Hold a true Lent in your souls, while you sorrow over your hardness of heart. Do not stop at sorrow! Remember where you first received salvation. Go at once to the cross. . . this will bring back to us our first love; this will restore the simplicity of our faith, and the tenderness of our heart.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
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Sunday’s Invitation to Joy
Again, this week it’s all about risk, taking the chance that Jesus is there, that He truly does love and forgive you and me, that we can live abundantly.
From Your Writer’s Group: “Jesus did not come so that we might have safety more abundantly. Imagine the life we’re missing because we’re so concerned with caution. But of course, we can’t imagine it because we lack the imagination and the artists to show us how.”
Jared’s Jesus Reading List; take a chance and read one of these books to encounter Jesus. Or try one of the four gospels.
Joe McKeever: My Dad Keeps Sending Me These Notes. “Now, my dad is sending me these notes. And the thing is, by putting the notes alongside Scripture he’s pointing me to the larger messages from the Heavenly Father. It’s the best of both worlds. Thank you, Pop. You sure knew a great scripture when you found one and the right prayer of thanksgiving for one who knows what it is to receive God’s mercies and forgiveness. Thanks for these little “hellos” you’ve scattered throughout this Bible.”
I think this is a wonderful idea: read through and make notes in a Bible to give to your child or grandchild or other beloved relative someday. What a legacy!
Finally, there’s some good stuff posted on You Tube. Here’s a video to accompany one of my favorite songs from way back when, Creed by John Michael Talbot:
May you live a blessed Sunday!
Sunday Invitation to Joy
Randy Alcorn, Joel Stein, Starbucks, and Heaven: “As much as I disagree with his worldview, I found Joel to be sharp, engaging and witty; the kind of person I’d enjoy having lunch with. (I might enjoy it more than he would.) I was friendly and unapologetic about my beliefs, and he was professional and considerate.”
Risking Can be Fun from Amy Letinsky: “Honestly, I don’t know what God was up to with this one. Sometimes, he reveals his purposes pretty clearly; other times, it’s anybody’s guess. If I had to pin down his motives behind this one, I’d say that God was just showing me how much fun I could have if I was willing to trust him more, to take risks, even if I don’t know the outcome, even if my pride might get wounded or my self esteem might go a little lower.”
Ten Ideas for Living Intentionally in the Suburbs
I live in Major Suburbia. I absolutely believe that it is possible (and desirable) to live an intentionally Christian life in suburbia. Wherever you live, I pray that this day and this week is for you a week of risk-taking, unapologetic faith, and authentic Christianity. And I ask you to please pray the same for me.
Things That Scare Me
I just linked to Michelle’s blog called Scribbit, and she’s having a writing contest for October. The idea is to write a post on the topic “Things That Scare Me.”
Time for true confessions. There are only three things that I can think of that really scare me: freeways, cockroaches, and dentists. All my other fears can be classified under one of those three general headings. I live in Houston so that I can pretend to confront my fears while practicing the same avoidant behavior I would anywhere else.
I’m afraid of freeways because I don’t merge well. I never have. I look back, and look in front of me, glance at the speedometer, and then freeze. “Get me safely off this ramp,” I pray, “and I promise I’ll never get on one again.” I haven’t been on a freeway since 2004, Hurricane Rita, when I had to drive during the evacuation. Since the traffic was only moving at about ten mph, I had my fear under control. I wasn’t really afraid of the hurricane. I do OK with weather. It’s merging onto freeways that terrifies me. Houston has lots of freeways. I don’t drive on them. I believe that’s a wise decision, and I’m sure that if you’re reading this piece and live in Houston, you will agree that we’re both safer with me off the on ramp.
Houston also has lots of roaches. Large flying roaches. I tell my husband, who to tell the truth isn’t too fond of the nasty little creatures either, that I’m not afraid of them, just respectful. Cockroaches and I maintain a healthy distance. Engineer Husband can kill them, pick them up, dispose of them. I woke up once in the middle of the night with something wet in my hand. You guessed it: I didn’t sleep soundly for a week. This fear of cockroaches is symbolic of the irrational fears that we all have. I know that a dead roach, or even a live one, won’t really hurt me, but it doesn’t matter. I can’t stand the little buggers.
Dentists. I’m not really afraid of dentists. A dentist at a party or a dentist visiting our church is not a fearsome thing. I’m really afraid of pain. A dentist once gave me what she called a “palatal,” a shot in the palate in the roof of my mouth. I have birthed eight babies, some without epidurals, and I have never experienced such pain. My teeth can rot out of my mouth before I will ever let a dentist give me a palatal again. This fear is emblematic of the fear of the unexpected, especially the unexpected suffering for which I’ve had no time to prepare myself. With babies, you have nine months to get ready, arrange for anesthesia if necessary, but you never know when you might get a shot in the . . . palate.
So there’s the fear that is the better part of valor. Don’t drive onto the ramp if you know you can’t merge. There is the fear that’s obviously irrational, but fairly harmless. Why pick up the roach if you have a husband who’s willing to demonstrate his manhood by doing it for you? And there’s the very real fear that something really bad will hit me in a soft spot, and I won’t be ready, won’t have the courage or the endurance needed to make it through. That last fear I know I can’t avoid forever or always pass on to someone else. No one can go to the dentist for me. The only way is to keep going and pray that I’ll have the strength if and when I need it. And protect that soft palate as best I can.
Self
MFS at Mental Multivitamin makes me think, and that’s a very good thing. Especially lately, my mind is so caught up in daily concerns and necessities that it is renewing to stop and think for a moment.
Yes, the images of Amish teenagers attending what amounts to rave parties fueled by copious amounts of alcohol, drugs, and bad music are, as one reviewer describes it, ‘jarring,’ but it was the reminder that if a child returns to his church community following rumspringa (and ninety percent do), he is, in effect, denying his sense of self: Amish religious convictions are predicated on the erasure of self.
SHUDDER.”
I haven’t seen the documentary Devil’s Playground that MFS is writing about in this post, but I have read about it. And I would probably have some disagreement with what I perceive from a distance as a legalistic theology in Amish Christianity. Nevertheless, denying self is a very Christian concept. In fact, Jesus commanded us, “Deny yourself. Take up your cross, and follow me.” I was reminded of this quotation from Methodist missionary Stanley Jones’s The Christ of the Indian Road, published back in 1925.
Greece said, ‘Be moderate—know thyself.’
Rome said, ‘Be strong—order thyself.’
Confucianism says, ‘Be superior—correct thyself.’
Shintoism says, ‘Be loyal—suppress thyself.’
Buddhism says, ‘Be disillusioned—annihilate thyself.’
Hinduism says, ‘Be separated—merge thyself.’
Mohammedanism says, ‘Be submissive—assert thyself.’
Judaism says, ‘Be holy—conform thyself.’
Materialism says, ‘Be industrious—enjoy thyself.’
Modern Dilettantism says, ‘Be broad—cultivate thyself.’
Christianity says, ‘Be Christlike—give thyself.'”
The self-denial that Christians preach is not self-annihilation, but rather a giving of self as God created it to service in His name. Are we sure that the Amish are advocating “the erasure of self”? Or could it be that they believe in giving a higher priority to Christian community and to the glorification of God in that community? And could a lifetime of this sort of self-denial lead to a greater sense of self within a Christian community than most of us experience in our rush for self-fulfillment?
Again Jesus said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:25-26.
It’s the daily working out of this concept that gets sticky, and I agree that self-annihilation or self-erasure is not the way to go. Neither is a mad race for self-realization or self-assertion.
Escape from Egypt by Sonia Levitin
‘But we escaped Pharoah and Egypt so that we could go to a better place, where we could serve God.’
‘It is true,’ said Jesse, slowly fingering his beard . . . ‘But Egypt is also within us, Jennat. Whatever we become in Canaan will depend on our choices.'”
Egypt within us. We want to serve God, but we must still, as long as we live here on earth, contend with Egypt within us. The World, the Flesh, and the Devil:
One of those is outside of me, and I can leave the devil-fighting to God.
One is part of me, and I must train my flesh to serve God instead of evil.
The other I allow to become part of who I am, and then as I strive to become more Christ-like, I must allow the Holy Spirit to bring out all those worldly/slavery habits and desires and transform them into something that honors Him.
I’ve sort of strayed from the basic plot and themes of Sonia Levitin’s Escape from Egypt, but all that philosophical and spiritual meandering is there, buried in the story of Jesse, a Hebrew slave, and Jennat, an Egyptian servant girl, both of whom follow Moses out of Egypt. It’s a book about choices, about escape from slavery, and about the transfroming power of a true encounter with the Living God. Not preachy, I’m not even sure whether Ms. Levitin is a Christian or a Jew or agnostic. (I looked it up; she’s Jewish.) Still, the description of Jesse’s and Jennat’s reaction to the experience of hearing the voice of God speaking from Mount Sinai is worth the reading time and price of the entire book.
Not everyone reacts the same way in the book; not everyone believes that Moses is God’s spokesman. Even Jesse doesn’t believe all the time. The characters in the book deal with hard stuff: the death of a beloved child, relatives and family members who disobey the law of God and are punished, confusion, doubt, idolatry, prejudice, and the old question of why do the evil (seemingly) prosper. The answers are not trite and easy; ultimately Jesse and others who escape from Egypt decide to follow God’s law, but the daily living of that commitment isn’t easy. Nor is it something that they can do for their children; each person must decide for himself.
I would recommend this one for young adults because the theological and ethical questions dealt with in the book are difficult and made for mature questioners. I would recommend it, though, because I think Ms. Levitin writes honestly about the struggles that the Israelites must have had and about the “Egyptian” temptations we all have. And it’s a good story.
This book is another in my ancient history historical fiction project. I will probably give this book to my twelve year old to read or read it aloud and discuss it with her.
The Cure by Athol Dickson
Thank you, Bethany House, for sending me a review copy of Athol Dickson’s most recent novel, The Cure. I continue to be impressed with the intellectual and spiritual depth of Dickson’s writing. I added River Rising by Dickson to my list of Best Fiction Ever. The Cure is a worthy successor to that novel, although River Rising remains my favorite.
What if there were a cure for alcoholism? What if you could take one dose of a certain mixture of chemicals and herbs and be cured completely of the desire for alcohol? No more cravings ever? How would such a cure change society? What would such a cure be worth in dollars?
The Cure reminds me somewhat of a John Grisham novel: lots of intrigue, South American missionaries, fugitives, criminals, homelessness, lawyers, a large pharmaceutical company, broken, imperfect people. I give that comparison as a person who has read almost all of Grisham’s novels and admired most of them. I do think both The Cure and River Rising have a spiritual and thematic depth that is lacking in Grisham’s novels. If you know someone who likes Grisham, and you want to give him a new book in that same vein, I would suggest The Cure.
I enjoyed the story very much, read it last night and this morning, and it got me thinking. What does it take to be “cured” of a sinful addiction? First, you want something that takes the desire away, but is that enough? I’ve heard that there’s such a thing as a “dry drunk”, a person who’s still enslaved to alcoholic behaviors even though he’s not drinking alcohol. Many addictions have a physical component. However, in any addiction there is also an element of sin, of idolatry, putting the addictive substance or behavior in the place of God Almighty, so one can be freed from the substance or behavior and still be enslaved or empty. That’s why AA insists in its 12 Step program that in order to become a recovering alcoholic, a person must place his trust in a Higher Power.
Some applicable Scriptures:
Matthew 12: 43-45 When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.
Proverbs 26:11-12 As a dog returns to its vomit,
so a fool repeats his folly.
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.Romans 7:21-25 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Anyway, it’s a great book. If you read it, come back and tell me what you think. I think I’m glad that Mr. Dickson is writing books, and I’m looking forward to reading whatever he writes next.
Evangelism?
A scary film about motivating the evangelizers.
A much more thoughtful post on evangelism: the when, the where, and the how by Dr. Mark DeVine.
My very favorite evangelistic blog post (I wish I had written it!): “. . . what I want to invite you to explore is what Christianity really is, which is, actually, to experience what it means to be really human, really alive, pain and grief and all that as it really is. The difference, and of course you can’t know this until you’ve been on both sides, is that following Jesus actually gives substance to grief and pain and all those other hurts.”
May your Sunday be filled with Good News that gives substance and meaning to whatever you are experiencing in your life today.
Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere
Brenda on Frugal Luxuries: “Starbucks coffee, Harney & Son teas, silver serving pieces purchased in thrift shops, good chocolate, Mrs. Meyers cleaning supplies, a class to learn cake decorating or gourmet cooking, great olive oil, Einstein’s bagels and coffee, a new book by my favorite author, Tresor, Lang Calendars, Half & Half, real butter, flowers, leather bound Bibles, broadband Internet…”
Brenda (Coffee Tea Books and Me)Â again on Jerry Falwell: “Contrary to much that has been written, Falwell wasn’t trying to take over the country and make it “Christian”. He was trying to take back what we had lost, those morals that were based on the Bible.”
Homemaking Through the Church Year on babywearing: “I’ve found more and more often that the answer to many homemaking dilemmas can be found when you answer your question with another question. That other question being: ‘How did women accomplish it in the eighteenth century?’ Or, as an missionary kid, I more often ask, ‘How do women do it in third-world countries?'”
Cindy at Dominion Family on book-reading in public: “Then there is the iPod option. You could listen to A Distant Mirror or The Warden via audiobook and that would be so respectable but then you would look so terribly modern and it would go against your agrarian ideals which whisper in your ear that you are probably going to lose your hearing because you have sold your soul to an iPod.”
The Christy Awards 2007 nominees are listed at Faith in Fiction. The Christy Awards are given in several categories to fiction books published by Christian publishers. I’ve read one of the nominees, Winter Birds by Jamie Langston Turner (Semicolon review here), and I must say I thought it was quite good. My seventy something mother read it, too, and liked it.
Finally, Ariel at Bittersweet Life has links to the Christopher Hitchens/Doug Wilson debate at Christianity Today. Good stuff.
Resurrection Reading: The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock
It was Easter, two years after Father Peregrine had come to be their abbott. Easter, the greatest feast of the Christian year, and all the local people had come up to the abbey, and the guest house was full of pilgrims come to celebrate the feast of the Resurrection. So many people, so many processions, so much music! So many preparations to be made by the singers, the readers, those who served at the altar and those served in the guest house, not to mention those who worked in the kitchens and the stables. The abbey was bursting with guests, neighbors, relatives, and strangers.
The Easter Vigil was mysterious and beautiful, with the imagery of fire and water and the Paschal candle lit in the great, vaulted dimness of the abbey church. Brother Gilbert the precentor’s voice mounted joyfully in the triumphant beauty of the Exultet; all the bells rang out for the risen Lord, and the voices of the choirboys from the abbey school soared with heart-breaking loveliness in the music declaring the risen life of Jesus. Easter Day itself was radiant with sunshine for once, as well as celebration. Oh, the joyful splendor of a church crammed full of people, a thundering of voices singing, ‘Credo –I believe.’
Another trilogy, another book for the whole family, children, teenagers, and adults, another resurrection reading. I re-read The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock over the Palm Sunday weekend and found it as inspiring and insightful as ever. In the books, an English mother tells her daughters, especially her fifteen-going-on-grown-up daughter Melissa, stories about their long ago ancestor, the abbot of a Benedictine abbey, and the monks under his care. The stories are deceptively simple and quotidian: stories of forgiveness asked and given, monks who are injured and need healing, others who don’t fit into the abbey life and must learn to do so. However, these are the same issues that Melissa, her mother and sisters must deal with in daily family life, and they’re the same things we try to iron out and work through here at Semicolon House.
In the other two books in the trilogy, the brothers of St. Alcuin monastery continue to work together and grow in community. They also grow older and must confront the difficulties that old age brings in its train. In fact, the third book in the series is about death and dying and living with serious impairments —all to the glory of God. It’s quite timely in these days of “death with diginity” and compassion redefined as hurrying the dying into death, but it may be a bit too much for children. Again, I think the entire family will enjoy the first two books in the trilogy.
A few more excerpts:
“Theodore saw his hopes of a new beginning turn to ashes in the miserable discovery that even men who had given their whole lives to follow Christ could be irritable, sharp-tongued, and hasty.” How many new Christians upon becoming involved in a church have stumbled over that particular realization? Monasteries, and churches, are simply places for imperfect people to come and begin to learn to serve and show kindness and love, not places where the already perfected live in flawless harmony.
Fifteen year old Melissa to her teacher in English class: “Mother says, that love is only true love when it shows itself in fidelity, —ummmm, faithfulness. She says if a person has the feeling of love, but no faithfulness, his love is just self-indulgent sentimentality. And that’s what Shelley was like, isn’t it? He wrote fine peoms to his wife and his lovers, but he wasn’t a faithful man. So how can his poetry about love be worth anything if his love in real life wasn’t worth anything?” From the mouths of babes, can an untrue person write truly? Can he write true poetry that he hasn’t lived in some fashion, however imperfectly?
“Mother said these stories were true, and I never knew her tell a lie . . . but then you could never be quite sure what she meant by “truth”; fact didn’t always come into it.”
I assure you that the stories in Ms. Wilcock’s Hawk and the Dove trilogy are quite true —as fiction sometimes is.