Still reading Your God is too Safe and am up to the chapter about practicing the presence of God. It is not something done from duty. Have you noticed that sometimes we do the right things for the wrong reasons. One thing that I struggle with is the belief that God will love me more if I do……. Truth is God loves me as I am, as I was, and as I will be. The doing is not to get God to love me, the doing needs to be out of love for God. The focus is so different.

Buchanan talks about Mark 9:14-29 which is about the boy who was possessed with an evil spirit, and the disciples could not cast the him out. Later the disciples come up to Jesus and ask why they couldn’t cast the spirit out. Jesus tells them that this kind comes out by prayer and fasting.

Buchanan then points out the most glaring thing in the picture – that at that moment when He cast out the spirit Jesus did not drop down and pray, did not do any spiritual discipline, he just spoke and the spirit left. What we need to realize is that we need to be prayed up prior to situations, to have a discipline of prayer.

This paragraph on page 130 struck home and is something that disturbs me today about many Christian denominations:

“We often lack spiritual power. We’re so often helpless, hapless, speechless, bumbling in the face of the world’s evil, brokenness, and demon-infested sickness. We have nothing to say to the desperate father whose faith is almost spent, eroded by each doctor or pastor or psychologist that has come along straining with all his might to do something and done nothing. Often in response to our ineptitude and impotence, we get into arguments with the Pharisees. We squabble and bicker over theological fine points; we coin and bandy about big words like dispensensationalism. We find fault with the church down the street; They’re too liberal or too fundamentalist; they’ve gotten too preoccupied with the gifts of the Spirit or with the cessation of those gifts; they’ve reduced the gospel to good works or have forgotten that the gospel sends us out to do good works. Instead of praying, we fight. But secretly, when it’s just us and God, we have a different question: “Lord, why can’t we, Your disciples, do something here?”

He talks about holy habits – disciplines that keep us focused on Him. and says that often we have far more won’t power, than will power.

Page 132 “Holy Habits are not Legalism. We are not trying to earn anything from God by being disciplined. He doesn’t love us more if we practice holy habits or love us less if we don’t. They’re not about that. They are, rather, about experiencing more and more the kingdom presence and power of Jesus Christ that is available right here, right now.

Page 133 “But grace and effort are not opposites. Grace and earning are opposites. Working for your salvation is a heresy. Working out your salvation is basic Bible. Grace and effort are allies.

The most important point is that “You can only work out what you already have. You already have salvation through Jesus Christ. And with His salvation, we possess every last thing we need to live the full, joyful abundance of that life. But we still have to work it out. We still have to make every effort.” p. 133

Psalm 139 reminds us that god is everywhere, there is nowhere that we can go that God isn’t.

Pastor Don gave a Bible study that dovetails what I am reading here and I will share it with you tomorrow (provided I have access to this computer with the kids being home).

Hoping your weekend is good.

Heather

Here are the pictures that I promised from the weekend at Levon Helm’s place. Levon was the drummer in the group The Band. The Jazz Band that my son plays in invaded Levon’s recording studio to play, by Levon’s invitation.

Christopher is the one playing sax in the black suit. He plays tenor sax. This is the Jazz Band, an after-school club.

Levon Helm came in to meet the band. Christopher is to his left in the black suit, and the conductor, Mr. Murphy is to the right of Levon.

This is the outside of Levon’s studio, and people were waiting because he was going to walk through the crowd with a meet and greet.

I went up to him to thank him for allowing our children to play in his studio. He let Jim take a picture of me with him.

Here is a beautiful red maple that is invading the front of our house.

This year there is an invasion of caterpillars in our area. Further north by a friend’s house the invasion became more severe.

Reminded me of the old science fiction movie, Squirm.

Katherine and  Christopher on a beach in Long Island. They went out with their dad to check on the bungalo. My other son chose to stay home. The water was cold, and Katherine had a goal of sitting on the boulder.

Christopher picked up a skate on a rock. We found out that sometimes fishermen punch out circles from the skate and pawn them off as scallops. But this is the top of the skate.

There is the bottom of the skate, where it’s mouth is. Looks like some bizzare sci-fi creature invading our planet.

We thought we had seen everything when a woman came up to the Boy Scout yardsale with a goose sitting next to her. On closer inspection we found out that it was stuffed, but it sure looked real and I am certain she drew the attention of many people as she drove by.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures of a few of the recent invasions.

Heather

 

Heather’s soapbox: I have been reading Mark Buchanan’s book, Your God is Too Safe. A few quotes hit home and I wanted to share them with you. The first has to be the source of so much of the denominationalism. I am constantly amazed by the bitter fighting that occurs because of what each denomination feels is the truth. I suspect that all denominations have much truth, and a few inaccuracies. We are being refined and as we allow God to work in our lives we will line up more and more with truth. What I have noticed among Christians is the desire to take pot shots at denominations that have missed the mark, dig in the trenches and not dialogue. It is true, we don’t want lies about Christ spread, but at the same time the real battle is not about an erroneous thought, the real battle is satan and I suspect that as he wanders to and fro on this earth he is getting a good chuckle that Christians are doing his work for him. While we are to espouse the truth, it must be done in love. If it is done from a point of self-righteousness no communication can occur and only bitterness will grow.

Here is the Buchanan quote that sparked my soapbox.

P. 111 “Whole theologies hinge on the smallest words. John Stott says that the heart of theological language is in the prepositions – in, of, with, to. As. Split that word open and out spills an entire philosophy and strategy of missions and ethics. Where do we get our power? To whom we are to go? What should we say? How then shall we live? As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you….”

Earlier in the chapter Buchanan was asking teens to define Christianity and their response was telling. p. 110 “A Christian is someone who doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink or do drugs, doesn’t have sex until marriage, doesn’t use bad language. Of course. I am not suggesting that a Christian does these things. But it’s tragic that we instinctively define Christians by what they are not, by what they avoid. It’s like being asked to draw a picture of someone and instead of drawing everything around the person and leaving the portrait blank.”

And on the same page: “We are known by our fruits, not by our lack of tree fungus or leaf rot.”

I want to be known by my fruit, and I pray to God that I never succumb to the spirit of legalism.

On a bright note I wanted to let you know that I did complete Breaking Free by Beth Moore and I have to encourage you to consider doing the study. We made a list of strongholds. Many feel that strongholds are those very powerful ones like abuse, addictions, etc. But as we become refined in Christ strongholds can be self-righteousness, unforgiveness, worry, etc. We will be refined by God of all strongholds, large and small, if we are open to Him.

I came home after the study and cried. God gave me one of the most remarkable gifts yesterday. First of all, He made sure that I was a leader of a small group – hard not to fully involve yourself in the lessons if you are to lead others, so I couldn’t skim over the tough stuff, and the responsibility kept me coming back even though there were points in the book that made me want to quit the study or gloss over the material. Then I was talking to the facilitator, and shared a bit with her of what God was doing regarding the abuse I received in my past, and someone told me that they overheard what I was saying, so I told her a bit about my past. She gave me a card yesterday and told me that because of my sharing with her, she broke free from a stronghold that had been tormenting her.

If that wasn’t enough, people in the group kept commenting that they remembered me when I walked into the group 2 1/2 years ago, and how far God has grown me. And constantly came up to me and said that I had done well. The facilitator wrote me a wonderful note telling me that I had done so well, that God helped me to really do what was necessary for such a hard study. And then last night when I sat down to read the Bible, out fell another note from someone in my small group thanking me. She must have put it in my Bible when I wasn’t looking.

I cried so hard because this is such a proof that what satan meant for harm, God turned to good. To think that the dross of my life reached out and touched so many people was such a confirmation of the work God has done in my life. I count myself so blessed and immediately prayed that God keep using me however He wants. I love Him so much.

Have a blessed day, I get to go and visit Pastor Don’s mom. She is delightful and fun to visit. I sit with her on Thursday mornings.

Heather