Category: faith

Ineffective Light

We are in the middle of an arctic deep freeze. We’ve run out of words to describe the cold.

Last night during the weather forecast, the woman was trying to be positive about the fact that the sun was going to shine. But she was quick to add that the sunshine would be ineffective because it was going to be so cold.

Ineffective light. How can that be?

As you can imagine, I was quick to begin thinking in spiritual implications.

I was immediately reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount:
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it
be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and
trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither
do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and
it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before
others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)

I have often considered what “un-salty” might be, or how it would taste, but I had never considered light that wasn’t light.

That would be darkness…wouldn’t it?

Maybe not.

Have you ever reached for a flashlight (after hunting all over for it) only to find the batteries or light bulb were too weak to light what you needed to see?

Ineffective light.

The flashlight holds all the potential to dispel the darkness, but because it has not been maintained or cared for, when it is finally located it fails to live up to that potential.

So how is your light? What does it take to not be ineffective?

That reminds me what of Peter said:
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to
goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control,
perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection;
and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing
measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2Peter 1:5-8, NIV)

That’s quite a list. Maintenance of our light takes a bit of effort. We can’t hope to dispel sin’s darkness if sit on a shelf during the week and just show up occasionally at church on Sunday. Making every effort means making the most of every opportunity, and maybe even creating a few opportunities along the way.

I don’t want to have it pronounced over me that I was “ineffective and unproductive.”

I want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

How about you? What effort are you making? Do you struggle to add what Peter recommends? What works best for you?

Prayer: God, help us, teach us, lead us to know how to make our light shine more brightly for you. Amen

Book Review: 365 Moments of Peace for a Woman’s Heart

365 Moments of Peace for a Woman’s Heart
Reflections On God’s Gifts of Love, Hope, and Comfort

Readings extracted from previously published volumes Moments of Peace for the Morning, Moments of Peace for the Evening, Quiet Moments Alone With God, Moments of Peace from the Psalms, Moments of Peace for a Woman’s Heart, Psalms to Soothe a Woman’s Heart, Moments of Peace in the Presence of God for Couples, Moments of Peace in the Wisdom of God.

From the moment I opened the package I knew I was holding something very special. This book begs to be held. That may sound odd to some, but for me, there is a definite feeling I get touching a book. This book has a quality and texture that exudes quality.

When I consider purchasing a devotional, I read certain days. I always go to my birthday and read the devotion God placed there for me. Then I let it open randomly and read what I find. The words on those days in this devotional were as rich as the physical qualities of the book itself.

I guess when publishers can draw the best from the best of their devotionals it would be safe to expect depth and wealth. I was not disappointed. The texts were not always familiar and the insights not predictable. The writing mined deeper truths, not seeming to be concerned for making the reader feel good, but more peace-filled and connected.

I am very happy to own this devotional and would not hesitate to give it as a gift to friend or family.

I was given a copy of this devotional by the publisher in return for an honest review.

Finding Christ

 

My mom lives in Arizona. Think Southwest architecture and décor.

The wall that separates her from her neighbor has three niches in it. Each one had a statue: Jesus, Mary, and St. Francis. It’s sort of on the order of the picture, but much less ornate. Think stucco wall with turquois painted statues.

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One day a strong storm came in and knocked Jesus from the wall and he shattered on the stones below. Mom had been looking for a replacement for some time without much luck. My husband and I went out for a visit and joined her in the search.

We took a day trip to one of our favorite spots, Tubac, Arizona.

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Now without intending any offense to Tubac, we really wondered if we would find Jesus in Tubac.

It sounded a little funny to us and I’ll admit we laughed a few times. So it was quite the joke when we actually did find a statue of Jesus. Too bad it was twice the height we needed. Too much Jesus?

Several months later my husband and I were shopping in an Amish community not too far from home. And guess what? We found Jesus there, too. But alas, Jesus was too heavy to carry around all day and we were without cell coverage. Before we bought we wanted to be sure it was what Mom wanted. We figured we could come back and get it after we called Mom.

But when we got back, Jesus was gone. And though they thought he might be back in a few months, they weren’t sure and couldn’t reach the distributer to confirm that.

I’m so glad it’s not usually that difficult to find Jesus.

His final promise was that he would always be with his followers: Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

Paul was clear that finding Jesus would be too hard either: 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ (Acts 17:26-27)

I looked through lots of images for an ending picture. I considered using a picture of embracing Jesus, or finding Jesus. I chuckled when several images associated with finding Jesus were his image on a piece of toast.

I couldn’t decide what to use. Then it occurred to me that the main way people will see Jesus in me and you.
Will they see a broken Jesus?
Will he big too big, overpowering, too heavy?
Will he be there one minute and then not the next?
Will anyone be sure when he’ll back?

Tough to Swallow

In John 6 we find the story of Jesus feeding the multitudes. When lunch is over he identifies himself as the Bread of Life. Then in a way that shocked the crowd, he goes on to tell them they must eat his flesh and drink his blood.

Their response: Many among his disciples heard this and said, “This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.” (John 6:60, The Message)

Too tough to swallow.

What do you find tough to swallow?

Has life handed you some bitter pills?

I always had a terrible time swallowing pills when I was a kid. All the way up through college, I would ask for a shot rather than have to swallow pills.

Penicillin was the worst. I couldn’t make those pills slide down no matter how much I drank. Nothing tasted worse. I would cry, beg, to not have to take the pills. My mom wasn’t very sympathetic. I know now she was “hard-nosed” about the whole thing because her ultimate concern wasn’t my immediate comfort but my eventual health.

Have you begged and cried out for God to remove some difficulty, an illness, financial challenges, physical limitations, or loss? But he lets it remain.

And that’s just pretty tough to swallow.

Doesn’t God care that you are suffering? Doesn’t he want you to be happy? Doesn’t he hear your pleas for relief?

Yes. But just like my mom, he loves you too much to leave you in your sin-sick condition.

There are so many stories in the Bible that are just heart-breaking. Widows who lose their only children. Poor Naomi and Ruth. And who can forget Job? But let’s consider Paul for just a moment.

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church (See 2 Corinthians 12) he writes about his “thorn in the flesh.” Whatever it was, the apostle prayed on three occasions for God to remove it. And God said no.

He also said: “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).”

As a result Paul declared: “I am glad to boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weakness, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong (1 Corinthians 12:10).”

Talk about a bitter pill. Paul endured much that we would find tough to swallow. But he also knew a strength and grace that enabled him to come through all the difficulty and in a way that brought honor and glory to the One who provided the strength and grace in the first place.

On the day when some of Jesus’ disciples found his message to be a bitter pill many left. Jesus turned to those who remained and asked if they were thinking of bailing, too. Peter spoke up for the remaining twelve: Where else can we go? You alone have the words of life.

Peter didn’t try to sugar coat it. Sometimes bitter pills lead to life.

Job, that persecuted and often misunderstood man from the Old Testament, grasped this one thing like nothing else in his ordeal. He summed up his ability to hang onto God in the midst of all his suffering this way: shall we take the good and not the bad? (See Job 2:10)

Paul went a step further and told the Roman believers that no matter how bitter the pill God was able to cause all the bad, the negative, the difficult to work for good. He never says that the bad is good, just that God can take all the negative and difficult and make them work for our good and his glory (See Romans 8:28).

Tough to swallow…perhaps. But remember, God knows what is absolutely best for you. You can trust him. It may be tough, but don’t walk away now. In him there is fullness of life, your life and mine, now and forever.

Compassion for Mary and Martha

Who are you more like Martha or Mary?

I’ve asked that question more times than I can remember. Today we were discussing it at the Widow’s Support group and a brand new thought occurred to me.

We typically associate Mary and Martha’s behaviors with their personalities and their spirituality. Whole books have been written about this: Having a Mary spirit in a Martha World.

Nice. But in this case, what if we consider their behavior in context.

These two women just lost their brother. There is no mention of any husbands, so they are either widowed or old maids by cultural standards. That means their source of support and sustenance was gone.

These women were facing a dire situation. Their brother died and the one guy they knew who could have possibly done something about it drug his feet getting there. Jesus waited three days after he received the news that Lazarus was dying…and then he showed up when Lazarus was four days in the tomb.

Now let’s consider their personalities.

Martha handled her stress by getting busy in the kitchen. Slamming some cupboards and banging some pans can be very therapeutic. At least for me…and Martha.

Martha didn’t stuff her feelings. She was not going to get an ulcer from swallowing her anger…or her grief. She walked right up to Jesus and let him know she was miffed…hurt…disappointed…confused. She poured out her heart. No, it wasn’t pretty. How could it be?

Why does her response to Jesus’ appearing at the house surprise us? Why does she earn bad girl points for expressing herself? She just lost her brother and the future was looking pretty terrifying.

And while she was at it she took a couple shots at Mary. Siblings do that sort of thing, too.

Mary. A very different kind of personality. Mary shuts down. Mary pulls inward. Mary may be angry, hurt, and confused…her expression is tears. Banging pots does nothing for her.

How do you handle your grief?

I remember when my dad died. He had cancer. He was at home and we had hospice services. He took his last breath around 6:00am. The funeral home came for his body around 7:00am. By 8:00am my mother had turned the once dining room turned hospice equipped dying room back into a dining room–you would never have known the room was used for anything else. She got busy, that’s how she handled her grief.

If you only had that snapshot of my mother she might have appeared cold and detached…but she wasn’t. She was just functioning the only way she knew how. And the hospice worker noted that she was responding according to her personality.

What if all the world had of you was a snapshot of your most difficult day? What would it say about you? Are you a banger or a weeper?

Actually, I’m not sure that’s the most important thing. Jesus doesn’t value Mary’s weepiness more than Martha’s banging. What he valued was that she brought it to him. So go ahead, bang the pans if that makes you feel better, but don’t forget to come to Jesus.

Book Review: Undetected

Book Review Undetected
Dee Henderson
May 22, 2014

I hadn’t read a Dee Henderson book for several years. I eagerly anticipated this one and was not disappointed.

This author does an amazing job at developing her characters for her readers. They are relatable and likeable. They grow as the pages turn. This is particularly true of this book.

I lead a Bible study for the Widows Support Group at our church and I could definitely see reading this book together and discussing the process of dating and remarriage that Commander Mark Bishop goes through. But the struggle that Gina faces as she deals with her broken heart and then having to choose between two suitors would be healing and encouraging for anyone in the dating journey. This is a novel filled with valuable and usable lessons.

It is also a novel with some interesting science. I found myself wanting to learn more about the genius ideas that Gina was discovering. The way Mark encourages Gina to live into her gift is a message that could inspire many. I found it very encouraging that the “genius” was a woman, and that her area of expertise was science. I wish I could have found something like this when my daughters were younger to encourage them as they considered life careers.

The conversation that Mark has with Gina regarding contentedness is worth the price of the book.

The ending isn’t sad, but I was sad that it was ending. I highly recommend this book and am proud to have it on my shelf.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Lost & Found–Sarah Jakes

I hadn’t even made it out of the introduction and I was already in tears and convinced I would probably need to purchase a whole case of this book. For sure, I wanted to share it with my grown daughters who had experienced many of the struggles Sarah describes…and grown up under the microscope of being a pastor’s daughter.

This story is so much more than just the recounting of a “PK” gone wild…it is the truth of the gospel: there is grace. A contemporary Christian artist puts it this way:
You can never fall too hard, so fast, so far
That you can’t get back when you’re lost,
Where you are is never too late, so bad, so much
That you can’t change who you are,
You can change who you are (Who You Are by Unspoken)

The level of courage that Sarah Jakes demonstrates as she shares the gritty details of her choices and how far she feels she moved away from what she knew and the grace that could save and sustain her seems to come from someone much older than just twenty-five.

This book is gift of hope. Hope for the one whose made devastating life choices, and hope for those who love them.

When I started reading I purchased a little pad of sticky notes and started writing down the points that stuck out to me. I gave up somewhere in the second chapter–there were just so many. This would make an excellent women’s study, broaching topics and examining feelings that often stay hidden and do so much damage.

Sarah makes this statement in her conclusion: The chapters of my life I’ve shared with you within these pages reveal some of my darkest hours and most painful disappointments. But as a broken window acts as a prism, filtering sunlight through its cracks I hope that you can see the many beautiful moments of color dancing within my rooms.

I recommend this book very highly and am proud to have it on my bookshelf.

I received a copy of this book to read from the publisher in return for my review.

Book Review: Radical Forgiveness

If Christianity isn’t about forgiveness, it’s about nothing at all.

Goal: to become disciples of love who master the art of forgiveness.

If we enter the Christian faith to find forgiveness, we must continue in the faith to become forgiving people, because to be an authentic follower of Christ we must embrace the centrality of forgiveness.

When Christianity speaks of forgiveness, should there be an asterisk attached to the word to indicate that forgiveness is not applicable in extreme situations like the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, the ethnic cleansing, in the former Yugoslavia, and the tribal massacres of Rwanda?

These are just a few quotes from the book.

I don’t usually read other people’s reviews before I read the book and write down my own thoughts. I’m not sure why I scanned through the reviews on Amazon, but I did. I was immediately apprehensive when one reviewer described “Radical Forgiveness” as a difficult book to read.

I’m not put off by scholarly books, but I was afraid that was what I was diving into.

I couldn’t have been more wrong!

What makes this book “difficult” is that it is very simple and direct. It is not the kind of book a person can read and remain unchallenged. I think it would make an excellent small group study for groups who are wanting to take their faith to a deeper level.

From the back of the book: Pushing you beyond intellectual exercises, “Radical Forgiveness” will challenge your thinking by juxtaposing absolutely bottom-line examples with the simple question: What would you do?

There are pages of endorsements in the front of this book. On the front cover you’ll find an endorsement by Eugene Peterson. This author, and particularly this work, are well-thought of in the Christian community.

Bonhoeffer challenged believers to go against “cheap grace.” Brian Zahnd has done the same for forgiveness in this book.

I would strongly recommend this book. I am pleased to have it in my library.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a review.

Book Review: Two Mothers And Their 60-Year Secret

Family secrets. What family doesn’t have them?

The secret in this family in many ways went to the graves with the women who made the promise never to tell. The story begins with an unwed pregnancy that was the answer to someone else’s prayers. Both women agreed to never speak of the arrangement they had made.

This is the story of one woman’s journey to discover her DNA, but resulted in so much greater a blessing. The journey takes many turns, and appears to often come to an end. It is not a quick journey, there are several detours and shut-downs along the way.

The book is not long and is written in a very engaging way. I can see how it would be a great encouragement to anyone on this kind of quest. All the way through, the author describes how her faith enabled her to persevere while she waited for answers and trusted when no answers were available.

I appreciated the pictures that the author included at the end of the book. It was like putting faces to friends. And it was particularly encouraging to see the smiles and obvious love experienced by all.

I would recommend this book.

You can purchase the book here
for your Kindle.

You can purchase the book here
in paperback.

I received a copy of this book to read and review.

Book Review: Raptor 6

Another “Rapid Fire Fiction” winner from author Ronie Kendig.

I have yet to pick up a book by this author and not love it! Reading a book by Ronie is like doing an Insanity workout: fast paced, intense, and completely engaging.

Have you read a novel and found yourself skipping pages to “get to the goodstuff”? You won’t do that with Raptor 6–or any book by this author because it’s ALL good stuff.

This latest story is the first installment in Ms. Kendig’s newest series, The Quiet Professionals. As with her other books and series, this author does an exemplary job of presenting a military suspense that is technically spot on and respectful. It is also enlightening as well as entertaining. In addition to her faithful handling of military stories, Ronie weaves a clear message of faith as her characters struggle with issues of trust in the ugly face of evil’s maleficence.

One of the things about this book that might not appeal to some readers would be the way it “ends.” All I’m going to say is that I’m really looking forward to the next book in the series!

This book is long on suspense and light on romance so it should find a broad audience of both men and women.