This is a letter to the church in Vlaardingen, the Netherlands.

Can you imagine a romantic date? I’ll give you an idea:

Situation 1:
The boy is waiting in a restaurant and the girl is just arriving.
G: Hi!
B: Hi…ehm…you look very nice!
G: (blushing and looking away) ehm… thank you.
(uncomfortable silence, both are looking for words)
B: Shall we order some food?
G: Yes, let’s do that.
After they ordered it’s silent again.
They are staring at eachother for 5 minutes.
After some chit-chat they get to have a good conversation and they forget about the time until the restaurant is closing.
When they walk away, he holds her hand. She is not going to wash that for days…

Hold on to this idea and think about the following situation:
Situation 2:
The same boy is waiting in the restaurant and the girl is arriving.
G: Hello, my name is… I’ve got 15 minutes, because I’ve got to get back to work. I’d like a steak with fries. I’d like to tell what I want to do in my life (babbling on).
B: Ehm…I would like to say something as well…
G: Don’t interrupt me, I’m a Christian by the way and that means that if we get married we ‘re going to church every Sunday.
She speaks for the whole of the 15 minutes and that’s the end of the date.

That probably won’t happen in real life, but how about you and God? He is in love with us and wants situations with us like situation 1, where we just ‘are’ in His presence.
Unfortunately situation 2 is often the case. We feel obligated to visit God because we happen to be Christians, but we do not offer Him space to reply. It may be because we are scared that He will tell us to do this and not do that, or that we should really read the Bible more often or something like that. If we expect that (a God who only points out our faults) then there’s something wrong with our image of God. I was looking at a biblestudy on the website of our church about Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. In those religions you see that man chases God through abiding by the rules. In Christianity God chases man, all of them, with all that is in Him, even His Son. He looks for a reaction; love, anger, questions. The teacher who taught about the Psalms said that love and hate are not opposites. The opposite of love is indifference. When we are indifferent, God is powerless.
If we come to God as we are, we can learn about just being in His presence and be silent. No thought about time or duties, just sitting with Our Father and enjoy His love. And He has got so much to say. And sometimes He just looks at us with a smile, and sometimes He cries with us.

Is being a Christian a part of your daily routine or is it about a loving relationship with Him that we chase after and that is interwoven in our DNA? If the boy in situation 1 writes a love letter, then the girl will want to read it over and over again. That’s why God gave us the Bible, so that we do not have to search for answers or ideas about God we come up with ourselves. His whole heart is in there. It is a beautiful discovery.

We are enjoying this Bibleschool with God! I would like to invite you to just say ‘I’m here Lord. I can’t wait to hear what You have to say to me’ and then be silent.

Blessings and greetings,

Jackson & Anneke Ndecheck