Faith Church softball team wrapped up their season as runners-up in the finale tournament this week. Congratulations to the team!
Faith Christian Reformed Church
Nashville, Tennessee
June 4th, 2007
Snapshots from Kenya (and Amsterdam)
Back in March, as we were planning our trip to Kenya, we decided to spend a couple of days in Amsterdam to give us some time to adjust to the time zone change. We had visions of quiet narrow streets and of boat lined canals with old houses and churches. We have a print of a painting in our living room of a nice picturesque street in Amsterdam and our goal, although a bit far-fetched, was to see if we could find that building. We also wanted to enjoy the food and the sites of this old world city. Claire wanted to find a good art museum and I wanted to explore one of the old churches that were in the old part of the city.
Now we knew that Amsterdam has a reputation of being a modern day secular city but the full impact of that didn’t really hit us until we got there. We spent much of our time there walking around exploring, touring an art museum and then trying to find an old church near the harbor.
Several times we would spot an old church and then see that it had been turned into a shop, club or museum. It struck me that the place where so many great thinkers and scholars had developed Reformed thinking was now almost devoid of any religious content. One very old church we found had been turned into a museum and had a large banner hanging on the outside proclaiming: “Istanbul – The City and the Sultan.” A place where Christians once gathered to worship and learn about the Christian faith had now become a place that celebrated an Islamic place and leader.
As we left Amsterdam and I reflected on our visit there, it struck me that it was like the city was a place whose soul had been sucked from it. There was plenty of activity with all kinds of things to do and see, but it all seemed to be superficial and not having any substance at all. The people we met there certainly did not think that. They thought of themselves as being liberated and enlightened to have left such old religious things behind. The birthplace of such great traditions in Reformed thought was reduced to an empty secular shell.
As I reflected on this further, I thought of Psalm 2:
Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
“Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
“I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
So often people in this world think they are so much wiser than God and think that the things of God are old fashioned and worth only to be tossed on the ash heap of history. These verses remind us that God looks at such attitudes and laughs. He has installed his King o Zion and it is that Kingdom that we live in and work in today. Praise God for that!
Pastor Jerry
June 2007
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