Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Third service today ended at about 1:00, and we had a baptismal service afterward.
7 hours later, my semi-closed sinuses and puffy eyes are reminders of how moving that service was.
Philip Cameron and a boatload of older teens rescued from the streets of Moldova made their annual appearance at church today; they come over during the summer and visit all the churches that support the work over there.
But we were privileged to see eleven of the young people baptized after 3rd service.
Now, in the U.S., it's usually not such a big deal. Oh, folks are happy enough, but for these kids it's different.
It's making a huge statement. Families disown kids who receive baptism. So each of these kids were very aware that they were breaking traditions; they were all somber and deliberate.
Out Pastor always gives baptismal candidates the opportunity to share anything before they're baptized. Most folks smile and shake their heads; a few make a short statement into the microphone. But each one of these kids took the microphone and declared their thanks to the Camerons, for bringing them the opportunity to hear about Jesus, and then they declared their love for Christ and their intention to follow him with all their heart.
Totally spontaneous. Unbelievably moving. Humbling beyond words.
I'm going to be reflecting over this for a long, long time.
Here's a bit of their story, a video shown today in church:
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Faithful Friday Faves: John
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
John. Today's book is John.
Picking one passage from John is like walking into Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory and choosing ONE delectable to sample.
So, I'm going to go with the one thing that dropped into my spirit the moment I realized John was up this week:
Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?"
Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."
Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."
Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows you will disown me three times!
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be where I am." - John 13:36 - 14:3
The last time I did a deep study of the book of John, the context of that passage really struck me. Often we split the story at the end of chapter 13 -- when Jesus declares that Peter will deny him -- and pick up the next time with the lovely promises of chapter 14 and never realize that they go together. Those chapter-and-verse breaks make the Bible easy to reference and study, but it does disrupt continuity at times. We forget that.
Jesus just told Peter that he was about to fail the biggest test of his faith to date, and then says, in effect, 'Don't worry about it'.
It's all part of the same speech. Jesus didn't hesitate or change the subject. He dropped his bombshell, offered comfort, and then answered the original question.
In some odd way, I find this passage comforting. Peter failed...but he repented. None of the promises Jesus gave him were invalidated because of his failure.
I've failed, many times. I stagger under the weight of my failure. I'm quite sure that there are people who discredit anything I would say/do for the cause of Christ because of my past failure. And, to be honest, I would sacrifice much for the opportunity to go back and un-fail any one of those moments. But I can't.
But I can repent; renounce my stupidity and my self-centeredness and my pride and learn to recognize similar situations so I will not fail in that way again.
And I can cling to Jesus words "Do not let your heart be troubled."
John. Today's book is John.
Picking one passage from John is like walking into Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory and choosing ONE delectable to sample.
So, I'm going to go with the one thing that dropped into my spirit the moment I realized John was up this week:
Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?"
Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."
Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."
Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows you will disown me three times!
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be where I am." - John 13:36 - 14:3
The last time I did a deep study of the book of John, the context of that passage really struck me. Often we split the story at the end of chapter 13 -- when Jesus declares that Peter will deny him -- and pick up the next time with the lovely promises of chapter 14 and never realize that they go together. Those chapter-and-verse breaks make the Bible easy to reference and study, but it does disrupt continuity at times. We forget that.
Jesus just told Peter that he was about to fail the biggest test of his faith to date, and then says, in effect, 'Don't worry about it'.
It's all part of the same speech. Jesus didn't hesitate or change the subject. He dropped his bombshell, offered comfort, and then answered the original question.
In some odd way, I find this passage comforting. Peter failed...but he repented. None of the promises Jesus gave him were invalidated because of his failure.
I've failed, many times. I stagger under the weight of my failure. I'm quite sure that there are people who discredit anything I would say/do for the cause of Christ because of my past failure. And, to be honest, I would sacrifice much for the opportunity to go back and un-fail any one of those moments. But I can't.
But I can repent; renounce my stupidity and my self-centeredness and my pride and learn to recognize similar situations so I will not fail in that way again.
And I can cling to Jesus words "Do not let your heart be troubled."
Friday, August 12, 2011
Faithful Friday Faves: Luke
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
I hesitated over two or three passages...and a couple of recurring themes...as I skimmed through Luke, but the one that got my attention was a familiar story with a note I wrote beside it. I can't remember if I made the observation or if I was listening to someone who made the observation, but it started some wheels turning so it's today's pick:
"You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him , "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. - Lk 18: 20 - 23
The note in my margin is next to verse 20 and it points out that the commandments Jesus listed were the ones that had to do with how people interact with one another. Of the rest, one is about attitude ('Do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor') and the other four are about our relationship to God ('Do not worship anything in the place of God, do not make idols for yourselves, do not misuse the name of the Lord and keep the Sabbath holy')
Remember, Jesus has said that the two great commandments are 'Love God' and 'Love your neighbor'. He put the question to the rich fellow about loving his neighbor...and the ruler was quite happy to respond that he'd been doing that his whole life.
But, when Jesus pointed out that he missed the first commandment - Love God with everything you've got - the guy was hit with grief.
Because when it came down to it...he couldn't part with his possessions to give God first place.
And I don't think he realized it until that precise moment.
We all have those pivotal moments when God speaks to us...could be in any number of ways...and we see in a flash that we had no idea what was really going on.
And, at that moment, we have a choice: Continue with the status quo, and go no further with Christ, or give up the thing that is distracting/consuming us and follow Him.
I've had mini-moments like that...and sometimes I've chosen rightly, and sometimes I have not.
The grief of missing the opportunity has ALWAYS been greater than the grief of giving up the distraction. You'd think I'd learn.
Fortunately, His mercies are new every morning. Someday, I will have learned...
I hesitated over two or three passages...and a couple of recurring themes...as I skimmed through Luke, but the one that got my attention was a familiar story with a note I wrote beside it. I can't remember if I made the observation or if I was listening to someone who made the observation, but it started some wheels turning so it's today's pick:
"You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him , "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. - Lk 18: 20 - 23
The note in my margin is next to verse 20 and it points out that the commandments Jesus listed were the ones that had to do with how people interact with one another. Of the rest, one is about attitude ('Do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor') and the other four are about our relationship to God ('Do not worship anything in the place of God, do not make idols for yourselves, do not misuse the name of the Lord and keep the Sabbath holy')
Remember, Jesus has said that the two great commandments are 'Love God' and 'Love your neighbor'. He put the question to the rich fellow about loving his neighbor...and the ruler was quite happy to respond that he'd been doing that his whole life.
But, when Jesus pointed out that he missed the first commandment - Love God with everything you've got - the guy was hit with grief.
Because when it came down to it...he couldn't part with his possessions to give God first place.
And I don't think he realized it until that precise moment.
We all have those pivotal moments when God speaks to us...could be in any number of ways...and we see in a flash that we had no idea what was really going on.
And, at that moment, we have a choice: Continue with the status quo, and go no further with Christ, or give up the thing that is distracting/consuming us and follow Him.
I've had mini-moments like that...and sometimes I've chosen rightly, and sometimes I have not.
The grief of missing the opportunity has ALWAYS been greater than the grief of giving up the distraction. You'd think I'd learn.
Fortunately, His mercies are new every morning. Someday, I will have learned...
Friday, August 5, 2011
Faithful Friday Faves - Mark
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
I told you I'm stuck in a time warp; I just realized that today is Friday...time to look through Mark...
Maybe it's a symptom of my current state, but two verses jumped out at me and, since they are somewhat related, I'm going to use both of them.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. - Mk 1:35
Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." - Mk 6:31
A number of years ago, the big thing in youth ministry was WWJD, which stood for 'What Would Jesus Do?'
There were WWJD bracelets, mugs, notebooks, Bibles...you name it. All aimed at getting kids to stop and ask themselves 'What would Jesus do?' when faced with a decision.
But there is a subtle deception in that question, which is this:
It assumes that we can figure out, using human reasoning, what course of action Jesus would take in a similar situation and then do that.
The problem is...Jesus often defied human reasoning in his actions. He did not do what made sense. So how can we, using our reasoning abilities, figure out what Jesus would do?
See, if you study the Gospels, you'll see that Jesus didn't figure out what he was gonna do in any situation, either. He just did what he saw his Father doing.
And the way he could tell that was he cultivated such a close relationship with the Father that he knew what the Father was doing.
He went off by himself and prayed. Often. Sometimes all night.
I submit to you that we can't really do what Jesus would do in a particular situation unless we have first done what Jesus did on a regular basis: spend quality time building our relationship with the Father and the Spirit.
Which is why the second verse speaks so loudly to me today.
Notice...it's in the middle of the business that Jesus told the disciples to come away with him. Not when things settled down, not when the business was finished, but right there, while the people were still coming and going.
Anybody wanna say 'Ouch!' with me? I have a really, really hard time stopping in the middle of the busy and going away with him.
And it's been worse this summer. But I do hear that voice...Come with me by yourself to a quiet place and get some rest...
I told you I'm stuck in a time warp; I just realized that today is Friday...time to look through Mark...
Maybe it's a symptom of my current state, but two verses jumped out at me and, since they are somewhat related, I'm going to use both of them.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. - Mk 1:35
Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." - Mk 6:31
A number of years ago, the big thing in youth ministry was WWJD, which stood for 'What Would Jesus Do?'
There were WWJD bracelets, mugs, notebooks, Bibles...you name it. All aimed at getting kids to stop and ask themselves 'What would Jesus do?' when faced with a decision.
But there is a subtle deception in that question, which is this:
It assumes that we can figure out, using human reasoning, what course of action Jesus would take in a similar situation and then do that.
The problem is...Jesus often defied human reasoning in his actions. He did not do what made sense. So how can we, using our reasoning abilities, figure out what Jesus would do?
See, if you study the Gospels, you'll see that Jesus didn't figure out what he was gonna do in any situation, either. He just did what he saw his Father doing.
And the way he could tell that was he cultivated such a close relationship with the Father that he knew what the Father was doing.
He went off by himself and prayed. Often. Sometimes all night.
I submit to you that we can't really do what Jesus would do in a particular situation unless we have first done what Jesus did on a regular basis: spend quality time building our relationship with the Father and the Spirit.
Which is why the second verse speaks so loudly to me today.
Notice...it's in the middle of the business that Jesus told the disciples to come away with him. Not when things settled down, not when the business was finished, but right there, while the people were still coming and going.
Anybody wanna say 'Ouch!' with me? I have a really, really hard time stopping in the middle of the busy and going away with him.
And it's been worse this summer. But I do hear that voice...Come with me by yourself to a quiet place and get some rest...
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Caught in a Time Warp
Whilst reading through the posts on my facebook wall, I chanced across a post that mentioned a major league baseball team being eliminated from post-season play.
"Whoa," I thought, "How can anyone be eliminated so early?"
I took a second trying to place myself on the calendar...feeling rather early-Juneish.
I had a dizzy moment when I realized it is August and school starts Monday.
I.Can.NOT.Believe.It.
There have been summers that zipped by in the past, but nothing like this summer. How can time move so fast all of a sudden??
I recently saw a news story which stated that a group of scientists had absolutely proven time travel/ travel faster than the speed of light is impossible. After seeing this summer evaporate in a twinkle, I'm wondering if they didn't miss something in their computations...
"Whoa," I thought, "How can anyone be eliminated so early?"
I took a second trying to place myself on the calendar...feeling rather early-Juneish.
I had a dizzy moment when I realized it is August and school starts Monday.
I.Can.NOT.Believe.It.
There have been summers that zipped by in the past, but nothing like this summer. How can time move so fast all of a sudden??
I recently saw a news story which stated that a group of scientists had absolutely proven time travel/ travel faster than the speed of light is impossible. After seeing this summer evaporate in a twinkle, I'm wondering if they didn't miss something in their computations...
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Magnify the Lord!
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Sometimes the oddest little remark starts a chain reaction...
This morning, my pastor said something about magnifying the Lord. He was talking about whether we would consider God to be larger than our problems/issues or consider our problems/issues to be larger than God, but the word 'magnify' started a little thought process that ended up with the Hubble Telescope.
So of course I thought it would be good blog material.
The first thing I did was come home and look up 'magnify' in my NIV Exhaustive concordance.
And was surprised to find only one listing:
The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. - Dan. 11:36
Wow...we could spend some time on that, but it's another topic for another day. I wanted to know where the phrase 'magnify the LORD' came from; I've heard it over and over for years and years, but I hadn't ever traced it to its source.
Next stop: King James. Or, rather, New King James. I followed my hunches and, sure enough, in Luke 1:46 I found My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior leading off Mary's song of praise.
So I pulled out the Zhodiates Word Study and looked it up, and found that magnifies is translated from megaluno: from megas to make (or declare) great, i.e., increase or (fig.) extol:-- enlarge, magnify, shew great
Megaluno is also found in:
Matt. 23:5 - "But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments."
Luke 1:58 - When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
Acts 5:13 - Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly
Acts 10:46 - For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God
Acts 19:17 - This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
2 Cor. 10:15 - not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men's labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere
and Phil. 1:20 - According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
I want to say there is a reference to magnifying the Lord in Psalms...but it's obviously not in the NIV, and my KJV exhaustive concordance is in a box in the attic somewhere. A VERY quick skim through Psalms didn't yield a 'magnify' reference, so I'm going to say that the basic reference to 'magnify the Lord' must be from Mary's Song (AKA 'The Magnificat').
But, be that as it may, it's not the origin of the phrase I'm looking for...it's the application.
Our common connotation to 'magnify' is 'to enlarge, to make something small appear big' (that's just my quickie definition). That is, we generally think of something small that we need to enlarge to see clearly.
But I submit to you that something small is not the only thing we magnify in today's world.
We also magnify things that are astronomically huge...because we are too far away to see them properly.
Instead of making something bigger, magnification, in this sense, means to see something as it really is.
Here is where I was going to insert some photos from the Hubble Telescope, but, wow, so many spectacular pictures! I'll post one, just to have a thumbnail for the Facebook link...but you gotta go look at them - Hubble Telescope. Take as long as you want, and when your awe-meter is redlining, come back.
Source: Hubblesite.org
See, those objects...be they stars, galaxies, nebulae, whatever...are out there. Their size staggers the imagination. But we couldn't see them.
Until...we put a camera up above the atmosphere of earth and focused it on those objects and magnified them.
In the same way, when we magnify God, we are not enlarging Him beyond what He is. He is vast beyond imagining. But, when we get away from the world's atmosphere and focus on Him, He is magnified. Then we can begin to comprehend just the smallest amount of who He really is.
He is, truly, Awesome. When He is magnified, that shows more and more...
Sometimes the oddest little remark starts a chain reaction...
This morning, my pastor said something about magnifying the Lord. He was talking about whether we would consider God to be larger than our problems/issues or consider our problems/issues to be larger than God, but the word 'magnify' started a little thought process that ended up with the Hubble Telescope.
So of course I thought it would be good blog material.
The first thing I did was come home and look up 'magnify' in my NIV Exhaustive concordance.
And was surprised to find only one listing:
The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. - Dan. 11:36
Wow...we could spend some time on that, but it's another topic for another day. I wanted to know where the phrase 'magnify the LORD' came from; I've heard it over and over for years and years, but I hadn't ever traced it to its source.
Next stop: King James. Or, rather, New King James. I followed my hunches and, sure enough, in Luke 1:46 I found My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior leading off Mary's song of praise.
So I pulled out the Zhodiates Word Study and looked it up, and found that magnifies is translated from megaluno: from megas to make (or declare) great, i.e., increase or (fig.) extol:-- enlarge, magnify, shew great
Megaluno is also found in:
Matt. 23:5 - "But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments."
Luke 1:58 - When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
Acts 5:13 - Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly
Acts 10:46 - For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God
Acts 19:17 - This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
2 Cor. 10:15 - not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men's labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere
and Phil. 1:20 - According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
I want to say there is a reference to magnifying the Lord in Psalms...but it's obviously not in the NIV, and my KJV exhaustive concordance is in a box in the attic somewhere. A VERY quick skim through Psalms didn't yield a 'magnify' reference, so I'm going to say that the basic reference to 'magnify the Lord' must be from Mary's Song (AKA 'The Magnificat').
But, be that as it may, it's not the origin of the phrase I'm looking for...it's the application.
Our common connotation to 'magnify' is 'to enlarge, to make something small appear big' (that's just my quickie definition). That is, we generally think of something small that we need to enlarge to see clearly.
But I submit to you that something small is not the only thing we magnify in today's world.
We also magnify things that are astronomically huge...because we are too far away to see them properly.
Instead of making something bigger, magnification, in this sense, means to see something as it really is.
Here is where I was going to insert some photos from the Hubble Telescope, but, wow, so many spectacular pictures! I'll post one, just to have a thumbnail for the Facebook link...but you gotta go look at them - Hubble Telescope. Take as long as you want, and when your awe-meter is redlining, come back.
Source: Hubblesite.org
See, those objects...be they stars, galaxies, nebulae, whatever...are out there. Their size staggers the imagination. But we couldn't see them.
Until...we put a camera up above the atmosphere of earth and focused it on those objects and magnified them.
In the same way, when we magnify God, we are not enlarging Him beyond what He is. He is vast beyond imagining. But, when we get away from the world's atmosphere and focus on Him, He is magnified. Then we can begin to comprehend just the smallest amount of who He really is.
He is, truly, Awesome. When He is magnified, that shows more and more...
Friday, July 29, 2011
Friday Faithful Faves - Matthew
Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
As we head into the New Testament, I'm once again more than just a little intimidated by my plan. Pick ONE passage from each book??
So I'm reminding myself of the criteria...I'm not looking for the most profound or key verse from each book, just the passage that speaks to me on the given day.
So when I flipped my Bible open to Matthew, the first verse my eyes landed on suddenly grabbed my attention. I nearly just went with that, but I decided maybe I was being hasty and so I skimmed through to see if anything else jumped off the page at me.
I wavered a moment over the parable of the 10 Virgins, but checked and found that I've already blogged about that. So I'm going with the passage that beckoned to me at the outset:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." -- Matt 5:17-18
Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.
We often focus on a part of the reason Jesus came - to give his life for many, that we might have abundant life - but that really is just one aspect of why Jesus came, one part of the Law that required fulfilling.
He fulfilled it all.
Christianity is unique in this concept: mankind is unable to fulfill the requirements of Heaven, so God came to earth and fulfilled them for us.
As we head into the New Testament, I'm once again more than just a little intimidated by my plan. Pick ONE passage from each book??
So I'm reminding myself of the criteria...I'm not looking for the most profound or key verse from each book, just the passage that speaks to me on the given day.
So when I flipped my Bible open to Matthew, the first verse my eyes landed on suddenly grabbed my attention. I nearly just went with that, but I decided maybe I was being hasty and so I skimmed through to see if anything else jumped off the page at me.
I wavered a moment over the parable of the 10 Virgins, but checked and found that I've already blogged about that. So I'm going with the passage that beckoned to me at the outset:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." -- Matt 5:17-18
Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.
We often focus on a part of the reason Jesus came - to give his life for many, that we might have abundant life - but that really is just one aspect of why Jesus came, one part of the Law that required fulfilling.
He fulfilled it all.
Christianity is unique in this concept: mankind is unable to fulfill the requirements of Heaven, so God came to earth and fulfilled them for us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)