Monday, May 12, 2014
my day off
Quite a contrast! Garage sale junk - Easton!
Anyway, it's quite clear we have too much stuff!
How I can fill a car twice with stuff to sell, and still there is no see-able difference in my house- it is shameful!
A few people went home with treasures but many other treasures just got donated to get rid of them!
I wonder if it honors God when He sees how many things I have in my home? Does He care?
I guess if we're not in debt for what we have, and serve the less fortunate and tithe and give as God requires, then maybe it's ok…I'm just not convinced. I've been feeling for quite some time that we should live a more minimalistic life… I may look into this more - I'll start by being honest before the Lord.
Who would have thought a simple garage sale could be SO convicting!
…I'm glad it's over!
Monday, April 19, 2010
do you promise
I do.
My intentions are pure, I value prayer and them, but I usually don't remember who asked me or to pray.
God has been convicting me about this recently. Shameful I know and maybe I'm hoping for some of you to help quiet my conscience, I mean God's voice by assuring me everyone says this. Not good enough.
My word, my promise, my casual sympathetic supportive comment must be true. If I won't do it, if I don't mean it, I should never promise it.
I confessed this to Him this week. I promised Him I would not promise you to pray unless I am truly going to commit to pray. I promise.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
what I learned today
Today I was reading in "Life Together" by Bonhoeffer and became very convicted and looked hard at my own life.
I am a dreamer - I know what I THINK a Christian community should look like. God deals in absolutes - He makes it pretty easy to understand - our junk makes it difficult. This is what I read today...
"Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams...God is not a God of emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it.
He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial. God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demand that is be realized by God, by others, and by himself."
I stand convicted - letting go of my own agendas - and thanking God for each little thing. I will be satisfied with the "small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience and love that has been given to me - so I constantly look forward eager for the highest good!"
I love Crossroads and all who attend. May our community truly reflect our thankfulness to God for all things and become a genuine Christian - non-judgmental community that attracts the lost to Jesus!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
what I learned today
I woke up this morning thinking about, and praying for everyone in our community that is suffering with the fear of wondering how they can survive in light of no work, or too much debt, or any number of economic related problems. I laid there and wondered how my own kids were going to pay off college debt and pay for their own insurance once they were out on their own in the next few years...concerns I might not have had if I really, really, really lived totally surrendered. I also thought of the grudges I secretly hold, the unwillingness to forgive that I sometimes hang on to. There are of course no secrets from God, but we live as if there are! I came across this rather long poem. I know the saying, "would there be enough evidence to convict you" is old..but, I still found this poem based on the saying to be thought provoking, would you be convicted?
The Trial of Jack Pale
One: Open your mind and let’s make believe
That it’s some time in the future say two-0-fifty three
Two: And this country has changed as they tend to do
and being Christian’s illegal.
One: No Way.
Two: Yes it’s true.
The law passed one year with overwhelming approval
And all churches were scheduled for immediate removal
One: Now Christians are criminals in the eyes of the state,
And murder and worship now draw the same fate.
Two: But don’t worry the Christians haven’t all gone away,
They meet now in secret to this very day.
One: One group that met in a house in Glendale
Had a member that went by the name of Jack Pale.
Two: Now Jack was always there when they met together
He would never miss no matter the weather
One: One night when his church was quietly praying
From outside they heard a megaphone saying
Two: “FBI! Come on Out! You’re being arrested”
One: Some went out quiet while others protested
Two: But both groups soon ended up in the jail
And Jack’s wife was called to help him post bail
One: “A Christian,”
Two: she cried to the voice on the line
One: “There’s no way a Christian is a husband of mine”
Two: “But m’am he’s confessed; he claims that it’s real”
One: She said, “There’s no way and here is the deal
I don’t care what he says we’re going to court
And when I get there I’ll give a report
Of the life that he lives away from that place
How he lies and he cheats with a smile on his face.”
Two: So she got her a lawyer and they set a court date
One: And gathered the evidence, but Jack was irate
Two: “I’m a Christian,” he tried to explain to his wife.
One: “No your not,” she replied, “I have looked at your life
I have gathered your friends who will tell what you do
And the judge will see that a Christian’s not you.”
Two: So the strangest of trials that our town ever had
One: Was of a man who screamed “GUILTY!” with all that he had
Two: “I’m guilty,” he said, “and this isn’t funny
I go every week I even give money
I sing all the songs. I stand and I kneel
Now they try to tell me that this isn’t real
Just see what I do at that house in Glendale
Now I rest my case for that’s my whole tale”
One: “Exactly!” screamed the lawyer sitting by Jack Pale’s wife,
“But you’ve only talked about a part of your life
What happens when you’re not with the other church guys?
Do you act like a Christian or do you tell lies
Do you treat other people with fairness and grace
Or do you treat them unkindly and then lie to their face?”
Two: What happened next was a line for four days
Of people Jack’d wronged in various ways
One: “He cheats!” said his friend.
Two: “It’s true!” said another,
“Why I even saw him pull a scam on his mother.”
One: “His mother” cried the lawyer “you must be mistaken”
Two: But the friend had the proof of all the money he’d taken
One: Some others explained how course jokes were the norm
And one guy gave testimony of his room full of porn
The parade was relentless, ruthless, and complete
It even included an ignored bum from the street
Two: Ms. Pale’s lawyer rested after showing his proof
Jack was dejected his wife seemed aloof.
One: “Mr. Pale,” said the Judge, “I know this is odd
And your place as a Christian is between you and your God
But here in my court we judge people by facts
And is seems you don’t act like a real Christian acts
Two: “But I’m a Christian” said Jack standing up from his seat
One: “Sit down” said the judge, “This case is complete
You claim you’re a Christian but you come in this court
With nothing to sustain it and no evidence in support
You say you’re a Christian and that may be true
Both: But what shows you’re a Christian are the things that you do”