Awaken Conference Amsterdam 2005 - II

Today I was assigned the role of a tour guide at the Awaken Conference 2005. Since many Christians talk about Amsterdam and its notorious coffeeshops, where one usually does not go to drink coffee... I thought that it would be nice to include a visit to a coffeeshop in our walk. After all, we should know what are talking about.

So JR (Ca.,USA), Billy (WV.,USA), Anthony and his wife Nicky (Torino, Italy) and I spent a day together in Amsterdam, visiting a Dutch design shop, a coffeeshop and the Bible museum (we have to keep a balance!).

We had enlightening discussions (not only in the smokey coffeeshop) about whether Jesus would visit a coffeeshop, whether Christianity should be a parallel culture or a cross-culture, and many other more and less relevant things.

In the Bible museum there is a model of the tabernacle. One can see the High Priest kneeling down in the holiest place, before the Arc of the Covenant. It must be Yom Kippur, the day of reconcilliation. Only on this day the High Priest was allowed to enter the holiest place.

As I attended the worship gathering tonight I had to think of the scene in the bible museum. Because of the reconciliation that Jesus Christ brought on the Cross, one day we will kneel before the Lord and see His face. It will even be better than the Tabernacle in the desert or the Temple in Jerusalem.
We will be together, for ever, in the presence of God. The whole creation, the new heaven and earth will be filled with His presence. The Temple is no longer needed, because Jesus is the Temple!

Revelation 21:22-23
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

Awaken Conference Amsterdam 2005 - I

This week our church (Zolder 50) hosts the Awaken Conference . Christians from many countries gather to worship God and to listen to God's Word.

To me the Conference is a welcome break. Lately I tended to be caught up in preparations for my job (which will start this monday), and the campaigning for the Christian Union for the municipal elections next year.
I was also looking forward to get my first pay check at the end of Januari. It seems like finally I will be in a comfortable financial position. I thought about the clothes I would buy and how I would look good, and, about whether to pay tithes over my net or gross income. (And in the Netherlands the last question is quite relevant, since we pay about up to 52% income taxes, my percentage would be around 30%).

During yesterday's worship time, I realised that I could not really worship while I was so concerned about my own life, about what I could procure to make my life more comfortable.
God gave me a position as a researcher of global environmental and developmental processes, basically He wants me to understand some of the greatest challenges of our time. I also believe that he wants me to act according to those understandings.
So instead of working for the money, the seeming security of having a job, or, for the acknowledgement of the scientific community, or, any other selfish reason; I should do it for the love of God, who is concerned about our environmental and developmental problems, who is concerned about us.

As I heard yesterday's message and as I worshipped, a verse came to mind:

James 1:27 (Good News Bible)
What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.

I think many people, including many evangelical Christians, think religion is something negative. Religious sounds like an outward thing, false piety. However, who can oppose true religion, which is all about loving and caring, like Jesus loves and cares for the suffering.

Midden in de winternacht

Midden in de winternacht, ging de hemel open.
Die ons heil der wereld bracht, antwoord op ons hopen

Elke vogel zingt zijn lied, herders waarom zingt gij niet
Laat de citers slaan, blaast de fluiten aan
Laat de bel, laat de trom, laat de beltrom horen:
Christus is geboren!

Vrede was er overal, wilde dieren kwamen
Bij de schapen in de stal, en zij speelden samen.

Elke vogel zingt zijn lied, herders waarom zingt gij niet
Laat de citers slaan, blaast de fluiten aan
Laat de bel, laat de trom, laat de beltrom horen:
Christus is geboren!

Ondanks winter sneeuw en ijs bloeien de bomen,
wanthet aardse paradijs is vannacht gekomen.

Elke vogel zingt zijn lied, herders waarom zingt gij niet
Laat de citers slaan, blaast de fluiten aan
Laat de bel, laat de trom, laat de beltrom horen:
Christus is geboren!

Zie daar staat de morgenster, stralend in het duister
Want de dag is niet meer ver, bode van de luister

Die ons weldra op zal gaan, herders blaast uw fluiten aan
Laat de bel bim-bam, laat de trom rom-bom
Kere om, kere om, laat de bel-trom horen
Christus is geboren!

Supply What is Lacking

I had a hard week. After graduation from Clingendael I moved back to Amsterdam. I did not need to move much.
Now I find out how tired I actually am after three months of diplomatic studies.
I am not tired because of the contents of the programme, the course was doable. Yet, the distance from my Church and my friends was quite challenging.
My classmates and my family have very different worldviews, which - at times - makes communication difficult. I was inclined to isolate myself, because being in company took a lot of energy.

I will have to start my job at the Vrije Universiteit in less than two weeks. I should read more about my research subject. Yet, I am too tired. Of course, this adds up to my stress.

I try to calm down a bit by recalling that God will not change his opinion about me, even when I fail at my job. Surely, I will fail at times. However, I am someone who tends to worry about failures too much. In the end things turn out not too bad.

I hope I will soon find more strengh, hope and faith. I do not think I will find it on my own. In 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Paul writes:
'Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith'.
That is what I need now; to see people who supply with faith that I am lacking.

Aanvullen wat er nog ontbreekt

Het was een moeilijke week. Ik ben na mijn afstuderen van Clingendael weer verhuisd naar Amsterdam. Op zich had ik niet veel te verhuizen. Maar ik merk nu pas hoe moe ik ben geworden van drie maanden Leergang Buitenlandse Betrekkingen.
Het lag niet aan de stof, inhoudelijk was het goed te doen. Maar de afstand tot mijn Kerk en mijn vrienden vond ik erg zwaar. Ik merk dat ik toch een hele andere blik op de wereld heb dan vele van mijn klasgenoten en mijn familieleden. Ik kreeg de neiging om me terug te trekken, want het kostte me veel energie om in gezelschap te zijn.

Ik ben nu eigenlijk te moe om mij in te lezen op het onderwerp waar ik vanaf januari onderzoek naar doe. Toch heb ik het gevoel dat ik inlezen moet. Dat zorgt voor de nodige stress.

De stress kon ik enigszins temperen door de wetenschap dat God mij niet minder zal vinden, zelfs als ik faal in alles wat ik doe. En dàt ik faal in verschillende opzichten, dat zal wel. Maar ik heb genoeg zelfkennis om te weten dat het meestal toch wel weer meevalt.

Ik hoop dat ik snel weer bij krachte ben om vol hoop en geloof te zijn. Ik kan dat echter niet alleen. In 1 Tessalonicenzen 3:10 schrijft Paulus:
'We bidden dag en nacht met volle overgave dat we u weer zullen zien en kunnen aanvullen wat er nog aan uw geloof ontbreekt'. Ik denk dat ik het nu weer nodig heb om mensen te zien, om in geloof aangevuld te worden.

Template

I tried to put a stat counter on my blog. But I messed up, I deleted parts of my template! So you'll have to do without my favourite links for a couple of days.

I don't have time to redo my blog since I am in my final week at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. In a simulation game I have to represent the Danish position in the EU Council. It is fun but it also gives me a headache and some stress: how can I find Danish positions on issues likeCounter Terrorism Strategies, Financial Perspectives of the EU, and Framework Programmes for Research when I do not read Danish! I guess I make a bad representative of Denmark.

Does anyone know why my search bar is changed when I enter the statcounter code into my template?

Between Christ and the Secular World

I have been on a low lately. The world gets to me. I am confronted with different philosophies and lifestyles in school and at home. And I find these differences incompatable with the Christian worldview.
A permanent flow of ideas pushes to penetrate my worldview. Sometimes I am unable to deal with the inconsistencies and I lose myself in a lonely place somewhere in between Christ and and the secular World.

I have been reading Nancy Pearcey's 'Total Truth'. Pearcey argues that religious life should not be confined to the private sphere. Rather Christians are called to live out Christ in politics, science, business and every other professional field.

As a political scientist I am especially concerned with politics and science, disciplines which are practically owned by secular professionals.
To be a Christian politician in the Netherlands, is considered somewhat backward. Moreover, he should submit to the principle of separation of Church and state. The 'enlighted' majority of the country tells us that politics should be void of any religion.

In a recent interview the leader of the Dutch Christian Union Party, André Rouvoet, said that he is often asked to account for the fact that he is a Christian politician. Even worse, journalists hold him accountable for the medieval crusades!
Rouvoet remarked that liberal politicians are never asked about the government supported terrorism (terreur)in the aftermath of French Revolution, or, the many guillotine beheadings.
This particularism, one might even say discrimination, is a clear evidence that secular society has a blindspot.

Equality, democracy and liberty, the enlightened extremists' trinity is used to restrain other people's thoughts, while maintaining the mask of tolerance. However, extremist enlightenment is intolerant by nature.
In the Western world and especially in the United States, we have witnessed a strong anti-Communist sentiment (for good reasons). However, now that the Cold War is over, we stand almost critiqueless towards the neo-liberal ideology which dominates our economies and our politics. We should not forget the fact that neo-liberalism (and capitalism), communism and pragmatism are all rooted in the same unholy enlightened trinity.
The majority pretends to know what is by and large true: neo-liberalist democracy, they hold that there is no alternative, this is objective and reasonable.
This un-Christian and even anti-Christian determinism is firmly rooted in grand theories Francis Fukuyama's 'The End of History and the Last Man'.

The Christian body should not conform to the proclaimed determinism of the world. We know no end of history, in the sense of a state of Communisme, or, a state of Neo-liberal world peace. The end must be the return of Jesus Christ.

I do not pretend to know much about this subject. Therefore I decided to read more on Christian worldviews. To begin with I would like to read Abraham Kuyper's Stone Lectures Series on Calvinism at Princeton University in 1898. Abraham Kuyper was one of the great scholars of Dutch theology. Later, in 1901 he would become Prime Minister of the Netherlands. And I still think that Kuyper is the only philopher-king like leader in the the low countries.
Oddly enough, Kuyper is better know in the United States than in the Netherlands. Perhaps that shows how post-modernist my country has become in the last decades. Contemporary Dutch culture does not leave room for a confessional hero. I guess that who we consider heroes tell much about the state of mind of our society.