tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56705120431240806252024-03-05T01:31:11.304-08:00watching for fireevery morning I lay out the pieces of my life
on your altar and watch for fire to descend
Psalm 5:3Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-87127026806019198372015-03-12T09:00:00.001-07:002015-03-12T09:00:36.296-07:00Good News for Hard Times Week 5: The Risk of Faith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDD6zdIzWTsbOO8rNNRiCzfOV3JLfodFT35AJlYiZUjQddVRHuTPbNZLl0tAxXj1IQ1sjbwf1q1ulFLc4blx3BtdkXthQp0IzMCgprGO3ETZVfJxkqnNlYAp9orkQRnizBt68tnpz9AcoQ/s1600/images-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDD6zdIzWTsbOO8rNNRiCzfOV3JLfodFT35AJlYiZUjQddVRHuTPbNZLl0tAxXj1IQ1sjbwf1q1ulFLc4blx3BtdkXthQp0IzMCgprGO3ETZVfJxkqnNlYAp9orkQRnizBt68tnpz9AcoQ/s1600/images-2.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<i>Now faith is being confident of what we hope for and sure about what we do not see.</i></div>
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<i>Faith is what the ancients were commended for. </i></div>
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<i>And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him </i></div>
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<i>must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.</i></div>
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<i>- Hebrews 11:1-2, 6</i></div>
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This week in Wednesday Bible study we learned a story about a different kind of hard time - the kind of long, debilitating suffering that exhausts all your resources, that shapes and alters your way of life, that suffering that becomes a lonely isolated journey.<br />
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<b>Jesus came to a village, and the crowds were following him everywhere </b></div>
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<b>because he was healing their sick, </b></div>
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<b>and everyone was bringing their sick to him to be healed.</b></div>
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<b>Now there was a woman in this village who had suffered for twelve long years </b></div>
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<b>with a disease that caused her to hemorrhage and bleed. </b></div>
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<b>She had been to every doctor and healer and they had all failed her </b></div>
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<b>and taken her money and left her worse off than before. </b></div>
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<b>But when she heard that Jesus was in the village, </b></div>
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<b>and that he was healing people, she thought, </b></div>
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<b>"If I could just get close enough to touch him, <i>I</i> could be well!"</b></div>
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Now in this woman's day, according to the religious laws, her disease would have isolated her. She would be considered unclean. She wouldn't be allowed to share a home with others, because everywhere she sat or lay down would be unclean. She wouldn't be allowed to bring sacrifices and worship, so she would be cut off from the center of community in the village. No one would eat her food. Or visit her. <br />
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So what she does is so bold. It is such a risk, slipping out into that crowd, that crowd where no one would want to touch her. Reaching out to touch the Rabbi. A touch that would make him unclean. So she just reached for the fringe on the hem of his robe.<br />
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In Wednesday Bible study, we talked about the risk of faith. Everyone has hard times. Some are like the sudden storm that came up on the Sea of Galilee. Some are like the storm of worries within Martha's head and heart. Some are the hard times of not knowing how your needs will be met. Will you have enough? And some hard times are long, exhausting lonely journeys like this woman's. <br />
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The question of faith is: Will you let the hard time drive you to reach out to Jesus? Will you believe that he is a rewarder of those who seek him? Will you reach for the life he can give you?<br />
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Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5xzmw8u0skm9u8r/AAC7Z7t2kkkFtljKb8Iz20tIa?dl=0"><i>here</i> </a>to listen to this week's story and learn it.<br />
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You can read the story in <a href="http://biblia.com/books/niv2011/Mk5.25-34">Mark 5:25-34</a> and <a href="http://biblia.com/books/niv2011/Lk8.40-48">Luke 8:40-48.</a><br />
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Who will you tell this story to?Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-63549578223576876992015-03-04T11:55:00.000-08:002015-03-04T11:55:15.214-08:00Good News for Hard Times Week 4: The Lost Son<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;">The synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus taught</td></tr>
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One reason I tell Bible stories: Jesus told stories. <br />
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"How can we picture God's kingdom? What kind of story can we use?" </div>
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With many stories, he presented his message to them, </div>
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fitting the stories to their experience and maturity. </div>
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He was never without a story when he spoke. </div>
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<i>- Mark 4:30, 33-34 MSG</i></div>
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Jesus, like any Rabbi of his day, told parables in order to teach. Every Rabbi told many of the same stories; it was the way they interpreted the story that made each teacher unique. It was the way Jesus interpreted the story that made him <i>very</i> different and controversial. <br />
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A good parable is like a good stand-up comedy routine. We are drawn into the commonality, the familiar elements of life that we find in the story. We're pulled along by its plot. And then, there is the plot twist, the punch line, the surprising ending to which we all react. <br />
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Our reactions reveal what is in our hearts. Who laughs at the story? Who is offended by it? Angered by it? Embarrassed by it?<br />
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Jesus told stories not only to instruct, but to reveal.<br />
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And this week's story is an excellent example of that.<br />
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By this time, the crowds were growing, and they included a lot of people with bad reputations, people whose behavior was considered "bad" by the religious leaders. These "bad" people were listening to Jesus, too. And the religious leaders didn't like it. They didn't like it that Jesus treated them like friends. He was too friendly to people who hadn't earned it.<br />
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So Jesus told three stories about lost things and the celebration of finding them.<br />
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"There was a man who had two sons...."</div>
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I have three sons, so I know: this story has the potential to have a lot of plot twists.</div>
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This story has become known as "The Prodigal Son." In fact, it's become imbedded in our culture - a way of referring to any child who fails or embarrasses the family or chooses to go their own way. They are "the prodigal." </div>
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But in fact it's a part of a three-story set about lost things, including lost sons. And who is the lost son in this story? Jesus doesn't tell us. But we know from experience that it's entirely possible to live at home, work in the family business, behave yourself and still be as lost as a goose when it comes to what the family is all about. </div>
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Family failure is a hard time. It hurts like nobody's business. It's maybe the nearest way we have to understanding how it breaks God's heart when his children do not choose to have a relationship with him or with each other. Relationship is what we were made for. That's part of the really Big Story into which this story fits.</div>
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Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/90ou679trwopehk/AAA6a2-gbHzCwAKrSUh_Fce5a?dl=0">here</a> to listen to this week's story and learn it. You can read it in <a href="http://biblia.com/books/message/Lk15">Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.</a></div>
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Who will you tell this story to?</div>
Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-19525460936256896092015-02-25T12:56:00.001-08:002015-02-25T12:56:55.718-08:00Good News for Hard Times Week 3: Jesus Feeds 5,000<br />
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The other day I was keeping my granddaughter Olivia. Livie is 1 1/2 and she is chattering away these days. Last week her favorite word was "bus" but on this day, she keep jabbering to me, "slibdobydbowzidazzd...cups." I was doing the dishes and she was playing in her stand-up station thingy and she would say, "dkshvocidncbyd..cups!"<br />
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At lunch, Livie was sitting in her Bumbo eating cheese and she kept pointing towards the pantry and asking, "cbobodywoeibyzzz cups?" And I would say, "Yes, we have cups." And I would bring her a cup from the pantry.<br />
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When her mother picked her up, I said, "What's the deal with cups?" and Arley said, "Oh, she was saying 'grapes'!"<br />
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Great. All day Livie was asking, "Do you have any grapes?" and I was answering "Yes, we have cups!"<br />
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Later I thought about when Jesus <a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Mt7.9-11">said</a>:<br />
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If your child asks you for bread, do you give him a stone? </div>
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If he asks for fish, do you give him a snake? </div>
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If you know how to give good things to your children, </div>
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don't you think your heavenly Father can do even better?</div>
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I think many times I am busy blabbering to God about grapes and I'm a little astounded when he gives me cups. <br />
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Like one time, when we were first married, and we lived far from home, we were running really tight on money. And I was worried about having groceries. And I kept going around our little duplex blabbering to God that we needed more money. <br />
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There was a knock at the door, and it was our neighbors, standing there with grocery sacks. <br />
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"Hey, we're going out of town," they said. "And we had to clean out our fridge. Could you use these?"<br />
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I had spent all day blabbering, "akchbbodiwnbenxl...money!" when God knew that what I needed was food.<br />
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This week's Bible story is about God providing food. In an astounding display of power to provide, Jesus feeds over 5,000 men, plus their women and children, with only five loaves and two fish to work with. <br />
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This is one of the only stories told in all four gospels. Apparently all four of them thought it told us something that we must know about Jesus.<br />
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If I was telling you this story in our Wednesday Bible study, I would ask you: What does this story tell you about Jesus?<br />
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There is a conversation in this story that I never knew existed until I began learning to tell it this week:<br />
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Now it was evening, and they were a long way off from any village.</div>
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Jesus asked Philip, "Where shall we get food to feed these people?"</div>
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He said this to stretch Philip's faith. He already knew what he was going to do.</div>
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He already knew what he was going to do. He wasn't worried about how much money they had or fish or bread or where the nearest store was. He already knew what he was going to do.</div>
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Now to him who is able to do immeasurable more</div>
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than we could dare to ask or imagine</div>
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according to his power at work -</div>
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to him be glory!</div>
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-<i>Ephesians 2:20-21</i></div>
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Later in the story, Jesus has a conversation with the people about this miracle, in which he says, "You come to me because you want your stomachs filled: bread. But I can give you life forever: Bread."</div>
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"Your heavenly Father knows what you need," Jesus had told the people.</div>
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It is so much more than we know to ask for.</div>
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Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/txg4yzq4jjvcf2x/Good%20News%20for%20Hard%20Times%20Week%203%20Jesus%20Feeds%205%2C000%204.m4a?dl=0"><i>here</i> </a>to listen to the story and learn it. </div>
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You can read it in <a href="http://biblia.com/books/niv2011/Mt14.13-21">Matthew 14:13-21</a>, <a href="http://biblia.com/books/niv2011/Mk6.30-44">Mark 6:30-44</a>, <a href="http://biblia.com/books/niv2011/Lk9.10-17">Luke 9:10-17</a> and <a href="http://biblia.com/books/niv2011/Jn6.1-13">John 6:1-13</a>.</div>
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Who will you tell this story to?</div>
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<b>Some notes for further study:</b><br />
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1. What do my listeners not know about Jesus?<br />
All four gospel writers tell this story, but not in the same way. Each gospel writer had a different audience, or "people group", to whom they were telling the good news of Jesus. When we tell a story, we must look at the people we are telling the story to. What do they believe about the world? About how life works? About God? What are their needs and challenges? What are their greatest values? And then we ask ourselves, What do they not know about God that this story tells them? That's how we decide what details are important to include. All the gospel writers got the main thing about Jesus consistent in this story. <br />
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2. What are barriers in this story?<br />
In John's account of this story, John says that Jesus asked Philip, "How will we get food for all these people?" John says he asked Philip this to stretch Philip's faith, because Jesus already knew what he was going to do. Your translation might say, "He said this to test Philip." My Wednesday group didn't like this; they didn't like the word "test." For our demographic, a test is something you must get right. you either pass or you fail. Why would Jesus do that to Philip? That's not consistent with Jesus' character. So we look at what the word means and we read a lot of translations. The Message translation, I feel, captures best the intent of the moment: Jesus asked this to stretch Philip's faith - to see if he would use his faith in Jesus to think outside the box of what Philip could do and instead think of what he knew by now that Jesus could do.<br />
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When you tell a story, you have to consider words that might be barriers, that give people problems that really aren't in the story. We never change the meaning of what is said. But we try to avoid words that are cultural triggers for our listeners.<br />
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3. What are bridges in this story?<br />
The main thing, which every gospel writer told us, is that Jesus has compassion. And he cares that we have physical needs met. And he is able to provide—abundantly—for our physical needs! The bridge to the gospel in this story is that everyone has needs. They worry about not having enough. They live out of a scarcity mentality and they worry because they think it's up to them to provide well. Yes, even wealthy people in Williamson County worry about this. <br />
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Think about these things as you're learning and telling the story this week.<br />
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Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-69188742163832991172015-02-11T14:28:00.003-08:002015-03-12T09:01:49.317-07:00Good News for Hard Times Week 2: Worried about many things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week in Wednesday Bible study, we learned a story about being caught in a storm that comes from without. It was a story about being afraid. This week, we learned a story about a storm that comes from within - the storm called "worry."<br />
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In this week's story, Jesus is at the home of Mary and Martha. Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus, but Martha is having a hard time with that because she is "distracted by the many preparations." Finally she bursts out, "Lord! Don't you care? My sister has left me to do all the work! Tell her to help me!"<br />
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Martha's cry is so much like the cry of the disciples in the boat from last week's story: "Lord! Don't you care?"<br />
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But there's a big difference. The disciples plead, "Save us!" Martha tells Jesus what to do.<br />
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In his letter to the believers at Philippi, Paul writes about the storm of worries:<br />
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Do not be anxious about anything, </div>
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but in everything, by prayer & petition with thanksgiving,</div>
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present your requests to the Lord.</div>
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-Philippians 4:6</div>
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Paul doesn't say, "Present your instructions to the Lord." He says, "Present your requests."</div>
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How does Jesus respond to taking instructions?</div>
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He says, "Martha, Martha, you are distracted and upset about many things. But only one thing is essential, and Mary has chosen it."</div>
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Your version of the Bible might say, "You are worried about many things." That word translated "worry" in English means <i>divided</i> or <i>distracted</i>.</div>
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Where is the "hard time" in this story? It's the storm within Martha. It's the tumult of being pulled in a thousand different directions, of not being able to quiet your heart or your mind, not being able to focus. Sometimes it is the big storm of circumstances that swamps you, like in last week's story. But more often, it is the storm of lots of little worries that consumes you and causes just as much anxiety.</div>
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I speak as an expert on this. I am a black belt worrier. The inside of my head is a big string ball of anxieties. </div>
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You may ask, how can a person who studies the Bible and teaches it and writes about faith and seems for all the world to be a Mary be such a Martha?</div>
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The answer is that you have to remember the Big Story that this little story and every story fits into: God vs. Satan. If God created you and me for a relationship with him, the last thing his enemy wants us to do is enjoy that relationship. And one of his chief tactics is to <i>distract </i>us. With worries. So he can tempt us with that same old question: "Don't you care?"</div>
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If he can get us off on our hamster wheel, churning over our worries, instead of talking to God - or better yet listening to God - then he has succeeded. For now.</div>
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This isn't a story about whether hospitality is less important than discipleship. It isn't even a story about hostessing. Or women. It's a good story for business people, for college students, for anybody with a To Do List that has taken over their life.</div>
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Paul goes on in Philippians to say this about the divided mind:</div>
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It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.</div>
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Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together, </div>
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will come and settle you down.</div>
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- Philippians 4:7 The Message</div>
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Everybody worries. Just today at lunch, after Bible study, our waitress was in tears because she was worried about something personal. And we told her the story we had just learned about Martha. She is a believer, but just like us, she'd gotten focused on the worries and not on Jesus. Right before our eyes, we saw him settle her down. And it <i>was </i>wonderful. I'm so thankful I was there to see it. </div>
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I'm so thankful Luke preserved this little story for all of us worriers! Today as we practiced telling it, some of us pretended to be Mary and some of us pretended to be Martha. But the truth is, all of us are Marthas when it comes to being distracted by many things.</div>
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Click <i><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/akcy6xgvmdqnec0/AAD4FQ--MJZuGaNAkmTg2STqa?dl=0">here</a> </i>to listen to this week's story and learn it. You can read it in <a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Lk10.29">Luke 10:38-42</a>. </div>
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Who will <i>you </i>tell this story to?</div>
Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-64557707495645741062015-02-04T12:37:00.000-08:002015-03-12T09:01:22.383-07:00Good News for Hard Times Week 1: Jesus Calms the Storm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm so happy that Wednesday Bible study is back this week. This spring we are learning to tell six Bible stories about people going through hard times. <br />
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Sometimes when I find myself in a conversation with someone going through a really hard thing, I don't know what to say. (I do NOT have the spiritual gift of mercy.) I really want to fix their hard thing for them, but of course I can't. So I just find myself saying, "I'm sorry." "Gosh, I'm really sorry." "I'm soooo sorry."<br />
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When I'm going through a hard thing, I really hate it when people tell me platitudes like, "You'll be stronger for it" or "God never gives us any more than we can handle." That one's particularly not true. Everything is more than we can handle. I think that's kind of the point of the Bible, and why we need Jesus.<br />
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When I'm going through a hard thing, though, it does help to know that others have been through something hard. It helps to know that they, too, were chickens or complainers or wondered if God cared at all about them, or if he was just busy with Africa right now.<br />
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This is one reason I love Bible storytelling. I don't have to tell you how to feel or think. I can just say, "Wow, that's like the time when <i>this </i>happened and God did <i>that.</i>" The most important thing I can tell you during a hard time is that you're not alone, and that this is what God is like and can do.<br />
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When we process a story together in our group, we think about these questions together:<br />
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<li>What did you like about this story?</li>
<li>What bothered you or left you with questions?</li>
<li>What does this story tell you about God?</li>
<li>What does this story tell you about people?</li>
<li>What does this story tell you about how life with God works?</li>
<li>If this story is true, what do you need to do in response?</li>
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These are good questions to think about together, even if you and I are just having a conversation about your hard time or my hard time.</div>
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This week's story is about a hard time that comes up suddenly. You know, those things that take you by complete surprise, you didn't see them coming? There's something about being afraid suddenly that causes you to lose your bearings and forget everything you thought you knew and counted on. A huge wave of emotions. A harsh wind of change. A storm of circumstances.</div>
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In this week's story, Jesus calms the storm. I've heard this story told since I was a little girl in Sunday School. I heard this story told just a few weeks ago on a boat on the Sea of Galilee, where it happened. I learned that the ancient people believed that gods and demons were behind the natural elements. So it's no coincidence that the gospel writers put this story smack in the middle of a lot of other stories about demons. Jesus speaks to the storm the same way he spoke to demons. The same way he rebuked Peter when he said, "Get behind me, Satan!"</div>
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What does that tell you about Jesus?</div>
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Then he turns to the disciples and asks, "Why do you <i>keep on</i> being afraid?"</div>
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What does that tell you about people?</div>
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What does this story tell you about life with God? </div>
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Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2z9e5n0cxy96693/AAADTxXPu4nG-HyuI5YVyR5xa?dl=0"><i>here</i> </a>to listen to the story and learn it. </div>
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You can read it in <a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Mk4.35">Mark 4:35-42</a>, <a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Mt8.23">Matthew 8:23-27</a> and <a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Lk8.22">Luke 8:22-25</a>.</div>
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Here's the most important question we ask every week:</div>
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<li><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></li>
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Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-77562987036675698302014-11-12T13:24:00.000-08:002014-11-12T13:24:58.947-08:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 11: Extravagance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>God has not given us a spirit of fear,</b></div>
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<b>but of power and love and self-control.</b></div>
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<i>-2 Timothy 1:7</i></div>
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I've been thinking a lot about fear lately. <br />
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You might know that back in May, Dennis and I sold our house, the house we've lived in for 25 years, the house where most of our family's life happened. And it happened much faster than we expected. This set in motion the whole circus of dismantling that home, finding a new one, moving in and making it over. We spent our entire summer doing this. Every. Bit. We got up early and went to bed late and spent every ounce of emotional and physical energy holding on for dear life as we rounded a huge change curve. I expected to be tired. I expected to be overwhelmed at times, giddy at times, completely over my head at times. Grateful. Surprised. Challenged. <br />
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Here's what I did not expect: fear.<br />
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Change, even good change, brings risk. And that is scary. Especially if our goal, our destination in life, is to be settled. To have arrived. To be comfortable. <br />
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I was thinking a lot about this as I prepared the story for this week's Wednesday Bible study. Last week, when we met, we talked about how much fear is involved in telling someone about Jesus and asking them to believe and follow him. We are asking them to "repent". That's an old word we've heard preachers say too many times. When Jesus says it, when his apostles say it, they mean, "Change the way you think everything works. Go in a whole new direction."<br />
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This is asking a lot of somebody, and so it is often met with hostility and fear. That's certainly what happens in this week's story. It's the story of Paul & Silas singing in a jail cell, of the Philippian jailer who asks, "What should I do to be saved?" If you grew up in church, you've heard that part of the story, but you might not have heard the part about how Paul & Silas got thrown in jail in the first place.<br />
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Paul & Silas are going about the city telling people about Jesus, and they encounter a slave girl who is possessed by an evil spirit. Her owners make a lot of money off this girl as a fortune-teller. When Paul exorcises the evil spirit, these guys realize they've lost their money-maker. So they haul Paul & Silas before the city officials and incite a mob.<br />
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"These men are disturbing our city! They're trying to overthrow our way of life!"</div>
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The good news of Jesus does overthrow our way of life. Jesus demands that we rethink everything. If you want someone to be comfortable, you will not share the gospel with them. Because you know they cannot stay where they are and go with God. You know this from experience.<br />
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It is scary to share the gospel.<br />
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It is scary to hear and believe the gospel.<br />
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It is scary to go where God takes you next in life.<br />
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But...<br />
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<b>God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go. </b></div>
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<b>This resurrection life you received from God is a not a timid, grave-tending life. </b></div>
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<b>It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, "What's next, Papa?" </b></div>
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<i>- Romans 8:14-15 The Message</i></div>
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Click <i><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qbpru75b0l4tv0l/AAApcVFBU83hgN21koWFv4nJa?dl=0">here</a> </i>listen to the story and download the Bible study.<br />
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<b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b>Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-52752990080933445012014-11-06T07:59:00.000-08:002014-11-06T07:59:41.402-08:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 10: Discerning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Pick at random any of the saints.... I venture to suggest that the one vital quality which they had in common was spiritual receptivity . Something in them was open to heaven, something which urged them Godward. Without attempting anything like a profound analysis I shall say simply that they had spiritual awareness and that they went on to cultivate it until it became the biggest thing in their lives. They differed from the average person in that when they felt the inward longing they did something about it . They acquired the lifelong habit of spiritual response.</div>
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- A. W, Tozer, <i>The Pursuit of God</i></div>
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Bless our Christian hearts. We who really want sincerely to make a difference for God and do what he wants with our days, we can really bumble along and make a mess of it. Many of us who have known God for most of our lives are still foggy about the question: "What is God's will?" </div>
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Well, actually it's pretty impossible to spend much time in the Bible and not know God's will is. The tricky part to figure out is <i>how </i>God wants me to do it. What is God's <i>way</i> to get done what he wants? </div>
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Here's the formula most of us follow: I decide to do something for God, and I ask him to respond.</div>
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No wonder we have trouble following God's will, because that is not a formula for following. </div>
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This is: God shows me what he is doing, and I respond.</div>
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Ohhhh. <i>I </i>respond. Hmmm.</div>
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This requires that we develop and practice discernment. </div>
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<span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small; text-align: left;"><span class="msThes t_core" id="t_en_us1003778.001"><span class="synList"><span class="synGroup"><span class="syn t_core" style="font-size: 19px; font-variant: small-caps;">perceive<span class="gp tg_syn" style="font-size: 17px; font-variant: normal;">, </span></span><span class="syn">make out<span class="gp tg_syn">, </span></span><span class="syn">pick out<span class="gp tg_syn">, </span></span><span class="syn">detect<span class="gp tg_syn">, </span></span><span class="syn">recognize<span class="gp tg_syn">, </span></span><span class="syn">notice<span class="gp tg_syn">,</span></span><span class="syn">observe<span class="gp tg_syn">, </span></span><span class="syn">see<span class="gp tg_syn">, </span></span><span class="syn">spot</span><span class="gp tg_synGroup">; </span></span><span class="synGroup"><span class="syn">identify<span class="gp tg_syn">, </span></span><span class="syn">determine<span class="gp tg_syn">, </span></span><span class="syn">distinguish</span><span class="gp tg_synGroup">;</span></span></span></span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span class="msThes t_core"><span class="synList"><span class="synGroup"><span class="gp tg_synGroup"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;">Spiritual discernment is the ability to notice what God is doing around you, recognize it as the activity of God and determine what response he is calling for from you. What's your part in what he's doing?</span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;">Paul urged the early church to grow in this ability. He considered it essential for them.</span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;">I ask God </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;">to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, </span><a data-datatype=""bible"" data-reference=""Ephesians 1:18"" href="" rel="milestone" style="color: navy !important; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; height: 1em; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 0px;"></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;">your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling y</span><span class="offset-marker" data-offset="4003446" id="marker8642911" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;">ou to do. </span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;">- Ephesians 1:17-18</span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;"><br /></span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;">In this week's Wednesday Bible story, we see Paul and his companions learning how to do this. </span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;"><br /></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;"><br /></span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;">Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/edwj6bs28ah5jbb/AAB_6w_I1Gku0AOhumA6cvKqa?dl=0"><i>here</i> </a>to listen to the story and download the Bible study.</span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;"><br /></span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;"><b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b></span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;"><br /></span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">In this</span></span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -72px;"><br /></span></span><span class="se2" style="display: block; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span>Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-84794217669189105592014-10-29T13:55:00.000-07:002014-10-29T13:55:18.520-07:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 9: Marked<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every morning, I lay the pieces of my life</div>
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on your altar</div>
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and watch for fire to descend.</div>
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-Psalm 5:3 <i>The Message</i></div>
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Psalm 5:3 is what you might call my "life verse," except it is really more than that. It is my operating system. <br />
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My commentary tells me this was the Hebrew Morning Prayer. When I first stumbled across it in Eugene's Peterson beautiful translation The Message, I stopped dead in my tracks. Something in my heart said, "Let's sit right here for awhile." "Awhile" turned out to be ever since, and that was years ago. This verse has taught me so much.<br />
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In the beginning, it captured my imagination, as I pictured the story it tells. It uses the language of the offering or sacrifice. Perhaps you have brought a dove or a little goat, which you have led through the camp to the opening of the Tabernacle, where the great bronze altar radiated with the smoke and smells of others' sacrifices. You handed your offering to the priest, who carefully slaughtered it according to Levitical law and laid the pieces up on the altar. The flames leapt and the fire hissed as the fat burned away. The smoke filled your lungs, mingling with the smells of blood and roasting flesh and the incense of the altar, particular to the Tabernacle. When you walked away, you were marked by that smell. It is the smell of death, the aroma of life with God.<br />
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This is what Paul had in mind when he wrote, "Offer yourselves as living sacrifices." (Romans 12:1) Or as Eugene Peterson translates it, "Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life—and place it before God as an offering."<br />
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When you do this, when this is your operating system, this is what you do: You carefully lay out the pieces of your life. All the questions, the tasks, the people, the problems, the hopes and dreams, the details of the day, the way you think life works. And you stand back and watch. What will God do? Some things he will burn away, because it doesn't belong in your life, or because it doesn't belong there anymore. Some things will die. <br />
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What are you letting die? <br />
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Some things God will light up with His Spirit. This conversation, that appointment, this project, that passion. This is where God is working and asking you to join him. There is where he is going.<br />
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Where is God going in your life? What is he lighting up? And are you going with him?<br />
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I was thinking about this as I learned this week's story for Wednesday Bible study. Peter and Cornelius and all the believers find themselves caught up in something God is doing, something he has never done before. And they must lay the pieces of it on the altar and stand back. Some old things are doing to burn away. Some new things are going to light up with God's action.<br />
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How do they know where God is going and if it is okay to let go and follow? <br />
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"And then I remembered Jesus said, "John will baptize you with water, </div>
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but I will baptize you with God's own Spirit."</div>
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- Peter, in Acts 11:16</div>
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They watch for the fire. They watch for the Spirit.<br />
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It's that simple, and it's that challenging. It is that adventurous. It is that <i>intentional.</i><br />
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That's why Jesus said that the way to life with God is narrow and requires our full attention.<br />
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Are you watching for fire? That is the believer's operation system. It is what marks us as people who have life with God.<br />
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Click <i><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/acup22s0ytswxox/AAADEJjjmQwi5PgjQAV1mHqAa?dl=0">here</a></i> to listen to this week's story and download the Bible study.<br />
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<b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b>Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-45664108959998206742014-10-22T13:31:00.000-07:002014-10-22T13:31:17.397-07:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 8: Included<div style="text-align: center;">
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Were it not for grace,</i></div>
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<i>I can tell you where I'd be:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>wandering down some pointless road to no where </i></div>
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<i>with my salvation up to me.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>And I know how that would go,</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>the battles I would face—</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>forever running, but losing the race</i></div>
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<i>were it not for grace.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>- "Were It Not For Grace"</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>David Hamilton & Phil McHugh</i></div>
<i><br /></i>
In this week's Wednesday Bible story, we meet a man named Cornelius. Luke tells us that Cornelius was a captain of the Roman guard. He was not a Jew, but he was a good man who tried to please God, who kept regular hours of prayer and gave generously to the poor—two things that he had noticed that observant Jews did in order to worship their God. In Luke's day, Cornelius was called a "God-fearer." Not included by birth in God's chosen people, but someone who did everything they could to please this God and be accepted by him.<br />
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In this week's story, as Cornelius is devotedly at his prayers, an angel appears to him.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"Your prayers and your giving have brought you to God's attention. </b></div>
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<b>Send to Joppa for a man named Peter. He can tell you how to have life with God." </b></div>
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<i>- Acts 10:4-5, 11:14</i></div>
<br />
Though this story is primarily about Peter's vision—how God gave him permission to go to the house of Cornelius and share the good news of Jesus—there is a chilling truth embedded in it.<br />
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You and I are surrounded by God-fearers. People who know a little about God—maybe correct information, maybe misinformation. People who want to be considered "good." People who try very hard by good behavior, good deeds, good values, to be good enough for the God they understand. People who line up in our pews every Sunday and sing all the songs. Who sign up to volunteer and lead and serve. Who establish charities and work for social justice. Who read devotional books every morning. People who chalk up good deeds, but have no personal relationship with the God they fear. They are missing a crucial piece of truth: that a relationship with God comes by grace, offered at the hand of his Son. Not by works—but by the loving act of God. That there is so much more than doing <i>for</i> God; there is being <i>with </i>God and being loved by God.<br />
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Would God point to you and say, "She can tell you how to have life with me?"<br />
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Let us who know the gospel of grace set the God-fearers free from the gospel of "try harder." <br />
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Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hnfoifg95ucjmzb/AABQJ_hfg8bkhOi_m4NctYXUa?dl=0"><i>here</i> </a>to listen to this week's story and download the Bible study.<br />
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<b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b><br />
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<br />Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-54394311908519255692014-10-15T11:41:00.001-07:002014-10-15T11:41:20.484-07:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 7: Changed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In every person's story who encounters Jesus, there is a Before and an After. <br />
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I have a missionary friend whose story includes a very dramatic Before & After. She said that before she took Jesus seriously and let him make a huge change in her heart, she was a very different person. So different that when a friend from her "Before" life heard she was a missionary, the friend said, "No way. We must not be talking about the same person."<br />
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She is not the same person she used to be, and she will be the first to tell you that. In fact, she has turned her life upside down in order to go and tell people that. <br />
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I was thinking about that because in Wednesday Bible study, we've been learning the story of Paul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul, like my missionary friend, has a dramatic Before and After story. We are all pretty familiar with the After part of Paul's story—what a great messenger of God he became. We still read his letters to the believers to understand how to live an "After" story. But until this week, I never really thought about what it was like for Paul <i>right after</i> he encountered Jesus. <br />
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What was it like for Paul to wait, blinded, fasting and praying for three days? What was it like to wait in the dark, the vision of Jesus still burning in his mind, trying to make sense of what he had seen and heard? What was it like to feel the touch of Ananias' hands on his shoulders, to hear a stranger call him <i>brother? </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
What was it like for the believers to have this former enemy, this Pharisee of Pharisees, this man who moved among governors and chief priests, sit down to dinner with them? What was it like to see him go under the water, baptizing him into their community? What was it like for Paul to depend on them, his new family? What was it like to step out onto the synagogue steps and hear him say, "Jesus is Lord?" How long before they understood and accepted that this was not the same person?<br />
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Luke tells us that the believers in Damascus were skeptical of Paul's "conversion." And the believers in Jerusalem were downright afraid of him when he tried to meet with them. <br />
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<!--StartFragment--><b><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">But a
believer named Barnabas took Paul under his wing. </span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">He introduced him to the disciples. He told them how Jesus had appeared to Paul
and called him to be his special messenger.
He told them how bold Paul had been in Damascus, telling everyone about
Jesus.</span><!--EndFragment--> </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>- Acts 9:26-27</i></div>
<br />
Today in Wednesday Bible study, we acted this story out. It was powerful to see the women playing the circles of believers in each town shrink away from the woman playing Paul. To see their fear, to see Paul's alone-ness. And so poignant when Betty, who played Barnabas, put her arm around Jaina, playing Paul, and vouched for Paul. As she shared what had happened to Paul and validated the change in him, the group playing the Jerusalem believers began to soften. And everyone watching in the room began to visibly relax.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjddXlx54H00dotxJAXK8lECxKSd34eVvu3KjRLPtkWbrK5CDOuigXp317aGBsuWxMCy0vb9XD_c6Nujc_z0JuiaJNv3h5TpAXJiAdwgpsT4Gr3qaI7rKf8_6A6misy8NVCvi2sstu8DmVC/s1600/Curve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjddXlx54H00dotxJAXK8lECxKSd34eVvu3KjRLPtkWbrK5CDOuigXp317aGBsuWxMCy0vb9XD_c6Nujc_z0JuiaJNv3h5TpAXJiAdwgpsT4Gr3qaI7rKf8_6A6misy8NVCvi2sstu8DmVC/s1600/Curve.jpg" height="277" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
On our church staff, we often refer to a management model called "The Change Curve." The Change Curve shows us what a congregation goes through as they make major changes in their identity or in the way we do things. It's not always a smooth upward arc—in fact, there is a sharp dip in the Change Curve known as "the valley of despair." Because, as we know, following Christ involves dramatic change. It involves risk and fear and vulnerability and an ever-fluctuating combo of cowardice and courage. Jesus said it would be complicated.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<b>“I assure you,” Jesus said, “there is no one who has left house, brothers or sisters, mother or father, children, or fields because of Me and the gospel, who will not receive 100 times more, now at this time —houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions —and eternal life in the age to come. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” </b> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i>- Mark 10:29-31</i></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: start;">What's your Before & After story? How big was the change curve for you? Who came alongside you and helped you? What have you lost in the change? And what have you gained?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: start;">Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jmld596sy7xwqrb/AACdlnZbtJS2HBsCRqjaVQIsa?dl=0"><i style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium;">here</i> </a>to listen to this week's story of Paul's change curve and download the Bible study.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; text-align: start;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; text-align: start;"><b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b></span></div>
Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-21353643225883384392014-10-08T06:03:00.000-07:002014-10-08T06:03:08.742-07:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 6: Chosen<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></strong>
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></strong>
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Maybe</strong><br />
<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">by Mary Oliver, from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Selected-Poems-Volume-One/dp/0807068772" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00acd6; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New and Selected Poems, Volume One</a></em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Sweet Jesus, talking<br />
his melancholy madness,<br />
stood up in the boat<br />
and the sea lay down,</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
silky and sorry.<br />
So everybody was saved<br />
that night.<br />
But you know how it is</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
when something<br />
different crosses<br />
the threshold — the uncles<br />
mutter together,</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
the women walk away,<br />
the young brother begins<br />
to sharpen his knife.<br />
Nobody knows what the soul is.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
It comes and goes<br />
like the wind over the water —<br />
sometimes, for days,<br />
you don't think of it.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Maybe, after the sermon,<br />
after the multitude was fed,<br />
one or two of them felt<br />
the soul slip forth</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
like a tremor of pure sunlight<br />
before exhaustion,<br />
that wants to swallow everything,<br />
gripped their bones and left them</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
miserable and sleepy,<br />
as they are now, forgetting<br />
how the wind tore at the sails<br />
before he rose and talked to it —</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
tender and luminous and demanding<br />
as he always was —<br />
a thousand times more frightening<br />
than the killer storm</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28;">I recently discovered this poem by one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver. Most people, including me, like Mary Oliver for her beautiful way of capturing the natural world in words. But I also like Mary Oliver because of the way she thinks about Jesus. The last stanza of this poem is chilling and probably very accurate: tender, luminous, demanding, a thousand times more frightening than the killer storm. </span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Yes. We imagine that to see Jesus in person would be all sweetness and harps. But that is hardly what it is like in the Bible stories we are learning! This week's story is about Paul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>As they neared Damascus, </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>they were
suddenly struck by a blinding flash of light, </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>and Paul fell to the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>And a voice said, “Paul, Paul, why are you
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>“Who are you?” Paul asked.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>“I am Jesus, the one you are opposing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>Get up and go into the
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>And you’ll find out what you need
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><i>-Acts 9:3-6</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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Paul is not the only one in this story who has a personal encounter with Jesus.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>“Ananias.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>“Yes, Lord?”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>“Get up and go to a certain house
nearby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>Ask for a man named Paul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s there praying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>And I’ve given him a vision </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><b>that you will
come lay hands on him, and he will be healed.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><i>-Acts 9:10-12</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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Every week in Wednesday Bible study, after I tell the story, we ask these questions:</div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">What did you like about this story?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">What bothered or troubled you in this story?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">What does this story tell you about God (or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit)?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">What does this story tell you about people?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">What does this story tell you about how life with God works?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">If this story is true, how should you respond?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Who will you tell this story to?</span></span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">One thing I like about this story: Jesus appears personally to both men. </span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">One thing that bothers me in this story: When Jesus appears, he shakes up your assumptions—how you think the world works, what you think about God and about people. Paul says, in talking about this encounter later, that he was on his way to Damascus hunting down Jesus' followers because he thought that was the way to serve God. He honestly thought he was doing God's business.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Ananias is rocked by the idea that Jesus would ask him to go pray for that man. </span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Both men are chosen. And both discover that God works in ways they could never imagine. </span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Whenever we assume we know that if God is doing something, it will look exactly like "this," we are probably about to get our assumptions rocked. Here is what I am learning about life with God: Never assume. If you are comfortable with how things are, you might not be keeping up with God. I can't say for sure. I can say that, as Mary Oliver hints, Jesus is probably more frightening than you or I are comfortable with. </span></span></div>
<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3a_68OFN4fm8_lUnEK7UtZqB6wKrBKL0t7cpzSjVcixgLjUhUwMHI66YB_kSiWh8LzswyolcH75rPOxiv0_OfSbjKimY1BsJ57eEdO2CUg95X-pTkyaq4cWWrfh-f-wwLnvTqfiiTDeY/s1600/Burning_Heart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3a_68OFN4fm8_lUnEK7UtZqB6wKrBKL0t7cpzSjVcixgLjUhUwMHI66YB_kSiWh8LzswyolcH75rPOxiv0_OfSbjKimY1BsJ57eEdO2CUg95X-pTkyaq4cWWrfh-f-wwLnvTqfiiTDeY/s1600/Burning_Heart.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Click </span><i style="line-height: 23px;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jxhwxf7wvd9denj/AABGZvUbwiVjxvcEgBLTiJksa?dl=0">here</a></i><span style="line-height: 23px;"> to listen to this week's story and download the homework.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Chronicle Text, Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"><b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b></span></span></div>
Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-15787398305954755292014-10-01T12:33:00.000-07:002014-10-03T15:59:43.659-07:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 5: Directed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnaH2wPLJBzylHjpLt1e2jS0v4YMxs-uj4fV2rKTfQIo__cq0fNqFB-jprtLzGN5fpPithQVznz_xbbvy6sBwW1oSRZ_rHHYzf6mANmOFvrsHKqe-MjwwGiKBrTkHSdYdzy-Xs0e_-FUdn/s1600/PatNeffHall_Baylor_Waco_Texas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnaH2wPLJBzylHjpLt1e2jS0v4YMxs-uj4fV2rKTfQIo__cq0fNqFB-jprtLzGN5fpPithQVznz_xbbvy6sBwW1oSRZ_rHHYzf6mANmOFvrsHKqe-MjwwGiKBrTkHSdYdzy-Xs0e_-FUdn/s1600/PatNeffHall_Baylor_Waco_Texas.jpg" height="230" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Last week Dennis & I were at <a href="http://www.baylor.edu/">Baylor University</a> for four days. Dennis was the <a href="http://www.brentwoodbaptist.com/brentwood/news/2014/09-30/dennis-worley-receives-recognition-from-baylor-university">Hearn Innovator </a>guest lecturer for the <a href="http://www.baylor.edu/ccms/">Center for Christian Music Studies </a> at Baylor It was powerful to watch him teach and coach these students who are preparing to be worship pastors and worship leaders in the local church. That is his wheelhouse! Did you know that before he changed his major to music, Dennis was planning to be a coach? He still is a coach, coming alongside our musicians every week, those who serve and those who lead, bringing out their strengths, encouraging them, challenging them to be better and think bigger and serve with humility. He is great at helping people understand why we worship and how we worship well, why we worship the way we do. I watched him in lectures and over dinner conversations, and his days were filled with one-on-one mentoring sessions, where he thrives. He is a coach at heart. And though he poured himself out from sun up to way past sun down, he came away fired up, because he is passionate about worship and worship leaders.<br />
<br />
I met Dennis Worley in the halls of those buildings where he taught this week. It was powerful to be back on the campus. While he taught, I had the days to myself. I walked the whole campus, went inside every building, stood in concert halls and practice rooms and theaters and classrooms and dormitories, at intersections, by benches, under trees that transported me back to the 1970's, to my twenty-something self who dreamed of doing some of the things I've gotten to do and didn't even know to dream of doing some of the things I've gotten to do. I was passionate about Jesus and music and boys —not always in that order! I was just beginning to discover who I was and what God had in mind for me. Walking those hallways and watching Dennis talk with those students, I was reminded of the many people who spoke into my life and dreams during those years. I found myself making a list of the people God has brought alongside me since then, all along the way in life—people who have been able to help me see what God was doing and how I fit in it, people who called out my gifts and strengths and people who called me on my weaknesses. I am grateful for them, so grateful that God lined them up next to me at moments in life. If I made a list you would know some and you wouldn't have a clue about others. My story would not be the same without them.<br />
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<br />
<br />
I was thinking about them this past week, not only because I was at Baylor, but because I was preparing to teach this week's Wednesday Bible study. This week's story is one of my all-time favorites. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>God told Philip, "Go down the road south of Jerusalem," and Philip obeyed. He came upon a man riding in a chariot, an Ethiopian eunuch, a high official in the Queen's court. He had been to Jerusalem to worship God, and he was reading from the scroll of Isaiah!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Acts 8:26-38</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
God's Spirit told Philip, "Go alongside that chariot and stay near it." <br />
<br />
As Philip approached the chariot, he heard the man reading aloud. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"Do you understand what you're reading?" Philip asked. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"How can I," the man replied, "unless someone explains it to me? Can you explain it to me?"</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Acts 8:30-31</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
So Philip climbed into the chariot, and starting with the passage in Isaiah, with story after story, he told the man about Jesus—how it was possible for everyone to have life with God because of Jesus.<br />
<br />
I love this story because it is such a beautiful example of how God's Spirit lines us up next to someone right at the moment they need to understand something about God or how life with God works. Both Philip and the Ethiopian learn something about God they didn't know, didn't understand fully until their paths lined up on this stretch of road. They both learned that life with God, a relationship with God, is open to everyone because of Jesus. I've been in Philip's shoes a time or two, so I know that sometimes you don't even understand a truth about God is true until you teach it to someone, and just as you're explaining it to <i>them — ZING!—</i>a lightbulb goes off in your heart, and you go, "Wow! That's true!" <br />
<br />
This is exactly what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be, a coach. <i>Paraclete</i> is the word used in the Bible, meaning someone who comes alongside and helps you. <br />
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I'm so grateful for the paracletes that came alongside me at moments in my life and said, "Do you understand what God is doing?" But I also know that God is constantly telling me, "Go here" or "Go there," and mistakenly I often think it is all about my path, when actually he is lining me up next to someone else on the path, and it is my moment to say, "Do you understand?" And when they ask, "Can you explain it to me?" then, like Philip, I need to be ready to tell them the story and how they fit in it. Are you ready?<br />
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Click <i><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w53d0bh74amricv/AABO9rypzXd0i86jG_2MTgyRa?dl=0">here</a></i> to listen to this week's story and download the Bible study.<br />
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<b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b><br />
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<br />Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-14585999961571438432014-09-24T09:27:00.000-07:002014-09-24T09:27:38.178-07:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 4: Unstoppable<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There's an old story about a country church that got itself a new preacher. Everybody liked him until, after a few months, he started doing a strange thing. Every morning, he would go down to the train station, sit on a bench on the platform and read the newspaper until the morning train approached the station. As soon as he heard the train, the preacher threw down his paper and cheered. When the train pulled out from the station, he cheered again until it was out of sight. Then he folded his paper and went back to his office.<br />
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After a few weeks of this strange behavior, the parishioners sent some deacons to talk to him.<br />
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"Uh, preacher," they hemmed a bit. "Folks've been asking about something."<br />
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"Oh, the train thing?" said the preacher.<br />
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"Yeah," they answered.<br />
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"I love that train," replied the preacher. "It's the only thing in this town I don't have to get behind and shove."<br />
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If you've ever been in ministry, you know just how he feels. You know that program, that initiative, that fundraising drive, that new Bible study that takes everything you've got, and you know that if you ever stop shoving it along, it's just going to dry up and blow away. <br />
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That's exhausting. And not at all the way God intended the gospel to go forward.<br />
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This week's Bible story comes with a truth that is a relief. The apostles have been boldly preaching about Jesus and healing people, and the religious leaders have tried all kinds of ways to stop them. They are seriously considering killing them, when Gamaliel, a respected teacher, speaks up.<br />
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<b>"Be careful what you do. Remember, there've been others who made claims like this, but nothing came of it. If this work is merely human, it will fall apart,</b></div>
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<b>but if this is God at work, nothing can stop it."</b></div>
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<i>-Acts 5:33-39</i></div>
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<i>"Flesh gives birth to flesh. Spirit gives birth to Spirit," </i>Jesus told Nicodemus. And later he told his followers, "<i>Apart from me, you can do nothing."</i></div>
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Really, nothing? I have a hard time accepting that sometimes. I live in a very creative, very connected, very make-it-happen community of believers. And when we get busy for God, wow, it is really something. Or it seems like it. </div>
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That's why it's really important that we pay attention: Is this merely humans at work? Or this is God? I don't believe God ever needs us to get behind the gospel and shove. I believe he calls us to stand in the path of the Spirit and ride the wind of God.</div>
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Is that a relief to you?</div>
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Click <i><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mojaylyuh9nbqtb/AACqMaYH0Nu_vTanq9eohhSDa?dl=0">here</a> </i>to listen to this week's story and download the homework.</div>
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<b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b></div>
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Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-33955841135663963162014-09-17T15:21:00.000-07:002014-09-17T15:21:07.736-07:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 3: Bold!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last winter, when we first began learning to tell Bible stories at Wednesday Bible study, we discovered that we had to unpeel some thinking we had about what needs to happen when you talk about faith in God with someone. We were learning the creation story, and I remember asking the question, "What bothers you about this story?" And someone said, "Well, it doesn't bother me, but I know who I'm going to tell this to, and I know what they're going to ask: 'Seriously, you think God did all that in 6 24-hour days?'"<br />
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I didn't say anything in the story about a number of days. And I didn't on purpose. I wanted to tell the story of a God who is pleased with his creation, who gave man and woman a relationship with him and a role to play in creation. <br />
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But quickly we began to see that one of the reasons we don't tell stories of our faith is that we feel that going into a conversation about faith, we have to fight. And we have to win. <br />
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We talked about the story of evolution, and someone said, "That's just stupid!" and I said, "Really? That's what most of our culture believes, and they think your story is stupid."<br />
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Things, as you know, can get ugly.<br />
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What if we learn to say, "This is the story that tells me who I am and what I am here for. What's your story? And what does it tell you?" <br />
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How can we talk about faith with courage and conviction, but not end up in a sword fight?<br />
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I was thinking about that this week, because this week's story is about Peter and John being called before the Jewish religious leaders because they had healed a crippled man in the temple and then started telling the crowd that it had happened by the power of Jesus.<br />
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<b>God's Spirit filled Peter, and he replied, "Are we being called on the carpet for doing good to a crippled man? Then know that this happened by the power of Jesus. You rejected him, but the prophets spoke of him. It was always God's plan to restore us and give us life with Him through Jesus. And I'm telling you there is nothing else God has given us that can make us whole and right except Jesus."</b></div>
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<i>-Acts 4:8-12</i></div>
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Luke's account tells us that the religious leaders were astonished that ordinary men could be so bold. Boldness is what stands out in this story. Peter and John's boldness before the religious leaders. And then, the believers' response when they heard Peter and John's story.</div>
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<b>"Now, Lord, consider their threats and give us <i>more</i> boldness to tell everyone everywhere about Jesus. And do even more miracles by the power of Jesus."</b></div>
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<i>-Acts 4:29-30</i></div>
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In response to their prayer, they were all filled with God's Spirit, the place where they were praying was shaken, and they went out and changed the world.</div>
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What's the difference in being bold and being belligerent? <br />
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How can we learn to talk about Jesus with conviction <i>and</i> charm? <br />
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The gospel is going to offend people. Jesus is a Revealer; he reveals what is in men's hearts. You can see that the early believers expected Jesus to offend people. But Luke says an interesting thing about them, bold as they were: It was obvious that God was with them, and their life with Him was attractive to people. They had, we would say, charisma. From the Greek word <i>charis,</i> which means graciousness of manner or action, the divine influence upon the heart. Charisma - graciousness that attracts people - is what you have when God's Spirit fills you. <br />
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Left to his own devices, Peter used to cut off people's ears. But Jesus didn't choose Peter to lead his church and leave him to his own devices. And he doesn't leave us on our own either. Remember, he promised, "And I will be with you to the very end."<br />
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I believe we can be bold in a better way. <br />
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Click <i><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/czalllxjooraes5/AADishJ18rhzQVTZ4LdyiokRa?dl=0">here</a></i> to listen to the story and download the Bible study.<br />
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<b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b><br />
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<br />Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-27193225230529932722014-09-10T06:01:00.000-07:002014-09-11T15:53:24.045-07:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 2 The Power<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last Friday my mother had major surgery. My 82-year-old mother was in surgery for 6 1/2 hours. She is a champion. But now she is weak and exhausted and in pain, and she needs me. Since last Thursday night, she has needed me to be present and caring and strong and encouraging and patient.<br />
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Meanwhile, my newly-engaged son and his fiancé need me to be engaged in making important decisions. They need my input, my wisdom. To care about dresses and dates and venues. The night before my mother's surgery, Ben's car overheated and he needed rescuing from the Kroger parking lot.<br />
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Sunday morning Dennis wanted me to be at his side to lead worship. He needed me to sing "Fairest Lord Jesus" and to lead the prayer time in the service. <br />
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A friend on the other side of the world needs me to pray, needs counsel, needs someone to listen. An editor who'd given me a writing assignment needed me to deliver my 1,000 words. Wednesday morning is coming, and I need to be ready to teach this week's Bible story. My inbox is full of people who need a reply, an action, an investment of my time and energies. Even driving to the hospital every day, I can't even stop at a red light without seeing that homeless guy selling the Contributor, who knocks on my window and asks for $2.<br />
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My reaction to all of the above is, "There is not enough of me to go around. I've got nothing to give you." And that's true. There is not enough of ME to go around. But "me" is not what any of these people really need.<br />
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I was thinking about this when I was learning this week's story for Wednesday Bible study. Peter and John are walking to the temple to pray. This is part of their daily routine, just like driving to the hospital is part of mine right now. A crippled man is begging by the gate to the Temple. He asks them for money. <br />
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<b>"Look at me," Peter answered. "I don't have any money. But what I do have, I give you."</b></div>
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<i>-Acts 3:4-6</i></div>
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What happens next is astounding. Peter reaches down and takes the man's hand and says, "In the name of Jesus, get up and walk," and <i>the man does!</i> He follows Peter and John into the temple, where he begins leaping and around and praising God for what just happened. Of course, a crowd gathers around, and Peter takes advantage of it to say, "Why are you staring at us, like we did this ourselves? "<br />
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"<b>It is by faith in the power of Jesus that this man stands before you today whole and healthy."</b></div>
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<i>- Acts 3:16</i></div>
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It's interesting that Peter doesn't say, "This man's faith in Jesus is what healed him." This man didn't even know to ask to be healed. He didn't even know to put his faith in Jesus. Peter did. Peter had seen Jesus do exactly this same thing, and Jesus had said, "When you get my Spirit, you will have power to do even greater things." And then the Spirit had come and wow! what power. It was Peter's faith in Jesus that made this man whole. It was because Peter looked at the man and knew that what he needed was not money; it was health and restoration to community, and only Jesus could give him that. And Jesus now lived in Peter. The Source was in him.<br />
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When our kids are tugging on our sleeves, when our husbands are hungry and tired, when our parents are feeble, when our friends are scared, when the homeless guy knocks on the window, when we step to the platform and hold the mic, what people need is Jesus. The power of Jesus. They need wisdom, hope, encouragement, strength, peace, meaning, significance, forgiveness, instruction, companionship - and the source of this is Jesus. Who lives in us. We have what they need, and what I know from this week is that no matter how tired or overwhelmed or unrested or underprepared we may feel, what Jesus said is true:<br />
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<b>"The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."</b></div>
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<i>- John 4:14</i></div>
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In Jesus' day, there were wells and then there were <i>wells. </i>There were man-man cisterns, deep holes dug in the desert to collect and hold water. These would dry up when the rains stopped. An artesian well was a spring-fed well, fed by an underground fresh water source that sprung up between the rocks. Know what caused an artesian spring? Pressure. When the ground shifted, the pressure and weight of the rocks would cause the underground source of water to spring forth. Artesian wells were prized in the desert. The people called them "living water."<br />
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There is not enough of you to go around, but there is an endless supply of that. Is it in you?<br />
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Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jfgk1kxibf749vr/AABEAe8go9SDh7eO1uxTMRyBa?dl=0">here </a>to listen to this week's story and download the Bible study.<br />
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<b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b><br />
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<br />Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-1163817566406984172014-09-03T12:09:00.000-07:002014-09-11T15:52:57.024-07:00Whoosh! Storying through Acts Week 1: The Guarantee<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin-left: 54px; text-align: center; text-indent: -54px;">
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<i>But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. </i></div>
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<i>It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!</i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!</i></div>
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<i><sup> </sup><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” </i></div>
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<i>- Romans 8:9-15 The Message</i></div>
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How old were you when you became a Christian? I was six. There were some things I understood at that age and some things I didn't get for a long time. I understood that God loves me. And I like to be loved. And something in me loved him back. I understood that God made the world. And I liked the world he made. So I did what others told me to do: I asked God to live in my heart. </div>
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How great is that? The God who made the world loves me, and now he lives in my heart. I thought that I had just invited God into my life. Now the God who made the universe was going to get to work on my agenda. And boy, did I have an agenda! I was a very typical little American girl, raised on stories of "There once was a beautiful girl, and she had something she wanted. And she got it. And she lived happily ever after." I had lots of ideas about what happily ever after would look like. Let's do this.</div>
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What it took me a long time to realize was: I had not invited God into my life. God had just invited me into his. My story had just been pulled up into his long-term story, into his agenda. And boy, does he have an agenda!</div>
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I was thinking about this lately because this week we begin Wednesday Bible study again, and this fall we are going to learn stories from Acts. Last winter, we learned that we are deeply loved and pursued by the God who made all things, including us. We were made for relationship with him, a relationship delivered at the hand of his son Jesus. This is what Paul tells the Ephesians - people who were very concerned with love and fate:</div>
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<i>Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.</i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. </i></div>
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<i>- Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 The Message</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">What is God's idea of "glorious living," exactly? What does it look like? Where will it take me? How does it up-end my idea of glorious living? Is the life God designed me for and offers me more special than the "special" I would go out and get for myself? Those are the questions we will think about this fall as we continue to learn what this life with God looks like.</span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.</i></div>
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<i>-Ephesians 1:13-14 The Message</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">The Holy Spirit is the deposit of that life in us - that guarantee of that life forever. The story of Pentecost makes us nervous, because the Holy Spirit makes us nervous. Right off the bat, we are going to discover that a life powered and led by the Spirit is a whole different kind of special than we could ever have imagined or designed — or can control. But the Holy Spirit does not bring chaos; he brings Purpose, with a capital P. It's an adventure for sure, to be swept up into God's life, into his agenda. Do we want that adventure? </span></div>
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Let's find out.</div>
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Click<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g4feflzpyyrppsu/AACkKJtA9rFYgzOkpRpX_dANa?dl=0"> here</a> to listen to the story of the gift of the Spirit and download the Bible study.<br />
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<b><i>Who will you tell this story to?</i></b></div>
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Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-14318824060849330432014-06-10T20:17:00.002-07:002014-06-10T20:17:21.241-07:00I will show you<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, maybe you already know that we are moving. Leaving the house we've lived in for 24 years. We accidentally sold it really fast - well, God did that. I blogged about making the decision to put the house on the market and boom! Suddenly I was hearing from people, "Can we come look at your house?" My realtor, who had just given me a three page list of Things To Do To Make This House Sellable, did not approve of this. But some of them were friends, so I let them come over and gave them a tour. And one of these couples said, "We love it. We want it. Throw away your list." So we signed a contract with them on the day before we left for an overseas trip to Bologna, London and Cape Town. <br />
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It was an amazing trip, but now we are back, and it's time to pack. Arley said, "Just start somewhere," so yesterday I pulled out all my non-essential dishes and got out the boxes and paper. And then I sat down on the floor and cried, I was so overwhelmed. Thank God for a sister-in-law who recognizes panic when she hears it and comes to the rescue. So now we have begun the dismantling.<br />
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Everyone wants to know where we are moving. So do I! Mmmk, yeah, we don't have a clue. Tomorrow I will go look at houses for the first time in 24 years. That same wonderful realtor who gave me to To Do list is calmly assuring me that there is A House Waiting for us to discover, yes, we will find it. And meanwhile, we might live in an apartment.<br />
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I believe her when she says we will find it. Because the same God who said, "Leave the place where you are," is the God who promises, "and go to a place I will show you."<br />
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<b>The Lord God said to Abram: Leave....</b></div>
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<b>and go to a place I will show you.</b></div>
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<b><i>- Genesis 12:1</i></b></div>
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That is exactly the promise he made to Abraham, the father of faith. And it is a two-part process: there is the leaving, and there is the going. Right now we are living in the tension between those two.<br />
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Almost every day I write something on the inside of my wrist. It might be one word, or a phrase—some bit of truth that I need to remember that day. I got the idea from my friend <a href="http://www.revivalinitaly.com/">Nicole Hannah</a>, who has a tattoo on the inside of her wrist, one word: loved. When I first saw Nic's tat, I was just being convinced again that God did love me so much, and I wanted to get the same tat, but for me, the word changes too frequently. God is always teaching me something new that I need to carry around with me and absorb, so for me, a Sharpie is the best tool. <br />
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These days, I am walking around with these words on my wrist: "I will show you." Every morning I get up and write that promise again, and I watch for God to fulfill his promise. <br />
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I know I'm not the first or only person to leave somewhere and go, to pack up and move. The past two weeks' travel has been part of God's timing in "showing me" something, as I have spent time with missionary friends in Bologna, London and Cape Town. I have seen how simply they live, how lightly they hold things, how much they do with the home they have. I watched many of them sell everything, turn their backs on their home and go, not knowing where they would live, not having a realtor. I have seen how they have made the place God showed them a real and welcoming home. I hold this as a template as I sort and pack and decide what to take forward with me. <br />
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I share all this with you to say: I know there is tension in your life, where you live between the place of leaving and the place of arriving. Where you cannot see what your new destination will look like. Maybe you are also sorting and packing, deciding what attitudes or actions or relationships or things to carry forward with you into the next part of life, what you need to put down, give away, leave behind. I tell you this with all confidence:<br />
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He will show you.<br />
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Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-60526707766309807182014-05-14T07:05:00.000-07:002014-09-11T15:50:57.296-07:00Love Story Week 17: save the date<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Pay careful attention then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise. Make the most of the time, because the days are evil. Don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.</div>
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<i>- Ephesians 5:15-17</i></div>
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The week before I married Dennis Worley, I woke up every night in a sweat. I had the worst nightmares. In every one of them, my wedding was a disaster.<br />
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I dreamed that someone had taken pinking shears to my dress, making it tea length and wickedly uneven. <br />
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I dreamed that someone had stolen all my shoes and left only a blue pair. <br />
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I dreamed that as I came down the aisle, the groom who turned around was Not Dennis, but nobody could hear me screaming, "Not him! Not him!"<br />
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I dreamed that I was out playing tennis (tennis?), and they came looking for me, crying, "It's time for your wedding! You have to come now! No, come just like you are!" I was sweaty and my hair was frizzy, but a bouquet was shoved in my hand and I was sent down the aisle in tennis whites, crying, "No, no! Let me get ready!"<br />
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Seriously, I was so relieved when I actually got to the church in the dress and the shoes with the right groom. Everything after that is kind of a blur.<br />
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I was thinking about those dreams this week—especially the tennis one (tennis, what?)—because this is our last Wednesday Bible study, and the story is about a wedding and some girls who were not ready for it.<br />
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<b>Life with God is like ten bridesmaids who took torches and oil and went out to greet the bridegroom. Five were foolish and five were wise. The foolish bridesmaids took torches, but no extra oil. The wise bridesmaids took jars of oil to feed their torches, The bridegroom didn't show up when they expected, and they all fell asleep waiting.</b></div>
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<b><i>-Matthew 25:1-5</i></b></div>
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What happens next? You'll have to listen below to find out. <br />
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But here's what we know from last week's story, the end of the book, Revelation: There is a wedding feast. There is a Bridegroom and he is coming for us. Soon, he says. <br />
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When is soon?<br />
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Close your eyes and try to forget everything you know about weddings today. Try to hear what Jesus says:<br />
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<i><a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Jn14.1">I am going to prepare a place for you.</a></i><br />
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That's what bridegrooms did in Jesus' day. They pledged themselves to a woman — actually to her family. And then they went off to their family's compound and prepared a place for their life together. They built a little house or a room on their family compound, and they furnished it.<br />
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<i><a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Jn14.3">If I go away, I will come back for you.</a></i><br />
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When everything was ready for that life together, the bridegroom came for his bride. Maybe even in the middle of the night, he came striding through the streets of the village, all his friends with him. And they were singing. And the bride's friends all ran out to meet him, torches in hand. And they sang and danced as he came to claim his bride. And then everybody went to his house and partied 'til they dropped.<br />
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<i><a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Mt25.1">That's what's going to happen,</a></i> Jesus said.<br />
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When?<br />
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You don't get to know that part.<br />
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<i><a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Mt24.36">No one knows the day or the hour, not even the Son. Only the Father.</a></i><br />
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The bride doesn't set the date. We don't manage the guest list. We don't even pick out the dress. God does. Life with God doesn't work like life in this world. The wise person understands this and lives accordingly.<br />
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We don't get a "Save the Date" from Jesus. So we save every date. Every day is the day he could come for us. When the Father says, "Ready."<br />
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Are you ready?<br />
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<b>Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t0qy628tg9870au/AADkqwCzXCa1t6o1kH8068JZa?dl=0">here</a> to listen to the story of the Ten Bridesmaids</b></div>
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<b>and download the Bible study.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<i>Who will you tell this story to?</i><br />
<br />Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-20027471336710721992014-05-09T15:12:00.000-07:002014-05-09T15:12:30.235-07:00TGIF: The best is yet to be<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHFkEonDD9IMcg-KleMUWirZvFFcIasEbaUrRVQmqdJ4twZp0mmtfMbd8EeilGxYFpV_kEQTmrZznFaumuHkYBdB861o89FTbtx-LW-zj5Pb7d1W9h0sFGFd7thDuT4yhgZyk4iFtANSY6/s1600/34906_414092637627_655862627_4446930_5923791_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHFkEonDD9IMcg-KleMUWirZvFFcIasEbaUrRVQmqdJ4twZp0mmtfMbd8EeilGxYFpV_kEQTmrZznFaumuHkYBdB861o89FTbtx-LW-zj5Pb7d1W9h0sFGFd7thDuT4yhgZyk4iFtANSY6/s1600/34906_414092637627_655862627_4446930_5923791_n.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be—</div>
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the last of life, for which the first was made.</div>
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Our times are in His hand </div>
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who saith, "I whole I planned."</div>
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Youth shows but half.</div>
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Trust God! See all! Nor be afraid.</div>
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<i>- Robert Browning</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
Those words by Robert Browning were part of my wedding vows to Dennis Worley. Thirty five years ago, I thought the first of life was the best, the point. And it is wonderful to be young and in love, to get to do life together with the person who makes the world a magical place. But to get to see it all together, trusting God every step—that's even better.<br />
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<b>What I'm <i>Trusting:</i></b><br />
Coming to mid-life, with an empty nest, I was wondering if our best days had been. But God plans a whole, not a half. And the past few weeks have unfolded some of God's next plans for our family. Big things are in store for the Worleys! We don't have all the answers. We are in that space like Abraham, where God says, "Leave the place you are and go to a place I will show you." We are just in the leaving-this-place in our hearts. We've been saying goodbye to the picture of us raising boys and discovering what it's like to be a couple again. What it's like to love grandchildren and get to help raise them. What it's like to encourage and empower grown sons and their families. What it's like to serve in ministry at this point in our lives. And in all those areas, we keep hearing God say, "I will show you."<br />
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<b>How I'm practicing <i>Gratitude:</i></b><br />
This week we made the decision to get our house ready to put on the market, to look for our next home. We've lived in this house 24 years this July. We'll probably be moving out about the same time we moved in all those years ago. This decision has been percolating for a year. When we finally felt God say, "Leave this place," I cried. This is where we found out we were pregnant, where we raised those babies, where we grew a marriage and a family. Every place I turn there is a memory. At first that made me incredibly fearful and sad. Now as I am making lists of everything that has to be packed, downsized, given away, I look at every photo, every fingerprint on the wall, every bin of old school jerseys, every tree we planted, and I thank God for getting to make those memories, getting to be here for that life. Evidence of his blessings are all around. As I start to make an inventory for what will go to the next part of life, I take an inventory of the blessings of the first half.<br />
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<b>What <i>Inspires </i>me:</b><br />
My boys, making lives for themselves and their families. Going out bravely into the first part of their lives. Last week Seth turned 30 and sold his house, the first little house their babies lived in. Watching Seth and Arley go through this transition has given me a template; I'm walking in their footsteps, right behind them. This time last year, we were helping Matt sell or give away everything he owned that could not be fit into two crates and shipped to South Africa. This year he has followed God so closely that I've never seen him put his foot down without setting it in God's footprint. He has shown me that your life is not where you live, but how present you are there—how you love the people in the place God shows you. This year Ben has lived on his own for the first time. He'll never forget this first house he shared with a bunch of other starving musicians. He has made his own first home. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6LuH-cJWhSictD1S0YtXywFx46reTBc_g5_KAyKI8u2bhBF2YgixsecTvbNVJF3Y7eeRcunNp7qKePMA8a-wslwMBdIYGpZkr0u0x6FxOwGIWI7j5pDy2pL3rJw4AUe1qDy5yBdmYo2s/s1600/IMG_2478.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6LuH-cJWhSictD1S0YtXywFx46reTBc_g5_KAyKI8u2bhBF2YgixsecTvbNVJF3Y7eeRcunNp7qKePMA8a-wslwMBdIYGpZkr0u0x6FxOwGIWI7j5pDy2pL3rJw4AUe1qDy5yBdmYo2s/s1600/IMG_2478.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>What's <i>Fun</i>:</b><br />
This week Matt flew back to the U.S. with a ring in his pocket and asked the girl he has loved for 7 years to marry him! Their happiness is so golden, so huge, and it is shared by so many of us who have loved them and rooted for them to be together. I'm so thankful they get to begin planning the first of life together! They have so many questions to answer about the future! But God will show them, just as he is showing us.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-_3NKWMAFUMOwN6hYyxdqjEv7RZVHttYhzdfvP6MUqRis93q6dvUbtANm-mrNPb7qYMfVhlfld3VlWOGUiGWvC_198SYtLSOVlYm6lNuWQlSPrW1j8jky0_LIPYDYLmrvL3TCr1Lv05K/s1600/IMG_2500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-_3NKWMAFUMOwN6hYyxdqjEv7RZVHttYhzdfvP6MUqRis93q6dvUbtANm-mrNPb7qYMfVhlfld3VlWOGUiGWvC_198SYtLSOVlYm6lNuWQlSPrW1j8jky0_LIPYDYLmrvL3TCr1Lv05K/s1600/IMG_2500.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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24 years ago, when our realtor handed me the keys to this house, could I have ever imagined that on this Friday I would be walking through it with her again, this time making a list of what to do to get ready to sell it—on the same day that my daughter-in-law-to-be is graduating from grad school with a brand new engagement ring on her finger? <br />
<br />
Out times are in his hand<br />
who saith, "A whole I planned."<br />
Youth shows but half.<br />
Trust God! See all! Nor be afraid!Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-84010872796676149772014-05-07T06:00:00.000-07:002014-09-11T15:50:01.825-07:00Love Story Week 16: When God sings for joy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeI1dlSmTNZB2lCtw5_xtPrVVO4Qtn0kmSkEOYI7Dl5PCdYfNcC1qFdGC2U_-OcJlgm_vVq6HLqzlj4-6a00OLgBRy3XYJsFrKO4YIvRkFTHAhd1VagboSgrXQB65Hc8l69_hGEMhryd4S/s1600/the_way_to_heaven_by_oriofpanda-d55jqrc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeI1dlSmTNZB2lCtw5_xtPrVVO4Qtn0kmSkEOYI7Dl5PCdYfNcC1qFdGC2U_-OcJlgm_vVq6HLqzlj4-6a00OLgBRy3XYJsFrKO4YIvRkFTHAhd1VagboSgrXQB65Hc8l69_hGEMhryd4S/s1600/the_way_to_heaven_by_oriofpanda-d55jqrc.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></div>
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He meant us to see Him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile.</div>
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<i>- AW Tozer, The Pursuit of God</i></div>
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My friend <a href="http://michaelboggs.com/">Michael Boggs</a> has a wonderful song out called "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dWSmzOfRZQ">What Would Jesus Undo?</a>" People have been posting their answers to that question—beautiful answers: injustice, poverty, fear, shame, loneliness, cancer, betrayal, prejudice, grief. <br />
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I was thinking of that song this week as I learned the story for Wednesday Bible study this week. In this week's story, John gets to see that Jesus will indeed undo all of it, and more. <br />
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<b>In my dream, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old one was gone forever! </b></div>
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<i>- Revelation 21:1</i></div>
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John hears a song being sung. This is my favorite song in the Bible, because God is singing it! When God gets what he wants, what he set his heart on from before the creation of the world, this is what he hummed to himself as he brought light and oceans, mountains, giraffes, lilies, sparrows and stars into being. This is what he sang as he worked the dust into a body and breathed his life into Adam. Maybe he came humming it to himself as he walked in the garden in the cool of the evening. Maybe he stopped humming and listened, because Adam & Eve were not waiting for him as usual. They were hiding. In the stillness, he could hear the heart-thumping sound of shame. This God, the great Lover who pursued us, who kept closing the separation between us, was working all along through history for this moment: to restore it all. To have us back. And in John's dream, he heard God's heart swell and a soaring melody of pure joy erupt from the Throne of Heaven. And this is the song God sings in John's dream:<br />
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<b>Now I will be with my people! I will live with them, </b></div>
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<b>and they will be with me, and I will be their God!</b></div>
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<i>- Revelation 21:3</i></div>
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God will undo separation. That is what he has done in Christ, and is doing through the church. When God gets what he wants, he gets to be with us. When he sings for joy, this is what he sings about.<br />
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I understand that. Nothing makes me happier than knowing my kids are coming for dinner. I sing while I chop and mix and bake. Nothing is better than all of them together, laughing and enjoying each other. As I write this, Matt is flying home from South Africa; his girl is standing at the gate waiting for him. My grandchildren are coming over to play this afternoon. The best part of my day is when Dennis Worley is headed home.<br />
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We just want to be with the people we love. And so does God.<br />
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That's why we tell these stories. This is the assignment Jesus gave us: Go tell everybody everywhere that God wants to be with them. Close the gap. Undo separation.<br />
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Everything we do is about getting everybody to that moment. Because he is on his way.<br />
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I can't even imagine what it will be like when God starts singing for joy. <br />
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<b>Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y99c2a6bz5t1t0z/AACoLf8IiwxL4zHnIuxN7Ouga?dl=0">here</a> to hear how the Love Story ends, when God gets what he wants</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>and download the homework. </b></div>
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<i>Who will you tell this story to this week?</i>Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-18412142767014709942014-04-30T05:54:00.000-07:002014-09-11T15:49:17.518-07:00Love Story Week 15: Whoosh!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When Ben Worley was still little enough that he would let me read to him every night, I read him the Harry Potter stories. (Harry Potter haters: Hang on. I'm about to tell you how good can come from The EvIl Literature.) <br />
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It should come as no surprise to you that I love to read stories aloud. All sorts of stories, but especially ones with characters who have distinctive voices, and most especially ones with characters who speak with a British accent. I <i>neeeeed</i> an excuse to speak with a British accent whenever possible. Mary Poppins. Winnie the Pooh. The Chronicles of Narnia. Lemony Snickett. Anything by Roald Dahl. And Harry Potter. These all afford me proper excuses, so I went at reading Harry Potter with Anglo enthusiasm. In fact, the best moment was when Ben and I went to the first Harry Potter movie, and Ben turned to me part way through and whispered, "They got the voices right."<br />
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So one night I was reading the book in which Harry, Ron and Hermione go to the world cup Quidditch matches. There Harry finds that there are schools like Hogwarts in other countries! As they walk among the tents of the opposing teams, they hear French, German, Russian. Harry wishes he could understand them. And Hermione, who is more accomplished with her spells than Harry and Ron, waves her wand as they pass each tent—and they can understand what's being said!<br />
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"Wouldn't that be awesome?" Ben interrupted. "If you could do that?"<br />
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"Ben, that's in the Bible," I said<br />
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"Get OUT!" he shouted, and I told him about Pentecost, how the believers were all in one place when there was a rushing of wind and flames of fire and the Spirit descended, and they all began speaking about God in every kind of language.<br />
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He slapped the covers. "WHY have I never heard this?" he whooped.<br />
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I don't know. What an excellent story to tell to a 9 year old boy. If I were the Sunday School teacher of 9-year-old boys, I would certainly want to tell them this tale. An amazing story, mostly because it's true.<br />
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I was thinking about that conversation this week because in this Wednesday's Bible study, we are learning to tell that story.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They
were all together in a house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly,
there was a sound like a rushing wind!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No one could tell where it was coming from, but it filled the whole
house!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then flames of fire settled on
each ot them! God's Spirit came upon them, and they each began speaking in
different languages as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God's Spirit gave
them the ability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i>- Acts 2:1-4</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Why had Ben never heard this? Probably because he grew up Baptist. Baptists don't tell this story much. Baptists, we don't exactly know what to do with the Holy Spirit. When he shows up, the Order of Service is out the window. At least, <i>our</i> Order of Service is out the window. <br />
<br />
<i>Whoosh.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
"The wind blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going," <a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Jn3.8">Jesus said</a>, and it made Nicodemus nervous. It makes us nervous. Which is ironic, because Jesus was introducing a topic that Baptists love to talk about: <a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Jn3.3">born again</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEbEHlovE5sC8amPgKIMdlkm7dpAkaNtEjXshrccIeT-QvmimEAihbLmhTPWaX_Azq7pa_mNefwuBUhoQd9PFxZyIBVtYq9coVvryLJwAAS1GW4mFoYDykoooqLlqkic7qnfvzqeCg1VFk/s1600/images-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEbEHlovE5sC8amPgKIMdlkm7dpAkaNtEjXshrccIeT-QvmimEAihbLmhTPWaX_Azq7pa_mNefwuBUhoQd9PFxZyIBVtYq9coVvryLJwAAS1GW4mFoYDykoooqLlqkic7qnfvzqeCg1VFk/s1600/images-2.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<br />
<br />
New life.<br />
<br />
<i>Whoosh.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
When the Holy Spirit shows up, God's Order of Service starts happening, and he is all about new life.<br />
<br />
On the day the Holy Spirit showed up in <a href="http://biblia.com/books/esv/Ac2.1">this story,</a> more than 3,000 people got new life! Have you ever heard that?<br />
<br />
<i>Whoosh!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Are you all about new life?<br />
Are you all about people being born again?<br />
<br />
Then you should love this story.<br />
<br />
<i>Whoosh!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Do you know why the Holy Spirit was given?<br />
Do you know what happened when the Holy Spirit was given?<br />
Do you know what God wants to do through His Spirit in you?<br />
<br />
You should listen to this story. And find out. Even if it makes you nervous.<br />
<br />
As my friend <a href="http://www.estherbministries.com/">Esther Burroughs</a> says with a shiver, "Embrace the <i>whoosh!"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO8PnUctufpnts7Y_9aTDLTKcFxZhrwZ0XVl1KKe1XKVuS3v9jlb7NM0n1wsfl3WJuT7jrVU0a109L6f2C6XCdAEtID1tyd4wVGeXS5CuvNuIQVCaduyiOCGNhfnOTf4YrBsl6h5YdZuW6/s1600/storytelling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO8PnUctufpnts7Y_9aTDLTKcFxZhrwZ0XVl1KKe1XKVuS3v9jlb7NM0n1wsfl3WJuT7jrVU0a109L6f2C6XCdAEtID1tyd4wVGeXS5CuvNuIQVCaduyiOCGNhfnOTf4YrBsl6h5YdZuW6/s1600/storytelling.jpg" height="228" width="320" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zrs37a8qmai8l2s/AADdaaISkjc-veCS0oOOXDkva?dl=0">here</a> to hear the story of the gift of the Spirit</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>and download the Bible study.</b></div>
<br />
Who will you tell this story to?<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-8611847192006816392014-04-23T05:41:00.000-07:002014-09-11T15:48:35.197-07:00Love Story week 14: new life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWyG9n0OcdF3ZrHPkAFOL4fqhTUnVUQiFfKJyBSD73x_9fmNrWwgLxLzkCc17V4IKQxOy5Dgtxv2jPQaAZM3KFPAC2JzWMsSG3F8aCpSU5KhU-J8ubHa5rxB603zKyshbh5jTrroh3HQ47/s1600/IMG_0657.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWyG9n0OcdF3ZrHPkAFOL4fqhTUnVUQiFfKJyBSD73x_9fmNrWwgLxLzkCc17V4IKQxOy5Dgtxv2jPQaAZM3KFPAC2JzWMsSG3F8aCpSU5KhU-J8ubHa5rxB603zKyshbh5jTrroh3HQ47/s1600/IMG_0657.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>For we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory the Father, so we too might be raised to walk in the newness of life.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>- Romans 6:4</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
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When I was growing up, our pastor said these words as he baptized people. "Buried with him by baptism into death," he would say as he leaned them back under the water. Lifting them up, he would proclaim, "Raised to walk in newness of life!" As kids, we would snicker because we thought he was saying, "Raised to walk in nudeness of life." We all wished someone would pop up out of the water—nude! It never happened, but the thought of it was enough to shake us silly and get us shushed by disapproving adults nearby. I've never seen a nude person come up out of the water, though some baptismal robes are startlingly thin when wet, and they should warn women about colored undergarments. I did once see a woman's wig come off and float away when she came up out of the water. She was a cancer survivor, so everyone applauded and she laughed, just glad to be alive—alive for now and alive forever.</div>
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Newness of life. I think about those words every time I see someone baptized. I thought about them on Sunday, Easter Sunday, when two women, sisters, were baptized in our service. Newness of life. What does it look like? It looks like those sisters taking their first steps following Jesus. It looks like the new engagement ring on my friend's finger and the glow in her face at lunch last Thursday. It looks like the bride & groom turning to face the congregation this past Saturday evening. It looks like the pink skin and tiny fingers of the new baby girl born to my friends last Wednesday. It looks like the upturned faces of at least three women in our choir who survived breast cancer this year and stood up to sing praises on Easter Sunday. It looks like my friend, shaken with grief, standing by her sister's graveside on Good Friday. Her sister, who was alive here on earth last Friday and is now—unexpectedly but gloriously—alive in Heaven. </div>
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Resurrection: It means, literally, "to stand again." In the Greek, <i>anastasis. </i>To have the rug yanked from under you by unforeseen events, but find your footing. To be blind-sighted by grief or joy or pain or love and make your way shakily into a new normal. To be hurt and forgive. To face change and make adjustments. To not only survive, but thrive. To leave behind and to become.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVps6vRBpzyDU84PkFn5mqhKXR0rJ11yycQatu9JMJfkD5tvSsdrgONr7ufIz-ALbsUlvzduNUdbLPtDQ1yTHuulnJIREuj5mPbhpJVt0SpuZNI9JVL6WjIlLy8aILYbZpNh88HCZ1lBbq/s1600/IMG_0705.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVps6vRBpzyDU84PkFn5mqhKXR0rJ11yycQatu9JMJfkD5tvSsdrgONr7ufIz-ALbsUlvzduNUdbLPtDQ1yTHuulnJIREuj5mPbhpJVt0SpuZNI9JVL6WjIlLy8aILYbZpNh88HCZ1lBbq/s1600/IMG_0705.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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It shakes everything when God unveils newness of life. What perfect timing that in Wednesday Bible study this week, we are learning to tell the story of the resurrection and Jesus' appearances to his followers afterward. Every one of the them are stunned, shaken, confused, not sure what to believe, where to go next, whether to hide out. All of them are getting their bearings, trying to stand again in God's new world. Peter goes fishing. When the world is strange and dangerous, the stablest place he knows is the sea. And Jesus goes to find him there. To give Peter a chance to stand again.</div>
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Jesus is waiting by a fire. The last time Peter saw Jesus, he was by a fire, and he failed his Master. The rooster has crowed, the stone has rolled, and the world has turned upside down since then. Now, by the fire, Jesus asks three times, "Do you love me?" Three times the chance to stand again, to say, "I do love you." And to be given new life with a new assignment: "Take care of my people." </div>
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Jesus told Peter that he would have his own work to do from God, and that it, too, would lead to death. Looking over his shoulder at John, Peter asked, "What about him?" </div>
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"What about him?" Jesus replied. "Peter: You follow me."</div>
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It's so tempting to compare paths, isn't it? To ask, "What about him?" instead of standing up and following. The truth is that newness of life will look different for each of us. It will come in different ways and shake us and wake us and call us to become. We are all becoming. We are all being buried and raised, only at different times and in different ways. We are all blinking in the light, shaky on resurrection legs, stammering, "Yes, I do love you!" <br />
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Newness, like nudeness, is shocking. It's a shock to our systems to find that we can stand again, start again. To be given a Next. To be raised by the power of the One who calls that which was not into being. It's shocking to be always becoming. We come out of the water gasping and flailing like a newborn taking her first breath, gripping the one who plunged us under. And this happens every single day.</div>
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Every day is an Easter. Ready to stand again? It's a new world, but we know the way: "Follow me."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBBJloqyeHKR-fohAGrVGMwr3HwVr7lorTgTCFxM3k2Q2q3RlDilPCmYHjMdC19SwWz02Y_p1U-BGjIZYDquv2hM8PEXvdhCl8gC8h6tmoZP1ph7L2ueF7j72FO8mvtAuJCdZr_jURTRTx/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBBJloqyeHKR-fohAGrVGMwr3HwVr7lorTgTCFxM3k2Q2q3RlDilPCmYHjMdC19SwWz02Y_p1U-BGjIZYDquv2hM8PEXvdhCl8gC8h6tmoZP1ph7L2ueF7j72FO8mvtAuJCdZr_jURTRTx/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<b>Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0dj9sgk57z1c271/AAAPkop_2u7vVy9K0JlzVGDRa?dl=0">here </a>to hear the story of Jesus' resurrection </b></div>
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<b>and Peter's chance to stand again</b></div>
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<b>and download the Bible study.</b></div>
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<i>Who will you tell this story to this week?</i></div>
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Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-51371277279472620682014-04-18T17:17:00.001-07:002014-04-18T17:18:55.922-07:00TGIF: Good Friday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>What I'm <i>Trusting:</i></b><br />
<i>My hope is built on nothing less</i><br />
<i>than Jesus' blood and righteousness.</i><br />
<i>I dare not trust the sweetest frame,</i><br />
<i>but wholly lean on Jesus' name.</i><br />
<i>On Christ the Solid Rock I stand!</i><br />
<i>All other ground in sinking sand.</i><br />
<i>All other ground is sinking sand.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>His oath, his covenant, his blood</i><br />
<i>support me in the whelming flood.</i><br />
<i>When all around my soul gives way</i><br />
<i>He then is all my hope and stay.</i><br />
<i>On Christ the Solid Rock I stand!</i><br />
<i>All other ground in sinking sand.</i><br />
<i>All other ground is sinking sand.</i><br />
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<b>What I'm <i>Grateful</i> for:</b><br />
That though I am fickle and an emotional roller coaster, Jesus is steady. This week in <a href="http://hellokworley.blogspot.com/2014/04/love-story-week-13-so-what.html">Wednesday Bible study</a>, our story was a contrast in Peter and Jesus, as this awful day approached. Peter is all over the board emotionally, but Jesus knows where has come from and where he is going. He knows this is his hour. And he is steadily heading toward it. <br />
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There is a moment in that story, when Peter cuts off a guard's ear, that Jesus says, "Did you think for one minute I would not do what my Father planned?" <br />
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These days, I'm an emotional roller coaster myself. And so I'm grateful that Jesus is steady and always steadying me. In the course of any given day, I feel like it/don't feel like it, step up/back down, change my mind. I'm grateful Jesus did not change his. He went to the cross, no turning back, which is why we remember on Good Friday.<br />
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<b>What <i>Inspires </i>me:</b><br />
New life, which is everywhere in all forms. Green sprouting up everywhere. And, of course, resurrection. <br />
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Just the other day I had a wonderful conversation with a friend who is getting married. I got to listen to her hopes and dreams, her fears, to consider with her what a wonderful and terrifying thing it is to begin a new life with someone. <br />
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I'm inspired by the new life <a href="http://benworley.com/">Ben Worley</a> is building for himself as a young adult on his own. How brave he is with his many talents, like this new podcast <a href="http://thelemonadestand.bandcamp.com/album/the-lemonade-stand-episode-2-thats-my-kid">The Lemonade Stand. </a><br />
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I'm inspired by good friends <a href="http://sacredstructures.org/">Jim</a> and <a href="http://sacredwithin.us/">Lisa</a> Baker, who are beginning a new life after retiring from amazing years of church leadership. <br />
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<b>What's <i>Fun:</i></b><br />
Today Matt sent us this picture of him playing Thomas in the King of Kings Easter passion play. This picture makes me happy on so many levels. Remembering Brentwood Baptist Easter pageant rehearsals, when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus and the disciples shot them with water squirt guns. Remembering hours putting together all those costumes with Mildred Hoppe, standing knee deep in fabric scraps. Remembering the year Matt was 3, when he played a tiny Aladdin-like king in the parade of Wise Men. Knowing that he is celebrating this Easter in South Africa, celebrating in a church that is a s dear to us at Brentwood Baptist. Knowing that all over the world this weekend believers will dress up in Biblical garb or Sunday best, sing loud, get up with the dawn to celebrate the truth that Christ is risen and we have new life in him.<br />
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Happy Easter!Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-55615182682149154982014-04-16T05:37:00.000-07:002014-09-11T15:47:41.138-07:00Love Story Week 13: So What?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Do you believe that your life matters? It does. Your voice and your story matter. </i></div>
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<i>People live messy lives, and they need to know about Jesus' redeeming love. </i></div>
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<i>People need to know that their life is a "so that," not a "so what?"</i></div>
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<i>- Janet Waters</i></div>
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On my calendar, Tuesdays are scheduled as "Quiet Days." Tuesday is the day I set aside for my own soul care, and Tuesday is the day I review and prepare for Wednesday Bible study. Therefore, Tuesdays are not really Quiet Days. Tuesdays are the day that voice in my head chatters the loudest. <br />
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Every Tuesday, I sit at my computer to write this blog post. I stare at the blinking cursor. I think about the story that we are learning this week. I look out the window. I fold some laundry. I wash some dishes or clean out a drawer—anything to silence the voice which says:<br />
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You have nothing to say worth hearing.<br />
They already know that. <br />
Somebody's already said it better. <br />
Nobody will read it anyway. <br />
Who do you think you are? <br />
Why bother? <br />
So what?<br />
It doesn't matter!<br />
You're blonde!<br />
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Really, she can think up the craziest list of reasons why I should not tell you what I tell you every Wednesday on this blog.<br />
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Some writers call this voice The Inner Critic. Every artist hears this voice, even if they don't believe in good or evil, even if they don't believe in God. In his book <a href="http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/">The War of Art</a>, <a href="http://www.stevenpressfield.com/">Steven Pressfield</a> calls it the Resistance.<br />
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But I know this voice. <br />
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It is the voice of the snake in the Garden, poisoning Eve with doubt. "Why won't God let you eat any of the fruit from the trees in this garden?"<br />
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It is the voice in the wilderness, tempting a hungry Jesus. "If you are the Son of God, why don't you turn these stones into bread?"<br />
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It is the voice of fear, rising up in Peter. "No Lord! These things will never happen to you!"<br />
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Resistance. It's what the enemy speaks. It's his dark force. It's what anyone feels when they dare to stand firm in faith or step forward to make a difference.<br />
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Our old adversary makes an appearance in this week's Wednesday Bible study. It's a story of contrasts. Peter is all emotion, one minute declaring his undying loyalty, the next minute swearing he never heard of Jesus, in between falling asleep on his watch. Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. He knows where he has come from and where he is going. His hour has come, and he is paying attention. He knows his part in God's plan.<br />
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Remember the plan? It's what we learned the very first week began telling God's Love Story:<br />
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<b>Long before he laid down earth's foundations, God had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What please he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.</b></div>
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<i>- Ephesians 1:4-6 The Message</i></div>
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There is a moment in this week's story that takes place in another garden, where the Enemy tries again to tempt Jesus to take a shortcut, to say, "So what?" As Jesus wrestles with the Resistance, Peter sleeps. Jesus has to shake him awake. The angry mob approaches with torches and swords. Peter grabs his own sword, cutting off the ear of a guard.<br />
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"<b>Put back your sword!" Jesus ordered Peter. </b></div>
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<b>"Did you think for one minute that I would not do what my Father has planned?"</b></div>
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<i>- John 18:11</i></div>
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What my Father has planned. Long, long ago, before the world existed, Jesus knew and agreed to the plan. This plan:<br />
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<b>For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, </b></div>
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<b><i>so that</i> whoever believes in him will not die, but have life with God forever.</b></div>
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<i>- John 3:16</i></div>
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Why has it never hit me before this? Jesus said those words, about himself. And he knew what they would cost him. He leaned across the table to Nicodemus and said, " It is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up, <i>so that </i>everyone who looks to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real and lasting life. For God loved the world so much..."<br />
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What strikes me in this week's story is not Peter's erratic loyalty. It's not his betrayal. I'm not surprised by that because I do it every day. What blows me away is Jesus' unwavering faithfulness to the plan, to the love of God. To play his part. To deliver the life God designed with us in mind all along. <br />
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I have no doubt that the whole way the Resistance was shouting, "SO WHAT?"<br />
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I have no doubt that the whole way Jesus was replying, "So <i>that</i>..."<br />
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<b>Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p9nl3gf8o5xzylj/AABgflzlG-sCM7gUR3wfqzlja?dl=0">here</a> to listen to the story of Peter's failure and Jesus' faithfulness</b></div>
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<b>and download the Bible study.</b></div>
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Who will you tell this story to this week <i>so that</i> they will know how much God loves them?<br />
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Your voice matters.Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5670512043124080625.post-74509658393441878562014-04-09T05:32:00.000-07:002014-09-11T15:47:00.020-07:00Love Story Week 12: You're Invited<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Confession: Invitations to parties stress me out. Weddings, showers, graduation celebrations, receptions—especially receptions—I have issues. <br />
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I love, love you and I love, love that you have thought enough of me to choose me to be part of your special moment. It's just the getting there that's hard for me. One of two things happens: I have some anxiety issues, and they can show up as social phobias. So I might happily RSVP to your invitation months in advance, but as the day approaches, really start to be anxious about actually being there, to the point that I have panic attacks about it and end up hiding under the covers with my hair uncombed while you are cutting the cake.<br />
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Or, the other thing: I just hate to dress up. So—and I'm just being so brutally honest with you here—it might be a really beautiful spring day and I'm in my shorts and everybody's out in the neighborhood enjoying their kids and their yards, or it's a dark rainy day and I'm curled up under my cozy blanket watching TCM, and either way I'm really annoyed that I have to get up and comb my hair and put makeup on and get dressed up and drink punch because I love you.<br />
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I'm mortified to admit this to you, and I suspect you will not be inviting me to many parties anymore. But do know this: that if I could come in my jammies with my hair uncombed, I would most happily come celebrate with you, because I do love you. And know this, too: that when I do suck it up and get dressed and come to your party, it is always a beautiful moment that I'm so glad I didn't miss, because I love you.<br />
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I tell you all this because I've been learning the story for Wednesday Bible study this week. It's a story about being invited to an incredible party; and it's one of the most disturbing and dividing stories that Jesus told.<br />
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<b>Jesus continued his work from God. He was showing and telling people how life with God works—forgiving disobedience, showing people how to have a right relationship with God and be part of what God is doing in the world. Some people were surprised by what Jesus said and did. Some people were even upset about it. The religious leaders were downright angry.</b></div>
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<b>Jesus knew this, and so he told this story:</b></div>
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<b>"Life with God is like a king who threw a great wedding feast for his son."</b></div>
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Jesus told stories because the reaction of his listeners revealed what was in their heart. Were they surprised? Offended? Convicted? Drawn to him? The story is much like the king's party; it's an invitation, and how we respond makes all the difference.</div>
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This story is populated with all kinds of responses. There are the original invited guests, the ones who were sent the invitation well in advance. There are the ones who can't be bothered to come, because it's a beautiful day for working in the garden, or there is a long list of To Do's at work. There are people who literally shoot the messenger, they so don't want to have anything to do with the King or his party. There are the people invited right off the street, the surprise guests. There's the guest who couldn't or wouldn't dress up in the clothes appropriate for celebrating.</div>
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Who do you relate to? It teaches you something about your heart, how you feel about being invited by God to celebrate his Son, whom he loves so much, to celebrate his Son's Bride, whom he loves so much that he gave his Son's life. And all during this week, as I have learned this story, I have felt that I am this character or that character—and been convicted by that. Because, like the story of the sower and the soils, there is all of this in every heart. We are, at different times, each of these guests, and I am convicted by that. But most of all, I am convicted as I see this story through the eyes of the King, who gives the party.</div>
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Because I've been the invitation-sender. I have sons, and I've thrown them parties. We've planned a wedding and a wedding reception, a rehearsal dinner and showers. We've thrown graduation parties and baby showers and celebrated milestone birthdays and anniversaries. I think about how carefully we chose the people to be there with us for that moment, the ones who we treasure, the ones we knew shared our love for the family member being honored. And it mattered <i>so</i> much to us that you came, that you laughed, that you loved and shared the joy. </div>
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And this story tells me: it matters to Him.</div>
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The old-fashioned invitations used to say, "The pleasure of your company is requested."</div>
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And that truth blows me away.</div>
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<b>Click <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oi3djf9l19yz4az/AADeggpqNemKHiV7hiDItsQYa?dl=0">here</a> to listen to the story of the King and his guests</b></div>
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<b>and download the Bible study.</b></div>
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<i>Who will you tell this story to this week?</i></div>
Karlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635485007239692523noreply@blogger.com0