Tag Archives: God

Daily Acts of Love

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Now we’re at the 3rd week of the Challenge for Women (these weeks are going by fast!). Today’s challenge is:

“That this fullness of God overflow in daily acts of love so that people might see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Ouch.

This is where I often struggle. It’s easy to know what to do, it’s much hard to do it. I’m lazy and self-centered. I’m also not very observant, so I have to work harder to notice the needs of others. But just because it’s hard is no excuse.

The second part of this point gives me the reasoning to try, and try harder: “so that people might see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Straight from Matthew 5:16.

I can’t think of a better reason to seek to do good things. I want to seek to glorify God in everything I do. That requires me to think about so much more than me and my interests.

May the glory of God be my chief motive. It’s easier to do the right thing when you’ll look good in the eyes of others, but that can’t be my motive. It’s easier to do things for others when I’m in a good mood or when it fits in my schedule, but those can’t be factors in my decision making progress.

I need to be better at fulfilling the 2nd greatest commandment (“Love your neighbor as yourself.”) to better fulfill the Greatest Commandment (“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”).

Other Posts in This Series:

A Summer of Growth

Peace, Joy, and Strength

Photo Credit: GMA Lou

A Summer of Growth

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Looking back, summer has always  been an important time in my life. I imagine I’m not the only one. There’s just something different and special about this season that sets it apart from the colder months.

I’ve had some summers of excessive downtime–Summer 2005 I completely caught myself up on Law and Order SVU–and some of intense spiritual growth–Phoenix 2003 and Turkey 2004 both come to mind.

I want summer 2011 to be numbered among the latter.

To that purpose, I’ve recommitted myself to my goals. I’m not stopping there, though. I’ve also decided to use John Piper’s “A Challenge to Women,” something I’ve read several times, as a jumping off point for meditation and–with your help–discussion. In short, I seek to challenge myself and perhaps you too, reader.

So each week, I’ll be talking about one point of this challenge.

Now, on to the first point of the challenge:

“That all of your life—in whatever calling—be devoted to the glory of God.”

Well, that’s a doozy! Everything else Piper mentions can be summarized in this one.

When I read this point, the word that stands out to me is “devoted.” Devotion is a beautiful concept in theory, but a hard concept to pull off. Am I truly devoted to God, or are my loyalties mixed?

What do my actions reveal when I more often seek my own pleasure than to spend time with the Lord or helping others?

This goes well with the verse that I memorized last week:

“Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” – 2 Corinthians 5:9, NASU

I want to be a woman marked by devotion to God. I want God to be my sole love and desire. May this be my prayer and song this week.

Photo by doug8888

My Thoughts on What Good is God? by Philip Yancey

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The second book the Faith and Fiction Roundtable discussed this year was Philip Yancey’s What Good is God?

To be honest, I didn’t think I’d like the book. I was pleasantly surprised that that turned out not to be the case. However, I felt like the format was forced, which ruined it a bit for me. Each section began with an introduction, then was followed with a transcript of a speech he gave. While the introductions were interesting, the speeches weren’t particularly special, and sometimes, not even relevant.

What struck me most about this book was the title. “What good is God?” is a question I’ve heard before–not always that blunt–and should not go unanswered. While I don’t ultimately think it’s the right question, it is often where people start.

I really wish that the book had actually addressed the question, instead of dancing around it.

So, what good is God? Is He someone worth believing in, trusting, following?

My answer is, “Absolutely, yes.” That said, there are costs to count. When you become a believer, your life is no longer your own. Of course, when you’re a slave to sin, your life is not your own either.

But, oh, it’s worth it. To have hope, comfort, peace. To have been given the great privilege of living with God now and in the future, not because I’m special, but because of who God is. To know that there’s nothing that I could do that would change that.

And my love and appreciation of what God has done and is doing for me grows more and more each day.

Other Faith and Fiction Roundtable Participants:

Amy
Brooks
Carrie
Florinda
Hannah
Heather
Jennifer
Julie
Liz
Nicole
Sheila
Sherry
Thomas
Tina

Children, Pneumonia, and Tornadoes, oh My!

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Thursday night I let you all know of the last twist to this week: not only was last week the busiest week of the year at work and I was watching a friend’s 5 kids, I have pneumonia.

That’s super crazy, right?

Well that’s not where the craziness ends…

If you heard any news at all this weekend, you probably heard that Raleigh got some wild tornadoes of historic proportions. These tornadoes hit several places (and high winds impacted an even wider path), and one of those places where a tornado went was less than a 1/4 mile from my home.

I wasn’t home at the time, and my roommate who was is fine. Our house thankfully sustained no damage, and from what I saw, I don’t even think very many in our neighborhood did. The trees and vehicles are a different story, as you can see on the right.

About 30-40 trees in our neighborhood look like this one that is across the street from us (or worse). Many cars were scratched, a few were severely damaged. Not the first car-damaging incident in our neighborhood, but at least this one wasn’t foolishness-caused!

Since the tornado happened while I was still with the kids (in a nearby town away from the tornado, thankfully!), I had to get home (the parents got home just as the storm was ending). I was going to try to get home before I realized that the police had most of the roads near my house blocked off and decided to forget it. Instead, I went to the home of the mother of another friend….who also has 5 kids.

Perhaps I’m a wee-bit crazy. After having dinner with them (I ate a whole 6 pieces of pasta, 2 small pieces of bread, and a meatball…that’s a lot for me right now!), I decided to head out to yet another friend’s house (who only have 3 kids…slackers) who live near me. They didn’t have power at the time (came back at 4 AM), but I would rather be with others without power than alone without power.

Our power will be out (so we’re told) until Tuesday. The tornado completely took out 8 or so nearby power line poles (which were replaced this afternoon), and some larger power carrier thingies (what you see down in the picture) that may take some time to rebuild.

While this caps off a crazy week for me (though it’s not over for me until I’m home, which won’t be until we have power…I’ve washed my week’s worth of clothes and started them over again), it’s not been a crazy week for me on the inside. It’s hard to explain, but emotional times are so much harder than these times. None of the things that have happened have been emotional for me (though I have felt like I understand Job a wee bit better).

Others in my church were affected too. No injuries or fatalities, thankfully, but one house in particular was hit pretty bad. But the church has really rallied to help this family and the others that have been affected in our area.

It was hard to think who to call when I was displaced, not because I was afraid of inconveniencing someone, but because I knew of at least a dozen people who would have welcomed me with open arms. It came down to choosing the one that happened to be the closest to my house, so the most convenient.

The worship service this morning was awesome. At one point I had tears rolling down my face, as I so desperately wanted to worship God through song, something my disease won’t allow. It’s a little thing, but I was just so thankfully to the overwhelming grace God has given me this week. I can’t help but thinking of all that happens in terms of grace. Because in all that went wrong, so much went right.

I praise the God who holds the winds in his hands, both those that give me breath and those that knock down homes, power lines, and trees.

Rambling Thoughts of a Sickie

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I have a feeling you may get more blog posts out of me now that I’m sick with pneumonia. After all, I have to do a lot of sitting around doing nothing, and blogging fits in that category.

I’m not sure if it’s the drugs I’m taking or the fever (that’s currently being masked by Tylenol and Ibuprofen, but is still there), but when I sleep at night, I have one long connected dream. But the thing is, it’s not like a usual dream, where you don’t feel like you have any control over it. This type of dream I semi-control as much as I control my thoughts right before I fall asleep…that make sense? And when I get woken up, it takes me longer to distinguish between reality and my dream.

Speaking of sleep, I’m sleeping well. Every time that I wake up though, it’s been time for to take this or that. I actually wasn’t able to keep in my head all the times, so I’ve had to start writing them down.

I know this sounds crazy, but I don’t really feel bad. I cough all the time, and that’s what’s the most painful, but when my cough isn’t acting up, I’m just feeling tired. I’ve not really felt fully awake and aware since Sunday morning, before all this.

I still have the kids until late afternoon today. I’m basically make them do all the things I would normally do: wash the sheets, make and clean up the meals, and maybe even packing my stuff (though I think I can just throw it quickly into my bags). I will have them put it all in my car, though!

I covet your prayers. I’m very thankful that though pneumonia may be fatal in some, God has given me a healthy body and modern medicine. I don’t take those blessings lightly. This has been a week that I have seen God’s grace more clearly since any time since the fire in 2007.

Oh, For the Grace

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Thanks for understanding about my break. The week went quickly, but it allowed me to get my feet underneath me as far as this blog goes.

As I know I’ve made abundantly clear on this blog, I love to set goals for myself and do them (well, I don’t always love doing them, but I love getting them done).

It’s very easy for me to think about my life as a follower of Christ in these terms. God wants me to read my Bible, check. God wants me to do kind things to others, check. God wants me to go to church, check.

The problem is that too often my life really is a series or checks.

That’s not how I should live or how I want to live.

More and more God has been showing me how much I do depend on Him for everything even when I don’t admit it or don’t let it show.

How humbling that is.

He’ll allow me to play like I have control over my world for a little while, but not forever.

And the more I recognize who really has control and power, the better I can serve Him and not myself.

Photo by Matt Carman

Book Review: Rescuing Ambition by Dave Harvey

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I must admit that when I first heard of this book I didn’t like it. I can’t quite remember now what my misgivings were, but it had something to do with the idea of “ambition” having anything good about it, or something.

Whatever my amorphous distaste about ambition I may have had, I don’t anymore, which is why it’s hard for me to recall them. I’m always like that…I rarely remember what my position used to have been…it’s like I’m my own Ministry of Truth (think 1984) rewriting history to always reflect the better understanding of today.

Anyway…

Reading Rescuing Ambition definitely changed my mind. Dave Harvey wrote this to two kinds of people: people who are ambitious for their own goals and people who aren’t ambitious at all. I’m definitely more of the former…we’re all basically one or the other.

While much of Christianity may seem to stifle ambition, that’s not what we’re supposed to do. We’re not supposed to simply “let go and let God.” We are to be ambitious, but for God’s glory, not our own.

So instead of  trying to squash those ambitious desires, we should give them over to God and pursue the things He’s laid out in Scripture. Perhaps God does want me to be a famous blogger and novelist (I doubt it!), but regardless of how God wants to use me, He wants me to trust Him and take opportunities to share God with others.

My favorite chapter of the book was the one about being ambitious in the church. I have such a great respect for the local church (and specifically, my local church), so I appreciated this emphasis. God has chosen to organize His followers into churches, local bodies of Christ. In order for us to do the work that God has given us, we must work together, not trying to promote ourselves but each doing our parts in a harmonious way.

I’m afraid I’m not telling the essence of this book very elegantly…just read it!

I recommend this book.

These Are Troubling Times

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My pastor has been on a roll lately…each week he’s said something that has really stuck with me. I’m so thankful to sit under a pastoral staff who strive for truth and desire to our church glorify God in everything we do.

One thing Pastor said yesterday is that if you don’t know Christ, these are troubling times.

Of course they are: the American economy has shown no sign of improving (about 1/3 of my tax clients received at least some unemployment compensation in the last year) and now gas prices are starting to rise sharply again, likely taking food prices with them.

When we look internationally, things look worse. Riots and instability span the Middle East and North Africa. North Korea is threatening once again to blow us to smithereens. New Zealand has just begun to recover from the Christchurch Earthquake. Thailand and Cambodia are no longer actively skirmishing, but they haven’ t shaken hands, either.

Likely, you have some personal problems that loom larger in your mind than any of the above.

To put it simply, we have a lot to be concerned about. If there is no higher power, we must fend for ourselves or stick or heads in the sand. Perhaps the outcome is the same regardless of the course we choose.

But…(if I was sharing this with the kids at church, this is where the snickers would come in)

There is a higher power. A God who not only wants good for us (Romans 8:28), but is so great and powerful that the very nations that are in tumult are but a speck of dust on a scale (Isaiah 40:15).

That is the thought I want to rest in this week.

Photo by Alireza Teimoury

Under Control

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This post is to all of my faithful readers who were itching for me to tackle a controversial subject again. I think this time I’ve definitely stepped in it!

This post is not intended to point fingers at anyone in particular but to share a troubling trend I’ve noticed. I’ve already shared how I struggle with trying to control every aspect of my life. So understand that I write this post knowing I share in the guilt, a guilt that should be no less troubling just because it’s common to many.

It amazes me how incredibly arrogant we modern Americans are. We think that we have the right to control our bodies, from removing wrinkles or adding curves to determining exactly when we conceive and with how many babies.

It’s not uncommon for a couple to spend years using birth control pills then turn around and use fertility drugs to conceive, something that their bodies may have been able to do without medical help before they subjected them to years of artificial hormones.

Perhaps–I’m saying this as a single virgin who wants kids, so maybe my opinion doesn’t count–we should let God determine these details.

I’m not necessarily against birth control methods–there are wise means and good motives to do so–but we have to understand that there are consequences to the decisions we make. If I say, “I don’t want to get pregnant until ________,” I have to recognize that God may not allow me to conceive when I’m good and ready.  After all, it is still God who opens and closes wombs, not a fertility pill or injection.

That’s my two cents on this issue. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts in the comments.

Photo by hitthatswitch

FQF: I Don’t Polar Bear Swim

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1.  If you could spend a year dedicated full-time to becoming an expert on any topic at all, what would you choose?

I’d love to spend a life dedicated to becoming an expert in everything. =) If I *had* to choose one subject I’d choose…

Literature? That’s the first thing that came to mind.  It’s silly to think that I didn’t take even ONE English class in college.

This is too hard!  I like to learn about everything!   Many parts of history, culture, and politics interest me, so I would probably pick one of those.  Basically, I’m not answering this question because I think it’d be so hard to focus in one just one thing.

2.  Where’s the nearest swimmable body of water?

Well, I don’t think there are any that I’d actually consider swimmable in at least 500 miles, considering it’s January!  Though, I suppose the (heated!) indoor public pools count, and there are 3 here in Raleigh.

3.  Do you like to keep your books organized?

Of course! I have all of my fiction books organized alphabetically by author’s last name.  Non-fiction books are organized loosely by category (with a large “everything else” category), with a whole shelf of TBR non-fiction books.

4.  If there is such a thing as Judgment Day, what do you think it will be like?

Yes, I think Judgment Day is coming. I believe what the Bible says is true…but don’t ask me to give a play-by-play of that day.  The Bible is clear that we will all face the Judge, but the details aren’t all so clear.  I think God has told us what He wants us to know, and speculating on the end times can be a distraction from what God has called us to do hear and now (once again, that is clear).

5.  What are you listening to right now?

I’m listening to The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation by Thom S. Rainer and Jess Rainer.  I’m doing a review on the audiobook for AudioFile magazine.  Normally, I can’t listen to an audiobook while writing a blog post, but doing a silly blog post goes well with listening to a nonfiction book.