Recommended Book: Journey of Desire

Twice a month, I co-lead a Women's Group in my home.  This summer we had the privilege of going through the book Journey of Desire by John Eldredge.  It was an amazing time and I think I can fairly say that all of us ladies received a lot from it and are still reveling in the beauty of the truths.

Journey of Desire was written by John the year after his best friend Brent tragically died in a rock climbing accident.  Beautifully interwoven throughout the book is the journey that John went through in his thought processes during that year.  The book discusses how God has given us desires and how to keep desire alive in the process of life and all the hardships life throws our way.  It acknowledges that sometimes it is way easier to curl up and stop caring.  But it also tenderly speaks to the truth of who God is and what He desires for our lives and while acknowledging the pain it challenges us to keep going.  Unlike the book I read earlier this year Why is God Ignoring Me?, I truly believe this book acknowledges and is comfortable with the depth of pain that people can be in and tenderly calls us forth to life again.

I believe this book is a tool of the ministry of Jesus described in Matthew 12:20:

A bruised reed he will not break,

and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,

till he leads justice to victory.

Finally, I believe this book is a great book to do with a friend or a group.  There is so much in it, that I believe for you to receive the fullness of it, you should be discussing it with others as you go through.

In Christ,

Need a little direction?

I had the opportunity to visit my beautiful best friend Amber the other day.  She lives 2 hours away and we hadn't seen each other in ages.  I used my new Magellan GPS unit that replaced the one stolen months ago.  As I was driving I reflected on the amazement of GPS units.  There is a satellite in the sky that is communicating directly to my GPS unit telling me where to go; it knows where I am, where I'm going and when I'm going to get there.  In fact, this same satellite is communicating with lots of different GPS units, telling them where to go and getting them there.  None of those other GPS units were going to my location; we were all going our own separate ways.  The satellite is not confused or overwhelmed with the number of people asking it for direction and it gets them all to their correct location.  I find this absolutely amazing: man has managed to create an inanimate object that can give thousands of people directions at the same time and it does not get confused.

As I thought about this further (4 hours in the car, so I had lots of time to think:) I thought of how we experience this amazing invention and fully believe, know and use this unit without question.  Yet we have a hard time believing the Creator of the universe can actually care about every single human being on earth and that He is able to be involved in every individual's life giving them direction in their every day decisions.  Often we believe He is either too big, too busy or He doesn't care about me.  He probably cares about nations but He doesn't care about individuals.  One of the reasons we believe it can't be true is because we can't comprehend how He could do it.  Yet we have no problem taking a GPS unit (a man-made item) up on its offer to give us direction, even though I don't think any of us reading this blog could actually create or even explain in depth how a GPS unit technically works.  My point, the Creator of the universe has declared that He cares about YOU and He has declared that He is willing and able to give you direction in your life.  Do you take Him up on His offer?  Do you really truly believe it and seek after it?  Or do you let your inability to comprehend how He could care about you trump over His declarations that He does care for you?

Or perhaps you don't realize He has offered to guide and direct you.  Here are some verses that show His offer:

• Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.
• Isaiah 30:20-21 Your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it.
• Exodus 15:13 In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.
• John 16:13-14 When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
• Isaiah 58:11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
• Psalm 25:8-9 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

My prayer is that you see the heart of our Great God and His desire to lead you and guide you, as an individual in your path of life.  He has asked us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).  Take Him up on His offer.  He is willing and He is more than capable of doing what He has offered to do.

In Christ,

PS Remember my post on John Eldredge's marriage book Love and War?  My friend Amber is giving away a copy of it at her blog Journey of Grace.  Check out the details for a chance to win!

The Bible: God's Word

The Holy Bible by Wonderlane

Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?

I am not a theologian. I am not a philosopher. I am not an expert in any field. I am just a wife and mother. But from where I sit in this life, I would answer that question with a resounding YES.

The Bible to me is more than an amazing book of literature, a history book or a "self-help" book. If it was just literature would it have the ability to change lives? If it was just an accurate book of history, would people who read it learn how to live a better life? If it was just a "self-help" book would you be able to read it over and over and over again and still receive something new from it?

Let us say it is just a book of literature. What other book of literature has lasted thousands of years and its topics remain relevant? What other book of just literature can be translated into thousands of different languages and can still be interesting, meaningful and relevant to a poor beggar on the streets of India and a rich man on Wall Street?

If it is just a history book name one other history book that is accessible and interesting to little children yet can stump, challenge and astound scholars with their PHD's?

If it is just a "self-help" book for a better way of living why are so many people able to read it over and over and over again and still receive something new? What other self-help book would you be able to read everyday for 20 years and not get sick of it? Maybe you do have a good self-help book but could you really read it everyday for the rest of your life? And even if you could read it everyday could you find 100 or 1,000 other people who would be willing to read it everyday and still receive something new from it?

If you do not believe the Bible is God's word and contains something special to it I would challenge you to name just 1 piece of literature which can do all the things mentioned above? A piece of literature that has spanned cultures, age, race, time and economic status and has been able to reach, touch and change so many people lives.

What is the "secret" to the power of the Bible:

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active.

Sharper than any double-edged sword,

it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,

joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts

and attitudes of the heart.

The Bible has something attached to it that no other piece of literature has attached and that is the living, breathing, Spirit of God. The Spirit along with the Word gives the Bible the ability to be "alive" to you everyday. This is why you can read Psalm 23 100 times in your life and still receive something new, or have something jump out at you that you never had jump out at you before.

So let me ask you again. Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?

If your answer is "YES," does your treatment of the Bible reflect this belief? Do you treat it like it is the alive word of God? Do you take time everyday to open the treasure of life that lives within your home? You have the ability to have God speak directly from His heart to yours everyday, do you take advantage of that beautiful opportunity?

If your answer to the question is, "I don't know, or a resounding NO" I would challenge you to find out more about the Bible and the fact that it is considered by scholars to be a beautiful piece of literature and a respected historical document. When you walk away with more "facts"about the Bible it might prompt you to read it more, and I guarantee it will change your life if you spend your life sitting before it. If you want to hear more facts about the Bible check out Difficult Questions - Mad City Church on Facebook for more interesting facts about the Bible.

I believe finding the answer to this question is worth finding out.

God above all other gods

I have always been disturbed by the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar (Genesis 22). As a child, this story made no sense to me at all;I always wondered if God would ask me to do a sinful thing to prove my love to Him and how do you say no to God and how were you to know if it really was God asking and not satan? As I got older I learned and understood that this story represented what God actually did for us, in sacrificing His own Son on our behalf. Frankly, though, this story still didn't sit well in my mind, especially as a mother. It always bothered me. What was Sarah thinking at home? If that was my husband, and that was his god, I wouldn't want anything to do with that god. I finally had to get to the point where I'd just focus on what it represented and tried not to go there with all my other thoughts and questions.

Well, I love God and He tends to get through to my thick brain, more often than not lately (thank you). During my Breaking Free study Thursday night, we were studying the kings of Israel and some of these kings did some pretty horrific things, including sacrificing their children on altars. One of the women in my group made a comment, "Well that was pretty common in those times, it wasn't an unusual practice." She kind of sluffed it off as no big deal. But it bothered me. "What do you mean, it wasn't a big deal?"

Three days later, ding, dong I finally answered the door!

Back in Abraham's time, guess what the other "gods" were asking of their followers? They were asking for child sacrifice. Unfortunately, in that culture and time that is exactly what was common, culturally accepted practice. Abraham was before there was a Bible, and God had called Him to leave His people and go to a new land. Abraham may have been the only person on earth at that time God was intentionally revealing Himself too. And do you know what God did? He asked Abraham to do exactly what the other "gods" were asking, "to sacrifice your child to prove your love to me." However, when Abraham got to that point, God stepped in and He DIFFERENTIATED Himself from ALL other gods!

Psalm 95:3

For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.

He stepped in and He showed Himself as Jehovah Jireh, a Provider. Unlike the other gods, He does not require His people to murder their children, to satisfy Him. He is not like all other gods, He is above ALL gods and in fact He will provide the way to prove His love for us. This was the missing link for me, the step that I needed to have to understand and appreciate this whole story. Before, I thought Sarah would have had a grudge against Abraham her whole life, but now I think when Abraham got home, Sarah was very excited and she did want to know more about this God who was different than all other gods and would provide a better way than the sacrifice of their child.

And God continues to differentiate Himself from all other gods. He is the only God, who loves us so much that He would give up everything, suffer, die and rise again with joy to have us as His inheritance.

Do you know who He is? Do you know who you are in Him?

The Older You Get

Stone Cross by Svadilfari

"They" say, the older you get the less you know. I guess I'm officially getting old because I now believe and understand that statement.

We all have our nice little boxes that explain how life works and should function. Then life throws us scenarios that don't fit into one of our boxes. Now what? Do we throw away our old boxes or do we create a new box to put that scenario in?

I Peter 2:6
See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.

Currently, I am trying to get rid of all boxes and make sure that I am firmly landed upon the cornerstone, Jesus. This is the only place on which to build, the only unshakeable foundation and God's Word says, if I trust in Him I will never be put to shame.

Does every Scripture I read make sense to me? No. Do I think I understand Scripture and how it applies to life? Yes, and then circumstances come and shakes up that whole understanding. And then I'm left again saying, what am I trusting; am I trusting myself and my interpretations or am I trusting in God?

If you are looking for me in the philosophy of the mind (which translates into the philosophy of the living out life) I will be the one standing, sometimes waving my hands jumping and sometimes flat on my face on the cornerstone shaped like a cross. It's big enough for all of us, so leave your boxes and come on over.

If you like this you might also like:

When Life Doesn't Make Sense

What are You Made Of?

The Church

What is the church?

• A mystery that has been hidden in God since the beginning of time.
• The method God is using to reveal Himself to the world.
• A place where unity is to take place.
• A place where God's power should be revealed.
• A place where His glory should shine.
• A place where the revelation of God's power should be revealed.
• A place where the depth of His love should be experienced.

These points are derivied from Ephesians 3:9-20.

I don't know if "church" as we call it is God's original mystery of church as it should be. I don't think we should get hung up on what the Sunday event looks like because that is just one day in the picture of the church. As we can see from just this little section of the Bible, church is way bigger than a Sunday morning event.

If you continue reading on to Ephesians 4 we learn that the church is the body and that every single person plays an important role. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that we need to appreciate our Sunday mornings and view them for what they are a day of rest, a day of recharging, a day of direction to step out into being the real church every single day of the week. If we begin to walk out into the world everyday with the perspective that we are carrying "the church" with us at all times I think we would begin to see some of what God truly intended.

So let's just start there and look at what God intended: Ephesians 3:10 His purpose was that through the church all the rulers and powers in the heavenly world will now know God's wisdom. We learn in Ephesians 6 that there are rulers, powers and authorities of the enemy that still have control. How we function and live as a "church" should be revealing God's infinite wisdom to these rulers and powers. That section goes on to say: In Christ we can come before God with freedom and without fear. As a church (thus individulas) we should be able to walk freely and confidently before God. How many of us are doing that on a daily basis?

It all comes back to understanding that God is about FREEDOM. He set us FREE and then He gave us each other to step into this world on a mission ~ to bring His kingdom into this world. We do this through being unified with each other, loving one another and being confident of ourselves in the love of God.

If you haven't realized it yet, please do, that one of the enemies greatest strategies is to turn us against each other. If we are busy fighting amongst each other and not loving one another than God's power cannot be revealed through us. He didn't intend for His power to be dispersed through us individually but to happen through us as a body and until we choose to unite together we will remain ineffective.

Now this is the NCV version but it gave me a whole new perspective on this verse that we hear quoted so many times: With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. I have always viewed this verse in context to God: that He can do more than we could ever ask or imagine. But what does it say, "God's power working in us..." When we re-read this whole section with the revelation of the importance of us it gives us a whole new perspective. The mystery that He has held in Him since the beginning of time was that He was that he was going to move in power through the church. I hope this helps us to get it.

So church let's get it. Get the vision that church is more than just Sunday and let's start in our homes. If we are Christians are homes are an extension or a piece of the body. So what God wants to do through the "church" can be done in and through our homes. Let's work on our homes being a place of unity, freedom and love. When we start getting it there let's move it into our friendships and then move it out from there into the world...

In the Dreams of God

I am absolutely amazed that people can look at children and not believe in God. I was staring at my son yesterday as he was just standing there stretching and smiling. I was captivated by the color of his eyes; they are a dark with a beautiful swirl of green and brown. I then began thinking about how he was five and how not so long ago he used to be a tiny baby that I would just hold kiss and snuggle and now he is so full of life and ready to take on the adventures of this world.

Children are filled with so much personality it is almost shocking how someone so little could be filled with so much... and to believe it all came to be through random chance? Yikes! Yesterday, I moved my three year old's radio down so she could reach it and turn it on and off by herself. Later in the day, she asked me when she was getting her own computer (her brother has one in her room so I guess she figured she was old enough now to now have her own.) I told her, "I don't think that's going to be happening." She said, "That's okay, then you can just give me a little thing like Weston has." In other words, a Nintendo DS. I just had to laugh. The way her little mind works just amazes me.

When I look at my children it is hard for me to imagine that they never existed. If you asked them, they have always existed, "They just lived in heaven before." Now I don't believe that's true in the way they are thinking but in another sense it is true. We have always existed in the mind of God, even before time began (Titus 1:2-3). We have always existed in the heart and dreams of God and what a beautiful place to be. And as a mother, there is something about my kids that always has been ~ it is like I've always known them and that they have always been a part of me ~ and though I can't put a verse to it I know God was behind it. I believe He was so excited about who they were and who they would be that He implanted a piece of them always in my heart and whispered to me about them without me even knowing it. I thank you God for my kids and the gift they are to me everyday.

Today, I would encourage you to get caught up in the beauty of others. In our society today, we are so focused on what is wrong with others and how they need to be fixed. Yet hidden in the eyes of others, and the creases on people's cheeks, the veins on their hands and in the power of their personality are little pieces of our great God and not only His great love for them but His great love for us and His desire to bless us through others.

The God/Math Connection

The other day I was reading a book about homeschooling. It started connecting each subject to God, i.e. how is God in Math, Science, English etc… At first, I was like “really ~ do we have to connect God to each subject?” But then I let down my guard and thought about it. If God is the Creator of everything His fingerprint will be in everything so we should be able to look at a subject like Math and see God in it.

When I sat back and thought about it I did see a significant connection between God and Math. The verse “God is the same yesterday, today and forever” jumped to the forefront of my mind. Now I’ve always known this verse and I have liked it but honestly I have always viewed it in a simplistic manner. God is always going to love me. He was good since the beginning, is good now and will always be good. It was for me a safe, simplistic way to view God. Viewing this verse though through the eyes of “Math” blew the lid off this verse for me and off of who God is too! Math is the same, yesterday, today and forver. 2+2=4 will always be the same. Math in its simplicity can be understood by even the smallest child (counting 1,2,3…), however, even the smartest mathmeticians do not have a grasp on mathmatics and all its complexity. The same is true with God. Like Math He is the same, yesterday, today and forver. The youngest child can understand the basics of who He is: always loving and kind but to the greatest theologians who grasp much yet there is still great mystery that goes beyond their own understanding.

The other wondes to me with the God/math connection was the idea of combinations. That the same numbers mixed together in different combinations results in different answers. Math is also universal, cross-cultural and generational. So it is with God. His principles and truths surpass time, ethnicity and culture. That is why the truths of the Bible can and do still apply today. Yet like mathematical combinations it can be used and applied in many different ways. Hebrews says “The word of God is living and active sharper than any double-edged sword.” God’s word/truth is still alive and because of the complexity and simplicity of it all it can still be applied to our lives today.

I have been part of a debate on tradition versus the changes we see in Christianity today. Some Christians are threatened by the “new ideas” or “new themes” that get emphasized in today’s Christianity because it didn’t come out of tradition. However, my question back is “Do we really want to serve a God who was all figured out 2000 years ago and now doesn’t change?” Or do we want to serve a God who is like mathematics ~ there are eternal truths but by combining them together we see a new picture but nothing has changed because that possibility was always there it just wasn’t being viewed that way.

My favorite author is John Eldredge. He receives a hard time from some Christian circles because his teaching is a “new concept.” His “new concepts” however aren’t new but are an application of God’s eternal principles in a modern society. His latest book is called “Walking with God.” In this book he discusses that God does want to talk to us on a daily basis and how to do it. Is this really new? Read the first eleven chapters of Genesis and you will see this is not new: God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, Enoch was taken from earth because he walked with God, Noah was chosen to build the ark because he walked with God. These are not new principles but rather an application of God’s eternal principles in today’s society. Just like in math you can get the same answer through different methods: 2+2=4, 1+3=4 and 1+1+1+1=4. The answer is walking with God, but how you do it and what it looks like might change over time. To me this is the beauty and the awe of who God is. There is still more to discover about God but this newness really isn’t “new” because it has always been there we just haven’t always seen it.

Isaiah 45:3 says “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.” Our God is a great mystery to us. My challenge to you and myself is to continue to search every day to discover this God who is the same, yesterday, today and forever.