Lines of Truth (5)

Chapter 5 - Service            

Psalm 123

To you I lift up my eyes,
    O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
 Behold, as the eyes of servants
    look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
    to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
    till he has mercy upon us. 

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
    for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than enough
    of the scorn of those who are at ease,
    of the contempt of the proud.

p. 57  "A psalm is not a lecture; it is a song. In a psalm we have the observable evidence of what happens when a person of faith goes about the business of believing and loving and following God."

p. 60  We must look up to God to find ourselves in the proper position, the posture of servitude.  This is the beginning - we must realize our position in relation to the Creator of everything.  He is above.  Second comes our expectation in faith - that God means to transform us for our good.  He is the master potter at work on the clay that is our lives - until He has finally shaped a redeemed life - a vessel fit for His kingdom.


p. 63  There is an urgency to serve the Master instead of being enslaved by the things of this world.

p 64  We must learn to use our freedom appropriately - under the lordship of our merciful God.  A servant of Christ is the freest person on the planet.

Lines of Truth (4)

 Chapter 4   Worship                  Psalm 122

p 45  There is one sufficient reason for going to church - God.

p 46 talks about worship being the most popular thing that Christians do - I wonder about this -  I  suppose that he may be correct as you certainly see more bodies in church services than you do in bible study groups or serving in a mission context.

p 47  ".. the powerful history - shaping truth that God forgives our sins and makes it possible to live without guilt and with purpose."

p49  worship (corporate) provides a framework for how we are to do life - we know where we stand

p 49-50  worship is commanded in Scripture, we don't worship because 'we feel like it'.  "Feelings are completely unreliable in matters of faith"

"The Bible wastes very little time on the way we feel" ~Paul Scherer,
                                                                                The Word God Sent p166

 p 50  Worship centers us on the Word of God - the decisions of God.
The biblical word "judgement" means "the decisive word by which God straightens things out and puts things right."

p 51  The word "pray" in the Hebrew of Psalm 122 is the same as "ask" as we 'ask' for seconds at dinner or for directions when we are lost.

p 52  "Shalom, peace, is one of the richest words in the Bible"  "It gathers all aspects of wholeness that result from God's will being completed in us.  It is the work of God that, when complete, releases streams of living water in us and pulsates with eternal life."

p 52  Shalvah = security    the root meaning is leisure 
Security of being at home in a history that has the cross of Christ at its center.
"It is the leisure of the person who knows that everything is all right because God is over us, with us, and for us in Jesus Christ."
"It is the leisure of the person who knows that every moment of our existence is at the disposal of God, lived under the mercy of God."

Lines of Truth (3)

Chapter 3     Providence           Psalm 121

Times of trouble are inevitable - we will need help.

p.37  A look to the 'hills' ends in disappointment - help comes from the Creator... not the creation.

p 38  "No literature is more realistic and honest in facing the harsh facts of life than the Bible."

p 39  The only serious mistake we can make as Christians is the one Psalm 121 prevents - the mistake of supposing that God's interest in us waxes and wanes in response to our spiritual temperature.

p. 40  "Psalm 121 says that the same faith that works in the big things works in the little things."

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Lines of Truth (2)

  A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson is a study through several Psalms that are known as "The Song of Ascents", specifically Psalm 120 through 134. 

Chapter 2 - Repentance - Psalm 120

p 21  A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way.
Psalm 120 is the song of such a person - the cry of pain that penetrates through despair & stimulates a new beginning ~ a journey to God which becomes a life of peace.

p 24  "The truth about what is wrong with the world is that I and the neighbor sitting beside me have sinned in refusing to let God be for us, over us and in us.  The truth about what is at the center of our lives and of our history is that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for our sins and raised from the tomb for our salvation and that we can participate in new life as we believe in him, accept his mercy, respond to his love, attend to his commands."

p 25-26  Repentance is not an emotion.  It is not feeling sorry for your sins.  It is a decision.  Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become His pilgrim in the path of peace.

p 29  Repentance is the first word in Christian immigration and sets us on the way to traveling in the light. It is a rejection that is also an acceptance, a leaving that develops into an arriving, a no to the world that is a yes to God.

In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.  ~Psalm 120:1
If I am honest - I know that only the Lord will ALWAYS answer when I cry out to Him. 

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~