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Pastor Dave Henion
Pastor Dave grew up in northern New Jersey in a very diverse cultural area. He attended Central College in Pella, Iowa received a BA in sociology and psychology. He was an offensive guard for their NCAA Div III National Championship team in 1974. In speaking for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he sensed a call to full time ministry. Meeting is future wife Sandy at Central, went to Michigan to finish her college while Dave started Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan. Dave married Sandy in 77 and completed his Masters of Divinity degree in 78. Pastor Dave’s first church was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, home of the George Washington Bridge. Their three children were born there and he also served as a Police and Fire Chaplain for the city. In February 1991, they came to Wichita to start Harvest Community Church. In 2006, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Covenant Theological (Presbyterian) Seminary in St Louis. During that year he gained a daughter-in-law with now 2 grandsons of 3 years and 6 months old. Besides Pastoring at HCC for the past 20 years, he has been Director of the SCSD & WPD Police Chaplains for 11.
Religion
2012-08-02 09:11:17
God's Plan
Q- I understand that God is all-knowing, which means that: at the time He created man, He knew He was going to send His Son several thousand years later to save believers. My questions are two: If He knew He was going to send His Son anyway, why didn't He do it initially? Since He did not, why did He wait so long to do it?
A- God created us and placed us in a garden of choices, the scriptures call it the Garden of Eden or Paradise. In God's intended plan for us we would live in this place where a loving God gave us free will to decide if we wanted to live in relationship with Him. This Garden was a garden of choices where we had everything we needed or wanted. When we called out God's name He responded, and when God spoke to us we heard God directly. When we live out of God's intended plan for human life God has given us virtually total freedom. God asked of us only one thing, beyond that in everything else we had total freedom. That one thing was to trust His Will for our lives. When we choose to do those things in our life that are against God's Will we push away from God. God is unwilling to live with those things that are against His Will, so our choice of going against the virtual total freedom in God results in us not living in God's plan for intimacy with Him. This is the human story. When we make choices that go against God's Will for our lives we deny His loving intent for our lives. When this happens we can find ourselves down the road of life wondering if there is not something more in this life; or in a dead end or destructive place outside of God's care and love. But this does not change God's unfailing Love for us. God knows that the fullest, most significant life we can ever live was and is found in being who God created us to be and living in relationship with Him. God longs to be in relationship with you and me as a divinely loving parent. So because of His unfailing Love for us and despite our human condition being on of turning away God sent His Son to show us how deeply God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. In and through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus God reminds us of the life we are missing out on living away from the intimate relationship He created us for. In Jesus' life we see how God's fullest human presence would live life if He us on earth. In Jesus' death we see how hurtful and violent our own life turned away from God is to God's fullest presence on earth. In Jesus' resurrection we see that God in Jesus always intended to be with us even today and that in and through that intimacy with God we have a promise of the fullest and most significant life possible and a death that is not the final word. So God is patient and loving and knows all loving relationship are based on our free will and respect for the one you love, but God is always willing to let us come to our own choices. Nevertheless He openly welcomes all who would come to an uprising of their soul and a life and death of greatness!
 
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