Words Aptly Spoken

I have been really bothered lately by some of the comments that are posted after news articles (Op Ed, etc) and blog entries that are primarily written for the Christian public. I am not bothered by the dissenters, especially those who phrase their words intelligently and respectfully. Is that not what the comment section is for in most cases? To write our opinion? What really bothers me are those who dissent without tact or respect or appropriateness, to the dissenters. It is not the dissenting that bothers me. Dissenting is inherent for the function of our nation. Without dissension their is no democracy. However, it is the manner in which it is done that irks me.

For example, here are two comments posted after an article on words banned from public schools that elides into a discussion of the elimination of the word "sin" from public discourse and even by some pastors. It was not a news article per say, but simply a commentary on the writer's observations as well as a fairly forthright discussion of salvation by grace.

First commenter: This post is an excellent argument for ensuring the word “sin” is purged from our public school curriculum. Sin, salvation, grace and hellfire have absolutely no place in our public schools."

The response: [The person above] is a sinner who is going to hell to suffer eternal seperation from God if he does not accept the salvation that God graciously offers to us all. No amount of denying or changing the words used will change the truths they describe.

I am not saying that what commenter #2 said is not true. Perhaps it is. We cannot know the condition of someone's heart by one comment we disagree with. However, even if we know for certain it is true, is it appropriate at that time to write that comment in that way? Are those words written in that way going to convince the first commenter of his need for a Savior? And to the topic at hand, is it going to convince him to rethink his views about the words used in public schools? If I were the first commenter, that comment would convince me even more about what I had written. That is just me though. Perhaps it might just be what he needs.

I see comments and even whole blogs like this all the time and it drives me nuts! About half of these are written with more harshness, disrespect or even anger and are often written grammatically incorrect and irrationally or unfounded. This drives me crazy! How is this going to draw someone to Christ whose ire is already raised by what was written in the original article or post?

Dont' get me wrong. I do not believe in watering things down to make them sound more tolerable and less offensive with regard to the gospel. However, I believe that there is a time and a place and a way to talk about it that is more likely to draw someone to Christ rather than push them away and make them more convinced of what they already believe.

I've experienced first hand how our response can make a difference to someone hostile to the gospel. One of the professors that I worked under as a GRA while I was in grad school was an atheist and seemed to find pleasure in trying to disprove and bring down all manner of religion, especially Christianity. This was much of the focus of his intro level World History class. I was appalled at how some of the students who professed to be Christians responded! I cringed! Many of them spoke in anger (the prof's words stirred anger in me as well), often shouting completely from emotion, showed they had a weak foundation of understanding and were unable to articulate themselves and their beliefs intelligently (this professor was brilliant). Oftentimes I left the class more frustrated at what the Christians had said than at the professor. I could see him mentally and visibly blowing these students off.

However, he would listen to me. He said he respected me on an intellectual level because I was a grad student (though I felt completely inferior to him intellectually) and I had his ear. But I think also it was because, after seeing his response to the other students, I tried to respond to him respectfully, calmly (though his intelligence greatly intimidated me, and I was boiling inside at times by some of his comments to the class) and rationally instead of with my emotions. (Also extremely difficult. I cried later!) After class I would share my thoughts with him and some crazed student would butt in and shout scripture with a hateful tone and go off on some irrational tangent. Instead, I tried to really think about what the prof had been saying and what I wanted to say in response and have something to back me up whether from the Bible or history or both. He had little respect for the Bible but still appreciated that I at least knew where things were in the Bible that answered what he had been discussing. He would listen to me. Not only that, he shared more deeply with me what he really believed from which I found his atheistic tendencies were more fragile than he portrayed to class. He was sincerely curious about my faith and the mission work I had done. He invited me to have more discussions with him after class about these things. Often times he baffled me to the point that I could not give an answer but he was okay with that as opposed to me trying to save face somehow. Even though sometimes he made me so upset by his comments in class, I grew to appreciate his personality and to respect his intellect. I think this made a difference as well. As I prayed for him and his family, my compassion for him also grew.

I write all this to say that we as followers of Christ need to be bold and courageous and forthright but we need to be wise and speak or write our words in a timely manner, prayerfully, calmly, respectfully, without sarcasm or exaggeration, intelligently, with foundation (if the need for news or historical facts are involved) and with love and grace (even if we are angry). This, I think, will do far more to gain the ear of someone and draw them to Christ. If you are a follower of Christ, let it be known not just by the words you speak or write but also by the way in which you do so. I myself am highly opinionated (in case you didn't know!) and quick-tempered so this is often a challenge for me and requires much prayer! God has been challenging me lately to be more quick to listen and to be much more careful with my words.

"Let you speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to respond to each person." Col 4:6 (Think of the role of salt in food - it makes it more flavorful, enjoyable and palatable.)

" If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." I Cor. 13:1-2

Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer

I've been thinking of putting this on my blog for a long time now - at least a year and a half! My how time flies! This is a song that I listened to in Lebanon over and over and over again because of what was going on in my own heart regarding starting a family as well as because of some of the stress of living in Lebanon and the difficult transition over the last year (though I wouldn't change a bit of any of it). For some reason, perhaps because there is so much emotion wrapped up in it, I just haven't been able to post this song. When I hear it, it is like I feel a tenderness with Christ and share something really special with Him that no one else could know. I have listened to it and wept uncontrollably and at other times with great joy though even now I struggle to listen to it without tears welling up and memories flooding my mind. It has encouraged me so much. It gives me such great hope and I have found that the "journey" has brought so many blessings, the 3 greatest being that there is a sweetness with Christ that I've never known before (He really has drawn me nearer), I have an unexplainable peace and I feel more in love with Eric than I ever thought I could love someone. Though I'm a little worn and the journey is a little scary sometimes, where He leads, I follow, gladly, with anticipation though admittedly sometimes with a bit of hesitation. "What's around the next bend, Lord? Dare I ask? .................. Oh yes!"

Jesus, draw me ever nearer

As I labor through the storm.

You have called me to this passing

and I follow, though I'm worn.

[Chorus]

May this journey bring a blessing

May I rise on wings of faith

And at the end of my heart's testing

With your likeness, let me wake

Jesus, guide me through the tempest

Keep my spirit staid and sure

When the midnight meets the morning

Let me love you even more.

[Chorus]

Let the treasure of the trial

form within me as I go

And at the end of this long passing

Let me leave them at your throne.

May this journey bring a blessing

may I rise on wings of faith

And at the end of my heart's testing

With your likeness, let me wake.

This song is found on the Keith and Kristen Gettys cd - "In Christ Alone." Great friends gave us this cd just a couple of weeks before we left for Lebanon and it was one of the greatest blessings while we were there and since we've been back. Like I said earlier, not just that one song above, but all the songs at different times get played over and over. Try it out. I know you won't be disappointed.

Happy Late 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!! Umm, well, maybe this is a little late! I actually started writing this on the 4th. Does that count? :)

Over this past year or so I have been reading about the Founding Fathers and the American Revolution. I have been enamored with it for some reason. As I watched the fireworks this year, I almost teared up as I recalled the sacrifices these men made to bring about the birth of a new nation. Did you remember that by writing and signing the Declaration of Independence they were making themselves known as traitors? They were committing an open act of treason against one of the longest running and most powerful empires in existence at that time. If any of them were caught they would have been hanged. Many of them lost their fortunes and their health as a result of their revolutionary endeavors to break away and form a government with roots in philosophical, "enlightenment" ideas many of them had been raised on and dreamed about. Sometimes I think we don't ponder these things enough.

Something to ponder. We may not like the "other party", whichever side that may be, but we should be thankful that we can have safe political dialogue. And elections, though sometimes the outcomes are highly contested or very disappointing, do not erupt in violence in the streets or even the threat of it. And not only should we be thankful, we should pray for those nations that do not enjoy the political freedoms that we do, that they will be ruled in peace and justice.

As a tribute to this holiday is an excerpt from the introduction of a book I am currently reading, Founding Brothers, by Joseph Ellis. It is very fitting for the recent celebration.

What distinguishes the American Revolutions from most, if not all, subsequent revolutions worthy of the name is that in the battle for supremacy, for the "true meaning" of the revolution, neither side completely triumphed. Here I do not just mean that the American Revoltuion did not "devour its own children" and lead to blood-soaked scenes at the guillotine or the firing-squad wall, though that is true enough. Instead, I mean that the revolutionary generation found a way to contain the explosive energies of the debate in the form of an ongoing argument or dialogue that was eventually institutionalized and rendered safe by the creation of political parties. The source of the disagreement... involv[es] conflicting attitudes toward government itself, competing versions of citizenship, differing postures toward the twin goals of freedom and equality.

But the key point is that the debate was not resolved so much as built into the fabric of the national identity... Why is it that there is a core of truth to the distinctive iconography of the American Revolution, which does not depict dramatic scenes of mass slaughter, but, instead, a gallery of well-dressed personalities in classical poses?

First, the achievement of the revolutionary generation was a collective enterprise that succeeded because of the diversity of personalities and ideologies present in the mix. [It is] not because any of them was perfect or infallible, but because their mutual imperfections and fallibilities, as well as their eccentricities and excesses, checked each other...

Second, they all knew one another personally, meaning they broke bread together, sat together at countless meetings, corresponded with one another about private as well as public matters. Politics...remained a face-to-face affair.

Third, they managed to take the most threatening and divisive issue off the political agenda. That issue, of course, was slavery, which was clearly incompatible with the principles of the American Revolution, no matter what version once championed. (Could they have tried to abolish slavery and manage to keep the nation? ) ... The revolutionary generation decided that the risks outweighed the prospects for succes; they quite self-consciously chose to defer the slavery question by placing any discussion of it out-of-bounds at both the national and federal level.

Fourth, they developed a keen sense of their historical significance even while they were making the history on which their reputations would rest...If they sometimes behaved like actors in a historical drama, that is often how they regarded themselves. ..We are the audience for which they were performing; knowing we would be watching helped to keep them on their best behavior.

The Horse and His Boy

I just finished listening to The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis on CD while painting one of our guest bedrooms. What a great book! I have read it before a couple of times and again I was moved to tears by Aslan's protection, providence and will, a picture of Christ over our individual lives and His creation as a whole. I read that this book is about finding one's home. The two talking horses from Naria who were stolen and sold to the people of Calormen. They were free creatures in Narnia so life in Calormen was like slavery. They sought the opportunity to escape and find their way back home to Narnia. The two children who are with them and are a means for them to escape, have never been to Narnia but have their own cruel, slave-like situations they are trying to escape.

As the book is indeed about the journey to reach Narnia, the original home of the horses and the intended new home for the girl, Avaris, and the boy, Shasta, I think it is much more about the invisible hand that guides our lives and world events. One of the allies of Narnia is under siege by the Calormen, but Aslan has complete control. He had planned for many years how the kingdom would be saved, even by the most unlikely person who in the end turns out to be someone quite different than even this person thought he was. (You'll have to read it for yourself - I am not giving it all away!!!) His life was rough in the beginning but it was all for a purpose far greater than even himself.

We know God works all things out for good to those who love Him but I think often we may make that "good" too small. Surely God will bring good in our lives through whatever we go through in life but what if God has had it planned since creation to have a far greater purpose like the salvation of another person, or a whole family or even a whole people group? When we think of God's providence we must think much bigger than ourselves. I was listening to a sermon by John Piper (also while painting) the other day about Jesus building His church and it made me think about the Horse and His Boy. Jesus said, "Upon this rock I WILL build my church." It is not of matter of maybe it will be done. He WILL do it and oftentimes it might be through ways we could never have imagined, when it seems absolutely impossible. Though the Horse and His Boy is not about building the church it is about a kingdom that Aslan sought to protect and did it in a way that would seem unlikely and unimaginable. "His ways are not our ways."

Here is my favorite part of the book. Shasta had been separated from the group of warriors on the way to fight against the Calormen who were attacking the allies of Narnia. Shasta was lamenting over his bad luck throughout his whole life and feeling left out, left behind and lost.

"And being so very tired and having nothing inside him, he felt so sorry for himself that the tears rolled down his cheeks.

"What put a stop to all this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that someone or somebody was walking beside him. It was pitch dark and he could see nothing. And the Thing (or Person) was going so quietly that he could hardly hear any footfalls. What he could hear was his breathing. His invisible companion seemed to breath on a very large scale... and he had come to notice the breathing so gradually that he really had no idea how long it had been there...

"The Thing (or Person) went on beside him so very quietly that Shasta began to hope he had only imagined it. But just as he was becoming quite sure of it, there suddenly came a deep, rich sigh out of the darkness beside him. That couldn't be imagination! Anyway, he had felt the hot breath of that sigh on his chilly left hand...

His horse was unreliable to make a run for it "so he went on at a steady walking pace and the unseen companion walked and breathed beside him. At last he could bear it no longer."

"Who are you?" he said, scarcely above a whisper... "You're not -- not something dead, are you? Oh, I am the unluckiest person in the whole world!" Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. "There," it said, "that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows." He told him of his hard childhood and the rough journey thus far.

"I do not call you unfortunate," said the Large Voice. "Don't you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?" said Shasta. "There was only one lion," said the voice. "What on earth do you mean? I've just told you there were at least two the first night and --" ...

"I was the lion." I was the lion who forced you to join with Avaris. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you could reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, as child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight to receive you."

"Who are you?" asked Shasta. "Myself," said the voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook... Shasta no longer felt afraid that the Thing would harm him but "a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too."

A light came on them and revealed the Thing. "He turned and saw, pacing beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion...after one glance at the Lion's face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at its feet. He couldn't say anything but then he didn't want to say anything and he knew he needn't say anything. "

"The High King above all kings stooped toward him. Its mane, and some strange and solemn perfume that hung about the man, was all round him. ..." After a bit the Lion was gone and Shasta wondered if it was just a dream. "But it couldn't have been a dream for there in the grass before him he saw the deep, large print of the Lion's front right paw."

The Lion is padding by our side and He leaves his heavy footprints and His breath everywhere. Do we see the evidence? Do we look for it? He WILL do what He says He will do and it WILL be for His glory and our good.

The Nature of God

Here is something rather long and rambling but extremely encouraging. I thought I would share it with you. I left some parts out and paraphrased some for clarity. May the nature of God be your comfort and courage and hope today.

How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. When you know the sovereignty of God and His Lordship over all things, seen and unseen, when you are able to confess Him as the supreme ruler over all things and to confess Him that He is supreme Lord and you are His possession, then at that point you are the happiest of people. You could not get any happier. Nothing could happen that could be so wonderful that it could possibly be better than the happiness you have in the Lordship and supremacy of Christ.

When you know that you are situated in the heart of the most powerful person ever to live, then you can't be more happier than at that point. When you are able to step back into His rest and live in the high tower of His name so that when the enemy comes raging against you, He cannot fine you, that is joy, that is happiness.

How blessed is He whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord. The one who made heaven and earth, who made the sea and all that is in it. The one who keeps faith forever. When all your confidence is in the one who made heaven and earth , when everything you need in life is utterly dependent on the goodness, the mercy, the kindness, the love, the grace, the power of the one person who is supreme God above all gods, when your present and your future and your health and your destiny and your life depends totally on the God who works for weak, twisted and deceitful people then you simply have to be the happiest people on the face of the earth because your happiness is built totally on the knowledge that the God who gives favor to weak selfish people, He has given you a unshakeable conviction and confidence in His ability to bring change and power to bear on your life. Therefore, the most wonderful thing that you will ever do with your life is to trust it to the nature of God, to put it in the hands of a God who totally loves you and is deeply committed to you and and delights in helping you. It is the most happy feeling to totally trust the best, the most honorable, the most powerful, the most integrous, committed and faithful covenant maker who is also the most decent person who ever lived, Jesus. Being completely reliant on His character and integrity is the source of your great happiness.

We rest in Your nature. You never change. Everything comes down to us from the Father of lights in whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. You say with absolute confidence "I am the Lord. I change not. I am the same yesterday, today and forever."

Beloved we are learning to live in the paradox of God that He is consistent but He's also unpredictable. He's consistent in His nature. You seldom know what He is going to do next. But you always know where you are with God because He never changes. When Moses said, "God please show me your glory," maybe he was expecting some great light and display of power. And God said, "okay then... I will make my goodness to pass before you." Because the glory of God is the nature of God, that God is good. He's good, He's unfailingly good. God is Good! He is good. He never changes. He will always be good. Yesterday He's good, today He's good and tomorrow He will always be good. He will never change His heart toward you, no matter what you do. He cannot be anything other that what He is. He is a covenant-maker and a covenant-Keeper and He is good.

He is also unpredictable. You never know what He is going to do next. And God has called you to see the invisible and do the impossible. God has not called you to do the things you can do. He's called you to do the things you would never be able to do in a million years.... Only He can do it. But He has called you to live in His faithfulness and His consistency and He will come and do all the things that need to be done. So beloved you cannot find security in what God is doing because God commits you to the outrageous. There is not security in that place. There is only security in who God is. This great God that we serve will throw us into situations beyond us with no other thought than that His great heart will sustain us. and the answer of God to everything, every excuse you make why you cannot do something, the answer is always be the same. When you look into His face and you see the twinkle in His eyes and the grin on His face and He says, "Nevertheless. I will be with you. I will be there." He the great God who sends us out as lambs amongst wolves. Why? Because the Lion is padding by our sides.

The only way we will do what He has called us to is that we are secure in the nature of God... the only way we will seize the moment, to advance the kingdom, to swim against the odds, is if you and I are resting in the consistent nature of God, that you and I have a testimony of what God is really like living in our hearts in such a powerful way that it drives everything. "I am the Lord. I never, ever change."

Beloved, do not be distracted into your journey of the nature of God because it is the source, the wellspring of all your joy, peace, revelation, anointing, your power. And when you learn how to rest in the nature of God and He comes walking with the impossible You will be the one who gets out of the boat to join Him. You won't be one of those wondering or thinking about joining Him. There will be this instinctive, intuitive need to put you leg over the side of the boat and start walking on a substance you have not business being on except that He is drawing you there. It is your destiny beloved. To walk in the nature of God.

He is going to make you perfect in His nature, stamping the image of Jesus on you. That is what the desert is about. Hosea 2:14-15 says, "I will captivate her heart and draw her in the wilderness to speak kindly to her." Out of that place of the desert God will give you the vineyard of fruitfulness. He knows the plans He has for you, the things He wants you to accomplish. He will not rest Himself until you have a revelation of what He is really, really like. Then He will back it up with experience. He is faithful.

From this day on for you there is not such thing as a good day or a bad day. Only days of grace. And some days the grace of God allows you to enjoy what is happening and some days the grace of God allows you to endure what is happening. But don't think about good and bad anymore. Just enjoy the grace that is present. And out of that grace there will be an expectancy. "I know you are going to do something today. I just want to be alive to You so I can see it wait for it, speak it out, live in it, experience it, worship you in it, glorify Your name in it. There are no good days anymore. There are no bad days. Just days of grace, ah? Days of Grace. That you might know Him and rest in Him and live in Him move in Him, worship Him, represent Him

About Me

This is a picture of my husband and I in front of our old house before we sold it in September of 2007. Since then we have been overseas for 8 months in the Middle East and then traveling to and fro throughout the southern Midwest and Southeast, living out of suitcases and staying with gracious and wonderful friends and family, and finally we have settled down in Overland Park, Kansas, a pretty suburb of Kansas City.

I am originally from Georgia. My wonderful husband, Eric, is from New York and Iowa but lived in Oklahoma for 15 years. We have been very happily married since January 2005. You might ask how in the world we met. Quite simple! We met in the Middle East! Isn’t that the most sensible answer? Our first unofficial date was at a Starbucks on the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. We were married 7 months later! Here are a few interesting tidbits about me.

We now have a son named Wesley Joseph born February 16, 2010. He is the cutest thing ever! He is such an amazing gift. We waited 4 and 1/2 years for this precious treasure. He is a happy little guy that gives us such delight.

I love to read and write, two things I used to not be very good at and didn't do very much. I like to create things and I am a teacher at heart. I absolutely love history, so much so that I got a Masters Degree in it a couple of years ago. Traveling adventures and learning new languages bring me much delight! I adore my hubby! He is my perfect mate, so steady and calm, quite the opposite of me. And most of all, I love Jesus. It is my desire to know Him more and more and to bring others along with me, to not settle for ho-hum Christianity that has nothing real behind it except the right things to say and do. I want to live my life as did Jim Elliot (slain missionary to the Aucas in Ecuador), to not be satisfied with the "usual."

I dreamed as a young girl of traveling all over the world. God has been so gracious to lead me on some awesome adventures overseas to places like Belarus and Lebanon - even to live there for a while. I've also been to Mexico, St. Lucia, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Austria, Germany, London and Paris at least for a few hours up to a week or two and to at least half the states in the US. This is truly something the Lord has put in my heart given that no one on either side of my immediate or extended family has ever left the country except for maybe to Mexico.

Favorite Quotes

• You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy for you to believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose that you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it? … Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. –C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

• He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim Elliot

Favorite Books (Ones I read over and over)

• The Letter to the Philippians by The Apostle Paul
  
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot
• The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis
• A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers
• God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew
• John Adams by David McCullough
• Little House on the Prairie Series Laura Ingalls Wilder
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Favorite Movies (Ones I watch over and over!)

• Pride & Prejudice
• Amazing Grace
• Chariots of Fire
• The Lord of the Rings
• Narnia
• Sense & Sensibility
• Singing in the Rain
• The Parent Trap
• Anne of Green Gables

Favorite Things to Do

• Read History, Classical Education, Theology, the Bible, Biographies, children’s books
• Play with Wesley - I love his giggles!
• Write blogs, emails & children’s stories
• Play outside with plants
• Go on hikes or walks in the woods, in the mountains
• Sew, Crochet, Cross Stitch, make cards, paint,
• Peruse Book stores & libraries
• Chat with friends
• Talk about Jesus, discuss theology, missions and history!
• Find and cook new nourishing and frugal recipes.

Things I've Always Wanted to Do

• Have a large family
• Tap Dance
• Be a chef
• Go to Africa
• Run a children’s bookstore
• Start a classical school for underprivileged children
• Write children’s books
• Go on an archaeological dig
• Travel back to Jane Austen’s time give or take 100 years.

Blog Highlight: Personal Responsibility

Hi All,

Here is a blog written by our pastor in Norman, OK on the personal responsibility required for a government of democracy vs the entitlement that is now often demanded. I thought this would be a good follow up to the John Adams entry. Mr. Adams would whole-heartedly agree!

Once Blessed, Now Entitled