The Living Room

Question 5

2008-11-10T21:54:00.001-05:00

How has your faith changed because of livingroom?

Question 4

2008-11-10T21:53:00.000-05:00

How have you been discouraged by livingroom?

Question 3

2008-11-10T21:52:00.003-05:00

What do you want out of livingroom?

Questions 2

2008-11-10T21:52:00.001-05:00

What questions do you have about livingroom?

Question 1

2008-11-10T21:50:00.002-05:00

Does anyone want to start another livingroom group?

Formation meeting 10/10/08

2008-11-10T21:20:00.003-05:00

Next 8 weeks:

11/16/08

location: Weidners
food: reply to email if interested in bringing something
topic: Role of the pastor in today's society, by John Song
time: 4:15 arrive,
4:45 inward outward and topic/theme,
5:45 prayer, meal and continued conversation

11/23/08

location: Weidners
food: reply to email if interested in bringing something
topic: Creating a plan for growth
sub-topic: if everyone came there are more than 40 people.

Questions to think about that will be on the blog to discuss:

1. How do we facilitate intimacy in such a large group?
2. How do we define our values and reason for doing livingroom to new people who are looking for an answer?

Options put on the "table" for discussion.
1. Do we multiply/split?
2. Do we offer options during the night

time: 4:15 arrive,
4:45 inward outward,
5:45 prayer, meal and continued conversation

11/30/08

location: Resonate, Calvary Souderton, prayer and worship
time: 6:00pm
option 2: If someone would like to host an evening at their location or meet somewhere, or serve somewhere in the community please initiate through the blog or during a Sunday night.

12/7/08

location: Sefings
time: 4:15 arrive,
4:45 inward outward and topic/theme,
5:45 prayer, meal and continued conversation
topic/theme: worship with pictures and song, facilitated by Mike, Scott and Aaron
Children: We will contribute for a babysitter that night so that people can join this time if they want that normally are with children.

12/14/08

location: Sefings
time: 4:15 arrive,
4:45 inward outward and topic/theme,
5:45 prayer, meal and continued conversation
topic/theme: What does Christmas mean to you, facilitated by Merrill

12/21/08

location: Sefings
time: 4:15 arrive,
4:45 inward outward and topic/theme,
5:45 prayer, meal and continued conversation
topic/theme: Party, carol sing, led by Steve High and others

12/28/08

location: open is someone wants to host
time: 4:15 arrive,
4:45 inward outward and topic/theme,
5:45 prayer, meal and continued conversation

A new chapter for Livingroom community
1/4/08

We will start meeting in whatever way is decided after 11/23/08.

Spring Schedule for Living Room Conversations

2008-03-25T16:54:00.001-04:00

March 30: John Song on Romans

APRIL GATHERINGS WILL BE HELD AT BEN & KRISTIE SEFING'S NEW PLACE:
April 6: Movie (For the Bible Tells Me So) & Discussion
April 13: Steve & Trish share their story
April 20: Eucharist
April 27: Brad shares his story

MAY GATHERINGS WILL BE HELD AT MIKE & RACHEL ALLEBACH'S
May 4: Jared Contextual Scripture Study
May 11: Merrill Leads Open Share
May 18: Formation Meeting
May 25: Memorial Day Party

The Deer Cry from St. Patrick's Breastplate

2008-03-17T10:20:00.003-04:00

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven.
Light of sun
Radiance of moon
Splendour of fire
Speed of lightning
Swiftness of wind
Depth of the sea
Stability of earth
Firmness of rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me.
God's eye to look before me
God's wisdom to guide me
God's way to lie before me
God's shield to protect me

From all who shall wish me ill
Afar and anear
Alone and in a multitude.

Against every cruel
Merciless power
That may oppose my body and soul

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left.

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise, Christ to shield me
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me

I arise today.

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The Deer Cry
St Patrick's: 372–466 Breastplate
Anonymous 8th Century
Translated from Old Irish

Blessings and peace this St. Patrick's Day

The heart has eyes that the brain knows nothing of

2008-02-11T20:03:00.000-05:00

"The heart has eyes that the brain knows nothing of. "
~ Charles H. Parkhurst

My fortune from my Chinese cookie read, "You are busy, but you are happy." I wonder about this concept. Some activity, yes, but at present I have so much on my plate between work, home, three ministries, family and friends that everything seems to be melding into one continuous race. Race for what? Security? Meaning? Fulfillment? These are all pseudo-sources for these goals.
This is the Lenten season...Breathe...I am dust and to dust I shall return...Quiet your mind...silence...Be still and know that I am God...Be still and know that I AM...Be still and know...Be still...BE...
You are the reason I live, Lord; You chose me, created me, adopted me, redeemed me. Each breath is a gift...Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner...
My mind recalls the book I'm currently reading: Barbara Brown Taylor's Leaving Church. Her deepest desire is to immerse herself in God. I echo this heart prayer and long to be passionately engaged with God — to fall in love with Him and His Word. Fresh...vital...intuitive...kindred spirits...
In reality, I'm divided, not single-minded. I struggle as Paul did with knowing what is right to do and yet not doing it. Materialism, activity, career, living in this culture has a magnetic pull that is impossible to resist apart from Christ...
• Wisdom • Insight • Knowledge • Balance • Self-discipline.
I am weak, Lord. Please increase my strength so that I may begin to take steps, baby steps, to do what I know is right.
...Falling in love with You, having You as my First Love encompasses every area and aspect of my being. May I start now? Your grace, mercy and compassion NEVER END...

Bringing life into this blog...

2007-12-18T12:01:00.000-05:00

I don't know if anyone looks at this blog any longer, but I thought I would make an attempt to bring it back to life.
I wanted to comment about something that stuck out to me this past Sunday at LR. When Kristie and Ben were speaking, something that Kristie said a few times struck home with me. She reconciled with the people from her past who had done some bizarre things "in the name of Christ". She said that she understood that they were just doing what they felt was right.
Something about this idea of accepting people's shortcomings as okay and letting go of hurts made me think. I can't count how many times I completely write off Christian brothers and sisters b/c I think they are stupid. It's really pathetic how I can choose to be friends with some Christians and ignore others b/c of my perceptions.
So thanks Kristie for reminding me about these principles of letting go and loving others without regard for minor things.

You Call Us Friends...

2007-11-01T23:05:00.000-04:00

You have valued us so much that you call us friends;
You have shared your eternal inheritance with us!
What an undeserved privilege that is.

We fall at your feet in overwhelming gratitude.
You are our Hope, our Life, our Reason for Living.
May all that we do and say each day convey
this message of gratitude and love to those around us.

May You be glorified...may You be magnified.
May the pressures, stresses, and concerns of our lives
flow from us like rushing water to be mingled
with your Living Water that refreshes, nourishes, and strengthens...

Now and forever, Amen.

Morning Prayer

2007-10-31T07:00:00.000-04:00

Hear, O my soul, child of the Living God:
The LORD my God, the LORD is One.
I shall have no other gods before Him.
I shall love the LORD my God with all of my heart,
with all of my soul, with all of my strength,
and with all of my mind.

I shall love my neighbor as myself...

Holy, holy, holy, LORD of Heaven and Earth,
I offer Your Word back to You this day,
asking that I would fulfill Your commands
for me to cherish You as my First Love.
May I shine Your light to those around me today
and may Your Light penetrate to all
of the hearts, souls, and minds of those
You touch through me.

Grace...Peace...Contentment...

Precious Savior, I thank You for choosing me
before the foundation of the world,
for surrounding me with the new covenant of grace,
for holding my hand and walking beside me,
for carrying me, for sacrificing Your life for me
that I might journey toward You in security forever.
May I continually engage in relationship with you;
may I follow Your lead, journeying where you want me to go,
learning what You want me to learn,
loving the way You want me to love,
serving the way you want me to serve,
all through Your grace, wisdom and strength
that Your power might active through me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Stream of Consciousness Toward God

2007-10-27T23:44:00.000-04:00

stream of consciousness toward God pray with your eyes open great value and worth deeply loved completely forgiven grace totally acceptable and complete in Christ am I going in the direction you want me to go in my life Lord am I on the right journey please lead me and guide me I don't want to run down a rabbit trail or turn in a wrong direction Jonah rebel against You or hinder the awesome power of the Holy Spirit in my life you see Christ's pure righteousness when You look at me and You are pleased You are gentle and yet all powerful I want You to win God I can never out think or out race you Lord even at the breakneck pace of life in this decade You still have the same values same teaching same love and compassion Alpha and Omega I AM King of Kings and Lord of Lords please let me listen let me see let me hear and perceive Your wisdom Your will for me in the midst of the whirlwind yet it's not really about me at all it's about You I must decrease and You must increase metamorphosis renewal gift blessing grace mercy peace praise amen alleluia

Frantic

2007-10-26T00:26:00.000-04:00

The pace of our culture seems to have gone from accelerated to frantic lately.

Do you sense it?

So many of us in the Living Room Community are being pressed beyond reason by our life and work circumstances these days. I am deeply concerned about each of you, as well as myself, and what this pace is doing to us holistically. Do we even have time to think fast, let alone consider and think through issues and decisions before we make them or are we just living in the split second timing of NOW? Our health, our relationships, our emotional balance, our spirituality, our purpose is all suffering as a result of FRANTIC.

Out of my deep concern for all of us, I'd like to engage in a blogging conversation with you about how this race inside the hamster wheel is affecting you and me and what we can do to preserve the body, mind, and spirit that God treasures in each of us.

It is very late and I must leave you with this thought for tonight...

Christ, our Savior, Advocate and Lord never rushed through His life, yet He moved with purpose and was totally focused on what was most important (glorifying and obeying God)....

How can we follow His example given the realities of our lives?

Exploding the Box

2007-10-18T16:40:00.000-04:00

Almighty God is the essence of all and central to all...
The universe exists because of Him and revolves around Him (not us)....
Therefore...
Bow to Him — don't try to mold Him or box Him into what you want Him to be for your own comfort and safety...
He will e x p l o d e out of the that box and rock your world with awesome delight and power!
Consider His honor and glory first; consider relationship with Him as supreme in your decision-making processes.
He is r e a l — let Him l i ve in your life!

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"
"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
~ Romans 11: 33–36 [NIV]

Sally Morgenthaler on Community

2007-10-14T10:45:00.000-04:00

Continuing with snippets of Friday night's conversation with Sally Morgenthaler, (see blog entry for yesterday), the dialogue began to take shape from discussing the general trends of the American church culture to focusing down on the metamorphosis of community and considering how we can define "community" within the trends of this high-tech, global, blended world.

Here are a few bytes from the conversation:

genuine community involves getting to know people where they are at and what their actual needs are, rather than anticipating ahead...
people won't come into churches anymore — the people who are the "Church" need to leave their buildings and go out into the communities to engage with ministry and mission...
trend: the need for ritualization (weddings, funerals, ceremony, tradition) is increasing
there are sessions and worship experiences for some, at times, where there are no words: silence, contemplation, sensory engagement...

There is a complexity in what constitutes "community" now...

local neighborhoods where we live...
the office where we spend most of our time...
the internet where we connect with the entire world, all strangers, yet sharing something in common...
those who we engage with on cell phones constantly throughout the week...

What makes connection "real"?

with the web, information is available to everyone — get in the game!
some have established internet cafes
some have established coffee houses in local communities
there can be problems; it can be risky and even dangerous, but we are living with different demographics now...
ministry in community may look like "Extreme Makeover" or Habitat for Humanity
ministry involves time: time together in conversation and engagement: face-to-face, on the web and on the cell phone
ministry involves relationship building and spending time together: be present and engage with people

Many of the points that Sally was making and that were being shared by others gathered were not only making real sense in the midst of our present wired culture, but were reinforcing that what we are engaging in here at Living Room is touching the pulse of our "community."

we are commited to the core truths of Christ's teaching
we love Jesus, even if we don't love what is happening in the American church culture
we engage in community and conversations with each other as we gather on Sunday evenings and then...
we extend that engagement through our network of cell phone conversations throughout the week...
we connect with the global community through our charitable ministry and business efforts...
we interlink with each other, with our extended Living Room family, and the world through this blog and those networked to our own...
we share relationship with the expanded Body of Christ through sister communities like Resonate and The Well...
we are committed to ministry to each other and to the needs of the world...
we are open and visionary as to what our gifts, talents, time and resources can do to minister to the needs of the world through us...
we are real with each other, knowing that we will be loved and accepted just as we are through the grace and forgiveness of Christ

May I encourage you to continue to engage in the passion of Christ's calling to share His truth, care for the needs of the world around us both near and far, as well as continue to be real people encouraging other real people on our life journeys.

This Living Room community has brought a sense of love, acceptance and validation to my life that I have never experienced in a "church" culture ever before. Christ is in us and among us...may we continue to grow in grace, wisdom and love for our community and the world as the weeks and months go by.

I love you all...you are my Family

A Conversation with Sally Morgenthaler

2007-10-13T18:18:00.000-04:00

Last night was a very special evening at Biblical Seminary. Sally Morgenthaler, emergent leader, author and teacher was engaging in conversation with the gathered group at MacRae's Place (former chapel).

The conversation was eclectic and engaging, thought-provoking and challenging.

Here are some snippets of Sally's thoughts on the trends in today's American church culture:

More Americans, all across the country, are leaving churches — many more that are joining them...

Church capital campaigns are failing...

Women are leaving churches in droves and taking the older women with them...

Believers need to shift their presence from within the church building to out into the surrounding communities...

Many large churches are deconstructing from the "big box" structure into smaller spaces where gatherings can be more intimate and conducive to conversation...

There's been a radical shift in the full-time ministry scenario: pastors and ministry leaders should be bi-vocational, so that they can engage in "tent-making" for their basic income while ministering with their available time...

Our seminaries need to prepare students for the realities and potentials of this radically changing shift in the Christian church culture...

How do we help to accomplish this for our newly-trained ministry teams?
Leverage partnerships with other faith-based groups and non-profit organizations.
This may create challenges in some areas, but will network engagement within the community in others...

One key factor in today's emergent church is "sustainability": stewardship of our resources...

From there, the conversation began to become more focused on the concept of what "community" looks like in the Body of Christ today.

More on that and the impact Living Room has within this realm tomorrow...

Friday Evening's Event: Coffee and Conversation with Sally Morgenthaler

Who is Sally Morgenthaler?

2007-10-12T22:24:00.000-04:00

• Emergent Leader • Author • Teacher • Woman • Mother
She's been hurt — devastatingly hurt...yet she passionately loves God...
She's real, engaging, thought-provoking, innovative and reachable...
She's been teaching a special course at Biblical Seminary this week and engaged in conversation with a gathered group on Friday night in MacRae's Place (former Biblical chapel). Scott, Andrea and I were there, among others to experience an amazing dialogue with her.

More on that tomorrow....

Check out these links to get to know more about Sally Morgenthaler...

Leadership Blog Interview with Sally in 2005:
http://leadershipblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/leadership-blog-interview-sally.html

Christianity Today Leadership Journal Article: 1 January 2006
"Behind Closed Doors: Sally Morgenthaler's Story"
http://www.ctlibrary.com/36726

Christianity Today Leadership Journal Article: 1 January 2006
A Lesson Learned from Sally Morgenthaler's Story"
"Does Ministry Fuel Addictive Behavior?"
http://ctlibrary.com/36725

Sally, the author...

Worship Evangelism

Future Church: Ministry in a Post-seeker Age

Tomorrow I will share some of what went on during our conversation at MacRae's Place tonight...

Suffering and Faith

2007-07-29T07:26:00.000-04:00

The following are some really helpful points from Tim Stafford's writings on suffering that Darryl will be discussing at a local church this morning:

• What is it about suffering that forces us to focus on central issues of life?

• Suffering is one of the loneliest experiences; it is also one of the most purifying.

• How is it that suffering is one of the loneliest experiences and yet unites us
with other people?

Here’s Stafford's quote:

"Suffering purifies this human material, cutting away layer after soft layer until only firmer stuff remains. All the dross goes: the ambitions, love of money, vanity about appearance, everything that sets us above others in our own mind. Suffering purges everything that is not central to life."

Also, suffering teaches us the absolute limit to our abilities and our total dependence upon Christ. It unites us with others going through similar circumstances. That might be the key — not an “answer” to suffering, but humility and grace in the midst of it.

Suffering in whatever form it takes, personal, communal, national, is a great mystery. The Bible does not provide a running commentary on why “this happened here” or “this occurred there.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Suffering ultimately becomes a test of faith. Do we believe that God is the essence of holiness, goodness and compassion even when we cannot see it clearly through our pain?

Lord, I believe...please help my unbelief!!!

Paul Talks About Suffering...

2007-07-28T15:11:00.000-04:00

The Apostle Paul writes in II Corinthians 4: 6-18 about suffering and serving Christ:

For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.

But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.”We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

~ II Corinthians 4: 6-18 [New Living Translation]

More to come on suffering and faith...

Update on Sue's Mother

2007-07-27T16:04:00.000-04:00

Please continue to support Sue and her family in your prayers. Sue provides us with an update below.

Sue writes today:

What a long, long week ... My mom said today that this was the worst week of her life.

I just wanted to give you an update on where things stand:

This morning she went to the hospital for a MUGA scan, to see if her heart will be strong enough to handle the course of treatment (chemo, etc.). We won't find that out until sometime next week -- all we know is that the tests came back "clear." My question is this: if her heart is NOT strong enough, will they go through it anyway? It seems our choices right now are limited.This afternoon she went to her breast doctor/surgeon to see if she could figure out what is under her arm, in the lymph area. While her oncologist was concerned about it, her breast doctor didn't think it was anything to worry about. My mom had an ultrasound done, and the doctor didn't see anything -- certainly nothing with any defined shape to it. She thinks it's just the way that her body is healing in that area -- not "normal," necessarily, but because she had an extreme amount of radiation in that spot her cells are messed up to start with, so perhaps that's why the healing is coming in a different way (i.e. scar tissue, harder tissue, etc.).

However, while she is not convinced there's anything to worry about, she is going to talk to the oncologist on Monday. If he insists that he is concerned and that something should be done, the breast doctor will concede and will then operate ... again ... to remove whatever it is. I guess the "best" scenario would be to open her up, determine for sure that it's nothing, and sew her back up again. So ... while it wasn't bad news, it certainly wasn't the kind of news that can make you breathe a sigh of relief ... we still don't know what's going on, and that "not knowing" isn't easy. Lots of "what if's" involved. I guess we'll know more next week — the discussion on Monday between the two doctors, the results of the heart scan, etc. Her oncologist also recommended that she get a second opinion, but that means more waiting. And if the cancer is as horribly aggressive as they say, waiting is the LAST thing you want to do.

The week is over, we have a free weekend (relatively speaking) to rest up for what's coming. A very specific prayer request is for extra strength for my mom. She is SOOO exhausted — she cries of it sometimes. My concern is that if she literally has the fight of her life ahead of her, she's going into it extremely weak and tired. Right now, she almost needs some kind of superhuman strength. And please pray for my dad — he doesn't say how he feels (at least not to anyone other than my mom), but I know he cries a lot (I can see that his eyes are always red). He too needs a tremendous amount of strength just to be there for her, to truck her around to appointments — she's his best friend and this is taking such a tremendous toll. And please pray for lifted spirits — I felt so good (finally!) after Grace's [Sue's daughter] birthday party (we all did), and now my spirits have sunk to a depth of such sadness. We're all just so, so sad. It would be great to just get a shred of good news, a glimmer of hope in all of this, after a string of bad news.

Thanks, as always, for your loving support, friendship, and prayers — it means the world to us.

More later ...Sue

Again, as a reminder, comments posted on this blog will reach Sue directly. She checks this blog daily.

I'll continue to post any updates and share at Inward~Outward on Sunday evenings.

The Suffering of a Dear Friend

2007-07-26T16:54:00.000-04:00

Dearest Living Room Community,

Just was we rejoice that Lois does not have cancer, our dear friend, Sue, wrestles with the devastation of recurring cancer in her mother. Please read her email update in the text below and cry out to God in prayer for her entire family...

Sue writes today...

My mom just got back from her oncologist [follow up visit to radical mastectomy surgery last week] and the news was much worse than we had anticipated. The cancer she has is completely different than the one from two years ago. This one is extremely aggressive and our fear is that they've been moving a little too slowly on it. Whatever this cancer is, it could very quickly spread to her ovaries and elsewhere — and even though the PET scan was clear, he needs to go over it again, just to make sure. He's not convinced it hasn't spread. She also recently felt a hard lump under her arm, in the same spot as the surgery (where they removed the lymph nodes) — he didn't like that at all (a new tumor? Already?!) and told her to call her surgeon and request an emergency visit. So ... they're going to try a different kind of chemo (I think) - much, much more aggressive, every three weeks for the next several months. Along with that will be two drugs: herceptin (which could damage her heart) and taxo-something (which could cause severe allergic reactions). He stressed the importance of this starting A.S.A.P. -- there is absolutely no time to lose.

We are scared. Tremendously scared. My mom came home with a look of shock on her face. It's hard not to cry. You can't help but feel that this is so sinister, just really out to get you. We have no idea what other scans will show. She has to have a muga scan tomorrow a.m. to see how her heart will hold up with all of this. This truly was devastating news today. Just when we were starting to feel better about things ... wham. It's getting to be rather cyclical! Please, please keep us all in your prayers — for my mom, that she will have an extreme dose of strength to get through this, to fight this, that her spirits will be up, and that she will win and be healed. For the rest of us, that we will be strong for her and be able to do what needs to be done. Above all, please pray for healing — we can jump through fire, walk over coals, do whatever it takes, just to beat this horrible thing. I'm sure we'll know more in the next few days — I'll keep you posted.

Thanks so much for your prayers.
-Sue

Dear Living Room Family Members,
Please post comments to this email as responses to Sue. She checks this blog daily and may find comfort and encouragement from knowing that you are joining with many others in prayer and concern for her dear mother.

Thank you so much.

All Praise to God! Joy and Relief...

2007-07-16T12:53:00.000-04:00

Lois Hackman does not have cancer!

1 Praise the Lord!
Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord!
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord
now and forever.
3 Everywhere—from east to west—
praise the name of the Lord.
4 For the Lord is high above the nations;
his glory is higher than the heavens.
~ Psalm 113: 1-4 [New Living Translation]

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Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to your name goes all the glory
for your unfailing love and faithfulness.
~ Psalm 115: 1 [New Living Translation]

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26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me because of your unfailing love.
27 Let them see that this is your doing,
that you yourself have done it, Lord.
~ Psalm 109: 26-27 [New Living Translation]

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For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.
“They are plans for good and not for disaster,
to give you a future and a hope.
In those days when you pray, I will listen.
If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
~ Lamentations 29:11-13 [New Living Translation]

Yearning for God

2007-07-15T19:17:00.000-04:00

1 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart,
I will praise his holy name.
2 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
3 He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
4 He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
5 He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
6 The Lord gives righteousness
and justice to all who are treated unfairly.
7 He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 He will not constantly accuse us,
nor remain angry forever.
10 He does not punish us for all our sins;
he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
12 He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
13 The Lord is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
14 For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
15 Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
16 The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
17 But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
18 of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!
19 The Lord has made the heavens his throne;
from there he rules over everything.
20 Praise the Lord, you angels,
you mighty ones who carry out his plans,
listening for each of his commands.
21 Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels
who serve him and do his will!
22 Praise the Lord, everything he has created,
everything in all his kingdom.
Let all that I am praise the Lord.
~ Psalm 103 [New Living Translation]

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When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
~ Matthew 9:12-13 [New Living Translation]

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1 As the deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
2 I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I go and stand before him?
3 Day and night I have only tears for food,
while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,
“Where is this God of yours?”
4 My heart is breaking
as I remember how it used to be:
I walked among the crowds of worshipers,
leading a great procession to the house of God,
singing for joy and giving thanks
amid the sound of a great celebration!
5 Why am I discouraged?
Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again—
my Savior and 6 my God!
Now I am deeply discouraged,
but I will remember you—
even from distant Mount Hermon,
the source of the Jordan,
from the land of Mount Mizar.
7 I hear the tumult of the raging seas
as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.
8 But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me,
and through each night I sing his songs,
praying to God who gives me life.
~ Psalm 42:1-8 [New Living Translation]

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, grant us your peace.

Oh, How Great are God's Riches

2007-07-13T08:27:00.001-04:00

33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge!
How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!

34 For who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?
35 And who has given him so much
that he needs to pay it back?

36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power
and is intended for his glory.
All glory to him forever! Amen.

~ Romans 11:33-36 [New Living Translation]

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Alleluia!

Continual prayers are being offered for our extended Living Room Community in health, safety and ministry. Our God is ever-present, all-powerful and all-knowing. He is bigger than all of our concerns. He'll care for His children. To Him be the glory for His infinite love!

Because the Lord is my Shepherd...

2007-07-12T08:04:00.000-04:00

Because the LORD is my Shepherd, I have everything I need! He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He restores my failing health. He helps me do what honors him the most.Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way.You provide delicious food for me in the presence of my enemies. You have welcomed me as your guest; blessings overflow! Your goodness and unfailing kindness shall be with me all of my life, and afterwards I will live with you forever in your home.

~ Psalm 23 from The Living Bible

Inspiration for our Living Room Community

2007-07-10T13:19:00.000-04:00

Paul admonishes us in Romans 12: 9-13:

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

[New Living Translation]

May this be our mission and vision for the days ahead...

A celebration of the arts in Doyelstown PA

2007-07-10T11:19:00.000-04:00

We have been invited to join with several local communities in a celebration of the arts on Sept 7 of this year.

We will need several artists to showcase there work, free food, and people who will enjoy hosting this event.

When: Friday night September 7th (the week after Labor Day)
Where: Main Street Baptist Church in downtown Doylestown
Time: 6 pm-ish to ??

tell your friends...

The God of All Comfort...

2007-07-09T13:12:00.000-04:00

All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.
~ 2 Corinthians 1:3–5 [The Message]

May we all be sensitive to ways that we can show our Savior's love through comforting dear Lois Hackman, Scott Camilleri and Judy VanHeemst and their families as they battle with cancer in the days ahead.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you, dear brothers and sisters...

Comfort from Nooma Lump

2007-07-08T20:49:00.000-04:00

A thought for comfort and reflection after viewing and discussing Rob Bell's Nooma Lump:

"There's nothing you could ever do to make Me love you less...Nothing. Nothing. Nothing!"
~ Rob Bell in Nooma Lump

I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. ~ Romans 8:38-40 [The Message]

NOOMA Lump 010 Rob Bell: Copyright 2005 by Flannel, P. O. Box 3228, Grand Rapids, MI 49501-3228. Published by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI 49530. www.nooma.com

Last night was a gift

2007-07-06T12:03:00.000-04:00

Last night was a gift,
In the way we share a meal,
A drink, A laugh and a prayer.

I love this community,
And I am ready to share it with the world.

The news of my mom has been hard,
But when I think of how this is an oppertunity,
For the Kingdom to be scene,
I get excitted.

You are the people I want to experience this part of life with.
People who will enter the awkward and not be moved.
People who will sit and be ok with silence.
People who will prayer and be ok with something other than their request.
This is a communit of faith I have dreamed of.

Thank you...

Bon Voyage Andrea!

2007-06-28T15:52:00.000-04:00

Dearest Andrea,

We all wish you safe travels as you embark on your international adventures. May your learning experiences be vast, interesting and exciting. Your exposure to history and other cultures will enrich your life and expand your worldview. May you have a keen sensitivity to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in wisdom and knowledge as you journey through these special weeks of your life. We send you off with our love and prayers for safe travels and many blessings!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Precious Lord Jesus Christ,

We come into Your presence with joy as we think of our dear sister, Andrea. We praise You for how You’ve worked in her heart and life and for the special blessing she is to our Living Room Community. We lay her gently at Your feet as she prepares to embark on a great journey. Lord, You know the anticipation and excitement of seeing and experiencing new countries, new cultures and new learning experiences. Please surround her, protect her, grow and stretch her as she paces through the adventures You have waiting for her. Please give her special protection by Your grace and mercy. Help her to sense Your continual presence; may she draw her strength from You. Teach her Your wisdom and Your ways as she moves through the days ahead. Please return her safely to her family, friends and Community refreshed and revitalized for the future.

All for Your honor and glory, Lord.
Amen. Alleluia.

A reminder of who we are...

2007-06-25T09:19:00.000-04:00

"In the New Testament the word 'saint' is applied to Christians generally. Being a Christian at all was extraordinary. Christians stood out sharply from their environment, regarded as something strange if not hostile. To the Christian the gospel really was a revelation; something unlooked for, something hitherto unknown. The life of Jesus had made us aware of how God is minded towards us, and the experience was life-changing, 'all things had become new'." (sacredspace.ie)

Thank you Living Room for being a community of people who is unknown and known. We are unknown to most of the world and yet known to one another. As we contextualize the Gospel, may we all be filled with Hope and Peace, a life changing meaning which goes beyond all reason.

Prayer for Today: 20 June 2007

2007-06-20T21:15:00.000-04:00

Precious Lord Jesus Christ,

You come to us in the midst of the mess and confusion of our lives. How desperately we need You to strengthen, guide and heal us. Please help us to trust you a little more today, to let go of one more thing we've been holding onto for security. You are all that matters; You are our First Love. Essence of mercy, compassion and grace please shower us with Your Holy Spirit today that we may be changed in experiencing You in a fresh, new way.

All for your honor and glory,

Amen. Alleluia.

Part 5: Our Faith Community

2007-06-19T09:08:00.000-04:00

They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.
Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.
They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.
~ Acts 2:42-47 [The Message]

I’m encouraged in the many ways that I see the members of our Living Room family naturally following the patterns of the Early Church. Real people showing real love and faith by:

Gathering for prayer and concerns as we share our burdens during “Inward / Outward”
Our commitments to community and the needs of those within the Living Room family
Our vision and actions to help those in need that touch our lives, both locally and throughout the world
Sharing the fellowship of a common meal together, gathering around tables and in groups to feed our bodies as well as our souls
Those precious times of worship when we pray together, sing together and share the Lord’s Supper together
We value each other and those around us in all aspects of our beings in a holistic way that allows for acceptance, respect and dignity. What a blessing!

We are showing ourselves to be counter-cultural by exhibiting the love, grace and forgiveness that Christ offers us to each other and those we come in contact with. We are taking off the masks and revealing who we really are — warts, stains and all, with the purpose of this openness being to show that life is not about us, but about Christ and His glory. Our ability to obey Christ’s directives and follow His example as true disciples comes from the impact and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives on a continual basis.

Are there ways that we could do more? Of course! This is not about us being prideful with a “look at me — I’ve arrived” attitude. It’s about encouraging each other to strengthen our faith and do good works with the assurance that God is at work through us.

May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!
~ Galatians 6:18 [The Message]

Part 4: A New Community

2007-06-15T12:01:00.000-04:00

One of the immediate changes that took place in the lives of the newly-converted Christians was the establishment of a new kind of community...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"For this reason, what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount was actually fulfilled in the early church, as were indeed all his words. Fellowship in His Word meant life-creating and life-shaping power. It meant the fellowship of being truly bound together in prayer and in the breaking of bread, of becoming a genuine community, embracing the whole of life. Christ came to gather His people, and thus when the Spirit descended, "All who had come to this faith remained together and had everything in common, and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need (Acts 2:44-45)....
What did the first believers experience? They experienced the kingdom of God — the revolution of all things and the revaluation of all values. They experienced the complete changing of all conidtions and all possibilities, the switching of all relationships in business, state, society, and everywhere. A completely different scale of values took effect, quite different from all other values that had existed so far. God became the highest value; he reigned and revealed himself. Christ replaced the other sovereignties; He swept away the power of lying, of impurity, and of murder, and instead of them the peace of God took hold. This was the expectation and experience of the original church-community....
In Jesus' resurrected presence, the invisible kingdom of God has become visible reality. The word had taken shape, love has become real. Jesus showed what love meant. His word and life proved that love knows no bounds. Love halts at no barrier. It can never be silenced, no matter what circumstances make it seem impossible to practice it. Nothing is impossible for the faith that springs from the fire of love...."
~Taken from "Spirit of Fire" from Innerland: A Guide into the Heart of the Gospel by Eberhard Arnold, Farmington, PA: Plough, 1999. Reprinted in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter. 2003, Plough Publishing House, Farmington, PA. pp 397-399.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Please realistically consider the following questions:

Are you so radically sold out on Christ that you would be willing to give up everything for His glory?
Are you willing to take the counter-cultural risks in community that the early Church did?
What are your concerns about this concept of community?

In the next posting, we will consider this community concept in light of our Living Room Conversations family.

Part 3: A Change of Heart

2007-06-14T13:09:00.000-04:00

Acts 2: 37-39 [The Message]
Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?"
Peter said, "Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Their first response surged from deep within their hearts: "What shall we do?" As a result, there came about a complete transformation of people's inner being,a reshaping of their lives, which was the very change of heart and conduct that John the Baptist had proclaimed. He had seen it as the first requirement for the great revolution to come, the turning upside down of everything. Personal rebirth could not be separated from this total transformation in Christ."
~Taken from "Spirit of Fire" by Eberhard Arnold, Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter. 2003, The Plough Publishing House, Farmington, PA., p. 397.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Although we are still sinners after God reveals His truth to us, the touch of the Holy Spirit should bring about a change in our hearts and minds. The change impacts our motives, our desires and where we focus our energies. It's not just about "me" anymore. Christ becomes bigger and more important to us than our own gratification.

Do you sense this touch of the Spirit in your life?
How have you seen this change work itself out?
If you haven't seen a change, what do you think is happening?
What do you want to happen?
Have you seen the touch of the Spirit in our Living Room Community?
If so, how?

Another Steven Curtis Chapman song from his Speechless CD came to mind as I was writing this:

The Change
{II Corinthians 5:17, 3:18}

Well I got myself a T-shirt that says what I believe
I got letters on my bracelet to serve as my ID
I got the necklace and the keychain
And almost everything a good Christian needs, yeah
I got the little Bible magnets on my refrigerator door
And a welcome mat to bless you before you walk across my floor
I got a Jesus bumper sticker
And the outline of a fish stuck on my car
And even though this stuff’s all well and good, yeah
I cannot help but ask myself

What about the change
What about the difference
What about the grace
What about forgiveness
What about a life that’s showing
I’m undergoing the change, yeah
I’m undergoing the change

Well I’ve got this way of thinking that comes so naturally
Where I believe the whole world is revolving around me
And I got the way of living that I have to die to every single day
‘Cause if God’s Spirit lives inside of me, yeah
I’m gonna live life differently

I’m gonna have the change
I’m gonna have the difference
I’m gonna have the grace
I’m gonna have forgiveness
I’m gonna live a life that’s showing
I’m undergoing the change.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

~2 Corinthians 5:15-20 [New International Version]

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Please share your thoughts and comments...

Part 2: The Passion of the Holy Spirit

2007-06-13T15:12:00.000-04:00

In reading Eberhard Arnold's essay entitled, "Spirit of Fire" in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, I was inspired to meditate on the concepts of the Holy Spirit enkindling God's Children with life-changing passion.

First, the Holy Spirit's power came upon the apostles with a fiery passion that produced an astounding response.

Second, the hearts of many of the listeners were also changed in response to the Holy Spirit's baptism of flames.

Third, the counter-cultural response included a new type of community living as a result of their experience with God.

In the days ahead we will discuss the second and third effects of the Spirit's movement. Today I'd like to address the first point:

What occurred that was so earth-shattering that God chose this mighty display of the Holy Spirit's power as a response?
Jesus Christ was what was so earth-shattering. He was the Messiah, the Deliverer from Death, who died as a sacrifice for our sins and was resurrected to break the power over death and Satan.

Why the passion?
A new kingdom had been established. Now life had renewed hope! God was alive and active!

What does the Holy Spirit reveal to us now?
The Spirit reveals our sin and inability to save ourselves when we look in a spiritual mirror, but the Spirit also extends to us the supreme grace of God in sending the One closed to His heart to be the sacrifice in our place...Love...Compassion...Mercy...Forgiveness...

Are you overwhelmed by this awesome grace? Are you flooded with gratitude?
I am reminded of the lyrics to Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Speechless":
SPEECHLESS
{Ephesians 2:4-7; I John 3:1; Psalm 66:1-5; Habakkuk 2:20}

Words fall like drops of rain
My lips are like clouds
I say so many things
Trying to figure You out
But as mercy opens my eyes
My words are stolen away
With this breathtaking view of Your grace.

And I am speechless, I’m astonished and amazed
I am silenced by Your wondrous grace
You have saved me
You have raised me from the grave
And I am speechless in Your presence now
I’m astounded as I consider how
You have shown us
A love that leaves us speechless.

So what kind of love could this be
That would trade heaven’s throne for a cross
And to think You still celebrate
Over finding just one who was lost
And to know You rejoice over us
The God of this whole universe
It’s a story that’s too great for words.

Oh, how great is the love
The Father has lavished upon us
That we should be called
The sons and the daughters of God

We are speechless, so amazed
[We stand in awe of Your grace]
[We stand in awe of Your mercy]
You have saved us
[We stand in awe of Your love]
From the grave
[We are speechless]

We are speechless in Your present now
[We stand in awe of Your cross]
We’re astounded as we consider how
[We stand in awe of Your power]
You have shown us
A love that leaves us speechless
[We are speechless]
I am speechless.

The Holy Spirit reveals God's truth in our hearts and minds. Different people respond in different ways, but respond we will.

How has the Holy Spirit touched you in revealing this truth of Christ's love and grace?

How do you experienced His grace in your life now?

How have you responded to these revelations from the Holy Spirit?

Are you embracing the passion of renewed hope and engagement with the Living God?

Do these concepts seem unrealistic to you?

Please share your thoughts and comments as we continue to consider the Acts 2 passage together.

Part 1: Pentecost and the New Beginning

2007-06-12T12:17:00.000-04:00

Acts 2 [The Message]
A Sound Like a Strong Wind

1-4 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.
5-11 There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn't for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, "Aren't these all Galileans? How come we're hearing them talk in our various mother tongues? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene; Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; Even Cretans and Arabs!"They're speaking our languages, describing God's mighty works!"
12 Their heads were spinning; they couldn't make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: "What's going on here?"
13 Others joked, "They're drunk on cheap wine."
Peter Speaks Up 14-21That's when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: "Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren't drunk as some of you suspect. They haven't had time to get drunk—it's only nine o'clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

"In the Last Days," God says,
"I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions,
your old men dream dreams.

When the time comes,
I'll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both,
and they'll prophesy.

I'll set wonders in the sky above
and signs on the earth below,
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Day of the Lord arrives,
the Day tremendous and marvelous;
And whoever calls out for help
to me, God, will be saved."

22-28 "Fellow Israelites, listen carefully to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly accredited by God to you—the miracles and wonders and signs that God did through him are common knowledge—this Jesus, following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned him to a cross and killed him. But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was no match for him. David said it all:

I saw God before me for all time.
Nothing can shake me; he's right by my side.
I'm glad from the inside out, ecstatic;
I've pitched my tent in the land of hope.

I know you'll never dump me in Hades;
I'll never even smell the stench of death.
You've got my feet on the life-path,
with your face shining sun-joy all around.

29-36 "Dear friends, let me be completely frank with you. Our ancestor David is dead and buried—his tomb is in plain sight today. But being also a prophet and knowing that God had solemnly sworn that a descendant of his would rule his kingdom, seeing far ahead, he talked of the resurrection of the Messiah—'no trip to Hades, no stench of death.' This Jesus, God raised up. And every one of us here is a witness to it. Then, raised to the heights at the right hand of God and receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out the Spirit he had just received. That is what you see and hear. For David himself did not ascend to heaven, but he did say,

God said to my Master, "Sit at my right hand

Until I make your enemies a stool for resting your feet."

"All Israel, then, know this: There's no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross."

37 Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?"
38-39 Peter said, "Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites."
40 He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, "Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!"

*********************
41-42 That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.
43-45 Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.
46-47 They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The impact of the truth that Jesus is the Messiah who died to pay the debt for our sins and break the power of death left the listeners astounded. "So now what do we do?," they exclaimed. Peter's response was clear and direct: "Change your life," he began and then elaborated on exactly how to do that.

The result was the establishment of the very first Christian Church Community. Their lives radically changed; they became truly counter-cultural.

In the days ahead, I want to look with you at our Living Room Conversations Community (including our blog guests) in light of the Early Church. Please consider meditating on this passage in preparation for our conversation.

Pacing Myself

2007-06-08T13:14:00.000-04:00

One of the principal concepts that has been reinforced to me during my current medical leave is that I need to pace myself. In the world of the 21st Century, the speed at which urgent and important demands comes at us seems to increase as the weeks and months go by. Perhaps you, like me, find this pace to be way too fast to be able to think through the consequences of our frantic actions and activities.

I'm the type of person who has very high expectations for myself and what I can accomplish in a day, week, or season. I pile too much on my plate and, along with all that work and life adds to that plate, I feel overwhelmed much of the time. I confess that this may be very much of a control issue. As I have had some time to rest and breathe recently, I've been considering how Christ never rushed during His life on earth. He worked and related consistently, ensuring that He was able to withdraw for that critical time of reflection and communion with the Father, trusting that He would accomplish the Father's Will in this world. This is the pattern I want to follow for my life. In the past week or so, preparing to go back to my full time job, my activity level has increased exponentially. I could feel the stress level beginning to build almost immediately. Thankfully, I stopped and considered the pattern of what was happening and took immediate action to reduce the amount of tasks for these days and pace myself in such a way that I could enjoy what I was doing and have time to think and reflect, as well. My prayer is that as I go back to work in another ten days, I will continue to follow Christ's example of this life-giving principle of pacing myself so that I may holistically be the person He wants me to be for His glory.

Does anyone else share this sense of rushing so fast you don't have time to think?

Please share your thoughts...

Prayer for Today: 7 June 2007

2007-06-07T11:53:00.001-04:00

Precious All-Powerful Lord,

The days have been so beautiful this week, warm and full of sunshine and breezes. Yet from sharing and speaking with some of your children this week, I have heard experiences of pain, confusion, anguish and discouragement. Holy Lord, we cry out to you for help! We desperately need you to come close to us and strengthen us. We want to honor You, trust You and obey You, but in the midst of the realities of our lives this feels as if we are climbing a mountain each day.

May your unending love and acceptance be real to us in the midst of our pain. May your mercy and compassion be evident to us in small and large ways this very day. Please renew our strength through the power of Your Holy Spirit.

Blessed Lord, come quickly to aid us that we may glorify You this day. Amen.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40: 28-32 [New International Version]

Illustration of God's Light

2007-06-04T12:59:00.000-04:00

In our pastor's discussion during Sunday morning class yesterday, he gave an illustration that I thought was very insightful. He equated God's light to a prism. As God sheds His pure, holy light down on us, His children here on earth, the light passes through the prism of our lives and refracts in such a way that it emanates the full spectrum of light to those around us—different aspects of light from different people shining on those in the community of faith and throughout the world community.

I thought that this illustration was quite beautiful and encouraging that each of us as individuals don't have to feel forced to be everything, perfectly or completely to share God's love and light with the community around us.

What do you think?

Prayer of Dedication

2007-05-31T12:56:00.000-04:00

Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours Pocket Edition provided some meaningful and inspiring devotional prayers and readings during our time of rest. I thought I'd share this prayer of dedication with all of you in hopes that it will touch your hearts and souls as it did mine.

"O Lord my God, to you and to your service I devote myself, body, soul, and spirit. Fill my memory with the record of your mighty works; enlighten my understanding with the light of your Holy Spirit; and may all the desires of my heart and will center in what you would have me do. Make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care, and let me by my life and speaking set forth your true and living Word. Be always with me in carrying out the duties of my salvation; in praises heighten my love and gratitude; in speaking of You give me readiness of thought and expression; and grant that, by the clearness and brightness of your holy Word, all the world may be drawn to your blessed kingdom. All this I ask for the sake of your Son, my Savior Jesus Christ. Amen."

Taken from The Divine Hours Pocket Edition compiled with an introduction by Phyllis Tickle. 2007, Oxford University Press, New York. p. 11.

Pamela Away for a Rest

2007-05-14T20:45:00.000-04:00

Hello All.

Just a quick line to let you know that I will not be posting again until the end of May, as I will be away from home for a much-needed rest.

Blessings and peace to you all. You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Nouwen's Thoughts on Christ's Servanthood

2007-05-04T20:15:00.000-04:00

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
~John 13: 1–5 [NIV]

In a devotional reading which I recently came across, Henri Nouwen talked about the fulfillment of Christ's command to serve one another in His name. Nouwen writes:

"....I was struck again by the way Jesus concluded his active life. Just before entering on the road of his passion he washed the feet of his disciples and offered them his body and blood as food and drink. These two acts belong together. They are both an expression of God's determination to show us the fullness of his love. Therefore, John introduces the story of Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet with the words: 'Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end' (John 13:1).

What is even more astonishing is that on both occasions, Jesus commands us to do the same. After washing his disciples' feet, Jesus says, 'I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you' (John 13:15). After giving himself as food and drink, he says, 'Do this in remembrance of me' (Luke 22:19). Jesus calls us to continue his mission of revealing the perfect love of God in this world. He calls us to total self-giving. He does not want us to keep anything for ourselves. Rather, he wants our love to be as full, as radical, and as complete as his own. He wants us to bend ourselves to the ground and touch the places in each other that most need washing. He also wants us to say to each other, 'Eat of me and drink of me.' By this complete mutual nurturing, he wants us to become one body and one spirit, united by the love of God."

If we are to take Christ's words and Nouwen's interpretation of them seriously, this represents a radical, all-encompassing focus of our lives in service to Christ first, and also to others on a continual basis. Christ challenges us with his greatest of commands. He says in Mark 12:29-31:

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

What impact does this concept have on our Living Room Family? So many of us are talking about ways to minister to others in need, we are committing more and more of our time, energies, and finances to practical ways of caring for others.

Are there areas of our personal lives where we are holding back from service for Christ?
Are we afraid to trust Him with every aspect of our lives?
Are we willing to step outside our comfort zone and "get down and dirty" for the sake of Christ?
What does this total servanthood concept look like to each of you in your personal lives?

Radical • Transforming • Servant Attitude •
Going Deeper • Risk • Growth • Care • Love •
The Fruit of the Spirit flourishing every day in our lives

Quote taken from Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, 2003, The Plough Publishing House, Farmington, PA. pp. 377-380. Henri Nouwen, "Jesus Gives All," from The Road to Daybreak, by Henri Nouwen, copyright 1988 by Henri J. M. Nouwen. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.; and from Walk with Jesus: Stations of the Cross. Maryknoll NY. Orbis Books, 1990. Used by permission.

Praying without Speaking

2007-05-03T17:09:00.000-04:00

As part of our conversation on prayer last Sunday evening, we were mentioning praying "outside the box" of speaking using language. Since God is All-knowing, All-present, and All-powerful, He can read our minds, feel the emotions of our hearts, and communicate with us in ways that transcend language.

For instance, if we simply visualize whoever our concern is for, feeling the emotions of that concern with all its complications, and then continue the visualization of laying this person at the feet of God's throne, the prayer is offered in a powerful way that is not limited to finding the right words to explain the whole situation. Yet, our Almighty Father understands every nuance of what we are communicating and beyond.

Another idea was to take the stresses and concerns that are on our hearts and minds, visualize a gently flowing stream that leads to the ocean of God's power and take each indivual concern and mentally lay it on a leaf as it floats by in your mind on it's way to God. Release the care to God as it floats away toward Him.

Offering our lives as a form of prayer was also discussed enthusiastically. Every aspect of who we are and what we do is to be for God's glory. Therefore, all that we think, do, don't do, or say is a form of prayer and active communication with God.

In obeying the command to "pray without ceasing," we can offer every dimension of our lives in a form of stream of consciousness thinking and acting that keeps the communiction pathway to God open and constant.

Blessings to you all as we live and communicate with our loving Heavenly Father.

Spirituality and Prayer

2007-05-02T08:47:00.000-04:00

This was our conversation from last Sunday evening, led by Darryl Lang:

True Confessions About Prayer
Or Things I’ve Heard, Thought about, Observed about Prayer

Most people I’ve talked to confess that they don’t pray enough, or they’re generally dissatisfied with their prayer life (such as it is). They may feel guilty about it, but don’t know what to do about it.

Dissatisfaction may look like not having enough time to pray, may be listening to our own prayers that sound like shopping lists, or may look like praying about individual things only and neglecting the community and the world.

Prayer meetings at churches and retreats are often frustrating and discouraging.

I wish I recorded more answers to prayer;
it would remind me that God hears and prayer matters.

I don’t think that there are any magic answers or formulas for a meaningful prayer life, but there are many helpful tools that Christians are rediscovering.

There are prayer warriors who talk to God as their best friend, but they are rare. That may be changing…

Prayer seems to be a “discipline,” and yet it can be spontaneous.

Not getting answers to your prayers is confusing, angering, and mysterious; sometime you feel all of this at once.

Maybe God wants relationship with us and that becomes our motivation to pray
and keep praying.

“When I pray, coincidences happen; when I stop praying,
the coincidences stop happening.”
~ Archbishop William Temple

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
~Luke 18:1-8 [NLT]

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
~ Matthew 7:7-11 [NLT]

Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.”

But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.”

Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.”
But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”

Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.”

“Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.
~ Matthew: 15:21-28 [NLT]

Prayer makes us insiders...

"I have learned that prayer is not asking for what you think you want,
but asking to be changed in ways that you can’t imagine."
~ Kathleen Norris

“Personal communion in conversation does not depend on exchanging information; it does not even depend on hearing a response. Personal communion is a matter of being together and talking about the things that matter most. The deepest and oldest friends commune in this way…. We do not pray to tell God what He does not know, nor to remind Him of things He has forgotten. He already cares for the things we pray about; His attention to them has never flagged from the beginning, and His understanding is unfathomable. He has simply been waiting for us to care about them with Him.”
~ Tim Stafford

I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.
~John 15:15

"Prayer is one of the main agencies through which we are brought to understand the mind of Christ toward our particular mission and the work of the Kingdom in general.
The establishment of the Kingdom of God is an elusive task; we cannot even see what it involves without specific prayer, and we certainly will have little urgency to carry it out unless we are praying."
~ Richard Lovelace

What might this mean for the Living Room Community?
You are invited to post your thoughts…

The Power of Forgiveness

2007-05-01T07:10:00.000-04:00

This devotional reading by Johann Christoph Arnold on the power of forgiveness had quite an impact on me when I read it last night. As many of you struggle with forgiving certain people who have deeply wronged us, I thought that I might share some of the text with you in hopes that it would affect your heart as it has mine...

"To forgive is not just a command of Christ but the key to reconciling all that is broken in our lives and relationships. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.:

'Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkenss to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction...Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity.'

I have lived long enough to learn that failure to forgive leads down a path of descruction — of bitterness, self-hate, alienation, relentless cycles od conflict, and downright misery. But forgiveness can vanquish all such pain. Why else did Jesus command us to forgive? It can heal both the forgiver and the forgiven. In fact, it could change the world if we allowed it to. But too often we stand in its way, not daring to let it flow through us unchecked. If only we would dare!

When Christians do put Christ's command into practice by forgiving, they create a ripple effect that can touch thousands of lives and even affect the course of history....

When we forgive we set ourselves free from the demon of bitterness. But we also set loose the power of love in the world."

If I say, "Yes, I forgive, but I cannot forget," as thought he God, who twice a day washes all the sands on all the shores of all the world, could not wash such memories from my mind, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
~ Amy Carmichael

Taken from Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, 2003, The Plough Publishing House, Farmington, PA. pp. 361-364.

A Meditation on Christ's Resurrection

2007-04-30T08:33:00.000-04:00

Reading a devotional essay by Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, I was struck by the following passages:

In speaking of new life in Christ, Blumhardt writes,

"It is not at all a question of being better than you were before. The new life means that forces for life can now be seen within you, that something of God and of heaven, something holy, can grow in you. It means we can actually see that it is no longer the sinful desires that have power, but Christ's resurrection, and his life, which leads you toward wholeness.

What is God's kingdom anyway? Certainly not Christian causes or institutions. God's kingdom is the power of God. It is the rulership of God. God's kingdom is the revelation of the divine life here on earth, the birth of new hearts, new minds, new feelings, new possibilities. This is God's kingdom.

Jesus has come from God to triumph over death. Jesus Christ has come into our midst as one of us so that death can be conquered. He has laid the foundation for a completely new life, a new order. In him we can become completely different men and women in the very depth of our beings....

People may say they believe this [the resurrection]....This believe is of no help unless you and I experience Jesus as Lord....

New possibilities can dawn on us, and the more we sense these new possiblities, either in our bodies or in our souls, the more we can ask for, the more we can look for higher and greater things here on earth. Actually, there are no limits. And for this reason we can bring hope into everything, into our daily life, into everything at which we work and into anything that we touch. The power that comes from God is ready to be brought into our human situation, and in such a way as to transform it."

What powerful, impacting words these are to my heart!

The crowning evidence that Jesus was alive was not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.
~ Clarence Jordan

Taken from Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, 2003, The Plough Publishing House, Farmington, PA. pp. 350-355.

Spiritual Journal: Silent Retreat Entry III

2007-04-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

Precious Lord,

I am afraid to go back to my regular life. There are so many aspects of my life that You want me to yield to You... Lord, I am willing, please help my unwillingness. There is nothing greater in life than loving, enjoying, and serving You. There are just so many issues and areas of my life that need to be laid at Your feet. I know that this weekend is only a beginning and that we will continue to work on these issues in the days and weeks ahead. I’m just afraid, dear precious Lord, that I am going to crowd You out of my life with the busyness of all that is in my life right now.

Please help me to lay this issue before Your feet right now...

“…peace that transcends all understanding…— Philippians 4:7

Spiritual Journal: Silent Retreat Entry II

2007-04-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

I love you, Lord...
Yes, I do love you, Lord, more than anything or anyone else...
I truly love You, Lord, as my First Love...
May You always hold this place in my heart, my mind, and my soul.

I want to keep You in Your rightful place in my life — as my First Love. I know that we need to work through this issue this weekend, Lord. I know some of the idols that this entails breaking down. I’m fearful of the emotional pain, of letting go of what I can see and hear and feel to trust You completely. Yet I already feel Your comfort and peace by the special care You have shown me as I’ve begun this weekend. It was as if You were just waiting for me to come away and spend time with You. You do care for me, precious Abba. How much I need Your love to heal my aching heart. You know all of the heartaches and the fears. Thank You that You love me despite my failings and my sinfulness. You have been so incredibly good to me to love me so much. Bless You, Holy Yahweh, forever and ever.

Later…
May every pain and heartache that I feel point me back to You. May my physical hunger remind me of the deep hunger that my soul had for You in my life. You are everything pure and holy, Lord. You are the essence of love, of mercy, of grace, of compassion, of kindness, of righteousness, of creativity, of beauty. You are the ultimate, the Master of the Universe. Everything exists for Your glory. I exist for You and for Your glory. You have a predetermined purpose for every experience of my life. Your purposes for me are eternal. Please help me to treat myself in a manner worthy of Your glory, worthy of Your high calling. Please help me to treat others in a manner that reflects Your glory and all of Your attributes.

Spiritual Journal: Silent Retreat

2007-04-27T07:21:00.000-04:00

It is 9:45 p.m. on the first night of my first silent retreat and already You have reminded me and taught me many things. The fruit of the spirit[1] is all nine aspects in one concatenated fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control[2]. You are the Originator and Author (Creator) of the Fruit; You are the one who gives it life and causes it to grow. What I need to do is cultivate opportunities for growth by making myself open and available to You.

You’ve also taught me that You want me living and ministering to those who don’t know You. That being spiritual is not defined by living solely in a Christian commune or private cocoon.

You’ve taught me that even though I sometimes get a little lost or confused, You provide help in a variety of creative ways to point me in the right direction: by asking for help, by someone offering assistance, by trying an unknown path only to find a solution to my present dilemma but one that I didn’t even know I had yet (parking).You’ve shown me how empty I am when I don’t allow You to nourish me and fill me[3]. You’ve shown me from Psalm 23 that You lead me, You restore me, and You guide me. It is You who is in control — not me. May this weekend of silence with You be a time when I begin to let You lead me, let You restore me, and let You guide me. You want so much more for me than where I am at spiritually right now. Please help me to trust You and yield everything to You.

[1] Charles Zimmerman’s BWB tape on the Introduction to the Fruit of the Spirit
[2] Galatians 5:22-23; John 15
[3] Darryl’s reminder of C. John Miller’s words: “One look at my sin; ten looks at Christ.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Psalm 23: A psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.

Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.

Surely your goodness and
unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord
forever.

[New Living Translation (NLT) ]Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.

Spiritual Journal: A New Adventure

2007-04-26T17:41:00.000-04:00

Abba — Yahweh — Yeshua — I AM – LORD...

Today is a new adventure that You are taking with me.
As my Abba Father, You are not only with me,
You are guiding every aspect of the adventure.
The outcome has already been assured through Christ.

• Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
~ II Corinthians 5:17
• And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
~ Matthew 28:20b
• And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
~ Romans 8:28
• Eternal life and victory over sin have been assured through Christ. Live in His righteousness.

Life is messy. God knew that because of sin, it would be this way. He took care of all of my sin through Christ. I am free! I now live in grace, not under the Law.

• Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
~ Matthew 11:28-30
• For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will — to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
~ Ephesians 1:4-8
• How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
~ I John 3:1a

Jesus' Care for Women

2007-04-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

Dear Living Room Family,

I have been using Ken Gire’s Intimate Moments with the Savior for my devotional reading recently. There are several that have stood out for me this time as I’ve read each intimate moment: the woman at the well, Mary and Martha, the woman caught in the act of adultery, and Mary anointing Jesus' feet with perfume.

Jesus offered the woman at the well, who had had four husbands and was currently living with a man, His living water. He knew what her heart was searching and longing for.

Although Martha was the one who worked like a dog to make sure everything was in order and well-prepared, it was Mary who sat at Jesus’ feet and communed with Him, that our Lord commended as making the better choice.

Although the Law that God gave condemns the act of adultery as a capital offense, Jesus would not condemn this guilty woman for her sin. He entreated her accusers to look at themselves and see the sin in their own lives and understand that we are all sinners worthy of death before a holy God.

Mary — perceptive Mary. Seeing with her heart what all of the disciples missed. Jesus was about to go to his death and she understood this. She saw the compassion and pain in Jesus’ eyes and heart. She knew Jesus in a way the disciples completely missed. The questions that Ken Gire asks are the questions I am asking myself today:

– How much clearer could Jesus speak to you?
– What are you thinking?
– Do you ignore His words?
– Dismiss them?
– Forget them?
– Hear only what you want to hear?
– Are the words too painful that you suppress them?
– Is your mind too occupied with your own agenda that
you have lost sight of your King?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Precious Yeshua,

Everything my heart longs for is found in You. You love me, show compassion and mercy on me, and understand me in a far deeper way than I can ever perceive. Please open my heart to You. Please help me not to be afraid to trust You with my heart. Please help me to make wise choices that would put You first in my life and in my heart. I do want to hear You speaking to me. I do want to think clearly – spiritually. I do not want to ignore Your words or dismiss them or forget them. Please give me the strength to hear all of what You tell me, not just what I think you are saying. Help me not to be afraid to embrace You. Please strengthen me to engage in the battle for my mind so that You would be first in my thoughts, my priorities, my service, and every aspect of my life.

I love you, Lord.... Please help me to love you more.

No doubts...

2007-04-24T15:17:00.000-04:00

Any doubts that may have ever loomed inside my head about God's love for me have been squelched.

Thank you, Father.

Spiritual Journal: Precious Names

2007-04-24T09:00:00.000-04:00

LORD [I AM]...
Abba [Daddy, Father]...
Yeshua...
First Love...
Comforter...
Friend...

He speaks to my heart and says...

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
~ Matthew 11:28

Spiritual Journal: Seeking Fulfillment

2007-04-23T12:27:00.000-04:00

Dearest Abba:

You are again pursuing me and calling me to Yourself. As I look at yet another work project that needs to be viewed as “just business,” I am angry and deeply hurt and disillusioned about what I am doing with my life. I am trying so desperately to give my life meaning and fulfillment. Yet I know that I am seeking in the wrong direction. I need to turn to You. Your goals, Your purposes, your glory are what give life meaning, not corporations or business in itself.

Dear Lord, please help me to gain an eternal perspective. Please help me to do what is right for the right reasons. I cannot look to people to supply my needs or give my life meaning. You are able to give my life more meaning than I can fathom; the depth, the richness, the perception, and the quality and meaning that I am desperately seeking for in life are found in You in quantities so big I cannot comprehend them.

Please open my eyes to see You, Lord, in fresh ways, in new ways, in big ways.
Please guide my faltering steps toward You...

Worshiping You, Lord...

2007-04-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

You are omnipotent; You are all-powerful.
You are omniscient; You know everything about everything.
You are omnipresent; You are everywhere.
Nothing escapes Your knowledge, Your power, Your presence, Your notice.
You always were, You are, and You will always be; You are truly eternal.
You are the same yesterday, today, and forever.
From You, I can know that Your love will always be the same for all eternity.
You have already gained complete victory over Satan through the cross and resurrection.

You are more loving than I can ever imagine.
You are more merciful and compassionate that I can ever perceive.
You have more patience than I will ever be able to test.
Your forgiveness is more complete than any amount of sin I will ever commit.
You care more deeply about me than the deepest ocean.
You are more breathtaking than the Grand Canyon,
more powerful than the Sun,
more awesome than all the stars in the night sky,
and yet You are also gentler than a quiet mountain stream.
You are perfectly just in all that You do.
You never change.

You are always eager to commune with me.
You want me;
You value me.
You treasure me.
You have proven it to me through your ultimate Sacrifice.

Majesty • Power • Dominion • Authority •
Praise • Glory • Wisdom • Holiness

Spiritual Journal: It Matters...

2007-04-21T07:21:00.000-04:00

It matters…

that You know everything that I think and feel
that You know how hard I try
that You know how hard it is for me to face certain things
that You know how hard it is for me to do certain things
that You know the motivations of my heart
that You know my good intentions
that You know every pinprick and needle of pain
that I have in my heart
that You know everything that is on my plate
that You know everything that I’m going through
that You love me more than I can imagine
that You continue to pursue me constantly
that You will never let go of me
that You want to be with me now and for all eternity
that You have chosen me before You created this Earth to be Yours
that You want deep, intimate relationship with me
that You care more deeply that I can ever image about every aspect
of who I am and what is going on in my life
that You want me to be creative in my relationship with You.

It all matters very deeply to me, Lord.

You matter...

Spiritual Journal: Being Deeply Loved

2007-04-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

What do I think it would feel like to be deeply loved?

I would have a strong sense of personal worth or value, a deep sense of well-being, and a feeling of security that was not based on my performance.

Dear friend…
the love that God has already given you
encompasses all of these things…
and more.
It is His love you long for;
it is His love you have.

The Almighty Lord of the Heavens, who always was, is, and will be forever, knows exactly who I am. He knows how many hairs are on my head and how many cells are in my body. He knows my every thought and feeling. He knows how deeply I hurt and how creative my dreams are. He chose me to be His child and His marriage partner before the Earth was formed. He knew all of my sinfulness and my emotional needs and He wanted me to be His own even with all of that. Christ gave up heaven to come and die in my place so that I could be with Him for all eternity; there is no greater security than this. I am an adopted child of the Almighty Father — a co-heir with the King of Kings; there is no greater worth than this. God has assured me that He works all things together for my good; there is no greater sense of well being than this. All this and abundantly more than I can ever imagine are mine already because I have trusted in Christ for my righteousness.

I am most assuredly deeply loved.

Spiritual Journal: Prayer of Repentance

2007-04-19T07:21:00.000-04:00

This prayer from many years ago seems to reverberate with truth that continues to be a struggle for me as well as many others who have shared their hearts with me. Let us all take encouragement from the grace and forgiveness of the King of Kings!

Dear Lord,

As I have been editing this spiritual writing project, You have been showing me so many of my sinful strategies. There was a time when I felt that no one thought like me, but now I see that we are all alike in our sinfulness. Thank you for opening my eyes.

Lord, I confess to you that I have been actively pursuing my own track of self-righteousness and self-fulfillment, especially these past few months. I have ordered my whole life around seeking the attention and approval of other people. I have been trying to feed off of the approval of my co-workers, and I have expended great amounts of time, money, and energy to try and obtain this approval. I confess also that I am not sure right now whether any of what I have done in the past months has any merit for Your glory. I am so sorry, Lord. Please forgive me and help me to move forward serving others for Your sake, rather than trying to manipulate them.

Dear Lord, I am seeing so much of my sin, but at the same time, I am seeing that in Christ, I am declared righteous. Thank you, Jesus! Lord, I confess that this problem will not be going away overnight. I have been living like a spiritual orphan for many years. Please help me to start living like a daughter of the King of Kings. Please help me not to be afraid to look at my life, my motives, my attitudes, or my actions to see what my strategies are. Please help me to understand what you want me to do and please give me the strength to do it.

Thank you, Lord, for being so loving, gracious, and forgiving!

My Lord, My Knight

2007-04-18T07:12:00.000-04:00

You are my Knight in Shining Armor.
You are the "and they lived happily ever after"
at the end of my life story.
You are the climax to every story:
courage, excitement, strength, skill, power,
knowledge, wisdom, compassion, caring, mercy.
All of life rotates with You as the axis.
You are the pivotal figure in history;
all events led up to Your coming and now
all is forever changed because You came.
All hope focuses on You;
all of MY hope focuses on You.
You are everything that I long for deep in my soul.
You are LIFE itself.

Do You Love Me, Lord?

2007-04-17T16:03:00.000-04:00

Do you love me, Lord?
Yes, I love you, dear child of mine.

Very much?
More than you can ever imagine.
I await the day when I shall give you your true name,
known only to Me.
(Revelation 2:17)

Will Your love for me ever change?
Never; not for all of eternity.
I chose you, dear child, before I created the world to be mine —
not only as my daughter, but as my bride.
I love you more completely, more intimately than any human being ever could.
And I will continue to love you this way forever.
My love for you is not dependent upon your performance.
I love you for who you are.
I know everything about you.
You don't need to hide.
You don't need to be afraid.
I gave my life for you.
You are that much of a treasure to me.
Remember, you are deeply loved, completely forgiven,
fully pleasing, totally acceptable, and complete in Me.
Always and forever,
Abba.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.

~ Ephesians 3:16-20 [NLT]

Real Love

2007-04-16T10:07:00.000-04:00

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
~ I Corinthians 13: 4-7 [NIV]

Precious Lord,

We are humbled before You this day as we read this description of what real love is. Apart from You we are far from what we should be. Those around us who don't know You do not know how to love purely. Lord, as we walk through our days, please help us to keep these guidelines in view and draw on the love You have lavished on us to show that love to those around us. You are our Creator, our Advocate, our Strength, and our Guide. We love You and desire to honor You this day.

In Jesus precious name,
Amen.

Spiritual Journal: Recommitment

2007-04-15T13:27:00.000-04:00

This is an entry for my spiritual journal from almost seven years ago. I thought that perhaps some of the thoughts expressed within might resonate with our Living Room family:

Dearest Abba,

You have held my hand throughout my first business trip to New York City. I’ve counted fifty new experiences and You have been with me through them all. You protected me and gave me courage.
Thank You so much!

Lord, You know all of the changes that have been happening in my mind and in my life in the past several years. You knew that these things would come about at this time in my life. I perceive that I am blossoming as a person in many ways. Yet, I know that, at the same time, some of these changes have brought about deep struggles with sinful desires that seem to gratify myself alone. Even though I’m changing, I am still a child of God who struggles with sin. You know all the sinful tendencies in my life. I confess them to You and plead for forgiveness through Christ. I know that nothing I do in myself can earn me any favor with You. It is Christ’s sacrifice for my sin that pays for my forgiveness. Thank you for Your incredible grace and mercy to me!

You have been so patient with me through all of my intense struggles, especially those of the past six months. Abba, I know that You are to be my First Love. You are to be the center of my life, my one and only God. I come to You asking that You would help that to be true of my life from now on. You know the deep needs and emotions that I struggle with. Your love and care for me is deeper than anything that I can imagine. Please help me to understand more of Your love for me. Open my heart and my mind to You. Human relationships will always have an element of disappoint for me because, at best, they are only a faulty reflection of who You are. I am Your child. I live for Your glory. You desire a relationship with me that will last for eternity.

Lord, I understand that the decisions I make on a moment-by-moment basis each day matter to You. I have been making some unwise, sinful decisions designed to gratify my own desires and not Yours. Please help me to make wiser, spiritually stronger decisions to live a more holy life before You. Please give me strength, even when I perceive the decision to be very hard for me.

Abba, I recommit my life to You. You are my Father, my Savior, my Bridegroom, my Friend. You alone are holy. I acknowledge that even though other desires are very strong, they are not what You want for me. Please help me not to distort the good gifts you have given to me. Please give me insight and perception to be able to know what I must do to live for Your glory. Then, please give me the strength to act in a godly way. Please open my mind and my heart as I reflect on the changes taking place in my life. Keep me on the path that glorifies You. Thank you that You hear me and that You care so deeply. I love you, Lord. I bless you, Lord, both now and forever.
Amen.

Journaling a Message from the Lord

2007-04-14T07:30:00.000-04:00

This is what your Lord is saying to you, dear follower of Christ:

You are loved beyond your wildest dreams...really...right now...forever.
Your arms will not be empty forever.
Your heart will not ache forever...I will dry your tears.
Your deepest longings will be satisfied more completely than you can imagine.
There is more wealth and security waiting for you than you could ever imagine.
Have you taken the time to conceptualize what it means to be My daughter —
the daughter of the King of Kings?
Do you have any idea how much positive, loving attention I want to give you
all of the time?...right now? I am so eager to be with you.
I look forward to your coming to Me.
Everything that attracts you to your spouse is found in Me.
Everything that attracts you to your friends is found in Me.
I want to give you new and better thoughts and dreams...right now…and forever.
I will fulfill all of your wildest dreams and desires…
deeper love than you’ve ever known...joy beyond comprehension...
peace that transcends understanding.
I can heal you more completely than you thought possible.
I will never, ever leave you or reject you.
Open your heart to Me. Trust Me...by faith.
I am right here...now and always.

"For I know the plans I have for you, dearest," declares the Lord. "Plans toprosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Thenyou will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. Youwill seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." ~ Jeremiah 29:11-13

Samplings from Psalm 139

2007-04-13T10:03:00.000-04:00

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord....
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.
~ Samplings from Psalm 139 [NIV]

Most Precious Abba Father,
How glorious it is to know that we are surrounded by Your presence and Your love this day.
Lord, we are nothing without You, yet we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Thank you, Lord, for the mighty inner strength that you give us day by day.
Please continue to provide our daily bread in the physical, emotional, and spiritual realm.

We trust You for everything...
We love You always...
Lord, we believe; please help our unbelief...
Amen.

Reflections: A Heart for God

2007-04-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.
Do not banish me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me again the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you.
~ Psalm 51: 10-12 [NIV]

********************************
Here is my heart, O God,
here it is with all its secrets;
look into my thoughts, O my hope,
and take away all my wrong feelings:
let my eyes ever be on you
and release my feet from the snare.

~St. Augustine from The Confessions, New York: Random House, Copyright 1997 Augustinian Heritage Institute.
*********************************

Precious Savior,
as we give our hearts to you this day,
may you fill us with your Light and Love.
May we shine that light and show that love
to all around us today and throughout the remainder of this week.

For Your Glory, Amen.

A Prayer for Today...

2007-04-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;
knit my heart to you that I may fear your Name.
I will thank you, O LORD my God, with all my heart,
and glorify your Name for evermore.
For great is your love toward me....
~ Psalm 86:11ff [NIV]

Almighty Yahweh,
In you we live and move and have our being, we humbly ask that you would guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our lives we would not forget you. May we remember that we are ever walking in your sight and that nothing we do or say or think is hidden from you. Even a kind thought or word of encouragement to someone else means so much to your glory. May we show your love and kindness today and throughout the rest of the weekend.

In the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Alleluia.

Not Just Another Day...

2007-04-10T08:47:00.000-04:00

Precious Abba Father,

Today is not just another day, but a new day—a day when new things will happen that have never happened before. For your children, this can be a very fearful experience because we cannot see the future, or a very discouraging experience because we desperately want circumstances to improve. Yet, Lord, we come to you in faith this morning, viewing this new day as an adventure in safety because we are in the all-powerful hands of Almighty God. Please surround us, protect us, and guide us as we strive to live for Your glory this day.

All for your glory,
Alleluia.
Amen.

As This Day Starts...

2007-04-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

Precious Lord,

We come before you again this morning blessing Your Name. Some days start with a blessing and some start as a battle. Whatever our day holds for each of us today, I pray Your presence and strength for each of us. Help us to renew our heart commitment to love You first and foremost. May our interactions with those around us reflect Your Light and Your Peace this day.

For Jesus sake,
Amen.

St. Augustine on Christ

2007-04-07T12:25:00.000-04:00

"The Maker of man was made man, that the Ruler of the stars might suck at the breast; that the Bread might be hungered; the Fountain, thirst; the Light, sleep; the Way, be wearied by the journey; the Truth, be accused by false witnesses; the Judge of the living and the dead, be judged by a mortal judge; the Chastener, be chastised with whips; the Vine, be crowned with thorns; the Foundation, be hung upon the tree; strength, be made weak; Health, be wounded; life, die. To suffer these and suchlike things, undeserved things, that He might free the undeserving, for neither did He deserve any evil, who for our sakes endured so many evils, nor were we deserving of anything good, we who through Him received such good."

~St. Augustine from The Confessions, New York: Random House, Copyright 1997 Augustinian Heritage Institute.

"If It Were Not for the Cross..."

2007-04-06T20:55:00.000-04:00

"I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as "God on the Cross." In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us."
~John Stott

Taken from Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter. 2003, Farmingham, PA: The Plough Publishing House. p. 156.

Praying with St. Augustine

2007-04-06T09:33:00.000-04:00

Precious Lord God of Heaven:

We praise You for your abundant grace and mercy to us...what a miraculous gift!

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Setting us Free

When we confess our wretchedness to you
and acknowledge your mercy to us,
we are revealing your love for us,
so that, as you have begun,
so you may complete the task of setting us free
that we may cease to be unhappy in ourselves
and become happy in You;
for You have called us...
to become poor in spirit,
to be meek and to mourn,
to hunger and thirst for justice,
to be merciful, pure in heart,
and authors of peace.
~ St. Augustine

Compiled by Valeria Boldoni, Translated by Paula Clifford, Praying with Augustine. 1997, London: SPCK, Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone Road, NW1 4DU, "Setting Us Free", p 44.
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May we reflect these attributes of Your Shining Glory as we remember Christ's death on the cross for us this day.

For Jesus' precious sake, Amen.
Alleluia.

Good morning, Lord

2007-04-05T09:37:00.000-04:00

Early in the morning I cry out to You, for in Your Word is my trust.
~ Psalm 119:147 [NIV]

Good morning, Lord,

We praise You...we bless You...we magnify Your Holy Name. You are the Master of the Universe; may You also be the Master of our hearts. As we begin this new day, please help us to live with You as our First Love. May the words that we speak, the work that we do, the thoughts and emotions of our minds and hearts bring you pleasure and glory. You have showered us with Your grace and mercy. We are free from the punishment of sin because of You. May we live the truth of Your Word and shine as a light to all around us today and throughout our lives.

In the name of our precious risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Alleluia!

Beneath Thy Cross

2007-04-04T19:46:00.000-04:00

Beneath Thy Cross
by Christina Rossetti

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon —
I, only I.

Yet give not o'er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Christina Rossetti, "Beneath Thy Cross," from Poems: Feasts and Fasts. London: Fount Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.

A Fresh Look

2007-04-04T19:33:00.000-04:00

Be still and know that I am God...
Be still and know that I AM...
Be still and know...
Be still...
Be...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Being still, quieting our hearts, coming to know more and more
the Great I AM...
We are nothing before Him; We are nothing without Him;
We can do all things through Him...
He has chosen us, adopted us, given us a place of total acceptance and security in
His Son...

There is no box, no mindset, no structure that can contain or restrain the vastness of God. Therefore, let us give ourselves permission to know Him in ways that are "outside the box" for us. What attributes and character traits do you long for in your most meaningful human relationships? Look at Christ; search the Scriptures; consider how God reveals Himself to you in these very character traits and relational ways. Remember that He is the very essence of love, truth, compassion, tenderness and faithfulness. He lived here; he suffered here; he died here; he conquered death here...

Pursue and view the Messiah in a fresh, new way this Holy Week.

Blessings and peace to you all.

Confessing our Weakness

2007-04-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come...

Precious Father,
As we come before you this day, we confess our sinfulness and our weakness to You. We pray that you would forgive our sins and our fears. Lord, help us to so completely trust You that we are willing to relinquish all the other gods and idols that we nurse and cherish in our lives. Lord, sometimes we are so afraid to let go because we are afraid You will say "no" to our hearts' deepest desires. Please help us to believe in the depths of our hearts that You are for us in all things.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
~ Romans 8:28 [NIV]

In Your Precious, Holy Name,
Amen.
Alleluia.

Praise for Renewal

2007-04-03T13:00:00.000-04:00

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
All my inmost being, praise His holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits—
Who forgives all your sins
And heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from the pit
And crowns you with love and compassion,
Who satisfies your desires with good things
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
~ Psalm 103: 1-5 [NIV]

We bless You, we praise You, we magnify Your holy name this day, precious Lord. You are what we live for and what we long for. Please help us to stream of heart and mind-consciousness flowing continually toward you as we live and work this week. Renew and refresh us just as we see the beauty of the renewing Spring around us.

You are awesome, holy Lord, and we love you forever.

Please strengthen us to shine the glory of your light to those around us this day.

For Jesus' sake,
Amen.

For the Longing Heart

2007-04-02T21:25:00.000-04:00

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
~ Psalm 42: 1-2 [NIV]

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O Lord...
how awesome you are! How all-powerful and ever-present with us. How desperately we need you to give us mighty spiritual and physical strength moment by moment. No matter what circumstances surround us, Lord, may we be at peace with you. As we see Your glory reflected in the lives of those we care about, please help us to know that the love we experience is only a dim reflection of Your great love for us. And at times when we are discouraged, please remind us of our treasured hope in You.
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Why are you downcast, o my soul? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.
~ Psalm 42:5 [NIV]

Bless your Holy Name, Lord God.
Alleluia.

A Prayer for Your Burdened Hearts

2007-04-01T21:20:00.000-04:00

My dear friends,

You are all on my mind and heart in a very special way tonight. From conversing with some of you throughout the past week or two, I have learned of the burdens, trials, and heartaches that you are living through. My heart is filled with concern and care for your situations....

As I think of you, I have been praying for you in a special way. For those who are facing painful relationship issues, for those who are struggling with fears and concerns for the future, for those who are overwhelmed with the concerns and burdens of life, my love and prayers are with you...

Precious Abba Father,

You are our tender, merciful, compassionate Shepherd. You CARRY us as your newborn lambs. Lord, we are helpless without You: every breath we take comes from you, every beat of our hearts is in your control. Every ounce of food, every day with clothing and shelter, every physical need is supplied by Your grace. But, Tender Father, You know that we are far more that just the air we breathe, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat. We were created in Your image to be men and women of character and spiritual communion with you. Lord, we have heart-longings for love and we share that love with others; we experience deep emotional pain in caring for our families, our friends, our church communities, and ourselves. Lord, so many of us are hurting and burdened today. Please Tender Father, Holy Redeemer, Great Comforter, come to each of us this very hour in ways that only You can control and wrap your loving arms around us and bring us peace.

We worship you; we adore you; we love you; we trust you.

For the sake of your One and Only Son, our Gracious Saviour, Amen.

Alleluia.

"Dusty Cover Bookstore" Ministry

2007-03-31T14:53:00.000-04:00

What a concept!

Darryl found the link to the blog on Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed blog for today under "Weekly Meanderings."

Please check out this link to an amazing concept of ministry going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

This idea would fit in fantastically with the coffee house concept we are working on!

Dusty Cover Bookstore

Please let me know what you think...

Isaiah 40 Speaks to Me

2007-03-30T14:39:00.000-04:00

Dear friends,

As I continue to meditate on the theme of our Lord's ultimate tenderness and compassion toward us, I want to share these meaningful excerpts from Isaiah 40 with you...

Isaiah 40
[New Living Translation]

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"Comfort, comfort my people," says your God. "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and that her sins are pardoned....Messenger of good news, shout to Zion from the mountaintops! Should louder to Jerusalem—do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, "Your God is coming!" Yes, the Sovereign LORD is coming in all his glorious power. He will rule with awesome strength. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.

Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed out the mountains and the hills? Who is able to advise the Spirit of the LORD? Who kows enough to be his teacher or counselor? Has the LORD ever needed anyone's advice? Does he need instruction about what is good or what is best? No, for all the nations of the world are nothing in comparison with him. They are but a drop in the bucket, dust on the scales. He picks up the islands as though they had no weight at all....

Have you never heard or understood? Are you deaf to the words of God—the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant? It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers. He is the one who spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent for them. He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing. They hardly get started, barely taking root, when he blows on them and their work withers. The wind carries them off like straw.

"To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?" asks the Holy One.

Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out one after another, calling each by its name. And he counts them to see that none are lost or have strayed away.

O [children of God], how can you say the LORD does not see your troubles? How can you say God refuses to hear your case? Have you never heard or understood? Don't you know that the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

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Prayer to Embrace the Scriptures

2007-03-29T14:26:00.000-04:00

This prayer is from Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime. I came across it preparing for our meditation time on Scripture this past Sunday. These Divine Hours prayer books are in three volumes and assist us to use scripture and spiritual prayers from the Book of Common Prayer to commune with our Lord. This particular prayer has special meaning to me and I thought that I would share it with you...

"Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant me so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that I may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen."

May our precious Lord engage our hearts as well as our minds in communion with Him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
If you are interested in purchasing Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours series,
please check out this link to Amazon.com: Phyllis Tickle

Our Eternal Story

2007-03-28T21:26:00.000-04:00

The threads of story
From ages past
Have gathered, intertwined.

A tale of love
So high, supreme
Has come to change my life.

The Lord of Heaven
So great, so holy
Has come near to be the Story.

He draws me from
My dark despair
To love and hope for eternity.

~Pamela C. Lang

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding."
~Ephesians 1: 3-8 [New Living Translation]

More Reflections from Abba's Child

2007-03-27T21:23:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends,

As I continue my devotional reading in Abba's Child, I find that Brennan Manning brings out concepts of God that touch my heart in a deeply refreshing way. The relationship that I long for with our Creator and Savior and Eternal Companion is one of deepest tenderness and intimacy. He knows my every thought, every pinprick of pain in my heart, and every wisp of longing in my soul.

If you are a kindred spirit, these passages from Abba's Child will resonate with you as they have with me...

"Abba, as a way of addressing God, is ipsissima vox, an authentic original utterance of Jesus. We are confronted with something new and astounding....Jesus, the beloved Son, does not hoard this experience for Himself. He invites and calls us to share the same intimate and liberating relationship."

Paul wrote, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry 'Abba,' [Daddy] it is that spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God." ~ Romans 8:14-16

Think of the love the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God's children; and that is what we are." ~I John 3:1

"My dignity as Abba's child is my most coherent sense of self...."

"Tenderness awakens within the security of knowing we are thoroughly and sincerely liked by Someone. The mere presence of that Special Someone in a crowded room brings an inward sigh of relief and a strong sense of feeling safe....'Abba is very fond of me.' "

"...Scripture suggests that the essence of the divine nature is compassion and that hte heart of God is defined by tenderness...."

And finally...

"Richard Foster wrote, 'His heart is the most sensitive and tender of all. No act goes unnoticed, no matter how insignificant or small. A cup of cold water is enough to put tears in the eyes of God. Like the proud mother who is thrilled to receive a bouquet of wilted dandelions from her child, so God celebrates our feeble expressions of gratitude.' "

Dear friends, God is the essence of caring, of tenderness, and of compassion. He likes you and He likes me. He hasn't just loved us because he had to; He loves us because He wants to. How precious these thoughts are to my heart this day!

Celebrating our Abba...

Blessings and peace,
Pamela

Spirituality and Suffering

2007-03-26T21:44:00.000-04:00

Darryl Lang led the group in a conversation about spirituality and the dimension of suffering a couple of weeks ago. He began with a devastating quote from a woman who had experienced horrific suffering in her young life:

“I grew up in an abusive household….I mean that my father raped my while reciting the Lord’s Prayer. I mean that my father molested me while singing Christian hymns. My father prayed with me every night…He lay on top of me, touched my breasts, and prayed that I would be forgiven. ‘Father,’ he said. I cringed at the association. ‘Heavenly Father, make my daughter a better person.’ I lay underneath him and trembled. I closed my eyes, as much to avoid his face as to pray properly. I made promises to stop disappointing him, to stop disappointing God. I would have done anything to feel clean, feel loved, to have been good.”
~ Renee Altson from
Stumbling Toward Faith: My Longing to Heal from the Evil that God Allowed

How do we begin to process this kind of pain?
Disturbing questions flood our souls:

Where was God in all of this?
How do we view a God who allows such appalling suffering?
How do we act for justice in the midst of this nightmare?
What would we say to Renee if we knew her?
How do we pray for her?
How do we deal with our own emotions like rage, revulsion, pity and sadness?

Suffering is with us all; there is no avoiding it. At any given time in a community like ours,
someone is experiencing searing pain: abuse, illness, job loss, broken relationships and any number of other tragedies

If we, personally, aren’t experiencing these now, we will experience them in some form soon; it is inevitable that we will face suffering in our lives.

Perhaps our prayer-conversation with God can take many different directions:

A legitimate cry for the alleviation of pain
Wisdom to know how to help someone going through trials
What response our thoughts and emotions should have in situations like this

But maybe, one of our prayers might be to see the bigger picture that the New Testament writers shared in their longing to understand and experience the sufferings of Christ…

"There is no escaping the cross [of suffering]. Either you will experience physical hardship or tribulation of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself. You cannot escape; you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For he whishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to him that you may become more humble through suffering."
~ Thomas a Kempis

A personal look at suffering

A short testimony of loss from Darryl and Pam
What is it about suffering that forces us to focus on central issues of life?Tim Stafford (Christian writer) points out that suffering is one of the loneliest experiences; it is also one of the most purifying. Why? Here’s his quote from Knowing the Face of God:”Suffering purifies this human material, cutting away layer after soft layer until only firmer stuff remains. All the dross goes: the ambitions, love of money, vanity about appearance, everything that sets us above others in our own mind. Suffering purges everything that is not central to life.”

How is it that suffering is one of the loneliest experiences and yet unites us with other people?

Suffering in whatever form it takes, personal, communal, national, is a great mystery. The Bible does not provide a running commentary on why “this happened here” or “this occurred there.”
The New Testament writers never agonized with Job-like questions about suffering; they assumed they would suffer as disciples of Christ.

“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.” ~ Philippians 1:29 [NIV]

“But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” ~ I Peter 2:20, 21 [NIV]

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” ~ II Corinthians 4:7-10 [NIV]

Eucharist and Suffering

As Christ showed us by example with the bread at the Last Supper,
we were Chosen, Blessed, Broken in Suffering and Given.

~ Concept taken from Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved

Spirituality and Scripture

2007-03-25T13:00:00.000-04:00

Jared's discussion of scripture in relation to spirituality leads perfectly into the continual "story" of how scripture relates to us that we will be discussing tonight in Living Room. Please come and experience the love of our precious Lord surrounding you as we share our conversation together...

“Many of us have read the Bible as if it were merely a mosaic of little bits – theological bits, moral bits, historical-critical bits, sermon bits, devotional bits. But when we read the Bible in such a fragmented way, we ignore its divine author’s intention to shape our lives through its story.”
– Bartholomew & Green in The Drama of Scripture

How does and/or can a story shape our lives?
Why do we believe the Bible does this better than other books?

“One does not consider closely enough how barbarous the concepts are by which we Europeans still live. That men have been capable of believing that “salvation of the soul” depended on a book! – And they tell me this is still believed today. What is the point of scientific education, criticism and hermeneutics if such a lunatic exposition of the Bible as is still cultivated by the church has not yet turned the blush of shame into a permanent skin color?”
– Nietzsche in The Will to Power

“So, since we were too weak to discover truth by pure reason and therefore needed the authority of [Scripture], I now began to believe that you could not possibly have given such supreme authority to these Scripture all over the world, unless it had been your wish that by means of them men should both believe in you and seek after you.”
– St. Augustine in his Confessions.

Discuss the differences between these two views of Scripture and Spirituality

“In Reformed theology, the law of God is seen to play an important role in sanctification.
Its three functions or uses are well known: to convict of sin, to restrain evildoers and to
instruct believers.”
– Sinclair Ferguson in Christian Spirituality: 5 Views of Sanctification

How does morality play a role in spirituality?
Is it important?
Where does the Bible fit into this?

“What must you to do to look honestly in the mirror of the Word? The first requirement is that you must not look at the mirror but look in the mirror and see yourself. God’s Word is indeed the mirror. But oh how enormously complicated we make it. How much belongs to God’s Word? Which books are authentic? Are they really written by apostles, and are the apostles really trustworthy? As for ways of reading, there are thirty thousand different ways. And then there is this crowd or rush of scholars and opinions, and learned opinions and unlearned opinions about how the particular passage is to be understood. Is it not true that all this seems to be rather complicated? God’s Word is the mirror — in reading it or hearing it, I am supposed to see myself in the mirror.”
– Soren Kierkegaard in Provocations

Spirituality and Prayer

2007-03-24T17:54:00.000-04:00

Jared Byas continued our conversations by coupling spirituality with prayer. Here is what he shared with Living Room...

“The earthly minded person thinks and imagines that when he prays, the important thing, the thing he must concentrate upon, is that God should hear what he is praying for. And yet in the true, eternal sense it is just the reverse: the true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed fro, but when the person prying continues to pray until he is the one who hears, who hears what God is asking for” (Soren Kierkegaard, 345).

What is the purpose of prayer?
Can there be more than one purpose?

Grant me, O Lord, to know and understand…whether knowledge should precede prayer. For how can one pray to you unless one knows you? If one does not know you, or may pray not to you, but to something else. Or is it rather the case that we should pray to you in order that we may come to know you? ~St. Augustine

What do you think Augustine is asking?
What do you think the answer is?

“That with him the set times of prayer were not different from other times; that he retired to pray, according to the directions of his superior, but that he did not want such retirement, nor ask for it, because his greatest business did not divert him from God”.

How are we to view prayer?
Is it a “spiritual exercise” meant only for sacred time and space or as something else?

Surely God is good to Israel,
To those who are pure in heart!
But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,
My steps had almost slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no pains in their death,
And their body is fat.
They are not in trouble as other men,
Nor are they plagued like mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
The garment of violence covers them.
Their eye bulges from fatness;
The imaginations of their heart run riot.
They mock and wickedly speak of oppression;
They speak from on high.
They have set their mouth against the heavens,
And their tongue parades through the earth.
Therefore his people return to this place,
And waters of abundance are drunk by them.
They say, "How does God know?
And is there knowledge with the Most High?"
Behold, these are the wicked;
And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.
Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
And washed my hands in innocence;
For I have been stricken all day long
And chastened every morning.
If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.
When I pondered to understand this,
It was troublesome in my sight
Until I came into the sanctuary of God;
Then I perceived their end.
Surely You set them in slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.
How they are destroyed in a moment!
They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when aroused, You will despise their form.
When my heart was embittered
And I was pierced within,
Then I was senseless and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.
Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You have taken hold of my right hand.
With Your counsel You will guide me,
And afterward receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.

As We End Another Work Week...

2007-03-23T08:31:00.000-04:00

will listen to what the LORD God is saying, for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him. ~Psalm 85:8

Peace...serenity...contentment...

Precious Lord God of all power, all knowledge, and all presence, we praise You for bringing us toward the close of another work week. Thank You for enabling us to persevere and help provide for the needs of our families. We confess, Lord, that it is extremely hard to persevere at times and we ask for the power of Your Holy Spirit to help sustain us when our own strength fails. Thank you that in You we find the peace that transcends all understanding. In the midst of the whirlwind around us we can remain calm and steady knowing that You are guiding us through the storm.

Through our Wonderful Counselor, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Reflections: 22 March 2007

2007-03-22T20:34:00.000-04:00

Be strong and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD. ~Psalm 31:24

Light shines in the darkness for the upright;
the righteous are merciful and full of compassion. ~Psalm 112:4

Precious Abba Father,

Through Your incomprehensible grace you have given us salvation through Your only Son, Jesus Christ, our Messiah. What a miracle forgiveness is! What a soul-filled joy to know that we don't have to perform to earn our salvation. It is a free gift from You! Thank you Yahweh; thank you Yeshua! May our gratitude and joy be reflected this day in all that we say and do and think. My we show an extraordinary measure of patience, kindness, and love to those we come in contact with. May our country's leaders consider Your ways in the decisions that they need to make, for these decisions have ripple effects for all of Your children in this world.

Alleluia.

A Prayer to the Perfect Judge

2007-03-21T17:00:00.000-04:00

Precious Perfect Judge over all peoples:

We come before you with our hearts
open and vulnerable before You.
Lord, as we go through each day of our lives,
there are times when we feel, most intensely,
the pain of sin in our dealings with other people
and the way they deal with us.

Please strengthen us and encourage us to know
that You will make all things right
and that You are the End of the Story.

We trust You with our lives;
we love You with our hearts;
and we ask that You would continue to guide
all of our interactions with those around us.

May You be glorified in all things, Holy Redeemer.
Alleluia.

A Love Note from God

2007-03-20T20:50:00.000-04:00

"Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name, you are mine.
You are precious in my eyes,
because you are honored and I love you...

the mountains may depart, the hills be shaken,
but my love for you will never leave you
and my covenant of peace with you
will never be shaken."

Isaiah 43: 1,4; 54:10

Reflections: Serenity Prayer

2007-03-19T21:27:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends,

Our precious Abba Father has brought a special reminder of this prayer into my life this past week. I share it with you in hope that it will bring you strength and wisdom:

The Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference...
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.

~Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr

Abba's Child Reflections Continued

2007-03-18T13:13:00.000-04:00

Hello dear friends,

As I continue to read in Brennan Manning's Abba's Child, I am enlightened by the testimony that he quotes from Mike Yaconelli, the cofounder of Youth Specialties. Manning leads into the extended quote from Yaconelli by stating that:

"The indispensable condition for developing and maintaining the awareness of our belovedness is time alone with God....Our identity rests in God's relentless tenderness for us revealed in Jesus Christ." Then goes on to quote...

"Mike Yaconelli, the cofounder of Youth Specialties, tells about the time when, dejected and demoralized, he trundled off with his wife, Karla, to Toronto, Canada, to make a five-day retreat at the L'Arche (the Ark) community. He went hoping to draw inspiration from the mentally and physically handicapped people who lived there or find solace in the presence and preaching of Henri Nouwen. Instead, he found his true self. He tells his story:

It took only a few hours of silence before I began to hear my soul speaking. It only took being alone for a short period of time for me to discover I wasn't alone. God had been trying to shout ver the noisiness of my life, and I couldn't hear Him. But in the stillness and solitude, his whispers shouted from my soul, 'Michael, I am here. I have been calling you, but you haven't been listening. Can you hear me, Michael? I love you. I have always loved you. And I have been waiting for you to hear me say that to you. But you have been so busy trying to prove to yourself you are loved that you have not heard me.'....

At L'Arche, it became very clear to me that I had totally misunderstood the Christian faith. I came to see that it was in my brokenness, in my powerlessness, in my weakness that Jesus was made strong. It was in the acceptance of my lack of faith that God could give me faith. It was in the embracing of my brokenness that I could identify with others' brokenness. It was my role to identify with others' pain, not relieve it. Ministry was sharing, not dominating; understanding, not theologizing; caring, not fixing....

...I can only tell you that it feels very different now. There is an anticipation, an electricity about God's presence in my life that I have never experienced before. I can only tell you that for the first time in my life I can hear Jesus whisper to me every day, 'Michael, I love you. You are beloved.' And for some strange reason, that seems to be enough."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What an extraordinary quote! What a sense of peace to stop trying so hard and let the burden of having to prove that I am worth loving just slip away. I truly believe that this is why I try so very hard to please people; I am trying to prove that I am worth loving. It is so deeply ingrained in me that I don't even realize it most of the time. Jesus' has liberated me from this Prison of Perpetual Performance to Prove. This truth has penetrated my mind; I am only beginning to sense it saturating my heart.

Dear friends, I share with you, not to prove that I am some spiritual giant; I am not. But what I am is a sinner seeking the depths of an intimate relationship with God that can only be ultimately fulfilled in eternity. If my sharing brings any enlightenment or encouragement to your own hearts, then it is OUR precious Abba Father who is to be praised.

Blessings and peace to all of you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpts from Brennan Manning's Abba's Child. Navpress Books, 1994

Reflections: Abba's Child

2007-03-17T19:17:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends,

Recently, some of my devotional reading has brought forth some amazing spiritual revelations. I've read Brennan Manning's Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging. I share these excerpts with you because I have seen myself mirrored in these pages today. Since this is such a common issue for so many people, I'm wondering if you might also see images of your own heart and soul in the text that follows. Please know that you are holding my heart in your hands. I believe that you already care for me and that I am safe with each of you....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpts from Brennan Manning's Abba's Child. Navpress Books, 1994.
Chapter 2: The Impostor

"Impostors are preoccupied with acceptance and approval. Because of their suffocating need to please others, they cannot say no with the same confidence with which they say yes. And so they overextend themselves in people, projects, and causes, motivated not by personal commitment but by the fear of not living up to others' expectations."

"The false self was born when as children we were not loved well or were rejected or abandoned. John Bradshaw defines codependency as a disease 'characterized by a loss of identity. To be codependent is to be out of touch with one's feelings, needs, and desires.' The impostor is the classic codependent. To gain acceptance and approval, the false self suppresses or camouflages feelings, making emotional honesty impossible. Living out of the false self creates a compulsive desire to present a perfect image to the public so that everybody will admire us and nobody will know us. The impostor's life becomes a perpetual roller-coaster ride of elation and depression...."

"Craving the approbation withheld in childhood, my false self staggers into each day with an insatiable appetite for affirmation...."

"The impostor is attentive to the size, shape, and color of the bandages that veil my nothingness. The false self persuades me to be preoccupied with my weight....but they kidnap my attention away from the indwelling God and temporarily rob me of the joy of God's Holy Spirit. Yet the false self rationalizes my preoccupation with my waistline and overall appearance and whispers, 'A fat, sloppy image will diminish your credibility in ministry.' Cunning."

"I suspect I am not alone here. The narcissistic obsession with weight-watching in North America is a formidable ploy of the imposor. Despite the valid and important health factor, the amount of time and energy devoted to acquiring and maintaining a slender figure is staggering....To paraphrase Cardinal Wolsey, 'Would that I had served my God the way I have watched my waistline!'"

".....'Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self,' Thomas Merton observed. He went on to explain: 'This is the man I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him. And to be unknown of God is altoghether too much privacy. My false and private self is the one who wants to exist outside the reach of God's will and God's love—outside of reality and outside of life. And such a self cannot help but be an illusion. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves—the ones we were born with and which feed the roots of sin. For most people in the world, there is no greater subjective reality than this false self of theirs, which cannot exist. A life devoted to the cult of this shadow is what is called a life of sin.'"

"Merton's notion of sin focuses not primarily on individual sinful acts but on a fundamental option for a life of pretense. 'There can only be two basic loves,' wrote Augustine, 'the love of God unto the forgetfulness of self, or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of God.'"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Manning goes on to talk about this "false self", the "impostor" being the reason why we have such a hard time praying sincerely and honestly with God. Dear friends, the deep intimacy and heart-yearning for meaning, love, and acceptance that I crave leads me straight back to God. Manning talks about how the impostor cannot experience intimacy and deep relationship with anyone because he is denying the reality of his own feelings. Yet what is Manning's solution? To abhor this impostor? No, but to humbly admit that this impostor exists within us, confess it to our Savior, and to treat ourselves as gently and kindly as we would treat "the least of Christ's brethren."

What a refreshing place of peace wherein to rest my soul on this precious day.

Reflections: 16 March 2007

2007-03-16T20:10:00.000-04:00

Magnificent Lord God, Almighty and Everlasting Abba Father,

You have brought us in safety to the close of this new day.
Please continue to preserve all of us through the night and
the new day tomorrow by your mighty power,
that we may not stumble or fall into sin,
nor be overwhelmed by stress or adversity.
In all that we do , please direct us to fulfill
your eternal purpose for our lives and Your glory.

Through the abundant grace of Jesus Christ our Lord...
Amen.

Adapted from the Book of Common Prayer

Spirituality and Death

2007-03-16T20:02:00.000-04:00

Jared Byas recently continued our conversations on spirituality by leading a discussion on Death & Spirituality

Some of the questions we considered were:

How often do you think about death? (Others and your own?)
Heidegger calls coming to terms with your own death a step towards true “Authenticity”. How is this the case?
“I affirm brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily…I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (St. Paul)

What does Paul mean by this?

Is this supposed to be the norm for Christians? How so?

“I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after the wind…Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me…He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity. This also is a grievous evil – exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?” (Qohelet)

Reflections: 15 March 2007

2007-03-15T22:18:00.000-04:00

As I feel the hunger in my soul for relationship and know that only Almighty God can ultimately fulfill that longing, I understand in a renewed way that intimate relationship with the Holy Being of God is an exercise of faith and trust. At this point in infinite time, our Lord communicates with us in ways other than physical presence or verbal interaction. I communicate with Him through prayer and meditation. I live my life as an offering of gratitude for what He has done for me. But I still long to be wrapped in His infinitely strong arms, hear words of supreme encouragement, and look into His eyes and see love and approval there. Do any of you share this longing?

Recently, a pastor-friend was commenting that relationships are built on openness and trust. I was considering how this applies to my relationship with my Lord. It's almost laughable how many times I'm afraid for God to see my true feelings.. The ultimate joke is that He already knows everything I feel and think far deeper that I even feel or comprehend them myself! I can see God smiling a very knowing smile at my childish foolishness.

May I encourage all of you, all of us together, to be totally open and honest with our precious Savior? We don't need to hide in shame anymore. Because of Christ's total justification of our souls, we can come boldly and in total acceptance before God's throne. He is there; He longs for us to come to Him.

Please be encouraged this day in Him.

Lease ending in April

2007-03-15T00:14:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to post to say that I am either looking to move in April or around then to a place that is cheap and will accept LARGE pets. Or I will be looking for a roomate to share my rent with me at the place I live currently. If anyone knows anyone, let me know. And a sidenote for those of you who don't know how OCD, and anul retentive I am. Lets just say it will be hard to find a good roomate!