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Sin: It's just normal, isn't it?

2010-01-04T10:47:00.000-08:00

   At a routine physical, I was recently diagnosed with an endocrine condition. Though I felt pretty normal, after I saw a list of symptoms, I had to agree that I had just about all of them: brittle nails; achy joints; dry skin; sensitivity to cold; gritty, twitchy eyes; lethargy.
My mom had the same condition, so it made sense. I thought the symptoms were just products of normal aging.
   I was willing to live with these conditions because I thought that was just the way it had to be. It was normal.
   Now that I’m on medication, I’m seeing some of the symptoms fade and that means freedom. I can move again. I’m awake and alive, not dragged down by a sluggish metabolism.
   Thinking about sin, I can see it works the same way. We don’t know there is a problem until someone points out how it has affected us: difficult relationships; pride; selfishness; hidden lust; greediness; subclinical bitterness; impatience with others…
   When we are properly diagnosed, we can say, “Yes, I guess sin is really having an impact on my life. I just wasn’t aware of it. I just thought it was normal.”
   The Great Physician undoes the effect of sin. Humility, love, freedom, new life: He energizes our being and we are free and alive in Him.

No more sweets, please

2009-12-11T20:29:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about the Christmas season, for those of us with a sweet tooth, is the variety of sugary treats available everywhere. All cooks have a specialty, and at Christmas they put time and care into that specialty, so you are assured a quality product.

My grandma’s specialty was fudge, and she cooked a large assortment. Chocolate with and without nuts, peanut butter fudge with marshmallows, sugared walnuts and divinity, all in large quantities. Divinity was a fluffy, white, chalky confection that kind of melted away when you put it in your mouth. There really wasn’t much to it. Why it’s called divinity, I’m not sure.

There comes a time, though, if you overindulge, that you begin to sicken of sugar. You might still eat another chewy caramel when it comes to you on a plate, and you might go ahead and have “just a sliver” more of pie, or a cookie, or a candy cane, even when your mouth says “no” and your stomach says “no way.”

After a while, your tongue gets sore and your mouth hurts. Blisters can even form on the roof of your mouth.

Eventually, you even end up longing for something with a little more nutrition when the almond bark comes your way. You think of a roast beef sandwich or pickles on the relish plate. You might seek out a glass of milk or a slice of turkey because you’ve just had too many empty calories and you want a little salt and substance.

Christmas as a whole can be just like that. All the shallow little accessories become the main dish. We enjoy them. We revel in them. We’re glad they’re here. But eventually there comes a time when we are full and empty at the same time. We’re full of emptiness, and we crave something with a little meat to it. It’s a relief when we hear a deep, meaningful carol on the car radio, or when we close ourselves in a closet with the scriptures and just drink it in.

And our spiritual lives can become like that candy plate, too. We sample from this teaching, and that book, and this CD, and that DVD on how to walk with Christ, or how to help others walk with Him. Eventually, we can get to the point where one more fluffy, sweet, chalky, white bite is going to kill us. We desperately need to get out and just walk with Him and consume His flesh instead of all the sticky, pleasant substitutes. It’s easy to let the name “divinity” divert us toward unhealthy spiritual diets.

Shutting the Door on Cold, or Christmas?

2009-12-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

   Snow, or no snow, this time of year brings to kids those three words that mean so much.
   Not "I love you," "How r u?" or "Ho, ho, ho!" (Okay. "Ho, ho, ho" is not three words, it's one word three times; and "How r u" only qualifies for texters.)
   The words kids hear most often in winter are: "Shut that door!"
   In our house we have two doors that must be closed upon entry. The front door leads directly to polar air flow. An entryway between the front door and the door to the living room mixes that icy air with house air.
   The entryway serves as a buffer between Siberia and comfortable, living room heat. The kids rarely forget to close the front door. Somehow, frigid, arctic air jostles their brain cells enough to signal the door-closing response.
   But after removing coat, hat and boots, and basking in the warmth of living room heat as they enter the living room, the kids fall victim to drowsy, warm influences on those same brain cells. The entryway door remains open, sending the gas meter ticking away at phenomenal speed.
   "Shut that door!" When I was a kid, my friend's mom always shouted, "Born in a barn?" implying that barnyard animals are the only ones without sense to shut the door when it's cold. I never liked that expression, and I won't use it.
   Besides, "Shut That Door!" has a nice, staccato sound to it, like nails pounded into memory. Usually, "Shut That Door!" is enough to stimulate the door-closing response, though not always.
   Sometimes, shutting the door is nearly impossible. For adults, it's even more difficult than for kids.When you shut a door after a child first moves out on his own, that's hard. When you shut the door on a long relationship that has slowly unraveled, that's painful.
   When you've sold everything you once cherished on the auction block, to move into assisted living, and shut your door for the very last time, that's agonizing.
   Christmas is a door
Sometimes it's wrong to shut the door. A neighbor needs help. Sorry. Slam. Recently, one large retailer decided to shut the door on the Salvation Army, forbidding bell-ringers.
   Its corporate position statement cited the need for customers to enjoy "distraction-free shopping." Distraction-free shopping. There's the Christmas spirit! A memo right from the desk of Scrooge and Marley. The charitable heart of Christmas ripped out and labeled a "distraction" from buying and selling.
   Shutting the door on Christmas is probably no easier than shutting the door on a strong north wind. Still, some try. Some work to dilute Christmas with every Rudolf, sugar, tinsel, eggnog, Susy Snowflake mixture they can find.
   Others stand at the doorstep, complaining about the welcome mat. Others rail against Christmas, citing their own bitter memories of past injustices, or predicting future ones. They refuse to go in unless they go in on their own terms at their own time, and try to block others from entering.
   Disgruntled litigants apply legal pressure to shut tight any Christmas door left open to the public. But it's hard to shut a door on a door. And Christmas is a door.
   "I am the door," says the Christ child. "If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture."
   No more bolted doors. No more "Do not enter" signs. You can be shut out of meetings, banned from white restaurants, coralled onto smaller and smaller reservations, locked out of board rooms, prevented from bell-ringing. But you can never be shut out of Christmas.
   You can go in AND out. And find pasture. Rich, green, luxuriant pasture.And it won't matter if you leave the Christmas door open, because the Christ child himself was born in a barn.
   Christmas is the door that faces biting, arctic air. But it's also the door that leads to warmth and comfort and welcome.Maybe every time a child comes home, I should accompany "Shut That Door!" with "Come On In!" because it somehow seems like a more Christmassy thing to do.

For more Christmas shorts click here

Waiting for God's Thank-You note?

2009-12-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

     Pulling my daughter from sleep and into the day has always been like dragging a barge loaded with lead. She clings to sleep with her life. I’ve tried to break up the process into small chunks.
     First, I rub her back and greet her with a cheery, but not too sweet, greeting for the day.
     Then, I tell her that I will go make her breakfast. This interferes with her sleep brain waves and gets her at least thinking about waking up.
     Next, I place her breakfast on the table and call her to come eat it.
     And this is where we get stuck. Some days, I literally have to drag her out of bed. Other days, I have to call her four or five times before she manages to lift herself from the covers.
     Every single day she tells me it’s too cold to get up, even on the warmest days.
     Today, after calling her the first time, I forgot about her. I was dealing with my son – who was leaving for a long debate trip.
     When I finally remembered my daughter, I saw her at the table, giving me a look. The look said, I got myself out of bed after only one reminder. She kept trying to catch my eye, and I could see she wanted acknowledgement for her tremendous feat of doing what she was supposed to do anyway.
     I did go and hug her, but I thought about how I do this same thing with God.
     Look at me, God! I did what you asked. Where are my congratulations? Where is my reward? Hey, look! I’m doing what you told me to. See? See?
     We are unprofitable servants, doing what is our duty to do. Not much glory in that, is there? Why do we think God owes us? We would never come out and say it, would we? And yet, when we do His will, we sometimes get that attitude. As if we’ve done some mighty act of valor! And mostly, He tells us to do things because they make life better for us when we do them.

Look! I brushed my teeth without even being asked!
Good. Now your teeth probably won’t fall out.

Don’t I get a reward for this?

God, forgive us when we seek recognition for those things we should do humbly, in obedience to You.

For a little history on Thanksgiving...

2009-11-19T00:35:00.000-08:00

Here is a decent, short and interesting overview of the story of the Pilgrims and their voyage to the New World.

Seeking the more excellent way

2009-11-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

I once happened to observe a short exchange in a church, many years ago, where one woman thought that another should be helping with a weekday kids program.

The first woman was overloaded with duties and also had young kids at home and a disability. The other had grown kids and yet wasn't helping. From all outside appearances, there was nothing to prevent her from helping. She didn't work. She had few demands on her time. What few knew was that she had an unbelieving husband at home resentful of her time at church.

I watched as the conflict escalated, in polite church fashion. Before long, each was whisking out her Christian credentials to win her point. One tithed and insinuated that the other didn't, the other prayed with the missionary prayer group, one helped in the nursery, the other taught for years, and so on.

It was an uncomfortable exchange and nothing good came of it. But it was an eye-opening experience because it showed what I might be tempted into when on the defensive.

How do we show our Christian credentials? Should we point to our works in the church, our prayer life, the number of Bible chapters we read each week? The prisoners we have visited or the grieving families we have comforted? Should we tally these up and be ready to produce the card at a moment's notice? We know that Christ confronted those who blew trumpets to announce, in public, their piety. No, no, no!

As a group, how do people know we are followers of Christ? By the big building we gather in? By the great kids programs? By the coolest services? By the best preaching? By the sheer numbers who attend? By the quality of our "product"? By the trendiest music? By our devotion to "excellence"? No, no, no. There is excellence, and then there is the "more excellent way."

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another-John 13:35. Yes, yes, yes!

Nothing else comes close, and if we lean on anything else and neglect love, everything else we lean on will come crashing down. Peter says Above all things, have fervent love for each other (I Peter 4:8). Above all things! We might think that running the most efficient ministry beats that, or being the most humble, or holding onto the best traditions, or being the most contemporary in presentation, or showing supreme devotion in our walk, or drawing the most unbelievers in, or sacrificing the most, or any of dozens of other almost-above-all things. But no. That’s not it. Those pursuits, good as they are, are less than loving one another.

So how do we do it? Galatians 5 gives a clue: By love, serve each other. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Just ask, and answer honestly: Would we want it done to us this way? If the answer is no, don't do it, don't say it, don't write it, don't spread it and certainly don't repeat it in defense.

We all know this stuff.

There is no steamrolling over others for the glory of God. There is no place for grasping for authority or using manipulation in the name of Christ. There is no using people. It doesn't glorify Him when you trample others, even for a good cause.

Directly after telling us to love our neighbors as ourselves, Paul warns: For if you bite and devour one another, be careful you don't consume each other. It's easy to do, even in defense, even when we think we're justified. Even when we think it will improve God's kingdom.

To be safe, I am going to read I Corinthians a few times over. Maybe more than a few times.

Good apples, bad apples

2009-11-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

During a month of sickness, I watched as my apple tree dropped onto my lawn the best crop of apples it ever produced. I was too weak to harvest them, and my kids were overloaded with schoolwork and music activities. My husband was doing double duty as it was.

Each week, more apples ended up on the ground. I kept thinking I’d get well and be able to harvest them before they all went to waste, but every time I thought I was healing, I’d take a turn for the worse.

Finally, when just about every apple was on the ground, the weather turned warm and I had enough strength to gather from the ground as many decent apples as I could find.

I took a large laundry basket and a bucket -- and began to sort. Many apples were large this year. I would find some that were large and unblemished, and I quickly set them in the laundry basket. Others were split or pitted and I dumped them into the bucket.

Sometimes, I’d come to an apple that looked robust on the surface, only to turn it and find ants eating up the other side. Or I’d find one that looked firm and crisp but then I’d notice a very small hole and could see that just under the surface, it was rotting.

Occasionally, I’d find one that looked misshapen, and I’d be about to toss it into the bucket when I saw that, despite its odd shape, it was healthy and crisp. Into the basket it would go with the good apples. Sometimes an apple would have a mark, but it was only a surface scratch, and the apple was still quite fit for a pie.

As I sorted through the apples beneath my tree, I thought of Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13. The harvesters wanted to know if they should gather the weeds before the crop was grown, but Jesus says no. They might accidently uproot the good seed with the tares. He wants none lost. None. He says to wait; then, at harvest, they can first throw out the bad and then carefully choose the good.

He doesn’t want a single good apple lost in the rooting out of bad apples.

We are valuable to Him. So valuable that he won’t risk losing us in his haste to destroy the work of the wicked one. Even though bad and good grow together for a time, so much so that we sometimes question God: Didn’t you plant good seed? Why is there bad here? Even so, he allows his reputation to be held in question for producing the bad rather than destroy a single apple with potential for pie or apple strudel.

Secret Place of Thunder

2009-10-22T16:57:00.001-07:00

I hid in that secret place of thunder today. Dealing with swine flu while trying to battle an invasion of ants in my kitchen this week. This after having helped my daughter's family move. I had a bout of insomnia and was pretty well depleted when my cold turned into what must be swine flu. The column I wrote about swine flu was rejected by my editors for fear of offending pork producers, so in the middle of the haze of illness, dizziness, chills, I was trying to pound out an alternative column. Then, my son got sick. Not my robust son, but my thin-as-a-pencil-barely-consuming-enough-calories-to-stay-alive-as-it-is son. When I was at the lowest of the low, fearing for my son's life, calling in sick to work, wondering if I would ever breathe normally again, I receive a phone call. A call from a friend. Not a Facebook friend who knew I was sick and down, but a friend whose spiritual life I have seen blossom in the last few years, in desert places. At the end of our conversation, she asked if I'd like to pray. It was like water in the desert, with a little rolling thunder and promise of more water. Only God speaking to an attuned ear could have reached me in the hopelessness of that moment. But when He did, my soul healed, even though my body is still sick. More thunder!

Rejoicing even in times of scarcity

2009-10-20T09:30:00.001-07:00

Oh No! Snow!

2009-10-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Snow is not supposed to come this early. Leaves should fall before snow does. It's weird seeing layers of mostly green leaves on the ground, sprinkled with white. The leaves hardly had a chance to age and turn.

Yet, Proverbs takes the view that snow at time of harvest is refreshing. As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters. Prov. 25:13

I look out the window and try to be refreshed. Laurie has no problem with this. She was wishing for snow a month before it got here, right after school started. I kept telling her no. No! You don’t wish for early snow.

So when I watched her walk home from school today, I could see her head perk up as the snow began to fall. Instead of dragging her backpack, she was suddenly alert and eager. SNOW! That magical, mystical substance that drops from heaven.

As an adult, I resist early snow. I have not yet harvested my apples. My lawn was in bad need of mowing even before the tree dumped all its leaves at once this morning. And that was before this layer of snow on top. The snow only makes me think of what I have to do. It burdens me.

When we forget “all His benefits” it’s just like that. We get burdened with all we have to do. We look at the law and feel depressed. Instead we should be looking at “the perfect law of liberty” and be refreshed.

All His benefits! They are myriad! They come at us fifty at a time: big, gorgeous, sparkling, no two alike -- and we swipe them away, grumbling and complaining about the hassle of it all.

Time to look up in wonder and be refreshed!

Prayer: an animation from Laurie, 9

2009-10-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

Laurie's animation

Broken glass

2009-09-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

Finally, after years of enduring the cracks in a shattered storm window, we bought a replacement. I watched as my husband tried carefully to slide the pane first one way, then another into the frame of the window. I could see how it almost fit, but no matter how he approached the job, the window simply would not go into the frame.
He removed the outer screen, he tried first from the side then from the top. He tried pressing, pulling and angling, but nothing worked.
It seemed to me that all it needed was a swift jab on the left hand side to nudge the metal pane holder past the aluminum frame. Once past this small obstacle, the glass would slide right into place. He must just be doing something wrong.
When he had exhausted all attempts, it was my turn.
"I will show him," I thought, "just how deft I am at gliding this pane past the lip of the frame and right into place."

I thought with satisfaction of his admiring gaze after I had competently done what he could not. The wonderwife, coming to the rescue.
I carefully looked over the situation. But only when I actually tried placing the pane could I see the problem. The glass was simply not going to fit.
Finally I had the pane within a millimeter of going into the frame of the window. Just a little brute force, I thought. Not too much, just enough.
"The glass is bending, watch out," warned my husband, but it was too late. One quick jab and CRACK! the new, thirty dollar pane was just as cracked as the one it had replaced.
What had just a little pride done?
Arrrgh!
I had not shown my husband how it's done. I had not triumphed with superior handyman skills. I had not demonstrated masterful handling of a sticky situation. I had not made him stare with awe at my ease of execution.
No.
A little pride. What can it hurt?
Well, ask Eve.
I've always thought that what MIGHT have motivated Eve into taking the fruit in the garden was the desire to show Adam something new. Before that moment, Adam had the advantage. He had named everything. He was first on the scene. He was Mr. Know-it-all, showing her everything he already knew about. Eve didn't know anything Adam hadn't already known about. She couldn't show him anything. She could only be shown stuff.
Finally, here was Eve's chance to experience something first, and more importantly, to show it to Adam.
Just a little pride, and it took down the whole world.
Pride goeth before a CRACK!
That's why I have to be on guard in my prayer life, so that I'm constantly seeking humility. And why I pray for my church that we won't start putting faith in numbers or programs or image. It's so easy to fall into pride as an individual or as an institution, and even a little can shatter a clear, holy panorama.

Seeking a Country

2009-09-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

In the middle of Hebrews 11 (the faith chapter), after many examples of faithful believers from Genesis, and before all the sawn-in-two, slain-with-the-sword, wandering-in-sheepskins bit, there is a little statement about the early examples of believers with faith.

These died in faith, having not received the promises they believed in, but seeing them from far away, says the passage. Then, in verse 16, the passage states:

Now these seek a better country

A better country than the one they had been living in. A better country. And in case the reader starts imputing political meaning to the statement, the writer of Hebrews clarifies that they seek a "heavenly" country.

Our country, our walk on earth, is going to be filled with disappointments. But we seek a better country.

Our house will fall apart, our kids will rebel, we'll lose jobs and lose trust in some we love, and lose our innocence and our place in society.

But we seek a better country.

Our churches will fail, our friends will forget, our parents will age, our money will disappear.

But we seek a better country.

Our car will break down, our kids will get sick, our spouse will complain, our work will lose meaning.

But we seek a better country.

Come, Lord Jesus.

25 Easy Ways to Curb the Annoying Problem of Church Growth

2009-09-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

We don't usually recycle email forwards on the New Life blog, but we made an exception:

25 Easy Ways to Curb the Annoying Problem of Church Growth

1. Begin your message with the phrase, "You know what's wrong with you people..."
2. Place bathroom scales by the coffee and donuts.
3. Move business meetings to Sunday morning and open up the floor by asking, "So does anybody have a beef?"
4. Begin that year-long sermon series on the 40 weeks of Daniel.
5. Place a polygraph machine on the front pew to be used during the invitation time.
6. Place tire puncture strips in the parking lot for cars going the wrong way before Sunday school. (We have our own methods at NL)
7. Start a tradition of ushers forming a conga line to the front of the church each Sunday before the offering
8. Place the roller coaster "You must be this tall" sign at the entrance of the worship center. (And make it stand about 5' 8 1/2")
9. Keep the Christmas pageant livestock in the church choir room year 'round.
10. Announce that on high attendance Sunday, if the goal is met, everyone will kiss the pig!
11. If your auditorium slopes downward to the platform, give every kid under 12 a handful of marbles before the service.
12. Give deacons the ability to "gong" the special music.
13. Place the outdoor welcome center tent a few feet from the septic tank.
14. Replace the pictures of former pastors with pictures of Larry, Moe, and Curly.
15. Start arranging marriages in the singles department.
16. Put a blank for "weight" on the membership information forms.
17. Invite the "cops" crew along during hospital visits.
18. Demand mandatory drug tests for all senior adult excursions.
19. In order to feel relevant, say "Dude" 15 times from the pulpit each Sunday.
20. Have the organist play hockey cheers at pivotal moments of the sermon.
21. Place armed guards in front of the Sunday school supply closet.
22. Before the offertory hymn, have the worship leader scream, "Show me the money!"
23. Charge tolls for the use of restrooms.
24. Illustrate all sermons or Sunday school lessons with scenes from "Walker, Texas Ranger."
25. Use the "American Idol" format for staff hirings.
Written by Matt Tullos with minor adaptations. Photo from a church sign generator.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of even easier ways than these that we do unintentionally to decrease church growth. But as long as the ball is rolling, maybe you've got some methods you can add to this great list.

Nice Try

2009-09-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

Whenever I work hard to manuever the events of life into my preferred place for them, I end up disappointed.

I can have my ducks all in a row, but one of them will dive for fish.

I bought a little pamphlet the other day for a dollar called Home Organization for Dummies. What could it hurt, I thought. But after being an almost full-time home organizer for 30 years, I really should know it all by now. Somehow, though, I'm still as disorganized as ever. What if there were some tip, some hint that every organized person knows that has eluded me all these years? Maybe it's in this booklet.

I still haven't finished the booklet, but one of the points in the beginning was to start small, take some task and finish that one task. My son, reading me the booklet since I was not organized enough to have my reading glasses nearby, asked what task I could do.

Organize the broom closet. That, I can manage. But more important things always come up. My job is to make everyone else's job easier. And everyone else comes before the broom closet. Still, my son would ask me every couple of days if I'd gotten to the broom closet yet. No. I haven't. I had houseguests. I had school starting stuff. I had to write a letter or send a column or finish a needed brochure or get the laundry done because everyone was out of clean underwear.

I still haven't found time to get to that broom closet. And I'm still not exactly organized. I keep intending to get organized, but somehow, more human things keep appearing on the horizon. I can plan and chart and keep lists and keep charts of my lists and buy the latest bins and brooms and baskets and it wouldn't make the smallest difference.

I'm glad, though, that God's got things organized. He doesn't have things organized like they thought He did in the Middle Ages, with nice, neat orbits of planets at evenly spaced intervals. The four humors turned out to be a whole lot of humors and the incredible patterns in DNA were quite a surprise. We keep finding twists and turns in His organizational plan. But we know His plans are perfect, even plans for our own lives.

When I'm tempted to organize God right out of my life, I have to stop and pray for Him to prevent me from that course. I'm likely to organize Him out and still be disorganized. When I look to Him early, things have a way of smoothing out without too much effort.

Shortcuts

2009-08-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

One point in this morning's sermon was about the temptation to take shortcuts. The devil tempted Christ to enjoy all the kingdoms of the earth without the bother of going to the cross and redeeming mankind.

I was reminded of shortcuts today when I happened to look at a Christian Book Distributors catalog that came in the mail this week. The slogan for the company -- something I'd never noticed before -- is "Everything Christian ... for Less." I think the reason I hadn't noticed this slogan is that it is new. Not long ago the slogan was, Serving the Christian Community for 30 years.

Everything Christian .. for less?

Well, let's see. Salvation for less. Holiness for less. Faith for less. Love for less.

Salvation. I can see that one. Let's just cut out the troublesome Jesus part or the repentence part or the believe part and let me just say a few comfortable words here and there or ease right into a church or two. I don't want to bother with all that backwards and unpopular talk about sin or figure out who that Jesus guy was. Let's just fast forward to the eternal life part.

Holiness. Be ye a little bit better than you used to be for I am Holy? Set your eyes on things a little farther down the road than you are now, for your life is hid somewhere? Seek first a little more comfortable station in life and all these things will be added to you?

Faith. Forget subduing kingdoms. We'll just blog against government policy a little. Forget working righteousness. We'll just not make too many waves. Forget obtaining promises. We'll get by with the ones we already have. Forget stopping the mouths of lions. We'll just back away slowly, thanks. Quenching the violence of fire? You know, fire is a pretty decent heat source sometimes. Escaping the edge of the sword? I don't like to think about weapons; we won't go there. Out of strength, we'll be made weak. We'll wax valiant in flight, not fight.

Love. For less. I'll suffer a little while, if it isn't too much trouble. I'll try not to envy too very much. I'll try not to be provoked unless you really, really bother me. I'll seek my own way, but I'll do it with a smile.

Somehow, everything Christian for less doesn't sound all that Christian at all.

Peeling Paint

2009-08-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

After years of neglect, the paint on our house was peeling big time, especially on the north side. Long strips of bare wood stood exposed to the elements and public view. I felt sorry for our neighbors who had to look at this eyesore each day. But the prospect of all the work involved in fixing it up was overwhelming.

Finally, after a couple of different plans of attack, we've hired a paint crew to do most of the work. But even with help, it's going to mean lots of noise, lots of mess and many days of raw, exposed boards.

I often think it would be so much easier if we could just spray paint over what's there. Why scrape? Can't you just kind of wipe and paint over what's on the wood already? It would save so much time and effort if you could save the paint that's on the wood now, and simply add new paint to it.

But anyone with a little experience knows you can't do it that way. Soon the new paint would peel off with the old, and the house would continue to deteriorate.

It would be nice to think of the weathered look as a style choice. Doesn't a half painted house carry a certain charm? No? What if House Beautiful did a cover spread on the chic new style statement of half-painted houses? Surely after that, everyone would want one. People would be outside, scraping paint off in just such a way to make it look "weathered," giving it the stylish aging and weather-beaten feel.

Others would pay workers to remove steel and aluminum siding to get back that charming, half-painted look they covered up.

Somehow I can't see it.

The truth is, the old paint has to go. In order to preserve the wood, the old paint has to be stripped bare and primed. Only then can it be repainted. It's work, it hurts, it looks terrible for a while, it makes a mess, it's expensive, but it has to be done.

Same with our lives. We know love covers a multitude of sins. But sometimes we forget the scraping part (repentence) or the priming part (prayer). We just want God to hurry up and make us perfect. Can't you just spray holiness over the whole house, God?

He tells us that you don't stitch new material onto an old garment and you don't put new wine into old bottles. You can't do things the quicko, EZ, no pain way and hope it's going to work.

The sin has to be scraped off.

Fortunately, His blood strips sin away better than any pressure washer or paint thinner. It still hurts, though. It hurts Him, and it hurts us.

And sometimes it's pretty time consuming, as he exposes first one bare board and then another. But if we focus on the finished product, the gleaming, sparkling, fresh coat of redemption, all the prep work will appear in proper perspective and it won't seem like all that much of a trial when we look back at it later.

New coat, new day, new LIFE, new way.

Lost in Aisle 3

2009-08-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

I looked down at my shopping cart after picking up a carton of orange juice at Target today and noticed about fifty pairs of shoes. There was no place for the orange juice. I realiced immediately that way back in the shoe aisle, I must have inadvertently left my own cart and picked up a cart that workers were using to restock the shoe aisle.

Ever since, I'd been wandering through Target with a cart full of shoes, looking like Imelda Marcos on a shopping spree.

It occurred to me that I've done this a time or two spiritually. Somehow, I've left my walk with God in Aisle Three and wandered off, laden with all kinds of useless pursuits. Only later will something (the Holy Spirit?) jar my consciousness with the realization that I am in the wrong place, rolling the wrong cart with the wrong cargo.

I was able to wheel all the shoes back to their proper place and pick up my cart again with only minor embarrassment. With spiritual detours, though, sometimes the embarrassment, and downright humilation, can be pointed.

Jesus said we'd have to give account for every idle word we speak. Idle words, not dangerous or harmful words, though we'll probably have to explain those, too. But in idleness much wrong can be done, even without realizing it.

No wonder he tells us to watch, and to be wise as serpents and to be vigilant.

Choosing this day

2009-08-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

What god do I serve when I'm not serving God? Two ways to check, I guess. I can write down my schedule for the week and see what I spent the most time on. And I can look at my bank statement and see what I spent the most money on. Those would probably give the best clues to what gods I serve.

Maybe I'm serving myself. Maybe my family. Maybe my house. Maybe I'm serving an image of what I'd like to be or wish I was. Am I trying to impress people by volunteering here, working there, buying this or that? If so, why? Is it because I want them to see how godlike I've made myself?

Am I molding a god? Am I painting myself, painting my house, chipping off flakes I don't want others to see so that this image takes perfect shape? Am I worshiping my car? My brain? My kids? My ideal of what a family should be? Do I worship my work? My status? My reputation? My church?

Anything that isn't God is going to be a huge disappointment. Who did you serve this week? Who did I serve? Was it really God?

Why I hated Ephesians 4

2009-08-01T19:50:00.001-07:00

Still seething about a minor injustice, I put aside what I was doing to listen to Art read Ephesians 4. This was now the third evening in a row he read it. The last two times, I listened, but only scraps and bits stuck in my memory. In the evening, we have a family devotions time and it includes a Bible game where Art will begin reading a random passage of scripture. The rest of the family will call out guesses to what book it’s from. This week he kept calling out passages from Eph. 4, and even though he’d just read us the chapter, the kids were calling out “Ephesians” before it clicked in my mind that I had just heard this passage.

But on this one night, after boiling in fury, I was stung by Ephesians 4. I was jolted into shame and humility by Ephesians 4. (Boil, sting, jolt: How are those for mixed metaphors?) Walk worthy of your calling, with all lowliness and meekness, it said to me. I was not lowly or meek. I was incensed. This blog commenter had insulted me. He’d deliberately misrepresented what I’d said on the blog I was visiting. I had thought of all kinds of replies. Verbal slaps. Clever rejoinders. Biting wit complete with sharp teeth. Not many of my imagined replies were lowly or meek.

I was not doing much to keep the unity of spirit, and I was openly hostile to the bond of peace. I was not speaking the truth in love. I was quite sure I was speaking the truth, but rather than love, I was planning on speaking it in a sly, cutting, put-down kind of way. Ephesians 4 said no. Nuh-uh.

And what was this about the Vanity of your mind? That was one of the few Eph. 4 phrases that stuck: Don’t walk as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds. Well, here I was walking in the vanity of my mind. What else would you call trying to come up with a clever, sophisticated retort?

Put off the behavior of the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Zing. Be renewed. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.

Be renewed in the spirit of my mind? Well, the spirit of my mind at that moment was a pretty dark and angry spirit, absolutely ripe for renewal. Don’t let any corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. And that probably refers to fingertips on keyboards as well. Ugh. Ephesians 4, don’t you ever let up? I was just about to come crashing down on this self-righteous blog commenter and show him a thing or two! Uggh. Ephesians 4, Why now?

No corrupt communications out of your mouth, but only that which builds up, which ministers grace to the hearers. Grace? This guy just insulted me! Grace? Now? At this moment? Right when I’m about to let the verbal hammer drop? Arrrgh. Ephesians 4!

And it went on! Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Let all bitterness, anger, clamor, wrath and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. But couldn’t I keep just a little malice? Just enough to drive home my point? Arrgh. Ephesians 4!

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you. Ouch. Sting. Bite.

Needless to say, I never did reply to that commenter, and my interest in the blog itself somehow faded. I had to work on being renewed. Before that could happen I had to let the words of Ephesians 4 pummel me, lay me flat and do to me pretty much what I’d hoped to do to the blog commenter. Ugh. You can’t develop humility without a little humiliation. But you can’t get to the renewing of your mind part without humility.

When Art reads Eph. 4 tonight, I hope I’ll let it sink in nice and deep this time because I have a feeling I’m going to need it again soon.

Water Baptism at Mina

2009-07-29T11:01:00.001-07:00

Several were baptized this week in Mina Lake. As one baptism took place, passers by on a pontoon boat cheered. We had a good crowd for a nice time of fellowship at the Burckhard's cabin and a beautiful sunset. Unfortunately J Arlt's camera malfunctioned so you are stuck with my substandard photos.

VBS was great!

2009-07-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

The kids really got into VBS this week. Occasionally there were hints at citizen uprisings as the Roman soldiers were booed and mobbed for persecuting Christian shopkeepers. The underground church was impressed by the joy kids brought when they told about Paul's guard's conversion in the house-prison. Many good memories to take away from VBS. The horse drawn wagon was icing on the cake. Many were asking what the church plans to do next year already.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A little reminder

2009-07-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

He was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Click

Photo by Striatic, Flickr Creative Commons

Baptism

2009-07-19T07:28:00.001-07:00

Baptism service at Mina Lake next Sunday night.

Coin in the Fish by Laurie

2009-07-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

When tax collectors wanted Jesus to pay taxes, He told Peter to go fishing and he'd find a fish with a coin inside. Click on one of the fish below to see if your fish has a coin.

Rate, Comment and More! Personalize This Game Visit The Sims Carnival

Sneak Peak at New Life VBS

2009-07-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

Amazing. Totally amazing, once again this year, are the preparations for VBS going on at New Life Fellowship. This year, the VBS is set in Rome during the time of the underground church.
Somehow, Bob Imberi has manufactured many, many Roman columns out of some kind of PVC material, or corrugated metal painted white, or something. Scores of white, doric columns are everywhere.

What also impressed me was the huge, wall-sized replica of the Coliseum. It's truly amazing! I understand that Brian Schultz - with ACT and Storybook Land theater and who has a wealth of scene design experience - had a big part in making this.

There are also some very realistic catacombs veering off from the nursery entrance to the back part of the church. The VBS team has somehow made a cave out of black trash bags and gray fabric that, oddly enough, seems extremely realistic. I understand that a tape with cave sounds will be playing also. Some fake electric candles complete the catacomb ambience.

For Vacation Bible School in Aberdeen, South Dakota, this experience is going to remain in the minds of kids for a long time and it will seem as much like ancient Rome as we're going to get in Northeastern South Dakota.

It will be a great experience for both church kids and those who don't usually attend services.

Pathways of Righteousness

2009-07-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

by Marolyn Burckhard

THE GOOD SHEPHERD
“He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Psalm 23:3
Who is “He”?
Psalm 23:1 tells us He is “The Lord our Shepherd.” The Lord our Shepherd leads me in the paths of righteousness. John 10:10-11 further reveals this Lord, our Shepherd, as Jesus. Jesus said “I am the Good Shepherd.” He also tells us that He came that we “may have and enjoy life and have it in abundance—to the full, till it overflows.” (Amplified Bible)
NOT JUST A PROMISE FOR THE FUTURE
Most people understand this to mean that we may have eternal life, life forever with God in the joys of heaven. And it does. But it is also for the here and now. For, in the same Psalm, it is written that “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Two things here to think about. If Jesus, the Shepherd, is preparing a table for us, what would that table look like? A table of lack or abundance? Since the ‘cup runs over’ it must be abundance…it must be too much. Too much for us to contain. After all, He is God; He is El Shaddai! Also, do we have any enemies in heaven? Since the obvious answer is no, this table cannot possibly be for the future and must be for me today.
ABUNDANCE NOW
Jesus our Good Shepherd desires to lavish on us an abundance of life now. He desires us to excel in this life, to have an abundance, too much, excessive amounts of all things that pertain to this life, now. He desires for us to have the best in material goods, more than we need so we always have plenty for ourselves and others who are in need. He desires us to be the best, most favored people in our businesses, committees, school functions—that is, to be the ones that joyfully lead the way in confidence with new strategies, new ideas that solve problems and bring more abundance of life to those with whom we deal. He desires that we have good and wholesome families, exemplifying His love to each other.
RECEIVE WITH THANKS AND JOY
Let’s get off the fence and receive these things with great thanksgiving. The voice of faith is joy. Joyful thanksgiving that we are being lead in the paths of righteousness and we receive by faith all that the Good Shepherd came to give. Remember “without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God MUST BELIEVE that He is AND that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6)
HIS NAME IS LOVE
This is the desire of the Good Shepherd. This is why He came. A life full of joy and excellence and abundance is what He has to offer as He leads us in paths of righteousness---for His name’s sake. His name’s sake is His own purpose, His kind intent toward us for His name is Love. God is Love and desires to be known as Love and so without demanding some abstract obedience, He says “I am the Good Shepherd—follow Me and I will lead you in paths of righteousness to a full, joyful, abundant life.”

Praise Him!

2009-07-12T20:41:00.001-07:00

So the challenge is to find new places to worship, places in our lives to let go and praise the creator of all things. Like the woman at the well learning about true worship, like the prisoners praising in chains, we can open ourselves to Him anywhere, in spirit and in truth. Can we worship here on the blog? Let's give it a shot!

Father, you have brought so many together from different ways and works at New Life. Help us to rejoice in each other and the God who made us all. Thank you for the music that comes out from your people and your spirit in our minds. Thank you for the gifts you pour down on the congregation. They all reflect different aspects of your being. I am grateful to be witness to the myriad ways you show Yourself among us.

Your works wanted

2009-07-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

Devotionals, testimonies, poems, favorite scriptures, reflectons, sketches, photos. Send them here for use on the blog.

Most Comforting Words

2009-07-08T06:33:00.000-07:00

A lot of people turn to Psalm 23 in times of need. When you're going through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, it really speaks to you. But I like the other most recited New Testament verse in those times.

Thy will be done [in earth] as it is in heaven.

The fact that His will is done in heaven is even more comforting than to know that He is with me in the shadow of death. Some day, there will be no shadow of death. There will be no shadow at all.

The other comforting thing is to know that His will isn't always being done here on earth. Why would he have us pray, "Thy will be done on earth" if it's already being done on earth? I can know certain things from this.

I can know that the suffering my dad went through in the last stages of leukemia, the injustice or corruption in some shady government deal, the drug dealer who preys on my kids, the bribe under the table, the tortured child, the hurricane that wiped out a city, the massacre of innocents, the horrendous car/train wreck killing a family of four, the starving child on the reservation and the serial killer are not God's will. It's a comforting thought to know that.

Why He allows things not His will to be done is a question for theologians, but I have His words in the Lord's Prayer telling me to pray that His will be done on earth, and that's enough for me.

Free in Christ

2009-07-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

Call to Arms

2009-07-05T19:37:00.001-07:00

Call to Arms

The enemy approached the camp and pillaged homes and farms
The captain nodded. It was time to call the troops to arms
In tents, in barracks, field and camp, the soldiers strained to listen
They listened for the captain’s call while swords and sabers glistened
Polished every day for months, gleaming in the sun
Weapons at the ready stood, from lance to spear to gun
At last the captain shouted for the trumpeter to blow
The call to prayer, to arms, to fight! resounded deep and low
The call to leave the tents behind, the trumpet, low and deep
To prayer!
The men removed their boots and promptly fell asleep.

Exciting VBS Ahead - Get Ready for Rome

2009-06-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

(left: VBS workers learn song and dance moves for ROME: Paul and the Underground Church VBS)

My first experience with VBS as a kid was terrifying. Coming from a home of non-believers, I was sent with my 2-year-old brother to an unfamiliar part of the neighborhood largely, I think, to get out of my mom's hair. I was four and I went to the wrong house. When we finally arrived at the right house, we were late. Everyone was talking about this Jesus person, someone I knew nothing about. I left feeling pretty alienated.

But no one will leave New Life's VBS feeling that way.

Last year was my first experience with New Life's VBS and I was totally awestruck when I saw the amazing teamwork involved in the event. So many adults are involved that it blows the mind. There must have been a 2-1 ratio of kids to adults, or close to it. Last year, the gym at St. Mark's (where the church was meeting then) was transformed into a Jerusalem marketplace in just a few hours, but with lots of planning beforehand.

Marketplaces sprouted up, baskets, palms, and Bible time charachters made the VBS extremely lifelike.

At New Life, VBS is a special ministry for Alicia Hutchinson. She spends the whole year planning and preparing, and she has a special knack for recruiting volunteers. The entire experience is fun for all involved, and there are a lot of people involved. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a waiting list to be a helper because it's just so much fun to be involved.

This year, it's going to be very similar, only the theme is Rome in Paul's time. The kids will meet in the underground catacomb church, experience a Roman marketplace and all kinds of Roman craft places. They will work with metal jewelry, leather, scrolls and they'll go to a Latin grammar and architecture school - and lots more. They'll also learn what it was like to have to worship secretly to avoid becoming entertainment in the Coliseum.

Kids who come will be assigned a Roman family to be part of. No lost, scared kids at thie VBS! They will dance and sing to the absolutely breathtaking music at extollo time. And they'll be learning verses from -- where else? -- ROMANS!

I'm excited and it's still a ways off, not until July 20. Make sure to invite friends because it will be a VBS they'll remember for a long time. To see last year's VBS slideshow, click here.

Sharon, Tony and kids go to Durban

2009-06-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

There are many ways one could describe
Durban, South Africa. It often reminded
Sharon of Duluth, MN because of the
steep hills and the glimpses of the Indian
Ocean.
We could described it by the people
that we met which were open and friendly.
Reaching out to us in love through food and
family.
We could describe the amount of crime
and robbery and that the people of Durban
don’t often feel completely safe. They have
bars on their windows and their houses are
often enclosed within gates to keep out people.
We in humor could call it a horn culture.
Wesley, Irina and Lucy - knew that when Pastor
Patrick came to pick us up - he would
honk his horn. It became such an anticipation
for them that every car horn had them
running to see if he had arrived. Lucy had
such joy when she knew we were all going to
pile into the “OM - clown car” and go to the
church. Or to someone’s house to eat. We
once got nine people into his car - okay so
four of them were the kids - we were still
pretty impressed with ourselves. Not the type
of thing that is common back “in the States.”
Our time in Durban was made wonderful
by the love of the host families. Each family
seemed especially picked for each member
of the team.
Our host was Queenie - she gave us
the use of her apartment, while she was
staying at her daughter’s home. We were
able to share a meal with her at her daughter’s
home as well as see her son-in-law
and daughter’s ministry.
SHARING WITH HINDUS

Sharing Christ with Hindus is interesting.
They believe in one God but believe that there
are many ways to him and that he takes on
many forms, so they worship many different
gods. There are over 300 million different
Hindu gods. They even claim to believe in Jesus
and they will pray to him also. It was interesting
to examine their faith and compare it to
what we believe and to reconfirm the trust we
have in Jesus Christ as the one true way to
God.
Hindus believe there are many roads, that
each road will take you to heaven. Pastor Patrick
who works in a predominately Hindu
neighborhood shared with us the way that he
has found works best in sharing with Hindu
believers.
If you are on a road trying to get to the
highway and there is a road block in your way,
you would turn around and go a different route.
This is like a Hindu who is following a road to
try to get to heaven and has to live through
many lives - through reincarnation. When
Christ has done what we can’t do - pay the
penalty for our sin, thus through his death and
resurrection we have the direct path to a relationship
with God through Jesus. This is a
much more direct road and why wouldn’t you
take it?
Pastor Patrick has found that using the
Bridge to Life along with a bit of the Roman
Road works well when talking with Hindus.
Connecting words that they are familiar to them
like atma - soul, dharma - path, karma - good
works and moksha - heaven, with how our sin
leads to death and the path to heaven isn’t possible
without Christ’s death on the cross and
that is how we can have a relationship with God.
Our goal for door-to-door outreach was
first just to connect with people and drink tea
and talk. If the conversation led to being able to
share the Bridge to Life with them then that was
even better. We both had the opportunity while
visiting with a Hindu family to share with them
about this. We pray that God will use this to
draw these people to Him.
The Hindu people were very lovely, hospitable
people who worship gods made from human
hands and often depict demonic images.
Please pray for the Hindu people in Durban and
the work that Pastor Patrick and his church are
doing at the Berea Full Gospel Church.

OTHER MINISTRY AND WELBEDACHT PRAYER CENTRE
Our ministry in Durban was a good balance
of outreach and experiencing the Indian culture
in Durban.
Door to Door outreach mainly to Hindus.
Many families in Durban show their faith by
flying a flag on a long bamboo pole. Red or
yellow flags shows they are Hindu, while a green
flag shows they are Muslim.
We went to two Christian schools and
shared about missions and performed some
dramas.
We also served tea and bread at the local
community hospital - people get in line there at
3 am to be able to pick up their prescription
medication.
On Fridays, Berea has a family night. Our
first Friday we focused on the persecuted
church. During the showing of a movie called
Behind the Sun, we “raided” the group and “arrested”
a few of the church members and most
of the youth. Afterward, they prayed for the
persecuted church. Sharon shared about the
persecuted church in Africa and asked many to
pray.
One Saturday we tried our hand at selling
books near the Bangladesh Street Market. Our
location was not the best but we certainly enjoyed
sharing our testimony and the love of
Christ when people would stop by to look,
Sunday we were given the chance to
have the whole day, the kids Sunday School,
the church service and a half hour of a
women’s community gathering.
One day we were taken to the Welbedacht
Prayer Centre, which is a church in the Welbedacht
district of Durban. It is like a rural outreach
in the middle of the city. Families live on
the hillside in housing pieced together from
whatever scrap metal and wood that they can
find. The Government is trying to provide them
with permanent housing before 2010 and the
World Cup.
Pastor Jerome and his wife Silvana serve
a meal for the kids after school from there and
have a church service every Sunday. They
partner with CAPRISA which performs HIV/
AIDS testing , counseling and on-going treatment.
They have a vision for creating a center
for the community. This includes a mentorship
program for the school children and providing
access to computers for school work and training.

Family + Food = FUN
If we were to sum up the Durban
outreach in three words it would be
Family, Food and Fun!
We can not thank the Berea Full
Gospel Church enough for the love
and care that we received from everyone.
We felt so welcomed! Since we
were in our own apartment, our family
had the privilege of having diner in the
homes of six different families from the
Berea church. We had so many wonderful
conversations, work, home, life,
kids, goals, and sport. Because of
this, Sharon is beginning to understands
the game of Cricket.
Knowing that we couldn’t take the
kids out every evening for dinner at
someone’s home, several members of
the church brought us meals to the
apartment. It was such a treat to have
a full meal delivered to our door and
the time to be a family in a home. It
was such a blessing.
Pastor Patrick and his wife Cheryl
fell in love with our kids and took such
good care of them. Cheryl watched
them several times so that both of us
could do ministry together. The kids fell
in love right back with them. They also
watched them one day because they
wanted us to have a chance to get
away as a couple for a date - which
they assumed correctly that it had been
a long time since we were able to do
that.
Some other exciting things - were
the Durban monkeys that dug into our
garbage for daily goodies. The kids
loved to watch them and Lucy made
her excited cooing “ahh” when ever she
saw them.
We were also able to get to the Victoria
street market, the Indian Ocean
(which is one thing that Sharon really
wanted to be able to touch). We both
learned that a Bunny Chow at the Oriental
Restaurant is truly a curry experience.
[

Ipod Power?

2009-06-22T15:05:00.001-07:00

I met a friend in the Kessler's parking lot today where we discussed how to improve the world. Some of the best ideas are thought of in store parking lots. We stood and talked while cars came and went.

Gail mentioned how much time people spend watching DVDs and movies at home. She believed that Christians need to tap into the most relevent methods for sharing the gospel and believed that more Christian screenplay writers are absolutely necessary. (Marolyn Burckhard, are you listening?)

That sparked another idea. Ipods. And maybe this is being done already. I don't know. Record the Bible onto a cheap mp3 player in whatever language you want. Intersperse songs from a church worship team. Send out.

Free ipods loaded with scripture and music? I can see this on the reservations, hospitals and schools right here in SD. Also, overseas, especially in areas where there might be no written language. Soon, the cost of an mp3 player and earbuds will be inexpensive enough to compete with other Bible distribution methods.

What ideas have you come up with in grocery store parking lots?

David and Goliath by Laurie, 9

2009-06-20T15:13:00.001-07:00

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom

Wind and Clouds

2009-06-02T18:02:00.000-07:00

Whoever boasts himself of a false gift is like wind and clouds without rain, says Proverbs 25. At first, I thought. What's wrong with this? Who wants rain and flooding? Who wants rain with wind? Who wants a cloudy day with wind AND rain?

But when you think about it, you can have dry ground that really needs rain. You hope for rain. Pretty soon you get a little wind and some clouds on the horizon and you think, Great! Rain's on the way. Only to be disappointed.

When you're promised a gift and it doesn't come, it's kind of like that. Or, if the false gift is a false attribute, you hope a person who boasted of his gifts and calling will pull through for you. Any day now, he'll do wonderful things, but that day doesn't come.

And if you're that Christian? If you think you have some great gift, but you never use it, never exercise it, never really mean to do much but feel good about it? Ugh. You're just another cloud passing over, a source of disappointment.

Father, keep me from false gift boasting!

When did "Church" become a verb?

2009-05-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not "churched." I worship at church. I was never "unchurched" nor have I become "dechurched."

I'm not sure when "church" became a verb, but I don't like it. Someone probably thought it was more convenient to say "the unchurched," than to say "those who don't attend church." Still, both "churched" and "unchurched" carry a negative connotation.

"Churched" sounds kind of like "caged." You've been "churched," locked up in a box with a steeple. "Unchurched" is worse. It dismisses a whole group of folks who don't attend church for various reasons, casting out both the cynics who scoff at church, along with those damaged from abusive or painful relationships in churches, as well as those who grew up not going to church and never really thinking about faith.

Am I the only one who finds this term uncomfortable?

Choices

2009-05-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

Mulling over Proverbs 22, after Pastor Joe's message this morning, and I noticed the issue of choice in the first verse: A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. I never really thought of either of these as a choice. I never thought, "I think I'll establish a good name," or, "I think I'll earn a billion dollars over the next several years."

Still the everyday choices we make establish our names, our reputations. And I can't help wondering if at some time in your life you'll be offered a choice between the two: good name or riches? You might fudge a little here, compromise your ethics there, cheat a bit here and there for great riches. Or you might give up a chance here, refuse to cave into temptation there, avoid a compromising situation here and there and pass up great riches.

If so, these are little, daily choices that add up to big ones. You have to step back and look at your life over time to see what your choices added up to.

Lots to think about in those passages.

Sharon Sleeps on the street!

2009-05-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

I looked at my week in the inner city as a vacation of ministry. It was the first time that I was away from Lucy. I only had to do dishes for one person, and only had to look after myself.

Our team started out with Ladies of the Night, the ministry to the prostitutes. The first night was by far our best as the ladies were not expecting us yet. Our goal that night was to give a tract, invite the women to a meeting at the Coffee House and to pray with them.

They truly were hurting women that need Christ’s love and forgiveness. One women asked me to pray for more business; she was being a little cheeky, so I laughed and said that I wouldn’t pray for that, but I would pray that God would bless her.

Pray that these women come to know the Lord and seek to get off the street. I really found that I enjoyed the door-to-door ministry and the street evangelism. At my heart, I care about people and wherethey will spend eternity. I found that by just asking people if they knew where they would go when they died, opened the doorto a conversation about spiritual things.

It was interesting where the conversations went. I shared with them using the principles found in the “The Way of the Master” evangelism training. The highlight for me was being able to share with a muslim women.

The conversation went like this: She said, “I am a muslim: I said “Oh, I am a Christian, a follower of Christ. To which she said, “God canʼt have a son.

I said - He is GOD he can if he wanted to. (Which she couldn't deny because the Koran says that God can do anything.) Then I said - your Koran talks about Jesus being a prophet right? And she said yes. I said, And the Koran says a Prophet can't lie, right? And she agreed.

Then I said, Jesus stated, "I am the way, the truth and the light. No one can come to the Father except through me." Our conversation had to stop there as we came to the corner. Please pray for her.

The other highlight was our night to sleep on the street. We slept as a huge group so it wasn’t quite what the homeless experience, but armed with our cardboard box and a sleeping bag we headed out to sleep on the main drag in Pretoria. All I can say is the night is long, cold and un-comfortable. Tonight when you go to bed say a prayer for the homeless, thank God for your bed, pillow, blankets and the central heat that we take for granted.

To God All the Glory

Your submissions wanted

2009-05-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

Because we'd like to keep things fresh and new here, your works are needed. Do you draw, sketch, write poems or devotionals? Do you have some good digital photos you'd like to share? Some thoughts on a scripture verse you've read recently? We can use it all here on the blog. We also want to invite kids to contribute. A crayon drawing (scanned into a jpg file), a YouTube song video of a worship song, a poem or short story -- send it all in HERE. Thanks!

Death is out of place

2009-05-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

In death there are no constants, nothing sure, except that it will come. No speed of light, pi, two-plus-two, no gravity.

If you're a smoker, like to drink a lot, or revel in skydiving, if you're just plain mean, you could outlast the health nut and survive the careful jogger or fat-skimping queen. In death you can't predict who'll last and live the longest.

Nothing's sure but death and taxes, but with death you're never sure of when or how you'll go --- by falls or heart attacks, by cancer, stroke, too many M&Ms. You don't know where you'll be at your last breath. On board a plane that crashes in a field? Will you be choking in a diner at your death? Or die from duct tape in your safe room, sealed?

If only death could be erased like cold when winter ends. In spring, no one would die, and for a season no one could grow old, no aches advance, no wrinkles, no goodbye. There's something wrong with death. It doesn't fit. It's like a clip-art graphic in the Louvre.

Survivors know there's something wrong with it. They push the dark away. It doesn't move. Death never comes to those you think it should, but comes instead to everyone you love. While relatives fall ill --- you lose the good --- the Castros thrive and claim more than enough of life.

The man who ripped you off survives into his 90s, and with wealth to spare. He cheats on taxes, goes through scores of wives. He bullies underlings and doesn't care.

And death appears to have no sense of timing, coming uninvited hours early for dinner, at your door, while you are climbing out of bed. It seems in such a hurry. That morning knock, each time, sends out a jolt of dread, confusion, fear and inner pain. You must refuse to answer! Lock the bolt and hook the latch, then quickly slide the chain.

We're never ready. Never. We might think we have sufficient warning, but we're wrong. We brace ourselves, prepare, try not to blink. Then death bangs not the doorbell but a gong. Death always comes as such a great surprise, zinging like an arrow to its mark. Or, slowly crushing, right before our eyes, the ones we love.

It simply cannot work that death's as natural as tears or breath. It shocks us, slaps us every single time! We can't adjust or just resign to death. It simply isn't part of earth's design.

The Word who authored life showed that our blood was meant to course forever through our veins. But real human choice demands that should we choose our ways to His, we feel the pain of separation that He knows from all who turn away from Him, and from His gift of life. One life span is a world too small. All nature screams of something more, some shift or lift into another span of life.

Not only nature, but the age-old Word that comes both as a book and as a knife that slices soul from marrow, joints and blood. That Word, both flesh and page, holds more than hope in this world. It proclaimed a land apart, above.

Approachable by those who grope for meaning and for truth through hands and heart. Though spat upon, and mocked a thousand ways, though crucified and buried in a rock, though now misquoted or revised away, though jumbled, trampled, mangled and forgotten, the Word that echoed out from tomb to ear for centuries is muffled, but not stilled.

Buried inside churches every year, by programs, papers, pews that must be filled, until the Word is just a whispered song, it still can sing that we are more than bone. No matter whether life is short or long, we're made for more, for we are not alone.

Donna Marmorstein, American News April 2003

New, improved address!

2009-05-06T08:27:00.001-07:00

Because the old blog address was clunky and awkward, we've changed the name to something a little easier to remember.

Also, the old one sounded like you had to be some kind of professional writer to contribute, and we want to dispel that idea right up front. The old name - newlifewritersblog.blogspot.com - goes out the window.

We've changed the address of this blog to simply nlfaberdeen.blogspot.com This one should be much easier to remember.

On this blog, we invite submissions from all NewLifers and covet (maybe that's not the best choice of terms) your devotionals, poems, photos, artwork, testimonies, sketches or whatever might be of interest to the New Life community. Help keep the blog fresh and new by contributing your works. Did a scripture jump out at you today? Share it here. Does a song really affect you in some way? Describe how and why. Did something happen to you that made you appreciate the daily gifts of God even more than usual? Here is a place to share about it. Discovery, creation and creativity - that's what we want this blog to reflect. Send your thoughts or works HERE.

Your Story

2009-05-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

This is the perfect place to share the story of how you came to walk with Christ. We each came a different way and for different reasons. When you listen to (or read) someone's "testimony" or spiritual life story, you can only marvel at the twists and turns people go through as they come to a place of surrender. No two people come in quite the same way. Even kids who grew up in a church-loving home and can't remember not being with Christian family members, even they come to a knowledge of Him in different ways.
If you would be willing to share your story, please send it here: TESTIMONIES.

Since I made the invitation, I'll start out, although Kady already did earlier. You can scroll down to read her story.

ALONE IN THE DARK

My parents gave up on church before I was born, though they sometimes went on holidays for my grandmothers' sake. I remember my grandmother giving me Catholic prayer books when I was 6 or 7.
I also remember a book about Mary and knowing -- even that early -- that I could never be a saint. The book said that Mary never sinned, but I knew I had sinned. I had taught my little brother to take candy from a store display when my mom was shopping and we were supposed to be riding the vending horses near the entrance.
I figured God wouldn't want me because I had blown perfection already. For some reason, and I can only think it was to get us out of her way for a while, my mom sent me and my little brother to a summer Bible school around the block. I was excited because it was called Bible school and I was too young for regular school. I liked the idea of going to school like the big kids. I must have been four and almost 5. My brother would have been 3. I had never been to this part of the neighborhood and I was scared. Mom wouldn’t take us, just sent us. I took my brother to what I thought was the house and got the wrong house. I was scared. The lady in the wrong house pointed out the right house, though, and we came in late.

The problem with Vacation Bible School

I was very uncomfortable at Bible school. They kept talking about Jesus and I really didn’t know who Jesus was. My feelings were not good during that experience. Later, I thought a lot about hell and was scared. When I was older I reasoned that if you burned, you’d eventually burn up and not hurt anymore, so then the idea of hell didn’t scare me any more.
My parents, and especially my dad, became pretty vocal about religious nuts and religion in general. They told us that when we were older we could choose our own religion, as if all religions were equal (and frankly, equally wrong).

Religious People are Stupid

A man at my dad’s work was a Christian and really annoying to my dad. He was everything the fundamentalist stereotype encompassed, unfortunately, and my dad would sometimes rave about Christians at dinnertime. I adopted the same attitude, deciding that religious people were deluded and that intelligent, thoughtful people wouldn’t believe in superstition or religion. But I really didn’t reason or think things through. Just adopted an easy world view. If you make the other guy prove his way is right, you never have to exert yourself. It’s easy to be a skeptic. Doesn’t take any effort at all.

Wondering at night

It's one thing to be a skeptic in the day time, but when you are alone at night, doubts creep in. At night I began to think deep, unsettling thoughts. What if I’m wrong? What if there really is a god and eternity? I had a hard time with the concept of nothing. I felt that after you died you’d experience nothing. But what was nothing? Was it black and cold? Black and cold were concepts. They weren’t nothing. What would nothing be like? That I couldn’t fathom nothing bothered me. I had many doubts. I thought there might be a god every time I saw rays of sunshine beaming through clouds. And I would sometimes, secretly, wonder if God might have been speaking to me throughout my life in different ways, like through my grandma and her prayer books. Through a music teacher at school and other ways.

God doesn't grade on a curve

But if I was wrong, I figured I’d come out okay anyway. After all, I was a moral person. I was more moral than most people around me, even Christians. I just assumed that God would grade on a curve, that as long as I could find people worse than I, I’d have to be admitted to heaven. It never occurred to me that God might have an absolute standard by which He judged people.

Failing Mission X

When I was 10 or 11, a neighbor family invited me to go with them to Missionettes. This was an Assembly of God kids group. I thought the girl said Mission X. Since we were studying California history, and at that time missions, I thought it would be great to visit a mission. I said yes, and my parents said fine.But it wasn’t a mission. It was church.

I had only been in church before when I was very small, at Easter, and I really had no clear memory of it. Here, I sat in the pew next to my friend’s dad and he let me look at the pictures in his Bible. I liked the pictures but had no understanding. Missionettes itself was okay, and I kind of liked it, but I felt awkward not knowing what all the other kids knew. It slowly dawned on me that the only reason I had been invited was for my friend to earn play money for some kind of prize contest. I was being used, and I knew it.

I thought the girl liked me and I was flattered to have a new friend. When I finally understood that I was just a means to an end, I was disappointed and stopped going.

Activist Atheist

In 6th grade, a teacher we all hated would mention the Bible in class from time to time. My friend said it was illegal for him to do this. I thought that if I could tape record him mentioning the Bible, and play the tape for the authorities, we could get rid of him. I had a new (reel to reel!) tape recorder. I asked Mom if I could take it to school. No problem, she said. (I didn’t tell her why.) I recorded Mr. Fode’s first class and also our social studies class. When I came to Mr. Fode’s second class (I had him both for English and for reading) he saw it and asked me if I knew I needed permission to record classes. I told him yes (I had Mom’s permission). He thought I knew I needed permission from him. He asked me what I had recorded. I mentioned the social studies class but not his earlier class. He marched me to the Social studies teacher. I was made to stand in front of the class and replay everything I’d recorded. I stood there beet red. Everything I recorded was pretty much just static anyway. I stood in front of the class. The class had no idea what I was doing there, so it wasn’t too bad, and I could tell the social studies teacher was sympathetic. I never got rid of Mr. Fode, but I begin to really hate religion.

Occult studies

In junior high, from time to time, I made fun of the religious kids at school. I was very lonely in junior high. My best friend had a hip problem and missed a lot of school. I was on my own, very self-conscious and lonely. In 8th grade I turned to the occult. I had read Nancy Drew books which were harmless mystery stories. In the library, next to the mystery stories were ghost stories. I read through those. Then there were occult books on astral projection, astrology and other dark arts, and I read through those. I bought some Tarot cards. I don’t like to dwell on it now, but there was a real spiritual force in the Tarot cards. Not at first, but after a while, I could go into a trance and go through a spiritual progression (regression?) until I came to the death card. After a while I could go through that until I came to the Devil card. I was afraid of the Devil card.

I used the occult practices to feel powerful when I was lonely and miserable. The girl across the street was a bully had beat me up on several occasions and I lived in fear of her. I felt powerful when participating in occult things. I bought a book on witchcraft that had many spells in it. I was not very successful at casting spells, but I did consider myself a witch. I held seances (also not successful) and burned incense and told fortunes.

I feel very fortunate that I was not more ensnared in the spiritual dimension of these practices. I have my mom to thank for not getting in too deep. When I bought the book, my dad told me I could have it as long as I didn't believe in it, as long as I just used it to study witchcraft, not practice it. He didn't believe in religion or superstition and I figured that's why he told me this.One of the spells in the book was for making you invisible. I thought -- wow -- to be invisible, I'd give anything. I forgot the exact spell, but you were to take certain items to bed with you and go to sleep. A spirit would wake you up and you were to do everything it said to do. What could I lose? I gathered the items and was about to take them into my bedroom when my mom stopped me. When she asked what I was doing, I told her, embarrassed. I'm not sure why she warned me against doing this, (it may have been no more than preventing me from being silly, but I felt she was really warning me). I am so thankful. I am certain that if I had gone through with that experiment I might have been lured into a spiritual darkness that would have been very difficult to get out of.
The woman next door considered herself a witch and I didn’t realize this until I was no longer much interested in occult things. I dropped everything except Chinese fortune telling with cards by the time I was in high school.

Turning point

In high school I met Art (my now husband) and he was a Christian. Why he dated me, an atheist who dabbled in the occult, I’ll never know, except that I had once kind of thrown out a prayer in case there was a God saying please send me a boyfriend if you’re there. And here was Art.

The first thing he took me to was Steambath, a play about God being a capricious Puerto Rican despot or something. I guess it did cover a spiritual topic, but when I saw it I figured it was an anti-God play and that Art must be an atheist like me. We had so much in common! Instead, he was a Jewish Jesus freak.

He never came on strong about his religious beliefs, but he did insist that we go to church Sunday mornings when we were dating. He dragged me to dozens of bad churches and some good ones, and I got a taste of 1970s Christianity. I hated most of the churches and just put up with them. What I saw were people all dressed up trying to impress each other. This was the natural, earthtone 70s when young people wore jeans and T-shirts, especially in California. All the church people just seemed square and phony, and I sure didn’t want to end up looking or acting like them.

In the corn field

One day, Art took me to a Baptist church where his friend Charlie taught adult Sunday school. Charlie’s class was wonderful. He was studying the book of Mark and the story of the disciples going through the corn fields plucking corn and being criticized by the religious leaders. It was a great story. Here was Jesus, and He felt about religion the same way I did! It was quite a revelation.

I enjoyed reading about Jesus by the sea side, hearing his parables and teachings. Everything he taught sounded great; it was the religion part I didn’t like. After this, Art gave me a Gideon's Bible, and later a reference Bible along with a Bible reading chart. He asked me to do two things: Read the Bible, five chapters a day, and pray. I scoffed at this. But I said I’d do it for him.

The five chapters a day was no trouble. Parts were interesting and other parts confirmed my anti-religious outlook. When I got to the part where the Israelites were slaughtering the Amorites and such, I’d say, "See, see. Religion is bad and violent." (This was during the war-is-always-bad Vietnam War era.) It would just confirm what I already suspected.

I remember first reading about Christ on the cross. The priests came by and mocked him. "He can save others, but he can’t save himself. Hey, just come down from the cross and we’ll believe you." I thought, why not? Why DOESN’T he come down? If the big thing is for people to believe, why doesn’t he take them up on it here? I didn’t know yet that the very staying on the cross at that point was the sacrifice that saved the whole world. That by staying there, he took God’s anger on himself for our sins and paid the penalty for us. If he had come down, a few might have believed but the world would not have been saved.

Believing is against my principles!

The hard part, though, was not reading the Bible. The hard part was praying. How could I pray when I didn’t even believe in God. It seemed a violation of some sacred principle. But how could I have any principles? Without God, no principles are real. You make them up and you ignore them. NOTHING is binding if there isn’t a god! But I had promised Art I’d try to pray. I couldn’t break a promise. That, too, was going against my principles!

I finally allowed myself to pray. It was a great effort to humble myself that much. I had pretty much been my own god, and to bow down took great effort. To go against this strong barrier - which I now know was pride - seemed like breaking faith with myself and was nearly impossible.

When God came in

But the moment I did, I was broken, and God flooded into my life. He confirmed He was there and that He’d been speaking to me in different ways all my life. After that happened, I couldn’t get enough of the Bible. I devoured it. I read chapter after chapter. Art gave me a little booklet that explained the gospel in a simple way. I learned that man couldn’t get to God all by himself. That he tried all kinds of ways to bridge the gap on his own, including trying to be good. But nothing brought him anywhere close to the perfection a sinless God required. All religion was that ineffective effort to bridge the gap between sinful humans and a perfect God. It said that God himself bridged the gap by becoming human and laying himself down over the gap as a bridge so that men could get to God. All God required was for a person to acknowledge they were sinful, to believe in His sacrifice, and to confess Him before men. When you did that, you were saved from yourself, from the corrosive power of sin in your life and from eternal doom. He throws in eternal life as a bonus!

New Life

Since then, I've been walking with Him in the "newness of life." It really was a new start. I have never regretted trading my empty, arrogant, lonely, smug atheism for life-giving truth! And I got a whole, new family of Christian believers at the same time.

How did you meet Him? I'd like to hear.

Thanks from Tony and Sharon

2009-05-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

Dear New Life Fellowship,

The entire Jones family wants to thank you for the two huge boxes that arrived yesterday! We were so excited! I had just lamented a few days prior that we never get any mail. Then here are these two huge boxes. Wow - I never expected you all to be so generous! Thank You so Much! It meant so much to be remembered in such a way!

The kids felt so special that their church family thought of them and with Mac N Cheese! The funny thing is we just had Mac N Cheese the night before made with cheddar cheese - Wesley, and Irina were so excited for it until they tasted it and they realized it wasn't what they wanted. Then here is the "real" Mac N Cheese so we had it today Saturday for lunch and the leftovers for dinner! We also made the chocolate chip cookies. Surprisingly enough they are not all gone! We had to set some aside for Tony who is currently at the Inner City outreach, we get to visit him tomorrow to go to church and spend the day there. We are surprising him with homemade chocolate chip cookies!

Irina and Lucy both love the dolls, Irina was strolling them around in the stroller most of the day. Wesley took his cars into the dirt then decided to wash them and has played with them a lot today. I've decided for them that we don't have to eat all of it at one time and so it should all last awhile.

Again - thank you everyone! I think of you all in the new building and wish we were with you to worship together but we are their in spirit as part of the family of God.

Hope you have a blessed day!

In Him,

The Jones Fam 5
Tony, Sharon, Wesley, Irina and Lucy

Latest from Dan Hagen in Peru

2009-05-03T20:10:00.001-07:00

Every pothole shall be exalted, every speed bump and mound made low

2009-05-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

No big yellow taxi here. Sometimes, you don't know what you've got til it's here.

So here is this beautiful, "new" building, the Gibson's department store building, Idelman Telemarketers building, whatever it once was called, a building that sat vacant for a very long time, waiting for a new purpose.

And now people from every walk of life, with a whole variety of skills, worked together to make this building into a place of worship -- and it's beautiful.

You kind of wander around in awe as you see old and new faces also wandering around in awe.

The chalkboard walls - awesome! The nursery - state of the art. I actually got to hear the sermon and could even control the volume while working in the nursery! The signs Brian Schultz and Barb Klein made. I saw men up high on dangerous looking machines installing ceiling tiles and men with more dangerous looking machines cutting things in what will be the kitchen.

I saw Bob Marler in a secret back room with dangerous looking wires and connections on the walls, working with all kinds of hanging doors.

I saw Theresa Heupel, so intent on scraping paint from door panes that she was standing up out of her wheelchair to reach spots of paint up high!

I saw my dentist on his knees cutting carpet for those hard to fit places. Only someone with fine motor skills like a dentist could do that kind of job!

I saw Jacob Mellette running a roller over carpet and Rod Johnson down low doing something with carpet trim. There were many, many people I didn't see, working day and night to build a place for people to worship the Lord.

And the result is the gorgeous building that you can only walk around in with your mouth hanging open.

Then, there is the parking lot. Someone said it would cost another 80- 100 thousand dollars to resurface it, and you can see why. Dips and gullies, huge craters and lumps, cracks, lines, hills and lakes and rivers. It seems like an overwhelming problem. After spending so much on the building and working so hard, how can we possibly take care of the parking lot? What will we do? How is God going to provide for this challenge?

(I thought that once a month everyone should bring a bag of gravel and fill a pothole, but no one is too enthusiastic about that idea.)

But leaving alone after prayer this Sunday, I took another look at this vast, uneven surface and words from Isaiah came to me: Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill made low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shalll see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Has spoken it (Messianic group Lamb lyrics repeat "Has spoken it.")

Isaiah wasn't talking about parking lots. I think he was probably talking about justice. Everything will be paid for someday. Justice will be done. Somehow, though, the words just fit. Someday, somehow, that surface will be smooth as glass, or almost. He will provide. He will shock us and put us in awe once again. I don't know how, but I know it will happen.

A new season of grace

2009-04-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

By Na Keum Dong (Kady)

a Korean believer at NSU

The woman is going her dormitory powerfully and laboriously with a big load: textbook, laptop, and diary which is filled with compact writing that lays out a full schedule that makes feel alive, and her face is brilliant with a smile and confidence from deep in her heart. She looks so steady and durable, maybe the reason is that she has not only annual rings of summer but also winter ones, too, which have made her stronger than ever because they are the traces of her hard seasons and long winters that were so harsh and gruesome.

YOUTH AND HAPPINESS
On a vast, open cabbage farm, in the mountains, there is one house in which five family members have been living, including the girl. It is looks a cozy hut enclosed by mountains which seem like mother’s plump breast to protect newborn baby. The girl had brilliant black hair, two dark eyes, and she was healthy. Her parents were good people and had warm hearts. They loved inviting others to share life and feeling. She never felt lonely because her family was really harmonious and loved each other before she began her long journey with solitude. Later, she realized that to be good lumber, each tree should have both annual rings: summer one, and winter one. Obviously, the best lumber doesn’t grow overnight.
In one elementary school, she was so clever. Not only teachers loved her, but also she had many friends. After school, she was playing with friends doing active games like hide-and-seek; she loved outdoor activities. Her father and mother loved her skin tanned leathery in the sun. They loved everything about her: bravery, smartness, kindness, winsomeness. In the summer, her house was a fantastic and fabulous place to ride in a sleigh with her brother and sister. The girl’s father was so healthy and generous and he had a well tanned skin like her, too. He was always good friend to her and her siblings. After playing, her truly womanly mother was preparing awesome food for them. There was no family happier than the girl’s.

A HARSH MOVE
When she was twelve, her parents didn’t want their children to stay in a rural area. Because there was no appropriate school, it was hard decision but they transferred them to an other more developed area. It had good schools so that they the children could see bigger and better things. The girl was excited to experience a new world. At the same time, she felt uncomfortable and was afraid of unexpected circumstances since she and her siblings were only around twelve-year-old. Indeed, they were too young to handle burdensome circumstances.
She loved her new house, which was big and charming enough, because the house was covered with a vivid red color which was her favorite. However, soon she didn’t love the house anymore because there were not any parents. Instead of parents and warm air, boring grandmother, grandfather, and cold wind was there. Absence of parents at too early an age was very deadly to the poor children.
One day, an event happened in her new elementary school. The girl was always the best student in school. The teachers loved her because she took prizes in and out of school. Before long, friends who got to know each other well in small size town for a long time started to hate the new and uninvited guest because of jealousy. When she brought an assignment to school, after she come to her desk, her copy was torn. They kept glaring at the poor girl as if that was funny. After school, she couldn’t focus on anything. She felt abandoned from the world, friends, and everything. Only the big new empty house kept looking at her with silence. The small wood was in the harsh rain and hailstorm with a small and feeble body standing everything all alo

LONELINESS AND REBELLION
Her Parents were working in a totally different area that made it hard to meet. As time went by, in her mind, love toward her parents was changing into love and hatred. Circumstances lead her to be negative and depressed, she was too young to handle her mind and feeling and she indeed needed shelter and shield.
In one high school, she was wearing a blue school uniform, and she was not a girl with winsomeness anymore to her parents. Instead, her face was solid with no laugh, like a dark cloud. After twelve-year-old, she was getting more and more independent, with a shortage of love, so she became disobedient, going through the age of puberty. She didn’t obey her parent’s order intentionally. When parents who occasionally dropped by house nagged, she mouthed back always. When they saw her wrong behavior, her parents started to whip, but she didn’t answer with her lips firmly closed and with her tears kept in her eyes. When she watched her parents’ leave, she was crying in her room alone, but she wouldn’t express her feeling anymore to her parents. Her mind seemed already frozen.
Indeed, there was a too deep of a river which couldn’t go over among parents and her because time passed too much. Even while she was living independently, she was suffering from insomnia, there was nobody who could understand her feeling of loss, even her parents. Actually, she told them like this, “I NEED YOUR LOVE!! I AM STARVING TO DEATH FROM LACK OF LOVE.” However, they didn’t have much time to catch her feeling because they weren’t able to support three children. After finishing school, there was no one who could listen carefully to her feeling. In the hailstorm and rain&storm, there was a deep, dark, solid annual ring. That was really horrible winter to small wood.

A FRIEND WITH GOOD NEWS
Meanwhile she had met one friend who was coming to her. She never had religion. The friend was tall and beautiful, always with many people following her. She became her good friend. As the girl knew her, she could know God too, because her friend was devoted to God. The lonely cloud was starting to leave because of her truly good friend. Her beautiful friend told her “If you are lonely, with closed eye, just call ‘God’, and tell your hope to him. He is always with you.” It was awkward, but she started to pray to God. Although she didn’t be sure to whether God really exists or not, but she needed help to save her. She needed love to fulfill her emptiness in mind. At first, to her, Jesus Christ was just name of the bible that seemed to be fake to her. The bible said there is no other name that we are saved except Jesus Christ. Sometimes, she read bible, especially she loved psalms 13:1-2 “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” When she was suffering from insomnia, it gave her strength and hope, and then she often sobbed herself to sleep.
When she entered University, she met a church which was totally different compared with others. One day, she entered a church that was small and cozy, there was one Evangelist whose smile seemed like sunshine that made her relax. He prayed for her, holding her hands. There was nothing without calm sound of coming spring toward small wood.

WARMING TO JESUS
In that church, all people seemed that they really were believing God and Jesus Christ exist. They were really warm to accept her everything. Her mind and spirit which were frozen were getting warm. The love she felt in church and from faith was bigger than any other love in the world, even that was above love of parents’. She was really wanting while she was alone. Finally, She got real love that she was really eager to seek! She is getting brighter like her real nature from God. Laugh and passion which was lost was flowing through her body and heart again. By grasping Jesus Christ’s hand, she took back her smile like an awesome flower.

REUNION
Now she not only got an annual ring of summer, but she became strong lumber. Amazingly, after she started to attend a church and prayed to God, her family started to attend church too, about 2 years later. Now, they are attending church together, also talking often, forgiving each other, and understanding each other too. Now, she confirms that there is no other name that people are saved except Jesus Christ, as someone told her formerly. Now, her step is really nimble and powerful. She isn’t sad anymore, because now she has taken her everything more than she expected: a strong bond with family that at once had difficulty with communication, a stability of mind from love of God, and furthermore, annual rings of summer too. Finally, she became healthy and durable lumber! Yes, Indeed.

Toward the Light

2009-04-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

My window garden has been growing, and one thing I can tell about my plants is that they hunger for the light. My large zucchini especially leans over toward the window, almost as if grasping for light shafts.
I pray for my kids, that they, too, will lean toward the light, that they will hunger for the presence of the Lord beyond anything else. I also pray that nothing I do or say will be a shadow between them and the light of the Lord. No impatient outburst or selfish response, no careless neglect or impulse.
It's too easy to be an obstacle. I pray instead to be a window.

Thinking about windows reminds me of lyrics of a Keith Green song:

Stained Glass

We are like windows
Stained with colors of the rainbow
Set in a darkened room
Till the bridegroom comes shining through

Then the colors fall around our feet
Over those we meet
Covering all the gray that we see
Rainbow colors of assorted hues
Come exchange your blues
For his love that you see shining through me

We are his daughters and sons
We are the colorful ones
We are the kids of the king
Rejoice in everything

My colors grow so dim
When I start to fall away from him
But up comes the strongest wind
That he sends to blow me back into his arms again

And then the colors fall around my feet
Over those I meet
Changing all the gray that I see
Rainbow colors of the risen son
Reflect the one
The one who came to set us all free

We are his daughters and sons
We are the colorful ones
We are the kids of the king
Rejoice in everything
We are like windows
Stained with colors of the rainbow
No longer set in a darkened room
Cause the bridegroom wants to shine from you
No longer set in a darkened room
Cause the bridegroom wants to shine from you

Jones kids in South Africa

2009-04-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

So how are the Jones kids holding up as the family trains as missionaries in South Africa? Here's what Sharon has to say about their adventures:

The kids had some interesting
adventures:
1. Using the longdrop (outhouse).
2. Living without toast for 17 days.
3. Meeting and making friends with
children that don’t speak the same
language.
4. Lots of walking - Irina found this a
challenge.
5. Very dark nights
6. A trip to Kruger Park
7. Wesley wanted to be involved in
everything. Irina would often sit
down and just play in the sand.

PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Healing for Wesley - who is on
medicine for tick fever.
2. That none of the children develop
any worms from the sand they
played in.
3. That they understand why they are
not going on the next outreach to
the city.
4. Prayer for Tony and Sharon as we
are dividing up the next ministry
one of us will stay at base for a
week with the kids while the
other one goes out for a week.

Tony and Sharon return from rural outreach

2009-04-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

Ministering as a Family on the Rural
Outreach

Tony and Sharon Jones

The rural outreach was about a
few things: Living a simple life, learning
about the culture and using our
initiative to do ministry.
As a family our goal was also
about surviving the whole time. As
long as the kids were thriving. I know
now that as a family we can pretty
much live through anything and with
the bare minimum. There were times
when I thought I had about as much
as I could take. The challenge was too
great, but some how with God’s
strength we continued on and it got
better again. Our team was great and
really stood behind us, even though
because of the children they didn’t get
as much peace as they might have
had at camp without them around.
As for ministry - I found that I
really enjoyed teaching the High
School students the HIV/AIDS awareness
training. God really showed me
that I really do have a gift in the area
of teaching. I didn’t enjoy the kids
ministry so much - the dramas and
cute songs were fun, but I find that I
want a more relational experience
then just performing. The home visits
were great and sharing the gospel is
really at my heart.
Pray for Given a young man that I
was able to share the gospel with.
Jeffery - was a young Deaf man that
came to the camp often our conversation
was challenging to me as we
didn’t understand each other, but after
visiting the Disabled school and
talking to his Deaf teacher I was encouraged
about Deaf ministry in the
future.

New Life, New Home

2009-04-05T15:19:00.000-07:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photos by J

New Start

2009-04-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Somewhere under that snow is grass. In my window, I have several vegetable seedlings started. (I always get started too late and have to buy starter plants. This year, I think I started too early.) Whether they will mature to full-size plants that give crops later is yet to be seen. But for now, they at least give oxygen and wonder.

Thank you, Father, for the new start that comes with your Spirit.

Baby, bath water and Christian cliches

2009-04-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

One project I've been working on lately is gathering in one place lots of links to spiritual abuse sites, and in the course of doing this, I too often come across people who've been so burned by their prior church experiences that they sit there, suffering in their gauze wrap and crying out in different ways. Sometimes, they just want to throw their whole spiritual life down the drain, Jesus and all. Sometimes, they are able to separate the fake from the real and they cling to Jesus, but won't set foot in another church.

Sometimes, they find a church home that is nurturing and healing. That's what I've found at New Life. When I think of New Life, I think of the balm of Gilead. Not sure what that balm was in the Bible, but people traveled a distance to go to Gilead for it.

Anyway, in the course of my hunt, I CAME ACROSS THIS SITE that seems to be from one of the third-degree burn victims crying out. The site, called "Leaving the orbit of Planet Christian," includes a list of things the blogger no longer believes in. What I found interesting were the cliches, the pre-digested thought morsels Christians use without thinking. Now, I don't toss all these out, like the blogger does, but I do think the list of things is important to consider.

How many items are just knee-jerk Christian cliches, words you don't even think about, pre-formatted auto-pilot phrases and ideas? It's also important to think of how these things sound to the world at large, the world that isn't cocooned in church.

Two things to digest here. 1. Many people are hurting from bad church experiences and ready to leave "the planet." How can we provide a place of safety and health in the Lord for these hurting people? 2. Is it possible to talk about things of the Kingdom of God in fresh, new ways so we aren't sounding like Christian robots?

Your thoughts?

Donna

The age-long minute

2009-03-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

By Amy Carmichael

Thou art the Lord who slept upon the pillow,
Thou are the Lord who soothed the furious sea,
What matter beating wind and tossing billow
If only we are in the boat with Thee?

Hold us in quiet through the age-long minute
While Thou art silent, and the wind is shrill:
Can the boat sink while Thou, dear Lord, art in it?
Can the heart faint that waiteth on Thy will?

Latest from Tony and Sharon in South Africa

2009-03-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

Our location for the rural outreach is Mabarhule
which is a village in the Limpopo region of South
Africa. We will be spending almost three weeks
camping in this rustic part of South Africa.

Please pray For our MabarhuleTeam:
Jaco - South Africa
Faith - Hong Kong
DongHyuk - S Korea
Magdalena- Sweden
Jonathan- South Africa
Danree -South Africa
Maria –USA
Tony, Sharon & Kids -USA

Helpers of Joy?

2009-03-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand - 2 Cor. 1:24

I came across this verse yesterday and instead of steamrolling over the last verse in a chapter like I do a little too often, I actually had to sit and think about this one.

We're called to be helpers of other people's joy. Earlier in the passage, in verse 14, Paul says that the Corinthians are his and his friends' rejoicing, even as he and his friends are the Corinthians' rejoicing. We're here to bring joy to others.

Probably a good idea to keep that in mind when we're tempted to complain about someone. Or when we are about to sin, or about to sit alone and sulk.

Donna

Listening for that still, small voice

2009-03-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

Donna Marmorstein

And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight

- Luke 24:31

The last three months have been full of noise. Mostly good noise, but still noise. A family crisis. Three weeks with my son and his family visiting home. Christmas. Two weeks with my daughter and her family visiting home. More school activities than I can even keep straight.

Between piano lessons, show choir, debate practice, jazz band, worship team practice, science projects, museum presentations, cheerleading practice, basketball games, concerts and debate tournaments – and all the driving involved with it all – I’ve hardly had time to catch a breath, let alone catch the breath of heaven.

The contrast between the house when ten people are in it and the house when I’m alone can be measured in decibel levels. When everyone is home I hear running, squealing grandkids; piano music; movie soundtracks; guitars and mandolins; computer game noises; singing; talking; laughing; political debate and card games -- all at the same time.

It’s hard to make out any one voice among the many. The voices are good. The noises are full of life. But coming all at once, they obstruct single voices, especially quiet ones.

But even when I’m alone, it’s hard to make out the one voice I want to hear - His voice.

I can hear His voice in nature: The heavens declare the glory of God - Psalm 19:1. Whenever sun rays stream down through mottled clouds in big, bright lines, I know He is speaking to me of his majesty. Early morning clearness, silver water reflections, powerful storms, bird chatter in the yard – He speaks of Himself through it all.

I can hear His voice in the Word. When I read old passages in new ways and discover unexplored facets of familiar passages, I know He is speaking to me, guiding me and showing me what I need to know.

Still, I crave a more direct communication, a more personal and familiar conversation with the One behind the torn veil. To speak with the Creator of all things isn’t something to take lightly. Who am I to seek to speak to the mightiest being in the universe? How do I dare even presume to do that?

Ask. Seek. Knock. He tells me to seek Him and tells me to persist, so at His urging, I do this, despite gross inadequacies.

He cleans me, makes me ready, but still I feel like Esther, unsure about that scepter, unsure if I should be allowed in the palace, uneasy about the consequences of being face-to-face with Something so pure and undefiled that it would burn me to powder in an instant if my own dirty righteousness, and not the righteousness of Christ, stood in Its presence.

So I uncertainly ask; I hesitantly seek; I lightly knock. And every once in a while, I hear that small voice. Every once in a while, I am certain it is His voice speaking directly to my heart and circumstance.

To explain it to someone else, though, is fruitless. He speaks in the punctuation marks of sentences, not the grand verbs and lusty nouns. He speaks in the margins. No one else would understand the odd, personal ways He answers doubts and questions particular to my circumstance – any more than I would understand if you tried to explain to me the way He speaks to you.

Because His voice is small and because it is still, it tends to fade from memory over time unless I specifically write down or mark in some way what He has said and how He has said it. But even then, it won’t make the same impression on me years later when I am in different circumstances and facing different sets of questions.

Blessed are they who seek him with the whole heart, says Psalm 119:2. It’s when I stop seeking Him that there’s a problem. When I think I hear Him enough and no longer need to seek, that’s trouble. I’ve been there. I don’t want to be there again.

The Death of Love

2009-02-28T20:10:00.000-08:00

by Art Marmorstein

The Most Important Thing
I promised I would talk about something more important than anything I talk about in class. I'm going to talk about the most important thing in the whole world.
And what's that?

If I had asked that question 30 years ago--or almost any other time in history--I'd have gotten a quick answer from almost everyone.

Almost everyone would have quickly said that love is the most important thing in the world.

"Love makes world go around." --Gilbert and Sullivan
"The light of the whole life dies when love is done." --Bourdillon
"Flower o' the broom, take away love and earth's a tomb." --Browning
"All thoughts, all passions, all delights, whatever stirs this mortal frame, are but the ministers of love, and feed his sacred flame." --Coleridge.
"All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is all you need."--The Beatles
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love I am become as sounding brass, as a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give up my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." --St. Paul

Now I suspect that most people today would still say that love is the most important thing of all. But the answer would be slow in coming. And we certainly do not live our lives as if love was the most important thing of all.
As one looks around American society, it's apparent that love is dying, if it's not already dead.

Love is Dying
The best example of this is the break up of the family. Widespread divorce - and failure to form marriages in the first place - is destroying some of the most fundamental of loving relationships--not just the relationship of husband and wife, but relationships between fathers and children, between mothers and children, and between brothers and sisters.
Fewer and fewer people even have brothers and sisters.

...
We have a neighbor,a little boy of four. Every time he plays with my children, he tells the same story--his Dad is going to take him to the zoo. But Dad is more than 1000 miles away, and isn't likely to even see him any time in the near future.

A junior high friend of my daughter's is constantly waiting for a letter or a call from her dad. But the calls never come. The letters never come. It breaks your heart.

...
There's something wrong here, something dreadfully wrong. Suppose for some reason I didn't much like my lovely wife any more and thought I'd be happier with someone else. But I've got kids, kids whom I say I love. How much love would there be in me if I were to divorce their mom, to cause them the same kind of pain I see in so many other children? Not much, right? Not so very long ago, people stayed together "for the kids' sake"--and that really wasn't such a very bad reason.

And it seems like young people are having a dreadful time establishing the right kind of loving relationships in the first place. They don't marry and sometimes their marriages fail astonishingly quickly.

...
And as you look at our popular culture, you see that we really don't believe in love any more. Look at today's song lyrics, and contrast them with those of 30 years ago. Thirty years ago a typical pop song was "More."

The lyrics:
More than the greatest love the world has known
This is the love I'll give to you alone
More than the simple words I try to say
I only live to love you more each day

Another pop song:
My love is warmer than the warmest sunshine
Softer than a sigh,
My love is deeper than the deepest ocean
Wider than the sky
My love is brighter than the brightest star
That shines in the night above
And there is nothing in this world
that can ever change my love

Now can you imagine Snoop Doggy Dog singing songs like that? Madonna? It wouldn't happen.

Not that we don't sing about love. But our love songs have gotten bitter, like the T. Rex song "Life's a Gas":
I could have loved you, girl, like a planet
I could have placed your love in the stars
But it really doesn't matter at all
It really doesn't matter at all
Life's a gas

It does matter. It matters more than anything. I've had the good fortune of being loved as much as anyone is ever loved in this world. I've never had reason to doubt the love of my parents, my brothers, my sister, my wife, or my kids.

Even my students like me--a pretty incredible thing for a history teacher. But what makes me sad, what brings tears, is to see that fewer and fewer people seem to be able to find this kind of love. That love is dying, and that fewer and fewer of my students will have anything like what I have had in my own life.

Ideas are Killing Love

Why? What's killing love? To a certain extent, love has been killed by ideas--the ideas of men like Freud, Darwin and Nietzsche. For many modern thinkers, love is only an illusion, a product of evolutionary development. It is no wonder that love dies when we are constantly propagandized into believing that our only real desires are to survive and reproduce.

But the real problem is not one of ideas. The real problem is that we have deliberately kicked love out of our lives--or at least, out of many areas in our lives. We've kicked love out of the schools, for instance. In the 1960's and 70's, a series of Supreme Court decisions and bureaucratic rulings banned love from every classroom in America.
Yes. That's right. Now some of you might say, "I don't know of any Supreme Court decisions banning love in the classroom."

But you do.

The courts and the bureaucracies have eliminated prayer, Bible reading, the things like the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

Essentially, we have tried to ban God himself from our classrooms, and from most aspects of public life. But do you see what that does, automatically? The Bible tells us that God is love. And we get rid of God, we get rid of love--quite literally.

John Dewey and public death of love
And what replaced God in the classrooms? To a large extent, we've replaced the old Christian philosophy of education with a "new"philosophy, the philosophy of John Dewey. Dewey was exceedingly influential, "the founder of modern American progressive education."

The way children are taught in public schools today owes more to Dewey than to any other individual--and no one is more to blame for what's wrong with American education - and even American society - than John Dewey.

Christians often point out that Dewey himself was an atheist, and certainly he was no friend of religion. Dewey was one of the original signers of "The Humanist Manifesto," a document basically saying that the traditional religious approach to life should be abandoned.

But Dewey has rejected far more than traditional religion. When one looks through Dewey's works, one discovers something exceedingly odd: there's never a mention of love.

Look through the index of Dewey's Reconstruction in Philosophy. There are references to law, learning, licentiousness, life, literary culture, Locke, logic, logical system, and Lotze--but not love. Look through Dewey's "My Pedagogic Creed." Not a single mention of love.

And look through the goals and objectives of our teacher education programs in America, look at the philosophy statements, the educational credos, the state and national standards for K-12 students. You won't find one mention of love.

There's something's wrong here--something dreadfully wrong. Jesus said the most important thing was to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
How can we love God with all our minds if 90% of the time we don't even think about Him? Is it any wonder that love is dying, when we abandon the source of love altogether?

Nothing New
But all this isn't really as new a thing as I have made it sound. It isn't a new thing that love is dying. Love has died before.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him saying, hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.

Love has been rejected before our day. Love has been mocked. Love has been spat upon. And love has died. But that death did not destroy love: instead, it showed us what love truly is--putting others first to the very last, sacrificing oneself for the beloved. I told you earlier that I have been as much loved as anyone ever in this world. But you know, each one of you has been loved with a love as great, and every one of you right now can enter into a love that truly is "more than the greatest love the world has known."

It is not some romantic lover, some girl or guy who has a love for us that is warmer than sunshine, softer than a sigh, deeper than the deepest ocean, wider than sky. That love, the love nothing can ever change, comes from God Himself. And that love will never die.

"Now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three things: but the greatest of these is love."

Dorm Presentation--February 1996

YES!

2009-02-27T18:26:00.000-08:00

From Thought Collage, by Jeanie Rhodes

Last summer, [son in law] Dave and [daughter]Tara led a song Dave had written called, "Yes" (CD by the same title to be released in September) I had never heard it and I was in a really, really difficult time of my life and to tell you the truth, I couldn't sing it.

It seemed at the time I had nothing to say "yes" to (I've written about this previously here and here). I looked around the barn on this beautiful summer evening and saw all these sincere faces with pure hearts, steadfast in their commitment to follow Jesus no matter what and they sang, "Yes!" And I couldn't. I felt like God had taken everything from me there was to say "yes" to and that I alone had nothing to throw myself into.

With bittersweet tears shooting out, I said to a couple of my kids, "What? I am suppose to say 'yes' to rest? What is that?"

I'm telling you this by way of confession because I hope you know that it wasn't true that I had nothing to say "yes" to. I hope you know that I was placing myself in a pity-puddle of the refusal to accept pause and rest as gift. And I am confessing this in case you are reading and feeling the same. Make your list and come out of the fog. Wait until the house is empty and start yelling, "YES!" into the air and refuse to believe the enemy lie that there is nothing more.

Here's my list:
Yes to being Dave's wife, friend, lover, bride;
yes to grandparenting Gavin and Guini and Hunter and now Gemma;
yes to the friendship and "being there" and mothering, still, the grown kids God blessed me with;
yes to blessing the parents who raised me;
yes to hanging in there with friends and pursuing life-giving relationships;
yes to loving my neighbors and figuring out how that really works;
yes to consuming His Words, like honey to my lips;
yes to pressing in to really know God; and
yes to laying down my desires, wants amd wishes - He must increase, I must decrease.
Yes!

The days are coming: "Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won't be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once - and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills….God, your God says so." Amos 9.13-15 The Message
YES! What promise! Somewhere along the way, hope re-ignited. I came across this in my early 2007 journaling:

Yes to You, Lord
Yes to Your will
Yes to Your plan
Yes to the process, regardless of how long it will take (a lifetime, Lord?)
Yes to the pain of this purification
Yes to the price (because it costs everything)
Yes.
I love that "Yes" song now and sing my head off whenever Dave and Tara lead it. "Yes, yes, yes, yes…"

Yes is better. Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: This quote by Dag Hammarskjold seems appropriate here: "For all that has been, Thanks! To all that shall be, Yes!"

Driving the opposite way

2009-02-24T11:50:00.000-08:00

by Sharon Jones

Thought I would share about my experience driving on the "wrong" side of the road. It was the first weekend we were here (South Africa)the director and his wife - Clint and Becky - let us borrow their car. Now of course here they drive
on the left side of the road and the driver sits on the right side of the
car. Their car is also a stick - but you shift with your left hand.

I was talking to Becky the night before we were leaving and she realized
that I had never driven on the left side of the road before, or driven
with the stick on the left side.

I told her. "If I can't get out of the driveway we won't go."

"Fair enough." she said.

That night I was a bit nervous and prayed quite a bit for a safe drive and
then as I went to bed I got a bit of a panic attack at the thought of driving. I prayed again. Then I got a very clear thought. I am sure it was from God! (SMILE)

The thought was - "IF I WAS ON THE AMAZING RACE THEY WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM LETTING ME DRIVE A STICK ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD!" I held on to that thought and went to bed.

The next morning I got the keys and then when I drove it up near our home
- I didn't kill it once! We got safely to the mall and back again. Tony
did have to remind me once to get to the left side - but it was only
because I was turning around because we took a wrong turn.

Maybe I am ready for the Amazing Race. Hmmm.

Now Tony has his own story about his first experience driving on the left
side of the road.

He will have to share that sometime as well.

The Seasons

2009-02-20T18:52:00.000-08:00

Some “Grace from the Garden,” things I learn about God while I am digging around in the dirt…

By Jeanie Rhoades

Grace Note: This season will come again (ready or not).

I was asking God, not with words, but from my heart (and I know He heard me loud and clear), Why do I find myself back here in this recurring place of pain, this particular area of brokenness for which I have forgiven the best I can and given it to You and prayed and studied and tried to follow Christ’s example? Why do I repeatedly respond and react to certain things from such an old place of injury? How come, after You last helped me and brought understanding and so much healing, do I find today that I still have further to go?

God immediately drew my attention to a flowering tree of some sort I planted a few years back (pear? dogwood? crab apple?). I don’t think I prepared the planting hole well when I got it. It was an end-of-season clearance, so I got it cheap with kind of a well-if-it-makes-it-good attitude and proceeded to plop it in the ground where it did not have much chance to establish itself before winter. It did not do well. It barely survived the winter and made a very poor showing in the spring. I had to coddle it with special watering and food all summer. The following year, the same. Very little growth and a very spindly and sickly-looking tree. I anticipated, though I allowed it to just keep plodding along, having to begin again in that corner with a different tree.

But this year, there has been a turn. Somewhere, in someway, it has finally established itself after almost 4 years in it’s place. It has doubled or tripled in size. It bloomed profusely this spring and then shot up in height some more. It is now radiant with health and I think it’s going to bring me much joy in the years to come.

God put that tree in my mind. And then I am pretty sure I heard Him tell me: That tree goes through the same four seasons each year. That is the same tree you planted 4 years ago. But that tree is not the same this spring as it was the spring before, or the spring before that. Every year after the time of dormancy (while I, Jeanie, btw, always feared it had finally and truly died), when you’d notice it again, it was the same tree, but the tree was different, not the same. There are seasons. You will go through the same season again and again, but each time, you’ll be different. Sometimes the difference will be below ground, where the roots reach out for what is needed. Sometimes it will be visible, branches waving in glory. It’s just a season. It’s a season.

Thank-You, God. I needed that!

So then I guess the answers to my heart’s questions might be:

Q: Why am going through this same thing again? What is wrong with me?

A: Nothing. You’re right on track. It’s a season. But you’re different this time than during the last season. It’s a growth-spurt opportunity!

Q: When will it finally be done, when will I get it?

A: When Christ is fully formed in you.

Q: When will that be?

A: When you see Him, you will be like Him.

And as I am writing, the strangest thing just came to my recollection. I named my daughter, Stormie, after Stormie Omartian (the wildly famous prayer author, singer, song-writer, speaker) because when I faced my first adult “storm” (try being a teenage preacher’s daughter, pregnant at a Bible College) I ran across her lyrics to a song I still have never heard, but which impacted me, nonetheless. Wow, even as I write (and I googled the lyrics and there they were!), God is reminding me that He has been telling me this all along, for 30 years almost:

“When summer dreams start to fade and lose their light
When the spring in your heart is so cold, it can’t be right
When you feel you’ve lost control and the valley seems so low
It’s not forever, it’s just a season of the soul
~
If you could step away and see just how far you’ve gone
If you would take the time to just see what you’ve become
You’d have the time to grow, you’d have a chance to know
That it’s not forever, it’s just a season of the soul.
~
Walking alone in the desert at night, searching for the rain
How can this happen to me, it’s not right
When Jesus is my friend and everything was going right
I was standing on the line, where did I go wrong?
~
A time to cry, a time to sing - there’s a time for everything
Nothing lasts for that long, so don’t look at what you see
Just keep your eyes on Me, I won’t let you go…
It’s not forever…
~
It’s just a season of the soul.”..Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: I am still me, but I am not the same as last time, by His grace and His undying faithfulness.
Seasons of the Soul” lyrics by Stormie Omartian

WESLEY'S ADVENTURES

2009-02-18T17:25:00.000-08:00

More from the Joneses:

Wesley has settled in well. He is best friends with everyone. The food is still something he has to get used to. Pray that he starts to eat a little bit of it at least here pretty soon. Because our first outreach is called the rural outreach. No running water, no electricity, and campfire cooking. If he doesn't start eating some of the beans or pop, it's going to be hard for him. Because I don't think there well be enough room to bring along bread for about 60 people for two weeks. I think Sharon explained South African pop in a previous letter. If you are not sure what it is, then email me back. It's not a cola drink.

Also typical for a boy his age, I don't think there will be a tap that he has not turned. This morning he turn on a outside faucet ( they call it a tap down here) outside the womens' dorm and they lost all the water pressure inside. It good that he is curious but....
Irina is playing well with the three girls here.
Lucy is doing well and smiling at everyone. She is so cute.

This week at classes we did several things. We took personally tests (or inventories), spiritual gifts inventories, and did almost a 3 day overview of the Bible. Our instructor really emphasized his plan to reach the nations. It was very interesting how God had the Levites as the priests to the nation of Isreal. That part I knew. But the interesting part was that in the same way the entire nation of Isreal was called to be priests to the other nations around them. I have been munching on that one for the past two days.

We also are able to lead devotions if we wish. I signed up two weeks ago to do it this last Wednesday. I was kinda nervous but spoke about Psalm 62:5 - 8. I guess I did not do too bad since 2 or three people told me God used part of it to speak to them. God is gracious to give us the feedback that we need.

Tony and Sharon Jones OM South Africa TT Private Bag N03 Lynnwood Ridge 0040 South Africa.

You can also email them here: Tony OR

Sharon

What's it like to train as missionaries?

2009-02-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

What our days are like...South Africa training team 2009

We are fine - but busy and very tired in the evenings so we generally just go to bed. Usually by 9:30. Tony is waking up at about 4:30 so that he has some time to do his devotions. I get up at 5:30 with the sounding of what is left of the wake up gong - I am thankful that it doesn't wake all the kids. Wesley once woke up enough to tell them to cut it out and went back to sleep. I wake up with enough time to just wake up - sometimes shower and make it to the lecture hall by 6 am for morning devotions time. I am not a morning person! But am learning to be.

Then we are suppose to have until breakfast at 8 am to spend time in devotions alone - but Lucy generally gets up sometime between 6:30 and 7am and the rest of the kids get up no later than 7:15. Wesley is usually next up and we sometimes have to wake Irina up. They are playing hard every day with the other kids that are here.

There is a kind of routine to our day -
On Mon, Tues, Wed - we eat breakfast at 8 am. Then about 8:45ish we have team devotions - where someone on the team shares a devotion time. Then there is a break then we spend the rest of the morning in about 45 blocks of time doing classes on something related to personal development or what it is to be a mission etc. There will be many different types of topics. Then at about 1 we are done for the day. We have lunch at about 1:30. (Lucy has been taking a morning nap at around 10:30 or 11 until lunch time. I've made this kind of a set time as it is easiest for us for her to nap in the mornings and since she is waking up so early it works for her as well. I had been waiting until after lunch but by then she was just so tired she sometimes fell asleep in the backpack then we woke her up for lunch and then trying to put her down again wasn't working. The rest of the day we rotate between
1- Rest and reflection time - you can do whatever you want really - do your own laundry, read, sleep etc.
2- Practical work
3 - Mall Day - because of the number of groups every few weeks you won't get to do this and there is only 3 days with 4 things to rotate
4 - Care time - where you talk with one of your Care Team Leaders about your concerns, prayer requests, struggles.

Every 8 days we are also on Kitchen Team where we are responsible to prep and prepare the food for the day. Breakfast, lunch and Dinner and clean up after dinner making sure that the kitchen and eating areas are kept clean.

We were on Kitchen Team this Monday so we will be on next Tuesday. It is kind of funny - because we have kids the other team members are always telling us we can leave if we want and both Tony and I are actually kind of enjoy the whole kitchen process. We also have more experience than most of these "kids" doing the kitchen prep kind of stuff. We end up telling them that no - we don't want to go we want to work. I remind them that until we came there not only did I do all the cooking I also had to clean the rest of the house as well. Some of our team members are right out of high school so they are finding some of this work very challenging.

Lets see after lunch if it is your mall day - you go do that. If it isn't your mall day than you do one of the other 3 things. Practical work - Tiny whose real name is Peter and who isn't really tiny at all - he is 6 feet 5 inches tall. He tells us we are his slaves - with this huge smile. He is kind of like the friendly giant. He gives out tasks to do and we go do them. Like pick up trash, clean and mop things, fix something, mow the lawn etc. I actually don't have to do Practical work because of the kids. This week I didn't because I went to the mall to get Wesley a birthday gift. His 6th birthday is this Sunday. Tony of course does practical work and Wesley is always very excited for Practical work and really likes to help out. Irina will help out a bit but then usually runs off to play with the girls when they get home from school.

Practical work is from 2:30 to about 3:30 - 4 depending on what you are doing. Then you have free time really until dinner. They encourage everyone from about 5 pm to dinner to do some kind of sport activity. Today I did a dance aroebic class. It was really a good workout. Leann (Tiny's wife) leads it. Since Tony ends up watching the baby if I do it and then he can't do anything so we will try to switch off who gets to play and who watches Lucy.

After that is dinner and then depending on the night - we have different things to do:
Mondays 7:30 we have a bible study with our Care Group
Tuesday - is a free night - the team staff coffee house is open from 7:30 to 9:30
Wednesday - Care Group night - a night where we can talk, play games etc
Thursday - is a free night - the coffee house is again open but not as late only 1 hour - Tony is there right now.
Friday - we will have whole team activites - that are to be anounced - we haven't actually done this yet this week will be the first time.

Thursdays and Friday's are a bit different.

Thursday we have the devos at 6 am still but breakfast is at 7:30 because at 8:30 the whole OM staff comes here for a Prayer meeting. We have worship and then we talk about the different activities that OM is involved in and pray about them. Like last week it was about AIDS HOPE and today was focused on their Teen ministry - can't think of it's name right now.

Then we have a class then it is lunch time then

Then after Lunch we have classes - again until Sport time. Then we have Sport time then dinner and then it is the free night I told you about before.

Friday's is pretty much just like Monday - Wednesday - only after Lunch we have free time for the rest of the day until after dinner when we will have some kind of team activity - it might be watch a movie, or have a game night or something but I guess we will try and do it all together. Probably not going off the base as there are so many of us. I will see how this revels itself over the next few weeks.

We do our first out reach March 19 - I guess it is the hardest as it is in tents and in a rural area - generally without modern bathrooms and no running water. I did see a photo of what they do for bathrooms. You dig a hole and then they have this contraption that is fitted with a toilet seat and there is a kind of curtain that goes around it so that you can sit there and do your business into the hole in the ground. I guess after awhile you fill in the hole and dig a new one. I am sure we get to take turns doing that job.

Pray that Irina won't have a problem using that toliet. I am sure Wesley will think it is cool.

They like to do the hardest retreat first. Everything will be made a little bit harder with the kids. My goal for the rural outreach is to stay at long as possible. I want to stay the full two weeks, if things are going really bad I can come back after a week, but pray that we are able to make it the whole time. I think that the kids will learn a lot from this and I really want them to get the full benefit of it. I don't have many details yet what we will be doing there - I will let you know more as I get more information.

Saturday is an off day - free day. As a family we have permission to leave and go out if we can arrange for a car or something. Last week we went to the mall. We don't have any plans to go anywhere this weekend, but we will see.

Sunday - we have church here at 10 am. They are going to take a few people out to another church - we will all get a chance to go to church off site. If we had a car we could go off on Sunday's too but Tony and I decided we wouldn't do that every weekend we want a chance to be able to bond with those that are here as well.

So that is our week - hope you found that interesting.

E-mail me back at this address if you have any questions.

Sharon

Jones Sharon
sharon.jones@tt.rsa.om.org

Total Rubbish

2009-02-11T20:47:00.000-08:00

By Jeanie Rhoades

In the book of Philippians in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul gives his personal biography of a totally miserable, religious past (miserable because anytime getting close to God is dependant on what we do and how we do it, it is a cumbersome load). In the spirit of chapter 3, verses 4 - 6, I hereby submit my own biographical history outlining the stupidity I once clung to (that is me in the photo - a Pharisee in the making! )- that somehow I was worth something to God, valuable to His kingdom because of my own good works and where I came from.

The book of Jeanie's stupidity 3:4-6:

I had lots of confidence in my value to the kingdom of God because I was born into a Christian home to a ministry family. My first full sentence was "I'm gonna go to church" and I was a church girl among church girls. I was a Christian of the Pentecostal persuasion (others had some of the truth, but we had more, thus the term "full-gospel"). All of my siblings and their families are in the ministry. Many aunts and uncles and cousins are in full-time ministry. Concerning the law and attempting to get God's favor by my own self-suffiency, I could totally relate to Pharisees - working hard to keep it, and hoping for those heavenly brownie points because of it. Zealously striving for favor for my performance and being a "good girl," I was devasted when the less-holy were blessed. I grew up to attend Bible College and marry a pastor. And then I set out to raise my own bunch of good, Christian kids.
I am so grateful for my godly heritage, the roots I have. I love the stories of how God made Himself real to both my mother and father, each from Godless homes, how He changed everything in them and through them. Many, many people are walking in the redemptive grace of God today because of the choice Ross & Norma Moslander made to follow Christ.
But oh, my goodness, I have to work at not allowing these things to become a snare to me and to others. I have to keep dragging my pride to the cross.
I am in awe of the person who did not have the salvation message and cross of Jesus Christ served up on a silver platter, and yet they live in the full joy of knowing Christ without any of the doctrinal, or religious baggage that can so easily beset us. People with a "past," who come to Christ knowing how badly they needed a Savior and that they have no chance of impressing Him with their works or religious reputation just blow my mind. It reminds me of Christ's teaching that "The first shall be last and the last shall be first." We often judge a person's qualifications to lead in the kingdom by where they came from, how they were raised, who they are related to. God's criteria are different. It is all about the heart. God is looking at the heart!
But thank goodness, like Paul, I have been knocked off my religious high-horse (although I have the amazing ability to run it down and remount it at times, yikes!) and I can now see all that stuff for the rubbish it is. What I once thought were assets, I now see as liabilities. My passion is to know Christ and to somehow, finally - totally get over myself. What a relief.
Laying aside all human achievments in exchange for the free grace of God, Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Phil. 3.8 NKJV

The Stoning

2009-02-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

She was an adultress, a cheater, a sinner. She was a disappointment, a law-breaker. She had let so many people down.
Now she was being exposed to the Light of the World.
The scribes and Pharisees brought her to Jesus as He was teaching in the temple. They'd caught her in "the very act of adultery," they told Him. They were testing Him, who claimed to be the light of life, the One who, "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped." (Phil. 2.6)
"Moses, in the law, commanded us that such [a person] should be stoned to death. But what do You say?"
Would Jesus respect and follow the ancient law? Would He condone her sin?
Their purpose, those learned and religious men, was to trip Him up - to find a way to discount His teaching and refute His words.
Jesus says nothing, but stoops down, writing with His finger, ignoring their demand for a verdict.
The religious kept asking, pressing the matter like the playground tattle-talers they were.
His answer was short. "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." Then He leaned over and continued writing on the ground.
And none of them wanted to be the one to start the stoning. From the oldest to the last, one by one, they walked away until only Jesus and the woman were left. He looked at her and asked her, Where did your accusers go? Hasn't anyone condemned you?
"No one, Lord," she answered.
"Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more," the Embodiment of the light-glory of God said to her. Your sin is not unto death. I will not serve you a death-sentence, either. Go. Be well. Be whole. Be at peace. Find true love. Live in honor. Sin no more.
Jesus didn't condone her sin. God hates sin because it interrupts the beauty and wholeness of the life He planned for us. God didn't forbid adultry to mess up our good times, but He forbade it because it will hurt us and some one else and probably more than one other person. It will wreck lives and break trust and hearts and disrupt the peace of homes and rip families apart. It is violence towards the "one flesh."
People often wonder what Jesus wrote on the ground. Did He list the sins of the people standing there that were also punishable by death? I don't know. Did they leave because they were ashamed or did the encounter with Truth fill them with mercy?
I just know that I have always related to the woman. I have always been keenly aware of my sin, my inability to measure up to religious standards imposed upon me. In church life, my imperfections have been publicly touted, I've felt shunned by fellow Christians. I've read this account of the woman and felt what she must have felt. I have ranted and raged against the people who told me what a disppointment I was. I have pointed out the futility of religion and condemned the spirit of religious superiority that hurts people as being no different than the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' time.
Then today, very quietly, Jesus wrote upon the ground of my heart. Suddenly I wasn't the woman, left with her head hanging - thinking I was about to die at the hands of the holier-than-thou religious. I was one of them - I was in the crowd - looking at her: the Church, the Bride of Christ, the one for whom, because of great love, Jesus died.
In my hand I have held stones. The church has sinned. She has been unfaithful and faithless, a disappointment, a cheater. She has hurt people and broken hearts and sinned against God. And I have stood in the crowd, ready to take my stand, taunting God, "Well - can you see this? What are You going to do about this?" I have been one of them.
I opened my hands toward the ground, symbolically dropping the stones I have wanted to hurl with great pain-infused force at churches and pastors and leaders in the Church who have let me down.
I am turning my hands upward with this prayer, "Replace the stones I have wanted to throw - with mercy for Your Church. She has failed. She has let me down, but show me how I can be an agent of Your mercy towards Her, as You have been towards me."
It is humbling to get a new perspective of yourself and see the enemy you have been flailing against is yourself. It is humbling….Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Repent for the stones that have already left my hands

Jeanie Rhoades (Pastor Joe's sister)

News from South Africa

2009-02-05T16:35:00.000-08:00

Thought I would send you all a hello from South Africa! We are doing well and getting use to our little house. We hope that you are all doing well also! We are in the second day of our training here though we have been here a week. The official kick off was this past Sunday. Our days right now are spent in classes going over the basics of life here on base and getting to know the other people in the training. There are people here from all over South Africa as well as Europe and Australia also a lot of South Koreans and one girl from Hong Kong. The ages range from 17 to 44. With the main age being around 18 and 19. So we are one of the old ones. Wesley is really enjoying hanging out out with all the guys. The challenge of course is doing this with the kids as I need to keep them busy doing things while we are in class. They are able to be right next door playing and doing some "school" work while we are in the meetings. Lucy loves walking around the base and so she is already tired of the lecture hall. Pray that we are able to find things that keep her interest. One thing that has helped is that in the afternoons she has a little ride on toy that is brought out for her to ride and play on. Even Irina finds that interesting.
Pray that Irina would begin to like some of the food that is served. She really didn't eat enough last week to satisfy this mommy. She is doing better this week - eating more fruit. She really is hard to feed - she was in the states and here I have less control. The kids were a bit sick last week and Saturday - they just were not eating enough I think and then with jet lag and the new environment = Irina still looks too pale - but it might be because those that have been here for awhile have a nice healthy tan instead of this pale South Dakota winter skin. They are doing much better today. I can give a list to the kitchen guy what he should try to have occasionally and he will get it for me so they are very accommodating here. They are going to get us a ref so that we have a place to put snacks and can keep Lucy's milk cold without having to go to the kitchen which is locked in the evenings. They did get us a key to that as well. Though having a ref to get our water cold will be a real luxary! I never thought I would say that. Smile.
Really the people here are so great they are very welcoming and I know that we make things a bit of a challenge with three kids - this is the most they have ever had at one time.
Our first outreach will not be until March 19th - this will be to a rural village in northern South Africa. In an area with no running water and we will be camping. Pray that there is a Pastor that might have ref that we could put Lucy's milk. I am told I don't have to go the full time of two weeks - but I would really like to be able to be there for as long as possible. My plan right now is to plan to be there the full two weeks, but that I will give myself the ability to return after a week if the kids need it. The good thing is that we eat a lot of peanut butter on an outreach as it is very portable and is a good source of protein. They also eat something called - Pop = not the drink - but a porridge that reminds me of Malto Meal. Really just cream of wheat. It is a staple here in South Africa. We had it several times already - they have it for any meal thinner at breakfast and thicker for Lunch and dinner. You just top it with different things. It really is pretty good with some honey in it. I even put some peanut butter in it with the honey and Lucy really loved it.
A few non ministry goals I have - is to touch the Indian Ocean and to see some wild animals. They are not running wild everywhere. We will be near a big state park on our rural outreach so maybe at that time we can go on a Safari. I am told that for foreigners it is not too expensive. They charge more if you are from SA - which I thought was kind of strange. Liz will find out how much that might be. Anyway - the first thing Wesley said was that he wanted to see some animals.
I'll let you know when I see something interesting. A praying mantis did land on my arm and scare me half to death! Oh and dung beetles are huge and quite disgusting.
I hope this finds you all doing wonderful!
Much Love - time for bed for me!

Sharon

Write a note to Tony and Sharon

2009-01-31T16:37:00.000-08:00

Tony and Sharon Jones, training in South Africa right now, can be reached here: Tony and Sharon Jones OM South Africa TT Private Bag N03 Lynnwood Ridge 0040 South Africa.

You can also email them here: Tony OR
Sharon

Tony and Sharon arrived safely in South Africa, and this is what they have to say: We have spent this week settling in to life on the
base. The training will actually start tommorrow with orientation and a
new week of settling in our role as students.

Today it has not rained and our laundry is actually drying. A funny thing
to give praise for when you are used to a dryer.

Hope you all are doing well.

In Christ,

Tony, Sharon, Wesley, Irina, and Lucy

Everlasting kindness

2009-01-27T12:48:00.000-08:00

I love the promises in Isaiah. The warnings are needed, too, but the promises! Everlasting kindness! Amazing in the face of everything He sees in us. But it's because of His goodness and not our merit he saves us.

Smoothing wrinkles from face of Christmas

2008-12-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

All season, I kept calling the Living Christmas Tree production the “Singing Christmas Tree,” because that’s what they called it years ago in Sacramento. My kids kept correcting me. Living Christmas Tree. Living Christmas Tree.
I can’t get it right partly because in my mind a living Christmas tree is a potted Christmas tree -- as opposed to one that’s been hacked down.
I avoided the production in Sacramento because the flashing neon Budweiser lights and overly orchestrated modern music seemed tacky and overly sentimental. It wasn’t my thing.
My boys played in the orchestra this year, Richard on violin and Michael on trumpet. They rehearsed frequently and I had many occasions to misname the production and to stand corrected.
Art and I decided to attend the final production, the one with the violin/cello duet. We know the cello player and we know that Ricky Faflak is very good at what he does.
Now, I usually don’t get emotional from Living Christmas Tree type of music. I wasn’t expecting any deep spiritual epiphanies from the Living Christmas Tree. It’s just not the kind of production that would move me. Productions, in general, don't move me.
This time, however, the music was moving. Every so often there was a building crescendo that stirred me.
So I was transported to the miracle of the incarnation time and time again, and helped, rather than hindered, by the music.
But there was a problem. Two women sitting behind me decided that the Living Christmas Tree concert was the perfect place to hold a loud, running conversation. Every time I felt my spirits start to soar at the music, I’d catch another snippet of their conversation. It began to get extremely irritating.
I ignored their skin cream discussion as much as possible, but it returned every time the music began to move me.
I clenched my teeth.
At one point I thought I would turn around and stand up, and say to them, “I hope the concert isn’t interfering too much with your conversation. Would you like me to ask the director, Dave Eckert, to pause every once in a while so you can continue your discussion without all this loud, distracting music?”
But, of course, I didn’t.
Instead, I just seethed over their bad manners.
Here was a concert centered around the most important historical moment on earth: the coming of God in human flesh to redeem fallen mankind. And these women were only concerned about SKIN CREAM?
At that moment, either conscience or the Holy Spirit tapped me on the shoulder and whispered: Here is a concert centered around the most important historical moment on earth…and you are only concerned about the conversation of these women?
Ouch.

What are you thankful for?

2008-11-25T19:51:00.000-08:00

I'm thankful for a Savior who stoops to lift up sinners, the holy rescuing the polluted. I'm thankful for second chances and second lives.
I'm thankful for the freedom to meet in safety with other believers, for being able to sing out loud each week without arrest. I'm thankful to hear the word preached in a faithful and original way each week, to meet with people who know and love Christ.
I'm grateful for a family whose members, generally, support each other. I'm thankful for a town that treasures its churches and hasn't yet banned the presence of Christ or Christians from its streets.
I'm thankful for the myriad little luxuries we are given: from running, hot water to portable phones; from microwave cooking to free libraries full of books; from antibiotics to recliner chairs.
I'm thankful that my husband can read Dilbert and the bridge column to balance out depressing news on the front page.
I'm thankful that a recent car accident was without injury and that God had mercy on a mother's shaking heart.
What are you thankful for? To share with others those things you are thankful for this year, CLICK HERE.

Empty cameras

2008-11-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

This morning as I drove the kids to school, fog swirled around the car. I remember fog. In California, fog was a constant visitor in November. Here, we are lucky to have more than one or two days of fog.

In California, I usually came across fog when I drove up narrow, mountain roads behind a slow logging truck. You can't pass logging trucks because if you try, you are likely to meet a car coming down the mountain when you're halfway past the truck.

One time the fog was so thick, we accidently drove into a shopping center parking lot, thinking we were on a main highway.

Anyway, because fog is so rare here, I knew I had to go home, grab my camera and get some great shots of the trees and the dim, white sunrise, through the fog.

I walked along the Mog and took about 20 photos when I suddenly had a thought: Could I have left the camera's SD card at home? I dimly remembered taking it out of my camera and inserting it into my laptop.

That would mean that all the great fog photos I'd just taken were really not taken. I would be able to remember the neat images in my brain, but I'd have no permanent record. Lately, my brain forgets a lot more quickly than I wish it would.

As I gazed on a particularly picturesque scene of trees and lawn and fog and weird autumn light, the thought of an empty camera brought to mind the thought of soulless people, or rather, spiritless people.

People without the spirit of God in their lives observe all the blessings and bounty God reaches out to them. They see everything He lovingly sets before them, but they can't process it all. His goodness fades away before they can understand it and savor it.

At the Women in the Word retreat this month, the speaker mentioned how important it was to remember what God does for us. It's important for us and it's important for our children.

What good is it to have an SD card in my pocket if I don't use it in the camera? We may have the Holy Spirit of God in our lives, complete with gift after gift He infuses us with, but if we never tap into His power and life, we are likely to forget his benefits. We are almost like empty cameras.

I'm grateful for that little lesson at Women in the Word. It's important to remember that it's important to remember.

Turns out my SD card was in my camera and my photos came out just fine. Not sure about my other memory, but my camera memory is doing fine.

The light burden

2008-10-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

Reading through 2 Chronicles, I came across this passage: I will grant them (Judah) some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak (King of Egypt).

Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

This was in the time of Rehoboam, son of Solomon. An earlier passage says that Rehoboam forsook the Lord and all the people with him. A leader kind of sets the tone for the country, so it isn't surprising that Israel began to drift. After all, Rehoboam's father, Solomon, had worshiped the gods of his many wives and already set the course of Israel on a downward path.

So here's Shishak, the mighty king of Egypt, coming against Jerusalem with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. Looks pretty bleak.

Then God sends a prophet, Shemaiah. He has one message: You left God, now God's leaving you -- in the hands of Shishak.

Suddenly the people get it. They must have looked up, seen that all the walled cities of Israel between Egypt and Jerusalem had fallen, probably seen the smoke of burning villages and the dust of all those horses' hooves and understood that forsaking the Lord wasn't really the best lifestyle choice.

Second Chronicles says they humbled themselves. It is immediate. Right after the prophet's message, and it rarely seems to happen that way, but this time it did.

So God sends Shemaiah with a new message: They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance.

Some deliverance, but not complete deliverance. Shishak ends up taking all the gold stuff from the temple. The temple wasn't that old. Rehoboam's father had made it, so there was a shining moment of glory and then a steady deterioration.

Though God was pleased with Judah's and Rehoboam's ability to become humble, they still needed to learn something. They had to learn the difference between serving God and serving anything else. I guess it takes servitude to learn that lesson.

Shishak took all the gold, and Rehoboam replaced it with brass. He made replicas. It still looked pretty good. Not gold, but hey, who's gonna know? It still shines.

I feel like Rehoboam whenever I fake it. When my prayer life goes on the skids or I've fallen behind in my Bible reading or I've let my service to God become service to self. It's brass, not gold. Pretty soon it's aluminum, not brass. Before long it's something cheap and plastic and made in China.

That they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

My service. God's service. His service is light. His service is full of joy. Remember the joy of Solomon's first sacrifice in the temple? The singers and players? The priests decked out in their clean, neat, linen? You read about the new temple and the joy of serving God there.

Then you think of the Molech and Baal crowds and the absolutely disgusting practices of the countries around them. What degradation! To serve God in joy? Or to serve surrounding countries in all their horror? What a choice!

To know the difference He sometimes seems to let us fall into the service of other countries, other gods, if we're headed that direction. His burden is light. His burden is joy, life, creation, celebration. Why would we ever want anything else?
Donna M.

Prayer for surrender

2008-10-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Merla Freeman
Looking back at some notes I took on one of Pastor Joe’s sermons from Jan. last year, I came across these three points:

1. Connect with God-He is what matters most.

2. Connect with others-because it matters to our purpose.

3. Serve the world around us-because it matters to God.

Pastor took these points from Acts 2:42-47. This just happens to be one of my favorite places in scripture. It describes the early church, the church in its infancy. It speaks of what the “church” was intended to be. It is our role model for our church today. It excites me and encourages me to want to recommit to these three things. I pray that each person at NLF would really, really commit. Commit each of personally and intimately to Christ. To allow Him to lead us wherever it is that He may. To be humbled and submissive to Him. I know I have no control over others but I also know that God has control of our lives if we will let him. I know that He has a plan and a design and that His blueprint is a masterpiece.

My prayer for New Life Fellowship

Father God, I pray today that we would summit to You. Take complete control of our lives. Don’t allow us to get in the way or to mess things up. Don’t let us be too busy having “church” that we miss You in our presence. Use us Lord, we are your servants. Rid us of pride and judgment, give us eyes to see people from Your perspective, give us ears to hear the needs of those around us and give us the courage to step out in faith and follow You. In Acts 2:43 it says, “everyone was filled with awe” Father hear my prayer, fill NLF with awe. In the most precious name of Jesus, our Advocate. Amen

See you at the Park

2008-09-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

A large crowd of Aberdeen kids met at Melgaard Park tonight to share and worship, play and eat and lift up Jesus in the community. New Life's youth band helped in the worship time. Kids testified afterward of what things happened at their various See-you-at-the-Pole activities that morning. Looked like a great witness to the Aberdeen area.

The POWER of LEMON

2008-09-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

The POWER of LEMON

In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus tells the story of a wise builder and a foolish builder. He tells in that story that rains and windstorms came and beat upon both houses being built.
We all recognize the story and we all remember how each time we have heard it, there seems to always be an emphasis on the houses; how one stands because the builder was wise and built on a solid foundation and how the other collapsed because its builder was foolish and built on shifting, unstable sand. But another important part of that story is the rain.

The rains come. In Jesus’ story they came on both the wise and the foolish alike. It is a reality that we sometimes forget, but rain -- or one might say, trouble and hardship, pain and suffering -- all come upon every life at some time or another. Job said (14:1) “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. Jesus said (John 16:33) “…in this life you will have trouble.”

That isn’t very comforting news today because everybody knows trouble is no fun. Pain and hardship are nothing to be messed with -- they often leave people ruined and only a shell of what they used to be.

In His great wisdom, God added to the creation a bright yellow fruit we know as the lemon. The lemon for many years now has been associated with things unpleasant. It has happened because the juice of the lemon, in its natural and unaltered state, is very sour and bitter. Bitter is the kind of taste that dealing with trouble and hardship leaves in our lives.

We don’t like hardship and trouble.

We go to tremendous lengths and burn up enormous volumes of energy to avoid trouble or to get out of trouble we find ourselves in.

Thirty-eight years ago this coming November, at the age of 14, I ran away from home: not because my life was in danger; not because I was neglected or abused; not even because I was a rebellious or troubled child. I ran away from home simply because I was facing troubles at school and I didn’t know how to deal with them.
“No big deal,” you say? Let me share the magnitude of my actions: I hitchhiked over 851 miles away from home and family, in just three days, simply because I was facing challenges that I was unable to figure out. That is an example of human nature when confronted by hardship at times. We don’t like turmoil in our lives.

We buy into the lie that a good life is only a life free from trouble.

Radio Bible Teacher, Chuck Swindoll, has been quoted as saying, “Life is only 10% what actually happens to me and 90% how I choose to respond or react to it.” That is true, and since it is it means we must learn to adjust our attitude about problems and trials.
If Jesus said trials would come then we must also remember that Jesus, in the very same breath (John 16:33) said we can “Fear not, for I have overcome the world.” Your life, my life, every life will know trouble and trial and hardship along the way- that’s a fact. But how we respond to that trouble is up to us.

Paul made a very important point in 2 Corinthians 2:14,15 when he said, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

The lemon as a fruit is bitter to the taste, but there are some powerful and wonderful qualities on the inside. The only catch is, in order for us to benefit from the lemon’s qualities the lemon has to endure some trouble and hardship. Here is the big picture: the more you mar and tear at the flesh of the lemon, the more you release its refreshing aroma into the atmosphere to be enjoyed by all -- a fragrance known to exemplify freshness and purity.
Hear in your spirit Paul’s words echoing down the corridor of history: “But thanks be to God, who always (even in what appears to be or feels like hardship and turmoil) leads us in triumphal procession (this life in him, no matter the strain, is a victory march) in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” Even in our worst moments, we are to God the aroma of Christ to this world.

We need not fear hardship. We best not shrink back from turmoil…how can we accept blessing from his hand and not tests at the same time? Attitude adjusted should result in, “But thanks be to God…”

With love and respect,
Pastor Joe

Kids! We need your works, too!

2008-08-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

Have you colored a picture of a Bible story? Have you written a rhyme about heaven? Did you paint a picture of church that your parents could scan and send in? Here at the New Life Writer's Blog, we can display those creative things you do so that others can see them and praise God through what you do.
Just send your short stories, poems, photos and drawings to donna.marmorstein@gmail.com

Morning Prayer

2008-08-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Most High God, You are the Everlasting God, You will not fade and you won’t grow weary. You are my Deliverer. You are my Substance. You are Truth. You are my Creator. You are beautiful. You are worthy of all my praise. Great God be glorified. You are all knowing and yet your mercy rains down from on high. There is none like you. I will rejoice in my salvation today. I will find joy in it.

It’s a new day, a new beginning. God you have once again revealed yourself to me. When I stray you wait, and all the while you gently pursue me. I am full of love for you this morning. I want to spent each and every day delighting in your goodness. I want to know everything about you. I want to truly enjoy you.
Life is meaningless without you. You hold the key to success. So many times you have rescued me from myself. You are my Rock, my Fortress and my Stronghold. When life spins and I try to hold on, I can’t. Then, when I cry out to you, life is put back in perspective. It keeps spinning, but you insure my safety. I know I can trust you. All I need is you. You created me and you know exactly what I need.
Today Father, I pray that I would have opportunity to witness for you, to speak of your goodness, to praise your name. Give me courage. Remind me that your Spirit lives inside of me and that the words are yours, may they honor you.

Paul the apostle explained it this way, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom but on God's power.” As the opportunities unfold, may I speak from a position of love, and may the love that the Holy Spirit has given me be obvious to all who hear me. Prepare me, Lord.
In the precious powerful name of Jesus, hear my prayer. Amen

Merla Freeman

Quote of the Week

2008-07-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking.
- A. W. Tozer
1897 - 1963

2008-07-25T21:31:00.000-07:00

In the shadow of Your wings
I rest and find protection
Your glory is there

Songs of praise fill the air
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
The whole earth is full of Your glory

Seraphs flying above the throne
Feathers loose and falling down
Covering me like I've never known

Stay here my child
Rest with Me
In the shadow of my wings.

- Robin Moslander

Creation and Destruction

2008-07-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

Our God is creative. The first thing He did was to create. He gave us colors, sounds, textures, flavors and creative minds, and He expects us to enjoy His creation.

He gave us the desire to create also. Put a blank paper in front of a child and it won't be blank for long.

The enemy destroys both what God makes and what we try to make. He comes only to kill, steal and destroy. And though there's a time to build up, and a time to break down, according to Ecclesiastes, we need to be careful not to take too much pleasure in breaking down.

A time to build up, to create, to delight in God through re-arranging in imaginative and insightful ways the materials He's given us.

This blog is a way to do some of that. Please share those creative works, creative ideas and impulses and creative ventures with us here on this page.

Wanted: Creative Works

2008-07-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

The New Life Writers blog needs creative works from the New Life community. Do you shoot photos expressing the wonder of God's creation? Do you write poetry celebrating the works of God or exploring life in Christ? Do you create digital graphics that sing to the Lord? Can you compose a photo slideshow, a devotional, a short creative work? The New Life Writers blog can use your gifts. Please send submissions to donna.marmorstein@gmail.com

New Life Slide Show

2008-07-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

Click on link below, then choose fast view on bottom left:
Click here

New Life Writers Blog

2008-07-11T04:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the New Life Writers blog, a place to explore, in words, photos and graphics, the many facets of the God of all Creation, Jesus Christ.