Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Stories about God

I just happened across a cool little site: Stories About God. Pretty self explanatory. Check it out—but only if/when you have time to surf. One I especially like: A Chance to Apologize. Cuz, man, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to do something like that!  :(  Or times I should’ve, but didn’t.  :(

The author says that after apologizing, he “felt a lot more like Jesus.” That prompted me to brainstorm… when are we most like Jesus?
- When we forgive people who are beating us up.
- When we try to avoid the limelight.
- When we serve out of love, not out of hoping for something in return—even a “Thanks.”
- When we speak the truth boldly—at the right time, for the right reasons.
- When, after speaking the truth boldly, we’re considered crazy!
- When we’re okay with people thinking and saying untrue things about us, because we know where we stand with the Father.
- When we’re giving.

That’s certainly not all, but being a nice holy number (and having nothing to do with my brain running out of steam!), I’ll call that good.

Posted by Jana on 10/24 at 11:21 PM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The Designer’s Psalm

A few days ago, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the work on my to-do list. That morning, I was reading in 2 Samuel 22 a song that David wrote, praising God for helping him in battle. He said:

You are my lamp, O LORD; the Lord turns my darkness into light.
With Your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall…
It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to stand on the heights.
He trains my hands for battle…
You give me a sheild of victory; You stoop down to make me great.

When I’ve read this in the past in the book of Psalms (where it is recorded as Ps. 18), I had “spiritualized” the content; thinking of these words as metaphorical. But seeing this in the context of the narrative of David’s life, it dawned on me that in this song, David was talking about actual, physical battle—which was a big part of his job and his life’s work.
So I decided to paraphrase these verses to apply to my work. Granted, I’m not the leader of God’s chosen people as David was, but I still need equipping from God to do my job. So here is…

The Designer’s Psalm:
You are my inspiration source, O LORD. You give me ideas when I have none.
With your help, I can make headway on my workload; I can put checkmarks all over that to-do list!
It’s You who gives me ability to do my job. [Why should I fear my own inability?]
You train my mind, my eyes and my hands for creativity and excellence.
You gift me with a little bit of You, The Creator; the lowest, smallest bit of Your creativity is above and beyond all of mine.

David adds,
“The LORD lives. Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!”
To which I can only say, “Amen!”

Posted by Jana on 10/17 at 11:08 AM
(1) Comments • (11413) Trackbacks • Permalink

Monday, October 02, 2006

Some perspective on the back door.

Some encouraging words (I hope) for all those who are concerned about their church’s “back door”:

I carry a fair amount of guilt about our back door. I think to myself, If I were a better pastor, they would still be here; or, If I had done a better job of discipling them, they would not have fallen away; or, If I hadn’t preached on that controversial issue, they would not have left angry. Each one who departs leaves me with a distinct sense of failure.

This is an issue Jesus wrestled with. In John 6:66 we read, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” ...You will never completely close the back door of your church. When people leave, it hurts. Learn all you can from those who leave. Listen to hear if there is something important God would say to you through them.

Reach out to them, apologizing when needed, offering clarification and love when this is what’s called for. But remember that when Jesus, God’s Word made flesh, preached the gospel on this earth, most of his hearers did not accept his message.

Jesus knew that God’s kingdom would not expand by “pleasing all of the people all of the time.” Instead, the Kingdom expands as the relative minority of people who hear the gospel, live it and in turn, give it away. Our task is to keep scattering the seed.

Excerpted from an article by Adam Hamilton, senior minister of Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. (They have a pretty nice website, too.) Read the full story on christianitytoday.com.

Posted by Jana on 10/02 at 05:27 PM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages