For some time now I have noticed different stages in my life and have labeled them. The ignorant years were my teens, the stupid years my early twenties, and the most recent stage I like to call "embracing the process of me." This was a time when I was very aware with everything wrong with me and I was so overwhelmed with the though of fixing it all in one day. It took some time, but I have since learned that life is a journey, a process that works much better if you embrace and accept the time that it is going to take. It will take a lifetime. My present stage is learning about humility, what it is and how to live a humble life. The previous lesson taught me that it is not necessarily hanging out all my dirty laundry at once, or beating myself up over the stupid years. I am still learning what it is and I'll take any tips that you feel led to pass on to me. However, God is a faithful teacher and I read something that brought me to a place of humility before God.
I picked up a book I read a couple years ago because the chapters are meaty but short and thus great for quick devotional time of an unorganized mother of three. So let me encourage you to run, don't walk, to your nearest Christian bookstore and purchase The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me by Major W. Ian Thomas. Each chapter has at least one or more questions for you to linger over and carry with you through your day. Here are the first two questions at the end of Chapter One, Finding God On Earth: "1. What does it fully mean to you that you have been created in God's image and likeness.? 2. What things should logically be expected from someone who is made in God's image and likeness?" The first time I read this I mentally threw the book across the room. I was overwhelmed with my faults and shortcomings and how I was nowhere near to mirroring God's perfect image here on earth. Reading it this time, I had a little more clarity of thought, embraced the process and felt the Lord reminding my to focus on who He is and not what I am not.
Who is God? 1 John 4:16 tells us that God is love. What is love? 1 Corinthians 13 tells us all about love. Allow me to replace the word "love" with "God" and it with "His" or "He".
"God is patient, God is kind and is not jealous; God does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; He does not seek His own, is not provoked, does not take into account of a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes in all things, endures all things. God never fails..."
This is who God is, this is who I am to reflect so others may see. Step one of humility is to take my focus off of myself and put it on God. Have you ever noticed that if you are around a person long enough you start to pick up there habits or mannerisms, good or bad? May I surround myself with the God who is Love and take on His ways.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
a jumble
I was thinking about this blog and wished I could have it wired somehow so when I started thinking of what I want to write on here it would just be transmitted from my jumbled brain to here. I've tried carrying a notepad with me so I can write thoughts as they come to me, but I don't do it, or I am driving and can't. Anyway...back to the purpose of this. Even now I pause, I want to stop writing. The point of me starting this was to have a place to be more personal, to be more vulnerable (whether or not anyone reads this), and as I read what I have written, there hasn't been to much vulnerability or humility. Perhaps a little and I know really know what I expect from myself, but I noticed there was a lot of "this is what I think about that". That's okay to a point, but I want to be more....of what? I don't know. I want to live deeper and more genuine, without fear of man. Just when I think I have that licked it comes rushing back from behind and knocks me down. I have been in my parents home for roughly two weeks and it has been great. A bit earlier as I was folding clothes and packing to leave to morrow, my mom was holding the baby and playing with him and I had a moment where I was aware of how natural it was to be with my mom and my kids and how strange that the experience was not a more regular part of my life. Three thousand miles is a barrier that cannot be hurdled, and I really have become more okay with it, but I still get a little sad at times. I want my kids to know my side of the family. I just spent some time with my brother who I haven't seen in six months less of two years. It was such an odd combination of getting to know someone all over again and sensing familiarity. I hugged him when I saw him and got teary eyed and pheclemped as I told him he looked like a stranger to me. (He looks so different! But good) I feel like I hardly know his wife as sweet as she is. My kids LOVED being with them and holding their hands and people/dog watching with them out the large windows of there studio apartment. I can't think about the distance and what we're all missing out on too much, because frankly it SUCKS. There is no eloquent way to put it. There are thousands of reasons why where we are living is a good ting and I have seen God work through geography to benefit a variety of relationships in my life, as well as a variety of personal issues in more ways than I could have imagined. But I still want so have my cake and eat it too. ( I actually hate that phrase) So here I rambled and spilled out what has been going on up there, brace yourself for more.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
I was on the schedule to write the bulletin cover for the end of June and last night someone asked me to trade with them to a much sooner Sunday and I have so much to do and won't be here for that Sunday! But praise the Lord, as I chose to actually call on Him before I freaked out, He answered me and gave me this. Thank you Father!
When I attended the women’s Monday night Bible study I learned, and was not surprised, that I am not the only person who has a deep love affair with the ocean. I often shamelessly ask someone if they are a mountain person or a beach person to see what level of friendship we might attain, though I did marry a mountain person. Still, for as long as I can remember I have loved all sorts of bodies of water, from puddles to seas, water has always captivated me. Yet, the ocean holds the highest rank. For those of you mountain people, let me explain.
I stand on the sand and look out at something that is bigger than me, stronger than me; it goes farther than I can comprehend. The ocean is full of more life than my whimsical mind could ever imagine. The ocean tide is amazingly predictable even 20 plus years from now because of its relationship with the moon. The waves are constantly molding and changing the shore that we see, the shelf that we do not see. The breakers sometimes crash right on the shore, loud and strong with the water spraying in your face. Sometimes they break farther out leaving only a gentle roll to wash onto the sand.
Sound familiar? God, though unlike the ocean He has no beginning or end, is bigger and stronger than me, His presence reaches farther than I can comprehend. He is not just full of life, He is life, a life more pure and full than I will ever see or imagine on this earth. We sing “Your love oh Lord is like the ocean’s tide” because His love is faithful, nothing can sway it, and unlike the ocean His love is dependent on nothing and no one. God is constantly shaping and molding our lives in ways we can and cannot see. Sometimes He speaks to us in ways that are loud, obvious, and either knocks us down or at least leaves sand in our hair and the taste of salt on our face. Other times He gently washes over us, tenderly loving us closer to Himself.
Please forgive me if it sounds like I am trying to limit God to an analogy of the ocean. I am not. The ocean is bigger than me, and God is bigger than the ocean. Even that sounds like an understatement to me. I didn’t mention the depth, nor did I even touch on the intricate sand. However, as we head into the summer and whether we are led to the beach or to the mountains, let us soak in the One who created the sun and the water and the skies and all that is around us to enjoy and to remind us of His amazing, comforting fabulous, stunning, washing over, incomprehensible, remarkable, mind blowing love.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Thy glorious rest above!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth
, Changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth,
Watcheth o’er them from the throne
!O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Love of every love the best!
’Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
’Tis a haven sweet of rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
’Tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me up to Thee!
Samuel Trevor Francis (1875)
When I attended the women’s Monday night Bible study I learned, and was not surprised, that I am not the only person who has a deep love affair with the ocean. I often shamelessly ask someone if they are a mountain person or a beach person to see what level of friendship we might attain, though I did marry a mountain person. Still, for as long as I can remember I have loved all sorts of bodies of water, from puddles to seas, water has always captivated me. Yet, the ocean holds the highest rank. For those of you mountain people, let me explain.
I stand on the sand and look out at something that is bigger than me, stronger than me; it goes farther than I can comprehend. The ocean is full of more life than my whimsical mind could ever imagine. The ocean tide is amazingly predictable even 20 plus years from now because of its relationship with the moon. The waves are constantly molding and changing the shore that we see, the shelf that we do not see. The breakers sometimes crash right on the shore, loud and strong with the water spraying in your face. Sometimes they break farther out leaving only a gentle roll to wash onto the sand.
Sound familiar? God, though unlike the ocean He has no beginning or end, is bigger and stronger than me, His presence reaches farther than I can comprehend. He is not just full of life, He is life, a life more pure and full than I will ever see or imagine on this earth. We sing “Your love oh Lord is like the ocean’s tide” because His love is faithful, nothing can sway it, and unlike the ocean His love is dependent on nothing and no one. God is constantly shaping and molding our lives in ways we can and cannot see. Sometimes He speaks to us in ways that are loud, obvious, and either knocks us down or at least leaves sand in our hair and the taste of salt on our face. Other times He gently washes over us, tenderly loving us closer to Himself.
Please forgive me if it sounds like I am trying to limit God to an analogy of the ocean. I am not. The ocean is bigger than me, and God is bigger than the ocean. Even that sounds like an understatement to me. I didn’t mention the depth, nor did I even touch on the intricate sand. However, as we head into the summer and whether we are led to the beach or to the mountains, let us soak in the One who created the sun and the water and the skies and all that is around us to enjoy and to remind us of His amazing, comforting fabulous, stunning, washing over, incomprehensible, remarkable, mind blowing love.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Thy glorious rest above!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth
, Changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth,
Watcheth o’er them from the throne
!O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Love of every love the best!
’Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
’Tis a haven sweet of rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
’Tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me up to Thee!
Samuel Trevor Francis (1875)
Friday, May 23, 2008
The Shack
I'm not sure how close you look at this blog, but you might have noticed that The Shack by William P. Young has moved out of the reading now section. I finished it about a week ago and I am just now getting to blog about it. This book is full of so much, that I don't really know where to start. I will say that it is not necessarily the greatest piece of literature I have ever read, but all the same it was a good read. The main character, Mack, has a tragedy occur in his family which leads him to a face to face encounter with God in three persons. He is put into a situation where he has an opportunity to ask God all the questions most of the world desires to ask. He is shown how to face his fear, and struggles, through a relationship with the Father, which in turn brings freedom. I can't really say anymore, I would be just telling you the whole story instead of letting you read it. But I do recommend that you read it. This book would be a great discussion book, perfect for those questioning the idea of church as an institution, for those who are questioning who God really is. Young does an beautiful and articulate job of clarifying God as the relationship paradigm, distinguishing between what man has created versus God's design for us. It's not scripture, but I personally didn't find anything that directly contradicted it. There were a few times where I started to say, "hmmm...wait a sec.." and then I would read on and say, "okay, ya..." Read it, let me know what you think.
An excerpt:
Mack was a bit taken back to hear Jesus talking about "church" this way, but then again, it didn't really surprise him. It was a relief. "So how do I become a part of that church.?" he asked. "This woman you seem to be so gaga over."
"It's simple, Mack. It's all about relationships and simply sharing life. What we are doing right now- just doing this- and being open and available to others around us. My church is all about people and life is all about relationships. You can't build it. It's my job and I'm actually pretty good at it," Jesus said with a chuckle.
later on...
"Mack, you don't need to have it all figured out. Just be with me."
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Comfort
I have a picture in my head. I've walked into my house one evening and I see my mom standing at my sink, my grandma is next to her, holding my youngest son (3 months old) and his head is resting on her shoulder in complete comfort. I don't get to see this often as these women live 3000 miles away. But Sunday night my husband and I came home to this picture and I was filled with warmth. The women in my family, in my home guarding my children, perhaps this is no big deal to you. For me it was a reminder to not take for granted what time I have with my family, and to be thankful that I have women ahead of me that have wisdom that only come from the Lord and a willingness to love and care for me and mine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)