A Higher Level

I was asked to choose a high school praise band to sing the opener for the Rebecca St James fundraiser concert we had at our school recently. What a buzz it was for our community to have such a big name come to town and what a thrill to get to be the band that opened for her. And I learned something about bands, and practicing, and being ready in season and out. The kids we chose did a great job, but all of the kids who tried out suddenly found out that the level of expectation was way higher than they were even thinking about. Prior to this experience it was “ok” to just meet once a week and practice for an hour; it was “ok” to wear whatever each member wanted to wear and not consider how you would look as a whole; it was “ok” to just focus on your part of the music and not be concerned about engaging the audience. Suddenly all of those things were not only important, but they were going to be judged on how well they did them.

Have you ever felt like suddenly the bar was raised … like right before you’re going to jump over it someone comes along and raises the bar? Right now I’m going through a season where I feel quite a bit out of my depth. I’ve reviewed the major decisions that got me to where I am today and here’s my conclusion:

· I allowed myself to be talked out of doing what I wanted to do

· I talked myself out of doing things I thought would be great

· Why? Because no one else … no one that I wanted to be connected to at the time … was doing it

· Because I wanted to be doing things that my friends and family valued … or things I thought they valued

· Because … I was chasing the praise of men

I find that it’s un-nerving, un-settling, and un-productive to dwell on those mistakes, however, I want to know how to proceed … how do I continue when it’s obvious I’m not very successful on my own?

I was reading in Daniel the other day and noticed a pattern … a habit he established early in life …

“Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.” Daniel 6:10

I’ve been in a season where everything that I did was fine and now suddenly I’m in a season where everything I do is being judged by a standard that I’ve not been practicing. Not just in my skills musically but in my walk spiritually.

You see, I’ve had a morning quiet time for years. For years I’ve practiced getting away to focus on a particular spiritual issue. But I’m discovering what it feels like to be in way over my head at my job, and as I speak to women in the jail, and as I minister to friends and neighbors, I’m discovering that spending time with God once a day is simply not sufficient for the amount of conundrums, puzzlements, challenges, riddles that pop up over the course of the day. There’s simply way too much that I don’t know … and can never know. And if I want to exercise wisdom … if I want to make right and just decisions … then I’m going to HAVE to spend more time talking to Him regarding what He wants me to do and how He wants me to get it done. The bar has been raised and I need to get over it in order to be effective in my home, with my family & friends, in my job, and in my community.

God knew that the new nation of Israel was going to need His direction and guidance so He told them … and me … “Hear, O ‘Audrey’: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up …” Deuteronomy 6:4-25

The disciples knew that life would never be the same and after Jesus ascends into heaven the disciples “… returned to Jerusalem … they all joined together constantly in prayer …” Acts 1: 12-14

You and I are not going to be any different. With worldwide disasters like Japan’s Tsunami, with national embarrassments like our national debt, with church dysfunctions like church splits and leadership failures, with our families becoming more and more distant and torn … if we want to be effective believers in the coming days, months, years, we are going to have to be seeking God first and often. I pray God will encourage you and help you to “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness!”

Forgiveness
by Barbara Chadwick



"I have done so many wrong things. I have hurt so many people, God will never forgive me."

I put my arm around his frail, bony, 96 year old shoulders and said, "God is a God of grace and love." He began to cry, shoulders heaving. I continued, "God invites us to bring our sins and our regrets to Him and lay them at the foot of the cross."

We were sitting on the side of the bed where his 93 year old wife lay terminally ill. I said, "Let's pray." He nodded his head and put his hand on my knee.

I began, "Heavenly Father, You are a God of love and compassion. You have loved us with an everlasting love. You have invited us to come before your throne and lay our burdens at Your feet. I lift up John* to You. His heart is heavy. Even though he put his faith and trust in You at an early age, he has done things that make his heart heavy. Things he knows You would not be pleased with. He is bringing these things to You. Your Word tells us in I John 1:9, If we confess our sins that You are faithful and just and will forgive is our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. I ask You, Heavenly Father, to reach down and take him in your loving arms. He needs You. Administer Your grace in this moment and fill his heart with the peace that only You can give. Thank You, Lord, for this love and this grace. I pray in Jesus Name. "

He sighed, squeezed my knee, wiped his eyes and said, "thank you." I asked him if he could sit in the recliner now and take a little nap. He said, "I think so." and moved to the chair at that pace that marks 96 years.

As he nodded off to sleep with the weight lifted from his shoulders, I got to thinking.

Basically he knew all the things I said. He's been a deacon for over 50 years. (How many sermons would he have heard in that time? Just one each week would be 2,600.) He reads the Bible and a devotional every day. So it's not that he didn't know about God's grace and forgiveness.

But sometimes we need for our friends and family to come alongside us to remind us of God's Word; to encourage us to walk in the light of Christ and not, cover up our iniquity but to confess it to the Lord and He will forgive the guilt of our sin. Psalms 32:5

*Not his real name.

Tell Me A Story

In our family we tell stories on each other at our birthday celebrations. We usually either get to pick out what the menu will be for that day or choose the restaurant we will all go to for our birthday bash. It’s been a lot of fun and there’s some favorite stories that we tell on each other. Like when one son ate the only two daffodils to bloom that year, or when another son had an imaginary friend, etc.

We like our stories and my guess is so do you. How do you know if you’re telling a story? Well, have you told it more than once? Can you tell it … or most of it … with very little prompting?

I went to training for a mission trip to Belize where we will be sharing God’s stories using a Chronological Bible Story Cloth. You see most of the world doesn’t read, even if they did have access to a Bible in their own language. So how do we share the words of Christ? How do we tell them of God’s great love for them? We do it the way Jesus did … we tell them stories.

Stories are easy to remember and they evoke emotions that help our memories retain the information. Stories make it easy to place yourself in the moment where the action is. We here in America LOVE stories, hence Hollywood and TV’s ability to make so much money! We will pay regularly to get a dose of a good story.

The Bible is the greatest story ever told. You have introduction to the setting of the story, there is rising action, climax, and falling action, and then there is resolution or catastrophe. And then notice that there are many sub-stories within the overall big story. Your story also has an introduction, rising action, climax, and falling action, … and yet to be told the resolution or catastrophe.

We tend to tell stories to one another to share our lives and what we find important, or funny, or interesting, or ??? But at this training I went off in my own little world for a minute and got to thinking about what kinds of things that I share with other people. And realized that much of what I share doesn’t really edify them, nor does it edify me. All too often it is told to either make me look good (pride) or to gain sympathy (again pride) … it’s all about me. Which got me to wondering how could I reframe my stories so that they were all about Him? Could I make it a point to make Him the hero of all my stories? To put the focus on Him? So that when my children and my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren think about their interactions with me they can’t help but think about Him … ? Could I become a great storyteller?

Another thought that came to me while I was at the training was … How many stories do I know? How many of us know enough of the Bible that we could tell 20 – 30 – 40 Bible stories and remember the point of the story? How many of us could see the Scarlet Thread that is woven through all the stories of the Bible? …The red thread of sacrifice and love that reaches its climax at the death of Christ and will be finally resolved victoriously at His return? Oh that we would become a story-telling people … telling THE story that could change every life we encounter! God make it so … Amen!

"Ladies and gentlemen we have begun our descent, please bring your seats into their upright and locked positions and make sure your tray tables are fastened and your electronic devices are turned off."

I was reading, Decision Points by George W. Bush. I recommend it by the way. He talks about some key decisions he made, turning points, actually. Three important decisions were

1. to marry Laura - of which he says, "Thankfully I had the good sense to recognize it was the best decision of my life.”
2. to stop drinking - he says none of the other things that happened in his life would have come about without this decision.
3. and to put his faith and trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

He had been thinking that putting one's faith in God was a good way for self-improvement but Billy Graham pointed out to him on a walk at Camp David when his father was president) that

"Self-improvement is not really the point of the Bible... The center of Christianity is not the self. It is Christ. Billy explained that we are all sinners, and that we cannot earn God's love through good deeds. He made clear that the path to salvation is through the grace of God and the way to find that grace is to embrace Christ as the risen Lord - the son of a God so powerful and loving that He gave his only Son to conquer death and defeat sin....Surrendering yourself to an Almighty is a challenge to the ego. ...As I deepened my understanding of Christ, I came closer to my original goal of being a better person - not because I was racking up points on the positive side of the heavenly ledger, but because I was moved by God's love."

I turned off my Kindle and put it in my purse. My seat mate turned off her computer and stowed it away; but she got out a notebook and continued writing. I glanced down at her work and read, "when good decisions are made" and it got me to thinking...

Sometimes we make decisions without thinking about the impact it will have on the rest of our life, like speeding, or an angry retort to a boss, or an indiscreet alliance. A poor decision can have disastrous consequences at a later time. Oftentimes our decisions reflect our self-serving natures. Once in a while we pray and ask God for direction. He shows us a better way.

When I was seven I gave my heart to Christ. When I was thirteen I decided to spend my life in mission service. When I was fifteen I made the decision to marry a man who also loved the Lord and had a desire to serve Him. These decisions have made a difference in every situation in my life.

Leviticus 18:3 says: Do not act like the people around you. You must not imitate their way of life. and verse 5, If you obey my decrees and my regulations you will find life through them. I am the Lord.

There is life in following the Lord. There is also love and forgiveness, grace and peace. Death and emptiness await those who live in sin and desire only to please self.

If any of you wants to be my follower you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross and follow me. Matthew 8:34b

Look at these words to Tom Booth's song, I Will Choose Christ (1991)

Verse 1

How many times must He call my name

and show me that He is God?

And as a servant He calls to me

you must serve too.

Verse 2

Christ my teacher and healer

teach my heart and heal my soul

And as I walk this road with you

teach me to love.

Verse 3

As I look upon Your cross

so too must I die with You

And with the death of my own desires

I'll rise with joy.

Refrain:

I will choose Christ

I will choose love. I choose to serve.

I give my heart, I give my life,

I give my all to You.

If good decisions are made you will find life through them!

The Wise Man Built His House Upon THE Rock!

I love my house on a windy day. Right now the winds are about 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph. When the wind blows like this you can’t even see the Organ Mts. It can be a little disorientating. What’s so cool about my house is that though I can hear the wind, occasionally it even rattles the windows, my house doesn’t move, it doesn’t creak or groan. It just sits still and solid. And though the winds come and go it never moves. It just silently does what it was built to do … protect us from the cold, from the winds …

Do you remember the kid’s song that goes like this …

The wise man built his house upon the rocks

The wise man built his house upon the rocks

The wise man built his house upon the rocks

And the rain came tumbling down

The rain came down and the floods came up

The rain came down and the floods came up

The rain came down and the floods came up

But the wise man’s house stood firm.

We have friends … and so do you … who are staying in “houses” that are built on sand. They put all their hope in their jobs, their money, or their relationships, and when those things fell through or walked out they were completely lost. And I have other friends whose foundation will be ok but they’re losing the roof, the shutters and the windows because they invested too heavily in temporal things and not enough on eternal things.

Do you remember the rest of the song?

The foolish man built his house upon the sand

The foolish man built his house upon the sand

The foolish man built his house upon the sand

And the rain came tumbling down

The rain came down and the floods came up

The rain came down and the floods came up

The rain came down and the floods came up

And the foolish man’s house went “plop”

(you know … with the hand motions that clap your hands together J

So how do you build your house upon the rock … upon The Rock? One rock at a time ^_^

You see the Master Builder will dig a foundation appropriate for the life He knows that you will be exposed to. Then He’ll bring in just the right kind of stones (experiences, people, situations) to make the base of your house strong … and attractive. How? Trust and Obey … reminds me of another song I recently sang to my 92 (almost 93) year old grandmother … cuz she likes it J

When we walk with the Lord

in the light of his word,

what a glory he sheds on our way!

While we do his good will,

he abides with us still,

and with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way

to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

My grandmother is facing some changes in her life … let me just say that you never get to old to need to walk in the “light of His word.” I pray that God will bless you abundantly and that you will let Him build your house strong. I pray that whenever you hear the wind howling all around you … real or spiritual … that you’ll remember to be wise … like the wise man!

No Reference Needed
by Barbara Chadwick



A lady recently asked me to give a reference for her for a job interview. The problem for me was that I didn’t know her very well. What could I say about her? She’s pretty, she wants to please, she cares about her family – all commendable things in a woman. But the other part is she does not show up to meetings, she has an anger problem and she sometimes does things haphazardly. What could I say that would help her get a job?

A Human Resources Director for a company wants to know if you are reliable - will you show up for work at the appointed time and work the stated hours? Are you conscientious? - do you try to do your best? Are you trustworthy? - can you be trusted to do your work and care for your workspace? Are you considerate? – do you treat others with respect? Are you presentable? – do you care about your appearance? These are all human approaches to how to do life.

But all of this got me to thinking. What if I asked Jesus to give a reference for me to take to heaven. I know, I know. God already knows everything about us. Even the very hairs on our heads are numbered. (Luke 12:7) He knows when we rise and when we lie down and He knows our thoughts. But what if I approached Jesus like this:

Me: Jesus will You represent me to God?
Jesus: Can you show me any evidence that would help?
Me: Well, I read my Bible every day unless I have too many other things to do.
Jesus: Hmm.
Me: I go to church every Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday.
Jesus: Yes….
Me: I have a picture of an angel on my bedroom wall.
Jesus smiles.
Me: Remember that I took food to that family after the funeral?
Jesus: That was nice.

This approach won’t work. This is the way we humans look at things but, we can’t justify ourselves to Him. Psalms 51:17 says, You do not delight in sacrifice…you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite spirit. Isaiah 64:6 says, All our righteous acts are like filthy rags to Him.

So just, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.(Romans 10:9) Then talk with Him daily (Pray) and learn about Him daily (Read the Bible) and use the talents He has blessed you with (Serve Him).

When we enter heaven Jesus will take us by the hand and bring us into the presence of Almighty God. He will say to the Father, “Here is Barbara (or put your name here) I bring her to you. She is mine. She has served me faithfully. It is true that there were times when she was not perfect but I have washed her clean by my blood.” (Romans 5:8)

Wanna be RED?

Just watched RED: Retired Extremely Dangerous. I love watching movies where the bad guy is eliminated in 1 hour and 45 minutes (the movie is actually 111 minutes long) and the good guy gets to jump in there and kick … something or shoot something … really just make the bad guys pay! I mean the story line is just long enough to enjoy getting all worked up and involved with the characters and plenty short enough to share the whole thing with a friend or too and remote enough that I can go to bed and forget all about it. SO not like real life.

In real life … I prefer problems that I can solve and feel like the hero OR problems that my husband can solve and I’m married to the hero OR problems that my friends have and it takes me, or them, 1 hour and 45 minutes to help out and “poof” the problem’s solved. SO not like real life.

In real life … about the only problem that can be solved in 1 hour and 45 minutes is dinner … Start to finish and it’s done. Most of my problems take days, weeks, months, years … They take my prayers, my husband’s prayers, my family’s prayers, my friend’s prayers, … God’s intervention.

In real life … I’ve spoken to people who’re homeless, who’ve lost their jobs, who’re addicted to food or drugs, who have no idea how to maintain healthy relationships … and my response? … I want to solve it … my mind (with its extensive knowledge of book and movie lore) begins to search for the 1 hour and 45 minute solution … you know the plot (if you’re American) because we’ve seen the solution on the screen or on the printed page all our lives. And worse, once I’ve arrived at a solution, I’ve opened my mouth and suggested it. I don’t know about you, but I rarely need to pray to come up with these great ideas to solve social issues, to solve other people’s problems, to solve my own … because the answer is obvious … right?

In real life … that’s not how God works. It’s not how He works with me and it’s not how He works with you and it’s not how He works with the homeless, jobless, hopeless, hurting people who desperately need our help … not our help … God’s help. In real life they need someone who will give them every opportunity to change, every opportunity to accept free gifts of hope and healing … of encouragement and energetic friendship … of solutions that are patient enough for a lifetime of giving.

Remember Judas? Jesus knew from the beginning who was going to betray Him and yet He continued to offer him opportunities to “flip” over to the good side. Remember Peter? Jesus knew He was going to deny Him, in fact He warned him that he would deny Him three times and yet when he did, Jesus forgave Peter and welcomed him back. Remember the 10 lepers? Only one of them came back and said thank you. Remember me? Oh … maybe you don’t know me … but God has given me grace and forgiveness and opportunities to learn from Him … over and over and over … I’ll run out of paper … I’ll run out of ink … I’ll run out of megabites before I would run out of ways that He has rushed to help/save/solve my dilemmas.

In real life … there are too few of us who are willing to just be someone’s friend … to just pray for God to help these people and then go the extra mile, give the extra jacket, … to just give Jesus as a solution. I don’t want to be a Religiously Educated Dingbat. I want to be RED: Radically Empowered Disciple. I want to be someone who runs to help the poor and needy … and stays till the job is done not just 1 hour and 45 minutes … in real life … wanna be RED?