manna?

Coincidence 2.0

Posted by Mike Boyink

“This has nothing to do with Jeeps.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Continue reading at your own risk.”

http://www.vernco.com/id739.htm

I’d have to call this “Coincidence 3.0” myself…I was visiting Vernco.com to grab a link for a fellow Jeeper trying to understand the intricacies of 30 year old limited slip differentials.  What I got instead was a story, written in the good “Dr. Vern’s” engaging style, that fits right in with the conversation at today’s Manna service.

The Mystery of the Sovereignty of God

Posted by Daveg

How to “keep the faith” in the midst of hardship

    Theologian and writer Richard Mouw once commented, “Theology is best understood as “a mystery discerning enterprise” rather than “a problem solving” one. To solve a problem is to make all of our puzzles go away, which is not the kind of resolution that we ought to expect as a matter of course in theological exploration. But we can hope to succeed in knowing “more precisely and clearly what the mystery is”—and this can be an important gain.”  This past Sunday we began exploring a mystery; the sovereignty of God.  The proverbial can of worms cracked open, and something the church has wrestled with for years was dealt with in the course of 50 minutes.  Although not an attempt to “solve” a problem, I do want to make clear what I believe the Bible teaches regarding the mystery of God’s sovereignty.
 
    My own experience of God’s sovereignty has been checkered, at best.  I have vacillated between, on the one hand, joyfully resting in the sovereignty of God, to, on the other hand, cursing a God who seemed so intractable and so out of touch with how badly things were going for me.  My life was not turning out as I had hoped.  Try as I might to point the finger of blame, first at others, and then at myself, I could not escape the ever growing shadow of God’s sovereign good pleasure.  So began a journey (I am still very near the beginning!) to go back to the Bible and try to pass my experience through the filter of God’s word rather than the other way around.
 
    The first thing I (re)discovered was that God is most important to God.  Although I love many of the worship songs penned by Michael W. Smith, I cannot help but think that the sentiments expressed in his song, Above All, are typical of many in the church; 
Crucified laid behind a stone
You lived to die rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me
Above all
It is undeniable that God’s love for us motivated him to send His Son to die in our place.  It is undeniable that Christ was motivated by his great love for us in giving Himself up as the perfect sacrifice.  But there was a deeper motivation on the part of both Father and Son, a motivation that ultimately fuels all that God does—and it was not me or you that God thought of above all—it was himself and the glory of His name.  What was Jesus thinking as he neared the cross?  He was filled with the hope of the glory of the Father and his own glory at the Father’s right hand (Hebrews 12:2-5; Phil. 2:5-11; John 17)  Lest we think that we are at the mercy of an egomaniac, keep in mind that God’s commitment to His own glory is the best possible news for us.  Nothing glorifies him more than sinners who repent and pursue their greatest joy in him.  In seeking his own glory, God seeks to save us and make us his own—he desires to give us the one thing that will make us the most happy—Himself!  That is the truest definition of love; desiring the best for someone else.  And nothing could be better for us than to see and praise and worship the multi-faceted glory of God.  The more we see of God, the more stunned we are by his glorious display—And the more stunned we are with God’s glory, the more of Him we want, and the more we sing His praises, and the more we worship Him, and the more we seek to be satisfied in Him, which, in turn, brings us greater joy and greater happiness.  The greater God’s commitment to his own name and his own glory, the more of Him we see, which only fuels the cycle of our own pursuit of satisfaction and happiness in Him!  How magnificent God is that the pursuit of His own glory and His commitment to giving us what will make us most happy are one and the same pursuit!  This is one of the things that I have rediscovered of late, and it is foundational to exploring the mystery of God’s sovereignty.
 
    A second thing that I was reminded of was that many things in Scripture appear to contradict themselves.  On the one hand, we read that Jesus weeps over Jerusalem because they have missed the hour of their visitation—it has been hidden from them; (“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” Luke 19:41-42) On the other hand, Jesus gladly acknowledges that it is God himself who has hidden these things from the people of his day; (“In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” Luke 10:21)  On the one hand, Jesus grieved over the plight of the sick and the infirmed, (When [Jesus] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick—Matt. 14:14) while at the same time God seems to be left holding the bag when it comes to sickness; (Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” Exod. 4:11)  On the one hand, we are told that God does not desire that anyone should perish, but that “everyone might come to repentance,” (2 Peter 3:9), while on the other hand Jesus himself explained that the reason he spoke in parables was so that those who were lost would stay that way, that “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.” (Mk. 4:12).
    There are countless other examples of these seeming contradictions in Scripture, but in the face of those apparent contradictions, we must carefully guard against two tendencies—first, we must never let one teaching of Scripture cancel out another that doesn’t seem to fit with the first.  Second, we must never let a teaching of Scripture cause us to draw moral or emotional or behavioral conclusions that relieve us of the responsibility to be compassionate, or to work hard, or to pray or evangelize, etc.  The tendency to do both of these things is perhaps nowhere more common than when it comes to the Biblical teaching surrounding God’s sovereignty.  So, in an attempt to “explore the mystery” more carefully, I would like to offer a reflection a week on the following topics:

God Displays His Glory By Choosing Some For Eternal Life and Not Others
God Displays His Glory By Causing Every Good Thought and Action of Mine
God Displays His Glory By Withholding His Influence So That Sin and Evil Will Necessarily Follow
God Displays His Glory By Allowing Satan To Exist and Exercise Influence in the World
God Displays His Glory By Working Every Detail of My Life Together for My Good
 

 

Chicken Soup for the Manna Soul

Posted by Crissa Boyink

Thank you to those who ate my soup and liked it. Usually my potluck dishes are not so well received ;)  Here is the requested recipe.

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 qts (8 cups) water
8 chicken boullion cubes
6 1/2 cups wide egg noodles
2 cans cream of chicken soup
3 cups cooked, cut up chicken
1 cup sour cream

Combine water and bouillion cubes in large pan and heat to boiling. Add noodles and cook 10 minutes. Mix in soup and chicken. Heat through. Stir in sour cream.

For Sunday’s lunch, I heated water, boullion cubes, chicken soup, chicken, and carrot slices on the stove. Then, poured the heated mixture into the crockpot. The uncooked noodles were not added until right before Manna began, and the sour cream was mixed in 15 min before serving.

Sunday Febuary 13, 2005 (Soups On!)

Posted by Ed Miller

Manna meets @ 10:42 in the Park Theatre

248 South River Avenue
Holland, Mi 49423-3201

Continuing our graduate course in Acts. (Don’t try this at home)

We’re having a soup brunch after the service featuring, Potatoe soup, chili, seafood bisque et al.
Bring a dessert or beverage if you’d like. See you there!

Josh Schicker- Ralston Bowles Concert Tonight (With guests)

Posted by Ed and Lois

Febuary 11, 2005 at the Knickerbocker Theatre

Josh and Ralston Bowles will be appearing in a benefit concert for Teen Moms. 
The concert is 7:00 and the after party is 9:15ish. The after party includes Drew Nelson, Sara Luneack and Karisa Wilson (besides Ralston and Josh. Tickets are $10.00 and the venue is 95% sold out. (Thanks Rick)
Dave has available tickets. Call or E-mail Dave. There will be a pre-concert rendevous.

P.S. Dave still has a few tickets left. (Rick does too) The “rendevous” will be at the Curraugh at 5:00 P.M.
P.S.S. Thanks Rick for helping build us a concert.