Being on a mountain for 40 days
Today is the Sunday right before Lent, Lent being a time of turning inwards, giving up things and considering the painful part of Christ’s and of our [...]
Lamb of God or Messiah
The Lamb of God is a title of Christ we use several times in each Sunday liturgy. But to the general public, it is definitely more obscure than [...]
The end of days
The time before Advent is traditionally a time when we look forward, not yet to the coming of Christ, but to the end of days, the latter days, [...]
Every (church) body needs a mission
During our recent Synod in Gent, one session dealt with the work of the so called Mission Working Party. A paper by Rev. Sam van Leer was [...]
Mercy needs no words
The beliefs of the Pharisees were closer to the teachings of Jesus than those of the Sadducees. Some have even speculated that Jesus might have been a Pharisee. In [...]
Let the Spirit work inside
Orphans’ Sunday. That is what the Sunday before Pentecost is called in the Dutch Reformed tradition. This is because it is stuck in between Ascension day and [...]
Resurrection in 3D
The story of Tabitha is the story of a loving church community. Love caused Tabitha to do her charitable works. Love caused the other widows to appreciate [...]
Our need and ability to forgive
J.C. Arnold has collected a number of stories from survivors of the Enschede and Volendam disasters in a book called “To retaliate or to forgive”. In the [...]
How a Christian can change
I would like to speak about change. On the one hand, Christians are very familiar with change. After all, we talk about repentance, conversion, being born again and even [...]
On the meaning and benefits of blessing
The words “blessing” and “to bless” are used a lot in Church, and in a variety of meanings. But what is the essence of these concepts, and [...]
The valuable cornerstone
Whenever I read the words of the great prophets of the Old Testament, I cannot help but being struck by the directness and the boldness with which the [...]
Negative energy – a dark (subject) matter
In these dark times before Christmas we traditionally pay attention to glimmers of light heralding the great light that came into the world. But as Halloween, All [...]
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