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APRIL 2, 2006
Sunday Morning Spiritual
Message
from vanderKOK:
The Power of the Holy Spirit!
http://www.fatbeats.com/wordsfromthepresident/uploaded_images/holy_spirit1-768162.jpg
Dear Friends,
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Ministries. This week I went to several different Los Angeles
area schools and there was a lot of upheaval due to some of the
protests that took place earlier this week in regards to the new
legislation or potential legislation concerning illegal
immigrants. In addition, some of the schools I go to are not
“stable” schools. There's constant turnover--teachers quit in
the middle of the year, administrations are not always
supportive, etc. etc.
This week I saw a few fights--one kid with a very bloody face,
another kid was taken out of my classroom in handcuffs. I
heard the usual insults from students to students and even a
few towards me. I heard the “F word” numerous times. I heard
the “N word” a few times as well (did you know that black
students call other black students “N-gg-r” in a semi-
affectionate manner without any notion of the derogatory
history of the word? I've addressed the matter to them a few
times and sometimes it helps, temporarily). But the language
problem in our public schools is a real problem and is
something to pray about.
As you can imagine by 3:00 pm Friday I am ready to get away from Los
Angeles, and recently I've been going to San Diego for a brief respite.
This weekend I managed to go to San Diego Zoo and Sea World for part
of the day before returning here to Orange County to be near
the church and compose my morning message. And I promised
I would speak about the Holy Spirit this week. After my e-mail
campaign on Monday and Tuesday and the Surprise E-mail
Birthday Party for Jim Kok --which had an overwhelming
positive response, but was clouded by one negative response
from my cousin, Bob Kok, led me to send out messages about
the Danger of the Abusive Personality and an exhortation to
Walk in the Spirit.
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Since then I've exchanged a few other messages with cousin
Bob and have decided to use only postal mail communication
with Bob and his wife, Cindy, who live in Holland,
Michigan. Bob got his “fifteen minutes of fame” with his
negative spam e-mail messages in the middle of the
Birthday Bash for my dad, Jim Kok. Later, I responded to
Bob Kok saying you have “no patriarchal authority over me”
and a few other things--indicating to him my displeasure not
on ly about his negative e-mail spam but the fact that he has
not been a leader nor shown any interest whatsoever in me and
how I'm doing over the last 40 years--and now to suddenly
speak like some sort of upset “father figure” was very
disingenuous.
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denominational requirements in order to continue to be part of
the denomination.
Prayer: Dear Holy Father, we come to you in humble prayer and ask for
your guidance for this morning's message about Your Holy Spirit. Give
me the Words to say, God. Give me the thoughts to think, Jesus. And
give me the wisdom to bring a message together this morning that will
be meaningful and edifying to others, Holy Spirit. Hear our prayer.
Amen.
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Jesus Christ in our heart and the presence of
the Holy Spirit that provides the personal answer to some
specific life questions.
What is this passage all about? Well, it's about both Easter &
Pentecost, both of which are coming up. It's about the crucifixion, the
descending into hell, the resurrection and the ascension. First it is about
the promise of the Holy Spirit which we find in Joel 2: 28-29 and which
says,
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“Andit shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour
out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream
dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also
upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those
days will I pour out my spirit.
Joel 2: 28-29
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19 Quench not the Spirit. 20 Despise not
prophesies. 21 Prove all things; hold fast
that which is good. 22 Abstain from all
appearance of evil.
1 Thessalonians 5.19-22
I believe that all of God's people--all believers in Jesus Christ are privy
to the Holy Spirit but too often we quench that Spirit. The word they
translate as quench in the New Testament comes from the Greek
“sbennumi” meaning very simply, “to extinguish”
But not everybody who has “given up the ghost” is actually, physically
dead. We have all met people who seem to lack natural affection and
civility. Fortunately, a lot of them are in jail--mass murderers, rapists,
habitual thieves, etc. Unfortunately, some are not--some people live
without the ghost or much of it in a semi-functional manner in society.
But they are not real pleasant people to be around. In fact some of these
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people are “abusive personalities”--fortunately marginalized by good
society to a certain extent--but still dangerous.
And we have the Holy Spirit to rely upon to keep us alive rather than
walking dead. Our senses are not dulled. We are “in the Spirit”
and “of the Spirit” and together as the Body of
Christ we exhibit the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5.22-
26; also see Ephesians 5.9; among others) We can rely upon the Holy
Spirit if we are careful not to get seduced by the world and materialism.
This is not to say material things are bad, God forbid.
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filmed the Hour of Power which is on television
every Sunday.
http://www.atlantachristianweb.com/celeb_features/images/Kathy%20Ireland%20with%20Shuler.jpg
ABOVE: RANDOM IMAGE OF SCHULLER INTERVIEWING A
GUEST, KATHY IRELAND, FOR THE HOUR OF POWER
It was not my first time observing the worship service. Our family came
here in 1984. But it was my first time I attempted to go as a “regular
attendee” and to try to experience the Cathedral as a regular church.
And there were a lot of different dynamics at the Crystal Cathedral
than what one might experience at a more “local” church.
The Cathedral is too big to be generalized and so I will not try, but I
believe everybody experiences it differently according to their own
individual interests or needs. It is only when you begin to
interact with the people as part of the Body of
Christ that you begin to experience the true church ,
whether it be the people at the Crystal Cathedral (i.e. physically at
12141 Lewis Ave) or people who are part of the “Houses of Power”
around the country and world, or people who are both part of the
Crystal Cathedral congregation in Garden Grove or via television as
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well as a part of another congregation. IT is also each individual person
and congregation all across the USA and around the world. It is the
Reformed Church, the Christian Reformed Church, the Presbyterian
Church, the Baptist Church, and so on and so forth. This is the Body of
Christ.
And this morning's primary passage goes from mention of the actual,
physical Body of Christ--the crucifixion (Acts 2:36) to mention of the
descent into hell ( “His soul was not left in Hades” Acts 2:31) to the
resurrection (”God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses” 2:32) and
mentions the “right hand of God” (Acts 2.33).
I used the New King James Version which says “to the right hand of
God” but there are those who say the Greek (tee dexia)
is
more accurately translated “by the right hand of God”
---i.e. a “glorious forth-putting of divine power” as the Jamieson,
Fausset and Brown Commentary says.
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using my e-mail list to spam people with negative ideology. Don't let that
negativity affect you my friends. Bothersome, annoying, frustrating, and
upsetting in the short-run, but not to worry in the long run. The power
of the Holy Spirit and people “in Christ” overcomes.
And now may God bless you and keep you. May the Spirit of the Lord
be with you and fulfill you. And may you fulfill others in the day and in
the night, in the east and in the west, wherever you may be. We are the
Body of Christ filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Footnotes
How you Know Me or How I know You
1)
Yes it's me, J.P. Kok class of 1985 (GRCH) and class of 1989 (Calvin
College, psychology major, with honors) ) and 1994 (Calvin College
again, English/Education major) and class of 2002 (Fuller Seminary,
Masters-in-Divinity, M.Div ), and "ex" of California State Long Beach
Graduate School (for Social Work, one semester)) and "ex" of Wayne
State Law School (one semester)
http://www.abovethelaw.com/images/entries/Wayne%20State%20University%20Law%20School
%20Above%20the%20Law%20blog.jpg
http://puka.cs.waikato.ac.nz/custom/cic/collect/cic-hcap/index/assoc/p296.dir/Calvin%20Theological%20Seminary%20(view
%20from%20the%20southwest),%20Calvin%20College-small.jpg
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and "ex" of Reformed Bible College (where I took two years of Greek
in one year) among other things. Some of you might know me from one
of the above schools or programs.
http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/michigan/images/s/grand-rapids.jpg
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Still others might remember me as an infant in Iowa
City, Iowa (where I was born).
http://www.icgov.org/site/CMSv2/image/parksAndRecreation/parks/CityPark3.jpg
ABOVE: IOWA CITY, IOWA
Others of you might remember me from 1st CRC on Bates St. where
our family attended church for fourteen years. Still others might know
me from California where our family moved to in 1984 when I was a
senior in high school.
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http://p.rdcpix.com/v03/l4f3c2642-m0t.jpg
ABOVE: MY GRANDPA PETERS HOUSE, GRAND RAPIDS, MI
http://www.sbnonline.com/Content/Site051/Articles/07_01_2008/PetersMarkjpg_00000006597.jpg
ABOVE: MARK PETERS is NOW the CEO of BUTTERBALL
FARMS, FOUNDED BY MY GRANDPA PETERS
Others of you may know me from the mission work I did in Costa Rica
(1991) or the teaching I did there (also 1991) .
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Or from the mission work I did in the Philippines (1992). Still others of
you may remember me from the judicial setting. And some of you I
know from the little Bible Study group, Koinonia. Some of you I
remember from working with at Pine Rest Christian Hospital. Others
of you I know because I attended the church you were pastoring at the
time.
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http://www.gradprofiles.com/images/images/cham3.gif
http://www.mattel.medsch.ucla.edu/pedcardfellow/mattel_hospital.jpg
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ABOVE: UCLA MEDICAL CENTER where I did CPE
http://www.calvin.edu/news/photos/faculty/vroon-and-kok_small.jpg
ABOVE: JIM KOK, RIGHT, CALVIN BASKETBALL STAR, 1950’s
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IF you are receiving this I somehow found your e-mail address and
would like to hear from you, but if I don't hear from you, at least just
listen, weekly. Or at least save this in your archives for a while. God
bless you. I am hoping to create a Hol-E-Spirit Revival. That's a
Holy Spirit Revival by e-mail. JPK
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on Lake Michigan several years ago and a reminder not to be just a
fisherman but be a "Fisher of Men"! 5) A more contemporary photo of
Pastor Kok III by a stream next to the Mississippi River( Summer, 2004)
6) A picture of the Crystal Cathedral taken last week by Pastor
VanderKOK
J.P. Kok
JOHN THE EVANGELIST FOR CHRIST
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