November 5, 2006

 

Sunday Message

by Pastor Kok III

 

Talking to Heathens in Language They Understand. When Heathens Puff themselves Up and Taunt Us:  My Haunted House Experience.   Suffering for Doing Good!

 

Good Morning From Sierra Madre, CA ! It is beautiful morning here in southern California. The sun is coming up at 7:08 a.m. on Sunday, November 5, 2006. This year is going so fast ! Wow! When I attended the Crystal Cathedral Robert Schuller Sr  (the founder) would occasionally say to the congregation “And all God’s people said…”, with the normal response being “Amen” but he changed it to “Wow.” So that is still in my psyche.

 

Anyways, it’s great to be alive and to be able to compose a Sunday Message with the inspiration of God Almighty within me! Let us pray:

 

Prayer: Dear God, Thank you for this beautiful day. Thank you for the sun and the trees and the air we breath. We take it for granted sometimes. But yet in the past few weeks we have been reminded of the dangers of global warming. Scientists say it is a fact. Some republicans scoff at it. What is the truth, God? Who do we believe? It gets so confusing sometimes. If it is for real and there is something we can do about it, let us be responsible as individuals and as a nation and as a world community. And just this week I heard a report that if we keep eating seafood at the rate we are eating it, by the year 2048 almost all the edible fish species will be depleted. Is this true, God? Or just a scare tactic? It’s hard to know. We believe in YOU. We believe in YOUR SOVERIEGNTY, We believe that YOU WILL PROVIDE. But at the same time we believe in being GOOD STEWARDS. If this is true and there is something we can do about it, God, let us do it. Give us the wisdom, Oh Lord. Breath into us Your HOLY SPIRIT so that we have more power, wisdom, and understanding than the average person. We are YOUR BODY, God. We are the Body of Jesus Christ here on earth. Let us act like it. IN YOUR HOLY NAME WE PRAY. AMEN!

 

Song: Amazing Grace

 http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/m/amazgrac.htm

 

And the grace is very amazing! We are all sinners in need of grace. IF not sins of commission then sins of omission. If not sins of omission then original sin. We are sinners whether we like it or not. There is no escaping it. The fall of Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and pastor of a large church in Colorado Springs this week is a reminder of how fallible humans are, including Christians and Christian pastors, some of whom made a name for themselves preaching against the sin of homosexuality. Redeem Ted Haggard, Lord. Redeem him. Give him a spirit of confession and humility. Let him bow down before you and ask for redemption and grace. Bring him back to You, Lord. In the name of Jesus !

 

 

Song: At the Name of Jesus

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/t/atthenam.htm

 

And is Jesus, our Lord & Savior who saves us, who delivers us, who conquers the darkness. We are in Christ! Let us encourage each other and build each other up.

 

And let me say a little bit more about Ted Haggard. I do not personally know him nor am involved with the NAE or his church in Colorado Springs. The most I know about Haggard is the occasional mention of him by Peter Wagner when Wagner was still teaching at Fuller Seminary. And apparently Haggard has some relationship with the Worldwide Prayer Center in Colorado Springs which Wagner helped found. However, I’m not sure if Wagner is still associated with the Worldwide Prayer Center. There may have been a falling out of some sort.

 

But what I want to say is that any ministry or minister which makes its name on one single theme such as anti-homosexuality is in danger of succumbing to it. There must be more than “Don’t do this, don’t do that” in one’s  pastoral bag. There must be a higher theme of “Do this, do that” of serving the Lord. When we become actively involved in serving God at a hands-on level we become much more effective in our ministry and the negative doesn’t overwhelm us. Instead of saying constantly “homosexuality is bad” it may be more effective to say “heterosexuality is the God-intended way…” Husbands, be a partner with your wife.  Wives, be a partner with your husband.  Talk to each other. Encourage each other. Be honest and open with each other. Don’t keep secrets. And don’t be holier-than-thou with each other.

 

Prayer: Dear God, we pray for the Worldwide Prayer Center and the National Association of Evangelicals and Ted Haggard. We haven’t heard the whole story yet. We’ve heard allegations. We’ve heard a few partial confessions. But whatever is going on, God, let there be healing and redemption. Let YOUR LIGHT SHINE THROUGH! Use this scandal for YOUR GLORY GOD. Somehow. Hear our prayer Oh Lord.

 

 

Song: Praise Ye the Lord

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/p/y/pyethlor.htm

 

And today my Sunday Message is entitled:

 

“Talking to Heathens in Language They Understand. When Heathens Puff themselves Up and Taunt Us. My Haunted House Experience. Suffering for Doing Good!”

 

Let’s start with Scripture Reading.

 

Scripture: 1 Peter 3:13-17

 

And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. "And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled."   But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.  For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

I mentioned to you last week about preparing for Halloween  by making a Jesus Lantern. After that message I went a few steps further and went out and bought a bale of hay at the Bellflower feed & hay shop, and put it out on display by my little shack. I also snuck out to Redlands and left a Jesus lantern at my younger brother’s house. Steve is married to Kris Vanderlaan and they live in Redlands with two children. I was there on the night before Halloween and they already had three jack-o-lanterns sitting on their porch, all of them with the usual American Halloween smiles or funny faces. I put my Jesus lantern with a lit candle glowing inside next to the three jack-0-lanterns and left. I can only imagine their surprise when they came out later that evening and found a pumpkin with a cross and the name of Jesus on it!

 

 Then, the next day I decided I would get into the “spirit” of Halloween as a way to do evangelism. I heard about a haunted house in Pasadena or “old town Pasadena” and bought a ticket online. Then I went out and bought a Halloween mask . It was a scary face mask—nobody in particular.

 

IN the evening, on Halloween, around 7 pm. I went to the haunted house on Raymond St and waited in line. I was in the “VIP” line—because I purchased my ticket online. This only meant we got in the door a little bit quicker. I kept my mask on—and was having a good time just standing there looking at a few other people in costume. I had a few Christ Pilot cards ready to hand out if the opportunity arose but before long one of the employees of the haunted house came by and said that I would have to take my mask off before I entered the haunted house. He said that because of liability issues I might be mistaken for an employee of the haunted house and if something happened might cause the haunted house to get in trouble, wrongly so. I understood his point although it took some of the fun out of the experience. Anyways, I handed him the mask and didn’t make a big deal out of it and then we entered the haunted house.

 

I had my cam-phone in my hand and hoped to get a picture of a ghost or eerie Halloween creature inside the haunted house—to add to my Sunday message, but before I was more than a few feet inside the  haunted house some fellow came up to me and said “No cell phones, no cam phones” The fact is it was too dark to take any decent pictures even with the tiny cam-phone flash so I had already realized it wasn’t going to work.

 

There were no signs outside saying no cellphones and the guy who took my mask saw the cellphone in my hand and didn‘t say anything about it. Nonetheless this guy inside (whose name turned out to be Ron Rogge) not only told me no cellphones but did so in a menacing manner, as if to assert himself physically. All he had to do was ask nicely but he decided to puff himself up in so doing and  put my manhood to the test.

 

That’s a big problem when “authorities “ do that. Sometimes police do it. Sometimes security guards do it. In this case a haunted house employee did it. When they go from asking nicely to puffing themselves up they exacerbate what could be non-issues. Ron Rogge did not speak to me in a respectful manner. He was condescending and seemed like he was looking for a fight.

 

Sometimes fellows do this when they feel outclassed or insecure. Rather than feeling that way they pick a fight knowing that being in a position of authority they would have the upper-hand later on in  front of a decision maker. A police officer can pick a fight, for example, and later make up any sort of story in front of a judge, maintaining the “upper hand” because he is an “officer of the law.” The judge and the jury is usually, but not always, psychologically influenced by the uniform.

 

Young persons, usually young males, are too often placed in lose-lose situations when police officers or security guards decide to puff themselves up at our expense. We  can’t fight like we might have done on a playground as kids to prove ourselves (although I don’t condone that either). We can’t say something “flippant’ because that can be used against us as well. We’re supposed to be totally submissive. Nonetheless, this can be demeaning and reduce us to such a point that we lose some of our Biblical manhood.

 

Biblical manhood does not call for us to physically fight in all situations or times. But it does call for us to maintain a certain amount of God-given dignity. In some situations self-defense, physically, is necessary. In other situations self-defense verbally is necessary. And either choice is risky if it escalates and becomes something which might lead to arrest.

 

Ron Rogge was taunting me. He was not talking nicely, with respect for me. He was belittling me. I put the cell phone in my pocket and kept going past him but  then called him something derogatory. I couldn’t help myself. I was in a good mood for a fun evening. I had paid my dues. I was just enjoying the evening. And I don’t usually go out at night. He immediately came back at me and said “What was that? Did you use profanity?” That’s what tipped me off.

 

In his eyes I was either a “freakin Christian” or a “freakin Jew.” There’s a problem of anti-Semitism in Pasadena. I had experienced it before. I’ve been mistaken for a Jew in Pasadena because of my beard. I’ve often had students in schools also ask me if I was a Jew (because of the beard). Anti-Semitism is a problem even if you are not a Jew sometimes.

 

You see, “secularists” in positions of power or strength, and often some of the “locals” or “local yokels” don’t really like Christians or Jews. They have a sense of nostalgia for where they grew up devoid of religion and being just happy without any sort of religious involvement at all. In some of these locals eyes (and I assume Ron Rogge is a local or “honorary local”) religion is the problem. And they taunt the “religious” ones.

 

I know this because I spent a few years of my life as Kok v City of Pasadena after the Pasadena Police Dept mistreated me. I personally depositioned six police officers and was antagonized by a former police-officer turned attorney—who represented the City of Pasadena.  I emerged victorious in this civil litigation, but not after a lot of work and longsuffering. I emerged with  a clear realization of what is “really going on” inside this particular police department. And I realized it was a “local” attitude more so than anything else that was causing the problems. Localism is a problem, sometimes.

 

So I immediately knew I was experiencing a form of localism inside this haunted house on Halloween evening. He was saying to me, “You’re a Christian or a Jew and you use profanity? As such you are being hypocritical and I am going to pick on you.” Did he have the right to pick on me for being “hypocritical” according to his own personal definition and bias? NO! He had no right to pick on me at all.

 

I experienced this once with my own brother-in-law (also an attorney) in St. Joseph, Michigan in May of 2004 when I voluntarily drove for him for a month because his driver’s license was suspended due to his third (yes, that’s right, third) DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol). I drove from California to Michigan out of the goodness of my heart to help my sister’s family. I hadn’t seen them in years and thought this might be a time and opportunity to reconcile with them and show them the love of a pastor and a brother.

 

But they could have cared less about me being a pastor, about me having completed seminary, about me at all. I hadn’t heard from them in years. NO cards or letters. Despite the fact that I had regularly sent them letters, cards, DVD’s, etc. The only reason I found  out about this situation was because my mother, Linda, contacted me through my dad—with whom I have periodic email contact.

 

So I arrived in St. Joseph on a Sunday evening and was expected to drive for them the next day. They acted very happy to see me. My sister gave me a big hug. But the pretense was obvious. There was no real love here. And I sensed they had talked or whispered about me—not surprising. Anyways, I had committed myself to helping them and took the time to enjoy nearby Lake Michigan as well—and completed my film project “Psalms Across America” while I was there.

 

One day I was driving Kevin Anderson, the attorney and my brother-in-law, to the court or to Alcoholics Anonymous, either in Kalamazoo or Grand Rapids, and we started discussing this incident I had in Pasadena with the police back in 2000. I told him about the litigation and about this and that and at one point said something like “The officer deserved …” something. I was speaking hypothetically. IN fact what had happened was that I had been mistreated physically by the police and I was injured. I never touched or struck any officer at all. That’s what led to the litigation about excessive force.

 

I was speaking at a more colloquial level saying that had this been a playground matter the officer would have deserved to get hit. He had not acted like a gentleman and had not treated me decently or with respect. Unfortunately (I suppose), we cannot settle matters on the street as adults as if we were on the playground as kids. Even when we get mistreated, disrespected, spoken down to by somebody not above us, threatened, etc. we have to maintain a certain amount of restraint and reserve. And unfortunately there are police officers coming out of junior college who sometimes go beyond the rightful power of the badge. Nonetheless, I’ve been around long enough now to know that I will never respond with physical force as an adult to another person apart from self-defense. It takes a lot of restraint sometimes, even when you know you are right.

 

I was telling Kevin Anderson that if this were a playground matter the officer should have gotten his “block knocked off”. There are certain things you don’t do to people and shouldn’t do just because you are in a position of authority and power.  Kevin responded in an almost jeering manner saying, “What about turning the other cheek?”  

 

And you have to remember that Kevin’s dad is a police officer. So Kevin may have been “schooled” by his dad to be a little contemptuous of Christians even though Kevin goes to church and apparently teaches Sunday School (By the way Julie, my sister, also attends church but went out of her way several times to let me know she doesn’t like pastors and at one point even belittled my dad, also a pastor).

 

Then Kevin added something about me having threatened a kid with a jackknife when I was five years old or thereabouts. It made me realize that Julie & Kevin talked to each other about things that I hadn’t thought about in years. It made me realize also that they were not living BY GRACE, but had memories of things that had happened when we were children that are totally irrelevant to the present. So we’re driving down the road and I can’t believe what I am hearing. They were keeping a “scorecard” all the way from age zero onwards! God doesn’t do that.

 

Julie told him about a time when I had a jackknife which I used to threaten a kid on our block because he was driving my Big Wheel. We were little kids. I didn’t know the meaning of the jackknife nor did I have the strength or bad will to actually use it. I was probably imitating something I saw on television. I was five years old.  I couldn’t believe Kevin mentioned this or that Julie remembered it!

 

Moments later he gets on the cellphone with his wife Julie (my sister) and I say “Let me talk to her.” I grab the cellphone and say “What the heck are you telling Kevin?” She gets very defensive and I don’t remember the extent of the conversation but I just remember thinking, “What AM I DOING HERE?”

 

I was there trying to help them, and things were quickly unraveling. But I’ll talk more about that some other time. The point here is to say—first their gossip was harmful. Julie telling Kevin about a time when I was five years old and did something foolish had no bearing whatsoever on my actions as an adult at the age of 30 something. And no court would even entertain for a moment any relationship of such sort. My brother-in-law, the attorney, was sounding like a mentally retarded lawyer. Maybe all the years of drinking too much had taken its toll.

 

But back to the haunted house on Halloween (2006). There are those persons like my brother-in-law Kevin, and like the police officers I encountered back in 2000 and like Ron Rogge at the haunted house who like to stereotype and like to taunt according to their stereotype. I have no doubt that Ron Rogge regularly speaks with profanity and have no doubt that my profanity did not offend him whatsoever. He just wanted to pick on somebody.

 

Nonetheless, I kept going. And a few minutes later I yelled back “If you touch me again I will sue you”, thinking he probably wouldn’t even hear me given the noise within the haunted house.  I was trying to restore my Biblical manhood—the right to dignity which he had offended unnecessarily so. We live in a society that is extremely touch-sensitive and I am held to the rules of that and expect others to live by them likewise. He had unnecessarily touched my arm already.

 

He came storming back when I said that. I hadn’t said any profanities after the first one. I was just asserting my right to not be touched even in a haunted house. But he decided to be the bully. This time he grabbed me again and said I was leaving. I couldn’t believe it. I said, “Let me go! “ But he wouldn’t. He continued to paw at me like some little mosquito—in a very pesky way. And with my bad neck and arm it was more annoying and painful than it would have been to the average person.  He was looking for a fight. It was very tempting to swing at him and knock him down or something like that. He would not stop grabbing at me.

 

God gave me the restraint that evening to refrain from exacerbating the issue. It was the Holy Spirit who quickly overwhelmed me—changing me from being antagonistic in return to saying “You want me to leave?” and quickly doing an about face and reversing directions , going out the “in direction” against the flow of the crowd and moments later emerging into the evening air.

 

The line outside had grown in the few minutes I had been within. I emerged and Ron Rogge stayed inside. Then I started “fighting.” I yelled loudly my thoughts about Ron Rogge and his mistreatment of me. The crowd started to murmur. They were on my side. I spoke loud and clear and included a few profanities about Ron Rogge. I was speaking in language that only heathens understood. I demanded a refund and got it.

 

The guy who took the tickets looked at me nervously as the crowd began to murmur some more. Somebody said, “We can’t have cell phones inside?” The guy said “Yes you can.” I demanded to know the name of Ron Rogge (that’s when I found out). I was letting out my feelings for a few seconds. I knew if I went on for too long I would be descended upon by security or police for “disturbing the peace” but I had to get my say for at least a few seconds. A security guard next to me ( a real security guard) let me talk. I made my point, got my refund, grabbed my mask back, and left. I said “Ron Rogge will be hearing from me”

 

And since then  I’ve written a few letters. You see—what this was really about was not my using profanity. That had already passed by the time Ron Rogge decided to kick me out.  What it was about was Ron Rogge not being happy that he, presumably a local yokel, had been outclassed. I have been coming and going from Pasadena since 1997 now, almost ten years. Local yokels, just like local yokels anywhere, like to think that where they grew up is protected territory. They can do whatever they want, act however they wish, be belligerent and bossy, on their “turf.”

 

That’s a problem. Localism is a problem. I spoke in terms heathens understand. I used the words I too often hear on public school grounds as I walk across the campuses and sometimes in the classroom as well. I was speaking their language. They aren’t offended by profanity. They use it themselves. But they will be the hypocrites and try to convict you for it when they hear it coming from you if they think you are a Christian.

 

And I made profanity an issue during Kok v Pasadena. Back then in 2000 it was the Pasadena police officers using profanity towards me. They were so embarrassed about it they destroyed the dispatch tape. And they tried to make my calling upon the name of Jesus out to be something “strange” despite knowing I was a student at Fuller Seminary at the time. Back then I didn’t speak to the heathens in language they understood. At the haunted house I did.

 

And the point is not to say that profanity is alright. I preached a message about it from Catalina Island this summer, indicating my displeasure about it. And I regularly say to students “Watch your language.” The point is to say that there are times when we, as Christians, have to speak to the heathens in the only language they understand.

 

We should not allow ourselves to be wrongly taunted and abused. They prevent us, sometimes, from enjoying our simple rights and liberties as  Americans (regardless of our religion), holding us to acting as “Christians” or “Jews” according to their definition, not ours. They want us to live up to their simplistic understanding of our faith, rather than us living out our faith freely and with liberty both as Christians and as Americans.

 

Normally, this liberty is to serve others and help the Body of Christ and expand the Kingdom of God and to shine our light and to preach the Word and to heal and to cast out demons but if need be and the situation calls for it we have the liberty to use forceful language just as much as anybody else. We will not be marginalized by the secularists and the heathens. We are God’s people. We are the Spirit of Christ. Sometimes we have to speak to heathens in the only language they understand.  And 90% of the time it is not necessary, thank God.

 

There are even “churches” across America  which do not exhibit the Fruits and do not really show themselves to be a part of the Body of Christ. I have had email exchanges with Ivanrest CRC and their pastor, Tony Meyers,  in Grandville MI recently which indicates to me that they might not truly be a part of the Body of Christ. They have not shown the fruits I would expect to see from a group of individuals that calls themselves a church. I’ve had to speak to them in language they understand—not profanity in this case—but in terms of “depression.” This congregation, or the staff, and the pastor, appears to be depressed. Depression is exhibited in many ways, one of them is becoming very annoyed about tiny exacerbations.

 

My Sunday Message is one email per week. Occasionally I’ll send out something mid-week but not that often. For individuals or a church or pastor to act as if this is a major annoyance indicates to me that there might be clinical depression involved. I worked at Pine Rest Christian Hospital (a psychiatric hospital ) for a year (plus) and have seen symptoms of severe depression.

 

 One of the symptoms includes being annoyed with other people to an extent that they sometimes “act out” in harmful ways either towards others or themselves. “Nit picking” is a tendency of depression. Depressed persons or groups of persons either nitpick themselves or others. That’s why sometimes we have to “restrain” depressed people—i.e. keep them locked up because they become a danger to themselves or others.

 

In this case, Ivanrest CRC has made a show of being very annoyed by my Sunday Message out of proportion to the “stressor”—a message that is by and large edifying and certainly not threatening in any way. The message encourages people to become better, live better—to be more holy, in Christ! Some depressed people, however, find this annoying as well. Pray for Ivanrest CRC in Grandville, MI, and their pastor, Tony Meyer.

 

Meanwhile I am thankful to most of you—my E-congregation—for your encouragement and  participation in E-Church. I love to hear from your. And some of you have even made financial contributions. I am grateful to you. God bless you.

 

And pray for Ron Rogge and the haunted house in Pasadena. I stuck my neck out and almost got it chopped off trying to get into the “spirit” of Halloween—actually trying to bring back the true meaning of the time of year with my Jesus Lantern—something I hope to repeat next year—while at the same time going along with the secular definition of Halloween and just going out for an evening at a haunted house. Ron Rogge ruined it.

 

But I’ll survive. I’ll write a few more letters. I’ll bug them about it. I’ll try to get Ron Rogge fired. But if he’s a local yokel he’ll just re-appear somewhere else and pick on somebody else. Local yokels sometimes are a pain in the you know what.  They are a pain because they think of an area as “their” area, no matter what. And it’s not always locals who grow up in a certain place that are “locals” . Sometimes it is people who come into a new area and make themselves “honorary locals.” Localism is simply another term for “provincialism.”  People say this is “my area” and you must live according to my definition of normalcy here.

 

The only problem is that their definition of “normalcy” is limited and so we get stuck at a elementary level, or a middle school level, or a high school level, or what have you. I mentioned Peter Harkema previously. He works at Fuller Seminary. He came from Grand Rapids (or Byron Center) after having worked at Calvin Seminary for several years. I mentioned that we attended 1^st CRC with the Harkemas and that during these fourteen years at 1^st CRC Harkema never divulged anything significant to me and we never even had a  meaningful conversation—only hello in passing and usually a queer wink from him.

 

Now he lives in Monrovia with his wife Jillaine. They have become “local yokels” even though they know nothing about the community and are much more provincial than actual locals. They don’t engage with the community. They hide in their house and Pete only comes out to work in his office at Fuller Seminary. They don’t write letters or tell us (at least not me)what’s going on.

 

They have become Byron Center folk in Monrovia CA. And this is partially due, as best as I can tell, to the fact that they are high school sweethearts. Their “hey day” was high school time. Although Pete went on to get a college degree and maybe a doctorate as well, emotionally he has not transcended that time in high school when he was probably the star of his class, a good-looking blonde-haired kid, with a blonde wife.

 

And that is what he would like to keep re-living. If he was a missionary his notion of making others Christian would be to put himself in the middle—maybe he was class king, and re-live himself as a “star.” Not that it’s wrong to be popular in high school  but if you go there by provincialism rather than  reaching out to others you are going to continue this M.O. (modus operandi) all your life. Harkema seems unable to reach out to others at all, let alone communicate in writing. He just winks at people. It’s disheartening.

 

I read a story with some kids at a school a few weeks ago about the Miss America pageant. IT was written in the 1^st person by a “person of color” who immigrated to America and grew up watching the Miss America pageant when it was more popular than it is today. She remembers that “back then” all the “beauties” were white. And I felt a little embarrassment about reading it with kids “of color” not knowing how to explain to them that there was a time when being “white was right.”

 

It didn’t make sense to them at all, nor did it to me in a classroom of kids of color and even less so as I have grown in Christ and gotten to know a lot of good “kids of color.”  I’m glad the Miss American pageant has changed and become much more inclusive but sometimes I feel like when I go to talk to Mouw or Harkema(in my mind, I actually never talk to them anymore, and never actually did) that they are stuck, mentally, in a time when white was right—back when the Miss America pageant epitomized that sentiment.

 

It’s as if this “wall” separates us—because I grew up in a different time, when integration was happening. I attended a public school through 4^th grade which was racially mixed. Even our Christian schools had a few “persons of color” by that time. Mouw,  Harkema, and others their age don’t know this  time. They don’t know about genuine interaction with persons of color, even if they know about political correctness and saying the right things.

 

It was so refreshing this week to substitute teach at a large high school in the Silver Lake area of  Los Angeles. They were having their 75^th anniversary, and during 6^th period I took the class to the assembly on the football field. We sat in the stands and watched the festivities. They had balloons strung up and a big banner that said 75^th on it. And they presented the various teams—football, swimming, baseball, cheerleaders, etc. driving the coaches around the track in  convertibles .

 

And then came the time to announce the new senior class king and queen. At my school, back at Grand Rapids Christian High, the king of our class was the best athlete, Steve Griffeon, and the queen was the petite blonde, Lisa Korf. I didn’t really get into the “king and queen”  motif of homecoming when I was in high school. I thought it  had too much to do with popularism and not enough to do with being Christian and showing fruits. And it was too much about being a physical athlete and physical beauty and not enough about Christian beauty.

 

So I was pleasantly surprised when they announced the king at the high school –a large African American boy, and the queen a large-bodied Latino gal. These were not models with perfect physiques and it wasn’t one of the few “white  boys” or “white girls” at the school voted as president (and this school was more integrated than many I’ve seen around Los Angeles).

 

What surprised me especially was that the queen was not particularly a “model” of physical beauty (according to our modern day definition of such). I just thought that was great. I assume she was a very likeable, gracious, giving person—which is what we should be thinking about when voting for king or queen (or president or congressman et.al.). I like the schools that are truly integrated, where race is not the issue—but true excellence transcends.

 

So how did I exhibit the fruits this week? I don’t recommend using profanity or language the heathens understand on a regular basis but I do suggest you don’t allow yourself to be pigeon-holed solely as a Christian that “doesn’t use profanity” or solely as a Christian that “preaches against homosexuality”. The heathens will try to pigeon hole us as this type of Christian or that type of Christian, pigeon-holing us and making us live up to their expectations and their definition rather than our own, and God’s.

 

Sure, we still speak out against sin –that which alienates the Body of Christ from God—but we do so in a balanced manner—that speaks to a variety of issues and more often than not in a “positive manner” –i.e. do this and that rather than don’t do this and don’t do that. We don’t allow the heathens to get a stranglehold on us. We know they are going to hate us and persecute us regardless but why give them something to hold on to for very long. Evangelism is an art and a talent. Be tactical. Be smart. God gave us brains. Use them.

 

And so I ask for your prayers. Keep me in your prayers—to stay out of unnecessary trouble but not to retreat from the world altogether. God still wants some of us to be on the “front lines.” And sometimes when there is gunfire at us we have to use gunfire back (figuratively speaking of course). But that should not be our primary weapon. That’s only when we run out of creative energy. But we have the “Sword of the Spirit” –a much greater force—powered by the Holy Ghost.

 

Normally, and primarily, we speak to heathens in language they don’t understand—exhibiting a certain amount of dignity and holiness that they do not comprehend. But periodically we can surprise them by using the language they know—SHOCKING them into silence and shame.

 

That was the look on the face of the ticket man at the haunted house on Halloween. God gave me an unpleasant situation to use to GLORIFY HIM! They knew I was a Christian (or maybe they thought Jew)just by looking at me. However, they stereotyped me or tried to pigeonhole me into being some sort of mannequin. I surprised them.

 

I’m very much alive, folks. And I’m literate and had a lot of experiences. Most of all, however, I am IN CHRIST ! And I encourage you to be likewise. To continue to grow in Christ. And to avoid being around the wrong crowd for too long. We engage the world briefly , then retreat. Then we do it again. Brevity is important –especially for initial interactions. The world that does not know Christ knows fear. And anything new to them evokes fear, even if it is irrational. Lots of police live by fear, so we pay the price of slowly gaining their trust, even when they are young ones just out of junior college.  A few weeks ago an officer in Sierra Madre decided to check me out just because I was sitting in my car, parked, next to a church, and appeared to be “slouched down.” The fact is, I was not slouched own but typing on my laptop and also sitting in a way to relieve stress on my bad neck and arm. He called it a “checking the welfare’ issue. I told him I was fine but he wanted to see my driver’s license anyways. I didn’t make a big deal out of it and he acted nicely later on, and thank God he didn’t make up something just as an excuse to check me out.

 

That’s the price of life as a Christian—the only reward being in heaven.

Ironically, we get pegged as “evildoers” as Christians because of the world’s hypocritical stance against us. That was the warning given in today’s Scripture. They will hold us accountable and convict us according to their self-serving definition of us as Christians (or Jews in some cases).

 

Hugh Halford, the attorney for the City of Pasadena, like my brother-in-law, Kevin Anderson, did likewise during a deposition of a police officer—mentioning “turn the other cheek” sarcastically. It’s like what they did to Jesus Christ on the cross, saying,
"Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days,  save Yourself, and come down from the cross!" Mark 15:29-30.

 

The homosexual community, in particular, has intense hatred towards Christians much more than conservative Christians have towards homosexuality. They read what they think Christians believe, even studying the Bible from their own self-serving point-of-view waiting to “entrap” Christians and call Christians hypocrites. Some of these people wear the uniform and work for police departments (although thankfully there’s a lot more good officers than bad). Some work elsewhere. They are angry. Be cautious around them.

 

And that’s my message for today. Walk in the Spirit. Take risks once in a while. But practice brevity at least initially.  I don’t walk into certain places like bars or taverns because I know the dangers there, not just because people drink alcohol there (that’s not one of the big things I as a pastor from the Reformed tradition think about so much) but because of the attitudes within. Dangerous minds within.

 

 IN fact there’s a lot of places I don’t go to because of the attitudes. If I were to go in, like I go into Bean Town Coffee Shop, it is with brevity—showing my face, and then leaving. Over time the people lose their fear of me without me having to acquiesce to their provincialism and fear.

 

I want to change the world, and I want to change the way people think around Halloween time. I talked to students this week about another meaning of Halloween—even mentioned Reformation Day and told one kid about the Trinity—Father-Son-and Holy Spirit.  I talked about what is a “Protestant.” Most kids in the public schools will have no idea about the difference between being Protestant and Catholic by the time they graduate from high school. It’s not proselytism, it’s history. 

 

Ignorance causes fear. The average person around southern California would not have the slightest idea what it means to be “Reformed” or from the “Reformed tradition.” The principal I worked for as a high school teacher in Coachella California once asked me if “reformed” had something to do with a correctional facility, He didn’t have a clue. And most public school kids won’t understand that it’s a way of life and thinking—a worldview and outlook that shapes the hearts and minds of a lot of people around the world.

 

They should know it—just as I should know more about Muslims (Sunnis and Shiites, for example, are radically different in their way of thinking and living, just as a Christian Reformed person will have a different outlook on the world than a Protestant Reformed person, at least those who are educated about what they believe).

 

Most importantly, however, is not the differences, but the similarities IN CHRIST—NOT IN HUMANISM but IN CHRIST. I even mentioned spiritual gifts and powers to some kids in a classroom who asked this week. It all came up in a natural conversation about the meaning of Halloween and scaring the devil away. It was so spontaneous and edifying (none of the kids mocked the conversation or scoffed at it) that I was sure it was the presence of the Holy Spirit at work!  And it was a day after the negative incident in the haunted house.

 

Never give up. Never get discouraged. If you get knocked down, get back up again. By the way, I was embarrassed this week because I left my fly (my zipper) down the first hour of the day at a school. I didn’t even realize it, and nobody told me about it (or didn’t notice it themselves, hopefully) but I suddenly realized it and corrected it. I thought about it later and was glad nobody noticed it (at least I hope so).

 

So you experience embarrassments but you get up and keep going. You strive to do your best at all times. You never quit. You keep relying upon the Holy Spirit to regenerate you and to make you a better person, learning from the past. It’s a great life IN CHRIST even though there are hardships, persecution, and difficulties. We will be rewarded in the end.

 

Song: Praise to God Immortal Praise

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/p/t/p2godimm.htm

 

Song: Praise Ye the Triune God

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/p/r/praiseye.htm

 

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, Thank You for Your Goodness. Thank You for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to keep us going, striving, doing YOUR WILL, not ours. Let us praise Your name wherever we go, telling people about the GOOD NEWS of JESUS CHRIST AS SAVIOR! You are the reason for EVERY SEASON, God. Let us not  fear. Let us not worry. Let us be  your messengers! Thank you Lord for this week and help us to make something good out of the bad situations. And thank you for giving us the restraint we need sometimes not to act in a knee-jerk manner. But let us not be afraid about sometimes rebuking those who act inappropriately towards us. Let us not be afraid of speaking in language only heathens understand, occasionally. If it helps further the cause of the Kingdom of God, let it be. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Thank you for your continued encouragement my friends. I truly appreciate it and hope to keep hearing from you. God bless you all.

 

Sincerely

 

J.P. Kok
Pastor Kok III