Abram, an unbeliever??

If you have ever felt unworthy or unqualified to believe that God will fulfill great purposes in your life, please allow me to introduce you to Abram. What you may not know about him is that at the time of his dramatic call from the Lord, he is living in idolatry. Abram is not yet worshiping the one true God; he is following many "little g" gods along with the rest of his family (see Joshua 24:2). He does not know the Creator of the universe, who is about to unleash his power into his destiny. In short, when our story begins, Abram is an unbeliever.

ACK!  What are you saying?

Believing God | Today's Christian Woman

I was first drawn to this article because of something that has occupied my thoughts for most of the summer.  I've been sifting through the things I'll call core values or beliefs and attempting to measure my commitment to them.  Weird stuff...and disturbing too.
Like Occupy Washington, this is no welcome squatter of my personal space.

Let's cut to the chase here.
Perhaps what I have identified as core values or beliefs could more accurately be called ideals or ideas.  Some (of which I used to apply as the irrevocable Law of the Medes & Persians) have since become utterly irrelevant.
Ouch.
Age, circumstance and children have a way of bringing these things to bear.
My beloved and I knew we'd be growing up with our kids but the degree to which it would be necessary (!) is still so shocking.

Back to the article:
Abram wasn't singled out for this privilege because of his greatness.  On the contrary.
He got a new name, a new identity, and a newly assigned life when God called him into covenant.
Abrahams claim to fame according to Hebrews Hall of Faithers in chapter eleven, is not that he believed in God but that he believed God.

Do you understand the difference?

The song that pops to mind (and you just know there is ALWAYS a song) is Trust and Obey~
"for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey".
I've been singing this song since I was a toddler for crying out loud.   I should have stayed that age.
Developing into responsible adulthood too often becomes code for:  I've got it figured out.  I can do this myself.

And here's the other thing I have to keep learning over and over again:
STOP MAKING HEROES OUT OF BIBLE FIGURES and evaluating their performance as if it were something to be measured by.   They are merely examples of God reaching down into messy lives with a mercy and grace and love that defies understanding.

It isn't about them or you or me.
It's about GOD the Creator who made us, shapes us, calls us and carries us.  24/7 without exception.

I have just discovered the newest release of Sally Lloyd Jones:   Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing
If I told you it was for my grandkids, it'd be a half-truth.  No.  I buy them by the boxload;  to help me get back to basics, to wrap my head around simple bible truths and to stop COMPLICATING things!
Faith 101 if you will.
Hit the link and browse through this masterpiece with me.  It truly does make your heart sing and your eyes brim over at the reality of belonging to Him and becoming more and more aware of His never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.
Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing Video

The Bible:  HIS story (with divine fingerprints tracing all the others of the Bible) combined with Sally's gift of storytelling, brings home a beauty barring none.

The Meaning of Marriage Tim and Kathy Keller

A new book by Timothy and Kathy Keller subtitled:

Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

First discovered at our favourite online spot of spiritual encouragement and refreshment: Haven Today with Charles Morris.

Check it out.  You will surely discover with us, a host of topics, speakers, music and resources that truly inspire a resting place (a haven!) in your daily routine.

Conversely, you may watch the Keller's promo video above and get it straight from the authors.

Based on a nine-week series of sermons on marriage and preached to a congregation of thousands, the majority of whom were single!  

It has since been the most listened to set of sermons ever produced by Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.

We live in a culture which is almost relentless in its attack against marriage and family as divinely instituted.  This shouldn't surprise us but it should make us forge our defense weapons with a bit more resolve and dare I say it, commitment?

Don’t Pretend

Gifted for Leadership: Don’t Pretend

Wearing a mask?  Keeping up appearances?  Transparency troubling you?

It's a universal condition.

One day, we're going to have a big Burn the Fig Leaf bonfire and be done with it.
 
Meanwhile, enjoy this tack on the subject.

What a Morning!

Thank You Lord Jesus.  You Alone are worthy to be praised!

Cemetery Sentiment

The monument went up this week.

We quite like it.  Once the landscapers in my life have spruced up the grounds surrounding it, we'll re-post another portrait of mom's resting place.

To clarify, our sister's tombstone is flat and was right beside mom's 'plot' (that word just sounds strange in my ears) and it was moved to become the new foot-stone of a double side by side burial plot  * spot/place/grave?!    A headstone wide enough to straddle both spaces :) and engraved with Moms chosen scripture verse, turned out to be a convenient and meaningful way to respect our mothers' desire for a more 'family' oriented resting place.

I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank and recommend the services and staff of Kitching Steepe and Ludwig Funeral Home.   Respectful, compassionate, professional, amazing....these are the words that come so easily to mind in describing our experience with them.

Supply of monuments is a new and welcome complement to their many fine ways 

of assisting families with their final arrangements.

Union Cemetery in Waterdown is old, well-treed and now, almost at capacity.  

When our kids were young we would often end our family picnics at the Dundas Driving Park with a walk through the old cemetery up on the hill.  Many a pioneer cemetery in Ontario 

(and almost ALL the ones on the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia) have been traversed in quiet contemplation by myself and camera and usually accompanied by someone(s) I love.

Laying the body of my very young sister in the ground (and her still born child before that) was an experience of the soul-shaping sort; one that sparked a yearning 

to be found standing in a cemetery on The Day ~ that final day of this world as we know it.  

On that day, at the sound of God's command and a trumpet call like something 

OUT OF THIS WORLD, 

(uhm...Duh! :) 

I will see Jesus coming down from heaven and THEN...

all the dead in Christ will rise first!

And then, after that?   Those of us who are still alive 

and are left will be caught up together with the throng of rising dead in the clouds 

to meet the Lord in the air!

.... and so we will be with the Lord forever.
I Thessalonians 4: 13ff

Yep.  The Bible tells me so.  And I believe it.

A cemetery will be a front row seat to the unspeakably spectacular.  

The camera won't matter so much.
Being there with someone(s) I love, will.

Redress

redress |riˈdres; ˈrēˌdres|verb [ trans. ]remedy or set right (an undesirable or unfair situation) : the power to redress the grievances of our citizens.• archaic set upright again : some ambitious architect being called to redress a leaning wall.nounremedy or compensation for a wrong or grievance : those seeking redress for an infringement of public law rights.PHRASESredress the balance take action to restore equality in a situation.
Summer breezes are here at last.  My beloved and I went out for dinner last night with our son who is springing from the coop next week.  It was a 'celebration' of sorts.  I have to say this tongue in cheek because that yucky moment of reckoning with an empty nest and the cavernous hollow that is now our home - is unavoidably near.  Yes, yes.  I eagerly anticipate his wedding day and am thankful for the gift entrusted to him and his beloved to establish their new home together...but... yeah.  Just ignore me please. 
Entering the restaurant, we were forced to wade through a sea of what appeared to be high-school students dressed for a grad party or a prom night.  Dressed for prom night? she writes ruefully.  No. Decidedly undressed for prom night is more like it. Dressed to kill is most apt.  What we were forced to take in with our eyes crossed the line of decency at least three miles ago.  With a sorry mixture of sadness and anger, I resign myself to yet another cycle of angst over the way our world increasingly abandons all restraint in the arena of modesty and decency.Innocent and naive about their provocation?   Baloney.
And not just our world "out there".  No, sadly enough.  Let's be honest.Our community, our church family, our moms and our daughters....And here's the killer:  the silence on the subject is so - deafening.  When did we raise that white flag of surrender? Why?

Something has to change.We have to.For our children's sake.  For our husbands, our sons, for our witness, for God's glory.
Here's a link that might dispel any notion of this being a non-issue:Sisters, Show Mercy!

For My Beloved

August 1980
We were only 20 & 21.
We went dancing in the minefields,
we went sailing in the storms...
and it was harder than we dreamed
but I believe,
 ... that's what the promise is for ...

...  We bear the light of the Son of Man
     so there's nothing left to fear.
     So I'll walk with you in the Shadowlands,
     till the shadows disappear.
     'cause He promised not to leave us
     and His promises are true,
     so in the face of all this chaos,
     maybe I can dance with you...
     Let's go Dancing in the minefields
     Let's go sailing in the storms
     this is harder than we dreamed,
     but I believe -- that's what the promise is for.

(psst!... it is a great privilege, this growin' old with you.  Just sayin').

Get the scoop on yet another songwriter/singer with GOOD stuff to tell:  Andrew Peterson

Faith Without Illusions

Feeling Derailed?  Torn and thread-bare?  A little - off the edge?

Do yourself a HUGE favour....
Faith Without Illusions
If every one in my church family would read through this article thoughtfully and prayerfully, I think we'd reap a heap of blessing!
Yes.  It will demand some self-examination.  Do not be afraid  :)
No pain? No gain! ... a truism that actually finds its' root in scripture.
Holy Spirit, bring it on.

James Barry

                                    Can you believe this?  

A new grand-son in the posterity - a namesake even!

  Such big shoes to fill - a delighted grandmarmie muses....

But so clearly on his way to doing exactly that.
Thank You - Giver of Good Gifts.
You blow us away with Your extravagance.    

Blessings

Some questions to ponder with me.... (please)

What if God's blessings come through raindrops?
What if healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know He's near?
What if trials of this life are actually mercies in disguise?


Yeah.  What if?  What if our little pea brain minds just don't think big enough?  Past our own little world?

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

Cause, what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?
.......
What if?

God is Good.  Not safe.  No.
But Good, ALL the time.

Yet another great singer/songwriter, wonderfully employed to spread the good stuff around....

The Power of the Cross

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

CHORUS:
This, the pow'r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev'ry bitter thought,
Ev'ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
"Finished!" the vict'ry cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

FINAL CHORUS:
This, the pow'r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

The Gospel Coalition (TGC) Live!

Or put another way, TGC from someone who is living the experience 

for the first time and is VERY thankful for it.

 There are approximately 7000 people registered and roaming at TGC here at the super conference aka Chicago's famous McCormick Place - a facility that makes the Metro in Toronto look like an exceedingly small fry with no biggy size option.  Indeed, the spaciousness and beauty of this place make it rather difficult to believe we are in the company of so great a crowd.  There are vendors and exhibitors abounding and a bookstore to rival Books a Million...

and with 35% off most titles? 

I am utterly undone.  

No. 

I am tortured in the extreme.

      Today's line-up of blockbuster experiences?

• Roundtable Q&A What I've Learned from Years of Preaching Christ in the Old Testament featuring Phil Ryken, Alistair Begg and Mark Dever
• Introduction to Conference by Don Carson 
• Corporate Worship with The Getty's 
• Studying the Scriptures and Finding Jesus  John 5:31-47 by R.Albert Mohler Jr.
• Getting Out (Crossing Over) Exodus 14 by Tim Keller
• From Foreigner to King Jesus Ruth by Alistair Begg
• Panel Discussion Preaching from the OT                                                                                    featuring Tim Keller, Lignon Duncan, Crawford Loritts, Don Carson, Bryan Chapell
• Concert Sing Them Again:  An evening of Old and New Hymns

The WOW factor antennae have not stopped vibrating all day long and my cup runneth over - is in fact, spilling all over the place!
Thanks to a dear friend back home, you are hereby supplied a link to a live coverage stream online: http://thegospelcoalition.org/conferences/2011-media

(Thanks Lilly)
Now those who truly desire to tap into this enriching spiritual feast can follow what's happening here without my having to sort through a pathetic convolution of notes.  

As my hubby calmly suggested after witnessing my desperate hair-on-fire attempt today..

"we'll buy the CD"   

There is also an Art Exhibit in the Grand Lobby entitled Resonant Vision featuring the work of nine Christians who make contemporary art. They were each asked the question, "How does your Christian faith inform your work?"
This is none too familiar territory for many of us and makes me eager to snoop around
and explore this exhibition;
particularly because it is a world that our 3rd year theatre/arts double major baby girl is pursuing with great gusto at Redeemer and one in which we need to gain a deeper understanding.

Dearest choir peeps, Voila!  The uilleann pipes we spoke of once before while listening to the Getty's recording of By Faith --- played before our very eyes!

Part of the apparatus of simulcast wonderment was parked right beside our row in the Main Stage which by some feat of the miraculous, seated all 7000 of us comfortably and effortlessly.

 A steady stream of Coach buses delivered and retrieved conferee's every half hour throughout day one;

a day that ran so smooth from an organizational standpoint - the team behind the scenes get a five star rating from the two of us and everyone else whose company and conversation was our pleasure today.

Tomorrow's schedule begins at 7am and culminates with a Getty Concert of Praise at 9pm.

This girl needs to go to bed 

-- like right now  :)

Toodles and sleep sweet, a directive I will surely follow if I can shut my mind off.

Not A Fairy Tale

Encouragement from our friend Holley

(Inspired for release by yesterday's viewing of Tangled....

....Disney's fairly fun & decent recounting of Rapunzel)

I remember staying up late with friends to watch movies  that always seemed to close with the same line... And they lived happily ever after-- THE END But real life often doesn't work that way.

We hope and dream  but things don't always turn out like we plan.  We face trials, hard times, and we ask, "God, where are you in this story?" He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known,  to humble and to test you so that in THE END it might go well with you. Deuteronomy 8:16 God's path to "happily ever after"--to all going well with us--

looks different than ours.  But in all of it we can trust that He has our good in mind, that He knows where the story is going,  that He will love us and keep us every step of the way. Easy?  Nope.  I've got a hunch many of your stories make Cinderella look like a sissy. Something we do with a smile on our face the entire time?  Not unless you're as unconscious as Sleeping Beauty. Worth it?

Oh, yes, because one day our Prince will come. Listen, sweet friend, as I take your heart by the hand and whisper these words... Your story has a good ending. And it's not over yet.

Be still my anxious heart....

Letting God into my broken-ness and thanking Him for loving me through the message brought by the rich, soothing voice of Fernando Ortega.
Thanks again Lisha for sending it my way!  I can naught but pay it forward....

The Law of the Garbage Truck

Live every day as a gift from the Lord.

... b'cuz it is ... plain and simple.

(Thanks Corinne:)

In loving memory of a great fellow pilgrim.  Experiencing a gnawing need right now for the inspiration she so freely and regularly dispensed among us, I've rifled thru my Keeper's File 

for a fitting forward sent long ago and stored 

for such a moment as this:

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.

We were driving in the right lane when suddenly, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.  My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded and missed the other car by inches!  The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.  My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy.  And I mean, he was really friendly.  So I asked, "Why did you just do that?

This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call,

"The Law of the Garbage Truck"

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks.

They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger,

.... full of disappointment.

As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it

and sometimes, they'll dump it on you.

Don't take it personally.

Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.

Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, home or on the street.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.

Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.

So.

Love the people who treat you right,

Pray for those who don't.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it.

Go and have a garbage-free day!

Just Think About It!

Imagine waking up every morning, wandering into the bathroom, rubbing the sleep from your eyes and finding this post-it-note reminder on the mirror....

Good Morning!  This is God.

I will be handling all your problems today.

I will not need your help.

So have a good day!

I love you!

.... an anecdote from Sunday's sermon last week at Covenant Presbyterian Church here in Naples, Florida.  It was part and parcel of a thought-provoking exposition of Romans 5 concerning the issue of how we are viewed by Our Maker in heaven.

Our 'RIGHTeousness' doesn't depend on us.

God's love is unconditional.

(We don't truly 'get' the term unconditional do we?)

His grace is sufficient.  

No matter how many times we falter, 
he will persevere with us to the end.

To the end.

No matter what.

Christianity is not about a religion that does good.
It's not even about religion.

It's about a relationship with the source of all goodness.

It's about helpless children of the first Adam RUNNING to the second Adam for the righteous life that they can NEVER manufacture on their own.


Jesus loves me, yes I know.
For the Bible tells me so.

Enormously comforting I'd say.

Undragon Your Life

We were sitting on the couch together this morning - him and I.
We watched this video together - him and I.
We felt inspired and encouraged at the same time, for precisely the same reasons - both him and I.
So we're sharing it cuz ... y'know?... that's just what you do with those you love -  you share it.
                                         **********

Only Jesus can free us from ourselves.
Pastor Jim Burgen tells the story of hearing about a character in the Chronicles of Narnia.

His name was Eustace Clarence Scrubb; his name tells it all.
He was a bratty, jealous kid. In "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," Eustace belittles and complains about Lucy and Edmund again and again until his monstrous evil character inside starts to show on the outside; he becomes a dragon.
Only Aslan can save.
We are all like Eustace until Christ comes to our rescue.



C.S. Lewis strikes again.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader is...  "awesome, completely life-altering storytelling at its finest".
                                           **********

So we finished watching it, him and I.
And he pulls an old smooth (almost forgotten) 1978 move -
he asks me out to a movie!
I am grinning.   Widely.
Two cozy seats at some Silver City and a jumbo popcorn to share, coming right up!   Happy Eeek.

Niggling thoughts...

Do you ever get those?

Stuff that flits through the mind and overstays its welcome?

I'm a believer. Make that capital B, Believer.

It makes these nigglers harder to ignore as I agonize about their source.

Am I being 'compelled' by Spirit or just overwhelmed by wistful thought from a fumbling brain or wounded heart?

I really have no illusions about either of those two organs within, i.e. heart/mind. They've only proven to be a fickle storage place for both the profoundly magnificent as well as the positively messy moments of my life.

Never-the-less, I've decided to go out on a limb against all that may be considered safe and sane disclosure - I'm going public with some of these nigglers.

For reasons I don't even understand right now, I'm going to start with a Father's Day memoir.

I was eighteen, second born in a family of seven kids. Seven is the number of fullness according to scripture....an interesting tidbit to expound another time perhaps? LOL.

I was just back from spending Thanksgiving Weekend in isolation at the hospital where a serious bout of mononucleosis was confirmed. I remember thinking I was going to lose my first semester at university and I did. I actually never went back.

Our family owns and operates a nursery business - something my dad (and his brothers) had just recently taken over following the death of the family patriarch.

Spring and fall were very busy times. We wouldn't see a whole lot of dad during those months and consequently, 'seasonal estrangement' was considered a normal, even acceptable (!) factor in the fabric of family life.

A great deal of time and energy went into expanding the family business - on top of the demanding duties required of husband, father, pillar of the church etc...

To make a long and sordid story short?

My dad succumbed to the snare of the wrong kind of success in the wrong kind of community.

There is a wise saying: The test of prosperity is not easily passed.

One can hear the same panache (only better) in the ancient truth uttered by Jesus, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

And it ain't bulging sacks of gold that make it impossible - what disqualifies us is misplaced allegiance and an entirely wrong focus. Only Grace pulls one through the mire.

Our personal experience(s) testify to the power of this truth.

Misplaced priority. An insatiable desire for acceptance, position and power among the worldly. Call it what you will - my dad fell for it, hook, line and sinker. He threw in the towel on his marriage and joined the party somewhere out there.

Now, if being a father were limited to simply supporting a family financially, or to mere biological brute fact, I suppose you could say I still had a father. But in every other way - we were abandoned and quite bereft.

We didn't see that coming. Indeed, there was no good reason to expect it.

I was home at the beginning of a long recovery process from mono when the castle walls started crumbling and the vantage point in my safe little world changed forever.

I was second born but as the oldest daughter, I became the involuntary confidante overnight.

That is not a complaint necessarily -- my mother had no where else to turn; but it would be many, many years later before I could fully appreciate the horror she must have endured.

My dad grazed and razed greener pastures to the point of no return which led to the inevitable divorce which in turn led to so many other inevitable consequences.

Before I talk about any of those things -- if indeed I find the courage to do so, let me say this:

I love my Dad. I never truly stopped loving him.

Once or twice a year when he drives up to my door,

we sip our coffee or wine :) and I tell him that.

He finally settled down and married one of his girlfriends and our family still doesn't have a meaningful relationship with him in a way that really counts. We've had to accept life with the broken-ness but also in the sure knowledge that it will be made right again, and we accept that it won't be in this earthly life.

Why? *sigh* You had to ask...

Call me a dinosaur. I hold to the biblical concept that marriage is for keeps. I'm one of the odd ones who still believe a vow before the Maker to 'stick with it' in sickness or health, for richer or poorer 'til death parts us, is a vow not to be trifled with.

Look around you. Show me please, where compromise in this matter has ever brought true, soul satisfying happiness to ANY of the parties involved?

Marriage is divinely instituted and like it or not, the First Officiator cannot be mocked.

God has been very merciful and kind to our family.

With the exception of my sister Yvonne, we all enjoy good stable marriages with oodles of kids apiece. We all live near each other and near to our mom who has despite all, learned contentment and continues to live graciously with her circumstances.

We can all say quite honestly that we live far better than we deserve.

So what is my point in sharing this particular 'niggler' ?

This blog is an effort to connect with Nicole Kristine Peters - our long lost grand-daughter, niece and cousin whom we haven't seen or heard from in almost a dozen years due to circumstances beyond our control.

We don't know why that is. But we're going to put ourselves 'out there' in the hopes that she discovers a family (albeit an imperfect one!) who misses her, loves her and remembers her with great longing.

This Father's Day post is a necessary point of reference in disclosing ourselves to you Nicole.

I think you'll understand as the story unfolds itself.

And about imperfection and publicizing them?

Who DOESN'T live with broken-ness in this world?

I share it not to celebrate it, laud it or wallow in it but what a crying shame it would be if we didn't also learn by it and pass those lessons on!

This is a paradox: the beauty of bearing sorrow is the potential for maturity, growth and strength.

Looking back? I am hopeful -- thankful. By God's grace (Who put us on the planet in the first place for good purpose) we are learning to live as ultimate Family.

For all you daddies out there? Listen up. One of the strongest ways to demonstrate your love to your children is simply to love their mother. Do it. No matter what and you will be rewarded in ways immeasurable.

It's a hard sell in this sick and selfish cultural climate of ours but it's not impossible.

God helping us.