Window in a Glass House

-


It is from a deeply vulnerable state that I write this blog. Perhaps you have read Shirley Walker's book "Window in a Glass House." Basically there is a saying as a member of a church staff you live in a glass house. People watch you like a television show and applaud or ridicule you at will. Her story is one of extreme ridicule. People who claimed to love them were just as ready to tear them limb from limb when the stones started getting thrown. 
Sometimes I feel like that. Sometimes I look at the other glass houses and I wish I could sew them curtains so they could heal in private. Maybe that's what we are trying to do with Gomer's House.

The enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion. Even if you say things "nicely" as in asking for help and you have not gone to the source, you still defame the character of leadership. Go to the source and then take the next Biblical measure. Also, if you think you are more spiritually mature than someone you hardly know, you may want to pray about who is putting those thoughts in your head.  Don't let the enemy use you to cause division where God is hard at work to glorify Himself.

Some rules about attacking the glass house: 
Stay away from their family and stay away from their relationship with Jesus. 
Pictures from Mother/Daughter Weekend.
PS. I thought that if we have to live in a glass house we should at the very least have a storm cellar. Then I realized that we would always be in it. 

Comments

Jennifer said…
Oh, if there was only a storm cellar.

I didn't realize the whole glass house thing before I married Justin. It is difficult sometimes having everyone pick you apart and to have 300 bosses. This is why I love your Gomer's House project. I think it is so necessary that ministers have a place of respite to go. Most of the time they just hide under the covers in their beds and cry from frustration. I am praying for God's provision and leadership in the development of Gomer's House.
9:24 AM
Tiffany Atwood said…
Don't you mess with my girl! I rebuke your enemies in the mighty name of Jesus Christ!!! Oh, I'm getting fired up.
10:43 AM
Tiffany Atwood said…
Is Laomai eating biscuits & gravy in that picture?? It sure looks good! :)
4:46 PM
Steph Cherry said…
I am okay, TIffany. There has just been so much warfare for everyone after the pastor transition. It is very disheartening . . . and yet thrilling to see that God is up to something!

She is eating chicken and gravy. I had made her tiny pieces to dip and she picks up the one piece I didn't cut up and dunks it. Oh well. Live it up, girlfriend!!!
9:48 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

David Crowder's House Restoration

-
Image
A recent edition of Waco Today featured David Crowder's six year renovation project(we had to go check it out). I said a quiet prayer that God would let our house be completed before six years was up for us and then I dove in to the details. David and his wife bought the home of the man who invented Dr. Pepper. It is encouraging to see something that took so much effort and energy come to completion. May we soon see the same thing. You can read the story of the Crowder renovation here .
Read more

A Writer's Callous

-
Image
Alright, baby photo below. Quit emailing me! ;-) I remember having a writer's callous when I was five years old. In my adolescence I hated it. Now, I find it fascinating. Almost as long as I have been alive I have borne a mark that declares I am passionate about something in such a way that it bores into my skin. I have been blessed with wonderful Apple products to use and I still prefer writing things out. I heard Michelle Pfeiffer say David Kelley writes out all of his award winning shows on yellow legal pad. I like that. I prefer a journal and a real wood pencil (the kind that are stained, not the yellow ones.) There's something romantic about it to me. Writing is a choice medium in my relationship with God . I love to prayer journal. I pour out thanks for every minute that I get to spend doing it. In last weeks post I told you that God broke my Mac so I would spend some time alone with Him (then I can have it back in January). Shortly thereafter the enemy came in tel...
Read more

Miscarriage | Infertility | Hope

-
Image
I encountered Jesus as a young child in a church pew in the balcony of an old country church. Through a lifetime of trial, I knew he was there. I did not always know or understand what he wanted of me, but I knew I was wanted. We could go through all of the pain and abuse of my life and unpack each tiny detail, but that is not what this is really about. I love what Frederick Buechner said, “Pain is not the biggest thing that has ever happened to you.” That is true. I have beheld far greater glory. As I clung to his word through all of this, I knew he was there.   My story about trying begins long before I began trying to have children. I tell you this because almost half of the population has been abused in some way. The attack on my uterus began when I was four-years-old. I spent most of my life believing that I was broken and I was crippled by shame. I carried that shame into every relationship I had. As I encountered people in the church, I never felt safe enough to ask for...
Read more