Today we closed the sermon series on Acts in our church. Acts is a fascinating book (the 5th one of the New Testament and the second by author Luke) describing the dynamic development of the first-century church. The series was built around 10 main figures (or groups) in the story of Acts, each one representing a characteristic of the movement. This angle made up for … Lees verder Summarizing Acts
Last week I wrote a blog called ‘Good news to the poor‘ in which I referred to the verses from Luke 4/Isaiah 61. This verse happens to be the motto for Athletes in Action‘s summer outreach to Africa. Good news for the poor, sight to the blind, freedom for prisoners. And because they had their spring event last weekend, Matthijs asked me to write on … Lees verder Freedom for Prisoners!
Yesterday I met him again, my friend Nermin. Originally from the Balkan, now living in Almere in a beautiful part of the city. His place has 6 bathrooms, a huge pond and a basketball court. The only problem: it has no roof. And actually, the bathrooms are the public ones near the Weerwater lake and the basketball court is covered with junk and garbage as … Lees verder Good news to the poor
My life has been circling around the topic of money for the last couple of months. In Agapè we are still running the campaign of ‘Funding the Family Business’, dealing with the changes in our structure of staff finances. Not only will staff be employed in the near future, for many this is also the time to raise their income to a more healthy level. … Lees verder Money, money, money
Off to France today, for a two-week holiday. Last week was crazy, with the SCET Almere week (check the website for many nice pictures and videos of the event) and finishing different things for Agape. And for some reason this week has been very special: we have been in the national news daily… Especially the Athletes in Action initiatives have caught on very well in … Lees verder The daily news: outreach in Almere
It was my turn to speak in church once again. I chose the topic of forgiveness, on which I never spoke but I did blog about it. And as I wrote in that post, forgiveness is pivotal in maintaining relationships, but it is not the goal of it. The whole point of forgiveness is to get a life – literally, if we talk about forgiveness of sins by God, to us. Today’s focus was on that side of the story: understanding and receiving Gods total and once-and-for-all forgiveness, in order to live with Him and in order to extend forgiveness to others. You can find my sermon notes here and the bible verses here:
Back in the old days (“B.C.”), Pentecost was the celebration of the Giving of the Law. An interesting fact, if you take into account that there was not much to celebrate when the Law was actually given. Because of inobedience and ignorance, 3.000 people died after Moses had come down with the 10 commandments in stone.No, I’d rather have the new days (“A.D.”), where Pentecost … Lees verder 50 Days
Back after another event… this time the Rafael Almere leadership retreat. We were with some 50 people in Nunspeet for a long weekend to seek God, share vision, be trained and go out… The topic was The Great Commission, and Mira and I had the opportunity to share some (many) things around evangelism and discipleship. If you’re interested: Powerpoints and some other materials are on … Lees verder Good news, only good news