A Cup of Cold Water

I went to church yesterday at A Restoration Church, Pittsburgh.  No surprise there!  That's where you can find me on any given Sunday morning!  Yesterday was different: we had music, singing, a good sermon on Joshua 22, great time with our church family, and Holy Communion.  And, that's where things took on a whole new flavor........

At A Restoration Church, Pittsburgh, we work very hard to include, to welcome, and to make feel special every person who comes.  As my husband passed the communion elements, the passing of the bread went as usual.  Then he began to pass the wine/grape juice.  I wasn't looking behind me, but apparently a lady shook her head at him and must have quietly told him she couldn't have it.  He knows this particular lady has a number of really significant health challenges.  She hasn't been attending very long. He quietly said, I'll be right back.  The accompanist kept playing.  We meet in banquet rooms in a corporate facility.  He went over to the sink and filled one of the communion cups with water and took it over to her. When everyone was served, and he was back in front, he raised his cup to indicate we would all drink together (as is our custom).  As he did, I saw the quick start of tears in his eyes.  For all of us, and obviously for him, it gave totally new significance to a cup of cold water given in My name!  

Real Radical Love

It's pivotal and crucial! I'm talking about how I live as a follower of Jesus. I'm talking about the church before the watching world. (And, believe it, the world is watching those who claim to follow Jesus and looking for REAL! AND looking for the kind of radical love Jesus has and calls us to!)
In the "Christian world" there often seem to be two choices: living by rules and law OR living in the nebulous Land of Whatever which we may mistakenly call grace..

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. The latest issue of Christianity Today features her and her new book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Crown & Covenant).  (Link: My Train Wreck Conversion (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/my-train-wreck-conversion.html?start=3)

Rosaria's own words are compelling:
As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.

      

Photo by Jimmy Williams

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The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that "knowing Jesus" meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it. ....

 

Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded and naked. In this war of worldviews, Ken was there. Floy was there. The church that had been praying for me for years was there. Jesus triumphed. And I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, he could make right my world. I drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me "wife" and many call me "mother."

I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life.

And my former life lurks in the edges of my heart, shiny and still like a knife.

 

WOW! I know enough theology to know that the Holy Spirit is Who drew Rosaria to Jesus like a moth to the flame and even more surely. But, I am struck by the rest of the story. Like a moth to the flame Rosaria was also drawn to Jesus by the marks of Jesus she saw in Ken and Floy and other followers of Jesus who stepped into her life for just such a time as this.

The radical restoration of Rosaria's heart is a work ONLY God can do but he does use you and me in the process. If we fall down on the side of rules and law, we don't show Rosaria the kind of love Jesus has for her. He takes us just as we are - crippled, lame, blind, deaf and all the rest - especially broken messes! 

What Rosaria saw in Ken, Floy and others was NOT rules and law NOR was it the Land of Whatever! It was true grace lived out in radical love!

God Counts Your Tears - Every Single One!

When my husband and I were in Israel, we visited a small gift shop near the garden tomb. I was fascinated by their collection of beautiful, very small hand-blown glass bottles. The sign with the display identified them as lachrymatory bottles. These tiny bottles have been used since ancient times to collect tears. I bought quite a few to bring home.


Over the years since I have gradually given all but one away. I have given each one - as a reminder of God's presence and faithfulness -to a special friend who was experiencing great grief in life .

In the Old Testament (over 1000 years before the birth of Christ) King David writes in a prayer to God (Psalm 56:8): “Thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears in Thy bottle; are they not in Thy Book?” (KJV)

There have been times in my life where I have experienced intense grief. I have always been comforted by God's abiding presence and faithfulness! The image of a lachrymatory is a visual reminder that God cares about each tear!

Whatever your grief is today, my friend, my prayer is that you too will find comfort in the only place where REAL comfort is found - in the faithful love and grace of God!

Boundaries for the Heart

Reflecting on these two quotes today brings my "prone to wander" heart back to focus on my King and Creator! Introduced the Latin saying, In principio erat Verbum, to my students John 1:1 this week - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

It was an awesome chance to point out that the Creator is more the God the Father - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Gen. 1:1. The Creator includes The Word who was also in the beginning and the Spirit of God who hovered over the face of the waters Gen.1:2.

Only grace can harness your (or my) wandering heart and cause it to rest in the faithful love of the Savior. --Paul David Tripp

Today your (and my) heart will search for satisfaction. Will you and I look for it in the creation or in relationship to the Creator? --Paul David Tripp

Surely makes me wonder why my heart would EVER be prone to wander or stupidly search for satisfaction anywhere else than from the Creator!

In the Midst of Life ...........

No blogs since July 17th. Sorry but it's all about death in the midst of life..........
My heart and body have been totally absorbed first with a wonderful visit from three hugely loved grandchildren. And then, the day they returned home I got a call on my way home from taking them that my 91-year-old father with rapidly advancing Parkinson's had a subdural hematoma. He had emergency surgery that night in Greenville, SC.
We've done the intensive care bit and then a private room. They (the hospital folks) were wonderful partially because they do their job well and also because my brother is a consultant helping them develop their hospital system technically, philosophically and in leadership and team concepts.

[Just a side-bar: He's gotten a real upfront and personal look at life in that hospital system in the last 8 days.] From the private room we moved to a two-room suite. Since there are 6 children with spouses, 21 grandchildren (all but three with spouses) and 29 great-grands, we are a formidable crowd! AND since there are no cabbages in the bunch - well, you get the drift!
Long story short is that the sub-dural (which was very large) caused pretty extensive right-sided weakness and just seemed to my dad too high a mountain to climb. He is ready for heaven and wants to go there. He's getting his wish as we brought him home several days ago under hospice. As I try to put the sequence into time it seems like it's been a year since Wednesday, another since Monday and two or three since last Thursday!
This journey is one of the most amazing experiences of my life! Trust me that my life has been filled with many varied amazing experiences. My youngest sister posted on her FB page this week that this day ranks right up there as one of the worst. For my money it seems like this week has been filled with worst days - if that's possible!
Through it all there are wonderful snapshots of amazing love and tender grace! Here's just one for tonight: Earlier this week when Daddy was still taking tiny bits of liquid, I was giving him a few drops of coffee. Our granddaughter Abby, 10, touched my arm and asked if she could give it to him. I handed her the spoon. It was so precious to see her tenderness and love - a picture I'll carry in my heart!
It is so strange and wonderful being on this island of death in the midst of life and traveling this journey with my dear brother and sisters and their spouses and our children and children's children! This is a treasure beyond telling! Sola Deo gloria!

Broken ... A Good Guy and A Bad Girl!

Her many sins have been forgiven - for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little. Luke 7:47
Jesus was always getting invites to parties. He was the talk of every town - healing lepers and blind men, raising the widow's dead son and lots more. This night it's Big Shot Simon who invited Jesus to dinner. All of a sudden, enter stage left the town's Bad Girl (maybe even a prostitute). She's not still a bad girl but once was a bad girl. It's almost impossible to live that kind of reputation down!
All the dinner guests were lying around on their cushions around the tables. Bad Girl Jesus is invited to Simon's house. She knew all the men know her either by reputation or worse but she came in anyway. She brought a beautiful jar filled with very expensive perfume. It was a valuable essence! She stood at Jesus' feet and began to cry. (We don't know how her story with Jesus began, but she must have known Him to be the Son of God. Why else would she come to worship Him?)
As she quietly cried, her tears fell on Jesus' feet. She knelt, wiped His feet with her hair, kissed them and then poured all that valuable essence on His feet. The jar holding the perfume probably had a long thin neck to keep the essence protected. To pour it out, she probably had to break the neck on the jar. Martin Luther calls her tears heart water. They surely came from her heart. This was her act of thankful worship for the One who had loved her and forgiven her many sins.
Simon was furious. He was really angry that Jesus would even let this woman touch Him. Jesus knew what Simon was thinking. Jesus also knew money was very important to Simon. Jesus talked to Simon about what is really valuable. He told Simon a very short story about two men who owed a debt. One's debt was large; the other small. Both debts were forgiven. Then Jesus asked Simon: Which man will be more grateful? Simon grudgingly answered, Well, I guess the one with the greater debt.
Jesus also pointed out that Simon didn't even bother to have a servant wash Jesus' feet when He arrived. That was a real insult to any guest! So that slight by Simon toward Jesus made the Bad Girl's gift and actions toward Jesus even more loving! Jesus said, She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal. (Luke 7:47)
Simon and Jesus both saw the same woman. Simon saw her for what she was. Jesus saw her heart! Her heart burned with love for Jesus! Simon's heart was frozen. Jesus spoke tender words to the woman, I forgive your sins. (Luke 7:48)
Where is your heart today? Is it frozen or does it burn with love for the One who still forgives sins?
Lord Jesus, help me to see how much You are willing to forgive me. Lord Jesus, may my love for You reflect the greatness of Your forgiveness for my sin. Give me Your love where I walk today. Help me to love others in spite of myself. In Jesus' name. Amen.

The Wonder of the Gospel Matters!

My friend Tim Keller (from long ago when he wasn't world-wide famous) is a wise man who truly understands and articulates the Gospel! You will be blessed by his thoughts and he's spot on!!!

If you think you really understand the gospel – you don’t. If you think you haven’t even begun to truly understand the gospel – you do. As important as our ‘gospel theologizing’ is, it alone will not reach our world. People today are incredibly sensitive to inconsistency and phoniness. They hear what the gospel teaches and then look at our lives and see the gap. Why should they believe? We have to recognize that the gospel is a transforming thing, and we simply are not very transformed by it. It’s not enough to say to postmodern people: ‘You don’t like absolute truth? Well, then, we’re going to give you even more of it!’ But people who balk so much at absolute truth will need to see greater holiness of life, practical grace, gospel character, and virtue, if they are going to believe.Traditionally, this process of ‘gospel-realizing,’ especially when done corporately, is called ‘revival.’ Religion operates on the principle:I obey; therefore I am accepted (by God). The gospel operates on the principle: I am accepted through the costly grace of God; therefore I obey. Two people operating on these two principles can sit beside each other in church on Sunday trying to do many of the same things – read the Bible, obey the Ten Commandments, be active in church, and pray – but out of two entirely different motivations. Religion moves you to do what you do out of fear, insecurity, and self-righteousness, but the gospel moves you to do what you do more and more out of grateful joy in who God is in himself. Times of revival are seasons in which many nominal and spiritually sleepy Christians, operating out of the semi-Pharisaism of religion, wake up to the wonder and ramifications of the gospel. Revivals are massive eruptions of new spiritual power in the church through a recovery of the gospel. In his sermon on Mark 9 Lloyd-Jones was calling the church to revival as its only hope. This is not a new program or something you can implement through a series of steps. It is a matter of wonder. Peter says that the angels always long to look into the gospel; they never tire of it (I Pet. 1:12). The gospel is amazing love. Amazing grace.- Tim Keller

The "Someone Done Me Totally Wrong" Song Ain't a Hill to Die On!

Singing the "someone done me totally wrong" song might be your or my reality today. Life isn't fair and life does not come with a guarantee against betrayal, loss and pain! Sometimes I feel like the perpetrators of the totally wrong stuff get off scott-free and "ride off into the sunset" to do their damage to another unsuspecting target.
It is true; it often seems that way! But that's not my call! I'm just responsible for my end. God promises to take care of the other side of this equation.
What's a gal (or guy) to do when there is seemingly no possibility of repentance and restoration or even closure? Staying stuck in wanting to "take out a contract" on the perpetrator is not a hill to die on. Moving on and asking God to work His restoring grace in my heart is the only path of health and sanity for my own heart!
Choosing the way of revenge or just-can't-forget-and-forgive does absolutely NO harm to the perpetrator but it does irreparable damage to my own heart! So making the terribly difficult but necessary step of forgiveness is actually the path of God's grace and mercy to me even if that grace and mercy seem severely won!
Just askin' ................... think about it!

So Here's the Scoop!

Overlooking sin, covering it up and denial are very different: #1 is born of grace, #2 is born of pride, #3 is born of fear! --Scotty Smith


Only those who deeply understand their sin will deeply appreciate grace. Those who've been forgiven much, love much! -- Tullian Tchividjian

When GOD "Wrecks" Your Heart ... Read On!

This is a fabulous, articulate, elegant, honest description of suffering and the God Who is ALWAYS present and accounted for NO MATTER WHAT!
I just got an email this AM that had shattering news. This is just what my heart needs for today! I'm sharing it because it just might be what your heart needs too! Thank you, Charity Keldie! God bless you!

When you’re wrecked by God
By Charity Keldie on December 31, 2011
One year ago today, I sat waiting in a doctor’s office with my 4-year-old son William. He joyfully played with a dinosaur sticker book while I sat in silence trying to hold back tears and just breathe. We were waiting for results of a biopsy we had done on a large mass in William’s knee. It had been two months of him being unable to walk, doctors’ offices, MRIs, a biopsy and waiting.

Time had become my enemy. Just nine months earlier, my husband had died. In a lot of ways, those nine months had felt like nine years. Nine years of going to bed alone every night, raising our kids alone, and grief. But at the same time, it seemed like my husband had just died nine days ago. The grief was still so raw. How could there be more grief coming? Would I have to watch my little boy die, just like I had watched his daddy die? It just seemed like too much…
One year ago today, my little boy was diagnosed with osteosarcoma – bone cancer. Hearing the doctor’s words left me speechless. I didn’t cry, scream or really react at all. On the outside I was calm and strong. But on the inside, darkness fell. I couldn’t believe God was bringing more suffering and tragedy into our lives.
The doctor insisted on a second opinion. He sent all of William’s tests to the Mayo clinic and asked me to wait another week. Another week! Another week of not fighting this disease that was trying to steal his life. It made me angry. I did not want to wait. I wanted to fight. I wanted to do everything possible to save my son’s life. To me, waiting was like allowing death to move closer. And I wanted nothing of that. But I wasn’t given much of a choice…
Over the next three days, we would wait. The waiting was dark. I did not have hope. I would research bone cancer and cry. I would buy books on how to explain cancer to a child. I would begin making a plan on how to help my son through chemo, surgeries and lots of time at the hospital. I would try to make myself okay with the possibility of an amputation. And I would pray. My prayers were a mess. There were no eloquent phrases. In fact, all there really was was a deep groaning of my soul that the Holy Spirit took before God. And amidst the tears and groaning, there was a very quiet whisper of “Your will be done.”
One year ago today was the darkest day of my life. This widow was dealt a blow that she could not handle. And it was one of the most loving things that God could have done. Because God used the darkness to show me just how good the light was. After three days of darkness and waiting, God shone a light into my heart that brought me to my knees. On December 30, the doctor called. William’s original diagnosis was wrong. He did not have bone cancer. The mass was benign. He would need surgery and nothing more. No chemo. No amputation. There was no cancer.
Throughout this whole ordeal, God was so good. In the waiting, He was helping me learn to trust Him more. He was reminding me of His sovereignty over our lives. In the darkness, He was revealing the darkness of the sin in my heart. He was showing me how generous and faithful He was. He was reminding me that this life, this place is not my real home – He has something far better for me. And if there would have been no second diagnosis, if William did have bone cancer, God would still be good. He would show us His faithfulness to carry us through suffering and teach us to rely on Him. He would continue to strip our affections from things of this world and attach them to Him.
One year ago today, God wrecked my heart. He took me to a very dark place and asked me to wait in it. And I am so very, very thankful.
“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” John 12:46

Heart Gifts

A sign you're growing in grace: You'd rather give & receive costly heart-gifts than expensive stuff-gifts! --Scotty Smith

A Little Story in the Bigger Story

If you have rest of heart because you know your story has been embedded in the larger story of redemption, you know grace has visited you. --Paul David Tripp

Foundational Grace 4 Your Heart!

There are disastrous consequences of not having the heart established in grace.
-- C. H. Mackintosh, tweeted by Tullian Tchividjian

My Heart's Ready to Forgive, Lord! Don't ask that of me!

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
--Corrie Ten Boom

You and I can intentionally decide to forgive and still be struggling with what that needs to be and look like.
You and I can intentionally decide to forgive while we're still working through the pain and hurt.
You and I can intentionally decide to forgive even when we didn't deserve what happened and hate the consequences and the fall-out.

Corrie Ten Boom lived that principal out in a most challenging way when she met up - years after she was liberated from Ravensbrook Concentration Camp - with one of the sadistic Nazi guards from Ravensbrook. He came to hear her speak and then came to shake her hand after. She wasn't "ready" to forgive but by a determination of her will she found God's grace sufficient to allow her hand to reach out to grasp the hand of her former enemy who needed SO MUCH forgiveness! Her heart wasn't yet ready to forgive him; but her God was BIG ENOUGH to give her the grace to step out in faith to forgive!
That same grace is still alive and well and accessible for you and me!

Forgiving from the Heart

We live in a very broken world! We are irreparably damaged and broken! Some of us contain the damage so it's less obvious but no less real!
Part of that brokenness is the damage sinners do to one another. Sometimes that damage is irreversible and beyond repair!
The only response for a believer whose heart has been changed by the love of Jesus is forgiveness! That's tough - sometimes so painful as to be beyond bearing BUT no less encumbant upon our hearts per God's requirement.

Forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting the forgiveness.
--Tim Keller

I'm preaching to my own heart here: When forgiveness is almost beyond bearing to grant, we must - if not for the sake of the one who has done such desperate damage - we MUST forgive for the sake of the One who died that we might be forgiven!

Exposure of Your Heart

Through difficult relationships and circumstances, God works to expose your heart so you will seek the grace that can only be found in Him.
--Paul Tripp

Prone to Wander

"It is by grace that your sins are forgiven, and it is by grace that the wandering allegiance of your heart is reclaimed." -- Paul Tripp

What the World Needs Now!

Men despise religion; they hate it and they fear it is true. (Blaise Pascal, French Christian who was also a physicist, 1670)

As far as it goes this is an interesting and thoughtful observation by Pascal. The kink is that religion is despicible! What matters is Jesus! It's a real relationship with Him that the world needs and that my heart needs! It is the Gospel of grace that reaches my heart and the hearts of the watching world because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life!

Gospel Heart-Deep Hurt - A Good Thing?!!!

God's grace is not a desensitizing anesthetic. As the Gospel penetrates our hearts, we will hurt deeply but redemptively!
-- Scotty Smith

Is this what the world calls "masochistic" thinking? Maybe but the truth is NO WAY! NO HOW! Knowing God's grace, experiencing God's grace deeply into the crevices of my heart is a good kind of heart hurt. As the Gospel changes me, it also compels me to live out the Gospel to the watching world one life at a time and sometimes that brings unimaginable hurt. The key is that hurt is redemptive both for me and for the person I love with "Gospel love"! Only eternity will reveal all of what that means so - for now - it may prove painful to the max! BUT it's worth it to have the Gospel penetrate my heart!

Heart for Love and Life by God's Amazing Grace!

Our 38-year-old son fell in love in February 2010 to God's "perfect" answer to his need and hers. Both have journeyed a long, lonely, rugged road to find each other! They married last August 2010. Yesterday was their 1st wedding anniversary. July 24th 2011 their first "together" child was born - our 7th grandchild!
Our God who loves to surprise His children has been busy doing so for them and us! Even the "mistake" of a "botched" reservation last August charged and paid last October turned into an anniversary celebration at just the right time!
It's a beautiful beginning of two hearts loving each other and loving God and their children together in a pretty incredible story of how God puts broken pieces together into a beauty of restoration and grace!