Life changing

“God’s direct interaction with people”

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The ICF Delft prayer group will meet on Thursday 19 October from 8-9 PM in the chapel of the Old Church (Heilige Geestkerkhof 25, Delft).
You are most welcome to join. The meeting focuses on the following main activities:

  • Praise and adoration to God
  • Reflection and mediation based on a Bible text
  • Sharing life (joys, gratitude, concerns, needs) with one another in an open, friendly and trustworthy environment
  • Praying together, for example, adoring and thanking God, and interceding and bringing request to God regarding yourself, family, friends, city, churches and the world around
  • Giving and receiving support from one another by being in the meeting and staying connected afterwards

The theme of this meeting’s reflection is, “God’s direct interaction with people”. We will read from Judges 6: 11-14 (see the text below), which is an account of a God’s angel talking to Gideon about saving Israel out of Midian.

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Judges 6:11-14New International Version (NIV)

11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

A Life Changing Community

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In order to be able to grow and to develop yourself you need a small community like the family. But do you still need a place where you can find acceptance, forgiveness or healing? If so, hear more  about the start of a life changing, spontaneous and colorful community this Sunday. It is how we want to be church!

Healing experience in a student’s group

When I started as a student in Biology at the age of 18, a small group of students invited me for a weekly meeting. It changed my life because of the warm fellowship, the honest questions dealt with, the sharing of difficulties and ambitions. What brought us together was the search for God. I never experienced something like that before. It turned upside down my life within a year. It was an experience of healing and renewing for me, and God used several people of the small group for that.

What if it goes wrong?

Most of us grow up in a small community: the family. Later new communities define our development like a school class, youth club, sportclub, study friends, colleagues. The more others like (grand)parents, friends and colleagues affirm us in our development, the more we can become independent thinkers and actors. But not always a community adds to our growth. Sometimes bad examples, lies and dishonesty confront us. We also may discover a darkness that already nurtured itself in our deepest self. What if our life turns out to go wrong? When we have reasons to feel guilty, when we are lonely, when we fail? What to do?

God’s grace in a new community

Coming Sunday, 18 June we will see how God really changes people’s life, including their relationship with others. Because of that they spontaneously form a new community with people of very different character, education and origin. As if the animals of a zoo live together. Here they can grow toward a mature, joyful and thankful person (Acts 2 verse 37 -47). It is all through God’s grace, through experiencing forgiveness and the healing power of such a new vibrant community!

Hear more in the service coming Sunday, Génestet Church, Oude Delft 102, 12 hrs 15. This is a special service because Petyr Jin will give his testimony and be baptized.

Pastor Niek Tramper