Tag: Christianity

Out of Your Heart… and little steps

Churchill College Chapel - TtV of the John Pip...
Image by dumbledad via Flickr

This past weekend we had a teachers’ retreat at a lake a few hours from the city. I split my time between staffing the snack shop, playing a few rousing card games, climbing trees, playing soccer, and taking one somewhat risky solitary run through a field and up a small mountain. Most of these activities involved much prayer, but I’m thankful for that, too.

I came back less refreshed, but very ready to tackle this week of pre-mission trip planning. Sunday night after a bit of baking, I tried to settle in to watch a sermon, but your bed is no place to take serious notes and stretch your mind. So, Monday morning I finally finished this sermon by John Piper. I’ve heard and said, “Come to Jesus” many times without grasping exactly what it means.

This sermon works through John 7:25-39 and examines that very question – what does it mean when Jesus gives this invitation: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

I love this breakdown. It is so beautiful to try to understand why we thirst and why the person of Christ is exactly and only what will satisfy. Beyond satisfaction, RIVERS wil flow from us… rivers of living water! It’s Tuesday night and I still can’t get over it.

Well, yesterday afternoon I felt a bit of the living water flooding my living room, as the mission trip gathered to pound out some last minute details. I am continually blessed by the hearts and minds of these students. “Little steps,” they tell me, “Miss, you can’t expect us to change all sudden, but little steps.” It takes everything in me to keep from wrapping them in a crazy hug and singing one of the uber-embarrassing songs my mom would throw my way whenever she was proud. Because, friends, if you could see these little steps they are taking your heart would SWELL.

Today, the students spoke in chapel in front of their peers and I am still praising God for their courage. These “little steps,” they may not realize are HUGE leaps for the faith they have hidden deep in their hearts! These “little steps” are how they wear resolve so beautifully when classmates give them trouble for being involved in something so obviously, “Christian.” After our devotional on Monday (more on that in tomorrow morning’s post), I can now ask them, “Is it worth it? Is what you are doing worth those little comments?”

I wish you could look in their faces to see their response, “There’s no question, Miss.”

I believe God is working and He is gracious enough to give me reminders of His sovereignty and His mighty hand. I am humbled, humbled, humbled to be a part of this process!

Tonight, with a cake stashed in the fridge and cookies all packaged, I am literally on my floor in my bedroom typing this out and I can’t tell you why. I just know that daily God is calling me to

let LOVE fly like cRaZy!

Posted on by Caroline 0

On Loving God

Honestly, my knees wish I was writing, “On loving icy hot…” but I resist (so if you have any pointers for fooling your body into feeling younger LET ME KNOW! Apparently 20 minutes w/0 heels and a large glass of orange juice is not the cure).

Instead, I’ve got this quote on my brain,

“Why should not the creature love his Creator, who gave him the power to love? Why should he not love Him with all his being, since it is by His gift alone that He can do anything that is good? It was God’s creative grace that out of nothingness raised us to the dignity of manhood; and from this appears our duty to love Him, and the justice of His claim to that love.”
– St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Must we always ask and rebel and shake our fists when we are struck by humanity’s brokenness? I love the words, “Why should not…”

I love that these words invite me to think of all the reasons I shouldn’t … and that I come up with nothing. We must start here, at God’s creative grace that raised us to the dignity of manhood, if we are ever going to end up talking about justice and injustice – if we are going to talk about our delight and duty to love Him. We must begin with the question, “Why should not the creature love his Creator, who gave Him the power to love?”

Well, I may just have to leave it there to rest, before I start making applications about the cookies that just came out of the oven and how they should love me because I created them.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 0

pride is a big, fat thief

Sunday, I posted the song by Thad Cockrell called, “Pride won’t get us where we’re going” and I love this line,

When I lose my vision, will you lend me your eyes… to see exactly where I need to be.

It must be something… this pride. I want to make cute jokes about it, but the reality is it’s ugly. I’ve been thinking a lot about all the ways pride is like a thief. Without regard to the damage, pride steals our friendships, our families, our minds, and our affections… and then destroys everything completely.

This is an idea that’s been making a tortured trek around the hamster wheel in my brain recently. Maybe it was learning Sunday night that the brother of one of the Micah boys (and only sibling) was stabbed and killed, or maybe it was the re-introduction to one of my favorite soul-destroying films “Dancer in the Dark” or maybe it was a handful of conversations about the downward spiral of affluent youth worldwide… I’m sure of this:

the tragedies don’t stop.

I’m always trying to make some sense of things and so could I just process what has seemed to settle in my gut? I’ll take that as a yes. Bear with me… these ideas are not completely formulated.

On whatever end (or middle) of the socio-economic spectrum we find ourselves, I am starting to think what makes a person most desperate is certainly the same. We all know the feelings of humility, shame, and fear.

Unfortunately, the most ready weapon is itself destructive: pride. As John Piper‘s sermon was still marinading today in my mind, I thought about the two different groups who found themselves stuck in unbelief in John 7:1-24.

  • Jesus’ own brothers asked Him to go up to a party and present Himself in all His glory, with pomp and circumstance. They wanted a parade – someone they could walk behind and maybe stand a bit in the shadow of His glory. What they didn’t believe was that He was bigger than an entrance at a party or the praise of men.
  • The Jews didn’t believe in Him because His presence indicted them. Their lives were brought to account in His presence. Every righteous act felt less right in the presence of One who could do no wrong.

Both, Piper said, were blinded by pride (and, as a result, unbelief). I guess I’m just wondering how many sins we can really trace back to the root of pride.

  • I think of a recent conversation with students about 12-year-old pop singers with near-adult material with eyes ‘innocently’ set on a crash course toward success.
  • I think of the young girls here who are married at 12 years old to 20 or 30somethings who have very little understanding of love.
  • I think of the constant worry involved in “future plans,” lest a student or adult choose a less comfortable path.
  • I think of the person who is completely unaware of the layers of life surrounding him because he is so deeply involved in what he will do next.

Well, folks, we’ve plumb lost our vision. And I seriously think we’re seeing the results of our unbelief. We are proud – so proud – that we want Jesus around for His fame and VIP pass, but we don’t believe His presence can save us. We are proud – too proud – to admit that His deferring way of pointing to the glory of God is to us a lifeline, not a noose.

Instead, we’ve chained ourselves to the world’s ugliest attractions in hopes that we will find both significance and righteousness. God help us!

Pride is a dirty, devious thing. I suppose that’s better reason than any to

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 2

joyful readiness

Here is a combination of things (or is it more of a process of things) that will bring joy to my soul, without fail.

students learning/loving God’s Word –> responding to spiritual/physical needs around them –> bridging cultural gaps by one great need of a Savior –> God is glorified and we are satisfied

I’m not sure if this process/combination makes sense to you, but my heart understands completely! Coming up on March 6-13, eight of my students will embark on a mission trip to a nearby community. We have been preparing through Bible study, prayer, testimonies, and many organizational details. I keep hearing this beautiful phrase, “Miss, I want to be different and make a difference.” Every time a student says some version of this declaration I get a little more excited about what God is doing in their lives. He is moving in marvelous and mysterious ways to bring glory to His name and true, deep satisfaction to His servants.

Please join with me in prayer for these students as we prepare for this mission trip. Below they have written their prayer requests and I would love if you prayed for them by name. We are also relying on God for financial provision in this endeavor, so please pray we will believe in His faithfulness.

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I love this quote from John Piper, “To be humble is to be a servant. They are not the same. But humility leads to joyful readiness to do lowly service.” I hope and pray that we will enter into service with this kind of joyful readiness!

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 0

Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me

sophia means wisdom

I wrote this for the past newsletter and thought now was an appropriate time to post as a blog entry. This past week has been hard. Hard and good. It feels like this piece is just as appropriate today as it was a month ago. Not surprising, I suppose.

 

Maybe it’s the early darkness in the evening or the brisk whip of the breeze… Maybe it’s my imagination of ocean in the air or maybe it is because at this time of year we are all looking for a safe harbor. For whatever reason, my soul’s compass is scanning the shoreline. Whether I’m careening across placid waters in the early morning or waging war against waves in the middle night, my heart is heavy with need.

At times, it feels like I’m bailing out water in the middle of a downpour with a colander. Other times, I rush the bow to flail my arms wide, trying to take in all the beauty at once. What fails to change with emotions or season or temperament, is need.

If I’ve learned anything in my (just recently celebrated) twenty-six years and in my two and a half years here in Honduras, I have certainly learned life is unpredictable. In so many ways, the unpredictability thrills me, like what a ship’s captain must have felt at the start of a journey. This uncertainty also leads me, sometimes gasping for air, straight to the One who holds all things together, singing my favorite song of this season, “Jesus, Savior, Pilot me.”

Reading through 1 Samuel has trained my eyes once again to see God’s faithfulness illuminated against whatever treachery the high seas might heave my way. What I find so beautiful about both the song and the story of King David is very simple: history.

Every single day David crept about in the wilderness, hiding in caves and seeking refuge in foreign cities, God hemmed him in with history. From the intimate times in the mountains as a shepherd to the lop-sided duel with a giant, God’s character remained perfect and unchanged. As David feared for his life and spears flew just shy of his ears, he was keenly aware of his need to depend on God and trust He would be faithful.

My favorite lines in the hymn are several verses down,

“Though the sea be smooth and bright,
Sparkling with the stars of night,
And my ship’s path be ablaze
With the light of halcyon days,
Still I know my need of Thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.”

What David learned in his desperate days he brought with him into the calmer, halcyon hours. In the same way that our need of a Savior never changes, God’s place as Savior is forever.

God is ever behind and before us, not contained by time or our understanding or physical place. God is altogether outside of the evil crashing up against the sides of our vessel, yet intentionally and intimately involved in our safe passage and final destination.

It is history that reminds us of God’s gift of our beginning breaths, of our failure and God’s faithfulness, of our rebellion and God’s invitation to repentance. It is history that boasts the best and only hope in view of our ever-pressing need… a Savior.

I love these stories we carry around like mental felt boards, ready at any moment to reassure us of both our heritage and our inheritance. When we are caught unaware amid boisterous waves or settled back on our haunches, it is history that assures us that no captain ever possessed more power to truly say, “Fear not, I will pilot thee.”

please, let’s

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 0

beautiful things

Makoto Fujimura at FFM 2009
Image by jystewart via Flickr

So many beautiful things have happened today and it’s not even 8:45 am!

Here are the two link-related ones:

First, I discovered this last night and I could watch it a million times. Art+Truth=BEAUTIFUL. Here is a description from the Crossway website about this amazing project:

Makoto Fujimura, one of the century’s most highly regarded artists, has illuminated the Four Holy Gospels. Fujimura is known for his use of traditional Japanese Nihonga techniques and his passion for reconnecting Christian faith with fine art. This will mark the first time in nearly 400 years that an illuminated book of the four Gospels has been undertaken by a single artist.

Check it out HERE! Watch the video here!

Second, this morning I read Andrée Seu’s article on weakness and I’m tempted to let out a hearty AMEN right here in my office chair. We make so many excuses for ourselves and then try to justify our whimsies and failures with Scripture. It’s like we’ve resigned to the idea that “we are sinners, so of course we’re going to be weak and fail.” I could say so much more on this, but Andrée says it so well!

Here’s her last paragraph:

It is time to stop re-infecting ourselves with bad theology. If someone wants to keep repeating that we Christians are “weak,” please let him always clarify the statement with the adjectives “physically” or “psychologically.” Say that we are tired, and weary, and perplexed. But let’s lose the morbid and counterproductive self-image of the Christian as “Sinner” and (morally) “weak.” Paul gives instructions for self-image, as he does for other areas of Christian life: “You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ” (Romans 6:11).

Hope you are encouraged today by these two beautiful things!

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 2

oh my soul, faint not

Sometimes I’m not even aware that my soul needs lifting.

I praise God in those moments for His complete sovereignty … and the grace He has to reach down and remind me I am surely safe in His presence.

Between yesterday and today, God hemmed me in with His provisions of His presence. Three packages from the States and Canada, kingdom-seeking conversations in my office, and beautiful time spent with my Bible study girls tonight felt like a handmade quilt wrapped perfectly around my winter body.

God is so good.

In Bible study tonight, we tackled the divine romance, illustrated in the first marriage of Adam and Eve. We trudged through some Old Testament background on covenant and arrived at a beautiful, exposed place. My heart got all twisted somewhere in the midst of our discussion because I wanted to communicate how beautiful is God’s love story with us and His plans for us. I wanted to cry several times.

There are so many things I pray and hope for these ladies… and all my hopes have to do with their pursuit of their Savior. If they are fixing their eyes on Christ, the author and perfector of their faith, there is no possible way to end in disappointment. The alternative – pursuing a man or a dream or a career – will always let us down.

I left to the gym after the last ladies took off and I hit the treadmill running like mad to this new song by Jenny and Tyler called “Faint Not.”

It might seem a strange song to feel so strongly about after my Bible study, because the lyrics focus on poverty, pain, injustices in the world and our sometimes haggard response.

What seemed so appropriate tonight – running and sweating and praying like crazy for my senior ladies – was believing God would be faithful with His promises:

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;  but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
(Isaiah 40:30-31 ESV)

My heart bursts with this prayer – this plea – that we will believe He is stronger than any deception, allure, temptation, or danger. When we seek Him, He lifts us.

The chorus to the song is simple, but I’ve been singing it on replay:

Oh my soul, faint not
no, faint not
Oh, my soul, keep on,
oh, in love

I’m so glad for God’s timely reminders that He is sufficient. He is gracious. He is present.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 0

faith that FREES

Biting one's lip can be a physical manifestati...
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Sometimes we can easily identify what is holding us back or caging us in. You know, the kinds of things that press in on every side, with no chance of escape? Sometimes, though, the cause of our caging is a little more illusive.

You might be thinking of your stressful job or dreadful deadlines or the incorrigible nature of your sister. If you are thinking these things, then you might be surprised at my suggestion that worry is one of worst cages in which we willingly confine ourselves.

In a recent conversation with a good friend, we marveled at how worry can so quickly steal our freedom. When you graduate from high school and then college, worry often imposes a rude rhythm where “the future” looms like a thundercloud. Questions start flying, “what if” scenarios plague your sleep, and the most dreadful start to a conversation begins with the words, “So, what are your plans… for the future?”

Worry is an uncomfortable and crafty little cage, but there is a way out. Yes, there absolutely is a way out.

The lovely and liberating “flip side” lies in one very familiar word: faith. You may well have memorized the definition from Hebrews 11, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things yet unseen.”

What do your assurance and convictions have to do with worry?

Well, actually, a whole lot.

If you truly believe nothing happens outside God’s control, then you can live the way God intended – with confidence that the God who holds all things together will hold you together, too. You can greet the day with a joyful bounce in your step because you have faith in the Creator of the universe and He is always faithful.

As my friend and I reveled in the possibilities of this faith-freedom connection, I pictured a young girl climbing up a tree (in oversized dress-up clothes) to enter the imaginary world of Gumdrop-larkenwood, where she would conspire with her closest friend and warrior-king. Why did this strange scene interrupt the near-intellectual banter? Because this young girl is not caged by worries over provision. She is completely free to wander about enjoying every minute because she (whether she knows it or not) has faith that she will be provided for. It’s a simple, child-like faith and sometimes it doesn’t make sense. But, oh the sweet freedom!

Maybe the “sin that so easily entangles” (Hebrews 12) in your life today is worry. Maybe you are locked up in worry over your family or your future plans or your incorrigible sister. If these words find you huddled in the corner of the uncomfortable cage of worry, remember who is in charge.

Your faith will be your freedom!

A slightly different version of this appeared in our guidance newsletter this month.

Posted on by Caroline 0

toda lengua confesará

Churchill College Chapel - TtV of the John Pip...
Image by dumbledad via Flickr

Today, as I walked home from church, a bold, yellow tree blossom painted itself against a cloudy blue sky. The sun was hiding, so I reveled in the splash of color contrasting the browns and grays of the city street.

More reveling is in order today, because one of those “only because God is sovereign and He ordained it so” moments happened. Early this morning, I watched John Piper’s sermon on The Pride of Babel and the Praise of Christ from the (Spectacular Sins and their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ series).

Then, I went to church and worshipped to the (arguably overused) song “Come, now is the time to worship” and claimed such joy in the lines, “toda lengua confesará que el es Dios, las rodillas se doblarán, y un tesoro eterno tendrás en el, si escoges su amor.” (every tongue will confess that He is God and every knee will bow… the greatest eternal treasure is in Him, if you choose His love)

After hearing a sermon about the great wickedness of the people at Babylon – they wanted the praise of men and the security of a city – God used their great sins of pride and self-preservation to fill the earth with a diversity that would come back to bring glory to Christ. What the people did was evil, but the way God uses it points to His sovereignty and His design for all peoples across all nations and languages and tribes to know and bow at the name of the Lord. There’s more, of course, but you’ll have to listen to the sermon yourself.

Then, my friend Eduardo preached on Jeremiah 29:1-14 and I saw again the broken record of our sin – revealed in Israel’s treatment of Jeremiah’s 23 years of prophecy and warning. They still didn’t obey! But, in Jeremiah 29, God reassures His people that He has not abandoned or forgotten them. He is faithful and His promises are true. Though the people may not live to see it, His promises indeed will be fulfilled. In the meantime, they are to work, live, and add to the culture and community of this city where they are foreigners.

I started to think about our condition on this earth. If we live worrying about God keeping His promises, we will not have the heart or mind to serve as He has called us. If we live only looking for rescue out of a situation, we may miss opportunities to see His power and presence exactly where we are (even if we’re in exile).

So, as I was walking home and spotted that bold yellow bloom on the tree, I thought how brave it is for a bud to bloom – with such a short life ahead. It has only a couple weeks of beauty and then it falls to get trampled on the unforgiving sidewalk. Even creation sings that, though the days may be evil, there is reason to burst into bloom and rejoice – for restoration WILL come!

Our faith should lead to bursting blooms today! Well, I’m off to read the Heidelberg Catechism (which I consider quite fitting on Reformation Day!) and craft awhile. I hope you are going to

let LoVe fly like CRAZY

Posted on by Caroline 0

SLEEPout photo montage

Please enjoy these pictures from the sleepout last Friday. I know these can’t possibly tell the whole story, but I hope you get the idea: a LOT of joy happened.

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And, as icing on the cake, 6 Micah boys got baptized this past Sunday!! Praise the Lord

Posted on by Caroline 2