Why Should I Participate in Sunday Classes?

Healthy things grow. We are the kind of people who believe that Sunday classes are one of the steps God uses to grow our faith. Growth is good. Stagnation is bad. 2 Peter 3:18 says, Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

When we grow in our Biblical knowledge and understanding we see very specific benefits. The primary benefits is to grow in love: to love God more fully and to love others more boldly. Here are three additional benefits: 

1. Resilience is better than anxiety. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. (Ephesians 6:14a) Stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. (Colossians 4:12b)
2. Discernment is better than deception. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. (Ephesians 4:14)
3. Relationship is better than isolation. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5) By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)

What steps are you taking to grow your faith? 

Let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity. (Hebrews 6:1)

Kent Landhuis
Pastor of Teaching & Leadership

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In Process

I’m regularly apologizing for the state of my garden. In early spring, I say, “It is just getting started.” Later, I say, “It will look better in a few weeks.” In the middle of summer, I say, “It needs some weeds pulled.” Late in the season, I say, “It is past its prime.” Or, I say, “Wait till next year, it will be much better.”

My garden is always in process. Here is a photo taken last night. It will probably look better next week. Like the church. Like my life. In process.

The book The Story of Reality, by Greg Koukl, explains that living “in process” is part of our worldview as people who follow Jesus. Our “in process” comes in four stages: Creation (How things began), Fall (How things got broken), Redemption (How things will get fixed), and Restoration (How things will be once they are fixed).

Every worldview must account for these four stages. We account for them this way: 

1. How did things begin? God made the world and called it good. 
2. How did things get broken? Rebellion against God. (Weeds)
3. How will things get fixed? Jesus makes all things new. 
4. How will things look once fixed? All things good again in God’s Kingdom.

This worldview is good news for anyone who has ever been abused, oppressed, or mistreated. It is good news for anyone who has ever had grief, or pain, or trauma. It means that all that is broken can be fixed. All injustice can be made just. All grief can be healed. All sin can be forgiven.

Jesus obeyed perfectly and died a horrifying death to take on the rebellion of the world. Jesus was raised from the dead, and whoever puts their trust in Jesus as their Savior will be made right with God and live in God’s Kingdom now and forever. 

For those who trust in Jesus, he will one day wipe away every tear. One day. Until that day, we are “in process” because we live in the tension between the “now” and the “not yet” of God’s Kingdom. Like a garden, “It will look better in a few weeks.”

Kent Landhuis
Pastor of Teaching & Leadership

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God is Working Hard (pt. 3)

(read part 1) (read part 2)

In gym class, I was always relieved when chosen. (Particularly if not chosen last.)

In Guatemala, we give goodies to the kids who show up at our work sites. A doll, a cap, a granola bar, matchbox cars, candy. 

Once word gets out, the number of kids grows rapidly. Some of those kids are very timid. They lurk around the edges, waiting to see if they will be chosen to receive a gift. When we invite them to receive a gift, they smile.

Last week, two little girls, Madelyn and Astrid, from Guatemala chose Mary and me. Madelyn said she picked us because we “seemed kind, friendly, and nice.” She was probably looking at Mary.

The Bible tells us how God chooses people to be his people: “God, your God, chose you out of all the people on Earth for himself as a cherished, personal treasure.

God wasn’t attracted to you and didn’t choose you because you were big and important—the fact is, there was almost nothing to you. He did it out of sheer love, keeping the promise he made to your ancestors.” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8, MSG)

I’m glad to be chosen. Being chosen makes all the difference. Jesus said, “I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you.”  (John 15:15-16, NLT)

We are chosen!

Kent Landhuis
Pastor of Teaching & Leadership

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God is Working Hard – Part 2

(read part 1)

In the spring, when my garden comes to life, my favorite plants are hostas. Hostas die off in the fall. All winter, the ground where they grew is bare and barren. 

No signs of life. And then, there they are, like magic, growing bigger and better than the year before. And I did nothing.

Listen to how Paul describes God’s good work in Romans 8: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn[n] among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. (vss. 28-30, NLT)

God is doing good work even when our lives seem barren. I had a mentor who once told me, “When it seems like God is working the least, God is working the most.”

God’s work is not always visible or in the ways we expect or easily understood. But we are the kind of people who believe that God is with us when we don’t see or feel His active involvement. God still does good work even when it is not obvious.

I’m so thankful that God never stops doing good work on my behalf – and on yours!

Kent Landhuis
Pastor of Teaching & Leadership

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God is Working Hard

Our small group recently studied Philippians 2. After much discussion, one of our group said, “Listen to this, it’s the New Living Translation: Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (vss. 12-13)

The phrase “work hard to show the results of your salvation” grabbed our attention. It baffled us. We know that we do not work to earn salvation, so what is this hard work? 

And then, someone said, “Look at the next verse too – it says God is working hard. God gives us the desire to obey, and God gives us the power to obey. God is working hard so work hard. But what hard work is left for us to do?”

What’s left for us is obedience. We obey God with deep reverence and respect. We obey with the desire and power that God gives us! That sounds amazing! And so does this: I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Philippians 1:6)

READ PART 2 of this series

Kent Landhuis
Pastor of Teaching & Leadership

Did you enjoy this article? Did you laugh, cry or learn something new? Let Kent know.

Dust to Dust

Dust to Dust.

Dust shows up in the Bible 100 times. The first is in Genesis 2:7. “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

We were made from dust and to dust we will return. This is the central theme of Ash Wednesday. The entire season of Lent can be framed with this same phrase. We are frail, temporary, transient. Life is fleeting like a mist or a vapor. Dust to dust.

And of course – we are sin-full.

One of the preparations for Passover is to remove all yeast from the home. This command is found in Exodus 12:15. “For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.”

To comply with this command, Jewish families thoroughly cleaned the entire home to remove all traces of bread, pastries, crackers, and anything containing yeast.

This process involves a deep clean of every nook and cranny in the house, including cupboards, appliances, counter tops, floors, and even furniture crevices.

In Jewish tradition, a feather is used to sweep up crumbs. The feather sweeps crumbs into a spoon.

The spoon scoops the crumbs into a paper bag.

The paper bag is thrown away – or burned.

Yeast in the Bible represents sin.

When I learned about the feather used to sweep crumbs of yeast, I thought about all the dust in my home. I wondered, would a feather help get in every nook and cranny. The feather might be particularly helpful in small crevices. Or with the window blinds.

A feather duster. Leave no sin behind.

Did you know that between 20-40% of the dust in our homes is skin? We leave little pieces of ourselves behind. Dust to dust.

The feather is also a symbolic tool representing the spiritual process of self-reflection. I hope you are self-reflecting right now – connecting the dots between yeast, dust, sin, and Jesus.

We grieve the sin in our lives. One way to show our grief is to sit in dust and ashes. This reminds us of our true condition. It is also a mark of repentance.

Of course, another central theme of Ash Wednesday – and the season of Lent – is that our real hope in our dusty lives is in Jesus. We can never account for every last crumb of sin – so Jesus took care of it for us.

In Jesus there is forgiveness. “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.”  Acts 13:38.

Dust to dust. We still find hope. In Jesus.

May the Lord be with you,
Pastor Kent

Kent Landhuis
Pastor of Teaching & Leadership

Did you enjoy this article? Did you laugh, cry or learn something new? Let Kent know.