Tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent, the season of preparation leading up to Christmas. I have spent the last 3 and 1/2 years in my own season of preparation in seminary and in two short weeks I will be done. (Yahoo) It has been a ridiculous ride. I am amazed at what God has done, nothing short of miraculous. I honestly still can't fully grasp why He invited me on this journey, except to say I asked for Him to use me daily and this is what He called me to do.
I have grown to know myself far better over these years because I have grown to know my Creator far better, and who knows me better than that? I have come to more fully understand how faithful our God is and how much He loves us because I have come to the absolute end of myself over and over. Time and again when I have felt inadequate and incapable God has showed up in amazing ways. I long to tell everyone what I know about God. His goodness is so great that it bubbles up inside me to the point I feel my heart might break. Where do I even begin? How? I know how, I do, but it is so incredibly overwhelming.
I don't know that I will ever be fully "prepared" but I do know I serve a God that blesses obedience, not in ways I would imagine but in ways that are far greater.
I may ramble, but as Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians, if I am out of my mind it is for the sake of God and if I am in my right mind it is for you.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Permission to Speak Freely
Author Anne Jackson wrote a book by the same name as my title after posting something on her own blog about confession and transparency. Her beef was much the same as my own. The church is supposed to be a place that ministers to the most broken people right? I mean the church is the Body of Christ and Christ's living example was one that was regularly among the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes,the blind, the deaf, the sick, the lame. The church should be a place where we call it like it is, where we can let our guard down, and love each other just like God loves us.
What are you afraid to say in church? Who are you afraid to be? I heard someone say recently that we make our Sunday worship and our small group meetings like the Christian Prom. We all dress up and have our nicest manners and exchange the usual pleasantries, but are we real, vulnerable, human beings? See if we continue to perpetuate the myth that we are these people that have it all together without a care in the world then those who would never darken the door won't. They have some misconstrued idea that they have to have it all together to be a part of such a community of people. In fact if we are each transparent about our own brokenness, frailties, temptations, other real people might want to be a part of that, but it starts with us. Someone has to go first. I confess my own ideas about who I had to be and how I had to be kept me away from any church for a long time. I thought I had to be a certain way, know the books of the Bible and where to find them, recite the Apostles Creed from memory, wear certain clothes....no wonder people don't want to come to church. Is that what it is all about?
The good news is we can all be real with each other, phew what a relief, and have the assurance that because we call Jesus Lord all that junk doesn't matter, whether it happened years ago or you are still struggling today. We can come to Jesus and come together and find real healing, and redemption, and restoration. We are all in process, in life, and relationships, in growing closer to God,in becoming a new creation because of what God has done through Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, who's going first?
What are you afraid to say in church? Who are you afraid to be? I heard someone say recently that we make our Sunday worship and our small group meetings like the Christian Prom. We all dress up and have our nicest manners and exchange the usual pleasantries, but are we real, vulnerable, human beings? See if we continue to perpetuate the myth that we are these people that have it all together without a care in the world then those who would never darken the door won't. They have some misconstrued idea that they have to have it all together to be a part of such a community of people. In fact if we are each transparent about our own brokenness, frailties, temptations, other real people might want to be a part of that, but it starts with us. Someone has to go first. I confess my own ideas about who I had to be and how I had to be kept me away from any church for a long time. I thought I had to be a certain way, know the books of the Bible and where to find them, recite the Apostles Creed from memory, wear certain clothes....no wonder people don't want to come to church. Is that what it is all about?
The good news is we can all be real with each other, phew what a relief, and have the assurance that because we call Jesus Lord all that junk doesn't matter, whether it happened years ago or you are still struggling today. We can come to Jesus and come together and find real healing, and redemption, and restoration. We are all in process, in life, and relationships, in growing closer to God,in becoming a new creation because of what God has done through Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, who's going first?
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
God loves...
I had one of those moments today, you know the kind when you finally get something? God is so amazing the way He teaches us things, but we have to be tuned in to be taught, our ear has got to be inclined to hear. I confess I have been moving at a pace that I do not wish to maintain and at times it is a detriment to that hearing. Though my morning meetings with God are being kept, many days have a way of escaping me before I remember to breathe deeply.
There are so many people in my life that deserve more of my time, me included :) but I was thinking of one in particular today. She kind of flies under the radar. I'm not sure if she really doesn't want to be known or if she is in fear of some sort of judgment for who she is. I know things about her she probably doesn't realize that I know while I am certain others in her life don't know. I used to fear that if "they" found out they might judge, and I would quell this fear with the thought that if they spent enough time with her they would love her so much that even if she was completely exposed, it wouldn't matter. I caught myself here, because I have made my own judgments and came to the DUH! conclusion, that God knows every hair on her head, He knows everything about her, and still He loves, He loves. Nothing can separate us from that love. Nothing.
Romans 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen, thank you Jesus!
There are so many people in my life that deserve more of my time, me included :) but I was thinking of one in particular today. She kind of flies under the radar. I'm not sure if she really doesn't want to be known or if she is in fear of some sort of judgment for who she is. I know things about her she probably doesn't realize that I know while I am certain others in her life don't know. I used to fear that if "they" found out they might judge, and I would quell this fear with the thought that if they spent enough time with her they would love her so much that even if she was completely exposed, it wouldn't matter. I caught myself here, because I have made my own judgments and came to the DUH! conclusion, that God knows every hair on her head, He knows everything about her, and still He loves, He loves. Nothing can separate us from that love. Nothing.
Romans 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen, thank you Jesus!
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