Spiritual dusting

My morning Scripture readings are in The Message. I chose this paraphrase because so much of my school assignments and so on are done with either NASB (for technical analysis) or NIV (for preaching/teaching.) It seems that whenever I read devotionally in one of those versions, I get stuck in "divinity student mode." Devotionally, I need to be in "daughter of God" mode. (If you've been through the coursework, you know what I mean!)

Today as I read in 1 Timothy 4, I came across this...

Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use.

Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them. The people will all see you mature right before their eyes! Keep a firm grasp on both your character and your teaching. Don't be diverted. Just keep at it. Both you and those who hear you will experience salvation. [The Message- 1 Timothy 4:12b-16]

One of the things that God consistently does is to bring me into situations where I have opportunity to "keep the dust off." I was reminded this last weekend how important it is to keep the spiritual gifts entrusted to me sharpened and at the ready. And even more important than that, to cultivate them in the people I pray for and lead.

When I am obedient, God does amazing things. It really is a matter of staying focused and not being diverted from what God asks me to do...

As I finish my education and go where God sends, I want to "keep the dust off"...

Friday Five: Seasons Change and So Did I

Singing Owl from RevGalBlogPals writes:

Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest. Jeremiah 5:23b

The Autumnal Equinox has just come 'round again. I took a look back at our Friday Fives and noted that it always seems to make the Rev Gals and their Pals think of changes.

There is something so nostalgic about this time of year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. The nights grow cooler, crops are harvested, for some of us the leaves are beginning to change colors. The scent of smoke is in the air, pumpkins are in the stores (or on wagons, or in roadside stands for those of us in the country). I'm thinking of putting away my summer clothes and pulling out the sweaters. And I have a tub of Fall-themed items that my husband just lugged up from the basement. I'm looking for my scarecrow.

For this week, let's share some memories along with some hopes and expectations:

*~* since I'm headed out on a retreat in *~*
*~* just a few hours, my blog is mostly pictures *~*
*~* this week *~*

1. Share a Fall memory. Going here and doing this...



2. Your favorite Fall clothes--(past or present)? Hands down... it's this sweatshirt!



3. Share a campfire story, song, experience...etc. The joy of s'mores for my kids! (This gal isn't mine, but I love her expression as she contemplates the sticky joys ahead...)



4. What is your favorite thing about this time of year? The scenic beauty everywhere!


5. What changes are you anticipating in your life, your church, family...whatever...as the season changes and winter approaches? We are adjusting to one less child in the house as The Johnnie is settling into college life and Reedy Girl is a high school student. It's a shift from parenting two at home, to parenting one at home and coaching one at a distance!

Bonus: What food says "AUTUMN" at your house? Recipes always appreciated.



It's almost SQUEEZO season! We have plans to make applesauce this year -- made easier once my husband discovered you could take off the handle and attach a cordless drill to the corkscrew... and away we squeezo!!! (It's also good for making tomato sauce, fruit puree for jellies, etc.)


Deb

P.S. Double bonus points if you caught the song reference... :)

Being measured with my own yardstick...

I am writing sermons (school sermons) for an upcoming class. As I have been praying about what to preach on, God keeps bringing me life lessons on having a critical spirit, and on being judgmental. I desperately tried avoiding preaching on the topic since I know full well that it means I have to "preach it to myself" first. And I didn't want to go there.

However, for various reasons, God is impressing on me the need to face it. SOooooo -- the first of my sermons for modular week will be on Matthew 7:1-6 [TNIV]

¹ "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

³ "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person's eye.

⁶ "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Judmentalism is at an all-time high right now, in every quadrant of politics, at every red carpet event. People get paid to make snarky comments, and audiences love it. (I should know -- I love repeating them!)

This was not what I wanted to focus on, but it's pretty clear it's where God wants me to do some serious "interior remodeling."

ouch.

Deb

Remember what is most important...

I bought a little refrigerator magnet the other day. It is one of those little "by the check-out" kind of wee gifties that frequently catch our attention. I bought it just because its message is so perfect for my life right now...

Remember What Is Most Important...

It's not having everything go right;
it's facing whatever goes wrong.
It's not being without fear;
it's having the determination
to go on in spite of it.
Remember that every day ends
and brings a new tomorrow.
Love what you do,
do the best that you can,
and always remember
how much you are loved.
Vicki M. Worsham

Pretty good stuff! It ties in with my reading in 1 Timothy this week where Paul is exhorting those who are called to lead the Church to persevere and live out their callings to the best of their ability. It reminds me that I am asked to not just "do my best" but to present God's best to the people I meet every day.

Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor,
by love, by faith, by integrity. (I Timothy 4)

Now THAT'S really what is most important!

Deb

one of those songs...

This is one of those songs I play when I'm really needing to quiet my heart and pray...

Stopping to care...

In a moment of insanity, I decided to make a Costco run this morning. ("Run" + Costco = a crawl... but you knew that.)

In the bottled water section, there were two women looking at all of the various packagings and having a whispered conversation. One woman was about my age, trim and neatly dressed, and had a computerized shopping list in her hand. The other woman was much older, learning on a walker. The younger woman tried to lift a case of water into her cart, and barely was able to lift it. After it dropped into the cart, she stood there, rubbing her arms. The older woman looked worried and anxious. More whispered conversations... as I waited.

Finally, in a nonhurried way, I asked if I could help them lift another case in. With a grateful smile, the younger woman said, "Oh yes, please. I shouldn't have lifted anything that heavy. I am getting over breast cancer surgery."

So I hoisted their case into the cart, and then asked if she was OK, because she was still rubbing her arms. "I think so," she said, "I know now why you aren't supposed to lift anything heavy! That really hurt! I wouldn't have done it except I promised my child's soccer coach I'd bring in some cases of water today."

I told her to make sure she got someone to load up her car for her, and to unload it for her at the school. "You can bet I will," she said with a smile. I smiled back and told her I'd pray for her today. "Prayer is what keeps me alive," she said.

Normally I am the worst of "Type A" shoppers. I don't quite mow people over, but I hate the sauntering, wandering shopper when I have a list and know what I need to do. Today, for some reason, I just didn't rush it. And this little holy interruption was a real reminder that the planet I share has many needy people on it. (And yes, Captain Obvious, I spend far too much of my hours thinking about me. I'm a work in progress, to be certain!)

The rest of the meanderings around the store I thought about her. On the way home I thought about her. As I unloaded our haul, and worked on homework, I thought about her.

I don't know her name. God does.

So, unnamed sister, you are in my prayers today...

Deb

Thinking in 1 Timothy

Continuing my New Testament readings... today in 1 Timothy 1:

The whole point of what we're urging is simply love—love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God. Those who fail to keep to this point soon wander off into cul-de-sacs of gossip. They set themselves up as experts on religious issues, but haven't the remotest idea of what they're holding forth with such imposing eloquence. 1 Timothy 1:5-7 [The Message]

It's difficult to read this verse and be someone who believes that one's faith should be lived out in the public square. Blowhards are a dime dozen, particularly on the internet. (For a thought-provoking post, on this, see Variety's analysis of web blowhards...) I do not want to become someone who is an "expert" without "the remotest idea" of what I'm talking about. There are far too many coached sound bites and far less discussion on important issues that we face as churches and as a nation!

And yet, to be silent and not speak up is just about impossible. Particularly when it is an issue that is a passion or an injustice that is too often ignored!

Rather than suggesting we NOT respond to the issues around us, I believe that this instruction is instead an exhortation to carefully, prayerfully and lovingly respond to the injustices and issues we see every day. It doesn't mean you start a snarky blog about someone who isn't the "right" flavor of religion. It also doesn't mean you make assumptions and then tell everyone what you think someone means (this is also called "gossip!") Finally, it doesn't mean that you mock other people because they don't preach/worship/dress/live the way you do. (Yeah. That sounds obvious. But I've heard -- and participated in -- these conversations. And so have you, if you're honest.)

So, "living a life open to God" means that you take the time to consider your off-the-cuff responses to life's situations. It requires some honest self-examination every day. And it means that you consider what it means to extend God's love to another human being. Caring without seeking your own agenda or self-interests. Correcting without trying to bolster your "niche" or "target audience."

That's a tall order. But after listening to several weeks of "How would Jesus insure?" I think that perhaps this verse is more apropos than we think!

Deb

Morning Prayer...

(I don't often have time to blog in the morning, but wanted to this morning after receiving a huge dose of encouragement from my morning reading...)

We pray for you all the time -- pray that our God will make you fit for what he's called you to be, pray that he'll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. If your life honors the name of Jessus, he will honor you. Grace is behind and through all of this, our God giving himself freely, the Master, Jesus, Christ, giving himself freely. (2 Thess 1:12-13, The Message)

It always astounds me to have a prayer that seems meant "for my ears only" leap of the pages of the Bible.

I was feeling pretty discouraged this morning. I'm struggling with Greek (REALLY struggling) and have found it harder than I figured it would be. And I'm facing a busy week with ministry, family, school and "life" so I know I'm at a time crunch. When you know you are swimming upstream, it's daunting. It was hard to toss off the covers and start the day.

After Reedy Girl left for the bus an hour ago, and I had a bit of time with the Bearded Brewer, I started my morning routine. A wave of discouragement poured over me. I'd love to say it was lack of sleep (though I was up late last night grading papers!) but it is more than that.

It was not a lack of faith, but honesty, that showed me this summer that the kinds of things God has called me to do are not options where I worship and serve right now. It was the reason God graciously dropped a teaching assistantship into my lap, to begin to transition me into whatever role in ministry is next. What I once thought were options, God seems to have taken off the table. I know there is something God has in mind for me. The problem is, I don't really know what that is.

But. God. Does...

As I continue to read through the New Testament, I'm starting 2 Thessalonians. I know Paul was writing to the church in Thessalonica and it was almost 2000 years ago. But the words in my morning reading were exactly what I needed as a reminder.

I think we all face this battle of discouragement from time to time. It's especially hard to believe that God is battling through life with us when the day seems to be way too short for our responsibilities!

Yet... God is there...

When the tasks seem mountainous...
When there are more questions than answers...
When we act in good faith and find out we are being second-guessed...
When the gossip mill makes up what it can't find out...
When we show kindness to someone and are taken advantage of...
When we are ridiculed because we choose a different path...
When we serve willingly and get used up...
When we make mistakes and pay the price dearly in terms of our own time and resources...

God is there...

I don't have answers. I do have God's strength and peace and power, holding me up.

And so I start today, choosing to walk through a day that attemps to honor God...

Deb

Sunday music this week...

Oh God... hear my heart...

Friday Five: Where on the Stairs?

Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn't any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up,
And isn't down.
it isn't in the nursery,
it isn't in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head:
"It isn't really
Anywhere!
It's somewhere else
Instead!"

— A. A. Milne
“Halfway Down,” When We Were Very Young

Jan of RevGalBlogPals writes...

Thinking of your childhood as a stairway, when did you feel (and how did you feel then)

1. at the bottom?

I felt like there were places to go, people to see and things to do! (Apparently I was one busy child... and yes, God gave us a kid just like me...)

2. at the top?

I felt like I had accomplished something. I also felt like I was in a safe place, since my bedroom was always upstairs.

3. halfway?

There was always a nightlight in the hallway. When we were supposed to be in bed asleep, we would take books and read around it. And when we heard a parent coming to check on us, we'd run back to our beds and pretend to be asleep. I found out years later that they weren't fooled...

4. At this point in your life, where would you place yourself on your own stairway?

I am about two steps from the bottom!!! Graduation is next May. I am praying for where God wants to take me... even though I have to complete 2 classes in summer school, it's really REALLY close to being "done" so I can see the "hallway" and the "front door" and it's pretty cool.

5. Identify a place for you that "isn't really anywhere" but "somewhere else instead."

As a child, I loved to climb trees. Not TOOOoooo high, mind you. But high enough to be off of "terra firma" as Tigger said. Now, it depends on my setting. I can meditate and be "somewhere else." But my favorite place to be somewhere else is the stone labyrinth at the local silent retreat center. It is one of the best "God places" I know. The paths are grassy, with small stones, leaves and twigs scattered through it. And in the silence... I am truly "Somewhere Else Instead."

Deb

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So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.

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THE END