tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21048519315267117102024-03-17T23:03:14.746-04:00one woman in seminarythe stuff that happens on the way to an MA in TheologySuzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-11332603486641439862012-07-09T12:41:00.000-04:002012-07-09T12:41:09.095-04:00"The Sweet Surrender of Submission" sermon audio by Suzanne Burden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hold your hands out in front of you, clenching them and digging your nails in. Now open your palms in surrender. <b><i>Which is easier? God is teaching me to choose surrender and submission.</i></b><div>
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Following is the hardest sermon I've preached yet. Discover the beauty of what God teaches us about submitting to him—and dying to ourselves to truly live.</div>
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Peace to you.</div>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-35375725010504099472012-07-07T17:14:00.000-04:002012-07-07T17:14:37.994-04:00If God is my father, this is my familyYou can be lonely in a crowded room, in a busy hospital, in a bustling church. But here's what I'm beginning to believe: loneliness in a church setting may actually hurt most, because in the body of Christ we are to be binding up each other's wounds, listening to each other's confessions, actually physically breaking bread together. In fact, the list of "one anothers" in the Bible is quite extensive!<div>
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<b>These are not suggestions, but imperatives from the very words of Scripture. </b></div>
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Today I googled quotes on loneliness for a writing project I'm working on about community. And it was really telling that such similar sentiments came from secular writer Kurt Vonnegut, often known for his outrageousness...and Catholic activist Dorothy Day. It is as if they were at the same party, or at the very least that both had walked through the terrible darkness of loneliness:</div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">“What should young people do with
their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to
create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be
cured.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2778055.Kurt_Vonnegut"><span style="color: #54520e; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Kurt Vonnegut</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">“We have all known the long
loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love
comes with community.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/119043.Dorothy_Day"><span style="color: #54520e; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Dorothy Day</span></a>,
<i><span style="color: #54520e; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/197374">The Long
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If I were to ask you if you have ever been lonely in church, in a small group Bible study, or on a Christian retreat, you would invariably say "yes," because each one of us has known the pain of isolation in a group. And many of us hang out in groups that claim the name of Christ. In all of this, though, I believe we've cheated ourselves: so many of us in the U.S. have believed that our faith was an individual matter, that it is "just between us and God," and so we isolate, we posture, we plan our lives out without the interdependence that God built into our natures, that he calls into existence through His body.</div>
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In this, Pastor Eugene Peterson is instructing me, through the book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Long-Obedience-Same-Direction-Discipleship/dp/0830822577/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341695582&sr=8-1&keywords=a+long+obedience+in+the+same+direction">A Long Obedience in the Same Direction</a>:</i></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"For God never makes private, secret salvation deals with people. His relationships with us are personal, true; intimate, yes; but private, no. We are a family in Christ. When we become Christians, we are among brothers and sisters in faith. No Christian is an only child."</span></b></div>
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With great irony, I've written this post on a day when I feel a great deal of loneliness and uncertainty. Since moving four years ago, loneliness has been a fairly consistent struggle—pastoral ministry helps, but does not cure this ache. But instead of dwelling on friendlessness, or childlessness, or loss of family members, I feel like I want to hoist my loneliness flag in a different direction: with God's help, I want to paint a vision for what his church should be. A healer of hurts, a noisy bunch of diners breaking bread, a family that stays together no matter the inconvenience or toil. A persistent community of God-worshippers in which solitude only leads us back to the raucous joy that can be found when we gather together.</div>
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"We are set apart for service to one another. We mediate to one another the mysteries of God."-Eugene Peterson</div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">What about you? Do you struggle with loneliness in your church community? Have an example of the church doing well in celebrating life <i>together</i>?</span></b></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-12046689237219194272012-06-01T23:22:00.000-04:002012-06-01T23:26:02.242-04:00Keep It Simple, SisterKISS. Originally an acronym for "keep it simple, stupid." I, however, like my title better. It reflects my ongoing journey to embrace simplicity. Of casting off the nonessentials in order to embrace the essentials. Of choosing people above programs. Talk-to-me-in-person-time over technology. It is an ongoing dance, this journey to saying no over and over again so that ultimately I can say—yes, Lord. Yes, Lord, to your best for me.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"God made man simple; man's complex problems are of his own devising." (Ecclesiastes 7:30 JB)</span></b><br />
<br />
Simplicity can be defined by many things, inward and outward, but I am finding that Christian simplicity surrounds this truth:<i> I am becoming, and accepting, and living out fully the person God has created me to be. </i>And in saying this, I am declaring that anything outside of the person God has created me uniquely to be can and must go. I do not want to live in duplicity, pleasing others and pretending to be someone I simply am not. That is the heart of simplicity.<br />
<br />
I am convinced that Quaker pastor and author Richard Foster likes to kick my butt around a bit. Reading the first six chapters of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Celebration-Discipline-Path-Spiritual-Growth/dp/0060628391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338606692&sr=8-1">Celebration of Discipline</a></i> has shined a spotlight on my failure to fully embrace the means of grace God has invited us into. And yet—at this point in my life, I consider my shortfall not a scolding, but a delightful invitation. The world calls me to live my life frenetically, disconnected, seeking my own comfort, things, and satisfaction. Jesus calls me to something entirely, delightfully different. And I want different.<br />
<br />
It is all about seeking the Kingdom of God first, according to Foster. And, of course, according to God's Word as well (Matthew 6:33).<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"Freedom from anxiety is characterized by three inner attitudes. If what we have we receive as a gift, and if what we have is to be cared for by God, and if what we have is available to others, then we will possess freedom from anxiety. This is the inward reality of simplicity." - <i>Celebration of Discipline</i>, p. 88</span></b><br />
<br />
Can you imagine living this way? Can you imagine the cost of NOT living this way? I simply cannot afford to ignore the invitation of Jesus to live truly and simply any longer. Just the first step on a journey to understanding what all of this means.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">How about you? What keeps you from Christian simplicity? And what draws you to it?</span></b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-56675529655590379142012-05-24T11:46:00.000-04:002012-05-24T11:46:43.658-04:00Things only a female pastor hearsActual questions and statements I've heard in the last six months:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>"What does your husband think about all of this?" (i.e., you serving as a pastor)</li>
<li>"What do you do exactly?"(i.e., and please tell me it isn't preaching)</li>
<li>"So you're ministering to women, then?" (or variations on this question)</li>
<li>"A female pastor. How wonderful! And I got to see it before I died."</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And the really amazing thing is these questions mostly make me smile. To some, I may be hard to categorize and understand; to my Savior, I am simply his daughter. The one who is simply trying to be obedient—to say, "Yes, Lord," no matter what comes. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Your turn. What would you ask a female pastor if you could? </span></b></div>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-80975859591779109352012-05-15T18:47:00.000-04:002012-05-15T18:51:28.407-04:00"Why Women Matter to God" sermon audio by Suzanne BurdenIn God's perfect plan, events converged that allowed me to share the ezer/imagebearer message for girls and women at my church this year. The result: for me, pure joy. For others, a challenge and realization that the biblical identity of every girl and woman is bigger than many of us have dared to dream.<br />
<br />
In short, I'm thankful. Here's the 30-minute message:<br />
<br />
<img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzMzcxMjIxOTg4NjMmcHQ9MTMzNzEyMjIwNDI5MiZwPTEzNjgyMSZkPSZnPTEmbz*1YmI4M2I2OGU*MGU*NmM1ODMy/ZDgzODk3NDVmMjc5NyZvZj*w.gif" /><embed src="http://sermon.net/swf/ma.swf" quality="high" width="290" height="65" name="mpp" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="poid=119915722&d=http://www.sermon.net/" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>
<br/>
Yes, an infertile woman can preach on Mother's Day...with great joy. Enjoy, and don't hesitate to share your comments here.Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-47321638457083023472012-04-30T06:00:00.000-04:002012-04-30T06:00:03.175-04:00If I were AmishIf I were Amish, my life would likely consist of a three-mile radius.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXExZhiddTPWVGkwkM7lRLUMF5ymFfo3G-0zMeNyG16iHCwDjj3yxH1_OQESzgYAFXNVrGCsIxyZDUMotTqmZuCpXchn_KKwLqmR4KNN74oc9PLjLnAJoGVhRwDqP2Z6RWG0uqCVocQbH/s1600/buggy" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXExZhiddTPWVGkwkM7lRLUMF5ymFfo3G-0zMeNyG16iHCwDjj3yxH1_OQESzgYAFXNVrGCsIxyZDUMotTqmZuCpXchn_KKwLqmR4KNN74oc9PLjLnAJoGVhRwDqP2Z6RWG0uqCVocQbH/s320/buggy" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amish buggy in Walnut Creek, Ohio</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Providing I was the Amish woman who worked in an inspirational carvings store in Walnut Creek, Ohio. I know this because she told me. She, who lives in the largest Amish settlement in the world, a settlement which boasts over 35,000 Amish, lives her entire life in the space of three miles. Good thing, too, because she travels by buggy or bicycle. The farthest she has ever been is Pennsylvania, where she has some cousins.<br />
<br />
So I told this young woman, who seemed simply at ease in her simple blue frock and bonnet, that I'd always wondered what it would be like to live in an intentional local community like that. She half-smiled with pity in her eyes. Or perhaps I just imagined it.<br />
<br />
I dared not tell her that I was driving one way to seminary and another way to serve as a part-time pastor, that my husband cooks, or that I had an iPhone in my purse that serves as my life's central command station. I'm not sure she could have borne all that news without weeping for me. Being in an intentional community of simplicity, a community in which every shop I entered was playing Christian music, and in which Amish of every age were bicycling over the hills in the wind and rain made ME feel like the outsider.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgybODdTSvtq4o6HAzyrYdqE5vHeXa8MRoZ_sBAjQKWvA4eoA1URZ99E3E8o55SshU8nyTK2qQPrNGQRvDrMPW6-wEZoqN2ExD8XPkwzraRC5A7NE81XVMo_zlbqzwl9iFbvqKWgxfU6BNL/s1600/inn" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgybODdTSvtq4o6HAzyrYdqE5vHeXa8MRoZ_sBAjQKWvA4eoA1URZ99E3E8o55SshU8nyTK2qQPrNGQRvDrMPW6-wEZoqN2ExD8XPkwzraRC5A7NE81XVMo_zlbqzwl9iFbvqKWgxfU6BNL/s320/inn" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David, surrounded by "peace and comfort"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That is as it should be. Sitting in the der Dutchman restaurant, the only available dinner choice in town, I overheard a waitress greeting a woman with a head covering. The waitress approached her family, which included several good-sized children and said "I know you!" "What did your last name change to when you got married? Ah, yes, Yoder. Of course."<br />
<br />
And I wondered what it would be like to be that woman. What if my last name were Yoder instead of Burden? What if my circle were small, but my faith was large? What if I cleaned and cooked for a living and found abundant satisfaction in simple things? What if I didn't have insurance, but knew my neighbors would come through for me come hell or high water? What if?<br />
<br />
I wandered into a thrift store last Thursday and saw a teenage Amish girl in very conservative dress eyeing some black ballet-type shoes. She tried them on, sticking her foot out to admire them. And I tried to imagine what she must be thinking. <i>Well, they aren't practical, but they are inexpensive. Would mother and father approve? Where could I wear them?</i> and finally, <i>They make me feel beautiful</i>. At that, I left the store, leaving her to continue to admire them, to toss the idea around one more time, to decide if her life could embrace a pair of delicate ballet flats, to imagine herself wearing them somewhere nice.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhc9wxLpsAQnSmfWW7zHxbtAetJ4OmRgYOvyL6fn9DG5CXbHoUxgZ06J_ejC30pt3cvX8qqAVyWX1MS_2jisk2PcYUasHBcFcFoL8JQi8OCVWDzWp5HMZoMgCfgwQPIeBN3T82lUa5Q5R/s1600/hillside" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhc9wxLpsAQnSmfWW7zHxbtAetJ4OmRgYOvyL6fn9DG5CXbHoUxgZ06J_ejC30pt3cvX8qqAVyWX1MS_2jisk2PcYUasHBcFcFoL8JQi8OCVWDzWp5HMZoMgCfgwQPIeBN3T82lUa5Q5R/s320/hillside" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">der rolling hills</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
And this is where I decided we are not entirely different after all. In Walnut Creek and the nearby Sugar Creek community, Amish farms butt up to hotels and restaurants, thrift stores and gift shops. It is a dizzying mix of simplicity and tourist traps—and Amish and Mennonite locals are at its center. Abstaining from the world through radical nonconformity, the many different sects are content to get their goods into the marketplace and make an honest profit.<br />
<br />
So this rag-tag mix of what the world considers misfits thrives, bolstered by thrifty living, laboring close to the earth and God's animals, enjoying a simple rhythm that 99% of the United States of America will never know or appreciate. This devotion, rooted in their Christian faith, attracts thousands of curious visitors, many of us wistfully longing for a simpler time and pace. So many of us want the same things. The Amish, however, are willing to forgo normal to maintain Christian simplicity.<br />
<br />
It's not a perfect life, but I admire them for it.<br />
<br />
<b>If I were Amish, my life would likely consist of a three-mile radius. And my relationships—in person and offline—just might go deeper than I've ever dreamed.</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Your turn: What appeals to you about Amish faith and simplicity? What do you think the Amish can teach us about living more authentically?</span></b><br />
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<br />Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-76777727703510994282012-04-09T13:08:00.001-04:002012-04-09T13:11:00.139-04:00What if Easter teaches us to let go?<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I can only speak for myself—but <i>Holy week was exhausting</i>. I'm not sure a pastor is supposed to say that, but there it is.</span></b><br />
<br />
In a strange way, I felt that I was giving birth to something wild and wonderful. It was a privilege to be involved with both Good Friday services and to read so many of the passages dealing with Jesus' death and sacrifice to our congregation. To serve communion twice in one evening, to have the privilege of saying to young and old, "The body of Christ, broken for you" as they took the elements, remembering. I felt as if I had entered the Story in a new and fresh way, as if I was there, as if I was witnessing the horror and the desertion of the disciples, the blood, and the final cry declaring it was done. Over. Finished.<br />
<br />
Then there was the earliness of Easter morning—but unlike the female disciples who ran to anoint his body for burial, I was simply helping to set up breakfast for our choir and orchestra. Elements of a different kind. The rush of the celebration followed by smiles of victory, the Easter song, hands raised to the Risen Savior, folks crying out in song, "Worthy is the Lamb!"<br />
<br />
Hands to shake, girls twirling their skirts, guests to welcome, the lonely to hug, workers to encourage. Easter dinner with family, warm fellowship, laughter, remembering, observing grief of loss loved ones together, being.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Any sane person would have let it at that. Perhaps I should have.</span></b><br />
<br />
And yet. Although it would have been easy to skip the Sunday night Bible study for women in addiction recovery, something told me that would be passing up an opportunity I didn't want to miss. Bible studies teach themselves on Resurrection Sunday, as people yearn for the details of Christ's death and the story of the empty tomb. On at least this one day of the year, they want to know what it means to them. And, of course it means everything. New life. The old has gone. The new has come!<br />
<br />
So I went, laboring over the story with enthusiasm, engaging them as if we were there, reading John's account with excitement and joy. As my voice began to strain from all the speaking, my heart threatened to give way as well. Two of the women who have been a vital part of our study, engaged, attentive, those in whom Jesus appeared to be doing something so beautiful, ditched the whole recovery program. Without a goodbye. These are the times I feel betrayed, when my heart begins to question what God is doing there. Although I knew better, I wanted to punch a wall. My love for them made me feel like my heart might explode, and I wanted to run from the brokenness of it all.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">You see, while you were enjoying your Easter, dressing up in your Sunday best, doing Easter-like things and enjoying yourself, hopefully remembering Resurrection Day—others were wondering how they will go on at all. </span></b><br />
<br />
People were running back to the addictions that destroyed them. They were crying over failed marriages, wondering how they will pay their rent this month, begging God to bring them a job, wondering what they will do about an unplanned pregnancy.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I guess I never thought about this before getting involved in the middle of the mess; now I think about it all the time.</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></b><br />
As I went to bed last night under a cloud of grief, I couldn't even name what I would need today to allow my spirit to be restored. It turns out what I needed most, more than anything, was a simple time of communing with God. In the book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Celebration-Discipline-Path-Spiritual-Growth/dp/0060628391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333991403&sr=8-1">Celebration of Discipline</a></i>, we are studying Christian meditation and the power of Christ transforming us in these silent, surrendered places.<br />
<br />
And so this morning I practiced the simple exercise of holding my hands down, as I tearfully released all those persons and situations in which my heart aches for resolution and grace to prevail. The tension began to drain as I slowly let go. Hands up, I received the grace of our Savior, asking for his empowerment in every area of my life I could think of, accepting his sufficiency and the empowerment the Holy Spirit gives to each of His children.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">The key thing is this—I received.</span></b><br />
<br />
No one can force this newness of life on those who insist on clinging to the old, but it is available all the same. And that is the only truth that allows me to let go. It's been a bumpy Easter, but today my soul is being fed, nurtured, watered. And finally, strengthened. That is the only place—this quiet, surrendered place—from which new life and hope can come again.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Do you practice Christian meditation? How does reflecting on God change your heart, your outlook, and your life?</span></b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-22199249074313373172012-03-29T20:20:00.001-04:002012-03-29T20:54:53.067-04:00What I like about my church<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Tired of "10 Things the Church Needs to Change" posts and "5 Reasons Young People are Leaving the Church" posts, ad nauseum?</span></b><br />
<br />
Then have I got a post for you.<br />
<br />
Because I really dig my church. And the fact that I dig it at this stage while serving as a part-time pastor is a profound experience—because I'm seeing it like it is, warts and all. And, I suppose, if prodded, I could list its downsides. But truthfully, there is just no need. The Spirit of God moves in our midst, lives are changed, healing from addiction and the bondage of sin is happening all around me, folks are getting baptized, people are giving enough furniture for an apartment to single mothers who need furniture. The food pantry is feeding people. Trips to Haiti to build medical clinics are impacting fragile lives. And people are coming in to my office, begging to know how to grow closer to God.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">The next time someone asks me what I do I just might blurt out: "Watch God transform lives. How about you?"</span></b><br />
<br />
So forgive my enthusiasm, will you? More than any other church I've ever claimed to be a part of, the presence of Jesus is visible all around me, folks are putting feet to their faith. Just last Sunday, we had a baptism and membership service, and I got to stand up and tell the congregation about A., a young woman who got in a car accident that might have severely injured her and her infant son—and yet she emerged without a scratch. She felt God telling her to return to him, to find a church, and since she drives by ours, we were the first target. I called her. She started coming to my Sunday School class. I started discipling her. And before I knew it, she had downloaded every Christian book ever mentioned by anyone in our class. And read every one.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I came very close to dancing down the aisle after Pastor Rex and I baptized her, and she came up from the water, sparkling and clean, smiling and whole. </span></b><br />
<br />
There is an eagerness that follows true repentance that splashes off these new believers, all over me, reminding me of the new life in Christ that is ours. Not long ago, someone at church mentioned how he had been set free from his pornography addiction just two weeks after he accepted Christ. He deleted the girlie pictures and replaced them with Christian music, just like that. And I asked him what helped him overcome the addiction—believing that surely it was an accountability program or a mentor or something—all of which, I'm convinced, are powerful tools. And he simply said, "Jesus Christ," with tears in his eyes.<br />
<br />
So pardon the effusiveness. Please overlook my gush. But I belong to a church that loves in the name of Jesus, where He changes lives over and over again, where a woman can joyfully serve in any capacity when God has so gifted and called her.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">And that is what I <strike>like</strike>—I mean, love, about my church.</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<b>"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"</b><br />
<b>-2 Corinthians 5:17</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Your turn: What do you like—or love—about your church family?</span></b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-79582082800495787112012-03-17T12:49:00.001-04:002012-03-17T14:49:51.350-04:00Saying goodbye to Ferd<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"Well, that was pretty good!" he said, smiling, after my <a href="http://onewomaninseminary.blogspot.com/2011/10/psalm-91-sermon-audio-by-suzanne-burden.html">sermon</a>. </span></b><br />
<br />
My 88-year-old father-in-law was sitting in the back row, just in case he needed to slip out. I was surprised that he heard every word. To him, "pretty good" meant what I would consider "great," and so his words warmed my heart. My father died from cancer several years before giving a sermon was even a possibility for me, so Ferd's support meant so much. I'm not sure he knew how much. At one point I would have assumed he wasn't at all sure about seeing a woman behind a pulpit. Blessedly, his actions proved that assumption wrong. My husband, David, was also beaming. Today, I wrap this memory up with a string, cradling it like a treasure.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTnPtkokbMbp_drAn1-SmfxlkAnRhz9FbdcAlB_aYmK2hO7r684Dohn5pb15IemByIngEjiz_r3SAgMvhNLAWl2Nie4iQunmAUB-WO5Swr_h_oE1dTel9ofP_NpJ4WFIN04wxV4WyqJsgK/s1600/ferd2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTnPtkokbMbp_drAn1-SmfxlkAnRhz9FbdcAlB_aYmK2hO7r684Dohn5pb15IemByIngEjiz_r3SAgMvhNLAWl2Nie4iQunmAUB-WO5Swr_h_oE1dTel9ofP_NpJ4WFIN04wxV4WyqJsgK/s320/ferd2.JPG" width="243" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dooleyfuneralhome.com/obits/obituary.php?id=159326">Ferd Burden, Jr., 2/19/23-3/13/12</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Ferd's multi-faceted personality and life make him an enigma to me. He arrived a generation before my own parents and could have been my grandfather. A World War II vet who served in the Merchant Marines on the Pacific, he easily lived nine lives. There was the accident shipboard where he moved for what seemed like no apparent reason before a piece of machinery crashed down where he had been standing. Without moving, he surely would have been killed. With 12 siblings total, his family's constant prayers of protection surrounded him.<br />
<br />
There was the colorful story of Ferd serving in Papua New Guinea, when he was surrounded in the woods by indigenous people. With laughter, he described pulling the cigarettes from his pocket and giving them as a peace offering. A few of his grandchildren sat there with their mouths open at the mention of nicotine. Ferd gave up smoking in his late 20s, a lifetime ago.<br />
<br />
He lived through the Great Depression and hated to spend a dime. Married at the age of 39 and promptly had five children in rapid succession. All but one of them are still living. Survived a chemical spill to his face at the BF Goodrich factory, had a heart attack and lived to tell about it, and also recuperated from a life-threatening stroke several years ago.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">After he recovered from that stroke, he began praying at family gatherings again, and inevitably his invocations would simply begin: "Our Father, we love ya...."</span></b><br />
<br />
My brother-in-law, Jay, remembers waking up in the middle of the night in his childhood and finding his dad in the kitchen with a flashlight, poring over his Bible. It was the King James' Version, of course. No one could ever successfully convince him that this isn't the only (or even the best) translation of the Bible, though many have tried. (Me included.) I'm not sure I've personally known someone who is so familiar with Scripture that if you asked him where something was he could name chapter and verse.<br />
<br />
At yesterday's funeral for Ferd, following his death from kidney failure last Tuesday, a holy understanding permeated the sanctuary and words of deep love rang through the church. As my sister-in-law Shellie read a tribute, she shared words that had been given to his grandson Malachi at his 13th birthday: "I'm going to live another 20 years. And you can, too, Malachi, if you read the Scriptures. The Scriptures will bless you."<br />
<br />
A man at Ferd's country church of 40 years stopped me in the hall yesterday. <i>I really will miss him</i>, he said, his eyes misting. <i>He didn't speak that often, but oh, when he opened his mouth, you knew he had something so important to say. You wanted to listen. </i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">We are still listening, Ferd. Listening to your legacy. I cannot imagine the sight that greeted you when you slipped away this week, leaving the pill bottles and the congestive heart failure and the bad kidneys behind. Although it still seems like a lifetime, we are not far away. And we will never forget you or the God you purposed to love all your days.</span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Say hello to Laura for us. And when you get to it, say hello to my Dad, too. I can't imagine how thrilled he'll be to hear from you.</span></b></i>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-15351539350131296202012-03-08T10:24:00.002-05:002012-03-08T10:26:00.650-05:00"Blessed are the broken" sermon audio by Suzanne BurdenThis last Sunday, I had the privilege of delivering a sermon on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 with this central truth: <br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"Blessed are the broken, for they are the ones who get it." </span></b><br />
<br />
It felt like a culmination of so many great things God has been up to in my life through years of searing brokenness. Also included: a powerful testimony from one of the women I work with at the Hope House, a program for women in recovery from chemical addictions.<br />
<br />
<img border="0" height="0" src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzMzEyMTk4NDg1NjMmcHQ9MTMzMTIxOTg2NjYwMiZwPTEzNjgyMSZkPSZnPTEmbz*yODJiMzYxYmI2ZWY*YjJmOTQ3/NWEzNzBhMDJkMTY2NCZvZj*w.gif" style="height: 0px; visibility: hidden; width: 0px;" width="0" /><embed align="middle" allowscriptaccess="always" flashvars="poid=119850833&d=http://www.sermon.net/" height="65" name="mpp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://sermon.net/swf/ma.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="290" wmode="transparent"></embed><br />
<br />
I'd love for you to listen in and to share your answer to this question in the comments:<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"How is God using brokenness in your life to heal and free you?"</span></b><br />
<br />
Peace.Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-50465621173967501612012-02-22T07:00:00.007-05:002012-02-22T07:00:05.917-05:00A prayer on this Ash Wednesday<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Many thanks to Rachel Held Evans for posting this prayer by Thomas Merton on her <a href="http://rachelheldevans.com/">blog</a>, as we start this Lenten season:</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.</em><br />
<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I do not see the road ahead of me.</em><br />
<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I cannot know for certain where it will end.</em><br />
<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nor do I really know myself,<br />
and the fact that I think that I am following your will<br />
does not mean that I am actually doing so.</em><br />
<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.</em><br />
<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.</em><br />
<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.</em><br />
<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,<br />
though I may know nothing about it.</em><br />
<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Therefore will I trust you always,<br />
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.</em><br />
<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I will not fear, for you are ever with me,<br />
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone</em>.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Amen.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I'll be using this <a href="http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/Daily-prayers-00.html">link</a> during Lenten season for a daily prayer. What are you doing—or not doing—to remember Christ's sacrifice?</span></b></div>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-11520473330703853672012-02-17T20:16:00.001-05:002012-02-17T20:17:58.993-05:00You can change your thinking...right nowI talk a lot with people about the choices they make in life. Inevitably, talking about a person's choices means talking about a person's thinking. (As she thinks, so is she...) And this is usually how the conversation goes:<br />
<br />
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Pastor Suzie, I don't know what to do about "X."</span></b></i><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">OK. What would lead you to make that choice? Where is that coming from?</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I don't know. But I'm just afraid I'll make the wrong choice and screw everything up.</span></b></i><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Yes. But what are you thinking that makes you see things that way? </span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I'm thinking I'm...going to fail, I'm unworthy or unlovable, I'm about to get hurt, [you fill in the blank.]</span></b></i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
There is a reason we quote 2 Corinthians 10:5 a lot. A verse in which Paul is defending his ministry, informing the church in Corinth that we, believers, are to take EVERY thought captive to Christ. This verse came alive for me years ago sitting at Schuler's bookstore cafe in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with my friend Colleen. It's actually one of my more vivid memories.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">She said: "At any moment I can choose to begin thinking differently than I do right now."</span></b><br />
<br />
Scha-zaam! I will never forget what she said or the way in which she said it. It was one sentence that connected so many of the dots in my life.<br />
<br />
I have struggled with physical challenges, and depression, and hurts, and boundaries, and lost relationships, and searing grief, and infertility, and losing a job. You know, the usual. And being highly introspective—many times I would get stuck in my mental-hamster-wheel. (To be honest, a couple counselors have winsomely asked me mostly the same questions I now ask others.) But today, sitting from where I sit, knowing that I am created by a God who knows me intimately, that His Son, Jesus, paid a price so exorbitant to set me free from my self-addiction, I have been given a choice. Pursuing God on his terms (not the terms of others) and accepting His love always leads me into truth. Anything that is not of him is a lie. And as I grow on this long journey toward heaven, He will teach me how to choose healing and truth. He will show me how to begin thinking differently at any moment, to actually put on the mind of Christ.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">That changes my thinking, over and over again. And changed thinking leads to changed choices.</span></b><br />
<br />
It's not a miraculous, once-in-a-lifetime epiphany. Though, some of us, like I did, experience amazing ah-ha moments. It's a gradual revealing of the infinite love of our heavenly Father toward us, his Spirit filling us, his presence so gently shining the light into all of our brokenness. A soul-transforming love that begins to permeate our thoughts, dramatically influencing our choices, and healing us from the inside out.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."</b></span> Proverbs 4:23, NIV<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>What about you? Have you seen a clear link between your thinking and your choices? What is holding you back—or setting you free?</b></span>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-13342068914387012672012-02-07T21:21:00.006-05:002012-02-07T21:24:33.084-05:00The wisdom of addicts<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I cannot tell you definitively that those who are addicted are wiser than the average bird. (Though in general, I think they are smarter than most.)</span></b><br />
<br />
I can only tell you that those who are in voluntary (and proactive) recovery from their addictions have taken a self-awareness pill. They have taken the pill, drank the self-awareness koolaid, if you will, and so they tend to drill down to the essence of their problems in record speed. It is the first of 12 steps that initiate this process: admitting I am powerless to help myself.<br />
<br />
And given the fact that most of us struggle or have struggled with some kind of addiction—pride, food, nicotine, drugs, lust, codependency—you name the crutch, it would follow that all of us could choose the path to greater self-awareness.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Especially when Jesus enters the picture, and gives the hope of a new heart for the old one, delivering on his promise</span></b><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"> <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+5%3A17&version=NIV">to make all things new</a></span></b></i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">. </span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></b><br />
Each Sunday night I plop down on a couch facing six or seven women who are recovering from drugs and alcohol and we talk about recovery and what Jesus has to do with it. Some weeks, what comes out of their mouths stops me dead in their tracks. This week was one of those weeks.<br />
<br />
Wise words erupted, intertwined with stories of utter brokenness and redemption:<br />
<ul><li>"Things are a lot less painful when you're sober."</li>
<li>"Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers."</li>
<li>"And I said, 'Oh, God, sometimes you talk too much.'"</li>
</ul><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">See what you can learn in one short hour-and-a-half Bible study sitting on an old couch?</span></b><br />
<br />
</div><div><ul><li>Our addictions are meant to dull the pain—and they end up intensifying it.</li>
<li>Unanswered prayers, the ones we beg most to be answered "our way" often bring benefits: brokenness and healing we can't even conceive of in the middle of life's mess.</li>
<li>God is speaking, warning, guiding, instructing, and we sometimes quench His Spirit, try to quiet His voice, to our detriment—and sometimes, to our destruction.</li>
</ul></div><div>That's it. That's what I learned from 7-8:30pm last Sunday night while the rest of the world was eating nachos and watching the Superbowl. I think from now on I'll call our weekly visits "Sunday School," the very best kind, where Jesus teaches me words of wisdom from those who are wise enough to know they are broken, and smart enough to believe Jesus can do anything.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><b>Your turn: </b></span><b>Do you have someone in your life whose deep self-awareness and brokenness has instructed you? What have you learned from them?</b></span></div>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-38860069875262791912012-01-28T12:02:00.000-05:002012-01-28T12:02:09.789-05:00Why I Drive a '97 SunfireI suppose there are many reasons I drive a rusting '97 Sunfire.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I inherited it from my mother. It runs without a car payment. It gets me where I need to go. But as the years tick by, I become increasingly aware of its downsides.</span></b><br />
<br />
Strange noises from any and every inch of the vehicle that others notice when they drive along. (I have for the most part blocked them out, now that my ears are so used to them.) It leaks antifreeze and stuff. And so it goes into the repair shop often for a new water pump, a new belt, a new this, a new that. It is beginning to feel like we are pouring money down the drain.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Then there are the obvious aesthetic challenges. </span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1hzUsaFQY1exc8W051Q7rExpN_i6PXRJKsWq8Yu3AIALAIS0WXDjpr_oiYhnqTxFlevcoPAEs3P-jhtHVvxkk9Vfv7nkK1P-khB-0CboHNmzytnfGHhM0vfnsu1hK7TxQztRqJw3ZRQE/s1600/IMG_1787.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1hzUsaFQY1exc8W051Q7rExpN_i6PXRJKsWq8Yu3AIALAIS0WXDjpr_oiYhnqTxFlevcoPAEs3P-jhtHVvxkk9Vfv7nkK1P-khB-0CboHNmzytnfGHhM0vfnsu1hK7TxQztRqJw3ZRQE/s320/IMG_1787.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A beautiful shade of....rust.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
The rusting passenger door. The creaks and groans. The short that makes for a lack of good volume control on the stereo. The one slightly-cracked light on the back, the bumped up license plate that says "beep-beep" on the front. The way the fuse on the horn went out for awhile, giving me no ability to toot in those times when a horn would come in handy. This is not my dream vehicle, not by a long shot.<br />
<br />
Still, at this very moment, it's sitting in my garage. And it still gets me where I need to go—while dispensing a healthy dose of humility in the process. Many times when I drive it I think about how God is providing my transportation for the day (give us this day our daily rusting Sunfire), and that the Almighty is watching for me to be grateful, even in this. I suppose God is smiling as I pray, "Thank you, Lord, for getting me safely where I need to be." (Aging cars as a way of breeding dependence on God. Yes, he's definitely smiling!)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqeuBt0K3tR84MPR1jqmMonoY-zK3XnrnCBdvPHJobtdcgIejo4-9eaWsANqyvUYiAgzga7nrdZN-Yg5ks6X68JPMqSy9t1SDFXq3zdciqE4-ffWsRTFWrbALETRKR6D1cVI7TjBT_QVa3/s1600/IMG_1785.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqeuBt0K3tR84MPR1jqmMonoY-zK3XnrnCBdvPHJobtdcgIejo4-9eaWsANqyvUYiAgzga7nrdZN-Yg5ks6X68JPMqSy9t1SDFXq3zdciqE4-ffWsRTFWrbALETRKR6D1cVI7TjBT_QVa3/s320/IMG_1785.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>But beyond all this, the real reason the Sunfire still gets me where I need to go is because we've decided to opt out of the American way. You know—the get-a-car-every-so-many-years-and-put-it-on-credit mentality. We've gone that route in our pasts, but we're trying to do something different this time around.<br />
<br />
We started a savings account specifically for a car, and we're hoping that come spring or summer we'll be buying a vehicle outright. When we do purchase it, we're praying for a different mindset: a determination on how we can minister to the people in our lives through using the new vehicle to provide transportation while getting a good MPG that will allow us to steward our money wisely. Meanwhile, the Sunfire has decided to run for another day.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">And yes, Lord, I am grateful.</span></b> <i> </i><br />
<br />
<b>*Turns out there's a Christ-centered movement to drive junkers! No kidding. It all started in 2006 when a guy named Mike Foster sold his fully-loaded sports car to drive a junky 1993 Toyota Camry. As an act of rebellion against consumerism and in an effort to give more, Mike enlisted the help of his friends. There's even a junky car club bumper sticker. Check out </b><a href="http://junkycarclub.com/"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">junkycarclub.com</span></b></a><b> and let me know what you think. Or follow Mike on </b><a href="http://twitter.com/MikeFoster"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">twitter</span></b></a><b>.</b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>What about you? Does your faith impact what you choose to drive? How?</b></span>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-16624226008401074712012-01-19T12:43:00.001-05:002012-01-20T16:33:57.738-05:00Pastoral tearsWhen you sign up for the job of a pastor, no one tells you there will be tears. They mention you will be on call at times, that people will misunderstand you and sometimes confuse you, and that you might sometimes be emotionally tired.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>But they forget to mention the tears. In seminary or otherwise. At least that is my experience.</b></span><br />
<br />
You do not realize at first that sometimes you will be helping people who are so emotionally and spiritually and physically broken that all you want to do is lie down on the floor and cry with them. They didn't tell me that I would usually end up crying later, after they are gone, when I am alone with God and asking "Why?" When I am begging God to give me His vision of restoration for them. Asking that he would help me believe that all things are possible with him.<br />
<br />
They did not tell me that those who are the most broken would bring the most joy to my heart, as I witness God's work in them. Sometimes these things go in fits and starts, two steps forward, three steps back, and over again, but nevertheless, there is an undeniable look in someone's eye when they believe God loves them and wants to make a way for them. Repentance before God is the gateway to new life, and it is so heart-achingly beautiful that I almost look away. It blows my mind that I get to see these transformations as they are happening, that I am a witness to the power of God's love in the heart of the broken.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">You see, they did not tell me that next to my Bible, I would need a box of tissues in my office, stashed in my glove box, crammed into my purse. (Or that I would constantly be dispensing of a used-up tissue in my coat pocket.)</span></b><br />
<br />
They did not share with me that occasionally I would cry because I had no words left to share with the hurting, with those who are not ready to see beyond themselves. That I would cry because they were not ready to receive all that God longs to offer them. That at times I would be a weeping prophet who didn't have clearance to speak all that my heart held.<br />
<br />
No one happened to mention this. Though maybe they tried. Perhaps there are no words to express pastoral tears and so it is useless to try. Yet there they are, these tears, binding me to God's heart, spilling out like love all over those who need a touch from God, cleansing the pain, making way for the newness Jesus longs to bring to every aching heart.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>And just beneath the tears? Deep, abundant joy</b></span>.<br />
<br />
It is the story retold, t<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20cor%2015&version=NIV">he story of deep pain on Good Friday and brilliant joy on Easter Sunday</a>. It is the story of new life waiting to burst forth all around me, and for this reason, the tears are worth it. I wouldn't trade them for a minute.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">What in your experience brings you to tears? Do the tears give way to joy—and if so, how?</span></b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-82064929282229108602012-01-09T10:36:00.000-05:002012-01-09T10:36:44.384-05:00Serious heart withdrawalI am in serious withdrawal.<br />
<br />
And I am not referring to giving up Christmas sweets or the crass materialism that threatens to gobble us up and spit us out this time of year. This is withdrawal of another kind. Ministry withdrawal.<br />
<br />
No sooner did I jet out of town following our two Christmas services, then I started to remember the people I live with and minister to at our church. I thought about so-and-so's surgery, whether or not certain individuals were spending the holiday alone, what it looks like for so many to soldier through the season with fractured relationships, unanswered questions...and doubts. I shook my head as I heard of several individuals who experienced searing loss at the time of year when all is supposedly "merry and bright."<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">My heart, it seems, was in two places at once. For some, this is parenthood; for others, it is the pastorate.</span></b><br />
<br />
Eugene Peterson described it this way: "The pastor's question is, "Who are these particular people, and how can I be with them in such a way that they can become what God is making them?"How, indeed.<br />
<br />
For this is a messy proposition. A mixed-up bag of highs in one meeting and deep lows in the next. Hot tears and deep joy. Hospital visits, and graveside services, and Bible teaching, and subversive acts that point towards God's advancing Kingdom while the world screams comfort and materialism and the ordinary. Looking for the uncomplicated and straightforward? One need not apply here.<br />
<br />
But suppose one's heart beats for transformed hearts and changed lives and the new things Jesus ends up doing with and through ordinary folk. Then the rollercoaster becomes the ride of your life and withdrawal brings its own rewards. I am investing in the hearts of lives of those who matter to my Abba, and he is doing the rest.<br />
<br />
I am trusting that all of it matters, even when I don't see how.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"Christian spirituality means living in the mature wholeness of the gospel. It means taking all the elements of your life - children, spouse, job, weather, possessions, relationships - and experiencing them as an act of faith. God wants all the material of our lives."</span></b><br />
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</span></b><br />
Did I mention it's good to be back?<br />
<br />
[*The author is new to a temporary assignment as a part-time pastor of evangelism. Proof positive that miracles do happen.]<br />
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</span></b><br />
<b>Your turn: What makes your heart experience withdrawal symptoms? How is God's Kingdom expanding around you in a way that brings you deep joy?</b><br />
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Citations: Eugene H. Peterson. The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction (Kindle Locations 41-42, 45-46). Kindle Edition.Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-19220670462442670032011-12-15T13:30:00.005-05:002011-12-15T13:50:10.141-05:00Jesus and the Story of a Table<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Sometimes it is alcohol. Sometimes it is crack. Sometimes sexual slavery or addiction. Sometimes physical disease or abuse. Overspending. Food addiction. Cycles that beg to be broken.</span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Things that splinter my heart in two at the hearing of them, that tempt me to stop believing in the radical power of Jesus to set the sinner and the sinned-against free. These are the moments in which I must stop and remember the Kingdom perspective. When I must live in the Jesus Creed.</span><br />
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</span> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In his book </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Jesus Creed</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, theologian Scot McKnight unveils Jesus' call for us to love God and to love others as ourselves. And how did Jesus illustrate this outlandish idea, this law that trumped all the other picky Jewish laws the Pharisees (or keepers of the law) had come to treasure?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He does it through a table. </span></span></span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Could this have anything to do with him being a carpenter? I'm not sure, but I do know it had everything to do with him fashioning his Kingdom. The Pharisees message to the down-and-out: smell better, do better, look better, be better, and then you can earn a seat at my table, to eat with me. Then you will be worthy.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1uXiUjFNMJ-vwa6_FY6QSxqBb2XpxENCBbx1UY_z4L3sS_qMjkPT9JD_yo1i-6LsKZUa9vZEH4Zoqf5u0ARrYXSg7YL525Q1twKigSkveNOQS4_UQ3mH5oPCsuHqHtkRflirw53sp3gaC/s1600/the-jesus-creed-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus' table story? "...</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">clean or unclean, you can eat with me, and I will make you clean.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Instead of his table requiring purity, it creates purity." (Jesus Creed, p. 36)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"For Jesus, the table envisions a new society, and that means that the table is a boundary-breaker and a grace-giver--and place where we can see what God can do when people are restored to fellowship with Abba." (Jesus Creed, p. 39)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In the story Jesus is telling through a table, the Church would not be a place to come for really righteous people to listen to righteous things and sing righteous songs and repeat only righteous things. Not if Jesus really meant what he said in Mark 2:17: "</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus said to them, '</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners'.”</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Rather, the church would be a hospital for the sick. </span></span></span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It would not be a place to shuffle consumer-oriented, middle-to-upper-income people from one church to another church in their same city. It would be a place with healing ointment, and food, and provisions, and love and truth, and it would reek with healing and holiness. The church is to be a</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> place where we fight for the broken and wounded, where we give to see them grow, where we worship to advance God's Kingdom, where we eat together. The homeless and helpless sitting next to the prosperous and the pampered. For we are all in need...and we are all in recovery, in debt to Jesus for what He has so graciously done on our behalf. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That's what Jesus and the beauty of His table is telling us. Something beautiful happens when we start issuing come-as-you-are dinner invitations.</span></span>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-5855605591741437422011-11-12T20:14:00.003-05:002011-11-14T16:36:26.485-05:00My New Occupation: Spiritual Mother<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I feel a little like Deborah, the prophetess, warrior, and judge whom many call the mother of Israel. And with that, perhaps I should explain myself.</span></b><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIrYAOQxfGWlZjW0wly9c6Sblv2DlCZef6Zfav_7FgrkdnSROvdEsPdElluKkt6uZ-UCRtdlx5B-DpOBbwdLq1grVVrknBx9qtss1w81GO_1YndX6KFZZKiF5GvxRd2TFiHvAeiv5Ds1WD/s1600/200px-Deborah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIrYAOQxfGWlZjW0wly9c6Sblv2DlCZef6Zfav_7FgrkdnSROvdEsPdElluKkt6uZ-UCRtdlx5B-DpOBbwdLq1grVVrknBx9qtss1w81GO_1YndX6KFZZKiF5GvxRd2TFiHvAeiv5Ds1WD/s1600/200px-Deborah.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gustave Dore's interpretation <br />
of the prophetess Deborah<br />
from wikipedia.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I am physically barren; in biblical terms, this means that up till now there has been no fruit and no multiplication in my household. This sometimes feels like a grave injustice, an assault against my God-given feminine instincts, as it also feels for many women who desperately yearn for motherhood but never experience it. Yet it is certainly not the worst lot in life. Others have far more difficult circumstances, like struggles for freedom from the horrors of sex-trafficking and the need for clean drinking water or an AIDS vaccine.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">But barrenness is the place from which I can truthfully speak, and so I sometimes do.</span></b><br />
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Tonight, this struggle points me to a woman I have never met but hope to chat with one day. Her name is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah">Deborah</a>, and her story is recorded in the Bible in the book of Judges. She was married, but there is no record of children. And someone else was likely helping with her household duties, since Deborah spent her time righting others' wrongs, prophesying of God's faithfulness to Israel, warring in battle, and trying to convince a man like Barak to find his courage. All in a day's work--right, ladies?<br />
<br />
In the last month, I have temporarily joined a church staff during an interim period. It was a natural progression after serving as a pastoral intern at our church. This happened when two of our lead pastors moved on to another call and holes sprung up, desperately longing to be filled, at least that is what my heart said.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">So now when I go to work, people call me pastor. This is shocking and crazy to me, but as one friend said in an email: </span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"Of course you would struggle with a title that's been so male-dominant. Only with time will you (and frankly, others) get used to it. But pastoring is the gift you have. Teaching. encouragement. spiritual leadership. These are the giftings of a pastor, and that you are."</span></b><br />
<br />
So I gulped and dove in and for the most part, nothing could be more natural. I have wondered where this is all going in terms of my future, but no matter what the future holds it will include teaching, encouragement, and spiritual leadership. Along the way, something surprising is happening.<br />
<br />
The focus in my life is not on my barrenness and my monthly cycle, but on the fruit that can be born for God's Kingdom. I pastor, and I have the privilege of watching God work. I encourage, and God gives the increase. Ministry is becoming much less frightening and a thousand times more life-giving. And the other day I had a eureka moment: I was in the office and making hospital visits and counseling and preparing to teach, and I thought to myself, this is what mothering is all about. No matter what turn my fertility takes, I am a spiritual mother.<br />
<br />
Truthfully, I answer to almost anything. But if the shoe fits--and the spiritual giftings, too--perhaps we should start calling each other who we are, regardless of our job titles. The occupation blank on my next medical form just might be filled in "spiritual mother." And it would be a high privilege to be lumped in with Deborah, a woman with a song in her heart and a God-ordained purpose guiding her every step.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Read Deborah's story and song </span></b><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%204-5&version=NLT"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">here</span></b></a><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">. </span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Your turn. What is your occupation at present, whether homemaker, business person, pastor, caregiver, seminary student, etc.? And based on your spiritual giftings, what is your spiritual occupation?</span></b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-87260322294747311042011-10-20T16:08:00.000-04:002011-10-20T16:08:55.574-04:00Psalm 91 sermon audio by Suzanne BurdenA few weeks ago I preached a sermon on my church to remind us all of the powerhouse of promises given to us in the psalm of protection, Psalm 91. Hope you'll listen in and comment!<br />
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<embed src='http://sermon.net/swf/share_player/share_player.swf' height='312' width='416' bgcolor='#192428' allowscriptaccess='always' allowfullscreen='true' flashvars="&aboutlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sermon.net%2F&abouttext=About%20Sermon%20Network&%3Bviral.functions=embed%2Clink&author=Suzanne%20Burden&backcolor=%23192428&cid=16242&controlbar=over&date=10-09-2011&description=Know%20God%2C%20Know%20Deliverance%0D%0ASpiritual%20Renewal&file=http%3A%2F%2Fsermon.net%2Fdownload.php%3Fc%3D16242-count_audio_mini-2810511.mp3&frontcolor=%23FFFFFF&image=http%3A%2F%2Fsermon.net%2Fc%2Fgpnaz%2Fpodcast%2F16242_87_podcast.jpg&lightcolor=%23A6CC41&plugins=sponsor_rotator%2Cviral-2&screencolor=%23192428&skin=http%3A%2F%2Fsermonplayer.com%2Fswf%2Fstylish%2Fstylish.swf&title=Know%20God%2C%20Know%20Deliverance&viral.callout=none&viral.link=http%3A%2F%2Fsermon.net%2Fgpnaz%2Fsermonid%2F2810511&viral.oncomplete=false&viral.onpause=false"/>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-14134845728919797622011-09-29T09:11:00.002-04:002011-09-30T21:14:56.586-04:00Church Internship 101<b>"Your job," she said, "is to know Jesus."</b><br />
<br />
I stared back at the Skype screen on my computer and nodded. Forget teaching Sunday School and giving morning announcements in two services, counseling with new believers and the hurting, planning our church's annual fall festival, or preparing for a Sunday night sermon.<br />
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My job: to know Jesus.<br />
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All else would flow out from there, my mentor said, from her perch in the UK, where she was working on her doctoral dissertation. If I would spend time with him each day, she said, I'd be OK no matter what came. And come it did.<br />
<br />
In the first week of the internship, my mother-in-law passed away. We were making almost daily trips while she was under hospice care, we were there when she peacefully passed, and I was commissioned to help with the funeral. The same weekend she died, I gave announcements at church for the first time and delivered the details of her funeral arrangements to the congregation. "God will provide," my mother-in-law, Laura, had a way of saying, and so I clung to that.<br />
<br />
A few weeks later, after the fall festival was mercifully wrapped up and the many details of the church's 75th anniversary service were behind us, our senior pastor delivered a stunning blow: he and his associate pastor wife (my mentor) were being appointed as district superintendents in our denomination, one state over. The final confirmation came a week and a half later as the staff mourned and hoped for a change of mind as they prayed together. No change came.<br />
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Last Sunday, the congregation found out as Pastor Chuck delivered the news with great tenderness and some pain in his voice. After a collective gasp, I heard people crying. I have never known a pastor with a higher shepherding gift. This couple have modeled tenderness with the broken and hurting, and as they are called on to other things, there is a collective "Why Lord?" and an understanding that God does not always tell us why. Instead, God simply offers us intimacy with himself.<br />
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I tried to focus on that as I walked into my mentor's Sunday School class after the news was given. I looked at the loss on their faces and the questions in their hearts, and all I could really do was offer up the psalm we turned to, psalm 46: "God is an ever-present help in trouble."<br />
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My job: to know Jesus.<br />
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This week at the church another stunning blow. A faithful woman of God who was in prayer meeting just last week and plans the funeral dinners for our congregation, developed a brain aneurysm and died. Still young, leaving a husband behind and two children, her absence creates a void that makes our heads spin and our hearts cry, "Why Lord??"<br />
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My job: to know Jesus.<br />
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Perhaps all of this is par-for-the-course in ministry: upheaval, tremendous loss, deep pain, questioning, feeling hurt and burdened for those left behind. Or perhaps there is something more at work here, and God longs to show me his strength perfected in my weakness. I am reeling, seeking rest, clinging to my Savior's promises, and remembering his track record in times of struggle. I stand in need of His grace, just as each one of us does.<br />
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My job is to know Him, the Savior who died and lived for me, who is seated at the Father's right hand, and who intercedes for me. What a blessed promise. And now, I'm about to wrap up this blog post and open my Bible and journal, so I can get back to my job. He is waiting for me. And by the way, He's waiting for you, too.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">No matter your occupation, is your #1 job to know Jesus, believing all else will flow out from there? Do times of great struggle push you into the arms of Jesus--or away from him? </span></b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-37957482372023015502011-08-29T11:00:00.000-04:002011-08-29T11:00:01.198-04:00Beautifully flawedI was reading Donald Miller's blog the other day, and I read his post <a href="http://donmilleris.com/2011/08/26/learning-to-love-your-flaws/">Learning to Love Your Flaws</a>, and I felt my soul take a deep, cleansing breath. It felt like an inaudible sigh of relief, actually.<br />
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Don posted a picture of himself--150 lbs. heavier--and talked about the value of flaws. I especially liked this sentence:<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"It's true we impress people with our supposed perfections, but we connect with each other in our flaws."</span></b> -Donald Miller<br />
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I am a person of contradictions, you see. Those who meet me dressed up on Sunday mornings often view me as solid, put-together, and eloquent. (At least that's what they tell me.) Then I change my clothes in the evening and proceed to a Bible study for women in recovery where brutal honesty is the rule of the day and brokenness is a gateway to freedom.<br />
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I don't look very perfect there, as I share battle-wounds from my bouts of depression and anxiety, what it's like to trust God with a daily physical challenge in my right leg that limits my activities, how heartbreaking loss pushes me into the arms of my Savior, and the tug-of-war I experienced as I strove to live sexually pure as an unmarried Christian.<br />
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In both settings, Jesus is the answer. My struggle, then, is how to be more honest--and yes, more flawed--in a church setting, how to let people see that I don't have it all together while sharing with them the life-changing truth of the gospel of Christ. I look at the example of our Savior, and I see that he was the same as he overturned tables in the temple, as he talked with the Samaritan woman, as he healed the masses, fed the 5,000, and delivered the Sermon on the Mount.<br />
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He was the same, yet he talked directly to those he ministered to, meeting them at their point of need. I can't say that Jesus was flawed, but I do know that he was human. My challenge, then, is rejecting perfectionism to embrace brokenness, letting the weight of my personality breathe in whatever situation I am in, and letting the love of Christ flow through me--and through my imperfections. As grace seeps in and changes me, I want to find joy in living <i>beautifully flawed.</i><br />
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</i><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">How do you believe God views your flaws? Do you hide them--or celebrate them?</span></b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-80371465810997222432011-08-18T10:12:00.004-04:002011-08-18T10:24:54.746-04:00The Gift of Presence: ministry with fewer wordsI've been the "chaplain" at times, and now I'm the "pastoral intern," and what I am gathering in all of this is that I do not have the power to change a situation for someone. Only God has the power to change their perspective in it.<br />
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The gospel, the true hope of the world through the cross of Christ, has been packaged and taught in easy steps; it's been downsized and minimized into commitment-light; it's presentation is sometimes given with no thought for the physical and emotional welfare of the image-bearer who's receiving it. Some have even delivered it with a literal bullhorn.<br />
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In the past, I've been guilty of trying to make the gospel palatable--of trying to sell half-hearted Christianity to a soul who can't see how he could buy the whole package. Once when a friend sat across from me and told me he just couldn't believe in Christianity because he wasn't raised in a Christian home, I took his rejection of the gospel as a personal failure. As if my evangelistic fervor could have won him into the Kingdom. As if I, and not the Holy Spirit, woo people to faith in the Carpenter who turned the world upside down.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">The truth is: I've made more than my share of blunders. Author Jerry Bridges was right: </span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">"Grace stands in direct opposition to any supposed worthiness on our part." </span></b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLl3YfyDN38wiViK8mzdso-nngWJrJkh2AsAdwR2jPQYnBD16oTd2cn7TzQFcQ9Vah19nK7d08Y4Gd3JruvDPAxWW7wM1f6jc-JAWR-H-KOYpR8ZbeMJvC1_6YdMNl5exOU_UAw7LlNslA/s1600/jesus14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLl3YfyDN38wiViK8mzdso-nngWJrJkh2AsAdwR2jPQYnBD16oTd2cn7TzQFcQ9Vah19nK7d08Y4Gd3JruvDPAxWW7wM1f6jc-JAWR-H-KOYpR8ZbeMJvC1_6YdMNl5exOU_UAw7LlNslA/s1600/jesus14.jpg" /></a><br />
Jesus, the most eloquent truth-teller of all, delivered it first and foremost through the ministry of presence...followed by words of extraordinary significance. He was hanging out with the shady Samaritan woman, his feet were being anointed with oil by a female known for her sin, he ate with fraudulent tax collectors and broken prostitutes. The sick and diseased hung on him; the demons he cast off shrieked at his presence; those who touched the very edge of his garment went away rejoicing.<br />
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And when he did speak, when he did open his mouth, he tended toward stories and questions, parables and paradoxes. This was the upside-down Kingdom he ushered in. The last shall be first, the least of these are worthy of extraordinary kindness and generosity, the meek shall inherit the earth.<br />
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The way Jesus communicated goes against my natural bent, on so many levels. If I am talking to a young woman battling addiction about Jesus, and her eyes glaze over, I am tempted to talk faster and louder to see if she gets it. If I am counseling someone on entering a vibrant relationship with Christ, I am tempted to rush to the sinner's prayer, instead of helping this person understand the enormity of Jesus' love for them and the cost of following him. This goes against the very teachings of Jesus and his way of loving and engaging people with truth.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">But I do not have to give in to my temptations. </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%2010:13&version=NIV">1 Corinthians 10:13</a> says so. </b></span><br />
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The other day something out-of-the-ordinary happened that awakened me to how well I love. My neighbor of three years stopped by and offered words of comfort for us, as my mother-in-law is now in hospice care and will be gone soon. She was so understanding and kind and supportive, and before she left, she hugged me and said, "We love you guys." And I was caught off guard. Although this woman believes in God, she doesn't attend a church. I know her through "over-the-fence" conversations and a few backyard get-togethers.<br />
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But she has shared bulbs from her garden with me.<br />
She has comforted me in my infertility.<br />
She celebrates with me in my joys.<br />
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Her gift of presence has spoken volumes. Now her words mean something as well. This disciple of Jesus was moved by her kindness, her simple generosity.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">What does the phrase "the gift of presence" mean to you? Do you tend to love others with many words or few words?</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"> </span>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-66213839360074590282011-08-03T10:31:00.006-04:002011-08-03T14:40:47.328-04:00Do women have full access to God?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_u3wkrqwgdK0x3KdmgPnQBlZq5e_gHIJ5BBTUP-X4EHdS155JmAuskNt7rP3yTTP4jm_adYqb0gQ8z8OwQ5lHYk1m8MqaEiWkv9iMyn_5sh0gj3jrgl0wzrQfNVP6o04fmR85Yb0Vw8Tb/s1600/220px-Tertullian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_u3wkrqwgdK0x3KdmgPnQBlZq5e_gHIJ5BBTUP-X4EHdS155JmAuskNt7rP3yTTP4jm_adYqb0gQ8z8OwQ5lHYk1m8MqaEiWkv9iMyn_5sh0gj3jrgl0wzrQfNVP6o04fmR85Yb0Vw8Tb/s200/220px-Tertullian.jpg" width="163" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tertullian, 160-220 AD</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The other night I was facilitating a Bible study for women in addiction recovery and something shocking happened in the room. For a few moments, it was as if all the air was sucked out of it.<br />
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In this study, I talk a lot about Adam and Eve, and how their sin and rebellion led to our sin and rebellion. How things are broken, and how ever since that time, God has been reaching out to set our relationships right again. Our relationship with him, and our relationship with others.<br />
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I explained how in the Old Testament times, God set up a sacrificial system--people would bring animal sacrifices to atone for their sinfulness before a holy God, with the help of priests. <i>But that all changed</i>, I said, <i>when Jesus came and became the sacrifice</i>. <i>Now the Bible says we can all be priests, we can all approach God directly </i>(<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20peter%202:9&version=NIV">see 1 Peter 2:9</a>)<i>. </i><br />
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<i> </i><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">At that moment, a young woman looked up and blurted out: "Women, too?</span></b>"<br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>Yes!</b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b> I said, more loudly than was necessary, as my heart plummeted to the ground. </b></span><br />
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An author I respect, Sarah Sumner, wrote: "Church tradition says that women are by nature lower than men. Indeed, most of the church fathers promoted this traditional belief." And then she proceeds to back it up.<br />
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Tertullian, the man who coined the word "Trinity" in the history of Christianity and defended the doctrine of original sin, said this to women:<br />
<blockquote><i>And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil’s gateway: you are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert—that is, death—even the Son of God had to die.</i></blockquote>Unfortunately, many other church fathers perpetuated the same nonsense. Augustine did not believe women were made in the image of God, but they could reflect his image...if they married. Thomas Aquinas said that women are dominated by sexual appetite and men are ruled by reason. And so it goes.<br />
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So, is it any wonder, centuries later, that a young woman sits down and says "Women, too?" when taught that we can approach God directly? Is it any wonder that she does not, at face value, accept what God has said in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%201:27&version=NIV">Genesis 1:27</a>, that both men AND women are made in the very image of God? Is it any wonder that she, too, believes Eve singlehandedly ushered sin into the world? (Where, exactly, was Adam in all of this?)<br />
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Is it any wonder that she sees the female image-bearer of God as subpar, as dangerous, as someone who holds an inferior brain and a much inferior heart? It's no mystery why she believes these things, as they have insidiously trickled down through our churches, through the very people who confess to following and obeying Christ.<br />
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It's no mystery. But it is a shame. And it's high time to set the record straight. God's intention, when creating male and female as equals who would be his representatives on earth, was that all humans might share full access to him, a full relationship with him. We screwed that up, through sin, but Jesus offers a way to make it right again. He loves us, pursues us, and empowers us to service in his Kingdom--whether we are an Adam or an Eve. Blessedly, there is no double standard with God. Ladies, we have a full access pass.<br />
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(Quotes from Sumner, Sarah (2003). Men and Women in the Church: Building Consensus on Christian Leadership (pp. 40-41). Intervarsity Press. Kindle Edition.)<br />
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<b>Self-test: do you somehow feel that women are inferior to men in the Christian faith--even if you know the Bible says differently? In your opinion, what should the church do to help women see themselves as God sees them?</b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-34034432437612313462011-07-02T11:21:00.001-04:002011-07-02T14:27:16.291-04:00The "holy" no: saying no for the Kingdom of GodI don't like to say no. I'd rather be a <i>yes-woman</i>, a <i>sure-I-can-do-that woman</i>, an<i> I-am-competent-trust me with-that</i> kind of person.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuale61XwD2AF0PmqLCDyks1bobUkOY7wb__fWM-sZ8atskWxtvP23w1pWefu5uFdbyYITv1i6YxZF_-F0UEc1PiTI65jX5tIaEPJo5-ezBewTCjN0TNzkVCcxIwIHley3tsI4lXU-zo0l/s1600/slideno.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuale61XwD2AF0PmqLCDyks1bobUkOY7wb__fWM-sZ8atskWxtvP23w1pWefu5uFdbyYITv1i6YxZF_-F0UEc1PiTI65jX5tIaEPJo5-ezBewTCjN0TNzkVCcxIwIHley3tsI4lXU-zo0l/s400/slideno.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>But as my new friend Brenda reminded me this week, Jesus himself used the "holy no" for reasons his disciples often failed to understand. Read on to feel the gravity of Jesus' refusal as portrayed in the gospel of Mark.<br />
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That night, Jesus had lovingly entered the home of Simon's mother-in-law, who was ill with fever. He healed her, and all the people who came after her, casting our their evil spirits. And after this late-night healing session and what must have been a short night of sleep...<br />
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"...rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed" (Mark 1:35)<br />
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This was Jesus' normal modus of operandi, praying early in the morning in desolate places, and so his disciples went searching for him. His popularity was booming, so they notified him that "Everyone is looking for you."<br />
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And Jesus said "no." A "holy no" we find between the lines...in what he didn't actually say at all. He said "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out" (Mark 1:38).<br />
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Yes, that was his response. Leaving behind what were likely hundreds of people who desperately wanted a touch from him, he moved on. <i>Why? </i>I ask myself. <i>Why did Jesus leave behind the hurting and the deluded, those who also desired healing and truth, those who desperately wanted to see him? </i><br />
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As Jesus prayed to the Father, he gained direction for his life. He knew his purpose, and fulfilling that purpose necessarily involved limits. It involved saying no to good things so he could say yes to God's plan being revealed through him.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><b>So he could do the best things.</b></span><br />
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If you believe the Bible and want to live by it, you too must discover how to say the "holy no." Like you, I have been entrusted with spiritual gifts and opportunities in which to use them. But they will not be effectively used to advance God's Kingdom if those gifts are spread too thin...if I take them where I want to take them instead of where the Holy Spirit guides me to use them through prayer and meditation.<br />
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Let me be completely honest: I have been given the spiritual gifts of teaching/preaching, encouragement, and leadership. If an opportunity presents itself in which I am called to serve outside of these areas of giftedness or in which I will be stretched beyond my limits...I need to seriously consider whether that is God's will for me. If that is how I can best build up the body of Christ and draw others to know and love Jesus. I need to embrace God's unique calling on my life, or I will soon be derailed by saying an "unholy yes" and failing to contribute to advancing God's Kingdom in the ways in which he has asked me to.<br />
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I have been derailed before. But with God's help, and as I listen to the Spirit in prayer, I am learning to say the "holy no." I want, like Jesus, to look back at the end of my life and say honestly, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do" (John 17:4 NIV).<br />
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No more. No less.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Do you struggle with saying no? What things are you currently saying "yes" to in your life? Do they align with your gifts and limits?</span></b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2104851931526711710.post-21409928241598270062011-06-24T08:46:00.000-04:002011-06-24T08:46:00.905-04:00What NT Wright would say on his deathbedKurt Willems of <a href="http://www.thepangeablog.com/">the Pangea blog </a> shared these timeless thoughts on looking at Jesus from theologian NT Wright:<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">What things would you say about Jesus to those you know if you had only one week to live? Look forward to your comments!</span></b>Suzanne Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998749540480422845noreply@blogger.com0