Life in the Spirit

Sunday, July 25, 2010

The past two weeks, a staff member at church has stood at the front explaining that one of our core values is persistent prayer. They each talked about how important prayer is in the life of our church. That small groups pray for one another, that folks can submit prayer requests via email or the website. And then each one left the stage without praying.

That small omission troubles me.

There is little corporate prayer in our church. Our pastor prays before and after his messages and the worship leader may pray a short bit during the music, but that’s it. There’s no prayer for one another, no prayer for our ministries, no prayer for our missions, etc.

If prayer is a core value of our church then why aren’t we praying? Why is prayer not being modeled more from the staff during worship services? Why do we not have any focused corporate prayer?

It troubles me.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Amen.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Someone asked my mom why we post about food so much on Facebook - “we” being my family, probably Mom and I, since we post about food a lot. Mom and I have two answers, but they’re similar around the idea of providing help for other cooks.

For my mother, everything is a ministry opportunity. She consciously looks for ways to minister to others in order to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the ways that she does this is through food. She provides meals when folks are in need. She hosts dinners and teas and luncheons in her home for her neighbor ladies. And then there’s her tea business, which is another way to provide (although, for a profit, of course, because it is a business) for others. And through it all, she rarely misses a chance to share Jesus and her faith with the people she helps.

For me, I wish I could say the same. Sure, I find ministry opportunities, but I don’t go seeking them out like my mother does. But I do want to help people and posting recipes is one way I can lend a hand. In my case there are two main reasons I post recipes both here and on Facebook: 1) because I have a lot of friends who also like to cook and 2) because I know there are many others who have milk issues like Beau.

In the past 5 years I have had to adapt many recipes that call for milk into recipes that are milk free so that Beau can eat them and so that I’m not making two meals at a time - one for Beau and one for the rest of us. That’s a waste of time, energy, and food. And I as enjoying the challenge of either finding recipes that will work or modifying them so that they’ll work. I’ve come up with some good adaptations that are delicious and still pretty easy to make.

If my posting a recipe inspires a novice to try something new, then I’ve met my goal. If my posting a recipe inspires an old hand to experiment, then I’ve met my goal. If my posting a recipe helps to bring variety to a boring family menu, then I’ve met my goal. If my posting a recipe helps someone with milk issues, then I’ve met my goal.

For a foodie, gourmand, wanna-be chef, or whatever, talking about food is only natural. If food isn’t your thing, that’s OK. What is your thing? That’s what you’ll talk about most. It may not interest everyone, but it may interest one and that’s OK and you’ve met your goal.

Friday, July 09, 2010

Months ago, Jared Wilson posted a prayer from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers. I think it was actually the prayer called The Valley of Vision. I liked the prayer and promptly put the book on my wishlist as a gift idea for Beau.

To my happy surprise, I received a copy for my birthday back in March. We have been slowly reading through it as a bedtime devotional on the nights that we are actually able to go to bed at the same time. Lately, that has been rare because of the kids or one or the other of us being utterly exhausted. But on the night’s that we’re able to read one of the prayers, I have been struck by the beauty of the language, the total submission to the authority of God, and the simplicity of the gratitude and understanding of God’s grace and mercy.

God is God and He is good and His mercies endure forever.

In Prayer

O Lord, in prayer I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality. Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments never appears so inconsiderate as then.

In prayer I see myself as nothing; I find my heart going after Thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to Thee. Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.

In prayer all things here below vanish, and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.

In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.

In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what Thou art doing for Thy church, and I long that Thou shouldest get Thyself a great name from sinners returning to Zion.

In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, and taste heavenly joys; entering into the eternal world I can give myself to Thee with all my heart, to be Thine for ever.

In prayer I can place all my concerns in Thy hands, to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own.

In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, Thy kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.

Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying.

Amen.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

A friend of ours from church (she and her husband were in our first small group there) was diagnosed with lymphoma in January. It was a fast, aggressive cancer and she never really responded well to treatment. A few weeks ago we got word that she was battling a pretty serious infection as well - one that is resistant to antibiotics.

Our friend died yesterday.

She was one who lived her grace-filled life so abundantly. She lived Jesus’ promise each day.

She is survived by her soul-mate husband, a daughter, and a son and daughter-in-law. Their grief is great, but I know also that they rejoice that she is with the Lord in heaven and no longer in pain.

Psalm 30:5 says, “... weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” This is my prayer for all of us who will grieve for and miss our dear, sweet friend.

Friday, May 14, 2010

I love this insight into The Hobbit.

We’ve been part of this adventure with Bilbo from the beginning. We’ve found ourselves comfortable in the Shire and suddenly thrown, partially against our will, into an adventure with a band of dwarves and a quirky wizard. We escaped trolls, goblins, Gollum, spiders, and wood-elves; we’ve discovered a magic ring and a sword. At this point, about 2/3 of the way into the book, Tolkien makes a very deliberate story transition: “…we are now drawing near the end of the eastward journey and coming to the last and greatest adventure, so we must hurry on” (end of chapter 9, “Barrels out of Bond”).

From here, we step into Lake-town, a small wooden village of people (not elves or dwarves) a few days from Dale and the Lonely Mountain. Dale is the town and the Lonely Mountain the dwarf dwelling places that were destroyed by the dragon Smaug, and the reason for the whole adventure: The dwarves are returning to reclaim their treasure and defeat Smaug. In Lake-town, a fascinating little legend (or fairy tale) had been told for many years that the Dwarf kings Thror and Thrain would return “and gold would flow in rivers through the mountain-gates, and all that land would be filled with new song and new laughter.”

In other words, a land plunged into darkness by an evil dragon would be returned to a state of glory by the return of a king. Sound familiar?

Go read the whole thing. Makes me love The Hobbit even more.

[via Brandywine Books]

Sunday, April 04, 2010

First there’s this classic Keith Green version of Easter Song.

Then there’s this awesome 3 minutes from Matt Chandler.

Happy Resurrection Day - He is risen. Hallelujah!

Monday, March 22, 2010

I shared about the blog with my small group tonight. We’re reading Jared Wilson‘s Your Jesus is Too Safe together and they asked how I knew him. Since I have never met Jared in real life, I had to explain the blog.

What amazed me is to remember that I’ve been blogging since August 2002. I first met The Thinklings sometime before their infamous What Color is This Liquid? post. I was comment #61, posted on May 6, 2003, asked to chime in by Bill. I was the first non-Thinkling (unless you count Bird’s and Bill’s wives), to post a comment. It was all downhill from there in blogland.

It’s yellow, by the way.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The medical team from my church has been working hard since arriving in Haiti on Sunday night. Monday was a day of logistics issues and confusion, but once things got settled they were able to get to work. They have performed many surgeries and ministered to a lot of hurting people. You can read more from our team here.

There’s also an update from the school where our team is based on the school’s website. The information from the school is very interesting to read.

As the church update says, there’s another team being prepared for departure on February 8. The prayer need for them is a return flight - I think all other logistics are arranged.

Pray for our team. The Facebook updates tell of harrowing encounters with deeply grieving people. The team will come home with much to process when they are back in their real lives.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

My church is amazing. Because of our area we have a very connected congregation. We have media people, government people (from the lowest echelon (like me) to more high-falutin’ types, doctors, lawyers, etc. You name the industry and it is probably represented in our church. And we are generous - there are a lot of local missions to which our church supports, not just financially but with volunteers as well. And then there are the global missions that we support, including an orphanage in Haiti.

Since we have a long-standing relationship with them as well as our denomination having missions in Haiti, this is one disaster where we felt we could have both an immediate and long-reaching impact. It has been cool to read the Facebook updates of our global missions pastor in the past couple of weeks as he worked to find out the needs in Haiti and then to put together a response team. That team left today and you can read about it here.

The team is composed of 7 people. Our global missions pastor is leading this team of medical personnel that includes the Chief of Orthopedics from a local hospital, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, the former Chief of Surgery at Walter Reed (he’s in private practice now), a physician’s assistant, an anesthesiologist, and the local hospital’s Disaster Response specialist. From what I’ve heard on the news, medical care is the most urgent need (aside from food/water/shelter, of course). There are people with open compound fractures and other wounds that have not received any treatment because there aren’t enough doctors, not enough equipment/supplies, not enough medicines. I know that these few people will be greatly used, not just to provide the practical care, but also to minister, to share God’s love and grace and mercy. I am excited for how the Lord will use them.

Updates from a couple of the people while they traveled today included:

1. US Airlines waiving fees for extra and heavy bags. Seven people took 16 bags that were overfull with medical and other supplies. Thank you, USAir.

2. A cab driver in Ft. Lauderdale (where they flew to today before leaving for Port-au-Prince on a chartered flight) was Haitian and had family in Port-au-Prince. He wouldn’t let them pay the fare and took them wherever they needed to go (I think they were getting more supplies).

They have already taken off and should land in Port-au-Prince sometime around 10pm. Will you join me in praying for them? Pray for the logistics of the rest of their travels tonight. Pray that they are able to get some good rest tonight so that when they hit the ground running in the morning they are rested and ready for the things they will face. Pray that they won’t lose any of their equipment and supplies and that they will have enough for the week that they will be there.

And pray for the teams even now being assembled for future trips. Our church is committed for the long haul in Haiti. I know there are already plans to send more medical teams as long as they are needed and then we will send teams to help rebuild.

I will post updates as I get them, if you’re interested…

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

1. I gained a half pound last week. I’m bummed, but it could have been worse considering the weekend of food that included my Dad’s birthday cake. Wonderful carnitas in the slow cooker on Sunday, too. And PMS. It’s water weight, right?

2. I sang during our three worship services this weekend. It is always fun, but the worship was awesome for me as well. Thanks, Lord, for giving us a great set of songs.

3. All during the Saturday PM service I looked for Beau from the stage. I found my father, he was manning the MediaShout station at the last minute. Mom was seated in our usual area. But Beau was not there. I was only a little worried because he had laughing said I might not see him there since he was having a challenging time with Jesse when I left for band practice that afternoon.

When I was done singing, I headed around to the foyer to go into the auditorium. On my way I peeked into Jesse’s classroom and he was there playing happily. I asked the friend who was ushering if Beau was in there and she confirmed that he was sitting with my mom. Wha?

And there he was, sitting there as if he’d been there the whole time. “When did you get here?” I whispered into his ear? “Just a minute ago - we’re all right, we were rear-ended on the way.”

Turns out an older couple was out walking their kitten. But the kitten was not on a leash and he decided that he wanted to play in the street. So the car in front of Beau slammed on the breaks to avoid killing the kitty, which meant that Beau slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting the car, which meant the car behind Beau slammed on brakes to avoid hitting Beau, and the next car tried to slam on brakes to avoid the collision. But alas the 4th car didn’t stop in time and there ensued the rear-ending of the car behind Beau, which resulted in that car being plowed into the back of Beau’s car. It was dark, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t anything more than a bit of paint transfer.

Until one of the people’s insurance company called and insisted that he take the car to be looked at by an auto body shop. So he did that yesterday and they estimated about $500 in damage. I guess we’re waiting to hear back from the insurance company again before we get the repair done.

4. Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day. Thank you, veterans, for your service to our country. I come from a long line of veterans going back to the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, World War 1 and World War 2 and Vietnam. I’m so grateful for that legacy and I hope that will continue in our family.

We’re headed to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia for the afternoon. We may have a chance to inspect our beef steer. We’ve been told to expect the beef in early December. 300 pounds of beef. Yowsah.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Love this song.

[Via Granny]

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

From my friend, Granny, via email:

I believe that the most dangerous and damaging of Meyer’s teachings is her belief (along with the rest of the Word-of-Faith Movement) that we have the power to OBLIGATE God to some course of action by the words we say. We are the little gods (another of her teachings), and He is there to do what we say if we get the formula right.
Either God is sovereign or He isn’t. I don’t believe I can do a single thing to obligate Him to do anything. I pray because I am cooperating with Him in His purposes, not because I believe that my words have power over Him.  I cannot stay His hand and I cannot tie His hands or put Him in any situation where He is forced to act. But Joyce Meyer believes and teaches that when she gets the formula and the order of a certain set of words just right, she can bind God to do her will.
This isn’t just a misunderstanding of a verse or two. This is a complete misunderstanding of the nature of God and His relationship to man. And when a man or woman has misunderstandings this deep about the very things God tells us about Himself, I will never trust him/her to teach me anything about the Word. Never.
She also believes that she is no longer a sinner. Apparently, it isn’t sinful to hide what she does with the Ministry’s finances or spend $23,000 on a toilet. I believe this woman is another charlatan from the Hagin/Copeland/Bakker model, enriching herself with the money of those who are gullible enough to buy what she’s selling. She mixes her heresy with just enough truth to catch the ears of spiritually immature people, and then leads them down a road that benefits her more than anyone else.
Here are some links to some of her beliefs and her ties to Word of Faith leaders. Some of it is repetitive, but there are some unique facts at each site…

Click here: Joyce Meyer : Apologetics research resources
Joyce Meyer : Apologetics research resources
What’s the Truth About Joyce Meyer and the Word-Faith Movement?
The Teachings of Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer - What Joyce Wants, Joyce Gets
The Changing Views of Joyce Meyer

Thanks for the information, Granny.

I have to say that Granny is one of the Godliest women I know and about as far from my thinking of a Granny as possible, her 13 grandchildren not-withstanding.

Anyway, I have sent an email to my group leader to share my concerns and the information gathered for me. I doubt this will change the study plans since we’re supposed to start with chapter one next week, but at least a couple of us will be armed with some truth. I’m praying for wisdom on how to express dissent, should it come, as we progress.