Our God is With Us

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Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the word of his servant?
Let the one who walks in the dark,
who has no light,
trust in the name of the LORD
and rely on their God.
Isaiah 50:10, NIV*

Our first desire in hard times is for escape, and if we can’t have it right away, we at least need to know there’s the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Even Jesus focused on the joy ahead of Him when His road went through the Cross. (Hebrews 12:2)

Sometimes we can’t even see that light ahead—either because the path looks so long or because the tunnel bends.

What do we hold onto then?

God.

His character, His promises, His presence with us even if we feel all alone.

Each Christmas I think of this more. On one hand it’s a terrible time of year to be struggling, but on the other, the pain can remind us that this is why Jesus came.

We hope and pray things will get better. We thank God for what He’s doing that we can’t see. And sometimes we just have to keep on keeping on, acting in faith that God is still good and in control. Knowing that, worst case scenario, when life ends He will take us to Himself.

Sovereign and loving God, we praise You for Your care and for the many times You make our paths easier. Thank You for sending Jesus as our Redeemer, so that no matter what life brings, we can walk through it with You and we can be assured of a place with You when it ends. Give us the faith we need to trust in You in the dark and in the light, and the courage to live boldly as Your children.

∞

Here’s Michael Card’s beautiful “Immanuel”. Enjoy.

*THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Review: Spiritual Rhythm, by Mark Buchanan

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Spiritual Rhythm, by Mark Buchanan (Zondervan, 2010)

If spiritual life is measured by fruit, seasons make a good metaphor. Winter, spring and summer are all needed to produce a good harvest in the fall.

Just as one year’s growth cycle leads into the next, Mark Buchanan suggests our own trip through the seasons will be ongoing. This has been my experience, and I’m glad I’m not alone. Mark, who’s farther ahead in his spiritual maturity than I, began this book in a hard, cruel winter.

I suspect that  many who feel themselves most in need of this book’s help will be in wintertime. Perhaps that’s why chapter one opens there.

Recognizing and accepting the season we’re in—whether we progressed naturally from the previous one or were thrust into it by circumstances beyond our control—frees us to begin tending our spiritual lives in ways most suited to the time.

The first half of Spiritual Rhythm looks at the four seasons of the heart and at what life might look like in each one. It offers suggested activities (and inactivities) to make the most of each one and to encourage a healthy progression into the next. And it points us to Jesus, the Man for all seasons.

“I seek two things: Christ’s presence in season and out, to know that even the darkness cannot hide him and that by his light I see light. And Christ’s wisdom in season and out, to know how best to meet him, how best to make the most out of each season and each moment.” (Spiritual Rhythm, pages 18-19)

In the second half the focus is spiritual rhythm, covering topics like balance, abiding, seeking the Kingdom, walking in the light, perseverance, gratitude, worship, the Bible, prayer and friendship.

The seasonal activities and spiritual practices are practical and down-to-earth. The book also includes 29 short selections called “Time-ins” which allow readers to explore specific areas where we might benefit.

These aren’t touchy-feely questions, nor are they abstract theorizations. They offer the chance to go deeper into topics that may help. With that many to choose from, there should be a few that will resonate with anyone. If you’re inclined, you can work them through in a journal. If that scares you, just think about them a bit. Or at least read them. They don’t bite.

The book can be read straight through, or readers may dive in where they most feel the need. There’s minor recapping of previous material in places, so that a reader beginning there won’t miss the benefit.

No review of a Mark Buchanan book is complete without mention of the author’s lyrical writing style. Spiritual Rhythm even includes some of his poetry: brief, evocative, and real. His books are refreshing because of their spiritually-nutritious content and their beauty of delivery.

Mark knows how to tell stories that connect with ordinary people. Stories of ordinary people and of those who’ve walked paths many of us will safely avoid. He shares his own stories with an engaging transparency, and never lingers on them long enough to sound self-absorbed.

Spiritual Rhythm may be my favourite Mark Buchanan book yet. I’m not ready to be finished reading; I need to go back and revisit sections that still have more to say to me.

Mark Buchanan is a Canadian pastor, speaker and award-winning author. His previous books are Your God is Too Safe, Things Unseen, The Holy Wild, The Rest of God and Hidden in Plain Sight. Keep an eye out for Your Church is too Safe: Turning the World Upside Down, coming out in 2012, and Mark’s first novel, David, in 2013.

You can find Mark at his website. His sermons are also available as podcasts from the New Life Community Baptist Church.

Spiritual Rhythm is available in hardcover and ebook formats, online or through your local bookstore. You will want a copy you can highlight or underline.

[A shorter version of this review first appeared in Faith Today, Nov-Dec 2011. Review copy from my personal library.]

So the Lord May Bless You

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I’ve been reading in Deuteronomy (yes, on purpose!) about Moses’ long speech to the Israelites before they’re to finally enter the Promised Land. He reminds them what God has done in the past and what kind of behaviour God expects in the future.

What strikes me is the intent behind the litany of dos and don’ts: it’s not about following the rules, it’s about the Israelites’ lifestyle being a sign to the people around them. They’re to show how God designed humans to function, and how well He looks after those who trust Him.

Although the Old Testament proclaims Israel as God’s chosen people, it gives clear instruction to welcome the stranger and the alien and to allow them to learn about God.

The Pharisees got it wrong with their legalism. From the beginning, God asked for wholehearted love and obedience rather than rigidity. Peter had a handle on this when he wrote that we’re to live prepared to give an answer for the hope within us – we’re to live so that people can see we’re different.

What does it mean for us today?

  • legalism is not the way
  • personal holiness: not “I don’t do that” in a judgmental way, but “I do this because I love God”
  • taking seriously what He says
  • personal times alone with Him, again out of love and perceived need rather than performance or “earning points”
  • care for the person who doesn’t see his/her need, because God does see the need

We need to live mindfully according to His ways, secure in the knowledge that He is powerful, good, and able to care for us. Deuteronomy 23:20b is one of many illustrations of Moses’ theme: live God’s way so that we don’t block the blessings God wants to give – for our sakes and for the sakes of those who see us.

I’m really struck by how much God wants to give, and I wonder how much we miss by our own choices and actions.

Love, Listen, Hold… Live

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“Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life…”
Deuteronomy 30:19b-20a, NIV*

Moses is winding up his recitation to the Israelites of God’s faithfulness in their journey. Their choices will shape their future. He’s previewed the blessings and warned of the curses. He leaves them with a motto for life.

Love the LORD Your God

  • it’s a heart and spirit response
  • it has active implications – don’t just feel it, do it

Listen to His voice

Hold fast to Him

  • cling to Him
  • rely on Him as an anchor and fortress

Why?

We always need a reason why, even if it’s just that God says so and we choose to trust Him. Moses answers the question: “The LORD is your life.”

Holy and eternal God, You are our life. We’re not whole when we’re not close to You. Help us love You, help us listen to You, help us cling to You, so we can live. Thank You for such grace that gives us this gift!

∞

Here’s John Waller’s “The Blessing.”

*THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Review: The Third Grace, by Deb Elkink

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The Third Grace book coverThe Third Grace, by Deb Elkink (Greenbrier Book Company, 2011)

Aglaia Klassen is a thirty-something single woman developing a strong reputation in the world of costume design. Her goal: become a “seasoned urban artist” and find the inner peace that’s eluding her.

Born Mary Grace Klassen, she left that name behind with the family farm and the Mennonite faith of her childhood. ‘Aglaia’ is the name of one of the Three Graces in Greek mythology, and it connects her to a major root of her inner turmoil: François Vivier, the young French exchange student who spent a summer on the farm—and who left with her heart.

An upcoming business trip to Paris, and François’ sensual notes in an old Bible, bring the past into the present and Aglaia develops an obsession with finding Francois again. If she can see him now, perhaps she can put the past to rest and find her true identity.

The main influences in Aglaia’s life are Dr. Lou Chapman, a self-focused feminist who wants to lure her away from her employer to work for Lou’s upscale university, and Ebenezer MacAdam, Aglaia’s gentle boss who’s been quietly grooming her as his replacement.

Aglaia may not know who she is, but everyone else seems to know who they want her to be. Lou pushes, Eb suggests, and François’ notes reveal his own agenda. Author Deb Elkink presents each character as him/herself without commentary and without judgement and lets the reader worry over whether Aglaia will find herself—or be shaped into someone else’s version of reality.

The Third Grace is women’s fiction with the introspection of a literary novel, and the central characters are well-realized and strong of voice.

This is a thinking reader’s novel, although it will satisfy those of us who read mainly for the story. The characters of Lou and François see the Bible as only one of the many valid sources of myth, and Lou is selective in the mythology she uses to prove her own view of the universe.

Eb remembers his own questions along those lines, but he’s found his personal satisfaction in the Bible as truth and he knows it means more than vague philosophy. He’s not threatened, and he’s comfortable to pray for others without trying to argue them into his understanding.

The novel itself does not feel preachy or like a philosophical treatise (although Lou speaks that way because that’s who she is). It’s written by a Christian, perhaps more for wandering women than for those secure in the Kingdom, and portions of the content are more worldly than some Christian readers will find comfortable. Nothing is gratuitous, though, and each character’s thoughts and actions are true to who they are. That’s why the story worked so well for me even when bits were a bit out of my comfort zone.

The Third Grace is the story of one woman’s journey to reconcile with her past and find herself in the present.

You can learn more about Canadian author Deb Elkink at her website, or check out her blog, Rolled Scroll.

[Advance review copy provided by the Greenbrier Book Company in exchange for a fair review.]

Stillness and Silence

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Stillness and silence aren’t natural to most of us… I know they’re not for me, even when I’m sleeping :-p

But they’ve have been catching my attention lately in a way that points to God.

At Under the Cover of Prayer, Judith Lawrence wrote:

Silence is not a familiar place for many of us but as we seek to be with God silence becomes a sought after and familiar venue. (Adventures of the Spiritual Life — click to read the whole post, it’s worth your time)

This little gem from Oswald Chambers really got me thinking:

I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.” (Nov. 7 reading, My Utmost for His Highest, updated edition edited by James Reimann)

I don’t always “get” brother Oswald’s thoughts, since they’re often elevated above my own, but this sacred place in the conscious life… that resonates with me. A still place, a holy place, in keeping with the idea that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

I can see this sacred inner place being the basis for Frank Laubach‘s call to “keep in constant touch with God,” echoing Brother Lawrence‘s call to “practice the presence of God.” (You can read some of Frank Laubach’s writing here… just scroll through the page until you reach the excerpt from Letters by a Modern Mystic.) Or you can get hold of a copy of Practicing His Presence, edited by Gene Edwards, which contains the writings of Frank Laubach and Brother Lawrence. It’s a slim book and one I consider a keeper.

I don’t usually include a song on Fridays, but here’s Brian Doerksen‘s Everything. Let it become our prayer. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XTAj0bM-C0]

Enticed Away?

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Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.
Deuteronomy 11:16, NIV*

This is part of Moses’ warning to the people of Israel as they’re getting ready to enter the Promised Land. Idol worship is rampant among the nations they’re to evict, and they need to stay set apart for God.

There’s much to entice us away too: possessions, problems, pleasures…. With multi-tasking and constant communication and noise, our thoughts scatter like seed in the wind.

We forget.

Being careful takes intentional effort. Moses had some suggestions for the people that will help us too:

  • Talk about God, with our family and friends. Not to preach, in this context, but to teach our children and to encourage and remind our believing peers.
  • Visual reminders… we may not tie them to our foreheads or write them on our doorposts as Moses said, but art, jewellery, symbols are all good reminders as long as we don’t tune them out.
  • Keep God as part of each day, all day long and wherever we are. One thing I’m learning is to notice the beauty of creation around me and to remember to thank God for His gifts.

Sovereign Lord, You have called us to be a people belonging to You, and we want to be faithful. You know how easily distracted we are. We need help! Please teach us to be careful not to be enticed away. And when our focus slips, please draw us quickly back. There is no one like our God, none other worthy of worship and adoration.

∞

Here’s a classic Keith Green song: “Draw Me.”

*THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Review: Lost Melody, by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith

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Lost Melody cover artLost Melody, by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith (Zondervan, 2011)

Jillian King was a gifted concert pianist until an accident damaged her left hand. She’s spent the past year grieving and afraid to touch her piano. When she and her fiancé, Glen Bradford, decide on a Christmas wedding (one month away) and her grandmother sets her up with two piano students, the stress is enough to give anyone nightmares.

But Jill’s nightmare is realistic and recurring: fire and cold, a disaster that will devastate the small community of Seaside Cove where she lives. Is she going crazy? Or should she obey the dream and warn the citizens?

Going public wouldn’t simply embarrass Jill—it would damage Glen’s political campaign. But what if she keeps silent and disaster strikes?

Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith have written an intriguing story with a vibrant cast. It’s easy to empathize with Jill, and despite her grief she’s trying to move on with life so she’s in no way a depressing character.

Jill lives with her grandmother, a flamboyant lady whose good intentions sometimes have unexpected results. And Glen is a genuinely nice guy trying to do the right thing.

A bonus for me is the setting: how often do you see a US-published novel set in Canada, especially in Nova Scotia? Seaside Cove is a fictional community on the outskirts of Halifax. I imagine it being near Eastern Passage or a bit farther east along the coast.

There are a few minor wording choices that a local would notice (we never call the  harbour, even its mouth, a bay) but the descriptions give a genuine feel for the area and make it easy to visualize. I was pleased, through American Christian Fiction Writers, to answer some of the authors’ local research questions. Here’s hoping I didn’t lead them astray!

Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith are each well-established writers of Christian fiction. Lost Melody is their first collaboration, and they enjoyed the process so much that they’re doing two more books together: The Heart’s Frontier and A Plain and Simple Heart. Watch for both titles in 2012.

You can read the first chapter of Lost Melody on the authors’ shared website.

There’s also a section of bonus material including an alternate ending for the novel. The printed ending satisfied me, but I think I like the alternate one better. Can’t tell you why… spoilers.

[Review copy provided by the authors.]

 

Friday Findings: Time With God

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I love those quiet times with God, still-soul-times rich with nearness and uncluttered by my words and lists. I often find them on retreat, but they can be part of each day… if I will remember and be disciplined about seeking them.

They’re when I feel most alive, and yet I so rarely stop to enjoy them. The Lord has been reminding me of this through some of my friends’ posts lately:

At Under the Cover of Prayer, Jan Cox wrote:

I think about our ‘busy’ lives and know that our quiet time with God gets left out. But I believe it is the MOST important part of our day. To be wired to God. How else can we live the life He wants? Without His godly spirit flowing through us, how can we deal with our daily lives? (Connected)

At Whatever He Says, Belinda Burston wrote:

Paul and I pray together before work, and I draw strength and comfort from that cherished time. But it’s a different thing to just coming before God with no agenda but to quieten my heart and listen for his. (Confession)

Again at Under the Cover of Prayer, Janice Keats wrote:

We can learn so much by entering into His presence. Maybe just sitting in His presence is enough. He is all we need. Time well spent with God produces a thirst for more—more peace and more of Him. (Be Still and Wait Patiently for the Lord)

Belinda’s post above ended with a familiar Bible passage as phrased in The Message, and I want to close with a portion of it as well. The wording is fresh and puts a new light on it. Drink deeply:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2, MSG*)

*The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Careful to Remember

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Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied … then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 8:11, 12a, 14, NIV*

A quick search of Bible Gateway turns up 31 instances in Deuteronomy when the Israelites are warned to be careful not to forget Him and His decrees.

After everything Israel saw God do to rescue them from Egypt and bring them to the Promised Land, someone from another planet might ask how they could be in danger of forgetting Him.

As humans, we know better. We still do the same thing.

We start off well, depending on God and walking closely with Him. Especially when times are hard and we see the need.

But it’s so easy over time to rely more and more on our own strength and understanding. We slip into trusting what we do instead of trusting He who made us. We start fighting our own battles with the universe. We forget to pray and to do our battle in His name and strength.

Father God, our Saviour and Deliverer, forgive our forgetfulness and draw our spirits nearer to Your Spirit. Grow us in dependence on You, teach us to walk closely with You and to be careful to stay near Your side. Help us remember how You brought us out of slavery to sin. Help us to love, honour and worship You and live in Your light.

∞

The Newsboys’ “We Remember” is a good song to get stuck in our heads.

*THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.