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The international community of ICF Delft invites YOU to join us for Eastern celebration. Enjoy our services and have a good time, meeting International- and Dutch Christians:
Great joy to find again what was lost painfully! God’s joy is to find again sons and daughters who seem to be lost. Christian life is not following a moral or religious system. It is all about ‘lost and found’. What does it mean? Jesus tells a story about two sons, one searching for independence in a wild life, the other searching to keep the moral standard. Who actually is the lost one? And where am I in this story?
Learn more in the ICF-service on Sunday 26 March in the Génestet church, Oude Delft 102, 12 hrs 15.
‘Dear brothers and sisters, thanks to God the Father gathering us together. Today I just want to talk about me and God.
Two years earlier, I was arrived in the Netherlands. At that time, I was quite sure I will keep going on my own way. What was my own way? This is a good question. At that time, I knew I am the gladiator of fate and I am the dominator of my life. This is/was my own way.
Of course, challenging the life (facing the challenges of life?) is a not easy thing. I needed weapons, powerful weapons. At that time, I had three weapons: rational thinking, knowledge construction and free will. Consequently, I did not let external and internal factor effect my weapons. Obviously, I only have rational thinking when I am a rational man. So all the emotions for me were unstable factors and I tried to eliminate all the emotions in me. And, as a nature science background student, I certainly know the power of the knowledge and knowledge made me proud. Also, the free will, becoming a Christian was impossible for me, at that time. Because I thought that Christians are brain washed and controlled by the Churches.
So I already told you how ambitious I was myself. And I had almost succeeded. I eliminated almost all my emotions (except proud) and I felt most of time I was’t effected by the emotions. What’s more, I felt that I almost had become the everlasting being because I eliminated all the temporary emotions in my head.
But God is amazing. He worked in me and let me know him. From my story, I can not believe that a man like me- believes in Jesus Christ. But the truth is: I’m now standing there. I just want to tell you three things: first, I was wrong and i was blind. Second, God is the creator of the human and he is the dominator of human. Third, God is exist and he is just here.
As an educated young man, there are so many obstacles for me knowing God. Knowledge or free will, all these stuff made me proud and blind. But now I see that it’s the gift from God, and it’s just a tool. But I treated it as the weapons to refuse handing over my authority to God. How foolish I was!
Guys, do not wait till it is too late. You cannot stand by the human wisdom. Open your eyes and accept is the only right way.
That’s all. Amen.”
My name is Elijah Cheruiyot. I am Kenyan, 30, and a believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ. For fifteen months ending in March 2014, I lived in Delft while working on a project for European Space Agency at TU Delft. Yes, you guessed it right – it was related to water resources management. It was my second visit to the Netherlands having stayed for two months in 2011 for an academic research. I enjoyed living in this very quiet city, enjoyed biking in nicely made bicycle tracts, made lots of friends; but perhaps the most memorable thing is my experience with IREF fellowship.
I knew about IREF during my first visit to Delft. I had asked the secretary of our department to recommend a church in Delft with services in English; we found a number of them online. She recommended IREF because she knew about it and Oude Kerk which hosts the fellowship was easily recognizable. On my first visit to IREF for a Sunday service, I knew my search for a church had come to an end. A warm welcome was clearly evidenced by the excitement of the members to see me. More importantly, I knew from the way the word of God was taught that we were all serving the same LORD and that instantly made me feel at home. After the service, we had an interesting interaction with some of the members as we shared tea and coffee. For the next two months, I had found a home in IREF, enjoying worship services every Sunday and participating in Bible study and prayer meetings on Thursdays.
My second visit was longer with much more enriching experiences. First, I had a chance to participate in Alpha course and the follow-up Andreas course, both greatly impacted on my spiritual growth. Though I could not complete the latter, I continued to receive course materials from Pastor Niek Tramper while back in Kenya. Second, I witnessed a number of people receive the gospel and get baptized. It is always a joy to witness as one more brother or sister joins the family of Christ, and this happens in IREF. Third, this period coincided with the time I was planning for my wedding. It was so amazing how the fellowship was very supportive to me when they had only known me for a short while.
One outstanding thing about IREF is the rich diversity of its members, which allows a multidimensional approach to the understanding of scriptures. It is great to see people from different parts of the world, different cultures, different careers, old and young; all come together to celebrate Jesus. It is the clearest indication yet that there is only one church – that headed by Christ. Should I visit Delft again, IREF is the place to be. I experienced tremendous spiritual growth while in IREF especially through Bible study and prayer meetings, and to keep up with that my wife and I recently joined a house group Bible study with members of our church in Nairobi. It is my prayer that God will bless IREF to continue with their life transforming ministry which impacts the lives of many, especially the international guests who find in IREF a home away from home.
The parable of the five wise and the five foolish virgins is very known. When you think deeper about it, several questions arise nevertheless.
I will use these questions to explain more about the parable, but let us first try to understand why Jesus told it. The most important conclusion is mentioned at the end of this passage: ‘Keep watch, because you don’t know the day and the hour’. Several manuscripts add the following words (which are important for the explanation): ‘in which the Son of Man will come’.
In the previous chapter we hear Jesus saying what happens in the world when He comes back. People are busy with their daily affairs: eating, drinking and marrying. Like in the time of Noah, when he prepared the arch. They were so occupied with their daily life, that they didn’t consider the approaching judgment. In this chapter however, it is a bit different. It is not about people who are indifferent. The ten girls in the story were friends of the bride presumably. They all had good intentions. They all took lamps, a sort of oil candles, with them. The lamps helped the bridegroom to find the way toward the house of the bride on the dark road full of pits and holes. The girls waited for him at the outskirts of the village or the city. They all fell asleep finally. They all woke up as soon as the bridegroom appeared. There is no difference between the girls so far. To understand the story of Jesus we have to go back to the first word that He mentions, the word ‘then’. ‘Then the Kingdom of heaven will be compared to..’ The heavenly Kingdom will be like this, Jesus says. When the Son of Men comes back, thén the difference will be clear. That is shocking. When Jesus returns, when the great wedding starts, the separation will come forward. Half of the people will stay behind because they weren’t prepared.
The bridegroom is sovereign, he has a royal behaviour, you cannot control him. He seems to have delayed his coming by purpose. His delay reveals something that wasn’t clear in the beginning at all. They all seem to know him. But half of them heard: ‘I don’t know you!’ What a terrible failure, mind you! You prepare for a feast, and at the entrance of the banquet you hear: ‘Who are you? We don’t know you. You should rather go away!’
To what refers the (extra) oil that the wise girls took with them? Some explainers say: the Holy Spirit. Others: love, and also: conversion. We shouldn’t apply the details too far. We have to take the parable as a whole. The key can be found in these words: ’I don’t know you’. That does not mean: I don’t know who you are, but rather: we don’t have a relationship any longer. It is over between us. What we actually hear in the word of the bridegroom at the door: ‘I have waited for you for a long time, I have looked out for you, but I noticed that there is no place for me in your life.’
In case of real love, you can persevere in waiting. Waiting is something we do often in our life and often we don’t like it. But it is much more easy when you wait for a beloved one. In that case waiting is accompanied with longing and yearning. Such a love is very personal. It is not exchangeable simply. It refers to a personal relation that has been established between the Lord and us by the Holy Spirit. It is not accidental that Jesus calls himself the Son of Men (vs. 13)? In that name the whole gospel has been summarized. The Gospel, the Good News that God let proclaim to us is the message that Jesus has come to this world to be born as a tiny child of men, that He has become the Son of men, while He was and is God’s Son. It is such a great mystery that He became man because of us and because of our sins. That He carried the unfathomable suffering; that He died at Golgotha. God loved the world so much! Jesus waited for us for such a long time!
The door was closed. This closed door triggers us. Why these latecomers couldn’t enter still? We have to consider the possibility that love fails, that we carry on with our own will, against the longing of the Master, the bridegroom. With this parable Jesus refers to his Jews who didn’t like Him. It is possible to search for paradise, to pull the door of heaven severely, to do everything for our happiness, but to reject Him who created paradise and who is the source of happiness.
C.S. Lewis, the famous British literary man – who died fifty years ago- describes it in a penetrating way in his book ‘The great divorce’. It is a story about a travelling fellowship. The destination is nothing less than heaven. On the go people talk a lot with one another about everything that occupies them. A bishop speaks about his books that he wrote and his theological insights that gave him a lot of praise. A lady boasts about her career, while she calls her husband a bag of coal because he didn’t want to get higher up in his career. But as the come closer to heaven (where they all want to go), the aversion begins to grow. They are so occupied with themselves that the idea that they must kneel in front of the One who waits for them there, evokes a big disgust. Here the great divorce takes place, because there are also people on this journey who become transparent more and more, who are illuminated more and more by the light of heaven that shines through them. They are full of awe and at the same time full of joy about the meeting that waits them. They say: we long for heaven, but heaven is not the most important, it is all about him for whom we look out with all our heart
Let us consider ourselves. How can we prepare for the feast? How do we know that we may belong to the wise girls? Jesus says: Keep watch! Four invitations/exhortations:
In the context of the whole New Testament the word ‘watch’ is connected with ‘pray’ often. ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation’ (Matthew 26:38-41). ´Devote yourself to prayer, be watchful in it with thanksgiving’ (Col. 4: 2). How can we persevere in prayer? It is a special encouragement that the Holy Spirit himself prays, continues to sigh and to call for the return of the bridegroom. How could we persist in prayer if we didn’t know that Jesus himself prays at the right hand of his Father? How can we persevere if He had not said: ‘I have prayed for you so that your faith will not stop’? I want to invite you, encourage you to take a moment to pray every day. In the morning when you raise or in the evening before going to sleep. Or maybe in the middle of the day you want to break out of your work for a moment to speak with Him. He who comes, is already there. And He whom you search, has already searched for you!
At the Bible college where I was working in the past, several times the question was raised: ‘What should you do if you knew that Jesus came back next week?’ Some students said: I need to go to my parents, because I need to adjust something. Another said: I need to come to term with myself, because there is a sin that I cannot master. Another: I should explain the Gospel to my friend in a clearer way. Till now I have neglected it. So of course the most proper reaction to all these answers was: ‘ Why not doing it now, because you don’t know when Jesus comes back, or when you finish your life on earth?’ However, this parable belongs to a bigger context of three parables about being watchful. Right after this parable the one about the talents follows. How can you stay watchful? By using the talents that God gave you as well as possible. Thank Him for what you received from Him, and don’t store it somewhere in a cupboard. To wait for the coming of Christ it is not necessary to look after a position as a missionary or something like this. Most of us are called to do our work faithfully and with persistence and remain on our post. But because He is coming, we do it differently. Just like a lady who waits for her husband, who has been on a business trip for weeks. Just before his return she does the same things she usually does. Still she does it in a different mood. Flowers appear on the table. She bakes a cake. It all happens with extra love and care, because he is coming! So the congregation waits for her Beloved One, while she remains on her post faithfully.
At the end of this chapter we read again about a separation between people, when Jesus comes back. It is the recurring refrain. Who will be prepared? Who will pass the judgment? Who may enter? (Vs. 34, 35). The ones who have helped the least of the brothers and the sisters, when they were hungry, thirsty or when they were a stranger or a seeker for asylum. Let us not seek too far Maybe we should take more time for one another in our family and close our computer more often. Maybe it is the lonely neighbour or the worried colleague whom we invite for a meal. It could be the brother or sister who needs our forgiveness, or from whom we need forgiveness. How can I be prepared for the banquet of the Lamb, if there are obstacles between my neighbour and me still? Therefore the Holy Spirit encourages you to initiate that difficult step toward a talk about forgiveness and reconciliation with somebody else.
All the parables in Matthew 25 refer to the divorce, the crisis, the judgment. However, to what the Lord invites us and to what the Christian church looks out is not a crisis, but a feast, the wedding of the lamb. God searches a bride in order to love her, in order to rejoice in her, to bring her into the joy of Himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the living God himself who enjoys us! That He loved us, even from the ages past, is a miracle. Even when we were his enemies. In what you may glory in your life? For children it might be Saint Nicolas day or later Christmas. (For me it should be a relaxed holiday with a couple of good books!) You notice their faces! You live toward a wedding party and people around you notice it. A little moment then the feast is there! Praise to Christ now and forever and from age to age!