Why I'm Hopeful...and optimistic, and courageous

  

  I was reading the TIME magazine during a slow time at work yesterday.
Usually there is not much in the magazine that appeals to me but the drift of the February 18 copy is all about Optimism. Or, as I see it - HOPE.

  There is a section of thoughts on Optimism titled "The Optimists" and the first thoughts are by Guillermo Del Toro - didn't know who this was until I researched him - but I really enjoyed his thoughts and wanted to build on them.

You can read the whole article here Why I'm Hopeful (*caution - language alert)

  As I was reading his article I wondered if he had ever figured God and Jesus into his thoughts. I wondered about his God-Shaped hole and whether he acknowledges that God is in his life shaping his optimism.

  I especially like his opening sentence - Optimism is Radical. It reminds me that Jesus is radical, that believing in Heaven is radical, that I am radical as His follower.

 Optimism is not uncool; it is rebellious and daring and vital.

  I am an Optimist - I am a glass-half-full person - I may not be daring in the eyes of the world in the choices that I make, but I know that following Jesus is daring. And following Jesus is Hopeful and Optimistic.

  Mr. Del Toro ends his article with the following thought "Look around you now and decide between the two. Inhale or die."  I would build on his words - look around you and decide whether to be courageous, optimistic and hopeful.

  Joshua 1:9 " Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord you God is with you wherever you go."

 

I leave you with a song - from my favorites - the Group VBS  people:  Wherever You Go

Hope - in the News???

I posted this on my Facebook page yesterday after I was so discouraged by the "News" I read online and in my local paper:


Good News Wins

     "Too much of what passes for U.S. news coverage these days is actually news about news, full of angles instead of straight storytelling on what’s actually happening in the world. 

 But the upside-down rejoicing the apostles discovered is the deeper resilient joy that comes from cultivating first a realistic awareness of the world, then an appreciation for God at work in it."

I have spent a lot of time since reading that great article thinking about the Hope I have because God is at work in the world around me no matter what I may read, or what is really happening.  

I can look at the world around me with realistic eyes and Hope because God is in control. I am brought back to one of my favorite verses where God is speaking: Isaiah 46:10 (NIV)

"I make known the end from the beginning,

from ancient times, what is still to come.

I say, ‘My purpose will stand,

 and I will do all that I please.’"

Hope that God knows what is going on - Big, Big picture - and He has a purpose and I am good with that because I am resting on His Firm Foundation!

How Firm A Foundation - Fernando Ortega

So if you want some good news - start with reading your Bible, then check out World Magazine online or Ann Voskamp for some encouraging news.

The 12 Words of Christmas

 The 12 words the angels proclaimed as they first announced it—“A Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord”—thereby ending the apparent silence of God for the prior 400-plus years. With the birth of Jesus, each and every person could now know and have a real relationship with God.

    As he is relating the account, Pastor Louie Giglio maintains that the first Christmas was chaotic and came at the busiest time of year—on tax day. With that, the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth were also less than perfect. He states that the only perfect things on the night that Jesus was born were the baby, and the message the angels gave announcing His birth.
(The Twelve Words of Christmas part 1, Louie Giglio)
(The Twelve Words of Christmas, part 2)
(The Twelve Words of Christmas, part 3)

  Mr. Giglio emphasizes his point well, that Jesus, the Savior of the World, had come for exactly that very reason—to land right in the middle of chaotic humanity and be the very presence of God. Giglio takes that particular thrust of the story and brings it to the forefront of people’s lives everywhere today. 








  Christmas is not necessarily a perfect time of life, but the perfect One Himself has come, and He is available and reaching out to each person in every kind of circumstance. 
   







  As some friends of ours reminded us:

       In the Christmas story in Matthew 1 and Luke 1-2 the angel that appears to the main characters of the story addresses all of them by saying, "Don't be afraid". 
      Today fear is gripping our world like a strong man grips a small boy's hand to hurt him. 
     We all feel it everyday. 
     BUT, the message of the Christmas story when personally believed releases us from fear and gives us a lasting inner peace forever! 
     The message is simple - The God of the Bible truly wants to "walk among us and be our God" , Leviticus 26:12.

Merry Christmas to all of you today!
(With a little scenery thrown in for those of our family
who live in the south!)

Information Overload? Reflections on a Weekend Conference

  Last week Howard and I had the opportunity to head back to Chattanooga for a long weekend, a little family visit, but the main reason was to attend the CCEF conference. (We also escaped the surprise October snow.)

 
  We purchased our tickets way back in March hoping that our daughter Julie and her then fiance Ian would be able to line up their wedding during the same time period, but that didn't happen, so we made two trips to the states in the last three months.

The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation has a mission to restore Christ to Counseling and Counseling to the Church. We have attended a couple of their other conferences and hope to attend more in the future. It was a time to refresh our spirits, get some tools for working with people who are in need, and to sing with over 2000 people. We were challenged and educated.



  As I was sitting on the plane on the way to the conference I began looking through the sessions that we would have an opportunity to attend during the week. It was only then that I realized that the whole conference was going to be about EMOTIONS. Great, I thought to myself, just what I needed, I am not an emotional person so now I would have to listen to people talk "touchy, feely" for three days. (Howard is the Counselor/listener in our family.)

  I looked through the catalog and chose some sessions that seemed less emotional.

  I was pleasantly surprised during the opening session when the speaker identified himself as being just like me - he often doesn't get the emotions of others and wasn't overly emotional himself, and yet he was a counselor...how does he do that?

  We were then reminded and taught that Jesus had emotions, God has emotions.

 He gave us the challenges of

             Engaging our Emotions in order to leave behind painful ones - repent and confess,

             Speak and Connect - train yourself to use your pain to connect with God and others,

             Listen to God's replies to us through Christ - "I am with you" - God Cares

    I won't write down all of my notes, although I have read through them twice myself - good stuff - but I will leave you some nuggets I gleaned from two of the sessions I attended.


  Joni Earickson Tada was one of the main guest speakers. If you don't know her story, check it out here - Joni's story. She was one of my childhood heroes - paralyzed from the age of 17 to present - a paraplegic. She shared her story of pain and happiness - the highs and lows.


Here is where she took us:

Splash-overs of Hell- pain, suffering, defeat, separation, temptation
                                                       vs.
Splash-overs of Heaven- finding Jesus in your Splash-overs of Hell

  "How dare I cling to the sins that caused my Jesus such pain?" I need to incinerate my self-focus, own my weakness and become full by emptying myself through helping others - like Jesus did. I need to pray scripture to God as Jesus did.

  I wrote these down on a 3 x 5 card to keep above my desk to remind myself to look to Jesus and to serve others.



  The other session was on Tasting and Seeing. Our speaker was a Pastor and Worship Leader at a church  - he challenged us to take our head knowledge about Jesus our Savior on an 18 inch trip to our hearts.

  We need to take and use all of our senses, our concrete experiences and acknowledge that God is moving in our lives through these experiences to help in our justification and sanctification.
 (3 minute Justification explanation)
(3 minute Sanctification explanation)

  We need to practice using our senses to worship God now - by ourselves and in community with our fellow believers - because someday in heaven we will be using all of our senses to Praise our Savior all day long.
  We will know if we have tasted and seen the Lord if we have gratitude in our hearts for the gifts God has given us.

I leave you with these words of wisdom that really stayed with me -

Every emotion that we experience here on earth in our earthly bodies 

will someday resolve into JOY in Heaven -

our past emotions will all lead to our eternal JOY! 

Why do the Nations Rage?

Last Summer we spent a month in Belgium, I'm sure some of you remember. One of the things I enjoyed doing was taking cool photos - and some of the coolest photos I took were of the amazing graffiti. 

I kept all those photos and look at them occasionally because they are interesting.  As I was reading through Psalms the other day I came across one that reminded me of the graffiti I had seen and of that great Rich Mullins song " While The Nations Rage ". 

I thought it was appropriate to think about this as we move into the Passion Week soon.

Psalm 2

Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

                 The kings of the earth set themselves,

                an

d the rulers take counsel together,

against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,

“Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

and terrify them in his fury, saying,

“As for me, I have set my King

on Zion, my holy hill.”

I will tell of the decree:

The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

be warned, O rulers of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear,

and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Comfort and Joy - for your 2016 and beyond.

   Now that we are 1 week into the New Year, I am finally getting the "official" Christmas post out to you. 
 (And that is why I have never made New Year's resolutions - I know my limitations.)

   "That is out of my comfort zone"  

I was thinking about this all during the holidays. 

Especially in the uncomfortable things that I participated in during December. 
Things I maybe didn't want to do, or was extremely uncertain about. But things that I knew would be good for me:

 The Saturday at Lighthouse church when I was called on to give a testimony during testimony time in the worship service,

Going to the local prison to visit with inmates on a Sunday evening for worship service.

  Setting down at the table with a first nations family I don't know during Amazing Kids dinner and striking up a conversation during bites of food. Starting to form relationships.

  Helping to host the only Christmas 6 different groups of inmates at the local prison would have this year, and receiving a special handmade gift from Michael, one of the inmates.

  Serving breakfast at the local homeless shelter on Christmas morning.

             Which brought me over and over again to Jesus -

  Think about it - he left his comfort zone of HEAVEN, to arrive on EARTH as one of the most helpless creatures there is...a new-born BABY

  And He knew what he was getting into when he arrived.

  I love the words to the Stephen Curtis Chapman song that I play at Christmas:

                                                   "This Baby"

Well He cried when He was hungry
Did all the things that babies do
He rocked and He napped on His mother's lap
And He wiggled and giggled and cooed
There were the cheers when He took His first step
And the tears when He got His first teeth
Almost everything about this little baby
Seemed as natural as it could be

And this baby grew into a young boy
Who learned to read and write and wrestle with dad
There was the climbin' of trees and scrapin' of knees
And all the fun that a boy's born to have
He grew taller and some things started changing
Like His complexion and the sound of His voice
There was work to be done as a carpenter's son
And all the neighbors said He's such a fine boy

And love made Him laugh 
And death made Him cry
With the life that He lived 
And the death that He died
He showed us heaven with His hands and His heart
'Cause this man was God's own son
This man was like no other one
Holy and human right from the start

This baby made the angels sing
And this baby made a new star shine in the sky
This baby had come to change the world
This baby was God's own son
This baby was like no other one
This baby was God with us
This baby
This baby was Jesus 

I contrast it with a line from the song we teach little children to sing:

                            "...The little Lord Jesus no crying he makes...."

Not so much I'm thinking....after all, His purpose in coming was to be a Man, to experience everything each of us does.  

All of the hurt, all of the pain, all of the joy, everything except for the sin that follows us around like a ball and chain.

Comfort and Joy to you in 2016

Comfort and Joy for me in 2016

and the challenge of getting of our comfort zone even more!

Following the example of Jesus!

Speak

  There are these photos, signs, boards, and pictures that have these three words (and sometimes more) on them all over the place:

  There has always been something about them that bothers me - yes, they are good sayings, but there was just a niggling sense of  

 yes, but.....

  Today I found a song that helped me see what was missing...

(click on title for link)

     

Speak Life

by Toby Mac

Speak Hope:

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; 

my hope comes from him.

Psalm 62:5

Speak Love:

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every

 way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the 

whole body, joined and held together by every joint with 

which it is equipped, when each part is working properly,

 makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Ephesians 4:15-16

Speak Life:

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

 

The LORD is the strength of my life; 

of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1 

I like this sign - going to make one soon.

I am thankful that Jesus speaks comforting Hope into my life every day,

I am thankful for those who speak eternal Love into my life,

I am thankful that someone spoke everlasting Life to me many years ago.

Who am I speaking Hope, Love and, Life into today?

I Love Sunday Worship - I Love My Small Group - I Love My Time Alone with God

CHURCH

I sat there again yesterday -

in a pew in church.




I had started out my morning in the choir loft, 
worshiping our Lord and Savior through song.

We moved through the service, through greeting fellow believers, through sharing peppermints, through reading of the Bible, through setting an example for kids and grandkids, through prayers, through teaching and learning.


Worshiping as a body of believers.

We gathered as believers in Jesus Christ, members of our local church, one small group out of the thousands, or maybe tens of thousands of groups around the world doing the same thing, worshiping our Savior, members of one holy catholic church. 

 But we are members of our local congregation also.

SMALL GROUP

Thursday we met again – after a break of several weeks thanks to snowy, cold weather.  We gave each other hugs, waited for Sue to start us in line for our meal, and sat down to catch up on family and friends. 

We share our "happy’s" and our struggles. We sing.   

We discuss where we can do God’s work in our church, in our work, in our family, and in our community.

We open God’s word and look to the Lord – “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth.” We are members of this small group of Christians who meet once a week, but we are members of our church also. 


PERSONAL STUDY

      

I sit at the kitchen table, the sun is shining at my back in the cool, morning air.  My Bible, my latest study book, my book of 1000 praises (I’m only in the 200’s), and my prayer notebook are cluttering up the space.  My mind wanders, back to the challenge we were given in Sunday School yesterday.  Take a Psalm and “take it apart”, analyze its form, look at its content. 

            Howard sits in the big green chair with his "cheaters" on, computer in his lap - reading through his latest book choice, taking notes and telling Julie and I that we should read this book next.



           Worship the Lord who is speaking through this Psalm. Worship by myself, but I am also a part of a church family.

Worship is More Important

            There is a link attached to the above statement.  It goes to an article titled "Worship is more important than your small group". 

Of course the title caught my attention. Though I was a bit leery of what the contents would be. I was pleasantly surprised at what I read and wanted to discuss it with others – I find that sharing things with fellow Christians makes me dig deeper and we sharpen each others thinking.  We spent a good bit of time on the contents of the article in our small group last week, and some more time discussing some of the comments that were found below the article.  

We all came to the same conclusion: Worship is more important than small groups – but small groups and personal worship ARE important too!

I challenge you to read the article with some fellow Christians and then worship together – in church, with your small group, and by yourself.