FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
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Thursday, February 28, 2008,6:52 p.m.
NISI DOMINUS FRUSTRA
Without the Lord, frustration.This is the motto on the coat of arms of Edinburgh, Scotland. Is it any wonder that I love this place?
Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
(Psalm 127:1)
(Psalm 127:1)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008,5:29 p.m.
OF NO USE WHATEVER - NICE
Here's a deep thought to chew on for a little while, especially for us as Believers who know that our lives are purposed to fulfill God's plans for us and to bring His name glory.
No matter what God asks us of, executing it does not make us more acceptable to Him or more loved. It is still about BEING, not about DOING. (We should be who He has created us to be and it should be so innately within us that it is not just something that we do. What we end up doing should be because of who we already are, inside and out.)
I love the Message version of Romans 5:8. It is really freeing how concisely it is stated.
I love it. I want to be of use to God however He asks me to be. I plan to be, by His grace. But I don't have to be in order to be completely adored by Him.
No matter what God asks us of, executing it does not make us more acceptable to Him or more loved. It is still about BEING, not about DOING. (We should be who He has created us to be and it should be so innately within us that it is not just something that we do. What we end up doing should be because of who we already are, inside and out.)
I love the Message version of Romans 5:8. It is really freeing how concisely it is stated.
But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in
sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
I love it. I want to be of use to God however He asks me to be. I plan to be, by His grace. But I don't have to be in order to be completely adored by Him.
Thursday, February 21, 2008,8:48 p.m.
CHILD PRODIGY
It seems that Darren Baker may have been wrong after all and she might be a pianist before she is a drummer. (PRAISE THE LORD.) What I can't figure out yet is why she is holding her skirt up while she plays. Might need to talk to her about her personal marketing strategies before that becomes less cute as she ages....
(This is my niece, Eliana - 19 months.)
(This is my niece, Eliana - 19 months.)
And here she is being the poster child for the places Auntie Karyn has traveled in the last couple of years: skirt from Scotland, top from Ukraine. Nice. Looks like I'll have to start making sure the souvenirs match each other!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008,6:45 p.m.
MILK, MEAT AND LEADERSHIP
I've been pondering milk, meat and leadership today. About milk and meat the scriptures have this to say:
"About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:11-14)
This passage is actually a rebuke to the hearers, but what it says about milk and meat (solid food) is that, like all growing children, we ought to pursue eating the meaty spiritual things, not be contented simply with drinking milk, or knowing only the basic things that we have known since the beginning of our journey with God. Milk will not continue to nourish and strengthen and help us grow. Meat will.
As a leader, I sometimes see groups that are at that moment in time contented with drinking milk. They enjoy the milk, they crave the milk, and the meat, while it might seem to smell good, doesn't seem to satisfy the appetite like the milk does.
When something that we enjoy appears, we rejoice and we get excited. Milk drinkers get excited when they are hungry and milk appears. Meat might also appear on that table, but if milk is where it's at for them, then it is milk that makes them flock to the table, not meat.
Here is where my thoughts on leadership come in. If you are serving milk, and you have milk drinkers at your table, your milk is the best thing since, well, sliced bread (just to add chaos to an already full analogy). Your guests are excited, they drink with relish and feel full at the end of the meal. If you are a leader that serves up spiritual milk to milk drinkers, the feedback is encouraging.
But if you are a leader who understands that God desires His people to grow, you know that they need to be weaned off that milk and be given solid food - meat - to eat. BUT if your people don't like meat because they enjoy the milk so much, you run into a problem of trying to teach your people to eat meat instead of milk (or eat meat with the milk). It can be a real challenge and I imagine it feels like uphill work.
I think the danger is in being a leader who is fooled by the people's incredibly positive reaction to the milk and lack of interest in the meat. It could encourage a leader to believe that the milk is nourishing and growing and sustaining the people, and that it is actually what they need and is good for them.
But I actually think it is only an indicator of where the people are comfortable. And sometimes a leader's role is to gently make the people uncomfortable. A leader, with God's help, should cook and season the meat - the deep truth of God - until it is irresistable. The meat will deepen relationships with God, grow spiritual giants and soon release others into leadership.
Hopefully they, too, can cook.
"About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:11-14)
This passage is actually a rebuke to the hearers, but what it says about milk and meat (solid food) is that, like all growing children, we ought to pursue eating the meaty spiritual things, not be contented simply with drinking milk, or knowing only the basic things that we have known since the beginning of our journey with God. Milk will not continue to nourish and strengthen and help us grow. Meat will.
As a leader, I sometimes see groups that are at that moment in time contented with drinking milk. They enjoy the milk, they crave the milk, and the meat, while it might seem to smell good, doesn't seem to satisfy the appetite like the milk does.
When something that we enjoy appears, we rejoice and we get excited. Milk drinkers get excited when they are hungry and milk appears. Meat might also appear on that table, but if milk is where it's at for them, then it is milk that makes them flock to the table, not meat.
Here is where my thoughts on leadership come in. If you are serving milk, and you have milk drinkers at your table, your milk is the best thing since, well, sliced bread (just to add chaos to an already full analogy). Your guests are excited, they drink with relish and feel full at the end of the meal. If you are a leader that serves up spiritual milk to milk drinkers, the feedback is encouraging.
But if you are a leader who understands that God desires His people to grow, you know that they need to be weaned off that milk and be given solid food - meat - to eat. BUT if your people don't like meat because they enjoy the milk so much, you run into a problem of trying to teach your people to eat meat instead of milk (or eat meat with the milk). It can be a real challenge and I imagine it feels like uphill work.
I think the danger is in being a leader who is fooled by the people's incredibly positive reaction to the milk and lack of interest in the meat. It could encourage a leader to believe that the milk is nourishing and growing and sustaining the people, and that it is actually what they need and is good for them.
But I actually think it is only an indicator of where the people are comfortable. And sometimes a leader's role is to gently make the people uncomfortable. A leader, with God's help, should cook and season the meat - the deep truth of God - until it is irresistable. The meat will deepen relationships with God, grow spiritual giants and soon release others into leadership.
Hopefully they, too, can cook.
Monday, February 18, 2008,9:23 p.m.
PLEASE PRAY
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - A fatality on the Sea to Sky Highway late Friday afternoon.
A person was killed after a multi-car crash about 20 kilometres north of Squamish, which resulted in the closure of the highway for most of the evening.
RCMP say the crash involved a limousine, school bus and a passenger vehicle.
None of the students on the school bus were hurt.
Those were my kids on the bus (grade 7's). Those were my colleagues driving and riding the bus. Everybody is OK, but everybody is shaken, some more than others. The woman killed was a wife and mother of small children. She was not known to us, but even knowing this much is a lot for youngsters (and all of us, really) to deal with emotionally.
Please pray for them. Please pray for me - many of them come to talk to me about it, which is cool, but I desire wisdom above all else to know what to say or when not to speak at all, and I need God's help to turn that burden over to Him and not try and carry it. Right now I am worried about them and my heart is heavy.
Please pray for my Music Department colleague and friend, Adrian. That day has hit him extremely hard and he has yet to be able to talk about it, but it is obvious that his burden is also a heavy one.
In the last few days I have come to a clear realization of how much I intensely love all of these people. And they are hurting.
Please, please pray.
A person was killed after a multi-car crash about 20 kilometres north of Squamish, which resulted in the closure of the highway for most of the evening.
RCMP say the crash involved a limousine, school bus and a passenger vehicle.
None of the students on the school bus were hurt.
Those were my kids on the bus (grade 7's). Those were my colleagues driving and riding the bus. Everybody is OK, but everybody is shaken, some more than others. The woman killed was a wife and mother of small children. She was not known to us, but even knowing this much is a lot for youngsters (and all of us, really) to deal with emotionally.
Please pray for them. Please pray for me - many of them come to talk to me about it, which is cool, but I desire wisdom above all else to know what to say or when not to speak at all, and I need God's help to turn that burden over to Him and not try and carry it. Right now I am worried about them and my heart is heavy.
Please pray for my Music Department colleague and friend, Adrian. That day has hit him extremely hard and he has yet to be able to talk about it, but it is obvious that his burden is also a heavy one.
In the last few days I have come to a clear realization of how much I intensely love all of these people. And they are hurting.
Please, please pray.
Friday, February 15, 2008,10:40 p.m.
TIDBITS
It was a full week. Full in the sense of things happening and stuff to do; full in the sense of experiencing some measure of the fullness of God.
Main event this week:
Spiritual Emphasis Week in the high school (in a nutshell, three days of Chapel, with a guest speaker and guest worship band)
Main messages from the Lord this week:
Expect Me more. Experience me personally. I am not just Judge and Redeemer and Holiness, I am Father. The walls will (and need to) come down, but all the cool ministry stuff that we see going on now are just leaks in the wall.
Main fresh revelation of God this week:
God is everything. It's simple, but just think about that for a bit - go deep. It all of a sudden just hit me like a tonne of bricks yesterday. EVERYTHING.
Main feeling through this week:
Incredible JOY. Happiness and joy - both. A "bubbling up" kind of joy just in knowing the Lord. What a special thing, when often there is so much leadership and busyness in what I'm called to do that I often don't have the joyous anticipation of knowing I'm going to get up and meet with Him the next morning. This week I couldn't keep the smile off my face. (And yes, it looked weird to most people - especially those in the cars driving beside me....)
Secondary feeling through this week:
Utter exhaustion. I know some people get energized when walking in their gifting, but I almost always feel completely poured out. It's a good feeling, but I definitely feel it. I didn't even lead worship or preach for the whole week, but the exhaustion is still there. (I'm not so sure that the 17-hour day on Wednesday didn't assist in the exhaustion - we are definitely NOT putting the Music Department candygram fundraiser on the same week as Spiritual Emphasis next year!!)
Main prayer request for the weeks to come:
Wisdom to know how to follow up what has been a high for many students, so that it does not fall into the "thrive and dive" category, but is sustainable and we choose to keep going deeper.
God is doing a new thing at our school.
God is doing more new things in the church.
God is doing lots of things in me.
God is willing to do things in you, too.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Let Your will be done.
Main event this week:
Spiritual Emphasis Week in the high school (in a nutshell, three days of Chapel, with a guest speaker and guest worship band)
Main messages from the Lord this week:
Expect Me more. Experience me personally. I am not just Judge and Redeemer and Holiness, I am Father. The walls will (and need to) come down, but all the cool ministry stuff that we see going on now are just leaks in the wall.
Main fresh revelation of God this week:
God is everything. It's simple, but just think about that for a bit - go deep. It all of a sudden just hit me like a tonne of bricks yesterday. EVERYTHING.
Main feeling through this week:
Incredible JOY. Happiness and joy - both. A "bubbling up" kind of joy just in knowing the Lord. What a special thing, when often there is so much leadership and busyness in what I'm called to do that I often don't have the joyous anticipation of knowing I'm going to get up and meet with Him the next morning. This week I couldn't keep the smile off my face. (And yes, it looked weird to most people - especially those in the cars driving beside me....)
Secondary feeling through this week:
Utter exhaustion. I know some people get energized when walking in their gifting, but I almost always feel completely poured out. It's a good feeling, but I definitely feel it. I didn't even lead worship or preach for the whole week, but the exhaustion is still there. (I'm not so sure that the 17-hour day on Wednesday didn't assist in the exhaustion - we are definitely NOT putting the Music Department candygram fundraiser on the same week as Spiritual Emphasis next year!!)
Main prayer request for the weeks to come:
Wisdom to know how to follow up what has been a high for many students, so that it does not fall into the "thrive and dive" category, but is sustainable and we choose to keep going deeper.
God is doing a new thing at our school.
God is doing more new things in the church.
God is doing lots of things in me.
God is willing to do things in you, too.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Let Your will be done.
Monday, February 11, 2008,6:13 p.m.
MOTIVATION
A bunch of us got chatting in worship class today about motivation. Actually, we were taking about living lives of integrity as worship leaders and believers, and whether that looks like trying to follow all the rules that pastors are always telling you from the pulpit. Here's what we decided:
(a) The rules aren't made by the pastors; the pastors preach the Word (all going well).
(b) The Word isn't intended to be a book full of rules to follow to be "OK" with God; that's what the Old Testament law was all about and it is clear from the scriptures that it was impossible to follow it fully.
(c) God isn't interested in a bunch of rule followers; He wants people who strive to follow the commands of the Word out of passionate love for Him.
Therefore we concluded that our motivation to follow the "rules" of the Word should be that we love God so intensely and believe who He says He is so fully that we cannot help but respond by following the things He says. Our obedience is not motivated by obligation, but by love and a desire to bring God pleasure.
Interestingly, even though we tangented terribly throughout the conversation (we always do), that led us right back to a desire to live lives of integrity for the purpose of bringing God pleasure.
And that is a really good definition of worship.
PS:
(a) The rules aren't made by the pastors; the pastors preach the Word (all going well).
(b) The Word isn't intended to be a book full of rules to follow to be "OK" with God; that's what the Old Testament law was all about and it is clear from the scriptures that it was impossible to follow it fully.
(c) God isn't interested in a bunch of rule followers; He wants people who strive to follow the commands of the Word out of passionate love for Him.
Therefore we concluded that our motivation to follow the "rules" of the Word should be that we love God so intensely and believe who He says He is so fully that we cannot help but respond by following the things He says. Our obedience is not motivated by obligation, but by love and a desire to bring God pleasure.
Interestingly, even though we tangented terribly throughout the conversation (we always do), that led us right back to a desire to live lives of integrity for the purpose of bringing God pleasure.
And that is a really good definition of worship.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner
worthy of the calling to which you have been called....
(Ephesians 4:1)
PS:
I also had a conversation today with my Grade 7/8 Choir about Song of Songs.
THAT is a really good definition of AWKWARD. :)
Sunday, February 03, 2008,8:33 a.m.
WALLS COMING DOWN
I've been thinking about walls this weekend. I suppose in a new house I should think about the walls - what colour to paint them, where all the nicks are that need to be filled, where they are in relation to me and the massive piece of furniture I'm moving around (it's good to know where the stairs are for that, too). But I've actually been thinking about walls in our lives.
Interestingly, there have been four times already this year where a wall in our school has had some part of a person go through it (fist, foot, couple of times full bodies....). The wall has quite literally been broken. As I chatted with a group of students about this a few weeks ago, one girl enthusiastically said, "Maybe it's prophetic!" We all had a good chuckle, and that was that.
And then a couple of weeks ago a bunch of us stayed after school on Friday to worship together, and every song we randomly chose that afternoon was about breaking down walls. All of a sudden I wasn't chuckling as much anymore, and decided to chat with God about walls coming down.
For Joshua, with that whole Jericho gig, the second verse in that chapter is extremely revealing: "And the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valour." (Joshua 6:2) God had already given Israel the prize of Jericho and everything in it. Joshua and Israel still had to be brave and trust God and obey Him on how to actually receive that prize, but it was given long before they started marching around and blowing trumpets.
I wonder how many times in our own lives we see a prize that God has given, and assume it's not for us. I wonder how many times we don't even see the prize because the walls are so big. Here's the one difference - I think that in most situations, we build the walls ourselves. And if we are brave and trust God and obey His instructions, those walls can come down without taking us out as well.
I think it's scary to think about our protective walls coming down; after all, we have put them up for a reason. But then I think about the prize that is already ours - intimacy with God, gifts to accomplish our purpose in life, wisdom, knowledge, love, trust. It is likely more than I can even imagine.
All these things are already ours. It's our own walls that keep them at bay. I pray that our knowledge and trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God can overcome our own protective natures so we can truly experience intimacy with Him.
Interestingly, there have been four times already this year where a wall in our school has had some part of a person go through it (fist, foot, couple of times full bodies....). The wall has quite literally been broken. As I chatted with a group of students about this a few weeks ago, one girl enthusiastically said, "Maybe it's prophetic!" We all had a good chuckle, and that was that.
And then a couple of weeks ago a bunch of us stayed after school on Friday to worship together, and every song we randomly chose that afternoon was about breaking down walls. All of a sudden I wasn't chuckling as much anymore, and decided to chat with God about walls coming down.
For Joshua, with that whole Jericho gig, the second verse in that chapter is extremely revealing: "And the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valour." (Joshua 6:2) God had already given Israel the prize of Jericho and everything in it. Joshua and Israel still had to be brave and trust God and obey Him on how to actually receive that prize, but it was given long before they started marching around and blowing trumpets.
I wonder how many times in our own lives we see a prize that God has given, and assume it's not for us. I wonder how many times we don't even see the prize because the walls are so big. Here's the one difference - I think that in most situations, we build the walls ourselves. And if we are brave and trust God and obey His instructions, those walls can come down without taking us out as well.
I think it's scary to think about our protective walls coming down; after all, we have put them up for a reason. But then I think about the prize that is already ours - intimacy with God, gifts to accomplish our purpose in life, wisdom, knowledge, love, trust. It is likely more than I can even imagine.
All these things are already ours. It's our own walls that keep them at bay. I pray that our knowledge and trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God can overcome our own protective natures so we can truly experience intimacy with Him.
Awake, O north wind,
and come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden,
let its spices flow.
Let my beloved come to his garden,
and eat its choicest fruits.
(Song of Songs 4:16)