Where Does Time Go - by Sandy Hrostowski

April 25th was my grandson’s birthday.  Not just any birthday, but the big 21. We have a really great relationship with Richard.  He loves coming over for the weekend, attending Redeemer and just hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma.  I feel very fortunate to have this close bond with him.  His favorite food is lasagna which I happily fix each time he comes over.

It seems like before you know it, time has gone by, your family has grown up and children have gone off in their own directions.  My parents made of point of gathering the family together and enjoying a great Sunday meal after church.  No TV or video games.  We sat and talked about everything going on in our lives.  I’m sure as a child I didn’t realize how precious those times would be.  My father died when I was only 23 and my mother when I was 36.  Where does time go???

My parents took the time to teach me valuable life lessons for which I am eternally grateful.  I encourage you to see your family time as priceless and sometimes fleeting and cherish it.  Plan a Sunday dinner and invite your family to sit together, share a meal and talk about what’s going on in their lives’.

Better yet, invite them to DeWitt Redeemer where they can spend time with this awesome church family.   Don’t let time go by and then wonder where it all went! 

Foreign Parts - by Ben Barnes

Last weekend, I put together a new swing set for Emaline, our ten month old daughter.  I don’t know if you’ve had the pleasure of assembling backyard toys in the past five years or so, but things have gotten confusing.  The box had all the proper equipment; walls, swing, slide, weird climby things, and instructions… that I threw away immediately.  But the box also had some very strange foreign tools and hardware.  I’ve worked with tools most of my life and I can honestly say that I’ve never seen the tool and hardware that came to assemble the swing set.  It looked more like punctuation than a tool.  Once I figured out what to do with the equipment, I was able to assemble the toy for my daughter, but it wasn’t without frustration, fear and trembling.  Had I read the instructions for the swing set, I would’ve skipped the whole frustration stage.  Emaline could’ve been swinging and sliding and having a great time with me, but instead, I chose to ignore the instructions and try things on my own.  It took me twice as long as it needed to, which made an angry dad, an upset baby, and a pretty long afternoon.

Sometimes life gets strange and we don’t know exactly what to do with the foreign parts that show up in our lives.  But the Bible is our instruction manual.  If we choose to read and follow the instructions, things go much better for us.

April in the D - by Ron Bekkering

As I've watched my beloved Detroit Tigers start the 2015 baseball season, witnessed another playoff opportunity for my favorite hockey team, the Detroit Red Wings, and to be perfectly honest haven't watched a single Detroit Pistons game all season it is still "April in the D" as Fox Sports Detroit tells us! I look forward to this month when basketball and hockey are winding toward playoffs and baseball is just starting; it makes me think summer is right around the corner.

Well that's all fine and dandy, but April in the D takes on a different take when we talk about April in the DeWitt. More specifically April in the DeWitt Redeemer. I mean, we've experienced a tremendous Good Friday service with our friends from DCC (DeWitt Christian Church), then we jumped right into an amazing Resurrection Day service at Redeemer. So many faces and great reunions with many of our college students made my day, not to mention I got to celebrate a Savior who lives. Now I get to look forward and see the start of our Stewardship campaign at Redeemer where we will be challenged once again to step up and make a difference by committing our financial pledges to the ministries and mission of Redeemer UMC. We will also begin our annual Confirmation class. This year we will do it with 16 students that are signed up to take the next step in their relationship with Jesus by confirming in front of family, friends and their church community. My friends that is some outstanding stuff right there.

In my reading of 2 Corinthians this week, I read Chapter 5 and in verse 5, it says; "Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." When Paul wrote that to the Corinthians he knew that all these years later that we would look at this and know that what is to come is eternal life with Jesus. With Easter just passed and all we have to look forward to in April I hope you find the time to thank God for the gift He gave us in His Son! 

Blessing Others - by Kim Metzer

So many thoughts running through my head this time of year… the dual themes of discipleship and fiscal responsibility/ stewardship collide.

Why is money so much on my mind during the Easter season?  It is on my mind partly because we’re also in the middle of “tax season” which culminates April 15 and partly because we have entered the weeks leading up to Redeemer’s Consecration Sunday on May 3.  You may be asking, so what does money have to do with discipleship and being a follower of Christ?

David S. Bell, President & Exec. Director of the United Methodist Foundation of Michigan explains it well using the parable of the woman with ten silver coins found in Luke 15:8-10:

“As one’s disposable income decreases, one’s desire and need to make prudent spending choices increases. However, many North Americans have fallen into the cultural pull of satisfying our perceived “needs.” In this self-indulgent society, we treat ourselves first. We are swept up in the enticing ideology of living for today. The more one becomes entangled in self-indulgence, the less one can maintain the biblical principles of saving and giving. Money ends up controlling people’s daily lives. Jesus reminds us that generous giving frees us from this bondage and opens the possibility for other pervading, God-honoring principles to direct our daily lives. When spare change is dropped in the offering plate, spiritual poverty supersedes economic poverty. 

Jesus offers hope for the spiritually impoverished. This hope is the gift of salvation offered to those who repent of their sins. God offers everyone, regardless of economic standing, the gifts of freedom, hope, and deliverance. Like the woman in this parable, we are called to treasure the gift of God’s grace so freely given to all. Generous giving is one example of living a lifestyle grounded in God-honoring principles. What do our habits with spare change suggest about our values, priorities, and commitment to God?”

8“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” Luke 15:8-10 NLT

DeWitt is often perceived to be an affluent community but not all of its residents fit that perception.  This community is also filled with those struggling to get by.  This is abundantly clear at our tax site on Tuesday nights.  Many of our clients depend on government allowed refundable tax credits to get by for the rest of the year.  I have volunteered with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program for many years.  I firmly believe that generous giving consists not only in the giving of money but also of time and talents.  God has blessed me with the ability to understand the preparation of a tax return and it gives me great joy to share this blessing with others. 

My hope and prayer is that each of you will take the time during this season of renewal to thank God for your many blessings and find a way to use them to bless others.

7O God, I beg two favors from you;

let me have them before I die.

8First, help me never to tell a lie.

Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!

Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. Proverbs 30:7-8 NLT

 

 

 

Expecting a Blessing - by Debby Kloosterman

I was raised in the Catholic Church.  (I know, that explains a lot!)  Worship in the Catholic Church was predictable.  It followed a definite order and was fairly routine with the same prayers and responsorial songs.  When I began attending a Protestant church, and came to know Jesus Christ more personally, I began to love attending church.  My mindset changed as I began to “expect a blessing”. 

 

The English language is a strange thing.  The same word can have many meanings.  For instance, the word “expect” is often used to indicate a sense of entitlement, like, “She expects that everyone will cater to her needs.”  However, the word also means to anticipate, as when you are expecting a baby.  You prepare and dream and generally look forward to that little person’s arrival.  That’s the usage that I am choosing.  The definition of the noun, “blessing”, is a favor or gift bestowed by God.  I am not entitled to God’s blessing.  I don’t deserve it, but He gives it because of who He is.

I absolutely look forward to God “gifting” me each week at Redeemer with a song, a message, a word of encouragement or even the sun beaming through the stained glass window.  How will God bless you this week?  Will you anticipate His blessing?  He won’t disappoint you!

An Innocent Bystander - by Susan Jensen

John 13:34-35

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

How are my words representing the love and gratitude I have for Christ? If people see me, or better yet hear me, will they know that I am a disciple of Christ? Have you ever gotten that nagging feeling just after getting something off your chest? Maybe you felt your words were justified because you were with close friends, or maybe you felt it was okay since you at least waited until the person that irritated you couldn’t hear you. However the truth of the matter is, if you felt even a twinge of guilt about something you’ve just said, that guilt is telling you something. Quite honestly, if you’re a Christian, that twinge is the Holy Spirit challenging you to rethink your words.

So how are we doing, will an innocent bystander looking for hope know that we are Christians by our love for one another? Are my words speaking love that will bring others to Christ, or are my words dishonoring the one who gave His life for me? Take a 24 hour challenge, after each conversation, run the conversation through this one question filter. Would God be pleased with what I just said? It’s a simple challenge that can make an eternal difference.

Changes From the Inside Out – by Justin Bowman

As a Youth Worker spending time with students in the 5th - 8th grade age range I get to talk to students of all different sizes.  Some look me in the eyes, and sometimes I get down on one knee to be at eye level with certain students. Though I actively notice the difference in the sizes of the students I work with, for the longest time I didn’t consciously realize the difference…until someone else pointed it out to me. 

A group of us were attending one of the several Youth Workers Conventions we’ve been to when a well-known Junior High Youth Pastor showed us a set of pictures. The first picture was of him with two 8th grade boys (who were taller than him) the second was of him with two other 6th grade boys (very much shorter than him) and the difference astounded everyone in the room.  I noted how I wanted to take such a picture with a few of the students I have spent time with to document this difference for myself. About a year later I actually remembered to do so, but I have some thoughts I would like to share before revealing the photos.

After capturing the photos I sat and thought about the extreme changes that can occur physically between the 5th grade and 8th grade years. After a while I was drawn to think the following: if a person can have such radical change physically in just four years, how radically can they change spiritually during that same time frame?

Now, generally speaking, when students enter the ministry in 5th grade they are normally little rambunctious balls of energy who seem to bounce off the walls and have energy levels that are difficult for most to keep up with. By the time they leave 8th grade they have developed a level of maturity that allows them to have actual, meaningful conversations with us as adults.  Trust me when I say this, these are two very different plots on the maturity scale…but I absolutely love spending time with both. 
A Bible verse I came across expresses what happens during this time frame in such a simple way.

Luke 2:40

The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom…

This particular verse is actually referring to Jesus. As the children around us grow I feel that they undergo basically the same process. Perhaps not to the divine levels of Jesus’ spirituality, but their wisdom increases nonetheless. A very simple statement, but it carries a deep and profound meaning. Sometimes we don’t realize the changes on the outside are signals of the countless changes occurring on the inside.

Fairly often a student will say something profound that catches us leaders by surprise, and causes us to realize that as they grow they figure things out in ways that help us to learn a thing or two. Most of the time these comments come from 8th graders, 5th graders usually say the things we won’t ever be able to figure out. 

Middle school is a time when students project the image of wanting to distance themselves from most everyone. As you can see from the images below, this is a phase when a lot of change happens in a relatively small amount of time, and students need someone to guide them through this time of rapid changes from the inside out.