Category Archives: Christian Living

Sacred Spaces

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One of Elizabeth Laryn’s posts at From Mountain Tops describes a spirit-renewing walk on the beach. It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the entire post and vicariously renew our own spirits.

She closes by asking, “Where will you find a sacred space today? Where do you gaze upon God’s beauty and know that He is God?”

Some days we can make a pilgrimage to spots that have a personal, spiritual meaning for us. Other days a special prayer corner may be our space.

Let’s keep our eyes open, because God can make a sacred space anywhere: the goldfinch that flits past your window, a drop of rain that glistens on a flower petal, a hug from a friend… the possibilities are endless.

Five for 5

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Are you familiar with Five for 5? It’s part of World Vision’s Global Child Health Now campaign.

The premise is “Five years is not a child’s lifetime,” and the goal is to influence world leaders attending the G8 summit this June in Canada.

The site offers some disturbing global statistics:

8.8 million children younger than 5 died in 2008 from mostly preventable health issues such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, malnutrition and complications at birth.

Another 500,000 moms died in pregnancy, and during or after childbirth.

And in North America, we complain about our health care. I can’t get my head around this, and I can’t imagine what we’ll offer in explanation when we’re facing the Lord.

Click either of the two links above to visit the site and learn how you can help.

How do we deal with suffering?

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The other week on the Canadian Authors Who are Christian blog, Canadian singer/songwriter and writer Carolyn Arends wrote:

I recently asked friends online what words and actions had been the least helpful in trying times, and I got a passionate and prolific response. I recognized many of the platitudes listed as things that had come out of my mouth.

If you read her full post, “Allow for Space in the Music: Acknowledging the mystery of pain,” I think you’ll be encouraged and better equipped to offer comfort. If nobody around you is hurting today, someone may be tomorrow. And if you’re hurting today, this may be something you can share with your friends to help them know how to not make it worse.

Introverts and Extroverts

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If introverts recharge their strength by being alone, and extroverts draw their energy from being around others, aren’t Christians designed to be ‘God-verts’? Theo-verts, if we want to keep with the Latin theme?

Drawing our strength from God, whether alone or in a group…. He’s an unending power supply.

Isaiah says “…those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:31a, NIV)

Gladwell Musau of Rainbow Gulf of Love shared some key insights this week in her post, “Encourage Yourself in the Lord“. Check it out–you’ll be blessed.

What If, and Stepping Stones

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Last Friday I said there were only a few blogs I get as daily emails. The rest I catch up on as I can through Bloglines.

It’s been a very full week (including a weekend at the Sunrise Division Barbershop competition where my husband’s and father-in-law’s chorus and quartet did very well!) Suffice to say, I got behind in those daily readings. I wanted to actually read them, not skim-and-delete.

Yesterday I caught up on posts at Whatever He Says. As always, Belinda and Susan gave me plenty to think about. It started with Belinda’s post, “What If…”–not “what if a certain thing happened” but “what if I made certain choices?”–and actually thinking through how to make and implement those choices.

Susan followed that post with one called “More on ‘What If'” and also talked about stepping stones–crossing a river on the stones Jesus pointed out, ignoring others that looked solid too.

Why not set aside some time, pour a cup of tea or other nice treat, and check these out? Then follow through the rest of them to get up to date and you’ll see some encouraging examples of what this what if/stepping stones can look like in action. I particularly recommend Susan’s “Friday Report” posted today. It’s a bit long, but it’s worth taking the time. She takes it beyond the ordering of daily activities to the working out of new behaviours and attitudes. I’ll need to read it again a few times over the days ahead. Some of us are slow processors!

Bible Studies

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In the Experiencing God Workbook, by Henry Blackaby and Claude V. King, Unit 9 gives a short checklist. It’s specifically designed for those times when God seems to be moving very slowly in one’s life, but I think the questions are good for any of us to ponder from time to time:

  • Am I responding to all God already is leading me to do?
  • Have I obeyed all I already know to be His will?
  • Do I really believe that He loves me and will always do what is best and right?
  • Am I willing to patiently wait on His timing, and obey everything I know to do in the meantime?

(Experiencing God Workbook, Henry Blackaby and Claude V. King, Lifeway Press, 2001, p.157)

This is my second time through this study and one of the ladies in our group is working through it for the third time. We’re all gaining a lot, and I wish I’d bought one of the new workbooks instead of reusing my old one. They’re easier to read and Unit 12 has been completely redone.

If you’re a person who uses published Bible studies, in a group or alone with God, has there been one that you’ve gone back to? Was it as valuable the second time?

The Experiencing God Workbook is definitely one for me, and my other is Cynthia Heald’s Becoming a Woman of Excellence. (Not in a performance-driven sense, in a godly sense. Wonderful book, great quotes and great application of Scripture. I wonder what I’d learn a third time through….)

Oh Deer!

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Wise Guy Son and I were driving a remote highway in rural New Brunswick (Canada) last month, and we kept seeing “deer crossing” signs – and “moose crossing”.

Deer grazing on the green slopes near the road are cute. Bounding across the road a safe distance in front of you, they’re still cute.

Deer crossing the asphalt right in front of your vehicle are not.

Apparently wise New Brunswick drivers avoid country driving after dark, at least certain times of year. We saw chain-link fences paralleling sections of the highway where the moose and deer were most active.

As it got closer to dusk (prime feeding time for deer) and I kept seeing the signs, I watched even closer for any sign of off-road movement. Sometimes the highway was elevated enough that a grazing deer would be out of sight until it decided to climb up and cross the road.

Vigilance is important, but I found myself getting tense. Each yellow warning sign felt more menacing than the last.

A person could really start to fear these creatures! Instead of gentle, liquid-gazed deer faces, my imagination caricaturized them as grim-faced, wild-eyed creatures surging up the slopes in a suicidal guerrilla raid to stop the traffic.

A good laugh restored my perspective and got me thinking about danger and about sin, how as important as it is to be vigilant, we need to be careful not to blow what we’re watching for out of proportion. That’s where unhealthy fear comes from.

Deer on the highway: something to see and avoid. Menacing, mutant killer-deer that stalk our nightmares: something fear can use to paralyse us if we let it.

To paraphrase the words of Jr. Asparagus from VeggieTales: We don’t need to fear what’s out there, because God is the biggest.

I’m learning that if I can turn something potentially fearful into something absurdly funny, I won’t freeze up. And there have been times lately that I’ve reminded myself “God is the biggest!”

Prayer and humour are good tools. What works for you?

[I first posted this at InScribe Writers Online, earlier this month. Sorry if it’s a repeat for you!]

Good Friday

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I’m in Canada, and blessed to have today as a statutory holiday. I’ll be enjoying a community worship service this morning, complete with lots of music, Scripture, some teaching and a celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

Today’s a hard day: good because of God’s goodness to rescue us even when the price was so high, but sad because of that price.

What else can we say but “Thank You, Lord”?

I can think of a few songs to share. Here’s one that means a lot to me: “You Are My King,” written by Billy James Foote, sung here by the newsboys.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJrcwzBlaXw]

Trusting Jesus with the Future

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Sheila Walsh’s book, Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God, has a valuable Bible study section at the end. As I worked through it, this question struck me and I thought it would generate some good conversation:

“What have you seen Jesus do that gives you assurance of His ability to intervene in your life in the future?” (p. 253)

My story:

Almost ten years ago, my car blew its transmission on a rural highway. I had three young sons with me and no cell phone. But what did I see on the other side of the road? Another vehicle with a blown transmission, complete with two friendly men and a cell phone with barely enough charge to make a call for help. They shared their phone, we shared the raw hotdogs from our cooler, and everything worked out.

It was hot and boring, but the boys didn’t even fight! We sat in the back of the car and read stories. I wasn’t surprised to look up and see an eagle soar past, and I told the boys about how God encouraged me with the reminder of Isaiah 40:31. (I saw eagles maybe three times that year, each coinciding with a majorly expensive car problem.)

My dad arrived at the same time as the tow truck, and I came home with a certainty that if God could take care of me on the side of the highway, He could take care of me anywhere.

[Edit: You’ll find the full version of this story in A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider, an anthology of Canadian Christian writing.]

Retraining our Minds

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We tend to believe our emotions or thoughts–they’re inside us, they must be true. But believing them often means not believing God.

This catches me every so often. I’ll be sure I’m right, and then I realize that this feeling or thought is directly opposed to what God says.

I may put too much stock in my own understanding (He’s working on that!) but when I bring it down to “me or God” I have to admit He’s more likely to be right!

The trick is to catch those pesky thoughts/feelings and retrain them by replacing them with God’s true Word. Different verses help different people in their circumstances, but here are a few of mine:

When I despair of ever changing: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV*

When I’m feeling down: “Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.” Isaiah 50:10b, NIV*

When I feel inadequate: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3, NIV*

What are some of the verses that help you?

*New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.