tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26226329546137707312024-02-19T10:03:30.568-05:00A Muse Made Me Do ItAnne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-66426113158366452812014-09-04T01:06:00.001-04:002014-09-04T01:34:28.584-04:00Challenged by Grace and Gratitude<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Corbel, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><i><b>More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. —Romans 5:3-5</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, there have been these gratitude challenges circulating around the usual social media sites, and I've been tagged at least twice. Sometimes I don't feel like making public pronouncements of my gratitude, but it only takes a moment before I realize how absolutely <b><u>UN</u></b>grateful that attitude is. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I roll my eyes at myself for being such a jerk and dig into the challenge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The thing about gratitude is that you can't fake it. You really and truly cannot pretend at gratitude because pretending only serves to show you how small you think, and how ungrateful you are. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What's interesting is that I have learned more about genuine gratitude by being treated badly from ungrateful people than I have ever learned through being showered in kindness.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact, until I began pushing myself—HARD—to chase after a spirit of gratitude I seldom saw the riches right in front of me. I only saw disappointment at what I wanted but did not have. I was FILLED with resentment toward people who had what I wanted—so filled, in fact, that I couldn't even see what an angry person I was. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, I knew I was angry, but I felt entitled to my anger. Justified because I'd been badly wounded.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fact that I spent so much time acting grateful (at least when there was something to be gained from acting grateful) only piled on the resentment I harbored in my heart. I felt as though all of my phony gratitude was a costly gift to others that I could ill afford, and I didn't take it well when my faux-gratefulness wasn't rewarded with the IMMEDIATE satisfaction of <i>what little</i> I secretly wanted in return from not just whoever the poor soul was who had to deal with me, but from the world. I insisted that I wanted nothing, but turned into a brooding brute if whatever I craved or needed wasn't being satisfied.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It took bearing witness to the devastating heartbreak of someone I cherish—the epic agony of a severely broken heart (and my own heart gripped by devastating disappointment, impatience, and betrayal as a result) to shake me awake from my own ingratitude. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When someone takes a deep blow directly to the heart it takes quite a while for them to find their feet again, and then to remember how to breathe. Looking at the carnage of my dear one's heart, and the mangled mess of my own, I wanted to lay in bed and hold my breath until something happened…but nothing did. There was just me and God in the void.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead of moving outside the void, I retreated to a coping mechanism that I developed in my younger years to protect me from the incomprehensible pain, fear, and anger I was left with after enduring years of childhood domestic violence and abuse. I withheld love and kindness from virtually anyone close to me who dared trespass on the threshold of my torn up heart and empty lungs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was the worst to the people who loved me most. To this day, I couldn't tell you why except to say that in my suffering I'd grown to be an ingrate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ingrates are terrified people. They are afraid to risk being grateful because they know what it is to have things taken quickly away. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, ingrates aren't as blind to good things as they pretend to be. "Oh I just can't see what there is to be grateful for," they complain. What they often mean is: I don't want what I cannot keep.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Therefore, when you remind an ingrate of their blessings, they sell short EVERYTHING and EVERYONE of consequence in their lives. Ingrates aren't really searching for gratitude. Ingrates have given up, so they become stubborn, rebellious people who like their own drama better than any </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">foreign </i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or potential</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> blessing—i.e. a blessing that they are unwilling to unpack and explore. I was a first class ingrate for many years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was finally devastated beyond all comprehension—truly punch-drunk with soul deep hurt, confusion, anger, and disappointment—there was only one antidote to my nastiness. I had to come face to face with pain and loss and grief and suffering that surpassed my own so overwhelmingly that I was greatly humbled and ashamed. No matter how I tried to justify <i>me, myself, and I</i>, all roads led to the ugliest of mirrors…the one that showed me my ingratitude.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hideous pain I saw belonged to someone I loved far more than any meme could express. It was core suffering that belonged to someone whom God had entrusted to me and tied to me at the depths of my soul. Not my daughter. That's a different kind of knot. This knot emerged through a divine appointment—a clear anointing to love and minister to someone I hardly knew at first. Talk about powerful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When God, Himself, gives you a personal message for someone…when He places a call upon your life to love someone in their darkest hours, there's no staving off the urge to love with fierceness and abandon. Your "walk away" setting has been disabled. You couldn't move if you wanted. So you stand like a palm tree in a hurricane bending and twisting in the fiercest of winds. You groan and howl along in agony—theirs and yours—but you don't get pulled from your place…even when you want to leave. You can't. You just can't.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is there, there in the horrible injustice of someone else's suffering, that ingrates come eye to eye, heart to heart, and soul to soul with the necessity of gratitude. In such moments, we either determine to be truly grateful, whatever it takes, for the opportunity of being right where we are…next to a devastated dear one whose pain is profoundly beyond our ability to comfort it. The darkness and uncertainty of it all is where we make your peace with gratitude. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we begin to realize that not one breath can be taken as a given, and that the love we have from God (even if from no one else) is more than sufficient, and more than we deserve, THEN we get a glimpse of grace…God's unmerited favor. THEN we can live and love and be gracious and joyful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grace is the siren song of gratitude. It keeps luring us closer and closer to the truth of our ingratitude, and when we see it…we grieve…deeply…profoundly. And there in the grief, if we just open our eyes, is joy—the joy of the Lord, the joy that can come to us no other way but through the depths of suffering.</span></div>
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<br />Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-62598706869154919932014-08-20T01:09:00.001-04:002014-08-20T01:43:50.747-04:00Sometimes It's Just That Simple<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
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<b>Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.</b></div>
<b><a class="bcv" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=1%20John%205:12" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #631e16; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration: none;" title="1 John 5:12">1 John 5:12</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"> </span></b><a class="bcv" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/index.php?action=getVersionInfo&vid=47" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #631e16; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration: none;" title="English Standard Version"><b>ES</b>V</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each morning and evening, my daughter and I share a prayer time together. We always use a passage from the Bible to guide our prayers, and we practice this spiritual discipline together to with a few significant goals in mind:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To see our day, right from the start through to the finish, with God's mind directing our thoughts and our vision for the day;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To fill ourselves with compassion, goodness, grace, hope, joy, kindness, love, mercy, peace, and wisdom enough for sharing with others;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To call God's attention to and blessing over people we love;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And to cover one very special family, whom we love as our own flesh and blood, with <i>strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow </i>not because we are faithful in never missing a day of praying for them, but because we believe God is faithful to will and to do for them more than we ask or think.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know it sounds like a lot to wring out of a prayer time with a teenager, but we have been praying together since she was just a little girl, and praying intensely like this for over 5 years. Standing by and feeling otherwise helpless and useless, while people you love suffer unspeakably painful blows to the soul—<i>life attacks</i>—has a way of intensifying the gravitational pull between your knees and the floor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When what seems initially like the least you can do for someone becomes essentially all you can do…well…most of us make one of two choices. We either pray wallowing in the reality of our own powerlessness, or we use every ounce of energy and faith we can summon to take hold of the One who is all powerful—the Lord, the giver of life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though some of us hedge our bets and try to launch our prayers from some "middle" position on the faith continuum, pretty much any prayer that isn't anchored in the surety of God's omnipotence is adrift in unbelief...somehow, some way. Tonight, when we were praying this short, simple verse from 1 John 5, that fact really hit home. We either have Jesus and the very special fullness of life that is not available any other way…or we don't. It's just that simple.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What struck a deep chord within me tonight, particularly as we were praying for someone dear to us, is that sometimes the assaults of hardship, pain, and suffering upon our lives can unwittingly lead us to live in a state of spiritual deprivation or poverty. We can lose our grip on the power of Jesus living within us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's are some indicators that can signal our need to re-establish ourselves in the Son and the power of His living, active Word:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are easily agitated.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are bitter.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We choose avoidance, aggression, or cold shoulder strategies for solving problems with others.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We play Freud and psychoanalyze ourselves and others—often rationalizing our faults, and condemning the faults of others.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We maintain mostly surface level, superficial relationships.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We set up "traps" and "road blocks" to keep our <i>real </i>life outside of spiritual accountability.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We mask and pretend to be more "OK" than we really are.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We mistrust most people.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We assume the worst about others and their motives.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don't really believe that tomorrow will be better, or that God's mercies are "new every morning" for us.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We feel robbed and/or cheated.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We make excuses for bad behavior.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We think everyone wants something from us.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don't want to accept kindness or generosity from others because we don't want to owe them anything.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We break promises and vows.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We send out a lot of mixed messages.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We use busyness as an excuse for not dealing appropriately or effectively with people and/or problems.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We cite others' inability to understand, or our inability to change, as reasons why we "have to do it [my] own way."</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are easily offended.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We cut people off (in conversation, in relationships, in traffic, in our minds, in our hearts).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We lie to, or deceive ourselves and/or others, to avoid confrontation, conflict, and constructive patterns of solving problems.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We cite our feelings as sufficient reason(s) for wounding others.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We say we are sorry, but we don't change our behavior.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We say, "I know" but our actions suggest otherwise.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We accuse others with "crimes" we also commit ourselves.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The list could go on and on and on because of one simple fact, which is that sin—left unattended—leaves us inactive and lifeless. The list above shows us how we live when our tents are pitched outside the Word…outside the Son and His abundant life. When we truly have the Son…we are at peace with God, with ourselves, and with others. When we have the Son we have abundant life, so we don't feel threatened or thwarted by conflict or by human frailties. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having a life of spiritual abundance and sufficiency in Jesus is evidenced by how we live and love among others. How can we claim to have the Son, and have life, if so many of our habits and patterns reflect emptiness and death? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What's interesting to me is that every one of the indicators I've listed above, and many others, has a contra indicator that can be found in the LIVING and ACTIVE Word of God, which is "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12 ESV). In sum, and in short, if we have the Son, and we <b>have</b> life, then we also <b>HAVE</b> love—love from which <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A31-39&version=NLT" target="_blank">we cannot be separated</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we look honestly at ourselves and at the list above, can we really say that we have the Son, the abundant life He offers us, and love (for God and others) if our actions reflect emptiness and depravity instead of abundant life? The book of Joshua says it this way, </span></div>
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<span class="text Josh-24-15" id="en-ESV-6492" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">15 </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-6492A" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-6492A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></span>And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-6492B" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-6492B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span>choose this day whom you will serve, whether <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-6492C" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-6492C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></span>the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-6492D" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-6492D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></span>the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-6492E" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-6492E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)"></span>But as for me and my house, we will serve the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>.”</span></div>
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Sometimes…it's just that simple. </div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-56071658996697458402014-07-28T21:03:00.000-04:002014-07-28T21:28:12.251-04:00Are Your Roots Showing? - A little ramble on dye jobs, highlights, touch-ups, and transplants<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4z9Al9vGVjieML6tCQYfETLyrfuHMqvvJz-Pcj5iyE73vCF3LNw0JhEkCPK_ZhQJ1-fKnbuwh-0WqeFrnluH76A6ofAy6Bz4APGmQrV7e0kA4WKY2iPrlfjPBUWkWiEbIolucF0r8QmE/s1600/photo-38.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4z9Al9vGVjieML6tCQYfETLyrfuHMqvvJz-Pcj5iyE73vCF3LNw0JhEkCPK_ZhQJ1-fKnbuwh-0WqeFrnluH76A6ofAy6Bz4APGmQrV7e0kA4WKY2iPrlfjPBUWkWiEbIolucF0r8QmE/s1600/photo-38.JPG" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In this day and age, females of increasingly younger ages are likely to have at least one experience with coloring their hair…if only by way of <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Dip-Dye-Hair-with-Kool-Aid" target="_blank">a box of Kool-Aid</a>. Women and girls are often willing to try just about anything to get a new and different look, setting themselves apart as unique and interesting. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjphiV5kDRk5m10g8LIxvOwmUQB-dCjsYo8Ni8uMscx_4mkPHEQM-whg_PIRXY4vvUhnlnTt81V0eDJ8eCzB2s4TF9rwUI-TTDt9cMuBRhyOaCjMlbsIEutcQaQZSFpQ_IIISEdvTdniX0/s1600/Kool-Aid+Hair+Dye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjphiV5kDRk5m10g8LIxvOwmUQB-dCjsYo8Ni8uMscx_4mkPHEQM-whg_PIRXY4vvUhnlnTt81V0eDJ8eCzB2s4TF9rwUI-TTDt9cMuBRhyOaCjMlbsIEutcQaQZSFpQ_IIISEdvTdniX0/s1600/Kool-Aid+Hair+Dye.jpg" height="320" width="263" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Just take a look at these quotes from some famous folks, and you'll see that there's a lot of insight to be gained from how we view our hair.</span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">“Some of the worst mistakes in my life were haircuts” — Jim Morrison</span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">“If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.” — Hilary Rodham Clinton</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">And my personal favorite, from the great Hollywood actress, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Joan Crawford, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">“I think that the most important thing a woman can have—next to talent, of course—is her hairdresser.” Sultry, edgy, and intense Joan had a point. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXQCx5qNoX1X_mtyJD-lx5k4GXyKV9iXHCqOe6kMs0NaiIgdWvvuF26nmE9Yn39JUMKrf9PNrAkL83osdycG9lkpx3TnIiLBmsZuwbhLizgCgiZroHoAw0Xiwtl9KnzawEp2e7NgCunWE/s1600/joan-crawford-mildred-pierce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXQCx5qNoX1X_mtyJD-lx5k4GXyKV9iXHCqOe6kMs0NaiIgdWvvuF26nmE9Yn39JUMKrf9PNrAkL83osdycG9lkpx3TnIiLBmsZuwbhLizgCgiZroHoAw0Xiwtl9KnzawEp2e7NgCunWE/s1600/joan-crawford-mildred-pierce.jpg" height="320" width="265" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Your hairdresser can really make or break the statement you make out in the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">For myself, I'm pretty into my <i>mane</i>. I never feel quite right with a dull coif, and since I'm blessed to have inherited my grandmother's "young" skin, I never feel good about letting my 51 years show through my gray hairs. After lots of trial and error, I decided to let my hairdresser make a dramatic change in my hair color. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Although I lived nearly 50 years as a dark brunette, when the gray started coming in faster than I could color them, I started increasing the intensity and number of my highlights. I am now, officially a blonde. I have the drivers license picture to prove it! (And no, you absolutely <u>CANNOT</u> see the picture!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">But here's the deal, if I don't keep vigilant watch over my '</span><i style="line-height: 18px;">do</i><span style="line-height: 18px;">, and if I grow too poor or too cheap to keep up with the demands of new growth…my roots begin to show. It can get very ugly in a hurry…kinda like a clumsy <a href="http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/ombre-hair-the-good-and-the-bad#slide=1" target="_blank">ombre</a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's pretty much the same with my Christian walk of faith as a <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disciple" target="_blank">disciple</a> of Jesus. If I am not deliberate and diligent in attending to my spiritual growth, it doesn't take long for me to become undisciplined, unkind, unforgiving, and unloving toward others. My dark roots of sin begin to show. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That's the thing about being a follower of Jesus. We are not called to be sinners—dyed and highlighted to look like saints. Our faith should emerge from having been transplanted from a life filled with conflict, sin, unforgiveness, and unrepentance, to a life of joy, obedience, forgiveness, and transformation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here's how Paul says it in a letter to the Ephesians:</span></div>
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<h1 class="passage-display" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="passage-display-bcv" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-right: 10px;">Ephesians 4:22-24</span><span class="passage-display-version" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline;">New American Standard Bible (NASB)</span></span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text Eph-4-22" id="en-NASB-29295" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>22</b></span><b> </b></span>that, in reference to your former manner of life, you <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-29295A" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-29295A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></span>lay aside the <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-29295B" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-29295B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span>old <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NASB-29295a" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NASB-29295a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%204:22-24#fen-NASB-29295a" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</span></span>self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-29295C" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-29295C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></span>lusts of deceit,</span> <span class="text Eph-4-23" id="en-NASB-29296" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">23</span> </span>and that you be <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-29296D" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-29296D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></span>renewed in the spirit of your mind,</span> <span class="text Eph-4-24" id="en-NASB-29297" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">24</span> </span>and <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-29297E" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-29297E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)"></span>put on the <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-29297F" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-29297F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)"></span>new <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NASB-29297b" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NASB-29297b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%204:22-24#fen-NASB-29297b" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote b">b</a>]</span></span>self, which <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NASB-29297c" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NASB-29297c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%204:22-24#fen-NASB-29297c" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote c">c</a>]</span></span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-29297G" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-29297G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)"></span>in <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">the likeness of</i> God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Footnotes:</span></h4>
<ol style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style-type: lower-alpha; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 20px;" type="a">
<li id="fen-NASB-29295a" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: lower-alpha;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%204:22-24#en-NASB-29295" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="Go to Ephesians 4:22">Ephesians 4:22</a> <span class="footnote-text" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Lit <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">man</i></span></span></li>
<li id="fen-NASB-29297b" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: lower-alpha;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%204:22-24#en-NASB-29297" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="Go to Ephesians 4:24">Ephesians 4:24</a> <span class="footnote-text" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Lit <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">man</i></span></span></li>
<li id="fen-NASB-29297c" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: lower-alpha;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%204:22-24#en-NASB-29297" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="Go to Ephesians 4:24">Ephesians 4:24</a> <span class="footnote-text" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Lit <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">according to God</i></span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To the Romans, Paul says it even more clearly and directly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="passage-display-bcv" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-right: 10px;">Romans 12:2</span><span class="passage-display-version" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline;">New King James Version (NKJV)</span></span></h1>
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<span class="text Rom-12-2" id="en-NKJV-28248" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: yellow; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2</span> </span>And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</i> that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Rom-12-2" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">The basic command being forwarded by Paul in these verses is a consistent, intentional pattern of being not only reborn, but also being re-</span><i style="line-height: 24px;">formed, </i><span style="line-height: 24px;">and re-</span><i style="line-height: 24px;">newed</i><span style="line-height: 24px;">…again, and </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">again, and again until that mysterious and awesome day when we meet Jesus face to face. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">There's grace to cover our imperfection, and freedom to choose obedience over disobedience (or vice versa). </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">There is not, however, an opt-out plan that allows for disciples to live in a continuous "no-fault" state like a divorcee. Ultimately, we're either transplanted and transformed into something new with strong roots to endure, or we're going to get eaten up, dried up, or crowded out before long.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">***** ***** *****</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">The parable of the sower, which is found in three of the four gospel accounts of Jesus' life and ministry, explains these differences comparing our faith in Christ, and it's intended growth, to seeds that are intended to grow and bear fruit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="passage-display-bcv" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding-right: 10px;">Matthew 13:3-8</span><span class="passage-display-version" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline;">New American Standard Bible (NASB)</span></span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text Matt-13-3" id="en-NASB-23543" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">3 </span>And He spoke many things to them in <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-23543A" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-23543A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></span>parables, saying, <span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">“Behold, the sower went out to sow;</span></span> <span class="text Matt-13-4" id="en-NASB-23544" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">4 </span>and as he sowed, some <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">seeds</i> fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.</span> <span class="text Matt-13-5" id="en-NASB-23545" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">5 </span>Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.</span> <span class="text Matt-13-6" id="en-NASB-23546" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">6 </span>But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.</span> <span class="text Matt-13-7" id="en-NASB-23547" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">7 </span>Others fell <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NASB-23547a" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NASB-23547a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+13%3A3-8&version=NASB#fen-NASB-23547a" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</span>among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.</span><span class="text Matt-13-8" id="en-NASB-23548" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">8 </span>And others fell on the good soil and *yielded a crop, some a <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-23548B" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-23548B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span>hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Footnotes:</span></h4>
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<li id="fen-NASB-23547a" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: lower-alpha;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+13%3A3-8&version=NASB#en-NASB-23547" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="Go to Matthew 13:7">Matthew 13:7</a> <span class="footnote-text" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Lit <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">upon</i></span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The fact is, when it comes to growing a good, hearty crop, much has to do with the roots. There's no long term "posing" if you're a farmer. It will become painfully obvious to everyone that you may have left the city, but you're no farmer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ineptitude may make for a lot of laughs on an old television show like Green Acres, but in real life an inept farmer can lose every last cent, and the farm too if the crops don't take root, grow up, and get harvested. There's no hiding that kind of failure for long.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Not to mix metaphors, but isn't it a lot like that with our dyed, highlighted, and touched up hair? Short of a complete hair transplant, no brunette can be a perpetual blonde, and even then the brunette DNA remains unchanged. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">No matter how good your hairdresser is, you cannot be a natural blonde without a truly miraculous intervention by God. And even if you should be the recipient of such a miracle, you'd still need to care for your hair to ensure that it is kept regularly clean and cut. It needs consistent attention to not only </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">look</i><span style="line-height: 20px;"> healthy, but also </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">be </i><span style="line-height: 20px;">healthy…so it can grow.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">People who color their hair will tell you that even touch-ups are insufficient for maintaining a good-looking head of hair. A few times a year it's necessary to completely re-do the base color for highlighted hair, or re-do a full head of color for hair that is colored without highlights.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Whether we're talking about hair coloring, farming, or Christian living…<b><u>EVERYTHING</u></b> has to do with the roots. You can't skimp or cheat for long, or your lack of care will show. Your roots will be exposed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Jesus explained it to His disciples this way, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13%3A34-35&version=NASB" target="_blank">"</a></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13%3A34-35&version=NASB" target="_blank"><span class="text John-13-34" id="en-NASB-26665" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">A <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-26665A" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-26665A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></span>new commandment I give to you, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-26665B" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-26665B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span>that you love one another, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-26665C" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-26665C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></span>even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.</span></span><span style="line-height: 24px;"> </span><span class="text John-13-35" id="en-NASB-26666" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”</span></span></a> We can say we're Christians all we want, but our roots will reveal the truth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In light of Jesus' teaching, we need to examine ourselves honestly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have to look at myself and ask some super tough questions:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Are my roots showing? Are they the roots of a truly transformed soul that has grown deep into the love and truth of Christ? Or are they the dark roots of sin that have been left to grow wild? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Am I just pretending at being a disciple of Jesus—covering my sins with some dye and a few highlights, maybe doing a few touch-ups once in a while? Or am I inviting God <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139%3A23-24&version=ESV" target="_blank">search me down to my roots and transform anything He finds grievous or offensive in me</a>? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When He reveals the truth of my condition, do I make excuses, and try to put off His efforts to prune me back? Or do I stand at the ready before before His pruning shears, anticipating new growth, healthy fruit, and a great harvest?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The answers to these questions are probably never more evident than through the lens of my responses to conflicts with the people I love. Sigh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I am unwilling to settle differences and solve problems on God's terms (love) with God's end (reconciliation) in mind…my dark, sinful roots show, and after awhile even a few touch-ups here and there are insufficient to disguise my rebellious nature. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sure, I can choose to highlight my finer qualities to keep the focus away from my unsightly roots, but that is not genuine care for my soul…or the souls of people I claim to love. More than that, occasional touch-ups and highlights don't demonstrate true love for my Savior, or His love for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How about you? Pray. Ask God to search you down to the roots. Ask Him to do whatever it takes—even pruning you back—to ensure that your roots grow down deep into His love, so that even your enemies, and the people with whom you find yourself in conflict, can see Jesus through you.</span></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-47628781238447652132014-07-27T02:38:00.003-04:002014-07-27T03:14:54.096-04:00At the Impulse of Thy Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Soooo many thoughts, tonight, as I process the events of the past day, and the present one that marks 51 years of my life on earth. I am reminded, once again, that my God sees me. He is <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139" target="_blank">intimately acquainted with all of my ways.</a> How do I know these things with any certainty? Well, to be honest, I take a lot on faith; I am blessed to have been so richly endowed with faith allows me to see life from a very unique perspective.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For example, when I came to the end of a deeply emotional day yesterday, my whole soul was eager to meet God in prayer, and to press into God's arms, letting Him enfold me as I shared my heart and sought His wisdom. He was present and waiting for me with this verse:</span><br />
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<h1 class="passage-display" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="passage-display-bcv" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding-right: 10px;">Hebrews 12:1</span><span class="passage-display-version" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline;">New American Standard Bible (NASB)</span></span></h1>
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.55em; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span class="text Heb-12-1" id="en-NASB-30214" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Jesus, the Example</span></span></h3>
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<span class="text Heb-12-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="chapternum" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; bottom: -0.1em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 24px; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;"><b>12</b></span><span class="chapternum" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; bottom: -0.1em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;"> </span>Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-30214A" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-30214A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></span>lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-30214B" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-30214B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span>run with <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-30214C" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-30214C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></span>endurance the race that is set before us,</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-12-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As my prayer embraced this verse, I became confidently aware of a few things:</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-12-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First, I am not alone. God sees me and all that concerns me. In fact, all the saints in heaven, and indeed the heavens themselves—<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+147:4-5" target="_blank">the stars that He calls out by name</a>—are a <i>great cloud of witnesses </i>with whom I share <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2019:25" target="_blank">a testimony of my God as my creator and redeemer who lives.</a> </span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-12-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yet, I was not only keenly aware of His presence, I also found myself reminded of how the troubles of life are not impenetrable walls that prevent me from a blessed life. I am charged, in fact, with a duty to lay aside EVERY <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encumbrance" target="_blank">encumbrance</a>—especially my sinfulness—that might inhibit me from not only accepting the life that was given to me, but embracing it and living it with <b><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/endurance" target="_blank">endurance</a>, </b>and<b> </b>with God's end, not my own, in mind<b>.</b> </span></span></div>
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<span class="text Heb-12-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">I asked myself what it really means to </span><i style="line-height: 24px;">lay aside every encumbrance</i><span style="line-height: 24px;">, and I realized quickly that God never asks us to lay aside reality, only any weight of reality that threatens to hold us back from saying, </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%203" style="line-height: 24px;" target="_blank">"Here am I," as Samuel the prophet did</a><span style="line-height: 24px;">, when God calls us to something…no matter how challenging. So, for example, whether I am carrying the weight of illness, poor finances, or even profound grief and suffering, God says I am to lay down any part of these things that limits my ability to take the life that is set before me, and live it daily in service and obedience </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude+1%3A24-25&version=KJV" style="line-height: 24px;" target="_blank">to Him who is able to keep me from falling</a><span style="line-height: 24px;">.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">We might think of it this way: God would never ask us to deal in </span><i style="line-height: 24px;">unreality.</i><span style="line-height: 24px;"> If we are sick, or poor, or grief-stricken, etc., God doesn't ask us to stop being ill, or poor, or bereaved. He only asks that we let Him sift off from our troubles any part(s) that stand between us and His will for our lives—the lives we have set before us. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">So, God would never say to me, "Anne! You are not allowed to feel any sorrow or discomfort in this life!" Instead, God says, "Anne, you must not allow your sorrows or discomforts to stand in the way of your full obedience to me." That means my troubles are not an excuse for my disobedience.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">In fact, I think it's quite the opposite! I think laying aside encumbrances and running the </span><i style="line-height: 24px;">race</i><span style="line-height: 24px;"> of life means taking my troubles and using them as spiritual energy to help me draw nearer to God—receiving His strength in order to obey Him despite my human weaknesses. I don't get to say, "…but God, my body is broken with illness, my piggy bank is broken with financial pressures, my heart is broken with some terrible tragedy." Instead, my job is to persist in the endeavor to obey God at every unexpected twist and turn in life…from the highest highs to the lowest lows. I am to surrender myself and my whole life to God and His ways…whatever the path He has laid before me. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Oh sure; I can pretend at obedience on the surface, and then resent it down deep, but God sees. He knows. He is present…</span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+103:8-12" style="line-height: 24px;" target="_blank">slow to anger and abounding in love</a><span style="line-height: 24px;">. He has given us not only the freedom to disobey, but also the tools to obey…to run the race with endurance.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">In doing so, when we say, "Here am I, Lord," we are to do more than simply report for some kind of spiritual KP duty, and then kvetch the whole time. We are to report as hands, feet, hearts, lips, and eyes that move "at the <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impulse" target="_blank">impulse</a> of His love." So we can be sure, whether we are asked to love our enemies, our neighbors, our families, or even ourselves, He has already given us His love to do the job, and to do it well for the long haul. He has already loved before us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">We do well to ask ourselves, then, if we are living fully surrendered lives that move at His impulses, and not our own. If we are not, we can ask God, "Why?" but He will undoubtedly answer by giving us some sort of reminder that we have failed to lay aside any weight that keeps us from acting <i><b>at the impulse of His love</b></i>.</span></span></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-76539247730315955002014-07-01T01:08:00.001-04:002014-07-07T11:04:25.783-04:00It Takes Gratitude to Keep a Connection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="text Eph-1-16" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Have you ever stopped to think about what (precisely) keeps you consistently connected to some people, while others fall by the wayside of your life? I think I always just assumed that connections are maintained or broken through simple realities such as peace or conflict, and presence or absence. Those assumptions kind of flew out the window for me today while I was driving with my daughter to Target.</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Eph-1-16" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">We were talking about someone precious to us who's been through a really rough time lately. My daughter remarked that our dear one always seems the closest to us at the times when she expresses gratitude and appreciation for us, and seems the most disconnected from us when the gratitude fades away. I thought that was a profound observation for a 14 year old. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="text Eph-1-16" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Yet, it's true, isn't it? The more gratitude we feel toward someone, the more connected we feel to them. Of course, it's obvious that when we experience conflict or disappointment with someone, gratitude isn't really the first thing that comes to mind. That realization started me thinking about how it is that we tend to solve problems and stay connected with some people but not others. It seems to me that gratitude plays a major role in our choices to maintain close connections with people.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">When we fall into conflicts and run low on gratitude that is the beginning of disconnection. Conflicts draw our attention toward whatever has offended or disappointed us, and away from cultivating gratitude. It doesn't take long for gaps to develop, and relationships to begin falling apart.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">However, if we take a cue from the apostle, Paul, we are likely to find a way to hurt less and heal more. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul says, "I do not cease to give thanks for you." He minimizes the opportunity for conflicts and disappointments to do substantial damage to his relationship with the Ephesians by thanking God for them—remembering them in his prayers. Since we have evidence throughout the New Testament that Paul lived a life of prolific prayer, we can safely say that when Paul says, "I do not cease to give thanks for you" he's not inflating the truth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Paul's heart of gratitude, and his practice of prayer, served to protect and grow his relationships with people in the church at Ehpesus. He communicates with them, and not only expresses his gratitude for the Ephesians, but also blesses them (Eph. 1:3) and instructs them throughout his letter. Paul is invested. These people were given to Paul in trust by God, and so he felt appropriately responsible to cultivate the relationship. He followed through with his calling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">So…what about us? Do we follow through with God's call upon our lives—His commandment to love others—and keep a hedge of protection around our relationships through gratitude and prayer? Think about a conflicted relationship in your life. What would happen if you decided to pray gratefully for the person/people without ceasing, even if the most you could initially feel gratitude for is God's opportunity to develop character and obedience in you through the conflict? What if you started these ceaseless prayers by calling for God's blessing over the person or people with whom you are in conflict?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">I have tried this exercise myself, and it works to reveal my heart and shift the focus away from the conflict and toward my own flaws. More than that, it works to help me feel more connected to people and more willing to do my part in protecting the relationship. At times when I've thrown my hands up in the air, walked away, and not come back with a heart to settle the problem amicably, I have also stopped praying and blessing people. I have lost my gratitude, and ultimately my relationship. In sum, I've been disobedient. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">However, when I've actively and consistently prayed for and blessed someone who has offended or disappointed me, the relationship may be rocked, but it remains in tact. Not only that, but the relationship heals and grows stronger. It's not rocket science, and it's not a secret. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">When we follow God's design for love and relationship with people we experience fewer disconnections, and greater personal peace. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">I mean, it stands to reason that conflicts solved through obedience to God in prayer, and in gratitude, will lead to more peaceful lives. It really doesn't make sense to live any other way.</span></div>
Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-17573224258471829862014-06-23T10:00:00.003-04:002014-06-23T20:08:45.232-04:00"Don't Dis' Me, Man!" - Have We Become Pathological Name-Callers?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the years since psychology and psychiatry have gained respect and public acceptance, the Western world, in particular, has incorporated many diagnostic terms into everyday vocabulary. In contemporary America, you probably cannot go a day in normal conversation without someone self-disclosing—if only jokingly—about their ADD, ADHD, or even "schizo" behaviors. There probably isn't a cocktail party in any major city where someone isn't naming someone else as a "manic" or "clinical" or <fill in the blank> over a martini. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Frankly, I'm at the point where I want to shout, "ENOUGH ALREADY!" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I mean, isn't about time we all stop playing armchair mental health professional, and start talking about ourselves and others more…kindly…more…<i>human-ly? </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If our deepest ways of understanding one another have to come from a professional manual that exists to define and catalog mental and emotional disorders, doesn't that seem…I dunno…kind of…sick? Obsessive? Pathological…? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Seriously, how does persistently calling someone a "case" or "co-dependent" or "OCD" help us to treat people with Christ-like humility and kindness? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This world is a red-hot mess. People get hurt out there—really banged up. Is this the best we can do, as the people of God? We break out our label-makers, like Martha Stewart, and go around assuring that everyone knows who we think is bi-polar or personality disordered...? Dude, really? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Think about it. Our friends hear us calling one another by "clinical" names. People share what we say about others. (That, incidentally, is called gossip…just sayin'.) If that's how we roll, then what happens when we fall into conflict with people? Do we check their label and start with the dis'…? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cool it with the clinical and the Haterade, peeps. If you call yourself a Christian, you can't be down with that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Word <b>up</b>…</span></div>
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<span class="text Eph-4-29" id="en-ESV-29285" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">29 </span><span class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29285A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></span>Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give <span class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29285B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span>grace to those who hear.</i></span></div>
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<span class="text Eph-4-29" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You get me? Knock it off! </span><br />
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<span class="text Eph-4-29">Explain to me—please, I'm all ears—how slapping on labels and walking off all confident in your "professional" Dx (that's how the professionals write "diagnosis") builds anyone up or gives grace to those who hear. Ya. I thought so. You can't.</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Eph-4-29" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You didn't ask for my non-professional opinion, but here it is anyway…</span></div>
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<span class="text Eph-4-29" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Stick with <i>The Golden Rule</i>. "<span class="text Luke-6-30" id="en-ESV-25168"><span class="woj">Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.</span></span> <span class="text Luke-6-31" id="en-ESV-25169"><span class="woj"><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">31</span><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;"> </span>And <span class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25169B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span>as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them" (Luke 6:30-31).</span></span> </span><br />
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<span class="text Eph-4-29">If you think someone needs professional help, guide them there…gently. Kindly. If you can't, pray and seek someone who can. But put down your little label maker and chill, for heaven's sake! Who died and left you Freud? </span></span><br />
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<span class="text Eph-4-29">And don't just leave the broken, wounded people you encounter to go around wearing their labels and searching for hope. No one says you have to "fix" them, but you can be nice. You can be an encourager. </span></span><br />
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Yo, and one more thing…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you really can't get yourself to the place where you stop with the name-calling (because that's what it is) and start with the edifying (because that's what it ain't) you can be rock solid that there's a whole pipeline of folks who have your page marked in the manual. They onto you.</span><br />
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-52501381889389411432014-06-18T16:39:00.001-04:002014-06-18T23:02:24.791-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Galatians 5:22-25</i></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="text Gal-5-22" id="en-NLT-29145"><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">22 </span>But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,</span> <span class="text Gal-5-23" id="en-NLT-29146"><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">23 </span>gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! </span><span class="text Gal-5-24" id="en-NLT-29147"><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">24 </span>Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.</span> <span class="text Gal-5-25" id="en-NLT-29148"><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">25 </span>Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.</span></i></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Growing in Grace Means Growing Healthy Fruit: </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There's no room for bad seeds</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">How we grow in grace often depends on what seeds we sow. Growing the fruits of the Spirit means cultivating healthy fruits from a good garden. If we plant good seeds, and cultivate our lives as good places where people thrive among us, the harvest of grace is great. If we plant old, tired see</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #37404e; line-height: 20px;">ds we'll limit our yield and probably cause the people and places around us to become distressed and withered.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline;"><br /><span style="color: #37404e; line-height: 20px;">Most of us have a lot of old habits shoved into the drawers and boxes of our lives, or neatly hung and arranged by occasion for later use—perhaps even stashed away in a vault for emergencies. Nothing wrong with that. Not all of our old habits are bad. Some of them become tried and true practices that never lose effectiveness, i.e. being grateful, taking care of our health, being kind to others. Habits like these are all keepers.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #37404e; line-height: 20px;">However, when we enter new seasons in our lives, which inevitably lead to new people, passions, and problems, many old habits are no longer serviceable. They become bad seeds. In fact, we may well find that these habits are entirely destructive. They often rob new seasons of good fruit. Some new seasons are traumatic and unsettling. They leave us broken and bruised on the inside. We develop coping skills that are briefly effective and tolerable for getting us through a crisis, but—left in place as habits—our <i>bad seeds</i> begin having corrosive effects upon our lives.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline;"><span style="color: #37404e; line-height: 20px;">I came from a family that had the cruelest joke. They marked dramatic shifts in my life by my birthday. "If it's Anne's birthday," they'd say, "then it must be moving day." For <b>YEARS</b>, my birthday's convenient summer timing made it the "just right" occasion for my mother to move us either in or out of my grandparents comfortable home. (The <i>out</i> was never a welcome change.) Every once in a while we would even do it in between…right around Christmas. Sigh.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #37404e;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Each time, I would have to gather up my things (or simply come home and find they had been gathered for me) unpack them into the latest new life, and start over, all while avoiding conflict with my mother, and keeping silent…no complaints allowed. I'd learned from a very early age that crying, complaining, or questioning inevitably led to truly dangerous tirades. These were rife with long, hard winds of abusive words, and irrational, violent outbursts that resulted in things like bruises, cut lips, abrasions, clumps of hair falling out…and tears that would keep the horrors coming until some distraction called her fury to an end. All of this was to say nothing of the abuses I suffered as an even younger child at my father's hands. For much of my childhood, I learned how to keep my complaints to myself. I learned the safety of silence.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline;"><span style="color: #37404e;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Even my well-meaning grandmother promoted silence as a safety measure. Since my mother would be gone for days, and (at least once) even weeks at a time, my grandmother looked to silence as the gateway to peace when my mother was at home. Not wanting to lose her youngest daughter, but trying to protect me, my grandmother decided that silence was the way to keep her blood pressure and nitroglycerin pills to a minimum, and my safety to the maximum. When she'd see my mother ramping up into an angry episode she'd pull me aside and whisper, "Just don't say anything. Shut up. She'll leave soon and we'll have peace and quiet." My grandfather, often at work and seldom at home for the worst of my mother's rages, </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">would just shake his head and half mutter/half chuckle, saying of my mother, "That girl could disturb a high mass!" as he walked away. So, as long as my grandparents were around to diffuse things by encouraging my silence, I could escape most of the blasts with just a few slaps and some yelling.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Yet, not speaking my complaints didn't mean making peace with them. Instead, I learned to purge in order to start over—first my things, like souvenirs from good times at the old place, or yearbooks from the old school…and later my food. My once reliable habit of silence in the face of change was also a habit of silence in the face of abuse, and later a habit of silence in handling many of my other problems. I learned to "take one on the chin for the team" in order to control the madness. Of course, nothing could have been more counter-productive and dangerous for me in later seasons of problem solving. My silence stopped creating safety for me, or anyone else.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline;"><br /><span style="color: #37404e; line-height: 20px;">When seasons changed in my later years, and the problems of life grew more complex, silence no longer afforded me peace. In fact, silence became the great fertilizer of a bitter root in me that grew (unexpectedly, even to me) my own outbursts of hateful words, and stirred me to have hot-tempered responses to conflicts—cutting people to the quick, and then cutting them off to restore the silence. With even the smallest hint of conflict, I'd set my face like flint and move on with very little gratitude, if any, for any kindness that had been shown me. I had virtually no grace for others. I completely shut down.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline;"><span style="color: #37404e; line-height: 20px;">Later in life, I came to realize that silence can be two faced. While silence was the very good habit that allowed me to listen attentively and pick up on crucial nuances and details—a skill that has served me well in life as a teacher and encourager—it also drove me to alienate people, put out a lot of mixed messages, or sometimes stew too long, think too much, and ultimately lose my temper. Not so great.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #37404e;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">I've had to spend my the better part of my adult years, in each of its seasons, ferreting out the hiding places and poor practices of unhealthy silence, replacing them with a voice, and then training that voice to speak properly. It's not always easy, but I do it. I make a lot of mistakes. I fall down backward sometimes when an unfamiliar crisis reveals a few more bad seeds, but I keep learning to seek after ways of making grace, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control the centerpieces of my life. A spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation has been the natural outcropping of my best efforts, and the missing element of my worst failures.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #37404e; line-height: 20px;">What about you? If you look closely at conflicts in your life, are there old habits directing your responses to new seasons? How are these old habits working out for you? It's easy to blame others for not understanding you, or for not taking your cues and adapting to your new needs and preferences, but there comes a point when you may want to consider that your old habits are the greatest common factor in many of your conflicts and limitations. It may be time to plant some new seeds. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline;"><br /><span style="color: #37404e; line-height: 20px;">The more you get rid of the bad seeds and sow the good ones, the less likely you'll be to throw away, or push away, good people and a good life. Your life will be a good place for others to grow up alongside you. Plant the fruits of the Spirit. Cultivate a good garden. You'll find that you, and the people around you, will grow in grace and peace.</span></span></span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xXM8aGptMsk" width="560"></iframe>Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-68204308632217024452013-09-19T17:23:00.001-04:002013-09-19T23:18:17.312-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Love Is Not for Cowards</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In his philosophical and theological study of love titled <i>The Four Loves, </i>author, C.S. Lewis, has this to say about the risks we take in endeavoring to love and be loved, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> <b><i>To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung </i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">selfishness. But in that casket safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is to be vulnerable.</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Part of what is so interesting in Lewis' point is the irony of how we tend to view vulnerability as a mark of weakness when, in reality, vulnerability takes great courage and a commitment of honor. Vulnerability as weakness is certainly true in nature. The vulnerable creatures—the ones that foolishly reveal themselves by walking alone—are typically the ones that are devoured when some opportunistic predator takes notice. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The sickly, the small, the frail, the lonely, the wounded, and the elderly zebras are frequently lunch for the lions, and there is a sense in which that fact is also true among human beings. Those who reveal themselves to be limping along somehow, those who are the weakest and most alone in the world, are very often gobbled up by the predatory people roaming among us. Still, God has provided a system of protection through His command to love one another. We just fail to use it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Perhaps our collective "buy in" to a Darwinian view of the world has cost us our critical understanding of the substantial ways that we are different from the animals. If we view our chief end as a matter of survival, then it stands to reason that we would consider vulnerability a character trait of the weak and the foolish. Fair enough. Worldview sets the perimeter for belief. So in wrestling with our animal instinct to survive and our human need for companionship, most of us settle on being selectively vulnerable. We are satisfied that caution + wisdom = relative safety. Sounds reasonable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But if our worldview is rooted in biblical Christianity, we cannot necessarily apply the same standards of reason to our beliefs. There's no fence to straddle. The chief end of human beings—their <i>raison d'etre—</i>is to love God and to enjoy relationship with Him forever. If Lewis' argument (love requires vulnerability) holds, then the greatest love we were created for is no exception. In both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, we are told that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. In other words, hold nothing back. Nothing. No. Thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In fact, in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew Jesus is asked about this commandment, and he makes it clear that loving God and loving others are practically inseparable. In keeping the commandment to love God without holding anything back, by extension we're required to love others as if they were our very own selves. By holding these two commandments as our principles for living, we essentially obey the whole law of God...but, of course, we don't...not by a long shot. Our human instinct to survive sets us up to abandon our supernatural calling to be vulnerable—to be open, accessible, transparent, generous lovers of God and man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well, here's the reality of wearing the name <i>Christian</i>. We cannot take that name on and off like a name tag at a conference. Sure, we may do that and fool a whole lot of folks, but God sees. He knows a poser when He sees one. If we wear His Name with integrity and sincerity, then we don't get to pawn off our lack of love and vulnerability toward our fellow humans as merely the "animal" nature. <insert "wrong answer" buzzer here></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Commandments aren't suggestions, and being given the name of the king to wear as our own isn't like a hall pass to go and smoke in the rest room. Our sin and survival instincts are not license for cowardice and dishonor. Love and vulnerability require courage and honor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Love rides into the valley of death with God and with others. Love goes follows its cause and its calling out of obedience to God even when it seems crazy. Love doesn't question or reason, it just forges ahead through anything and everything...propelled by courage and by honor. Love <i>is but to do and die. </i>Courage pushes us forward when our honor is on the line.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i> </i><b><i>That's why courage is tricky...sometimes you might not even know why you're </i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">doing something. I mean, any fool can have courage, but honor, that's the real </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">reason you either do something or you don't. It's who you are, and maybe who </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">you want to be. If you die trying for something important then you have both </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">honor and courage, and that's pretty good...you should hope for courage and try </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">for honor, and maybe even pray that the people [you love] have some too. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">—from </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Blind Side</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Bible says it this way,</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 Corinthians 13:4-8</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><i><span class="text 1Cor-13-4" id="en-NIV-28670"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; vertical-align: top;">4 </sup>Love is patient,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28670A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup> love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28670B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup></span> <span class="text 1Cor-13-5" id="en-NIV-28671"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; vertical-align: top;">5 </sup>It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28671C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup> it is not easily angered,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28671D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></sup> it keeps no record of wrongs.<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28671E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)"></sup></span><span class="text 1Cor-13-6" id="en-NIV-28672"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; vertical-align: top;">6 </sup>Love does not delight in evil<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28672F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)"></sup> but rejoices with the truth.<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28672G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)"></sup></span> <span class="text 1Cor-13-7" id="en-NIV-28673"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; vertical-align: top;">7 </sup>It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.<sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28673H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)"></sup></span></i></b></span><br />
<span class="text 1Cor-13-8" id="en-NIV-28674"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><i><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; vertical-align: top;">8 </sup>Love never fails.</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To call ourselves Christians is to answer God's call to courage and honor. There's no way around it. Love may call us into the muck and mire of people's lives. Love may call us deep into the valley of death, but we are never called by a leader who hasn't been there already. He made it back alive. Follow Him. Trust Him. Obey Him. You'll make it out alive too.</span></div>
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<br />Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-9452352830771976112013-04-04T01:07:00.001-04:002013-04-04T01:18:41.231-04:00Field Notes from the Prayer TrenchesSo...I received this prayer burden today (an extra measure of spirit-tugging beyond what has been a nearly 4 year calling) and somehow, before the day was out, it became a determination to spend the next 5 days praying for a pretty lengthy list of people and situations. I'm very excited...and a bit overwhelmed. It's strange how prayer always seems like the least you can do for someone...until you really hit your knees and hunker down on the prayer front. Then, suddenly, the idea of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and sweating blood doesn't seem so far fetched. Prayer can be nearly an athletic endeavor sometimes—truly exhausting!<br />
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I spent part of the day meditating on <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+4%3A15&version=AMP" target="_blank">Hebrews 4:15</a>, which reminds us that Jesus is our greatest comforter because He has experienced and risen above every weakness, <i>sickness</i>, and temptation that comes to us through sin. By the time I came to prayer late this evening, I'd really started thinking about how profound that is. I had in mind the horrific tragedies people experience, and live to tell about, in life. One friend lost a dear one in the World Trade Center attack, another found out she has breast cancer, several others have out-lived their children, someone else was raped...and it goes on and on. I stopped and wept over one particular situation that someone we love has endured. My heart was stirred deeply as I held fast to the hem of God's garment and pleaded for His attention and blessing in prayer.</div>
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There amid my tears and prayers it hit me. There are some circumstances in life that can only be comforted by the Lord Jesus, who really <i>gets it. </i>I thought about Job, and what it must have been like to receive wave upon wave of horrible news—his children, servants, livelihood, and health all gone. And with them all but a strand of faith dangling over a pit of despair, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough_of_Despond" target="_blank">Slough of Despond</a>. </div>
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As I wept and prayed for our dear one it occurred to me that some life experiences bring home to us the idea that nothing and no one on this earth is "safe" from <u>anything</u>. Not one breath is promised...not one moment of peace or innocence can be protected from violation. Once you come to that realization by way of hard times and tragedies, it's not so easy to just call up a pile of comfort from within. The thing about tragedies is that they leave us with a sense of emptiness and depletion. They fill us with fear for what could be next to count among our griefs.</div>
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I wept harder as I continued to pray and wonder what it could possibly take to restore people who endure unimaginable tragedies and losses...the things we dare not speak of because they are our worst fears. My breath went away from me momentarily. How, I wondered, does anyone endure the nightmares of this life? When the hideously unimaginable comes home to roost, how in the world do we hold onto hope and let go of fear?</div>
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The answer came to me in the verse I started with. There are times and seasons and circumstances in life that rock us to our core, and that cause our souls to bleed with pain that defies our best explanation. The agony cannot be reasoned away; it can only be given over to the One who understands and can truly empathize with our sufferings because He has experienced them all himself...even though He was sinless. Jesus—Wonderful, Counselor Jesus—endured it all. And yet He did something amazing. Jesus gave it all, paid it all, so that we would not be left without a genuine comforter...one whose agonies included and exceeded our own. Then He did something even more amazing. HE LIVED.</div>
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Isn't that an incredible model? Jesus gave his flesh—all the sin, death, and temptation this world could hurl at him—and received life...new, whole, healed, blessed life...life intended to be given away for our sake again, and again, and again. Wow!</div>
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As I sat there, poured out before Jesus in prayer and meditating on why and how it could be so comforting to know that a sinless man from over 2000 years ago understood and sympathized with our troubles, I asked God this question. <i>What difference could it make that anyone (sinless or not) cares about our times of tribulation and really sympathizes?</i> That brought on more weeping for our dear one's suffering. Then...light. I remembered what made our King Jesus and his sympathetic comforts so special. </div>
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I envisioned Moses hearing the news that he would not enter the Promised Land. I imagined Job confronted by God while in the throes of grief and unexplained tragic losses. I thought about Elijah fleeing from Jezebel and suddenly encountering God. There was a truth I'd neglected to examine and bring into focus. The reason we don't read about Moses, or Job, or Elijah growing dark with fear and despair after their personal experiences with God is because He is Light and Life. He is the one the angels called "Holy, Holy, Holy." <a href="http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/19" target="_blank">His faithfulness is great.</a></div>
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We can receive comfort from even the most heinous disasters when we focus on not only the humanity of Jesus who knows our troubles by way of personal experience, but also when we focus on the breathtaking deity of Jesus who overcame sin and death through His perfect holiness...all so that we can live and live fully. If you are struggling to find the hand of peace and life in your darkness, meditate upon His humble humanity and His glorious holiness. Give him your fears and ask for life in return. Then...<b>praise Him.</b></div>
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I promise...He will not fail you.</div>
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"Oh praise the One who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead!"</div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-78967281899977222822013-03-31T13:37:00.003-04:002013-03-31T13:59:15.719-04:00Message from an Empty Tomb<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Luke 24</h3>
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<span class="text Luke-24-1" id="en-ESV-25982">The Resurrection</span></h3>
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<span class="text Luke-24-1"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; font-size: 1.25em; font-weight: bold; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">24 </span><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25982A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup>But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25982B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup>taking the spices they had prepared.</span> <span class="text Luke-24-2" id="en-ESV-25983"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">2 </sup>And they found <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25983C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup>the stone rolled away from the tomb,</span> <span class="text Luke-24-3" id="en-ESV-25984"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">3 </sup>but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.</span> <span class="text Luke-24-4" id="en-ESV-25985"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">4 </sup>While they were perplexed about this, behold, <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25985D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></sup>two <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25985E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)"></sup>men stood by them in dazzling apparel.</span> <span class="text Luke-24-5" id="en-ESV-25986"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">5 </sup>And as they were <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25986F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)"></sup>frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?</span><span class="text Luke-24-6" id="en-ESV-25987"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">6 </sup>He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25987G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)"></sup>while he was still in Galilee,</span> <span class="text Luke-24-7" id="en-ESV-25988"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">7 </sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25988H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)"></sup>that the Son of Man <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25988I" title="See cross-reference I">I</a>)"></sup>must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25988J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)"></sup>be crucified and on <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25988K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)"></sup>the third day rise.”</span> <span class="text Luke-24-8" id="en-ESV-25989"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">8 </sup>And <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25989L" title="See cross-reference L">L</a>)"></sup>they remembered his words,</span> <span class="text Luke-24-9" id="en-ESV-25990"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">9 </sup>and returning from the tomb they <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25990M" title="See cross-reference M">M</a>)"></sup>told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.</span></div>
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<span class="text Luke-24-9"><b><span style="font-size: large;">*****</span></b></span></div>
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Can you even imagine this scene? I'm pretty confident that everyone who heard the news of Jesus' empty tomb must have been thinking they'd lost their minds. Let's get real. Having an encounter with an angel first thing in the morning isn't exactly business as usual. Who sees "two men in dazzling apparel," except in Las Vegas or on Broadway? But there they were, announcing Jesus' resurrection.</div>
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We've been talking all week about grief and the resurrection, but let's talk for a minute about the promise and the message we have been given though grief. From deep within our grief, do we ever stop and return to prophesy of a glorious day when we will be resurrected? I know that in my own times of grief and sorrow, it has been easy to look forward to death and being with Jesus in heaven away from all the pain. In those times, I relate to the <a href="http://www.openbible.info/topics/life_after_death" target="_blank">Bible promises about being with Jesus in heaven.</a> But, to be honest, when I'm grieving I have trouble clinging to promises about my life on earth. I have trouble singing songs of hope.</div>
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This feeling of being disabled from hope is not unique, and it often feels like future joy mocks us. It is as if the days to come are like bullies who torment us saying, "Let's see you talk about hope and really mean it now!"<br />
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When the Israelites were captives of the Babylonians, they were asked to entertain and amuse their captors.</div>
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Psalm 137</h3>
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<span class="text Ps-137-1" id="en-ESV-16224">How Shall We Sing the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>'s Song?</span></h3>
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<span class="chapter-3"><span class="text Ps-137-1" style="position: relative;"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: 0.1em; font-size: 1.25em; font-weight: bold; left: -3em; line-height: 0.8em; position: absolute;">137 </span>By the waters of Babylon,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-137-1" style="position: relative;">there we sat down and wept,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-137-1" style="position: relative;">when we remembered Zion.</span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-137-2" id="en-ESV-16225" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">2 </sup>On the willows<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-ESV-16225a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]"></sup> there</span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-137-2" style="position: relative;">we hung up our lyres.</span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-137-3" id="en-ESV-16226" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">3 </sup>For there our captors</span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-137-3" style="position: relative;">required of us songs,</span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-137-3" style="position: relative;">and our tormentors, mirth, saying,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-137-3" style="position: relative;">“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Ps-137-4" id="en-ESV-16227" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">4 </sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-16227A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup>How shall we sing the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>'s song</span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-137-4" style="position: relative;">in a foreign land?</span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-137-5" id="en-ESV-16228" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;"><br /></sup></span></div>
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The Israelites were devastated. The psalmist says they just sat down and wept thinking about what was in their past—their homeland and heritage. They hung up and put away their musical instruments for praise and worship, but their captors required them to sing songs from home. The people of Israel were grieving, and wondered how they could ever sing the songs of their homeland—songs from the good ol' days—while being held captive. Isn't that just how it is for us when we grieve and mourn? But the psalm goes on to say, </div>
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<span style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold;">5 </span>If I forget you, O Jerusalem,</div>
<span class="indent-1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-137-5" style="position: relative;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-16228B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup>let my right hand forget its skill!</span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-137-6" id="en-ESV-16229" style="font-size: 16px; position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">6 </sup>Let my <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-16229C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup>tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-137-6" style="position: relative;">if I do not remember you,</span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-137-6" style="font-size: 16px; position: relative;">if I do not set Jerusalem</span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-137-6" style="position: relative;">above my highest joy!</span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="text Ps-137-6" style="position: relative;">Dear friends, grief can choke off our praise and pull a curtain around our memories of happier times...cutting them off from our hope for today and for the future. We we are in the clutches of grief and sadness, our lives can feel like tombs of death sealed from the outside by an immovable stone. We feel empty and depleted. </span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="text Ps-137-6" style="position: relative;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="text Ps-137-6" style="position: relative;">Yet, what if we chose to see things differently? 2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we can "</span></span><span style="font-size: 16px;">destroy arguments and </span><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28960A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup><span style="font-size: 16px;">every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to </span><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28960B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup><span style="font-size: 16px;">obey Christ," and that ability can be put into practice amid our pain and suffering. We can make up our minds, even right now, that we will not forget God's promises to us that are for THIS life, not just the life to come. Even though we grieve and mourn we have hope and we CAN experience joy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">My friends, out of our ashes, and out of our tombs of grief and loss, our God has been faithful to raise us up because HE was raised from death to life! And so, because He conquered sin and death for us, we have not only hope for the future, but hope for TODAY. We have a message—a testimony of Jesus' great faithfulness to us. But that is not the end of our message.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">What we find in grief is not only that He lives—Jesus who has already borne the sacrificial, crucified, tormented death of our griefs, and of all our sickness, sin, and shame—but WE live...and we live to share that message of hope that rose with Jesus out of the tomb. We live to share His love through our own stories of life, death, and resurrection from our personal tragedies and griefs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">I am praying today that everyone who grieves and mourns will take both courage and encouragement to let Jesus raise you up out of life's griefs (the stains of sin and death on our human hearts) so that you can tell His story and proclaim His love through your message from an empty tomb!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>And for anyone who does not yet know, or has not heard, the beautiful story of God's love, please visit my friends at <a href="http://whatisthegospel.org/" target="_blank">What is the Gospel?</a> and find out how you can have hope and share the great message from the empty tomb!</b></span></div>
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<br />Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-83765907856392612852013-03-30T18:45:00.002-04:002013-03-30T18:58:37.576-04:00The Sound of Silence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you have ever heard or read the story of the prophet, Elijah, you may remember that, at one point, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2019&version=NASB" target="_blank">he was on the run and in fear for his life from the evil Jezebel</a>. Elijah was literally running for his life; there was a price on his head. </div>
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I have heard Elijah's story told like the religious version of a Nora Ephron film, where, after many fits and starts, Elijah has this romanticized moment of closeness with God that turns the whole thing into a <i>happily ever after</i> tale. Forgive me, but I am impatient with these kinds of interpretations of Elijah's story. </div>
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First of all, he wasn't running like Chicken Little and crying that the sky was falling. Jezebel <b>really</b> wanted to have Elijah murdered! Second of all, it's all well and good to give messages on what a more brave and faithful Elijah would have/should have done, but the humanness of Elijah's story really ought to help us relate to the franticness of knowing that a life was truly in jeopardy. But, for me, Elijah's encounters with God are too neatly tied up by most people who discuss his mountain top revelation.</div>
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<b>God had been asking Elijah, "What are you doing here?" and I am sure it wasn't because He didn't know what was on Elijah's mind.</b> I sort of imagine it as God's way of getting Elijah to think beyond the immediacy of his circumstances. I can almost hear God saying, "Um...Elijah, not for nothin' but...did it ever occur to you that you are not where you belong? That you're not doing the work I have called you to do? Hmmm...?"</div>
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So by the time Elijah goes up to the mountain and experiences the drama and dangers of the wind, the earthquake, and the fire he was probably <b>FINALLY</b> beginning to wonder what it was that God had in mind...what God wanted him to do. Scripture goes on to tell us that God was not in any of the violent weather, but was finally revealed in a "a gentle blowing" sometimes referred to as a whisper, or "a still small voice."And yet even after that God still asked Elijah what he was doing there. That suggests to me that the still small voice was probably a supernatural breath into what was otherwise a deafening silence for Elijah.</div>
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<b>My friends, profound grief comes with much legitimate fear. In grief we learn just how much we can lose, how cruelly and suddenly we can lose it, and how quickly the world seems to go on despite our agony. </b>There's a reason people struggle to comfort the bereaved. Grievous events and situations are thieves of words and crushers of our explanatory powers. We cannot get our minds around the catalysts of grief because they are both entirely normal within the human experience, and yet entirely personal to us as individuals.</div>
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Can you imagine all the on-lookers and Jesus' mother, friends, family, and followers after it was clear that he was dead? Imagine the theatrics and then the equivalent of an announcer saying, "That's it folks. Show's Over. Everybody go home. Jesus has left the building." It's like that as we experience grief. </div>
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<b>In the midst of the dramas that lead up to our grief, we are asking God, "what am I doing here?" and expecting some grand response from on high.</b> But for a time the answer may be nothing more than a whisper of wind and silence. In the vortex of pain and suffering that follows our traumas and opens the portals of grief, we too go silent for a time, and only occasionally ask what it is that God expects us to do with our suffering. We want to repeat our list sorrows to God. Yet our gentle Father in Heaven continues to ask us, "What are you doing here?" Dear ones, my sense is that God means to tell us that we cannot pitch our tents in the wilderness of grief and expect mountain top revelations akin to <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+34&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Moses' encounter where he received the 10 commandments</a> and chiseled them on the tablets.</div>
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<b>In fact, more often than not God will send us back to our lives to continue His work as before, only wiser and with greater reverence, humility, and obedience before Him.</b> That is certainly true of Elijah. And in one way or another it is inevitably what God has in mind for us. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Job did not remain in sackcloth and ashes. He got up, scarified, prayed, and went about the business of starting a new family</a>...knowing well that it could all be stripped away again without explanation. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%2024:15-18&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Ezekiel was not even allowed to grieve the death of his wife.</a> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah+3&version=NASB" target="_blank">Jonah was put right back on task</a>.</div>
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<b>Maybe the reason <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2034:18&version=NKJV" target="_blank">the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds</a> is because He has work for them to do that requires their prayers of repentance, their acts of sacrifice, their commitment to the calling God placed on their lives...in sum, their trust and obedience.</b></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-12736009872009587532013-03-28T11:48:00.001-04:002013-03-28T11:56:29.945-04:00This Cup Is the New Covenant<div style="text-align: center;">
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1 Corinthians 11:25</span></h3>
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<span class="text 1Cor-11-25" id="en-ESV-28609" style="color: blue;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">25 </sup>In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, <span class="woj">“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”</span></span></div>
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As we're thinking about grief and the resurrection, we come to Maundy Thursday—our recognition of the Passover feast and the covenant of communion. I have not made a study of Jesus' last days, but as I was preparing for this post I couldn't help thinking about Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.</div>
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Matthew 26:36-56</h3>
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<span style="color: blue;"><span class="text Matt-26-36"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">36 </sup><span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24087A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup></span>Then Jesus went with them <span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24087B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup></span>to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, <span class="woj">“Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”</span></span> <span class="text Matt-26-37" id="en-ESV-24088"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">37 </sup>And taking with him <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24088C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup>Peter and <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24088D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></sup>the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.</span> <span class="text Matt-26-38" id="en-ESV-24089"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">38 </sup>Then he said to them, <span class="woj"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24089E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)"></sup>“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24089F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)"></sup>watch<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-ESV-24089a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]"></sup> with me.”</span></span> <span class="text Matt-26-39" id="en-ESV-24090"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">39 </sup>And going a little farther he fell on his face <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24090G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)"></sup>and prayed, saying, <span class="woj">“My Father, if it be possible, let <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24090H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)"></sup>this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”</span></span> <span class="text Matt-26-40" id="en-ESV-24091"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">40 </sup>And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, <span class="woj">“So, could you not watch with me one hour?</span></span> <span class="text Matt-26-41" id="en-ESV-24092"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">41 </sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24092J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)"></sup>Watch and <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24092K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)"></sup>pray that you <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24092L" title="See cross-reference L">L</a>)"></sup>may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”</span><span class="text Matt-26-42" id="en-ESV-24093"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">42 </sup>Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, <span class="woj">“My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24093M" title="See cross-reference M">M</a>)"></sup>your will be done.”</span></span> <span class="text Matt-26-43" id="en-ESV-24094"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">43 </sup>And again he came and found them sleeping, for <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24094N" title="See cross-reference N">N</a>)"></sup>their eyes were heavy.</span> <span class="text Matt-26-44" id="en-ESV-24095"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">44 </sup>So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24095O" title="See cross-reference O">O</a>)"></sup>the third time, saying the same words again.</span> <span class="text Matt-26-45" id="en-ESV-24096"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">45 </sup>Then he came to the disciples and said to them, <span class="woj">“Sleep and take your rest later on.<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-ESV-24096b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]"></sup> See, <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24096P" title="See cross-reference P">P</a>)"></sup>the hour is at hand, and <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24096Q" title="See cross-reference Q">Q</a>)"></sup>the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.</span></span> <span class="text Matt-26-46" id="en-ESV-24097"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">46 </sup>Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”</span></span></div>
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<span class="text Matt-26-46" style="font-weight: normal;">It is interesting to me that even before the Passover feast, Jesus is talking about the grief he is about to bear as a <i>cup</i>. It may be he is referring to the cup used to pour out offerings on the altar in the temple, though I think quite a few scholars point to the cup as figurative language referring to a person's destiny. Either way, I think the cup also provides a useful metaphor for us to talk about grief. </span><span class="text Matt-26-46">Can you imagine Jesus in the garden saying, "Father, if it is possible, please don't ask me to sign this covenant in grief," knowing, as he did, the agonies that were to come?</span></div>
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<span class="text Matt-26-46">Isn't that just how we feel when we encounter grief?</span><span class="text Matt-26-46" style="font-weight: normal;"> The precious parents I know who have had to endure the loss of their children, whether pre-birth or in adulthood, have all shared with me the experience of feeling poured out before God and pleading with God to let the agony of such devastating loss pass from them. I have heard many people who have a mother, father, sibling, parent, or grandparent facing death, as well as spouses who are enduring the griefs of divorce, share similar sentiments. Even the loss of a home, job, relationship, or health can call us very painful feelings of impending grief and loss. </span><span class="text Matt-26-46">Let's face it, when we encounter grief it is never welcomed because we recognize the absoluteness of death and loss that is coming our way. </span><span class="text Matt-26-46" style="font-weight: normal;">We sense in advance, as Jesus did, that it will be unbearable agony.</span></div>
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The Bible tells us in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+53&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Isaiah 53 that Jesus "bore our griefs" and made "His soul an offering for sin."</a> <span style="font-weight: normal;">We might say that there is a sense in which our human grief is poured out as a response to sin—the pain, suffering, death, and loss we experience in this life. Thinking in that way can help us begin to better understand Christ's sacrifice for us on the Cross.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">My friends, if you are grieving the sins and agonies of this life—whether as part of this Easter season of prayer, sacrifice, and resurrection, or as a result of suffering and loss in your life—I am praying that you will take comfort in the knowledge that there is One who understands your heart and your hurt because He died for your healing. As you walk through your grief and endure suffering in this life, you can gain comfort and strength that Jesus died for you to experience a life of perfect comfort, peace, joy, and wholeness that you can practice now in preparation for the life to come...with our Lord and Savior in heaven.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Let us pray in confidence, faith, and hope the words that Jesus taught us when He said these words, recorded in Matthew 6:9-13,</span></div>
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<span class="text Matt-6-9" id="en-NKJV-23292"><span style="color: blue;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">9 </sup><span class="woj">In this manner, therefore, pray:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">Our Father in heaven,</span></div>
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Hallowed be Your name.</div>
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Your kingdom come.</div>
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Your will be done</div>
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On earth as <span class="woj"><i>it is</i></span> in heaven.</div>
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Give us this day our daily bread.</div>
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And forgive us our debts,</div>
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As we forgive our debtors.</div>
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And do not lead us into temptation,</div>
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But deliver us from the evil one.</div>
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For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.</div>
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And let's pray together, that when we must endure the cup of grief and suffering that we can give it to God for His use and purposes in bringing comfort and hope to others.</div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-69305950396710848022013-03-27T09:51:00.000-04:002013-03-27T10:44:09.961-04:00The Valley of the Shadow of Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>If you have ever walked alone in the dark, or on an isolated road, then you know that feeling of impending doom.</b> There's an anxious tension that pulses through you as every leaf rustles. The sight of someone coming toward you brings on a sweat and palpitations. In those moments, we feel as though we are in the scene from <i>To Kill a Mockingbird </i>where Scout and her brother, Jem, are walking home from the school play.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>When we walk through dark, lonely places we are conspicuous and vulnerable, and we fear the worst.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That is precisely the feeling David speaks into in Psalm 23:4. He says, </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text Ps-23-4" id="en-ESV-14240" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; position: relative; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Even though I <span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)"></sup></span>walk through the valley of <span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240I" title="See cross-reference I">I</a>)"></sup></span>the shadow of death,<span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-ESV-14240c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]"></sup></span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="position: relative;">I will <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)"></sup>fear no evil,</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; position: relative; text-align: -webkit-auto;">for <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)"></sup>you are with me;</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="position: relative;">your <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240L" title="See cross-reference L">L</a>)"></sup>rod and your staff,</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="position: relative;">they comfort me.</span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">David knew very well the dangers on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. The Valley of the Shadow of Death (see image, top) was a real place—a dangerous passage between the high cliffs where robbers and assailants could lay in wait and attack. It may well have been the image Jesus was invoking when he told <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010:25-37&version=NKJV" target="_blank">the parable of the good Samaritan.</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The man walking on the road—through The Valley of the Shadow of Death—was beaten, robbed, stripped, and left for dead. That is just what we fear when we walk alone, and it is also how we feel (beaten, robbed, stripped, and left for dead) when we grieve.<b> Grief is nothing if it isn't a lonely walk through a valley that is made fearsome and dark by Death's shadow.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But isn't it comforting to know that even amid all of the feelings of grief that leave us stripped bare, empty, and bruised all over we can walk through the valley fearlessly? Just as a shepherd has his crook to keep his sheep both on the path and safe from danger, we have God walking with us, in Spirit and in Truth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>If we have a personal, saving relationship with Jesus, then His spirit goes with us everywhere.</b> His Truth—the Word of God...the Bible—speaks back to fear and reminds us that God is walking with us all the way through this life and into the next. Throughout Scripture we are told, at least 365 times, not to fear. Yet, grief is so powerful because it is often the realization and aftermath of our fear(s). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Even as people of faith, grief makes our hearts cry out to God in pain and confusion saying, "I thought you were with me! I thought your <i>rod</i> and <i>staff</i> were there to protect me from <<u>fill in the blank</u>>." Grief calls up emotions that rehearse our pain and trauma over and over again, each time wondering where the rescuer was, and why we were abandoned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Dear one, this life is filled with sin and death. No one escapes such things this side of heaven.</b> There are times and experiences in life that may literally leave us beaten, robbed, stripped, and left for dead. Ask anyone who has ever been sexually assaulted. Rape is violent and sometimes deadly. We cannot always understand where God was when something like that happens. We cannot easily explain God's seeming absence when tragedies occur like the Newtown, CT shooting. <b>These are the valley experiences that demand our faith in God's sovereignty and wisdom that are beyond our understanding. </b>That kind of faith only comes from living a life that is steeped in God's Truth, which we receive through his Word.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Our fearlessness does not come from our emotions.</b> It does not come from our experiences. It comes from deep faith in the Truth, that the Lord is our shepherd.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As you encounter the griefs of this life that come from sin and death, remember that you do not walk through them alone. Our fearlessness comes not from an assurance that bad things won't happen to us, but from the hope that we have that when our walk through this life and its trials is complete we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Psalm 23</span></h3>
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<span class="text Ps-23-1" id="en-NKJV-14237"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> the Shepherd of His People</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="chapter-2"><span class="text Ps-23-1" style="position: relative;"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: 0.1em; font-size: 1.25em; font-weight: bold; left: -3em; line-height: 0.8em; position: absolute;">23 </span>The <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> <i>is</i> my shepherd;</span></span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-1" style="position: relative;">I shall not want.</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-2" id="en-NKJV-14238" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">2 </sup>He makes me to lie down in green pastures;</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-2" style="position: relative;">He leads me beside the still waters.</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-3" id="en-NKJV-14239" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">3 </sup>He restores my soul;</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-3" style="position: relative;">He leads me in the paths of righteousness</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-3" style="position: relative;">For His name’s sake.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text Ps-23-4" id="en-NKJV-14240" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">4 </sup>Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="position: relative;">I will fear no evil;</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="position: relative;">For You <i>are</i> with me;</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="position: relative;">Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text Ps-23-5" id="en-NKJV-14241" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">5 </sup>You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-5" style="position: relative;">You anoint my head with oil;</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-5" style="position: relative;">My cup runs over.</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-6" id="en-NKJV-14242" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum" style="display: block; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; position: absolute; vertical-align: top;">6 </sup>Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-6" style="position: relative;">All the days of my life;</span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-6" style="position: relative;">And I will dwell<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-14242a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]"></sup> in the house of the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><br /><span class="text Ps-23-6" style="position: relative;">Forever.</span></span></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-30538556129478387342013-03-26T07:16:00.000-04:002013-03-26T07:16:25.244-04:00What's Love Got to Do with It?<div style="text-align: center;">
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1 Corinthians 13:4-8</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text 1Cor-13-4" id="en-NASB-28670"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">4 </sup>Love <span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28670A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup></span>is patient, love is kind <i>and</i> <span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28670B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup></span>is not jealous; love does not brag <i>and</i> is not <span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28670C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup></span>arrogant,</span> <span class="text 1Cor-13-5" id="en-NASB-28671"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">5 </sup>does not act unbecomingly; it <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28671D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></sup>does not seek its own, is not provoked, <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28671E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)"></sup>does not take into account a wrong <i>suffered</i>,</span> <span class="text 1Cor-13-6" id="en-NASB-28672"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">6 </sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28672F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)"></sup>does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but <sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28672G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)"></sup>rejoices with the truth;</span> <span class="text 1Cor-13-7" id="en-NASB-28673"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">7 </sup><sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NASB-28673a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]"></sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28673H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)"></sup>bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. </span><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">8 </sup>Love never fails; but if <i>there are gifts of</i> <sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NASB-28674b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]"></sup><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28674I" title="See cross-reference I">I</a>)"></sup>prophecy, they will be done away; if <i>there are </i><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28674J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)"></sup>tongues, they will cease; if <i>there is</i> knowledge, it will be done away.</span><br />
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<span class="text 1Cor-13-8"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Willa Cather was an American novelist who wrote stories about life on the Great Plains. In a novel titled <i>Death Comes for the Archbishop, </i>there is a scene in which<i> </i>one of Cather's characters explains love as a supernatural activity akin to the miracles of the Church, so we see our dear ones through the lens of our heart's affections. "Where there is great love" Cather writes, "there are always miracles." Thinking along those same lines, I have often said that it is truly a miracle that we are loved by anyone ever at all. Our incredible propensity toward sin and selfishness really ought to make us virtually unloveable, but God in His mercy created us to love and be loved. Everyone always has someone out there somewhere who truly loves them, and even if by some chance that isn't true <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%205:6-11&version=NASB" target="_blank">we are loved infinitely more than we could ever imagine by our Creator, God.</a> Wow!</span></span></div>
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<span class="text 1Cor-13-8"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The thing about love and miracles is that they are not always </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">packaged </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">neatly. Otherwise, no one would ever grieve because our love would always raise the dead. No one would ever have to weep over a grave. In truth, the miracles of great love sometimes take great faith and greater patience, wisdom and understanding, compassion and generosity. Sometimes the miracles and the mercies of love are buried deep within a mess of grief. I would argue, then, that where there is great love there is always grief...of one kind or another. Love and loss are perpetual companions, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. After all, isn't it finally grief, deep sorrow over the losses we incur through sin, that finally drives us toward forgiveness and reconciliation?</span></span></div>
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<span class="text 1Cor-13-8"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I cannot tell you how many times I have returned to the words of <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2061&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Isaiah 61</a> and <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Job 42</a> over the course of the past few years. Clinging to hope and faith that there miracles even in life's worst and most agonizing messes of sickness, death, and loss, I have held tightly to the words of Scripture that promise and demonstrate God's heart for miraculous love and mercy. Our <a href="http://bible.cc/isaiah/61-7.htm" target="_blank">God has a grand plan of reconciliation and restoration that He says will repay us a double portion of mercy and blessing in exchange for our miseries.</a> Where there is great love (for us, by God) there are always miracles.</span></span></div>
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<span class="text 1Cor-13-8"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My friends, with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday just days away, I can tell you that at my house our hearts are coming upon these days with some pretty substantial grief in our hearts. We have faced the last two Easter holidays heartbroken. Each year, someone we loved very dearly passed unexpectedly from life to death, and we were already cut to the core from two years of Christmas holiday losses. I can tell you that there is not even one day in our lives when our great love does not bump or bang into our great grief. One life affects so many, and death never takes only the ones who go to the grave. The bereaved die too in some ways, and each day we need to depend upon God's miracle to raise us from the dead and help us to breathe and live through a new day. </span></span></div>
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<span class="text 1Cor-13-8"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations+3%3A22-24&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Yet each day He wakes us to see the sun and lays us down by the light of the moon we are given new miracles and new mercies</a>...if only we will open our eyes to see them and our hearts to embrace them. We sin, yet we are loved. We grieve, yet we are loved. There is bad news, and yet there is always good news. </span></span></div>
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<span class="text 1Cor-13-8"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If you are struggling with grief this Easter season—whether it is grief over the death of a loved one, the loss of a friend or a job, the problems of your past...anything at all—you have plenty of evidence of the bad news. But because Jesus, the Lamb of God, lived a sinless life and took the sins of the world upon Himself so that we can be right with God and live on eternally, there is always very good news. Check it out this presentation some friends of mine put together to explain how the bad news of sin and death leads to the good news that comes from Jesus, who bore the weight of our griefs.</span></span></div>
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<span class="text 1Cor-13-8"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://youtu.be/DzIP4SjhZzg" target="_blank">What is the Gospel?</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="text 1Cor-13-8"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dear one, though we grieve and mourn, we have hope. Though our hearts may be in pieces there is One who can take each and every broken piece and turn it into something not only useful, but beautiful. You cannot love without grief, but you cannot truly and miraculously live without it either.</span></span></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-30000766601182538662013-03-24T22:36:00.000-04:002013-03-25T08:46:33.891-04:00Good Grief<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Throughout this long season of increasingly polarized world views and consequent political stand-offs, the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14, along with those of <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah%201:4-10&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Nehemiah's prayer for the people of Israel</a>, have been camped out in my heart for God's church and His people around the world. During these complicated days, I've come to understand these verses as calls to deep, personal and collective grief among followers of Jesus. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>2 Chronicles gives us the formula, and Nehemiah gives us the model. It is humility, a contrite heart, prayer, seeking, personal accountability, and repentance that will move God to forgiveness, healing, and rebuilding among His people. </b>So far in this mini-study of grief and the resurrection we've talked about the profound nature of grief, as seen through the life of Mary (the mother of Jesus) and the nearness of God in the process. Today, I want to look a bit more carefully at the goodness and purpose of grief. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am sure there are other ways of qualifying the goodness and purpose of grief, but I came up with this short list to try and highlight what I think we gain most from grief when we look at it as the catalyst for prayer and healing/restoration. <i>Good </i>grief—the kind that draws us nearer to God—should yield at least three things.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gratitude</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The reason I am so convinced of the necessity of these three products of good grief is because of the ways in which we can see God connecting them throughout Scripture as critical elements of His grand restoration project. Moreover, in the midst and aftermath of sin and death, we almost always see division and strife. Gratitude, grace, and giving do not generally function well (if at all) when we are struggling against God and one another. These are not the only problems that can turn grief from good to bad, but they are definitely a few concerns worth looking at with interest. What I've learned is that gratitude is often the jumping off point for finding the best of what grief has to offer us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I think about <b>grief and its connection to gratitude</b> I am reminded of the precious group of bereaved parents that God has brought into my life, and the ways in which so many of them have powerfully and openly expressed gratitude for the lives of their children. Those children exerted a great influence over their parents in life, and that influence continues in death. Sometimes the influence may have been (and may yet be) terribly painful in life, but the unbelievable profoundness and inner chaos of grieving their child's death can also call up a deep appreciation for all that is good and blessed in life. They can see it more clearly through grief's tears than many of us can see through joy's smile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We can learn much from that example. Learning to be deeply grateful for every moment of goodness—learning to see goodness in the smallest things, and finding that we live through our griefs and troubles—is one of the greatest lessons we can ever learn. When we do, we gain greater access to <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations%203:22-23&version=NKJV" target="_blank">God's mercies that are new and abundant every morning</a>. We come unambiguously into contact with the infinite abundance of His grace. It is then that we can say, "<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%2012:9-10&version=NASB" target="_blank">Lord, your grace is more than enough</a>."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The grace we can receive through grief IS more than enough for our needs, and we know this because in genuine grief we are stripped bare of ourselves and what we hold dear. </b>We find out what we can and do endure. We see that our true needs are really quite few, and we find, then, that God's excess and abundance is everywhere in our lives. Grief teaches us the value of each breath and each moment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Grief also demands that we become purveyors of forgiveness and unmerited grace toward ourselves and others in order to survive.</b> In grief, the weight of bitterness can become unbearable, because grief does not have one ounce of energy to spare for wasted feelings that accomplish nothing and exacerbate misery. That kind of anguish cannot long coexist with God's love and Truth. They are completely incompatible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, we are sometimes slow to open ourselves to grace when we grieve, but when we believe in our hearts the grace that we profess with our mouths we find that our grief has provided us with a storehouse of generous giving to others...particularly those whose pain and suffering we recognize. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 explains the <i>phenomenon</i> this way.</span></div>
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<span class="text 2Cor-1-5" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>When we find gratitude for the abundance of grace we receive through our grief, we also find that our grief has manufactured an abundance of grace to be given to others.</b> We ultimately learn in grief that we do not have to </span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">hoard grace for fear of one day losing it. It is really quite the opposite. Initially, the shock and fear that accompanies our grief can make us feel the need to hold onto everything more tightly. Later, we may find ourselves terrified to hold onto anyone or anything at all for fear that it will be snatched away. But if we cling to God's Word and His Truth then the tension between holding on and letting go can ease, and <b>we can become wise stewards of our suffering and loss...generous givers of our comfort to others.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As we approach our celebration of the Christ's resurrection, there's a great opportunity for us to humble ourselves and pray, seeking God and experiencing a good kind of grief over our sins and the sins of this world.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Think about it...<i><span style="color: blue;">if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we, as the body of believers and followers of Jesus, humble ourselves before God to the point of grief and repentance for our sins—</span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">our individual and collective sins—then God moves. He hears and forgives and heals. I cannot think of a greater way to come to the Cross and experience the riches of Easter, which we received at Jesus' expense.</span></span></div>
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<br />Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-78095471844561259082013-03-24T01:17:00.001-04:002013-03-24T08:31:52.644-04:00The Lord Is Close to the Brokenhearted - Promise!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Have you ever been through a bad time, or experienced a difficult loss, and had some sweet friend share this verse with you? The Lord is close to the brokenhearted...etc? I think this Bible verse may be the default choice for "religious" sympathy cards. And why not? It sounds good. When someone is absolutely crushed and brokenhearted it sounds kinda comforting to say and hear that The Lord is close at hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And of course He is right there and fully available to brokenhearted people, but the verse sort of suggests that God is clos<i style="font-weight: bold;"><u>er</u> </i>to the brokenhearted than to the folks who are feeling fine. And guess what? In a sense, <b><i><u>He</u></i></b> <i><b><u>is</u></b>! </i>But I think there's a catch...a bit of perspective that's needed to really appreciate why this verse is comforting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Remember the scene in the classic Christmas film, <i>It's a Wonderful Life, </i>when the main character, George Bailey, has come to the end of his rope? It's Christmas Eve, and George's life unravels because his Uncle Billy lost the $8,000.00 bank deposit for the family's building and loan business. The bank examiner is in town to review the year's receipts, and there isn't enough cash on hand to cover the payments shown in the books. The whole issue can mean scandal and jail for George and Uncle Billy, not to mention the effects on George's wife and children, and the townspeople who have their money and loans with Bailey Building & Loan. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Out of time, options, and hope, George comes unglued. He yells at his wife and children, storms out of the house, and ultimately ends up at the local bar. In a moment of deep desperation, George Bailey bows his head...right there at the bar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>George was brokenhearted, so he prayed.</b> I won't give away the ending (just in case you've never seen the film) but The Lord was close to George Bailey. George was in trouble and cried out to The Lord, and The Lord showed up...not the way George ever imagined, but God was definitely on hand to save George Bailey.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But we do </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a great disservice</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> to</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> the verse from Psalm 34, and other verses like it, if we think of it as a kind of magic wand rather than an insight into how God works in our lives. Look at our friend, George Bailey. He'd come to the end of himself; his usual way of toughing it out through difficult situations could not save him from the bank examiner. George had nowhere else to turn except to God...his last resort. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>George Bailey's broken heart made him willing to humble himself before God.</b> Do you see where I'm going with this? God wasn't close(r) to George because George was in trouble. God was closer than George had ever realized because for the first time George's heart was truly broken. George Bailey's prayer at the bar is a desperate, humble admission that only God could rescue him. The Lord <b><i><u>saves</u> those who are crushed in spirit. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Just in case you think we're talking about situational rescue where God simply sweeps in and shows up with $8,000.00, let's look at a few other Scripture verses where we find similar words of promise. Matthew 5:3-4 says, "</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: center;">Blessed are the poor in spirit...Blessed are those who mourn." When we are considered <i>blessed</i> we are understood to be in God's favor. To be blessed by God is to receive supernatural favor—an extra, generous measure of God's underserved help and lovingkindness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: center;">These verses tell us something very wonderful about God. He has a special love for the underdog.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And that is as it should be. Don't you think? Isn't it generally more thrilling when the one with the most working against him—the one with the fewest opportunities and resources, the one with the most to lose—overcomes the obstacles and comes out a winner? But the thrill is short-lived and shallow if it turns out that the underdog is arrogant and proud. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The underdogs that God is most interested in are those who are humble and who are eager to give God all the credit, and the honor and glory forever...whether they win or lose.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Take a look at these verses from Isaiah 61. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">“The Spirit of the Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span><span class="small-caps" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; text-align: -webkit-auto;">God</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">is</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">upon Me,</span></span></b></div>
<b><span class="text Isa-61-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span></b><br />
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<b><span class="text Isa-61-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Because the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> has anointed Me</span></b></div>
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</span><span class="text Isa-61-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span></span></b>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text Isa-61-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative; text-align: -webkit-auto;">To preach good tidings to the poor;</span></span></b></div>
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He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,</div>
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To proclaim liberty to the captives,</div>
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And the opening of the prison to <i>those who are</i> bound;</div>
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To proclaim the acceptable year of the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,</div>
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And the day of vengeance of our God;</div>
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To comfort all who mourn,</div>
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To console those who mourn in Zion,</div>
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To give them beauty for ashes,</div>
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The oil of joy for mourning,</div>
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The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;</div>
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That they may be called trees of righteousness,</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">There they are again...those same kind of promises from God that we see in Psalm 34 and Matthew 5, the same merciful heart of God toward people who are grieved and broken, the same promise to bless, comfort, and rescue them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So...what if we read Psalm 34 in this this way: <span style="color: blue;"><i>Hey! Look up! You're heartbroken? God sees you, and He's standing right there next to you with His arms open. If your heart is torn apart—if your spirit is smashed to bits to the point where you're ready to give up the entire situation to Him—take His hand. Fall into His arms. When you admit that you cannot rescue yourself, and that <b>He is the source of all hope all the time, He will save you.</b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Think along the same lines as you re-read the verses from Matthew and Isaiah. <b>The reason The Lord is so close to the heartbroken, and so ready to save the crushed in spirit, is because those people are ready to be humble. </b>They are out of options and they are ready to relinquish their lives to the will of God. The promise to those who come to the place of "not my will but thy will be done" is </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">that <b>they will receive </b></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>comfort. They will receive something beautiful, and experience real joy</b>...joy that leads to the kingdom of heaven and the earth's inheritance.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But it's worth noting that the true blessing doesn't come until we're really knocked down and all the fight is out of us. Remember George Bailey's prayer? Take a look at what happened immediately after George prayed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>POW! Right in the mouth! Down goes George! </b>And if you remember the rest of the film, George has to endure another series of humbling experiences before he comes to the true end of himself. He is forced to examine and respond to his situation through a lens of faith that came through humility and brokenness. George needed a willingness to trust in the power and blessing of God's </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">sovereignty to turn around a seemingly impossible situation. With that kind of faith in God's ability and power, it no longer mattered to George if God sent him to jail or provided him with a way out. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%204:11-13&version=NASB" target="_blank">George found a blessing that did not depend on circumstance</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Isn't that what happened to Job—that poor soul whose entire life was stripped away, including his family, his possessions, and his health? </b>God was right there and close to Job the whole time! He had never once lost track of what was happening in Job's life. God was in the midst of Job's unimaginable encounters with death, poverty, and sickness. God was there in Job's suffering. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+53%3A3&version=NLT" target="_blank">He is always in our suffering too.</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Still...Poor Job. He'd worked so hard to live an obedient and holy life, <b>and he still ended up brokenhearted and crushed.</b> But the moment that Job stopped focusing on what happened to him and why—the moment Job stopped pleading his case and was instead reminded of God's infinite power, might, wisdom, knowledge, and creativity—he became very, very humble. Job was finally ready to receive God's blessing and give God the glory. Job found God's abundant mercy blossoming and alive in an <b>INCREDIBLE</b> mess!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Read <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+42&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Job 42</a>.</b> When Job focused completely on God's character and nature he repented. He even prayed for some of his friends who had misrepresented God and been miserable comforts to Job amid his agony. <b>Job also made a sacrifice. Though he had nothing left, not even his health, he went to the altar and made a sacrifice. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Job's heart was changed.</b> He was no longer simply a good man who gave to others out of his wealth and obedience to follow the law. Job learned true reverence and fear of The Lord. <b>He laid down his life, his grief, and his grudge.</b> Job sacrificed to God out of his humility and poverty. Ever faithful and infinity merciful, God receives Job's offering and blesses the latter part of Job's life even more than the first. God's favor and abundance came to Job through suffering, grief, sorrow, and sacrifice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dear ones, when you think about the resurrection, and when you look to the Cross of Jesus knowing that He suffered, died, was buried, and then rose from the grave to conquer sin and death, realize that <b>you are released.</b> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2053:5&version=NLT" target="_blank">You are free from the captivity of your own suffering and death. You are healed and set free.</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>You will receive comfort, beauty, and joy when you trade in your sorrows for the joy of the Lord that leads you to praise.</b> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is the praise we find in our Easter celebrations. Our "Yes!" to The Lord, and our "Amen!" that acknowledges the fulfillment of that "Yes!" is something we must say in faith and submission to God. These responses are found at their richest and most rewarding when they are born out of grief over the sins of this world...including the sins of our own hearts and lives. It all happens at the foot of the cross.</span></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-88686480062999462182013-03-22T22:36:00.000-04:002013-03-23T01:03:56.229-04:00Mother Mary Comes to Me<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Statue of Mary at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the old city of Jerusalem </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There are many ways to enter into a study of grief and it's important relationship to our celebration of Christ's triumph over sin and death—Easter—but <i>death </i>is typically the experience we most associate with grief. In more ways than I can enumerate here, I wish it weren't true, but over the past few years I've come to know more than I'd ever have imagined about grief. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Grief is the reaction we have to loss of all kinds, not just death, and it is never a simple, compact, linear process that disrupts and rearranges the heart, mind, and soul over and over again until it finds some sort of resolution or fixed comfort. That does not always happen in life. The more profound or traumatic the loss, the deeper and more complex the grief. No two people experience grief or move through it the same way. To the degree that various stages of grief can be qualified, they certainly cannot (and <b><u>SHOULD</u></b> <b><u>NOT</u></b>) be calendarized or measured as <i>normal </i>or <i>abnormal. </i>In sum, grief experiences are as personal and diverse as the people who go through them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you want some idea of what deep grief looks like, the best image I can relate it to is the ground zero site from the 9/11 terrorist attack.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Grief comes with debris</b>, smoldering heaps, smoke, horror, disbelief, devastation, disruption, disarray, and people traipsing through it all—some searching for survivors, some trying to contain it, some trying to make the place safe, some lost and stunned, and so on. The debris includes human and material remains—some identifiable...some not. It does not get sorted out easily.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I have come to think about grief in this way, I have also come to perceive a mother's grief over the death of a child as the deepest I can imagine. After all, when you consider the overwhelming bond and intimacy of carrying a child in the womb—a miraculous life coming into being in the most personal human space—it is difficult to think of a deeper bond than between a mother and her child...regardless of the child's age. And I cannot fathom a mother's grief more incredible than that of Mary, the mother of Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>What is somewhat ironic to me is that in all the years that I'd identified myself as a Catholic, from childhood to young adulthood, I probably never gave much thought to Mary.</b> But in the years since I have come to consider my Christian life through the lens of Protestant evangelicalism, Mary has been increasingly interesting to me. I have been sad to realize that the iconic Mary has somewhat over-simplified and diminished the human Mary whose experiences with life and death—joy and grief—surely spanned the heights, depths, and breadth of maternal thrill and bereavement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Old Testament introduces Mary in Isaiah 7:14...before she was even born! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"...Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">By the time we actually meet Mary in the New Testament gospel accounts of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection, she is a very real young woman who has a most INCREDIBLE experience. Check out <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A26-38&version=NLT" target="_blank">what happened to her</a> and see if you can imagine yourself in the scene. I can't speak for anyone else, but as I remember myself as a 16 or 17 year old girl I am quite convinced that I'd have been way beyond overwhelmed! As if being visited by an honest to goodness angel wouldn't be enough to blow your mind, being told that you're going to bear a child in a most mysterious manner, and that your child will be known as "Son of the Most High" would be enough to make you wonder if someone had slipped something </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">into your grape juice </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to make </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>you</i></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> high!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In fact, Mary's supernatural high bursts out of her in <b>a <i>magnificat</i>—a song of glorious praise and wonder.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now, I don't want to speculate as to what was considered normal in ancient times, but I have trouble believing that young women being visited by angels, and having a glorious future (as the mother of God no less!) predicted for them, was really on the continuum of anyone's expectations...even Jewish girls raised with the books of the law and the prophets. But let me point out something that you may not have noticed as I contextualized Mary's life in order to introduce you to her grief. Did you notice that the angel, Gabriel, never tells Mary that her son's life will be in jeopardy from the moment he is born until he meets an untimely and horrifying death after only 33 years? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I feel very confident when I say that <b>Mary never saw it coming.</b> She may have found favor with God, and she may have been chosen to give birth to the savior of the world, but she was surely chosen because of her absolute ambiguity as much as anything else. When she came of an age to begin thinking about marriage and motherhood, I assure you she never imagined herself much differently than any other little Jewish girl of her time. She wasn't sitting on the edge of her bed every night waiting for Gabriel to show up and give her the good news.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Isaiah prophesies the crucifixion and death of the Messiah, but honestly by the time you get from Isaiah 7 to Isaiah 53, you've long forgotten about the reality of that virgin, Mary, who would have to witness her son's horrible and humiliating public execution. With these things in mind, imagine precious Mary after living 33 years with her most unusual son. By the time Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane, Mary and her husband, Joseph, had been visited a few times by angels, forced to pack up and move out of and back into the country to protect their son's life, witnessed their child doing some truly incredible things, and they were probably the objects of quite a bit of gossip by the time Jesus began his public ministry. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I imagine a more grown up Mary as she comes to grips with the fact that her son's face is on the side of a milk carton and pasted up in the post office.</b> In my mind's eye, I see her sitting alone, with her face in her hands and sobbing until she cannot breathe, while Joseph and the rest of the family are off somewhere. I can hear her crying out to God and wanting to know what ever happened to the magnificat—the blessed thrill of hope that would come with being chosen to bear God's son in a spectacular way never heard of before or since.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">By the time dear Mary finds herself among the helpless onlookers to her son's crucifixion and death, <b>she must have wondered how it had come to all this.</b> I am more than certain that she was absolutely devastated. Talk about a let down and disappointment! Talk about living through a horror! And there, as she and her son's best friend, John, stood beside Jesus to the last, watching him die an agonizing death, she hears her precious son say, <a href="http://bible.cc/john/19-26.htm" target="_blank">"Woman, behold your son!"</a> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">John and Mary at the Cross of Jesus; artist Ed Odson</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And Jesus wasn't saying, "Look at me, Mom! Look at what I can do!" He was telling her, before she could even process what it would mean to live without her first born son, to take John as her son. If I'm Mary, or John for that matter, that's the point where I hear the needle scratch across the album, or the car screech to a halt. "You want me to do WHAT????"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now, if you're thinking that Mary went through all that, plus 3 days of a virtual trauma/grief <i>coma</i>, and that the news of Jesus' resurrection meant the pain, suffering, and grief of her loss was over...If you think Martin Scorcese yelled, "That's a wrap!" you're not understanding the quintessential humanity of Mary. She was a regular mom who had lived a very extraordinary 33 years before spending the remainder of her days trying to make sense of it all...like any mother—past, present, or future. No mother is prepared to out-live her child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If Mary's joy was supernaturally induced to the point of eliciting the world's most exuberant song, surely her sorrow was every bit as profound...resurrection or no resurrection. It's no surprise, then, that the statue of Mary inside the <a href="http://www.churchoftheholysepulchre.net/" target="_blank">Church of the Holy Sepulchre</a> shows a woman with a vacant, lost, exhausted, and completely devastated expression. You can almost feel your own brow moisten with sweat and your heart grow faint. That's grief, folks, and even the very mother of Jesus was not spared its agonies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our beautiful savior who triumphed over sin and death did not do so without experiencing the full weight of sin and death—grief and sorrow—and I guarantee you that the only person who came close to feeling his agonizing trip through hell was his dear mother who lived to tell about it.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Pieta - <span style="background-color: white; color: #171717; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Michelangelo Buonarroti's sculpture, housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And perhaps that reality is the most important outcome of grief for all of us. We live to tell about it—to find the mercy in the mess, to become the story-keepers and storytellers of our dear one's lives, to use those stories as platforms from which to tell of our experiences for the sake and comfort of others, and to tell of greater joys to come when we too meet Jesus, and his mother, Mary, in heaven. If God is as merciful and wonderful as I believe He is, I well imagine beautiful Mary coming to heaven's gate and reuniting mothers—precious souls who've endured the unthinkable, unimaginable anguish of losing a child—with their cherished children who have been made whole, alive, and well under Mary's watchful eye and Jesus' loving sacrifice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So...as you're preparing to enter Holy Week, take some time to think about the necessity of grief in order for you to receive your ultimate joy, and your greatest hope for the future.</span></div>
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<br />Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-30255753560673753702013-03-19T18:16:00.002-04:002013-03-19T20:15:16.591-04:00Grace That Is Sufficient, Faith That Is Persistent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Have you ever heard a story that just sticks with you—kind of lingering in the back of your mind like a hum? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A friend of mine was singing at her new church this past weekend, so a few of us went to the Sunday morning service and shared some encouragement with her. The message was a series of vignettes that highlighted the power of God to intervene in situations, and to expand our faith as He keeps His promises. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One of the featured stories was about a man in Oklahoma who happened to turn on the television and stop to watch a reality show about convicted criminals serving time in prison. The Oklahoma man was led to pray for one prisoner in particular—a young man who was serving a sentence miles and miles away in a California prison. For two years, the Oklahoma man obeyed the word that he was given from God, and he persisted in praying faithfully for the young inmate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then, one Sunday morning, without any particular reason, the Oklahoma man happened to look down the aisle in his Oklahoma church. Just a few seats down, in the very same row, sat the young inmate from the TV show! From that time forward, God made a way for a discipling relationship between the two men. Willing obedience to a mysterious urging from the Spirit created a path to ministry. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wow! Obedience brought the men blessing and God received the glory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the two days since I heard that story, my mind has returned to it numerous times...probably because of how familiar I am with the strange exhilaration of receiving a very clear call from God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nearly four years ago, God spoke very clearly to my heart and laid a powerful calling upon it to share His love and a very particular promise with a sister in Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The terrain of that calling has included lush, fertile plains of joy and peace as well as dry, depleted deserts of grief and sorrow...and every topography in between. Yet, by His grace, my young daughter and I have remained convicted to pray for our dear one daily and to demonstrate God's love joyfully and creatively. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's been a time of enormous spiritual growth even in the midst of many challenges and much pruning all around. However, there's also been a lot of waiting in the dark with only little sparks of light here and there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This morning I found myself whispering to God inaudibly, "Please...please can I have a sign from you that my breakthrough—my <i>look down the aisle</i>—is coming...that our blessing and hope is coming soon?" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then I felt myself backspacing in my silent moment of prayer. I had nearly asked for just some small sign, but what I wanted with all my heart was an enormous sign, the breakthrough itself! Swift, immediate, bold blessing. That's what I was after down deep in my heart. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Even so, I felt hesitant to ask for more. God had heard my heart; within moments a friend messaged me to say she'd seen some robins in a park where I often take nature photos. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Robins are very special in South Florida, and extremely special in our hearts. They symbolize the life of someone very precious to us—someone now in heaven. After several years of not seeing the robin migration come through South Florida, this year God showered us in robins right after the New Year. We had to drive a few hours to find them, but they were singing and bobbing all around us that day. We held onto the joy and promise of that sighting for weeks afterward.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Two robins in a bird bath: Rockledge, FL - January 5, 2013</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Robin on the roof of a garage: Rockledge, FL - January 5, 2013</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Receiving the news that there were some robins around town—particularly when the joy of our January blessing was becoming somewhat difficult to fix upon—my heart washed with fresh hope. Maybe my look down the aisle was, as my daughter believes, right around the corner and coming our way soon! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I set out for the park with camera and binoculars in hand so that I could document this blessing that would lead soon to our fully answered prayer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But when I arrived at the park and began looking around, the familiar doubt—in myself, in my calling, and even in God—began to stir. I walked and looked for more than two hours, but I could not find the robins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Somewhere along the way my mind began drifting in and out of despair to Scripture, spiritual songs, and hymns of the faith. The words kept coming and swirling about me like a tornado in slow motion. I half expected to see Dorothy and Toto!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHXByrPLu-UpLbSFH_e4zMMpbon7XjRFkmHIZBbqNCpJeYisQ6RORNZxjRaT923_fN1dI01AlUQrpaJYCzEfrHb4FmOyq2jGbCqzP69smY6m9o8yrKh2m52gtUqYO4h63XV71302YaRm8/s1600/Dorothy+in+Tornado.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHXByrPLu-UpLbSFH_e4zMMpbon7XjRFkmHIZBbqNCpJeYisQ6RORNZxjRaT923_fN1dI01AlUQrpaJYCzEfrHb4FmOyq2jGbCqzP69smY6m9o8yrKh2m52gtUqYO4h63XV71302YaRm8/s320/Dorothy+in+Tornado.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Does the hawk fly by your wisdom...Consider</i> <i>the</i> <i>birds</i> <i>of</i> <i>the</i> <i>air</i>...<i>Consider</i> <i>the</i> <i>lilies</i> <i>of</i> <i>the</i> <i>field</i>...<i>Are not two sparrows sold for a penny...How much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him...</i></span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Grace that is greater than all my sin...Your grace is enough for me...</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Roaming aimlessly around the park looking for robins, and trying to cling to hope and faith for my miraculous answer to prayer, I could not help interrogating my spirit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Did I really believe those words? Did I really believe that the God who provides for the red shouldered hawk and the flowers I was photographing would also see me through the calling He gave me? Would He really comfort and heal the heart of our dear one? Would He move the mountains, make the crooked straight, and be faithful to reconcile and restore our beautiful sisterhood? Was His grace REALLY sufficient for me?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I looked all around. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Could I accept as sufficient the grace of simply knowing the robins were there in the park with me...somewhere...even if I could not see them?</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Could I rejoice in the blessing of bees drinking nectar?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo4ds3Cf9rczMQqnmM1Bymn2ZhSmZRhh8aZSe2CPpd5ZZdMa9VN-sfihFsDEzpHkKpT150pGqtJzpL2MiTZG9_TAhfzeNH9Wnkezqwii8wDPNf40rzopgTX06MqNCRa8UzQt9Ll9G2ejg/s1600/DSCF0015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo4ds3Cf9rczMQqnmM1Bymn2ZhSmZRhh8aZSe2CPpd5ZZdMa9VN-sfihFsDEzpHkKpT150pGqtJzpL2MiTZG9_TAhfzeNH9Wnkezqwii8wDPNf40rzopgTX06MqNCRa8UzQt9Ll9G2ejg/s320/DSCF0015.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The blessing of marsh rabbits nibbling the grass?</span> </span></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">If I tell others how God's grace and sufficiency is evidenced in nature, am I not responsible for taking those words to heart and trusting in their truth? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Wasn't the grace and promise all around me with the robins I couldn't see? I knew I couldn't deny God's presence and goodness in all I was seeing, so I had to acknowledge His presence and goodness in all that I could not yet see.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I wish I could tell you that I left the park <i style="font-weight: bold;">feeling</i> <span style="text-align: center;">fulfilled and encouraged. My heart was still aching for our dear one...and for our look down the aisle. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: center;">I still longed to return home and find her at my doorstep ready with one of her warm hugs and a reaffirmation of our God-ordained bond. But even in my longing and impatience, I knew I had been given the grace to remain obedient to my calling and to love faithfully and whole heartedly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="text 1Cor-13-4" id="en-NIV-28670"><sup class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">4 </sup>Love is patient,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28670A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup> love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28670B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup></span> <span class="text 1Cor-13-5" id="en-NIV-28671"><sup class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">5 </sup>It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28671C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup> it is not easily angered,<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28671D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></sup> it keeps no record of wrongs.<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28671E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)"></sup></span> <span class="text 1Cor-13-6" id="en-NIV-28672"><sup class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">6 </sup>Love does not delight in evil<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28672F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)"></sup> but rejoices with the truth.<sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28672G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)"></sup></span> <span class="text 1Cor-13-7" id="en-NIV-28673"><sup class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">7 </sup>It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="text Ruth-1-16" id="en-NASB-7144"><sup class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">16 </sup>But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you <i>or</i> turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people <i>shall be</i> my people, and your God, my God.</span> <span class="text Ruth-1-17" id="en-NASB-7145"><sup class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">17 </sup>Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may <sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-7145A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup>the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> do to me, and worse, if <i>anything but</i> death parts you and me.”</span><span class="text Ruth-1-18" id="en-NASB-7146"><sup class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">18 </sup>When <sup class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-7146B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup>she saw that she was determined to go with her, she <sup class="footnote" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NASB-7146a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]"></sup>said no more to her.</span></span></span></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-70196484499599519302013-01-10T14:30:00.005-05:002013-01-10T17:29:37.346-05:00Dude, What Would Happen?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="userContent"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><b><i><a href="http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/dude/index.html" target="_blank">DWWH?</a></i></b> is a reality-style TV show on the</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> </span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=84917688371&extragetparams=%7B%22group_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/CartoonNetwork?group_id=0" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: initial;">Cartoon Network</a><span style="line-height: 18px;">. It features three teenage "dudes" who play out the sort of</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> </span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=216390138373069&extragetparams=%7B%22group_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/PhineasandFerb?group_id=0" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: initial;">Phineas and Ferb</a><span style="line-height: 18px;">-esque antics that are so often in the highlight reels of anyone who ever had a b</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 18px;">rother. Typically, each episode is concept/theme based. <i>Experiments</i> ramp up one from another in order to see just how far the dudes can push their schemes without actually delving into the realm of education. It's sort of like "what would happen" if <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096928/" target="_blank">Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091042/" target="_blank">Ferris Bueller's Day Off</a> were spliced together as a single, ridiculous film.</span></span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /><br />This morning, I was praying with one of my dear prayer partners, and the Spirit guided me to pray over the way people treat her, and the way ambivalence and disregard seem to be increasing even among Christians and leaders who should know better. You know...the folks you'd expect to sound the alarms when the <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Present-Darkness-Frank-Peretti/dp/0842361715" target="_blank">This Present Darkness</a></i> culture rises around them. But not so much. <br /><br />Somehow, biblical leadership often mingles with pop-psychology, and we find more and more written about how to increase self and expand territory, outreach, influence, productivity, and botto</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 18px;">m</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"> line. The study of genuine humility scarcely exists in the popular realms. That makes me think about baseball. Ya..baseball...Babe Ruth, home runs, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ay5GqJwHF8" target="_blank">if you build it He will come</a>, and all that good stuff.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">There's not as much out there helping folks learn how to play what baseball coaching legend, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Leyland" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">Jim Leyland</a><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"> is famous for...the principle he uses to produce successful teams. It's called </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_ball" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">small ball</a><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">—the emphasi</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">s on consistently getting runners on base and moving them systematically around the bases to score runs. The "heavy hitters" are surely welcomed when the bases are loaded, but they aren't necessarily the ideal because they tend to have a fairly high percentage of strike outs. Their fame and power can come at the expense of the team's ability to afford consistent, lesser-known, skill players. Their fame can compromise long-range team outcomes, especially if they go into a slump, find themselves in trouble with the law, get injured, or are found to be using performance-enhancing drugs. I won't spend the time here, but those metaphors apply in Christian leadership.</span></div>
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<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And that's <span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">what got me to wondering...</span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;">Dude, what would happen</b><b style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"> </b><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">if—in this age of small groups, church planting, and pastor/CEO ministry, in this climate of leadership development, cross/intra-cultural outreach, and in the face of contemporary psychology influencing the supernatural realm of ministry—we went back to the essentials and basics—the small ball disciplines within our faith? </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">What would happen is the notion of </span><a href="https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/" target="_blank">Servant Leadership</a><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"> became less of a methodology and more of an instinctual lifestyle built on faith and obedience? What if there were a series of airport security style spiritual portals through which we had to pass successfully in order to move beyond the "small" world of consistently treating our family and friends in a Christ-like manner before we moved on to larger playing fields?</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #333333;">Of course, so often the learning is in the leading. While many a "great" leader has been quietly humbled at home, PLENTY have been humbled on a grand, public scale. But the realm of the nefarious is in the reality of the devil's own brand of small ball. There are many leaders—highly effective evangelical drones flying under radar—who unwittingly expand the territory of darkness by maintaining little idolatrous outposts—those protected, No Trespassing areas where they passively permit themselves to keep a campfire burning—the zones that allow for private worship of "It'sJustHowI'mWired" idols. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #333333;">Of course, </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%203:23&version=NKJV" style="color: #333333;" target="_blank">we all have such outposts</a><span style="color: #333333;"> that enable (if not empower) us to act smug and passé (even slightly braggadocious) about being less compassionate, less wholehearted, less transparent, or even less honest than we ought to be...even through we insist that it's our business to disciple others. So let me pause here and say this very clearly because this ain't baseball, it's the heavenly realm.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><b style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Idols are dangerous...really, Really, REALLY dangerous!</span></b></span></span></span></span></div>
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<br /><span style="color: #333333;">Idols bring unwanted consequences, painful set-backs, and worst of all...God's wrath. The harboring of idols pretty much always involves brutality and death before it's all over. Is it any wonder, then, that the very first commandment is essentially an insistence upon the foundation of idol-free living—nothing that gets in the way of loving/obeying God completely? (See </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+6%3A4-5&version=NKJV" style="color: #333333;" target="_blank">Deuteronomy 6:4-5</a><span style="color: #333333;">.)</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<br /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">Look at the historical accounts of idol trouble throughout Scripture, and at best you find limited effectiveness (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2016:27&version=NKJV" target="_blank">1 Kings 16:27</a>) and at worst you see God's vengeance (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nahum%201:2&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Nahum 1:2</a>).Our secret idol camps keep us at work with <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%205:8&version=NKJV" target="_blank">our enemy the devil</a>...fanning the flames of disobedience, cultivating and justifying our own disobedience, and by default (one way or another) replicating our crimes against God through the spiritual DNA we pass as we lead and disciple. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><b style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dude, that stuff is dangerous! </span></b></span></span></span></span></div>
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</span><br /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">Dudes and Dudettes... let's decide </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 17.981481552124023px;">today </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">to engage in the child-like wonder and enthusiasm of finding out "what would happen" if we shut down our secret (though the people closest to you know they are not so secret) camps of idolatry in our lives that give us permission to treat others with less respect, dignity, courtesy, attention, interest, reciprocity, kindness, love, generosity, grace, forgiveness, etc than we have received ourselves from Christ.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> Let the campfire go out and move on to a closer walk with Jesus.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 17.94444465637207px;">So, Dude, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">if we find out that shutting down </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Camp Annie's Secret Idols</i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> (you choose your own camp name) makes it harder for us to have a broader outreach...well, it's probably not what you want to hear, but I'd say that it means we're probably at the right place on the map. We're in <i>Camp Small Ball</i> re-learning (or perhaps learning for the very first time) what it means to really live in a perpetual state of <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203:30&version=NKJV" target="_blank">John 3:30</a> and to keep the bases loaded, and the runs coming in consistently. In the long run, that's far better rather than having a few heavy hitting games where our own legends are made. We need to play consistently in those every day small ball games where HIS Name gets all the honor, praise, and glory. <br /><br /><b><i>Dude, what would happen if you sent yourself down to the minors?</i></b></span></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-92199513109241069632012-09-18T15:42:00.002-04:002012-09-18T21:15:29.937-04:00Closer Than They Appear<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's an interesting paradox...the way(s) some life events leave you very much in need of human companionship, compassion, and understanding yet also have a way of leaving you desirous of no such thing. You just want to be left alone...well...at least I do. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Though I'm typically friendly and open when I encounter new people, my overall nature is extraordinarily introverted, so high levels of tension, stress, anxiety, or grief will drive me quickly inward. You will never see me at things like divorce care, grief share, 12 steps, life skills—nothing that involves putting my "stuff" or my inner life up for group conversation. Yeesh! Makes me bristle just thinking about it!<br /><br />But when I think about my social circles of neighbors, co-workers, and even close friends then I can see the ways in which my tendency to withdraw—though it has some valuable benefits found </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">only </b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in the stillness of solitude—has a way of distorting how I feel and think...how I see not only my circumstances, but the people around me. When solitude slips into a propensity toward isolation, everyone and everything looks different to me...dangerous, intrusive, and untrustworthy. Distant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's a slow fade from solitude to isolation, but (for me) it almost always begins with a tendency toward negativity and ascribing questionable motives to even the people closest to me...perhaps especially the people closest to me. For example, if they are enthusiastic about something, then I am apathetic at best, and all out discouraging at worst. <span style="color: red;"><i><b>"Why do you want to go to </b></i></span></span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><u><b>that</b></u></span></i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><i><b>? You're not gonna like it." "Don't invite ____ _______. He/she is too _____ and then we'll have to _______."</b> </i></span>In sum, I turn even the simplest things into a burden and a criticism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Of course, I don't realize I'm doing it at first, but by the time I do the darkness has settled in and I no longer care or have strength to combat it. In due time, <b>everything</b> is distorted, and I have all but completely lost not only my redeeming outlook on life and my interest in others, but also my hope and my joy in living. I have no expectations for anything other than a dark life of strife, sorrow, and betrayal in a world marked by sin. It's not pretty...unless you count pretty negative.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Plenty of people come to such a place in the midst of trying times, but as a woman of faith with a mission and a ministry, God keeps it impressed upon my heart that I have a responsibility to dig my way out and get back on the path of redemption. Sadly, that doesn't always mean I come quickly or quietly. Surrendering to God means vulnerability all over the place, and who can stomach that when they're already in a dark place? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So I have learned how to let my sin and darkness fly under radar—saying and doing just enough of the right things to keep from arousing too much suspicion. But eventually even that breaks down. The "Enter At Your Own Risk" sign begins to flash above my head.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You can only imagine how these behaviors begin to inbreed...and the <i>mutant</i> products of conception they yield. My relationships with self, others, and God all become tenuous. Some ultimately grow troubled, and it is my fault. I'm ashamed to admit that everyone suffers the consequences of my isolation whether I realize it or not. And ultimately, if it gets bad enough, I don't really care.<br /><br />I make this confession knowing full well that it exposes a darker side of myself—one that isn't very attractive—but I share it knowing with certainty that many other people struggle similarly. And anyway,at the end of the day, this pattern replicates the trouble that came with the first human sin...a belief in the lies that told to us in our darkness.<br /><br />The best wisdom that was <b>ever</b> shared with me was four simple words: <i style="font-weight: bold;">Don't believe the lies. </i>These are the lies that erupt like weeds from the first moment I begin to converse with the darkness and discount the Truth. From that moment on, I begin buying stock in lies—creating options to purchase a full blown campground of lies where I put up my tent and 1 Corinthians 10:13 is left at the curb like trash.</span></div>
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1 Corinthians 10:13</h3>
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<span class="text 1Cor-10-13" id="en-NKJV-28581"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">13 </sup>No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God <i>is</i> faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear <i>it.</i><br /><br />The<i> way out </i>is <b>always </b>in the Word, in confession, and in repentance. The lies cannot stand in the light of the Truth found in Scripture. The Truth has much power in its confession/expression/profession, but most importantly in its movement in the opposite direction of the lies...repentance. A half turn will never cut it. What's required is a full sprint away from the darkness—a sprint where we are shouting the Truth the whole way, crying out to the Savior for rescue. He will always come.<br /><br />When <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12%3A9-21&version=NKJV" target="_blank">we flee from what is evil and cling to what is good</a> we begin to see God's love, and the people and circumstances He brings into our lives, as much closer, safer, and truer than we see them when we looking at them through the side view mirrors. We use the mirrors to avoid collisions with people and feelings that want to know us. But these are also collisions with love and grace...truth and peace...hope and joy, so...don't believe the lies.</span></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-80175209299786466482012-09-14T13:27:00.003-04:002012-09-14T16:53:24.055-04:00The Trouble with Forward<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">While I was driving to work this morning my thoughts turned to a number of people and situations in my life that might be best categorized as <i style="font-weight: bold;">stuck</i>. Each stuck scenario I considered had its roots in some very deep grief. Grief for past wounds. Grief for abuses suffered. Grief for betrayals. Grief for broken marriages. Grief for broken relationships. Grief for wayward children. Grief for deceased parents, siblings, family, and friends. And, what I consider to be the absolute worst grief of all, grief for children who have died. So many wounds to the soul. <br /><br /><b style="font-style: italic;">"</b><b><i>No wonder </i><i>so many of us seem to be stuck, or operating in a sort of surreal, frame-by-frame slow motion," </i></b></span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I thought.</b><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>There's a heck of a lot of grieving going on."</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's not like me to be prescriptive when God gives me an insight, so I don't claim to have a <i>cure </i>for stuckness. In fact, though it may just be me protecting my own "right" and propensity to be stuck, I can't help thinking that getting unstuck has more to do with a combination of things coming together at just the right time, rather than any single action or determination of the will. <b><i>But if I were to make any valuable contribution to the pool of wisdom on unsticking and moving forward, I'd have to say that a significant part of the trouble we have (or at least I have) with moving forward is really our perception of what forward is and entails.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we're stuck we often </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">create </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">unwittingly an inaccurate pathology of forward. The smallest steps away from an uninterrupted relationship with grief—pulling away from grief's perpetual hold upon our thoughts, decisions, actions, reactions, relationships, spirit, soul, health, energy, etc—seem to trigger </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a belief that forward means, among other things, <i>fast forward</i>. </b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And the thing is, fast forward anxiety makes a TON of assumptions and presuppositions that do more to add weight to the pain and suffering of grief than to help us see the next step, take the next breath, or face the next day. Fast forward anxiety propels </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>the vortex of fear</b></i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> that whirls so violently when we come face-to-face with precisely how much in this life is out of our control.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Fast forward anxiety operates under the assumption that something beloved, important, incomplete, or necessary will be left behind and cause us more trouble and pain later. It presupposes how we will feel in each yet-to-be-experienced moment, and says that all painful feelings, thoughts, and experiences MUST be avoided. Fast forward anxiety also presupposes that all the new (and probably normal) anxieties that emerge will make things impossibly worse and hinder a more timely effort to disentangle from grief later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For example, fast forward reasons that if someone sees us enjoying ourselves they will believe we are "over it" and fully able to participate in "normal" life again. <b><i>What fast forward anxiety doesn't tell us is that we have the ability to say, "Hey, I'm just trying this out today. It's exhausting. I can't promise you I'll feel like doing it again soon."</i></b> Fast forward anxiety decides in advance to tell no one about its assumption because it doesn't want to be questioned or challenged. Fast forward anxiety says that if we expose it to others they will trip some sort of mine that makes everything worse. I would venture to say that fast forward anxiety tells the greatest lie of disempowerment: If you move forward, you will lose control.<br /><br />Of course, the irony is that the situations that lead us into the deepest griefs are very often the sites where we learn that so little of life is ever fully within our control in the first place. The situations and occurrences that trigger the most disabling griefs are very often a tangled web of things that operate from both within and without our control. A spouse cheats. Health fails. An abuse takes place. Someone dies. Someone leaves. Something ends. <b>The lies of grief speak fragments of truth into a network of reality that has many complex contributors operating outside our control. </b>Fast forward anxiety, then, is birthed out of that same flawed system where bits of truth are caught up in half-truths and all-out lies of the mind, and the darkness of the spirit. It draws us away from God and love and hope and people...life.<br /><br />Real "forward" is probably best characterized as something other than linear progress. Real forward is more like journeying. Whenever we journey we never travel entirely alone, no matter who or what we choose or do not choose to take with us. We can push away from the people and places that trigger our pain, but the fact is that memories—faces, places, histories, events, etc—tag along with us anyway. So does God. <b><i>And because God is our constant companion, even amid our most profound grief—a time when He seems most veiled—we can put fast forward anxiety in its place...behind God, not ahead or instead of Him.</i></b> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/index.php?search=do%20not%20be%20afraid&version1=31&searchtype=phrase&startnumber=1" target="_blank">Over and over and over again in the Bible, God tells us not to fear.</a> Anxiety and God don't mix.<br /><br /><i><b>The call to fearlessness tells me that the one who knows me best of all because He <a href="http://bible.cc/psalms/139-13.htm" target="_blank">"formed my inward parts [and] knitted me together in my mother's womb"</a> knows that He has made a way for me to be unafraid. </b></i><br /><br />He has given us the best and most immutable motive/reason to be unafraid...because He is with us. His very presence in our lives—<i><b>with us</b></i>—means that there is no basis for buddying-up with fear...in fact, it's kinda disobedient and adds to our troubles. (And I'm not just talking to my sisters and brothers here, by the way. I'm talking to me...the <b><i>Disobedience Cover Girl</i></b> (ok...middle aged woman...Ugh! Whatever!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At the end of the day, the trouble with forward isn't really trouble at all; it's a plain fact. Whether we stay stuck, move backward, move forward, go in circles, rock side-to-side, jump up and down, or roll over and play dead, the one earthly life that we have been given continues on its linear progression, and (like it or not) we go with it. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A18&version=NKJV" target="_blank">The sights we see are the variables that we can and must influence by fleeing from fear, because fear is about punishment and imprisonment, not reconciliation and freedom.</a><br /><b><br />What a waste, then, to give fear the reins and allow it to entrench us in all the angriest, darkest, loneliest, and most misbegotten sites of grief</b> rather than the inexpressibly beautiful ones— the places where we find that we can love God and enjoy Him forever in the here and now, by loving others and by forgiving and reconciling with both the living and the dead, and all the skeletons in our closets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><i>Whatever we grieve and lose, God also provides us with a treasure trove of healing gifts and comforts and people to help us access the realms of gratitude, peace, and joy that make the journey forward a journey that is safer, more tolerable, often interesting, and nearer to the Savior than if we pitch our tents in fear and camp among the people who allow us to live there rent-free, and without responsibility.</i></b></span></div>
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1 Corinthians 10:13</h3>
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<span class="text 1Cor-10-13" id="en-AMP-28579"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">13 </sup><span style="font-size: small;">For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">and</i><span style="font-size: small;"> laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b> </b></span><span style="font-size: small;">adjusted and </span><span style="font-size: small;">adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">and</i><span style="font-size: small;"> tried </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">and</i><span style="font-size: small;"> assayed beyond your ability </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">and</i><span style="font-size: small;"> strength of resistance </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">and</i><span style="font-size: small;"> power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to </span><span style="font-size: small;">a landing place), that you may be capable </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">and</i><span style="font-size: small;"> strong </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">and</i><span style="font-size: small;"> powerful to bear up under it patiently.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-51353385408022908812012-09-13T14:36:00.001-04:002012-09-13T14:56:30.743-04:00Indispensable. Non-disposable.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="text Eccl-4-9" id="en-NLT-17367"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">9 </sup>Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.</span> <span class="text Eccl-4-10" id="en-NLT-17368"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">10 </sup>If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.</span><span class="text Eccl-4-11" id="en-NLT-17369"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">11 </sup>Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone?</span> <span class="text Eccl-4-12" id="en-NLT-17370"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">12 </sup>A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.<br /><br />Perhaps one of the greatest challenges in human relationships, maybe most particularly in our harried, 21st century lives, is appreciating the people God brings into our lives--those who are absolutely indispensable...<b>NON-disposable</b>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="text Eccl-4-12">Most of us don't wake up in the morning planning to discount our fellow human beings, but with so many demands upon our lives, so little time, and SOOOO much popular <i>wisdom</i> (even in evangelical circles) encouraging a "me first" way of life, it's easy to let some of the most important, yet often <i>invisible</i>, people in our lives go unnoticed, unappreciated--perhaps casually thanked, but essentially dismissed. None of us wants to admit it...but we all do it. <b>And THAT really is NOT OK!</b><br /><br />Some of us don't have to do much thinking about who the under-appreciated people are in our lives, because conscience throbs at the sound of their names. But even if we can call them to mind before reading the end of this sentence, it's worth performing a little gratitude test to get a complete picture.<br /><br />I stumbled upon the appreciation test while my job was in jeopardy some time ago. My boss at that time--someone whose methods of encouragement and inspiration required a good bit of imagination--was holding my job in the balance and challenging me to prove myself indispensable to the organization so that I would not become disposable...<b>unemployed</b>. Let me say that my self-esteem absolutely plummeted as I tried to process the fact that I'd been deemed dispensable and so the most disposable among an already skeletal staff. It wasn't until God intervened, in ways I could not have predicted, that I gained the insight and the confidence I needed to fight for my job.<br /><br />In the throes of my self-pity, self-righteousness, and despair, I'd failed to be my own best advocate. I'd already discounted the long chain of mostly unseen contributions that I'd taken on and sustained throughout the course of my employment. My contributions ran the gamut from crafting executive level documents, to forging connections with other organizations, to taking on jobs no one else was interested in, to actually cleaning the bathrooms! And there were a whole host of small things I was doing on an individual level for other staff members--things for which I sought no public acknowledgment, but believed to be valuable because they were investments of time, talents, and treasures that enabled them to deliver their best work.<br /><br />Throughout my Christian walk, I'd been consistently taught the importance of selflessness, humility, and un-lauded service and generosity as hallmarks of Christ's likeness. So in an effort to truly live as one willing to be a suffering servant, I'd learned to swallow my pride more often than not--finding myself again and again on my knees repenting of anything that appeared to me as the desire to be recognized and appreciated. <br /><br />As noble (or martyred...?) as that might seem, I was failing in one extremely important way. I had no confidence...no genuine assurance of my significance through Christ, or sense of any real value that my work and ministry added to the lives of others. I'd been silently and unwittingly choking to death on the reality of being human...the daily assaults upon my dignity, worth, and purpose by others struggling in the same tangled web. Where was the line, I wondered, between Christ-like humility and and my unavoidable humanity? <br /><br />While endeavoring to live my faith and be like Jesus, I lost the confidence I needed to walk tall in my job, share my ideas with conviction, and demonstrate my worth to the organization. I didn't know how to fight for my job when the time came, so all I had was a prayer closet filled with the brittle bones of my pride, and the raw flesh of my perceived insignificance. I'd forgotten to bring out of that closet the confidence that comes with knowing who I am in Christ. I forgot to carry the words of Jesus out with me from the closet into the workplace and all my relationships.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text Luke-12-6" id="en-ESV-25457"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">6 </sup>Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b> </b></span>And <span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25457A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup></span>not one of them is forgotten before God.</span><span class="text Luke-12-7" id="en-ESV-25458" style="font-size: 16px;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">7 </sup>Why, <span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25458B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup></span>even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; <span style="font-size: 0.65em;"><sup class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-25458C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup></span>you are of more value than many sparrows.<br /><br />But the reminder of my worth to Jesus was not the only lesson I'd learned when I'd suddenly been shoved to the threshold of looming disaster and unemployment. I also had the chance to think about the invisible, indispensable people in my own life--the folks who never ask for my time, treasures, or talents, but continuously gave me theirs. I had to take a good hard look at how much appreciation and gratitude I'd expressed (and genuinely felt) for people who were invisible...the ones who pray regularly for me and my family, who are the first to jump in and help with some time-consuming, unrewarding, and <i>un</i>glorious chore again and again and again, the ones whose greatest demands upon my life are the hope for simple acts of listening, and who keep secret their longing to be included in meaningful parts of my life and assured that their contributions to my success, safety, and well-being are meaningful. <br /><br />I discovered that I'd developed my own casual habits of dismissive and ungrateful behavior. And while I'd never said to someone, "Prove to me that you are indispensable, or I will dispose of you," I certainly found that I'd treated some pretty indispensable people as if they were entirely disposable. My gratitude was scarcely measurable in relation to what I'd been receiving. I was no more generous or inspiring than the boss who'd left me feeling so worthless.<br /><br />I'm not here to lay on the guilt, but I challenge you to do two things the next time you're feeling unappreciated. First, pray for insight and revelation as you search the scriptures for evidence of your value and purpose in life. Do you truly find your greatest worth and sense of significance in Christ? Or are you depending mostly upon the assurances of your worth from others whose good opinion you seek? Next, dig deeper and ask God to show you the invisible people in your life...the ones <b>you</b> treat as disposable, but who are part of an important, invisible network of support that God has crafted to keep you from falling. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It isn't enough to simply drop them a note of appreciation (though that's a start). </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="text Luke-12-7" style="font-size: 16px;">Create opportunities for them to enjoy some of the first fruits of your time and talents. Share your treasures...most of those treasures are things like your confidence, vulnerability, and family. Overlook the ways in which they may not fit in with your <i>other</i> friends </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">and</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">fans</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Forgive their weaknesses, short-comings, awkwardness, and mistakes, and focus on their consistent contributions. Build them up and allow them to become visible and equal among the </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">important</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> people in your life. Whether you realize it or not, these people are indispensable to your success, your safety, and your well-being. They are non-disposable.</span></div>
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Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-47891900034902317752012-08-09T17:30:00.001-04:002012-08-09T20:25:07.047-04:00Puzzled<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm sure plenty of folks think I'm </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">na·ïve (at best) and maybe a little up-tight, and undoubtedly there are a few folks who would say I'm judgmental and prudish. What's a gal to do? I am what I am...whatever that is. <br /><br />Mostly, I'm a sinner saved by grace. Whew!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And often what I am is puzzled. I think too much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">OK, granted...I'm a high "i" on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator--pretty gosh darn introverted (despite what anyone thinks or says) so I'm comfortable spending time alone with myself and my thoughts. Maybe I spend a little too much solo time, but typically the decisions I make, the conclusions I draw, and even the judgments I decide to reserve have been carefully considered...very often put to prayer.<br /><br />But enough about me.<br /><br />The thing is, it's election time, and not to be self-focused, BUT, I'm also smack-dab in the middle of child-rearing time. In my economy, that means it's serious thinking time! <br /><br />Serious <b>ACTION </b>time! <b>REALLY SERIOUS PRAYER TIME!</b> <br /><br />There's a here-and-now that's in trouble, and a future hanging in the balance--for my nation, for humanity...and for the little girl I've devoted my life to loving and protecting. Seriously...am I the only one who's feeling an overwhelming sense of responsibility???<br /><br />So what I'm wondering so much lately is why folks don't seem to be putting all of the pieces together. <br /><br />I find the disconnect most evident among my Christian peers and friends, and in my own life. Why, I wonder, do we seem to have this adjustable sensibility that can get its knickers all in a twist about gay marriage and abortion, but not about things that hit super close to home...like ethics, personal accountability, modesty, purity, reverence, humility, loyalty, respect, honesty, etc? I'm not even going to ask about the pursuit of holiness! Here's who I am there: FAIL!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But here's where I want to be...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, I ask myself: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Why are things like self-examination, self-control, self-sacrifice, etc seemingly secondary to public outrage over the sins of others? How can it be that these aspects of public and private life are SO out-of-sync with both the logic and the mysteries of faith that so few people seem to be making the critical connections that have tremendous power to move the hand of God to heal our families, our souls, and our nation?</i><br /><br />I can't speak for anyone else, but when I read <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Chronicles+7%3A14&version=NKJV" target="_blank">2 Chronicles 7:14</a> my first instinct is never to look outward at my country or my community. To my mind, this verse smacks of a call to self-reflection that leads to personal repentance...on a wide scale! I get convicted.<br /><br />If Christians put the pieces together it is likely that the picture of responsibility for so much public dissatisfaction will become clearest in our own homes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We preach abstinence in our churches, but do we instill a preference for modesty into our children? Do we insist on modesty and model it? Do we ask ourselves what modesty should really look like?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">OK...I do NOT expect my daughter to walk around in the equivalent of a body bag in order to protect her from being objectified and sexualized. I cannot honestly say to her that wearing a one piece bathing suit, as opposed to a tankini, or a bikini, will assure her of sexual respect or personal dignity. But I can teach her about the attitudes that her fashion choices project, and how these attitudes can become a slippery slope...personally and for girls who aren't even born yet!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I can teach her that the fashion choices we make in our home have dramatic social power to maintain modesty, or expand its boundaries.<br /><br />I can also teach her that she can join all the city-wide and church-wide initiatives to feed the homeless, stop abortion, protect marriage, improve entertainment, and end human trafficking, but if she isn't first feeding her next door neighbor, engaging in healthy relationships, treating others with dignity, forgiving others, reconciling relationships, loving her enemies, governing her thoughts--her tongue, her actions--and living a winsome life for Christ inside her home...then little by little she is receiving less of God's best. She becomes a less authentic model of the way of life she claims as best for everyone. When she's old enough to vote, her decisions will become increasingly <i>against </i>this or that position rather than <i>for </i>God's standard. <br /><br />Believe it or not, 12-year-olds are capable of having deep moral and ethical discussions. I dare you to try and bring candy from home into a movie you attend with my child. (SHE was the one to challenge ME about the M & Ms tucked into my purse!) :-/<br /><br />Am I the perfect model of what I preach? Nooooooo! Not by a long shot! Am I some amazing Christian mom who has it all together? <br /><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As a Christian woman who chose divorce to solve a marital problem (even though it was a very big and complicated problem) I humbly and sadly confess that I failed to uphold my own values. There's a high cost associated with that failure. I don't take it lightly. I work hard to set as much of it right as I can, and take the brunt of the consequences as much as it is humanly possible. It's not perfect. I deserve no applause. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />But failure in one area of my life doesn't have to be a wide open door to social or spiritual ambivalence. Sin never has to be a prison. Our heavenly Father is always ready to hear our humble confessions, and walk with us away from the ways of spiritual and societal death!<br /><br />If we want to restore and cash-in on our founding fathers' faith, then we have to examine the ways in which our personal lives fail to reflect their values...publicly and privately.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">God's "if my people" call to prayer, humility, and repentance is the call for a gut level plea for Him to guide ME away from the things like godless and irreverent entertainment, immodest dress, unedifying talk, clickish friendships, unforgiveness, financial irresponsibility, workplace laziness, personal entitlement, and relational strife that make ME a hypocrite of the highest order before God and man. It's not a call for Pharisees and hypocrites to demand more of others while perched upon a stump of faux-piety.<br /><br />God's offer says that if His people--<b>all of us who bear the name <i>Christian</i></b>--cry out in humble prayer that <b>MUST</b> result in personal confession, repentance, and soul-level willingness to change...<b>THEN</b> He will hear all of our cries for restoration of the values we say we hold high (a land governed by <b>His</b> laws) and He will set things aright and heal our land.<br /><br /><b>Should we be concerned about political wranglings that influence social norms and the resulting government of our nation?</b> <b>You betchya!</b> <b>Christianity is <u>NOT</u> a call to social in-action or silence.</b> <br /><br /><b>But</b> if we genuinely desire a national turn toward <i>one nation under God,</i> then we need to first ensure that we are living personally under God ourselves. That's how strength in numbers works from a heavenly perspective...one by one, home by home, clan by clan, community by community, city by city, state by state...<br /><br />Never doubt the depths of grass roots, or their strength.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-54113833416006422792012-07-19T23:22:00.001-04:002012-07-20T00:30:32.317-04:00What We Say to Dogs<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">...What They Hear</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When Christian folks start working the (biblical) "S"ubmission word around Facebook, I can't seem to just say nothing. This failure to shut up is probably...well...a failure. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Oh well. </b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">OK, so here's the deal with me and the whole submission thing in a nutshell:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It sounded good when I was a newlywed Christian woman and heard <a href="http://www.frankandbunny.com/pbwilson.htm" target="_blank">Bunny Wilson</a> talk about her book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Liberated-Through-Submission-Freedom-Relationships/dp/1565077202" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Liberated through Submission: God's Design for Freedom in All Relationships</a>. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Honestly, she was so engaging, and what she said sounded reasonable enough...and then life got real...really, really, real. None of your business. Just spot me some belief for now.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>IMHO</b>: <b>a gal can suck up a whole lotta submission, and probably put up with a whole lotta crap in the process, provided it has nothing much to do with sex or money. </b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Show me a Christian wife who's been "yes, Dear-ing" her way through a serious financial crisis of her husband's making, or a one who has been treated like a receptacle for her husband's sex drive, and <b>I will point out the well-worn paths between the psychotherapist's office, the church leader's office, the doctor's office, and the lawyer's office. </b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>NOTE: These are the paths where zombie wives are staggering and gasping for a life of biblical faith to make sense of their experience, but often find themselves betrayed, broken, confused, crushed, and demoralized. </b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But that's just me. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And I digress...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Let me dive into this conversation again, only this time from the point on the continuum where my thoughts began this afternoon.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If you follow any of the prominent folks in the Christian blogosphere, you may have read a few that are published through <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/" target="_blank">The Gospel Coalition</a>--a pretty conservative Christian organization that generally seems to know and write well for their reading audience. But, of course, <b>sometimes writers misjudge their readership</b>...and that seems to have happened on July 13th...<b>big time</b>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Blogger, Jared Wilson, left quite a few jaws dropped and fists up with his <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/gospeldrivenchurch/2012/07/13/the-polluted-waters-of-50-shades-of-grey-etc/" target="_blank">commentary</a> on biblical submission. They finally closed the comments on his post. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Ya. It got pretty intense.</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm too tired to take on Jared Wilson's entire argument, and the wealth of responses from readers and bloggers like <a href="http://rachelheldevans.com/gospel-coalition-douglas-wilson-sex" target="_blank">Rachel Held Evans</a>. (If you're really interested in this topic, and a savvy Googler, you can find the follow-up posts, and a few others, but the two I've linked here should keep you going for awhile.) However, I need to confess up front that I'm sympathetic (to greater and lesser extents) with several diverse points of view that were shared in their <i>conversations</i>. For this reason, I feel rather fair and just in sharing my views.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Confession over. Now my visceral response: </b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Jared Wilson! </b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What the heck is the matter with you?</b></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><Insert my dope slap here></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I have trouble wrapping my head around how <b>anyone</b> could fail to realize <b>IN ADVANCE </b>that the following statement would send quite a few folks blasting off from the blogosphere into the stratosphere:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>"A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts."</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>And now...My open response to Jared Wilson...sans gagging noises</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><b>DUDE! </b></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>You can concoct all of the biblical doctrine and theory you want, but <b>I can't even type that quote from you without throwing up in my mouth! </b></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Your ideas <b>may</b> play in a Peoria where no women have ever been violated or subjugated, but <b>gimme a fricken break!</b></i></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Let me offer some sisterly advice... </b></span></i><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When you start throwing around words like <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">p</span>enetrates, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">c</span>onquers, </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">c</span>olonizes, </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">p</span>lants...</b>you lose me before I can ever even <b>THINK</b> about <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">r</span>eceives, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">s</span>urrenders, and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">a</span>ccepts!!!</b> </span></i><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>There is NO "BENIGN" THEORY in the world </b>that can divest the baggage of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>penetrates, conquers, and colonizes </b>enough for most of us to choke down what you wrote, let alone keep it down. </span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><b>Umm...sorry (kinda...not really). Just being honest. Please pass the Emetrol.</b></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Granted, not all women (<b>THANK GOD</b>) hold the distinction of being a survivor of incest, child abuse, domestic violence, rape, emotional abuse, and spiritual abuse. What can I say? I'm special.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Even so, I can virtually guarantee that among survivors of any one of those horrors, there are surely few (<b>if any</b>) who would be prepared to congratulate you on your spiritual insightfulness. </i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Penetrates, conquers, colonizes, and plants MY EYE!</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Seriously, I'm not one to promote cowing to pressure, especially since you r<b>eally seem quite convicted and convinced of your correctness. </b></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Uummm...but <b>what you wrote wasn't exactly Luther's treatise nailed to the church door. Just sayin'</b></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><b>When you get a pile of folks riled up into Linda Blair mode...well...that might be your cue from Mr. DeMille to BACK DOWN</b>. </i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Maybe go pray...<b>a lot</b>.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>It seems as though it never even occurred to you that what you've written might be read by someone like me...a devout Christian woman who sat in "counseling" meetings and listened politely while <b>a pastor whose biblical authority I was TRYING HARD to submit to </b>endeavored to convince me that I had to suck up my (ex)husband's live run of your <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">PCCP</span><b>/</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">RSA </span>theory. </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><b>Pardon the run-on. Feeling sick all over again.</b></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Ahem...</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>You might also want to check in on how many women (a rough estimate will do) have found themselves betrayed by their own kind...Christian girlfriends, family members, and counselors who either can't comprehend their own screwed up spiritual circumstances, or have been bullied (<b>or brainwashed</b>) into buying the kinda stuff you're selling. </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>These are the things that women often do to maintain spiritual community, or to survive in a patriarchal environment, but I suspect you don't know that.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><b>I could go on and on...but I won't.</b></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>I will, however, say that I'm neither a dyed in the wool egalitarian, or a true blue complementation. I'm not fully convinced of either view...and I don't underestimate my human propensity to stumble within my own beliefs even if I held firmly to one or the other. I'm probably just a humanitarian. I hate to see people treated badly. I love to see people treated with love, dignity, and respect.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>So here's the deal... </i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><b>Apologize, for crying out loud!</b></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><b>...not for the fact that you were misunderstood, but for the part that only you can own...the fact that you were so busy being right that you didn't seem to care who you hurt among your Christian sisters. Enough already! Snap out of it!</b></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Here is what <b>a real apology</b> might look like, <a href="http://www.challies.com/articles/in-which-i-ask-ann-voskamps-forgiveness" target="_blank">as modeled by Tim Challies to Ann Voskamp</a>. </i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>See what you can come up with to do your part in cleaning up some of the barf so many of us have hurled. </i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Vulgar sentiment...? Ya...but I'm guessing that <b>a little genuine humility from you will inspire a whole lot more humility from me. You want to lead women, right?</b></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><b>So go ahead and lead. Please. I insist. Who knows? I might even help you with your chores. That's my job anyway...isn't it?</b></i></span><br />
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<br />Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2622632954613770731.post-44950734601934482722012-05-10T21:46:00.001-04:002012-05-10T23:29:28.528-04:00Love & Loyalty<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Psalm 85:10</span></h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">New Living Translation (NLT)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Unfailing love and truth have met together.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="text Ps-85-10" style="position: relative;">Righteousness and peace have kissed!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">"<b>Psalm 85</b>" by John August Swanson.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm thinking much, tonight, about what a big deal it was for Jonathan to deceive and betray his father--who was also his king--in order to protect his beloved friend/brother, David. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Perhaps some people would say that Jonathan was acting out of righteousness...defending his friend against his father's bad behavior for God's sake. Perhaps. But honestly, nothing and no one defends righteousness, truth, and holiness better than God defends them himself. In his treatise on Ephesians 6:10-20, William Gurnall said that God's power exists for its own defense. It is by His defense of his own character and nature that we too are defended. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">God did not give Jonathan the job of defending righteousness. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Jonathan was entrusted with the heart and life of his friend. Big difference.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+20&version=NKJV" target="_blank">The story of Jonathan's loyalty to David</a> focuses on the deep love Jonathan had for his covenant friend. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2018:1-4&version=NKJV" target="_blank">God had knit their souls together.</a> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Jonathan gave David the best of all he had...all that signified his status as the son of the king, and all the best armor that served to protect the son of the king. Jonathan's oath and his sacrifice were huge because his heart and soul were even bigger!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm sure that Jonathan knew his father was acting sinfully, but I am just as sure that he loved his father very much. It must have been truly painful and confusing to have to decide between loyalty to his father and honoring his covenant...acting on the love and truth God had knit within his soul.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Jonathan was probably eager to see righteousness triumph, but I'm sure he felt badly about disobeying his father. I believe very much that this young man still desired to be loyal to his father and king. Young Jonathan must have been a person of great honor because he died on the battlefield with Saul.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Even so, by following his heart, honoring his covenant, and helping David, Jonathan risked being disowned. He risked his life at the hand of his own father! History has shown that when it comes to power, many a father, son, and brother have turned against one another to a brutal, bloody end. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Given Saul's erratic fits of jealousy and rage, there was no way Jonathan could be certain of his own safety. Yet the truth of his unfailing love for David gave him peace that God would take care of the righteousness. And God did just that.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We seldom hear stories of love and loyalty like this one. Jonathan's heart and his covenant (his feelings and his promise) stood up against even the close and powerful bond of father and son, and the honorable expectations of allegiance to the king. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">No one would have faulted Jonathan for obeying his father and hanging David out to dry. In fact, I'd say that Jonathan's reputation was more than just a little bit on the line. Undoubtedly most people then, like most people now, expected blood to be thicker than water. Jonathan managed to honor blood and water...at the expense of his own life.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I guess I wonder how many of us, myself included, would sacrifice ourselves for the love of a friend, the way Jonathan did, and still honor the ones we are bound to by blood, or by service. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Would I risk dishonoring a relative in the wrong for the sake of a soul mate in need? Would I take a stand against my boss in order to honor a covenant and show love to a friend? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the end, I hope I'd decide, as Jonathan seemed to have decided, to put his life and his honor in God's hands. He risked his life and honor for his friend, for his father, and for his nation...all without question.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Forward, the Light Brigade!"<br />Was there a man dismay'd?<br />Not tho' the soldier knew<br /><img src="http://poetry.eserver.org/space.gif" /> Someone had blunder'd:<br />Theirs not to make reply,<br />Theirs not to reason why,<br />Theirs but to do and die:<br />Into the valley of Death<br /><img src="http://poetry.eserver.org/space.gif" /> Rode the six hundred.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">*****</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And one can ride just as well.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anne Bosworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140212069201212930noreply@blogger.com0