Eternal Life

"Dwell in Me

And I, in you."

This is eternal life,

life made new.

 

Your presence, the center.

I bursting with new life.

Pregnant and swollen,

Your spirit moves deep inside.

 

No longer, a before.

No after, too.

Death no longer delineates

between the two.

 

Past, present, future -

intertwined, redeemed -

All is well, will be well.

Life is much more than a dream.

 

~inspired by Henri Nouwen

 

February 24, 2014

 

 

His Work / My Work

Getting to know God involves action on both my end and God's end.  He doesn't just pick up His divine funnel and pour it into me.  This sacred education is a process which requires my cooperation.
He stands ever ready to do His part, but I must be willing to do mine.

When studying our language, one will find that there are basically two kinds of verbs: those that "do something" known as action verbs and those that show what something is or "be -ing" verbs, often called linking verbs because they link the subject of the sentence with what it is or what it is like.  For instance, she is beautiful.

Both being and doing are part of my relationship with God.  The being part is where I rest by faith in God's existence, in His goodness toward me, in Jesus and the salvation He has so lovingly provided for me, in the indwelling of Holy Spirit, in the promises of scripture, etc.  However, my relationship with God involves more than just "being"; there is also a "doing" that must be done.  Psalm 119:25-32 illustrates this beautifully.

Half of the verbs in this Psalm are actions I must perform; the rest are actions God does.

My Part

• to cleave to - I must hang on firmly, loyally, and unwaveringly to God.  He must be my Rock, my peace, my joy, my hope, my everything.
• to talk to - I must set aside time to talk to Him, to be with Him, to pray.  How else do people get to know each other?  Don't forget to listen.  He speaks to us all of the time, but sadly we are too busy to listen.
• to meditate - I must spend time in quiet thought about Him and His words and His works and His wonders.  I must not just read the scriptures but let them soak into my soul.
• to weep - I must discover those areas of my life that are displeasing to Him and then in honesty come to Him and have genuine sorrow over the sin in my life and agree with Him and repent remembering that repentance means change.  He doesn't have to change; I do.
• to choose the faithful way - I always have a choice.  No one can force me to do anything.  So I must discover what the faithful way entails and then do it, obey.  The faithful way will be the way that best reflects the character of God and Jesus. I must study the scriptures and pay special attention to the way Jesus lived and to what He said and did.  There is no other way to be happy in Him.
• to place His law, His rule above all else - I must love what He loves and hate what He hates.  He loves His son and the church and people.  He hates anything that separates me from Him.
• to cling to the testimony of His goodness - Life isn't fair, and sometimes we are tempted to think that He isn't paying attention and doesn't really care and isn't really there.  Faith is believing that He exists and that HE IS GOOD all the time.
• to run, not walk, in the way of His commandments - I must be excited and energetic about following Him and expectant that He will move.  I must be quick to trust and obey Him.

His Part

• to revive -  When something is revived, it is restored to life.  He brings us out of darkness and into His light.  He energizes us and refreshes us.  He stimulates our mind and our senses so that we are aware of what is happening all around us.  He is big enough to do this, and His word promises that He will.  He and His word are sufficient. 
• to teach - Jesus sent Holy Spirit to enable us and to equip us and to teach us.  He stands ready and waiting.
• to make me understand - While there are many excellent books and cds and speakers out there, God still remains the best source of instruction. He will unravel the things in His word that we do not understand.  He will help us understand His ways.  He will show us the way we should go, illuminate our path.  He doesn't want us to get lost.
• to strengthen - His Spirit dwelling inside of us will strengthen us, and His grace will give us everything we need for our journey.  He is a generous God and pays for all that He orders.
• to remove all that is false in us - He grants us discernment so that we will recognize the holy from that which is not holy.  If we have something other that His truth in our heads and if we are the teachable sort, He will weed out all that is not of Him and keep us on the right path.
• to grant us His law - He desires to share with us what is on His mind and have us partner with Him as we walk in love and truth.
• to enlarge our heart - He promises to grow us and to build us up, not tear us down.  He expands our field of influence and give us tasks to complete.  We start with a little, and if we are faithful with that little, He gives us more.  We can have as much as we want.

As I stated earlier, this sacred education is a process, and my relationship with Him is one of the most important and most rewarding relationships I will ever have.  May we all press into knowing Him.

 

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word,

What a glory He sheds on our way!

While we do His good will, He abides with us still

and with all who will trust and obey.

 

Trust and obey,

for there's no other way

to be happy in Jesus,

but to trust and obey.

 

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet,

Or we'll walk by His side in the way.

What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;

Never fear, only trust and obey.

    

               

Children of God -

such are we.

 A work in progress -

  no one yet knows what we will be,

but when He appears,

 all will see.

 We will be like Him.

  The diligent Refiner,

   with tireless love and steadfast hope,

 sits by the fires

   gazing, guarding the silver, the gold.

                                                         "When is it finished,                                                           

  all the impurities truly gone?" 

 "The moment I see My face."

                                               ~ 9.15.2003                                                                               

 

 

 

Aslan is on the move!

1 + 1 = 1

 

 

That they may all be one

even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,

that they also may be in Us.

~John 17:21

 

 

One + one = one.  Really?  Jesus said so.

 

For months now, the topic of unity and its biggest enemy have engaged my mind.  Unity is a vital component of life in the Body of Christ.  No unity, no life or peace, no fruitful ministry because everything is a struggle and everyone is suspicious of everyone else when there is no unity.  It's similar to a group of people in a tug of war.  Without unity our churches and we cannot be or become truly who we were created to be. 

 

When making a speech or writing a paper, speakers and writers usually present their most important reason in the final section of their speech or paper.  I find it interesting that Jesus' prayer for unity was the very last item He prayed for before His arrest, trial, and crucifixion.  Unity seems to important to Him.

 

What is unity's biggest enemy?  Fear, not diversity.  

 

How does this fear work? 

• We see something that we don't understand which makes us afraid because this something could somehow bring changes in our own lives.  
• Then we become obsessed about this thing and make judgments about others without going to these people and really finding out what is really happening.  
• Once we make these judgments, we begin to put into practice our defense against this thing. 
• Then our tongues begin to work, and we share our important information with someone else who then also "sees". 
•  Paranoia ensues and peace becomes a dream. 
• Then come repercussion that could ultimately end in a split or a parting of ways.

Why was unity so important to Jesus and Father God and Holy Spirit?  In verse 21 of John 17, Jesus says that our unity will make the world believe that God sent Him.  The world today is a mess.  We see very little unity anywhere.  O, that our churches and worship groups would be places of unity, a holy breath of fresh air set apart from the world at large.  Our unity will convince those in our sphere of influence that Jesus came, that He was who He said He was, and that God and Holy Spirit truly exist.

 

Our unity is also His glory.  In verse 22, Jesus prays that the glory which God has given Him be given to us so that we may be one just as Jesus, Father God, and Holy Spirit are one.  He was willing to give us His glory so that we might be unified - "perfected in unity so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You have loved Me."(v22-23)  This unity allows us to demonstrate to the world that the Father loves them and us just as much as He loved Jesus, His only Son (23).  This unity allows the love that Jesus deposited in our hearts to be lavished on those around us (v26). 

 

Paul also has much to say about unity in Ephesians 4: 1-6. 

 

I implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

with all humility and gentleness, with patience,

showing tolerance for one another in love,

being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body and one Spirit,

just as you were called in one hope of your calling;

one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all

who is over all and through all and in all.

 

 

Yes, this is sound doctrine, but it is also our duty, His command.  It is a principle that we need to practice.  We need to position ourselves in this so that our behavior will reflect our belief. 

 

• What is humility?  Having a modest opinion of one's own importance / not thinking you are better that other people
• What is gentleness?  Being mild spirited and self-controlled
• What is patience?  Accepting delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset  or complaining / enduring the whatevers, whoevers, and whenevers of life
• What is showing tolerance for one another in love?  Bearing with others and their uniqueness continuously and unconditionally
• What is diligent? Industrious, hard-working, conscientious, careful, thorough, painstaking

 

A church is composed of many members - the gifted and the not-so gifted, the loveable and the hard-to-love, the loud and those who hardly speak, the sick and those who need healing, the teachers and the students, the leaders and those who follow, those with big ideas and those who implement those ideas, the self-sufficient and the needy, etc.  Yes, we are a diverse group created by an extraordinary God which makes each and every one of us extraordinary.

 

We all get to play.  We all are a gift to the body.  All of our gifts regardless of size are important and vital. 

 

May all of us see the God in each other and rejoice over His creativity and diversity.  May all of learn to tame our tongues and to be bold enough to go to the source before jumping to conclusions. May all of us learn how to "play nice" and how to walk in faith and not fear believing that He who created us all is perfectly capable and is big enough to take care of everyone else. 

 

I don't know about you, but I have enough trouble just taking care of me.



 

        

 





All About Amma

Part 2

Amy has been called many things:  "The Hero We Need," "Selfless Servant of India." "Hero of the Faith," "Pioneer Missionary," "Torchlighter," "A Woman of Faith," "Rescuer of Precious Gems," "Rescuer by Night." 

I believe that most of these titles would have embarrassed this humble servant of God, all except one - Mother of the Motherless.  That title was her dream, her destiny.

Amy was born in Northern Ireland in 1867.  After a brief stay in Japan, she arrived in India on November 9, 1895, and never left India until her death on January 18, 1951.

Her time in India wasn't easy.  Many of her friends misunderstood her and failed to support her work of saving the children who were often given to the temples and used as prostitutes among other things.  Often she was threatened by physical danger and death for the work she was doing.  An injury and pain finally pinned her to her bed for the last remaining years of her life, but the work went on because she was warrior.

The first six years in India were spent with a group of Indian Christian women who traveled the rural areas evangelizing.  In 1901, a terrified little girl destined to become a temple prostitute was brought to Amy's compound at Dohnavur.  The rest is history - HIStory.

One of my favorite biographies of her is Elisabeth Eliott's A Chance to Die.  Amy's life afforded others a chance to live and herself a chance to lay down her life and follow Him who laid down His life so that we could live.  She followed His holy example by becoming broken bread and poured out wine for all those she met.

Below are a few of my favorite Amy sayings.

You can always give without loving,

but you can never love without giving.

 

It is a safe thing to trust Him to fulfill the desires which He creates.

 

We have all of eternity to celebrate the victories

but only a few short hours before sunset to win them.

 

Give me the love that leads the way,

the faith that nothing can dismay,

the hope no disappointments tire,

the passion that'll burn like fire.

Let me not sink to be a clod.

Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

 

 Satan is so much more in earnest than we are.

He buys up opportunity



while we are wondering how much it will cost.

 

A cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill

even one drop of bitter water

however suddenly it is jolted.

 

The pilgrim of love does not need a map or chart.

I know my road, and it leadeth to His heart.

 

God hold us to that which drew us first,

when the Cross was the attraction,

and we wanted nothing else.

 

Joys are always on their way to us.

They are always traveling to us through the darkness of the night.

There is never a night when they are not coming.

 

Let us not be surprised when we have to face difficulties.

When the wind blows hard on a tree, the roots stretch and grow stronger.

Let it be so with us.

Let us not be weaklings yielding to every wind that blows,

but strong in the spirit to resist.

 

Amy was definitely no weakling.  She faced her winds strong in the spirit to resist and died climbing and singing and smiling with her precious gems all around her.

 

God bless you and utterly satisfy your heart . . . with Himself.

~Amy

Adoption

Part 1

Many people that Lanny and I know have adopted children from China - at least six plus families, many of them multiple adoptions.  Whether they know it or not, they have been on our hearts and in our prayers during their adoption process.  We know how difficult that process can be because we tried unsuccessfully to adopt two little gems (Sudha and Mercy) from India thirty-five years ago. 

The process itself seems about the same, but the financial part of it seems to have been greater thirty years ago.  The biggest difference we have noticed seems to be in the attitudes of the people on both sides of the globe. 

Back then, we were met with trial and difficulty and hostility at every turn.  Some of our family and best friends couldn't comprehend why we wanted to do this and were very vocal.  "There are plenty of American kids you could adopt."   All we knew was that we were young, and it seemed like we were going to be unable to have children, and we felt that God wanted us to do this.  I still feel that God wanted us to do this.

To make a really long story short, six plus years, the Indian courts won the battle because our girls who were now in their teens would probably "not be able to become easily acclimated to a new culture at their age."  We had known these lovelies so long.  We couldn't just let go. 

The orphanage suggested that we help by providing them with education.  Sudha wanted to become a nurse and did with our help, and Mercy had fallen in love with one of the young men from the boys' orphanage whom she married.  As a couple, they went to work in their respective orphanages.  

I still pray for them, still love them.  I stopped asking why a long time ago because Amy Carmichael said that faith never asks why. 

One of the biggest ironies in my life is that when we began this adoption process, I did not know who Amy Carmichael was.  I was introduced to her circa 1983 in Jim Eliott's journal.  I don't think he actually knew her as in face to face, but he was certainly enamored with her writings and life and poetry.  In fact, his wife Elisabeth has written a biography of Amy.  

The irony gets even bigger.  Her writings were pretty obscure at that time, and there was no Amazon.com., no way to find them except by old-fashioned exploration. 

Well, in 1984, Jim and Jan Bentley, Pam Simpson, and I traveled across country that summer to a Vineyard conference in Anaheim, California.  One of our stops along the way was at Lindale, Texas, the home of Keith Green and Leonard Ravenhill.  They weren't there, but we were able to access their bookstore where I found a goldmine.  They had many books we had searched for, including Amy's.  We bought everything we could find.
Talk about kids in a candy store.

The ironies aren't finished yet.  I wasn't officially prayed for at Anaheim, at least not for having a baby, but there were several corporate prayers for couples wanting to have children. 

We came home, Jim started Gadsden Vineyard that winter (1984) in his home, Lanny and I were released from our responsibilities at the Lutheran church around Christmas and sent out to join Jim in his efforts, and voila.  I am pregnant.  Esther was the first baby born in our fellowship (August 1985).  Somewhere right around there we were given the third and final notice that the Indian courts had said no to our adoptions.

All of that to say this:  God works in wonderful mysterious ways.  Amy Carmichael, often called "Mother of the Motherless" in India, has been and still is one of the biggest spiritual influences in my life.  Somehow, I don't think I would have discovered her if we had not tried to adopt the girls, and I don't know if we would have easily found her writings if we had not stopped at Keith Green's.  Who knows?

Bonhoeffer, Jim Eliott, Amy Carmichael, George MacDonald - Their writings are readily available now with the internet, but back in the late 70s and into the 80s, things just weren't that easy to find.  I don't even know if I would have known they existed back then if God had not sent someone to mention their name to me.  I didn't know about C. S. Lewis's Narnia until I was an adult.  I read the entire series right before our trip to California.

I am so thankful to God for these folks, these martyrs and missionaries and ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I cherish the truths that I am still finding upon rereading their writings today.  If you need a good read, I would highly recommend any of their works.

Nothing Is Small

Who dares to despise the day of small things?

~Zechariah 4:10

 

 

Sometimes, our journey takes us through lands we never dreamed we would travel, and we just do not know how to navigate the path before us because we have never walked this way before.

 

I have had many such  journeys over the past fourteen years.  Cancerland was the first.

 

In this land, the giant is huge and inflicts damage in ways unimaginable both physically and emotionally.  Through surgery after surgery and treatment and disappointment after disappointment and prayer after prayer, the wanderer becomes focused on the giant and often doesn't see the angels all around.

 

The roads traversing this land have no guardrails, and if the traveler isn't careful, he can fall off into hopelessness and despair and self-pity.  In one of my "fallen" moments, I heard a sweet, sweet voice in my head:  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

 

That simple song gave me a foothold.  Then came, "If all I have is Jesus, that is enough.  He is enough."   By this time, I had found a hidden staircase leading upward through the pain and the discouragement.

 

Throughout this entire time, my friends and family had been wonderful to me, but I couldn't see it because my eyes were focused on the giants in the land.   I was focused on surviving this ordeal.

 

One day in the middle of a particularly discouraging few weeks, another word came:  Nothing is small if I am in it.  No thing!  And then, "Stop looking at what you don't have and focus on what you do have."

 

My journey took a dramatic turn for the better after letting these words drench my soul.  From that day onward, I got up and started each day by looking at what I did have - the love of Jesus, of my family, and of my friends.  I could see the blessings now.  These angels were ordinary people who served an extraordinary God, and they showered me with not only love but with flowers and meals and ears that listen and trips to appointments and movies and books and laughter and housecleaning escapades and chocolate and candles and pedicures and massages and coffee and prayers of encouragement and healing and silence when I needed it. 

 

There is no small blessing.  NONE!  I am so thankful for each and every one of these angels and for their gifts to me.  These blessings are the memories I cherish from this journey.  These blessings and the love that surrounded them saved me.  If you were one of these angels, I thank you for showering me with God's love.

 

Each day is vibrantly alive

with the "little" glories of God,

and shamed am I in admitting

a dullness which has caused me great loss -

that I am too often not wary

of golden treasure scattered all about me

and my eyes are unfortunately focused

on something other than what I was meant to see . . .

 

fragrant roses, a fuchsia glory  

standing regally in cut plastic on my front porch . . .

a roast, potatoes, carrots,

chocolate pie on a day that was worse than most . . .

Saturday afternoon, lunch, visiting a nursery,

cool drink, great view, relaxing talk . . .

finding in my mailbox, a pink bandana

left by a friend who'd completed a long 5k walk . . .

ears so quick to listen

to the lunatic ravings of fear . . .

hearts so lovingly creative . . .

hands, so full, so near . . .

 

These were but visible signs 

of love for me -

mighty, flesh-and-blood mirrors

reflective of divine glory.

Hopefully, I am of the teachable sort

and can learn to truly see

the value in little, gigantic things.

Nothing is too small to contain a golden mystery.

~October 7, 2004