Lines of Truth

I am a collector of words... I love books, and I love to make notes when I read especially marvelous books.  There is something about the copying or re-writing of things that strike a chord that seems almost impossible to resist.  As such, I have pages of notes, journal books, and random single sheets of paper floating about that contain words and phrases - snippets of wisdom - verses of scripture - lines from books - some verbatim quotes, some paraphrases. 
There are times when I am utterly convinced that the simple act of putting pen to paper to personally scribe the wisdom I hope to add to my already cluttered brain will make the difference.  Sometimes it does... sometimes it doesn't.  There are days when the scrawl is illegible and days when the loops and flow of ink are beautiful.  I've been doing this for as long as I can remember.

I have decided that I'm going to share my collected lines from  A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson, as I go along through the book.  I failed when I attempted to blog through Ann Voskamp's book because I was attempting to answer questions in a reader's guide.  I think that it was because I wasn't simply going with what I felt was important - if God is dealing with me over something, or trying to teach me a lesson... that is what I will be drawn to write down.  In the act of typing/writing these again, perhaps they will etch deeper into my labyrinth of gray matter and remain.

Chapter 1 - Discipleship
**note - some things are directly quoted, others are paraphrased or my take - page #'s are noted where I have them in my notes.
- harmful to Christians is the assumption that anything worthwhile can be acquired at once - the assumption that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently  (pg 11)
- there is a great market for religious experience - but there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue and little inclination to sign up for the long apprenticeship in holiness  (pg 12)
- "The essential thing 'in heave and earth' is... that there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living." ~Friedrich Nietzche (pg 13)

Disciple - people who spend our lives apprenticed to our master, Jesus Christ
Pilgrim - people who spend our lives going someplace ~ going to God by the path of Jesus.

Change like a deluge

There have been quite a few changes in our lives recently.  Some of it has felt like standing beneath this waterfall and being told to catch every drop... with a Dixie-cup.  It hasn't been easy... it hasn't been a lot of fun most of the time... but God is so faithful that I'm beginning to feel like the waterfall might be looking more like this now.

Still changing and coming at us pretty quickly, but not unmanageable by God's grace and not feeling like I'm drowning - which is such a gift!
I am looking forward to the coming months... seeing this in my future....

Because God's grace flows like a river over my life and I'm going with that flow on the greatest adventure.  I trust the Guide... because of His promise.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."~ Jeremiah 29:11

Blessings on the journey~

It makes me smile

This is a close up of my new bedspread as it was back-lit with sunshine on the clothes line. 

Here it is with no back lighting.  The color is sort of between the two photos - a buttery yellow that is cheerful and soft.
It makes me so happy! 
It's a cotton (old-fashioned) bed spread - the kind with fringe around 3 sides and it pulls up over the pillows - I found way way on clearance from the LL Bean outlet store in Nashua.  I love to sit on it in the morning when I'm doing my devotional time and run my bare feet over the top of it.  It feels like summertime & vacation to me.  Like being at a cabin that your grandparents have by the ocean or the lake or up in the mountains.
I'm sure this makes no sense to anyone else... but it brings me such happiness that I wanted to share a slice of silly smiley-ness.  I think everyone should have things in their home that make them smile...  just because!

Blessings on the journey~

Theme Reading

I'm reading several books at the moment...nothing new there.  But there is a theme in my reading right now... discipleship.  What does it mean to really be a follower of Jesus. 

Two of the books that I'm reading right now are proving tremendously helpful, instructive, convicting, insightful and comforting.  Sound conflicting & confusing?  You ought to live in my head! Kidding!  There are enough people in their right now to populate a small town - no more vacancies.

Anyway - I'm reading these:

Cost of Discipleship is a 'classic' among many in the Christian community.   I'd been listening to an audio version but really wanted to have the hard copy in my hands to absorb better.  I borrowed it through inter-library loan... hoping to keep in for a few weeks to really get a good grasp and not just a read-through.

This book was recommended by Shaun Groves a while ago... I got a copy and it sat on my shelf for a while.  I started it a few weeks ago and have been going through it slowly.  It's amazing.

Happy reading!

Blessings on the journey~

Quotable ~ C.T. Studd

J was re-reading "Radical" today and was so struck by this quote that she read it aloud to me and I was so struck by it that I had to share it.

"Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God’s Holy Name let us arise and build! ‘The God of Heaven, He will fight for us’, as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ." ~C. T. Studd  (Missionary to China, India & Africa)

Blessings on the journey~

Prayers from the Pews

I'd seen some posts about this book before the release and then read several reviews after the release as a Kindle book.  I was impressed and intrigued as I've been reading Terri Lynne for a while and always learn something from her writing.  God has used her writing to teach me a lot in fact.


I think it was last week when someone posted on facebook that the book was available for free that day so I snatched it up (or down?) for my Kindle.  (It's only $4.99 now)    And during my morning quiet/devotional time I've been reading it... pondering, praying, absorbing.  This small book is just amazing so far. 

Yesterday I reached 56% done (that is just how Kindle measures things - I have no idea if it translates into real pages or not).  This is the part of the book where it begins to be prayers for our church - God's church - The Bride of Christ ... all based on scripture in the book of Acts.

Yesterday I prayed this page:

"And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart..." ~Acts 4:32 NASB

Lord, we pray our faith fellowship will be bound with one heart - a heart that seeks You, is passionate for You, longs for You alone.  As we grow in one heart for You, fill us with great love and compassion for one another as well.  Cause us to lay down our own agendas, plans, and desires.  Let them be replaced with humility and love that places others ahead of ourselves.  May we be so consumed with loving and serving that people know it can only be explained by You. Amen.

And today was this and it just took my breath away:

"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit..." ~Acts 4:2

Lord, we pray that Your church will be filled with the Holy Spirit.  God, that we will be guided by the Teacher and Counselor You have sent to us.  We ask that Your Spirit fill us with the fruit that only comes from You - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.   We pray that , as Your beloved Bride, we will be a radiant picture of Your love for teh world around us.  Keep us, O Lord, from arrogance, competition, and strife between other congregations.  Cause us to walk in one mind, be of one heart, and be ever guided by one Spirit. Amen.

I know that in Christ there are no accidents... nothing passes through my life that is not part of what He has allowed for me.  This book came just now for me because it was the time I needed it most.  Terri Lynne shares her personal journey of hurts and joys in church during the first part of the book and even though I have not walked the same journey, I found much that resonated with my heart and life.  She writes with kindness about difficult things and shares honestly without being harsh at all. 

I look forward to praying through the rest of this book - for my own church body and the Body of Christ world-wide.  She is a wounded and wandering Bride in many places and only Christ's loving touch will restore her and make her ready for the time when He comes to bring her home.

Blessings on the journey~                                                                 Photo credit: raisinghomemakers.com & stock images

Hebrews 12

Hebrews 12 (ESV)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
³  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. ⁹ Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. ¹¹  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

¹² Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. ¹⁴  Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; ¹⁶ that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
¹⁸ For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. ²⁰ For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” ²¹ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” ²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³ and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
²⁵ See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. ²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” ²⁷ This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire.

~Biblegateway.com