How should Christians live out God’s ideal of justice?
Published by Jeff Mikels, on May 1st, 2013 in Front Page, Tough Questions.Occasionally, I get really deep questions turned in on our Sunday Connect Cards, and this past Sunday, I received this one:
I noticed that two of the songs played in service this morning mentioned justice as something God has and uses to demonstrate his goodness. If one of the classic arguments against belief in a personal God is perceived injustice in the Bible – God plays favorites, the wholesale slaughter of thousands of men, women, children by the Hebrews, the concept of Hell, etc. – how should we answer that change? On a less philosophical level, how should Christians demonstrate the ideal of God’s justice in our daily lives? How do we commit to something so ephemeral and confusing?
This is such a big question that I responded to the author by email but thought it might be worthwhile to post it here as well. What follows is my response. » Click here to read the rest. «
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Why do we say “Amen” at the end of prayers?
Published by Jeff Mikels, on February 12th, 2013 in Front Page, Tough Questions.Recently, a note came to me from someone in our church with an interesting question. It said this:
Why is it that sometimes your prayers do not end with “Amen”? Is there a biblical reason why we do or do not say amen after prayers?
I responded personally, but I also felt my answer might benefit others, so here it is in blog form.
The Meaning of “Amen”
First, the word Amen is a Hebrew word that comes from the Hebrew root AMN which means faith/faithfulness. Strangely enough, this same root word shows up in a variety of other Hebrew words including words for the firm columns supporting a roof. » Click here to read the rest. «
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LCC Weekly :: November 4 & 11, 2012
Published by Jeff Mikels, on November 13th, 2012 in Front Page, Lafayette Community Church, Leadership.This is part of a series of posts aimed at supporting and encouraging the volunteers of Lafayette Community Church.
Sunday Review
Our past two Sunday gatherings have been truly refreshing to me. For one thing, Jake Steffes has been selecting our music, and he has done a great job of not only picking songs that resonate with the theme but also ordering them in a way that encourages us on Sundays to release ourselves into God’s presence. His work has taken a load off of my mind and has given our band more time to prepare! » Click here to read the rest. «
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LCC Weekly :: October 28, 2012
Published by Jeff Mikels, on November 2nd, 2012 in Front Page, Lafayette Community Church, Leadership.This is part of a series of posts aimed at supporting and encouraging the volunteers of Lafayette Community Church.
Sunday Review
What an incredible Sunday we experienced last week! Not only did we get the weekend started right with our Volunteer Refresh event on Saturday evening, but the whole weekend we were blessed to have Brian Fraaza and his band with us.
It was also a great blessing to have Greg Shackleford, a great friend of mine and a founding member of this church, joining us this weekend as a part of Brian’s band. I also want to recognize Kelsey and Ben who drove down from Kalamazoo with Brian and Greg to bless us with their musical talents. » Click here to read the rest. «
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LCC Weekly :: October 21, 2012
Published by Jeff Mikels, on October 23rd, 2012 in Front Page, Lafayette Community Church, Leadership.This is part of a series of posts aimed at supporting and encouraging the volunteers of Lafayette Community Church.
Sunday Review
Music
What made the music for this past Sunday extra special and extra refreshing for me was that Jake Steffes took the lead on planning the setlist and coordinating the band practice. I still say it is a joy to work with Jake, and I know all the rest of the band appreciates him as much as I do. Thanks Jake!
Message
This Sunday brought the second message in my series on conflict resolution called “f.i.g.h.t.” and there were aspects of it that were really personal for me. » Click here to read the rest. «
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LCC Weekly :: October 12, 2012
Published by Jeff Mikels, on October 19th, 2012 in Front Page, Lafayette Community Church, Leadership.This is part of a series of posts aimed at supporting and encouraging the volunteers of Lafayette Community Church.
Sunday Review
Message
On Sunday, I started a brand new series of messages I’m calling “f.i.g.h.t” to cover the five skills you need to handle any kind of conflict that may come your way.
This is a really personal issue for me. I remember as a child seeing all the conflict that arose in my home church. There were debates over whether the leaders of the church should be called Deacons, Elders, or Overseers. There were debates on whether the missionaries should get more money or the school. There were debates over whether the pastor really deserved as much money as they gave him. » Click here to read the rest. «
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What if God chooses not to “elect” my children?
Published by Jeff Mikels, on October 17th, 2012 in Front Page, Tough Questions, VIP.During the Summer, I worked through the book of Romans in my Sunday messages at Lafayette Community Church. To hear the messages, visit the Great News II page.
One of the topics that Romans raises is the notion of election vs. free will. I took a rather strong position from Romans 9-11 that God chooses who will be saved. I taught that everyone has the freedom to choose God, but because of sin’s deceitfulness no one does unless God makes the first move to choose them and draw them to himself.
This has raised some very interesting questions in our church’s “CONNECT” cards over the past couple of months, and one that came in this past week really got me thinking. Tonight, I wrote a long response to the couple that asked the question, and I thought it would make sense to post the answer here as well. » Click here to read the rest. «
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God bless you my brother. Thank you for taking time to share. May neither one of us walk with pride in our lives over this issue, but may we be humble and tremble at His word. I pray we have sharpened each other and become more Christlike through our conversation. May Jesus be glorified in both of our lives, and may the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.