institutions. EOQ
Posted in: Support Raising: Begging or Biblical
I know this is suppose to be about money, but I'm going to share a fun little testimony on how God values the support of prayer. This came through a telemarketer of all people! Bless his heart.
So, several years ago, I was working at my desk when the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID, and it said "unknown number". I debated about answering, thinking "it's probably a telemarketer, but it might be family", so I answered. It was a telemarketer. He went through his "spiel"/monologue about raising support for children, and then asked if we would be willing to give on their behalf. I told him that we supported children in other ways, like through prayer. His reply astounded me. He says, "why didn't you tell me you were one of the top donors?!?! You have a good day Mrs. Sterk." and he hung up. My mouth fell open, I was so surprised. This man understood prayer, and shared with me that very encouraging message from the LORD, on how God views our prayers.
anyway, I know we need the practical side of the $ as well, and we have lots of cool testimonies on that too! I'm sure as a result of our prayers. Just the other day, a crc council cut the rent in 1/2 for a non crc ministry I'm involved with on their campus, and the decision was made in 3 minutes. WoW!! I joked, most times, any decision in a crc setting takes 3 mos- 3 years to get anything done =)!! Thank You Jesus!!