Wednesday, June 24, 2020Set Apart My sister used to live in Zeeland, Michigan. One of the first things she noticed when she started living there was that people do not mow their lawns on Sundays in Zeeland. One Sunday afternoon, when her husband was mowing the lawn, he noticed that he was getting mean looks […]

June 23, 2020Inside Out According to John Calvin, the guy that Calvin University was named for and whose teachings are at the foundation of how the Christian Reformed Church understands God, sabbath is a gift that God gave people to rest from doing bad stuff. Sounds weird, huh? Here’s how he explains it. Our resting […]

June 22, 2020Tradition One of the surprising things we find as we look back through church history is that, for thousands of years, there was no clear link between the Christian practice of Sunday and the Jewish practice of sabbath that we read about in the fourth commandment. The connection between the two was made […]

Friday, June 19Detour Summer is road construction season in west Michigan. The freezing and thawing that happens throughout the winter makes the roads a mess in the spring. As a result, each summer roads are closed and the routes we usually travel are detoured for road repairs. Jeff Manion describes one of those detouring experiences.  […]

Thursday, June 18Ripple Effects In the fall of 2008, the financial market in the United States crashed. It was a huge hit to the American economy, and led to many people losing their jobs, their houses, and their retirement funds. God was still there with people, but with the tangible ways that they felt God’s presence […]

Wednesday, June 17Missing In the movie Julie and Julia, there is a scene where Julia (who played by actress Meryl Streep) is walking in a park with her husband. A couple passes by them, walking in the opposite direction, pushing a baby stroller. As Julia looks over at the stroller, her smile fades into a […]

Tuesday, June 16Not Alone  Jeff Manion’s mother died in a car accident when he was just twelve years-old. It happened in the season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. While they were very sad about the death of their mom, God provided for Jeff and his siblings in surprising ways during that time. People from church started sending them […]

Monday, June 15Answered Prayers Brent and Sonia have four children. Their oldest child, Kaci, is seventeen and has a severe form of autism that she can only speak one word at a time. Sometimes, she hits and kicks and bites, hurting other people and herself.Brent and Sonia have asked God to heal their daughter, Kaci, but that hasn’t happened, […]

Friday, June 12Ability Nancy Eisland is a sociologist and theologian with a disability. People sometimes say to her, “Won’t you be glad to be in heaven someday and not have your disability any more?” She says to them, “No. My disability taught me who I am and who God is. What would it mean to […]

Thursday, June 11Providence There is this big word that Christians use to describe how God cares for us. It is “providence”. God is telling the stories of our lives. Providence is the idea that God is showing how good God is through the stories of our lives.  Each of us is part of a bigger story that […]