Terribly Interesting

We were driving out toward east Texas on my birthday last week and I happened upon a verse on my drive that changed the way my whole trip would go. That verse would be on replay throughout our drive.   "It is God who clothes the wild grass."  Matthew 6:30 You know the section where we are told not to be anxious because God cares for the lilies of the field. It goes on to remind us that God cares greatly for simple grass. Of course, He will care for us. I know that He hears my desperate plea. Every flower and stalk of grass remind me.

I recently had the opportunity to read Joshua Harris' new book Humble Orthodoxy. It has it's roots in a section from his book Dug Down Deep. He was told over and over how deep, profound, and needed this section was in that book. He was often told that it should be a book in itself. I would have to agree. He expounded and expanded the topic of much needed humble orthodoxy. Reading through the text was akin to breathing fresh air for me. There is such division and judgmental mudslinging in the church that it grieves the soul. This book addresses the fact that we don't need to get carried away with inconsequential arguments, but we do need to stand firm for the gospel. The fact is that we are all wrong on some things, but we must all be right on one thing, Christ. I want to encourage you to pick this up and learn to engage those around you with the grace that exalt Christ. We must focus on important truths and the blood of Christ making atonement for sin. We must no...

I have been overcome with the stories of those serving West in the aftermath of tragedy. The gracious behavior and the servant's hearts are on full display. People in the media are all abuzz about the Southern hospitality they are encountering. It is shocking them. I think Christ is being represented in the Bible belt right now. His people are stepping up. There is another group in the Bible belt right now. The ungracious. The hate-filled attackers. Honestly, I saw a picture of one of them on social media and I felt like I was staring a demon in the face. The folks are from Westboro. These are the people who picket funerals because they see this disaster or the death of a soldier as God's judgement. They own a website called godhatesfags. No, really. I keep seeing the campaigns to refuse them service. Now, I am all for shielding those who mourn. I am just wondering what kind of reception Westboro is getting in the Bible belt.  Oh, Jesus, remove the scales from their ...

Well, I read this book. When, I saw the title, I said, "Okay, I'll bite." I must say that I am not in any way a cessasationist. I believe that healings occur by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, with that said, I struggled through this book. My quick rundown would be angry rant, how he met his wife, angry rant, contradiction, weird connections, short exhortation. First off, Chad goes on with some bitter diatribe about someone telling him that God took his grandpa home to Heaven so he thought God was mean. His rant was about people tell you that your suffering is for the glory of God. Skip past the nice marital story and Chad himself tells you that God uses suffering for your good. Which is it? He does or He doesn't. Perhaps Chad should write about forgiving the person that gave him the message he misread and repenting before God of how he viewed Him.  Chad tells us how he doesn't like big showy healings, but most of the people he reference in his book ...

Let's see here, y'all. I am trying to remember all of the wonderful things that have occurred since my last update. Denbigh went to Arkansas and recorded a cd for a Christian camp. He was gone for 3 days. Hopefully it will turn out to be fantastic. He leaves for a summer of worship leading in East Texas in about a month. Were we not just there?  We released our butterflies. I have been working on the guest room floor still. I am finally a third of the way done with filling the cracks with string and putty. I started top coating the dining room table that Stephen made for us. We wrote a check for a countertop. YES! a HUGE check for a countertop. Thank you to everyone who bought something in my Etsy store. Because of you, Gomer is getting a $3,000 countertop. Can you imagine not having a countertop for four years? We're walking in high cotton now. Someone accidentally sat a bottle of stripper onto the buffet and ate a hole through the stain so I am trying to fi...

Last week, I wrote about the butterflies we had been watching emerge from their cocoons. You can read about it here . I had also found myself struck by the realization of the shedding of the exoskeleton. It is one thing to hear the terminology and another entirely to see it unfold. I was staring at the caterpillar begin to spin it's silken cocoon. It began a shaking that appeared so violent as it made a point and attached itself in order to hang down. A third of it's body fell off. I just stood there stunned. I was stunned because Christ in the tomb was fresh on my mind that Good Friday. I was stunned because Galatians 2:20 is always fresh in my mind. This falling away was not some calculated effort on the part of the caterpillar. It was a natural response to God creating it and calling it forth in it's time. There was a shedding of self, a shroud of paper thin mystery wrapped around the Chrysalis. Then, there was quiet.  When it had all fallen away and there see...

Over the last few weeks, I have watched a caterpillar wrap itself in a cocoon and then emerge a butterfly. Today, I stared deeply at the wonders of God as the orange color slowly filled its brown wings with bright orange as if it had been injected with paint that slowly crept through it's veins. I think about one line I heard on Sunday morning.  You will be made whole.   Isaiah 53. You will not be made whole like when you were a caterpillar or a chrysalis. You will be whole as a new creation, one that gained the strength to fly through struggling through the cocoon. Dark, tight death wrapped the body and you had no idea if you would ever make it out alive. Then you emerge, barely there. Searching for strength. The color of dirt. Slowly, the color, the spirit of life, starts to fill you. You are alive. You are whole. You are what you were always meant to be. You are because of the struggle.

You know, I look forward to each book I crack open. It is like getting to peer into the beauty, the glory, the pain of who the author is. Such as in life, our experiences with people and their stories change us. Sometimes, we learn from the author's mistakes. On occasion, we may be led astray. Hopefully, we are made more fully alive by entering into the written relationship. Books change us. I have never read anything that Rebekah has written and I didn't know exactly what to expect from her. So much of our Christian bookstores are lined with embarrassingly shallow tales of self-pity. I was delighted to see that this was not one of them. This is a memoir of a truly difficult time. I was honestly surprised and encouraged by how much candor Rebekah shared with us. She laced her lines with the truth about her fears of mental illness, dealing with a special needs child, and feeling wholly lost in New York. This journey towards life and meaning was not lost on me. It see...

  Hello, y'all. I am still recovering from my concussion, but I am slowly starting to feel better. So, I got back to work. Well, I did a little work. I have been filling in the floor cracks. It's tedious to be sure. I may be done by 2015 and you can come revel in my craftsmanship or floormanship or whatever might be the appropriate wording here. You can see that my man filled in a hole of drywall for me. That was amidst Holy Week. It was crazy. It's kind of like the Superbowl of church events. There is something to do every single day and night. It's a flurry of activity leading to the cross and the resurrection. He still accomplished one thing and I will revel in it and hold on to joy. May God be glorified in that tiny slab of drywall.   I hope you know that I make light of things in order to stay sane in the midst of an insane remodel while parenting small children. I mean, I plant a head of lettuce and I'm a farmer. We have to laugh at ourselves or o...

I have been completely undone remembering the death and resurrection this year. The grief of the loss impacted me in a new and powerful way. I was overcome with despair at the thought of losing Christ. That mourning propelled my spirit into this grateful place of health and delight in Christ come Easter morning. Christ is risen in my heart. That freedom, that rising has made me want to sit and bask in the beauty and radiance of my Lord. I am sincerely in awe of what He has come and done in my heart.  God allows us to love others like that. We can move forward in such grace and without reacting to petty concerns. We can reveal Christ to everyone around us in the simple, every day actions. We can be hospitable with our very lives, welcoming others with a warmth unparalleled. Christ wants to use our physical bodies to meet the spiritual concerns of others. If we only concern ourselves with others first.  Let me show others your mercy, Abba.   At Calvary ...