Easter Every Day

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

The day after Christmas is always a rough one for me. While the tree and decorations may still be up, it just feels different. The day I’d been looking forward to for weeks has now come and gone. It’s a melancholy day, full of the memories of the day we just celebrated but with the tinge of sadness that comes with something being over.

The day after Easter is not the same at all. I went back to work, and besides the “How was your Easter?” conversations and a few flickering thoughts of the past weekend, it was a Monday like any other.

It shouldn’t have been though. Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, should be the biggest deal of all. We celebrate Easter not just because the actual physical resurrection of Jesus coming back from the dead happened once and is something to be celebrated, but because it’s the one-time thing that should affect everything we do.

The world tells us to live to the full because we only live once. Have fun, throw caution to the wind, don’t be bothered about how your actions will affect your future. But as Christians we know that’s not the case—not only do our actions today affect our earthly tomorrow, but our ultimate tomorrow as well. 

Therein lays the beauty of Easter when we allow it to become something we experience every day: the promise of Jesus’ resurrection is that it can reorient everything in our lives.

Easter every day means giving up the things that are no longer good for us.

Easter every day means letting go of the idea that what we do doesn’t affect our future.

Easter every day means leaving behind what is easy for what is best.

When they saw him for the first time after his death, Jesus’ disciples were full of joy and amazement that he was alive and standing before them. It’s the same joy and amazement we’re privileged to have all the time, because we know that Jesus is alive and active and transforming us. Easter every day reorients all of our desires so that they fall in line with our ultimate desire following Jesus more closely. It’s not an instantaneous change, but a slow, gradual conforming of our lives to be more like Christ’s.

There shouldn’t be a “day after Easter letdown” nor should the day after be just another day, because the importance of Easter should be woven through the fabric of our everyday lives. 

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]

How Do We Emulate Christ on Good Friday?

This is the question that has been on my mind this week.

In Matthew chapter 5, Christ gives his followers some instructions for dealing with the “evil” person. The biblical authors are careful to lay out the ministry of Jesus as continuously pointing towards the cross, and through this lens I have recently come to a better understanding of Jesus’ words. I had always read Matthew 5 with the understanding that I was the one legally in the right, and that Jesus’ instructions outlined how I ought to respond to an “evil” person. But I see more clearly now. I see that as one of those evil people, it was me who welcomed Christ into Jerusalem with waving palm branches, and it was me who demanded his death by crucifixion 5 days later.

So what does Jesus say about dealing with these evil people like me? Well, Jesus issues the continuous reminder to focus on the person behind the perpetrations.  So while it may be the law that a civilian can be asked to carry a soldier’s belongings, our job is to focus on the soldier himself. And while a man may sue you and attempt to take the very shirt off your back, give him your coat as well so that in your nakedness you shame him and force him to work out an agreement personally with you. You force the conversation and the relationship to continue.

That is, after all, what Jesus did, isn’t it? When we sued him for his shirt he gave us his cloak as well, giving up his life for the forgiveness of our sins so that our evilness was laid out plainly before us. But even before he died on the cross, Jesus interceded on our behalf and asked God for our forgiveness. On Good Friday, a day during which we meditate upon the life-saving death of our Lord Jesus Christ, it’s appropriate that we also meditate the death-defeating life that Christ lived for each one of us, and the work he did to ensure a personal relationship with each of us.

So how do we emulate Christ? We live lives devoted to sharing the good news of Easter.

[Kristin vanEyk lives in Kentwood, MI where she attends Encounter Church.]

Lessons from The Little Rascals

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

As a child, The Little Rascals was one of my favorite movies. My siblings and I watched it more times than I can count and nearly had it memorized. At the beginning of the film, Spanky and his friends Alfalfa, Stymie, Porky, Buckwheat, and others form the He-Man Woman Haters Club, which pretty much exists to keep girls out of it. As the movie goes on though, we discover that Alfalfa has not only been hanging out with a girl named Darla, but even serenading her with a love song on a romantic boat ride.

When the other boys find out, they are shocked and even a little grossed out, so they hatch a plan to break up Alfalfa and Darla. Yet through a series of events, by the end of the movie the boys realize that Darla and her friends are not so bad and invite them to hang out in their clubhouse. While there are a variety of circumstances that bring about this change of heart, it all began with Alfalfa.


Though we may not make official signs, I think the Church often creates its own versions of the He-Man Woman Haters Club. It can be easy to point this out in the Church as the worldwide body of Christ, but we cannot ignore the implications for us personally. We may not make physical signs, but we make them in our thoughts, behaviors, and hearts. There are certain types of people we are just hesitant to enfold into Church life. Maybe we base it on occupation, income level, sexual orientation, age, political views, or any number of factors. After a while, we get entrenched in the mentality of there being an insider “us” factor to the Church, and an outsider “them” label for those we don’t deem worthy.

When we look at I Corinthians 11, we see that this tendency has been around for thousands of years. Paul was writing to the people of Corinth to tell them to stop treating their church gatherings like a private party of insiders, with some people treated as the “upper crust” and treated to the best seats and food and others treated as the riffraff who were relegated to the crappy seats and mediocre food. They probably didn’t make signs announcing this information, but the implications were clear--“Not Welcome.”

I don’t think any of us intentionally try to make people feel not welcome, but welcoming people is not something that happens automatically. It has to be an intentional effort on the part of others. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have close friends and people we naturally gravitate towards, but we all have a role to play in creating an environment that is friendly and hospitable to anyone who enters it.

At the end of the Little Rascals, it wasn’t just about simply allowing girls to be in their clubhouse--it was welcoming them into a community. If Alfalfa hadn’t been the first to go against the grain and realize that girls are actually pretty cool, the rest of the rascals would’ve missed out on how great things can be when everyone is invited. In the coming weeks, maybe we can all try to be a little more like Alfalfa.

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]

"For Wherever Two Or Three Are Gathered..."

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

Perhaps it’s because Christians see it as a moral duty to suffer in silence, or maybe Christians just don’t want to cause a row. Whatever the reason, Christians have become a decidedly passive, and increasingly passive-aggressive group. When it comes to the relationships that are close to our hearts, we tend to avoid confrontation at all costs.

Your neighbor borrows your weed whacker and returns it without any trimmer line? No problem. You’ll just buy some more at the store. Your neighbor borrows your car and returns it on “E”? No problem. You’ll just leave a bit early for work tomorrow and get gas on your way in. Your neighbor borrows eggs…and then batteries…and then…your iphone charger? Well, ok. You can have oatmeal for breakfast and you’ll replace the batteries in the remote control later (it’s good exercise to walk up to the TV to change the channel anyway) and you were spending far too much time Instagramming from your phone. But eventually, over time, you can’t help but harbor a simmering bitterness towards your neighbor. A little trimmer line here or a few eggs there morphs into just one tiny, little complaint to a mutual friend. Then the gas and the batteries become just a little gossip a backyard BBQ. But over the course of a few months, you lose control of the bitterness and it creeps onto facebook. Then it becomes #slander on Twitter. And suddenly, one Friday morning, as you find yourself endorsing your neighbor for “5 finger discounting” and “Scam-mongering” on Linkedin, you realize that this conflict has evolved into something beyond your control.

So what does Jesus have to say about dealing with conflict? Well, Jesus says exactly what the modern day Christian would expect. Jesus tells his disciples to confront the person privately and to work out the disagreement quietly and discreetly. And if the wrongdoer refuses to listen, then Jesus suggests that one or two other trusted, reliable, wise Christians should be consulted. And if the neighbor still won’t listen, then Jesus says, well, to treat the neighbor like a “pagan or a tax collector.” When Jesus’ listeners heard this, they understood that Jesus was giving them permission to treat the neighbor contemptuously. But of course, Jesus’ words turn that understanding upside down. Rather than writing the wrongdoer off as a lost cause or a reckless crook, Jesus tells his listeners to pursue that neighbor in the same way that God pursues each of us. He commands his followers to gather round the one at fault and to continuously correct him out of love and concern, “For wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them” (Matt. 18:20).

[Kristin vanEyk attends Encounter Church and teaches English in Grand Rapids, MI.]

The Root of Want

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

What do you want?

Right now, wherever you’re sitting or standing or crouching while you’re reading this, what do you want?

Maybe it’s a cup of coffee, a nap, a new car, a vacation, or a bigger paycheck. Or maybe your want is intangible, complex, or difficult to admit. Peace. Relationships. Healing. Love. Forgiveness.

We can all think of something we want.

In I Timothy 6, Paul writes specifically about how the love of money can become a problem. Yet, as Pastor Dirk pointed out, it’s only partly about the money itself--more importantly, it’s about the condition of our hearts and the root of our wanting. 

While many people have misread this passage to say that money is the root of evil, the true root of evil is the condition of the heart. There are ways of wanting things--coffee, vacations, paychecks, relationships, peace--that are not bad. God desires to give his children good gifts, and, in their proper context, all of these and more are very good gifts. Vacations can be fun, paychecks allow for different opportunities, relationships enrich our lives, peace allows us to experience life without anxiety. 

Yet if we want these good things for the wrong reasons, they can become bad things that ultimately lead to our own destruction. Paul reminds us of the danger of loving things we’re not supposed to, and more than that, of the value of contentment. The difference between want that is good and want that is bad is whether we can learn be content with or without it.

Contentment is not a quick fix, nor is it something we learn once and are set for the rest of our lives. Just as each stage of our lives brings us different joys and sorrows, opportunities and closed doors, each stage of life brings different ways to learn contentment. It may be learning to be content with fewer material goods than we’d like, or being content at a different school or job than we imagined, or being content with relationships that look different than we’d envisioned. 

It’s not that God expects us to never want anything--sometimes wanting things spurs us to good, healthy action. The difference is in how we approach what we want, and whether we can learn to be content whether we get what we want or not.

Whatever it is that you want right now, maybe it’s time to examine the reason you want it, the true root of the want, and to look at what the condition of your heart is in the midst of your wanting.

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]

Dig in and Take Hold

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]


It seems to me that there are a few themes in the Bible that run so deep they simply can’t be overlooked, and yet, somehow, I managed to do just that. We have been meditating on some of these deeply embedded themes recently at Encounter Church, and I was surprised to find that I had somehow overlooked much of the story of Israel for many years. As we’ve been living in both the Old Testament stories of Israel’s unfaithfulness and the New Testament grace of Jesus Christ, God has continued to bring us a word about about idolatry and repentance, filling this earth, and the grace of God that can only be found through Jesus Christ.

Much of what happens in the Old Testament revolves around God urging his people to leave behind their idolatrous ways and to trust him only as the one true God. It makes sense that the Israelites would want to worship a variety of gods--the sun god and the water god and the gods of crops or fertility or health--and it takes more trust in Yahweh that many of us muster on a daily basis to trust that only one God could look after our many needs. Still, God warns his people time and time again to repent and to turn away from their idols, for if they would refuse, then they knowingly choose defeat, capture, and torture at the hands of Babylon. No nation was to be feared more that Babylon; no captor promised a more agonizing obliteration than Babylon. And yet, despite God’s warnings and reminders that he would keep his promises to carry the people into exile, the people chose captivity and idol worship over freedom in God. The destruction and captivity of Israel by Babylon very nearly wiped the people off the face of the earth, but after 70 years, still a remnant remained to return to Jerusalem. After all, God had promised that the remnant would persist (Jer. 29: 14).

In the book of Revelation, Babylon reappears, this time as prostitute riding upon a scarlet beast. Revelation 17:5 records, “The name written upon her forehead was a mystery. BABYLON THE GREAT/THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES/AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” One chapter later in Revelation, Babylon falls, and with her the “dwelling for demons” and “haunt for every impure spirit” (Rev. 18:2). The word of the Lord is pretty clear on this: idolatry will captivate our hearts and steal away our lives until we find our salvation in the promises of God, which are fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

Perhaps this is why it became popular for a while to say that Christians are to be “in the world but not of the world.” Christians recognized that we are here on this earth to build the kingdom, but over time the spirit of the wary pilgrim surfaced, the spirit of one passing through this earth who had put on the armor of God to beat back any earthly temptations. Christians were told to long for the renewing of this earth, and not to get too comfortable while here in the physical realm. The image of the Christian pilgrim is popular still today, and perhaps, rightly so.

But as I read the Bible, I find that God continuously leads me back to the commands to “be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it,” or to stories like the Tower of Babel where God scatters people across the earth so that they’ll really dig in to this life (Gen. 1:28; Gen. 11). Even the Great Commission, it seems, includes an imperative to fill the earth, subdue it, and to really grab ahold of it (Matt. 28:16-20).

So when I read a story like the one in Jeremiah 29, where the people Israel have finally been exiled from Jerusalem into Babylon and God commands that they “build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease”, it seems to me that he is once again urging his people to dig into this place; to really grab ahold of it.

One of the most well loved (and misused!) passages from the Bible comes from this same story about exile into Babylon found in Jeremiah 29. God has just ushered his people into exile for their idolatrous and spiritually adulterous ways, but even there, God leads with grace. He says, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future.” It appears that God’s plans include exile. The ultimate plan necessitates Jesus, of course, but our instructions for our day-to-day plans for prosperity and hope include filling the earth, making disciples, and waiting for the return of the King.

The instructions are practical: “build houses, settle down, [and] plant gardens” (Jer. 29: 5).  So while we may feel like sojourners passing through, God reminds us that because of our sinfulness we live as in exile, but under his promise he will collect us back at the appointed time. In the meantime, we dig in.

[Kristin vanEyk attends Encounter Church and teaches English in Grand Rapids, MI. She passes most of her time reading, laughing, and playing with her kids.]

Saying No to Checklist Christianity

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

Checklists are my friend. Whether it’s a list of what I need to do at work that day, a list of errands I need to run, or a list of what I need to pack for a trip, I like to see what needs to be done and check them off as I accomplish them.

Pastor Dirk told us that in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, there are 66 imperative statements--66 things to not do or to check off the list to do. Yet in his introduction, known as the Beatitudes, Jesus uses a different approach. Instead of directly telling his listeners what to do, he tells them ways of being. He tells them of being poor in spirit, of mourning, of being meek, of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, of being merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted because of righteousness.

The Beatitudes are not a list of tasks to accomplish, they’re ways of living that are to shape our lives.

This doesn’t mean that the imperative statements found elsewhere in the Sermon on the Mount are bad; they are guidance for how to handle certain situations and create a framework for the Christian life. But as good as those things are, ultimately Jesus isn’t asking us to make a checklist of How to be a Good Christian and tick all the boxes. As Pastor Dirk put it so clearly, “Jesus isn’t asking us to be better people, he’s asking us to find our righteousness in him.” Because no checklist will ever get us closer to God.

What it comes down to is what we at Encounter talk about so often--grace. It’s pure grace that frees us to say no checklist Christianity and to live as an expression of gratitude for what God has done for us. No amount of money given to church, hours of time poured into ministries, or people we’ve told about Christ is enough to earn us a spot in eternity. It’s only when we realize our own incapability to save ourselves that we are freed to embrace the one who can save us. Jesus.

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]