Tag: God

THINK

When I worked in Austin, Texas, I saw this bumper sticker in the parking lot of the university I worked for:

“Don’t pray in my school and I won’t think in your church”

I realize bumper stickers are often cowardly ways to make big, bold statements, but this one rubbed me the wrong way. I wrote this blog post in reflection.

Now, three years later, I want to add a postscript to that blog post. John Piper has a new book out called, “Think” and it examines the questions so many raise and so few answer. Why do we have a mind? What is the purpose of thinking?

The Desiring God National Conference was actually going on this weekend and focused on just that – using our minds to glorify God, enjoy Him and share Him. I get goosebumps thinking about how our minds are made to glorify our Creator!

I’m off to worship this morning in spirit and in truth… glad for God’s design to engage my thoughts with His thoughts.

I wish I could post this video on the back of my car in bumper sticker form. Better yet, I wish I could live life proving this video true. How about that for a rebuttal?

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!

let LOVE FLY like cRaZY.

Posted on by Caroline 3

Intentional about doing good

Christians have a bum rap.

Whether or not this title is earned, many people look to Christians for examples of ultimate hypocrisy (oh, how little has changed in thousands of years!) instead of examples of ultimate servants. I was reading this article over at the Desiring God blog and I really believe it’s a message we need to allow to take root in our hearts.

I’ll admit, Christians can be so stubborn and fearful about theology that we miss the point in living out what theology tells us. In our absence, others step in and try a hand at serving, loving, and giving without the power of redemption at the center. Their efforts, no matter how amazing, simply cannot take the place of life-altering redemption and a secure eternity.

The world is groaning (Romans 8:22) for redemption and (NEWSFLASH) Christians aren’t the only ones feeling the pains of childbirth. The human race, along with creation, is desperate to right the wrong condition of things.

But, there is only one option for redemption and that is through Christ. And in Christ alone I am qualified to do good works.

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV)

If the God of the universe is making all grace abound to me, so that I may abound in every good work, I think it is important to seek out the work. Think of it – God is sufficient in all things and at all times and it is HE who makes me able to abound in every good work.

I believe God is calling us to Himself… calling us to obey… and calling us to live in the delight that will come as a result of our committed hearts (Ecclesiastes 5:20 and 2 Chronicles 16:9) working in day-to-day acts of service.

I want to live BELIEVING so strongly in God’s story of redemption that I wake up LOOKING for ways to abound in every good work. It’s not charity or public policy or brownie points… it’s simply life lived in the bounty of His grace to the glory of His name!

Here is the article from the Desiring God Blog, written by Matt Perman as he prepared to speak at the upcoming conference: Christians Are to Be Proactive in Doing Good.

are you going to

.let LOVE FLY like cRaZY.

Posted on by Caroline 0

bursting with joy

Cover of "The Four Loves"
Cover of The Four Loves

I’m sitting here, under my tree, with books stacked high to my right and my heart full to overflowing with thanksgiving. I just spent way too much time looking at old blog posts trying to find some musings from the book, “The Four Loves” by C.S. Lewis, but I came up empty-handed.

I’ll have to rely on my memory to relate the bliss I’m feeling and how I think Lewis explains it best.

It is only fitting, I might add, that I’m comfortable under my tree, where roots are stretching out underneath, reminding me where I find life.

Many of you are probably well aware of Lewis’s famous book on the four different types of love, but I want to just skim the surface of what has me flying so high tonight: friendship. Lewis suggests (apologies for my crude summary) that friendship draws out God-designed parts of us that we never knew we were hiding. In community, we are able to watch God reveal Himself in us because of the way we are made to live in community together.

Isn’t that magnificent?

Today is a repeat of so many other times in my life where I realize there is joy bubbling up in my soul that is set free when I place myself in community. It’s like a pen full of words that finds paper or a box full of seeds that finds ground.

Community is a place God has specifically designed to reflect Him and point to His glory. I love how C.S. Lewis says that God ordains our friendships. There are certain people ordained for certain times in our lives for a very certain purpose – to draw out ways in which we never knew we were capable of giving God glory.

How beautiful!

I can’t tell you all the ways this makes sense for today, but I can tell you that this day (beginning, middle, and end) made me ready to burst with the joy and inspiration of community. God’s design is so very good!

Here is one of the reasons for my joy… one of my students Alejandra! She has a wonderful way of drawing out something strange and silly and spectacular… and I always walk away blessed!

I hope you are intentionally putting yourself in the company of others who are pursuing Christ. You will be so blessed by the new ways you find to give God glory for His design!

As always,
.let LOVE FLY like cRaZY.

Posted on by Caroline 3

pursuing lower pleasures

Here’s something I wrote in May when my friend Heather was visiting, but it certainly applies to tonight. I just got home from a MARVELOUS night of capture the flag with my favorite seniors, then dinner, then dinner #2, and then various antics following. I think my joy almost burst a couple times I was so full of it!

I laughed and laughed and laughed and I praise God for every surprising snort and crazy convulsion. I love laughter. I will have to write more about that later. For now, enjoy this REPOST from May.

——————–
After a crazy day, an afternoon filled with charades and catch phrase and laughter, and a typically cheesy serenade for the 11th grade girls… Heather and I went for coffee and finally caught up a bit. I chose the Latte Au-Lait, which means I am now WIDE awake and she’s zonked out (getting the sleep she needs so we can leave at 5:45 am to lead worship tomorrow at staff devotions).

I just want to write something quick tonight… maybe it will turn into a poem, but right now it’s just thoughts about pleasure. As I think about the students and this culture and (maybe) popular culture in general, I decide that our greatest sin is pursuing lower pleasures.
I know C.S. Lewis probably illustrated this idea more deeply than my brain can think it right now, but still it seemed a mini-revelation tonight.

God promises in Psalm 16:11 that in His presence there is FULLNESS of JOY and at His right hand there are PLEASURES forevermore. Wow! What a promise!

God promises the kind of joy that bursts out from inside our souls and overflows to uncontrollable laughter… the kind of joy that you can’t keep from showing on your face… the kind of joy you can’t wait to share with everyone you meet… the kind of joy that makes your heart feel like fire and makes you want to dance and shout and play in the rain…

NOT ONLY that, but also pleasures forevermore. God offers us pleasure that never ends – He created us with the desire for pleasures forevermore and He is delighted when we pursue the highest kind. He planted that little seed inside us, in the soil of our humanity, that tries to break the surface and soar toward the sun… all the ways our humanity longs to have pleasure can be traced back to the way we were created in His image to experience pleasures forevermore.

The moment I decide to pursue a less pleasurable pleasure than what I was created for, I am choosing sin. I know, it sounds confusing. Usually we associate pleasure with sin, but right now I am saying that we sin when we pursue less pleasure or lower pleasure. Because I know God created me and placed in me a desire to have infinite joy and pleasure, I know that anything less than a pursuit of THAT means two things:1. I am not experiencing the most pleasure possible (can only be found in and through God)2. I am trying to make lower pleasures fulfill my God-given desires for the BEST pleasure (which, of course is a fail from the start).

God created us, knows us, and delights when we are absolutely bursting with joy.

Posted on by Caroline 0

how foolish a coward

I am merely reposting this here. I wrote it originally in 2007.

I am a coward.
Oh man, oh man
I am a pathetic coward.

But I am healing, heavy
under the fragrant weight of mercy –
for words spoken, promises broken,
conversations averted, open doors ignored.

Unclean creatures caught tragically
among unclean others
soon, swiftly turn for familiar.
Freedom escapes and vernacular is tangible
what is left needs redemption

can these things be forgiven –
these repeat offenses?
the same voice stuck always
when its throat should sing the eruption
of song on the hazy horizon,
waves crashing,
storms threatening,
but glory well
living.

eyes set, jaw determined in a steady line
the words need said
to defend, clarify, and define
the glory made flesh

the Word.
offenses taken,
but please don’t mind my mind.
Fear crouches dangerous and
clings the edges of Truth,
making fuzzy the path
and curious the question

Oh, but the effort is so great;
the community meets,
lives, retreats,
but this conversation of confusion
.interrupts.

the Holy One is not pleased by
politics
not impressed by feet soft tread
on evil
He is glorified
in life, in death,
in good, in evil,
in perfection, in failure

He is.

how foolish a coward.
how foolish a coward.

Posted on by Caroline 0

What is The Point of “Think” by John Piper?

John Stephen Piper
Image via Wikipedia

My morning perusal of all my favorite twitter friends led me to an article about Piper’s new book “Think.”

After the initial shock of the realization that I needed to add yet ANOTHER Piper book to my list of “to-read,” I am thoroughly excited about the questions confronted in this book and the honest replies that point to Scripture alone.

Madison, WI pastor Zach Nielson posted an excerpt from pages 26-27 that has me wanting to read pages 1-25.

Read it here: What is The Point of “Think” by John Piper?.

Posted on by Caroline 0