05-01-09

Dear Faithful Readers,
I am delighted to announce the birth of "Rhyme and Reason Ministries International," a non-profit ministry dedicated to the purchase and distribution of a large number of books in "The Rhyme and Reason Series" through book signings, speaking engagements and other venues. This is in addition to what the bookstores will carry and sell. All profits from non-bookstore sales will go back into the ministy to produce the next two and then the next two and so on. We have visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads, as well as coloring books, CDs and short "Veggie Tale" style videos and whatever other creative means the Lord speaks to our hearts to do for His Kingdom and glory.
The entire goal of the ministry is to create a love for the Word of God in a fun and easy to understand format. I tell people to think of it as "Dr. Suess meets the Bible!"
The theme, scope, stories and heart of the Father in each book is revealed in rhyming couplets which takes the reader from the first chapter through the last.
For example, Genesis starts with creation and moves through the chronology and events of the book ending with Joseph bringing his father and brothers to Egypt to live with him and survive the famine plaguing the land.
The plan is to market one Old Testament book with its New Testament cousin. Genesis and Matthew, both books of beginnings, will come out together. Exodus and Acts, both books of going out, will be paired, and since you can't really understand the significance of Hebrews without Leviticus, or enjoy Leviticus without Hebrews, they will come out together. And so on, for as long as that coupling is feasible. I am hoping for somewhere between 25 and 30 books before the series is completed. So pray the Lord will grant me a long life!
So far as I know, there is nothing else like this on the market. Again, the hope and prayer of my heart is that young children (and adults!) will grasp the love of God in the content of each book well enough that they won't be too intimidated to pick up an actual Bible and read it for themselves, as many confess they are.
God promises that His Word does not return to Him void. He is in the business of drawing people to Himself and it is my fervent prayer that He will take this idea that came from His heart and use this series to accomplish His Kingdom purposes which are "above and beyond anything I could ask or think."
There is no power on earth that is greater than prayer, and no greater means through which the Spirit operates. Knowing this, I would ask you to pray and continue praying that God's perfect will be accomplished and that these books will impact untold lives for generations to come! That seems like a huge prayer to me, but we serve an infinite, creative, powerful God who longs to set captives free! I pray this will be one tool for accomplishing that purpose.
The goal is to "get the books in people's hands so people's hands pick up The Book!"

04-09-09

Happy Easter everyone! And may it be as blessed and meaningful a holiday as you have ever celebrated.
Our King is alive! He rules and reigns from His heavenly throne where, having accomplished all He came to do, He is now seated at the right hand of God the Father!
To know God is to fall hopelessly in love with Him. My heart is filled with gratitude and longing. The older I get and the more I grow in the Lord, the easier it is for me to understand that eternity will not be long enough for us to express our gratitude and worship as we continue to serve Him in ways we can't begin to imagine.
ALL HAIL KING JESUS!

One more for the day

I try not to be political on this blog, but this was e-mailed to me today and I felt compelled to post it. I am extremely concerned for our country, but daily I choose to keep my confidence in God.

And it came to pass... in the Age of Insanity that the people of the land called America , having lost their morals, their initiative, and their will to defend their liberties, chose as their Supreme Leader that person known as "The One."

He emerged from the vapors with a message that had no meaning; but He hypnotized the people telling them, "I am sent to save you. My lack of experience, my questionable ethics, my monstrous ego, and my association with evil doers are of no consequence. For I shall save you with Hope and Change. Go, therefore, and proclaim throughout the land that he who preceded me is evil, that he has defiled the nation, and that all he has built must be destroyed". And the people rejoiced. For even though they knew not what The One would do, He had promised that it was good; and they believed. And The One said "We live in the greatest country in the world. Help me change everything about it!" And the people said, "Hallelujah!! Change is good!"

Then He said, We are going to tax the rich fat-cats!
And the people said "Sock it to them!"

"and redistribute their wealth"
And the people said, "Show us the money!"

And then He said, "Redistribution of wealth is good for everybody"
And Joe the plumber asked, "Are you kidding me? You're going to steal my money and give it to the deadbeats??"
And The One ridiculed and taunted him, and Joe's personal records were hacked and publicized.

One lone reporter asked, isn't that Marxist policy?"
And she was banished from the kingdom!

Then a citizen asked, "With no foreign relations experience and having zero military experience or knowledge, how will you deal with radical terrorists?"
And The One said, "Simple... I shall sit with them and talk with them and show them how nice we really are; and they will forget that they ever wanted to kill us all!"

And the people said, "Hallelujah!! We are safe at last, and we can beat our weapons into free cars for the people!" Then The One said, "I shall give 95% of you lower taxes".
And one, lone voice said, "40% of us don't pay ANY taxes.......
So The One said, "Then I shall give you some of the taxes the fat-cats pay!"
And the people said, "Hallelujah!! Show us the money!"

Then The One said, "I shall tax your Capital Gains when you sell your homes!"
And the people yawned and the slumping housing market collapsed.

And He said, "I shall mandate employer- funded health care for EVERY worker and raise the minimum wage. And I shall give every person unlimited health care and medicine and transportation to the clinics."
And the people said,"Gimme some of that!"

Then he said, "I shall penalize employers who ship jobs overseas."
And the people said, "Where's my rebate check?"

Then The One said, "I shall bankrupt the coal industry and electricity rates will skyrocket!"
And the people said, "Coal is dirty, coal is evil, no more coal! But we don't care for that part about higher electric rates."

So The One said, "Not to worry. If your rebate isn't enough to cover your expenses, we shall bail you out. Just sign up with ACORN and your troubles are over!"

Then He said, "Illegal immigrants feel scorned and slighted. Let's grant them amnesty, Social Security, free education, free lunches, free medical care, bi-lingual signs and guaranteed housing..."
And the people said,"Hallelujah!!" And they made him King!

And so it came to pass that employers, facing spiraling costs and ever-higher taxes, raised their prices and laid off workers. Others simply gave up and went out of business and the economy sank like unto a rock dropped from a cliff. The banking industry was destroyed. Manufacturing slowed to a crawl. And more of the people were without a means of support.

Then The One said, "I am the The One, The Messiah - and I'm here to save you! We shall just print more money so everyone will have enough!"

But our foreign trading partners said unto Him, "Wait a minute. Your dollar is not worth a pile of camel dung! You will have to pay more..."
And the people said, "Wait a minute. That is unfair!!"
And the world said, "Neither are these other idiotic programs you have embraced. Lo, you have become a Socialist state and a second-rate power. Now you shall play by our rules!"

And the people cried out,"Alas, alas!! What have we done?"

But yea verily, it was too late. The people set upon The One and spat upon him and stoned him, and his name was dung. And the once mighty nation was no more; and the once proud people were without sustenance or shelter or hope. And the Change The One had given them was as like unto a poison that had destroyed them and like a whirlwind that consumed all that they had built. And the people beat their chests in despair and cried out in anguish, "Give us back our nation and our pride and our hope!!" But it was too late, and their homeland was no more. .

You may think this is a fairy tale, but it's not. It's happening RIGHT NOW!

03-28-09

It started snowing this morning around 9:00 and it seemed like it was never going to stop. We have at least six inches out there. So much for globabl warming.
I don't particularly like the snow, but I love days like this because it means I can curl up with a good book, a hot cup of tea and no guilt over what I "aught" to be doing instead. I don't know why I need the weather to give me permission to relax, and there is always plenty to do inside, but I let it be my excuse to do what I want rather than what I should.
I love biographies. Especially Christian biographies. I find them incredibly inspiring. Jacob gave me "The Roots of Endurance: Invincible Perseverance in the Lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon and William Wilberforce" recently. It's the third in a series by John Piper where he highlights the lives of three men of faith. They aren't extensive biographies--others have written those--rather the books were born out of a series of messages Dr. Piper gave at the annual Bethlehem Conference for Pastors which he hosts every year.
The first two in the series, in case you are interested, are, "The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God's triumphant grace in the lives of Augustine, Luther and Calvin" and "The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper and David Brainard.
Needless to say, they are immensely inspiring.
But I got no further than the introduction before bursting into sobs of heartfelt desperation to love God and cling to Him for divine help in enduring reverence and obedience.
This is John Piper's cry. It is mine as well. I hope it is yours.
"Let Your goodness, O God, bind my heart with a chain to You! Seal my will to Yours with an unbreakable application of Your eternal covenant. Keep me! Preserve me! Defeat every rising rebellion! Overcome every niggling doubt! Deliver from every destructive temptation! Nullify every fatal allurement! Expose every demonic deception! Tear down every arrogant arguement! Shape me! Incline me! Hold me! Master me! Do whatever You must do to keep me trusting You and fearing You 'till Jesus comes or calls." Amen.
Let my life be swallowed up in You. Keep me unto You. Make me to increasingly reflect You in all I do and say.

03-23-09

Last night Jay and I had the awesome privilege of watching and hearing Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel work his magic at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. There is simply no way to describe how brilliant an innovative he is. (Check him out on YouTube.)
I have never seen or heard of anyone doing the things he did to get the instrument to erupt in such splendid sounds and bend to his will the way he did. The effect was mesmerizing. Even Jay, my predominately sports-minded husband was impressed. At one point he leaned over and whispered in my ear, "If this guy would practice a bit more, he could be really good."
But since I play the guitar like a dyslexic third-grader learning to read, all I could think about was how good he actually was and what it took for him to get to be the best ever.
Obviously the starting point had to be a God-given talent. But he didn't hold his talent up to God and ask Him to magically do something with it-- like I am so often guilty of doing. ("Oh God! You gave me this gift, now make something happen!") He practiced. Then he practiced some more. He practiced every day. He worked and honed his craft. For years.
I'm sure there were times when his fingers were sore and bleeding and yet he continued to practice. You can't watch someone like him and not realize that he had to have become obsessed with the instrument, with making a guitar do things no one had ever made one do before, with creatively experiment- ing with all sorts of ideas and things that were outside of the proverbial box. With participating in his gift.
Yet as he was playing and practicing and honing his skill, as he played in countless small venues, I'm sure he wondered when his big break would come. After all, shouldn't fame and fortune--or some kind of recognition and kudos--come to those with the talent and dedication of his caliber? Like an Olympic athlete he was someone who had sacrificed so many other things in order to be the best at one thing.
Man. It was all I could think about during the concert, on the drive home, as I fell asleep, when I woke up this morning and as I've gone through my day. Not the fame and fortune, mind you, but the sacrifice and dedication it takes to be the very best at something.
I kept asking myself what it is I want to be known for by those who know me. What I wanted to be known for being that good at doing. My claim to fame. My unique calling. And just as importantly --or maybe more so--I've had to ask myself what am I willing to sacrifice in order to see that greater goal reached?
Because the truth is, I just want it to be easy. I want God to smile His big God smile and have it all rain down on me like sugar-coated gumdrops at Easter.
I don't want to work and sweat and toil and hope and be disappointed and start all over again and be in despair and pray and pick myself up by my bootstraps and have things fall apart and pray some more and kick the devil and lean on my friends to keep my spirits up and cry and deal with frustrations as I watch the years roll by and...
Well, you get the idea. I don't particularly like anything about "hard."
But God has been serendipitously working lately to change my thinking. It is hard, and it takes a lot of work and dedication to reach our goals, even when He's in them. In some ways, that's the most surprising thing of all.
All I can say is, "OUCH. I still want the smile and the gumdrops." But I am learning that if we will take our God-given talents, lift them up to Him and be diligent and willing to do the hard work, He will open doors and make things happen and bless our efforts and teach us and love us and create the character of Christ in us in the process.
I still want to slap Eve when I get to heaven, but until then, I'm going to make every effort to use the gifts God has given me while asking Him to lead and bless my efforts.
If you do the same, maybe we can help each other accomplish the tasks He has set before us. And then we will have the joy of knowing God is smiling because we have been willing to succeed in not burying our talents and to be active and to persevere at what He created and called us to do.

02-20-09

It's been an absolute delight having Jacob home these past several months since he graduated from college and has been waiting for the RUF internship interview. It occurred earlier this week in Dallas and he was approved on the spot. He is eager to follow God's leading as he moves into this next phase of his life, and is full of excitement and anticipation as he awaits his campus assignment in April. I am thrilled for him, of course, but I have also been preoccupied with the thought of how difficult it is going to be when he leaves again.
It's quite a different dynamic when your children are young adults and you have managed to successfully work yourself out of a job. I am enjoying it immensely. Jacob is zealous for the Lord and loves to read, so we have had some spirited and soul-satisfying conversations about God's character, the ups and downs of a life of faith, "rightly dividing the Word of truth" and how to live a practical, effective and balanced life as an apprentice of Jesus Christ.
This morning we were talking about an article a friend of his had read recently titled, "The Myth of the Extraordinary Christian."
The idea is that most of us tend to think there is such thing as a "super-Christian" and measure ourselves against that presumed and, I might add, arbitrary standard. The thinking is that the person who sacrifices his life as a missionary to China somehow operates at a higher calling or a deeper level of faith than the person who works a 40-hour a week job, attends church, and tithes to support that missionary or one like him. Or the person whom God blesses and enables to make great sums of money has again, a greater blessing from God than the person who barely scrapes by. The comparisons are endless and so is they grief they can cause.
But it's not true. We are all saved the same way--by grace. We all are delivered from the same thing--sin. We all have the same Savior--Jesus. We are all taught and led by the same source--the Holy Spirit. We are all destined for the same place--heaven.
Now it is certainly true that we have all been given different jobs to do and differing levels of responsibility. Both 1 Cor. 12:12 and following and the parable of the talents affirm this truth. Some are given more to do, some less; some jobs are more visible, some behind the scenes; some people are given more gifts and talents in order to get their job done, but that doesn't give them any greater standing or favor with God than the person whose job might require less.
We do ourselves (and I am speaking to myself here as much as anyone) a tremendous disservice by comparing ourselves to others in any way. It can suck the life-blood out of you faster than a ruptured jugular vein.
The truth is, we are all on a journey of faith, endeavoring, for the most part, to grow spiritually, to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling," to resolve recurring problems, to be led by God, to walk in greater obedience, to somehow develop the character of Christ while striving to fulfill our personal destiny so we can one day stand before our great God naked and unashamed.
Everyone who calls himself a Christian is doing these things to one degree or another on an ongoing but consistently inconsis- tent basis. And it looks different for all of us.
Some are doing it on the mission field. Some are doing it while raising a family. Some are doing it in affluance, some in poverty. Some are doing it while working a "regular" job and socking money into an IRA. Some are doing it with a king Midas touch and sowing mightily into the Kingdom. Most of us are doing it in the midst of the mundane and repetitious lives we lead.
Yet God is at work, "To will and to do (in us) according to His good pleasure." Billy Graham is no more of a super-Christian than a church secretary. Both are simply doing the job God called and equipped them to do while He is faithfully at work in them to make them more like Him.
We need to believe that. We need to give ourselves a break. We need to pray until we truly grasp the unconditional, non-com- petitive, all-encompassing, unilateral love of God.
We need to understand that we are all "in process" and anyone who looks like they are more spiritual or have it all together is either just a little further down the road we are all traveling or is just faking it better.

02-11-09

It's been a while, huh? I apologize. My thanks to those of you who e-mailed me and asked if I was ever going to post another entry or let the site go to the great blog wasteland in cyberspace. I keep telling you this, but it really is very nice to know there are people out there who actually read this and get something out of it. All half dozen of you...
To tell you the truth, and I'm not joking, it's been so long since I posted that I actually forgot I had a blog! Someone recently said they assumed I was too consumed with what the Lord was doing in my life to post anything and understood that I had to take a break to attend to the business at hand. You have no idea how much I wish that were true.
Unfortunatly, the facts are much more dismal and fleshly than that.
The good news, you'll be happy to know, is that you missed my vitrolic party-pooper rantings about Christmas and my intentioinal lack of New Year's resolutions. By my own unscientific but probably very accurate calculations, only one person in a thousand actually sticks to a New Year's resolution long enough to see any results. Everyone else is depressed by mid-February and wondering what's wrong with them that they can't ever see anything through. So I did myself a huge favor several years ago and made a New Year's reslution to never make another New Year's resolution. Which, ironicllay, makes me the one in a thousand. The rest of you might as will go ahead and get your perscription for Prozac filled.
Seriously though, isn't it a huge relief that you don't have to "try" in the strong arm of the flesh to accomplish anything? Oh, sure, it might work for a while. But eventually even the most strong- willed among us will "become weary in well-doing."
My Bible tell me "It is for freedom that Chirst has set us free." That's a powerful statement worth meditating on.
(Side note: I was watching a PBS special on the brain last night and the doctor lecturing said that meditation, rather than slowing down your mental processes, actually heightens them! I makes you more energetic and better able to concentrate, set goals and complete tasks! You need look no further than the opening paragraphs to realize this is something I need to incorporate more fully into my life...but not in the flesh, of course...)
This freedom means if I have an area in my life that needs changing or a habit that needs to be added or subtracted from my life I don't have to "set my mind" or "steel my will" or "make every effort" in my own inferior strength. I simply need to present my need before the throne of grace and then "set my mind"and "make every effort" while relying on the power of the Spirit to work through me to accomplish the goal.
Granted, this can be a difficult tightrope to walk. We are often in danger of falling off on the side of trying and ultimatley failing in our own strength, or attempting to rely on the Lord to the point we expect Him to do it for us rather than enabling us to do it with His help.
Two verses that beautifully illustrate the tension of our efforts coupled with God's empowering grace are 1 Cor. 15:10 and Phil. 2:12-13. The first says:
"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God in me."
And: "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
The upshot of all of this is that we both have our part to play. Our job is to rely on the power of God. God's is to fill us with that power which then enables us to make the choices we need and want to make and move forward in victory.
I really didn't mean to get off on all that! But I have to get dinner on so I am going to leave it. I will try to post again tomorrow and let you know what the news is in my world.
Let me hear from you!