December 14, 2011
By Pastor Dave Spoelma
I love being a dad. One of the greatest accomplishments in my life is that I am the father of two amazing boys. One of my new struggle as a parent has been letting a son go to college, not because I didn’t want him to go, but because I won’t see or hear from him as often. As many of you know, my son Kyle, is in Grand Rapids at Calvin College. We moved away from Grand Rapids, so we do not see him as often. We heard from him this past Tuesday night, after 5 days of wondering how the upcoming exams were invading his life. He sounded good and was still excited about being there. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I looked at my phone and caller ID said it was him. Hopefully it won' be the last phone call we receive before Christmas, when we actually are able to hug and see him.
The bible tells us that our relationship with God is like a Father to a child so being a parent has taught me a lot about God these last couple of years. Everyday it seems I learn a lesson about God from my relationship with my boys. Here are a few things I’m learning…
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God LOVES it when I talk (pray) to Him. How do I know this? Because I love it when my boys take time to talk to me. I was SO excited when Kyle called and I could hear his voice. I love the last 10 minutes of every day when Tyler (high school junior at Imlay City High School) and I can talk about how his day went. I have no doubt that God feels the same way when He hears from me. I love talking to all my boys, no matter the subject. No doubt God feels the same way.
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God wants me to be happy. I want what is best for my children and I want them to be happy, as long as they are doing what is right. God wants the exact same for me.
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God’s greatest desire is a relationship with me. I remember the day each of my children were born thinking to myself, “My greatest desire is to get to know my son.” Today that hasn’t changed. I still desire to have a relationship with my boys. I’m willing to go to any length to mature and keep those relationships alive and thriving. God has the same desire with us. He wants a relationship with us so badly that He was willing to give up His son.
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Although it hurts Him, He still loves me when I do wrong. My heart breaks when my children do something I’ve told them not to do, but it NEVER makes me stop loving them. It is impossible for them to ever do anything that would make me stop loving them. So why is it we think God doesn’t love us anymore when we disobey Him?
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God has got to love hearing praise. God has got to LOVE hearing things like, “I love you,” and “Thank You,” and “You’re a good Father.” Why do I believe that? Because all parents love hearing their children say things like that.
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God loves watching me have fun and enjoy life. I love watching my kids play, have fun and experience life. I smile when I hear my children laugh and see them enjoying the things I’ve given them. God has got to love watching His children enjoy the things He’s given them.
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It must frustrate God when I worry about things. I can’t imagine the frustration of having one of my children worry about me providing for him. I can’t imagine one of my kids saying, “Dad, are you sure you’re going to be able to feed me, clothe me and take care of me?” I would say, “What do you think I am, a horrible father? Stop worrying. I’m going to take care of you.” But we still worry and God probably sits back and thinks, “Why are you worrying? Have I ever not been able to meet your needs?”
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God hates it when I fight and argue with others. Nothing, absolutely NOTHING frustrates me more than when my children fought and argued with one another. IT DRIVES ME CRAZY to hear my kids saying things like, “He’s in my seat,” “He’s looking out my window,” “He’s breathing my air,” “He touched me,” or “He started it.” Hearing those things makes me want to choke everyone involved, because the argument is always over the stupidest things. I can imagine God wanting to choke us when we fight, argue and fuss. It must make God incredibly angry to have his children fighting over things that don’t really matter, even to the point of splitting churches and ripping apart relationships.
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God loves me more than I’ll ever be able to comprehend. If a doctor came in today and said, “In order for your child to live, you must give up something that’s going to cause you to die,” I’d say, “Where do I sign up.” As a parent, we love our children so much, we’d die for them. Our love for our children is greater than they’ll ever comprehend. I have no doubt that God loves us SO much, we’ll never be able to comprehend it either.
So, have you learned anything about God from being a parent?
December 08, 2011
By Pastor Dave Spoelma
I love positive people. It is fun to be around them. They build me up. Maybe it’s my personality, maybe it was the way I was raised, BUT I do NOT like constant complainers. I’m okay with someone occasionally needing to get something off their chest, BUT nothing gets under my skin more than a person who constantly gripes and complains about everything. I’m not talking glass half empty people, who tend to not be as positive … I’m talking people who can’t even see their glass.
Here are a few things I don’t like about people who constantly complain…
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People who complain all the time are unhappy people. If you hang out with a complainer it will suck all the life and joy right out of you. Did you ever see a ball player strike out and go back to the bench and throw their equipment? It brings the whole team down quickly.
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Complaining takes no talent and no skills. Anyone can be a critic!
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Complainers never see the positive in anything only the negative. Everything is always bad. They say, “Gas prices are always SO high,” and “Food is SO expensive,”but don’t realize how blessed they are to have both. They could live in a perfect world, and still find something to complain about.
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Complainers can always “one-up” you and always have something worse than you. If you tell them that you had a tooth pulled at the dentist, it just so happens they had to have 4 root canals that same day. If your dog gets hit by a car, it just so happens that their dog was mauled on the front lawn by a lion, while all the kids were watching of course.
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It’s un-Christ-like.
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People who complain all the time only tear people down, and never build anyone up (Ephesians 4:2).
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When a complainer has a legitimate complaint you can’t take them serious, because they complain about everything. You don’t know when it’s a serious complaint or just another gripe.
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They are no fun to be around.
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They are always willing to point out the problem, but never willing to be a part of the solution. Do not ask them to help, it’s just their job to point out what is wrong.
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Complainers feel that their “gift” or “talent” from God is complaining and pointing out what’s wrong. I suggest they do what the one talent man did in the Bible and go bury their talent in a hole! (Matthew 25:14-30).
I guess I should stop now … or someone will accuse me of complaining about complainers. 
“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe…” Philippians 2:14-15
August 03, 2011
By Pastor Dave Spoelma
As you have read in my last blog, we were out fishing on Saginaw Bay on Monday. And oh man was it hot! It is on days like this that I wonder why people purposely run from God because when they do so, hell is in their future. And hell is WAY hotter than 90 degrees.
But Monday was HOT and we were about 4 miles out in the middle of the bay, and I have to be honest with you, I kinda wanted to quit fishing and get in where it was cooler. Even though we were catching fish and being blessed that way, I wanted to shrink back from that blessing just because of a little heat. We all experience trials and temptations this side of heaven, don't we? And when the heat comes it would be easy to shrink back and not keep operating in the gifts and blessings that God has given to us. It would be easy to just quit fishing.
On top of the heat, we kind of got a little lost because we did not know how to use the GPS system that well. So we just headed in toward shore where we thought the marina docks were. About a mile from shore we stopped and fiddled with the GPS some more and second guessed that we were even in the right spot at all. The GPS was not failing, we were second guessing ourselves.
This also happens this side of heaven. God has given us a roadmap of how to live and how it is that He has found us in Jesus Christ. So often we discard the roadmap or do not even look at it much at all. When was the last time you picked up your Bible outside of Sunday at church? Is it gathering dust at home? Do you even know where it is? The Bible is our roadmap! Why do we trust our own way? And why do we forget who we are IN Christ? Our identity is in Jesus Christ as Christians. Jesus has us in the palm of His hand and He will guide us along life's way, but we forget WHOSE we are and continue to live trying to steer our own ship in the heat of the day.
Why was it that all four of us who are Christians on the boat that day did not turn to God and pray to help us find the marina. That is a great question to ask...I just asked it, and it embarrasses me to say that it did not cross my mind. I was hot and a little cranky and much frustrated and I did not turn to the ONE who could help.
And as soon as we got out of our own little self-directed world, God provided some other boats who were coming off the bay for us to follow. And what was amazing is that they were actually going to the marina from which we launched. I promise to get my eyes off myself and I challenge you to do the same. God is guiding and caring and loving and all we have to do is to get our eyes on Him and follow His ways. Have a great day!!
August 02, 2011
By Pastor Dave Spoelma
Yesterday Scott and his son Michael drove from the west side of Michigan to fish in Saginaw Bay with my son and me. I had been looking forward to seeing them for quite some time and it was exciting to see them again. Both Scott and I kind of worried whether we would be able to "get into" some fish. He had some GPS coordinates saved, but it had been a long while since he had used this apparatus, and Sagninaw Bay is so big you can't hardly see across it, so it would be easy to not catch a single fish. That was not part of our plan since we both took days off work and placed considerable investment in fuel and different baits to catch these crazy fish.
As human beings we worry about so many things. The Bible teaches us that apart from God's hand nothing is moved or can be moved. He watches over us in such a way that he knows (and wills) when a hair falls from our head. A bird doesn't worry about where its next meal comes from and God cares for every bird. A flower in the field doesn't worry about how it is clothed, yet God clothes it so beautifully that not even Solomon the king could be dressed with such splendor (Matthew 6). So if it is the case that God is in complete and utter control, why do we worry? I know we shouldn't, we really shouldn't, but we kind of were on the way to fishing.
And God surprised us again as we pulled into Frank's Outdoors Shop in Saginaw. I embarrasingly say "surprised us again" since we know God is in control and should not be surprised when He takes care of us. You see, we had passed a man on Northbound I-75 who saw our boat. This man, named Jim, works third shift and also umps minor league baseball for the Saginaw Loons, and also works on boat charters out on Saginaw Bay. jim had received 5 hours of sleep since Thursday night because of all the jobs he does to make ends meet. On that day he was on his way home to get a full day's sleep and we passed by him on the highway. Jim told us that something told him to come talk to us and help us, so he followed us over to Frank's Outdoor Shop.
We hopped out of our truck to talk to someone in the store about the fishing conditions that day, but before we even entered the store, Jim pulled up and told us all the places and secrets that we needed for it to be a great fishing trip. He went to get back into his car, then Scott asked him a question about walleye lures. And Jim came right in the store with us and spent time showing and picking out lures with us to help us. God used Jim on that day to help us. Jim obeyed God and really blessed us. He even connected with us while we were out on the bay (thankful for cell phones) and then even followed up to see how we did. What a Godsend. Then a day later called to tell us that he would take us ice fishing and get us some free baseball tickets if we desired. How God blessed us abundantly through Jim and we thank God for providing and taking care of us...even though we were worrying. Our God is a gracious God that helps us even when we sin against Him and worry. What a beautiful and magnificent God!
We ended up catching some really nice walleye that day. But what we caught most that day was a great vision of the providence and grace of our wonderful God.
July 21, 2011
By Pastor Dave Spoelma
Good day everyone and thank you for following my blog.
Today's blog is heavily borrowed from the late Bill Bright with a few of my thoughts intertwined.
In America, people mostly take for granted the existence of churches on almost every corner. I hear so many people saying something like, "Church for me, can be found sitting on my deck or on the lake in the beauty of God's creation." Or here's another one: "I don't like the organized church." When I hear people say these things, I always think, "Are you kidding me?" I mean, of course God is seen in creation, but to say that this is the equivalent of church worshipping is quite a stretch...and probably an excuse for not coming together in worship as He calls us to His house of prayer. People have all sorts of ways of running away from God, don't they?
There are churches of many denominations, sizes and flavors with many doctrinal variations, but they mostly agree on the essentials: The authority of Scripture, the deity of Jesus Christ, His redemptive work on earth and the cross, His resurrection, and the necessity of faith in Jesus for salvation. AND all true churches that hold these essentials as non-negotiables, are entities built by Jesus Himself through which people come to know and experience Him personally. We cannot diminish the work of Jesus by taking His church for granted.
So shall we do away with church? Just the question is ludicrous. In the first place, the church belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ and not to us. And Secondly, Jesus said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church. The Church is very literally, Christ's body here on the earth.
The Church is essential! President Theodore Roosevelt once said, "In the pioneer days of the West, we found it an unfailing rule that after a community had existed for a certain length of time, either a church was built in the community, or else the community began to go downhill."
In the 1830's, the French diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville toured America in search of the key to success that we obviously had. What made us great? That was the quest of Tocqueville. And when his tour had concluded, he made this observation: "I sought for the key to the greatness of America in her harbors...; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of higher learning. I sought for America's greatness in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. But it wasn't until I went into the CHURCHES of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genious and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other."
Now, if a French diplomat can search America over and come up with the conclusion that our greatnes is not in the wealth of our resources or property location, but in the connection with our Lord. Then how can any of us say today that we will or America will continue to be great if we strive to get away from the Lord? Getting prayer and God's Word out of the public schools is a VITAL mistake and a victory for Satan. Getting the words "Under God" out of our pledge or getting the Ten Commandments out of the public eye and infrastructure is a VITAL mistake and a victory of Satan. Can't we see it?
And if you say, well that problem is just too big for me, let me ask you to start at home with yourself and your own heart. Let me ask to start with your own family. If church (Jesus Christ's entity) is what keeps America great, how in all the world do you think your family or your own life can be great apart from it?
Even if Church this side of heaven is far from perfect, thank God for His Church! Thank God for guiding our Founding Fathers in forming the Constitution of this God-blessed land. And may it be your prayer today that you and your family be found in church when it meets on a weekly basis to hear from God, to speak to God, and to be a willing participant in His redemptive plan for the world.
I for one will not be found apart from the church. Have a great day, love you all, PD
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wonderfuly worded, it was awesome to see how God uses other people we come into contact with, to strengthen our faith. i am thankful be a part of that experience. hope to do it again soon. Scott