Response to Give Them Grace, Forward

I had to comment on the opening forward to this book before even attempting a comment on the subsequent chapters because this idea of grace gripped me from the very start along with a keen revelation of my own false views on morality, sin and holiness. When the author of the forward quotes the book Christless Christianity (the name itself is a reproach), I am jerked back by the very tidy and moral picture of Satan taking over a city.
Things are not always as they seem.
The enemy is not so obvious as we are.
This opening forward was so reminiscent of The Screwtape Letters for me where we see the strategies of Satan personified and carried out: make them settle in their view of marriage, make them fall into the sin of pride of not being prideful, make them overindulge in innocent tea cakes, make them faithful to attend a church where the gospel is dead but no one realizes it, etc. In other words, let morality reign and the Gospel be defeated. Let orderliness and decorum dictate our norms and behavior but never let there be radical service and groaning surrender.
I have decided that I prefer the other. I have tasted orderliness and decorum, sweet morality and obedience yet without power..."having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof..?" I ALWAYS thought that scripture was speaking of someone else. Surely not me Lord! In no way do I desire to depart from a life of obedience nor morality. However, I do not wish to use them as my standard but rather a mere by-product of a life being lived full of Grace, Gospel grace. Is there any other kind? I do not merely want my children to obey me but to be compelled in their hearts to shun evil and do good. Yet to shun evil they must first know of its existence and the good which can and must powerfully overthrow it. I want them to be dirty in the fight, sweaty in the battle, waging righteous war for the One, True cause. I desire this over clean uniforms, neat manners and tidy behavior. I want them to be free to ask radical questions, to confront evil face to face and then slam the door on it; not for me to lock the door and tell them never to look behind it. I want them to CHOOSE. I want them to CHOOSE GRACE and GODLINESS, TRUTH and BEAUTY. I still desire Yes ma'am and No ma'am but not as a practiced art but out of the overflow of the heart. With God, all this is possible.

Contribution

I feel a great need to make contribution with my life. Each day there is a beat within me that calls for significance. I believe the natural tendency, and one I have often battled, is to express this through ambition or desire for notoriety, fortune and fame. Doesn't worldly success equal great contribution? As an unregenerate spirit these are the only ways one can define significant things and craft deep meaning out of life. If the whole world knows of it, surely it must be significant and it gives my life meaning. But this is all wrong! The significance I'm searching for will only ever be found in Christ and giving my life for him. My life of significance begins first with death-dying to my will, ambitions, dreams and desires,  and beginning to live now based on an eternal value system. Should I now strive for notoriety in heaven and with God himself or is that also a false path, still one of pride and self? Oh Lord, help me to know what contribution and significance look like today. My life is now hidden with Christ in God. It is not my own. Your word shows me :
1.  To love others

2. To give a cup of cold water in your name
3. To minister to widows and orphans
4. To disciple my children
5.  To love my husband ( This one is easy)
5.  Preach the gospel
6. Give things away

7. Walk in humility and consider others above myself
8.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit .

  This should keep me busy for a while… say, a lifetime ! I

True Sight, Sabbath Rest & Church Work

To lead means to have seen well. “Into the blind world we have now descended” Virgil tells Dante as they start their journey into Hell. If Hell is the blind world then The Church should be the world that is flooded with sight and light. It took me a while to figure that out. We do not need a blind guide but one who can tell us “Let me show you what I see.” I really want to see!!

When Jesus tells us to remove the plank from our eye, He is encouraging us to truly see. When Elijah prays for his servant it is that he may truly see.

So, what are we needing to see that we are missing in our church work today? Isn’t the very point of Redemption that we may enter into a rest? I am not lazy yet I know that I was designed for Rest, God’s kind of rest. How can I reconcile the two? The Bible clearly tells us in Hebrews 4 that God’s children, His people, the only Church He had at the time completely missed out on the promised land because they did not enter His rest. I wonder why God rested on the Sabbath. We know that he cannot be physically tired and need a day of Physical rest. And we are made in his image. Is the Sabbath idea more than a day of physical rest? He said to rest from your labor on that day. Well, I do not do enough physically in a day to really wear myself out. I cannot think of many people who do when you consider what the human body is capable of. Yet I fall into my pillow each night very weary so there must be a different kind of fatigue and a different kind of rest that I am missing. So, why did God rest on the seventh day? He did it to enjoy what he had created!! In Greek the word for “rest” is skolo and in Latin it is scola. It means to think on, to contemplate and enjoy. All of those make me very happy and relaxed just seeing them in print and saying them to myself. The actual translation means leisure and celebration!  Now, this next thought intrigues me and may cause most American, democratic,  industrial-revolutionized, modernist, progressive minds to really go tilt: This word for leisure, scola, is where we get our word for school! Who would have thought? I mean, I don’t think there are too many people who equate the words school and leisure. I happen o be one of them, however, as I am a life-long learner and get great pleasure from the contemplation of ides and learning does indeed mean celebration to me! We need a day, a time, a lifestyle of being able to work very hard but then to contemplate with great joy what has been produced, what we are living in, to rest. It is not a rest where we legalistically sit and twiddle our thumbs so that we can religiously check off, “Yep, I rested. I did not do any work” Maybe great physical exertion on the Sabbath is actually a part of the great contemplation and enjoyment for some. The idea is to experience and emulate God’s example of True rest. Jesus said in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”.  Celebration time.  Enjoying the Journey. I love it!

Yet we are a total world of work. We are creating workers. We prize and esteem great workers and stamp them with success and lure them with money and material goods that they will have to work all the harder just to maintain and keep. We are happy with our Industrial Revolution and the factories we have sullied our land with- the Elementary, the Middle and the High factories. We desire to see numbers, quantitative values and general assessments that are easily measured yet suck the celebration and contemplation out of each product or person. Is this what we have also done to church leadership? Reduced it to a quantitative science? Are we wanting to merely create great church workers who can turn out acts of service, better bulletins, increased numbers of team members and more logged office hours rather than producing pure fruit of quality. I desire Quality over Quantity. I actually believe that one begets the other but we have it the wrong way. There must first be quality cultivated. Love for the individual and not what they can produce or quantify.  Our purpose in equipping people sometimes feels like it is just equipping in order to see what we can get back out of them for the church’s sake rather than simply equipping them for their life. The church as an institution almost seems to trump the individual. Was the saint made for the church or was the church intended for the believer? Are not WE the CHURCH?

What are some enemies of this rest? If the rest is ours, if it belongs to us, then we must possess it and strike down the enemies that have cultivated attacks for years until we believe them to be true. Is the purpose of the individual utilitarian? “What can you do?” “What is your skill set?” What we seem to really be asking is “What are useful for?” And the heart response from the individual is to work harder to measure up so that they can be validated by this new measuring stick we have produced while leaving God’s own standard behind. We have failed to see. I want to look at a person in the church and not care what team they serve on or how well they do it but love them and desire to know them even as the Father desires to know me. I want to shed the scaly skin of quantitatively summing someone up and seeing them as a number or “our people” when they are really God’s treasures that we should gingerly and lovingly handle. I want to see and stop being blind. And I want to be seen by those around me -No planks, no specks, just God and His beautiful Rest.

 

Stewardship

I am a steward of all that God has given me. Nothing is my own. I am not even my own. The Bible has already told me this...why does it seems to be such an epiphany to my soul? In this day and age of human rights, reason, and enlightenment, there is much emphasis on what is mine. As a Christina, if I am not careful, the pleasing notes of the song that Society sings begins to strike a chord within me and I feel justified in demanding what rightfully belongs to me as a human being. Yet the Kingdom of God teaches me opposite. I have been bought with a price. I am not my own.
More and more I have been hearing the word stewardship in my heart. I am a steward of many things, both tangible and intangible that belong to God Himself. My marriage, my children, my home, my finances. They are not might. I merely have been entrusted with the oversight of these costly goods by the Master Himself, the owner of it all. Parable after parable teaches me that I will be called to give account one day of how I have managed my Lord's items. Have I been faithful or have I squandered? I want to not only manage well but show a return on God's investment as I present back to Him all that He has made me steward of.

A Day of Opportunity

A day of opportunity awaits me. To some it might just be another ordinary day but I see change. I see a blank slate on which I can write anything that I desire. It is up to me. It can be a great day or a down day. This is the day that I can recognize areas where I have plateaued and begin to climb again.  I can allow my children to frustrate me or I can see opportunities to disciple them. I will finally read that book that I have been putting off, go for that run, make that phone call, write that note of thanks, buy that gift. It is a great day. I can write a new song, patten a new idea, meet a new friend or lift someone's spirits. I can connect with one of my children, have intimate time worshipping the Lord, send a love email to my husband at work and cook a marvelkous creation for supper. Or...I could complain and rush to get the kids in bed early so that I can do what I want to do. I could go to bed tired and wake up still tired. I could look to escape through food, television or procrastination. But it won't be like that for me. It is a day of opportunity. My neck is outstretched and I am expecting. Anything is possible!

Stuff

I think yard sales are wonderful. My husband despairs when I mention that I am thinking of having a yard sale. The thought of cleaning out my closets and eliminating bins from my attic is an absolutely liberating experience for me. What's even better is to have someone else come alongside you on a cleaning out binge becasue they are even more objective than you are. Someone close who doesn't mind telling you the truth. I rememeber a visit from my older sister once to my home. We must be so weird. We think its fun to get together and clean out closets in our houses. Most girls' outings probably consist of getting mani pedis and a latte at Starbucks. Not us...nooooo. We clean out each other's closets. So, on one of her trips here she began to help me with my linen closet. It is a small narrow closet at the end of my hallway and in my house closets are cherished. We even turn little wall cubbies into closets and cover them with curtained "doors". We need closets! So, in tackling the linen/gift/laundry hamper closet I knew that many things had to go. I would generously lay aside a sheet set and say, "I'll yard sale this" to which she would shake her head, roll her eyes and pull out two more sets and emphatically state: "You only get to keep two sets per bed!" Oh I love it! This was love. This was such a help. We threw out old quilts, old pillows, old pillow cases and, yes, even a few sentimental baby items only because there are sooo many sentimental items in life that we must learn to rank our sentiments and some had to go. My closet looked beautiful. I felt like a better woman. My whole house felt cleaner and all because I got rid of some stuff. The Latin word for "stuff" is impedimentum, where we get our word impediment. That's right! Owning more stuff slows us down, it impedes our progress. This is why we study classical languages, everyope! It opens our eyes to greater truths and helps propel us on our way. This is why I love having yard sales and cleaning things out; I am no longer hindered bu clutter or things that I own. Think about it- the less we own, the less responsibility we have to maintain.  Own less, de-clutter, sell off a few things or give them away and liberate yourself! Throw off those impediments and run a little bit faster than before!

"..Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."    Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV)

Preparing your home for Fall: Diffusing Essential Oils

The sounds and sights and smells of fall are in the air- crunching leaves, apple cider and a crisp air of change that no other season seems to bring. I love to bring the outdoors in but it seems a little messy bringing dying leaves in and strewing them about the kitchen table. I would love to sit buckets of apples about but I might have a fruit fly invasion, and now that I know about the toxins in my formerly beloved Yankee Candles, I no longer light up my beautiful jars with evocative names such as Cranberry Chutney, Buttercream and Orchard Harvest. But there is a way to create an atmosphere of fragrance in your home using the life-giving, immune building and spirit-lifting essential oils......It's called diffusing.

dif·fuse/diˈfyo͞oz/

Verb:	Spread or cause to spread over a wide area or among a large number of people.
Adjective:	Spread out over a large area; not concentrated.
Synonyms:	verb.  spread - disseminate - propagate - disperse - distribute adjective.  diffusive - prolix

Young Living sells a number of diffusers to aid in spreading the beautiful fragrance of the oils throughout your home. They carry several types and styles now but I still rely upon their traditional nebulizer, air pump diffuser. With Young Living's innovative air pump, oils are dispersed in a micro-fine vapor, allowing them to remain suspended in the air for extended periods of time. The diffuser disperses the oils without heating them so they retain their therapeutic benefits. When inhaled, the oils are easily absorbed through the lungs. Depending on the oil used, diffusing can cleanse the air of odor, calm overactive children, and support respiration. I often hear of people who excitedly order their diffusers only to plug it in and wonder how to really use it for the most benefit in their home and lives. I want to share with you some practical tips making your diffuser work the best for you.

When you first begin using your diffuser, it will need to be primed- this usually requires 15 to 20 drops at least and, depending on the oil you use, you may need to add more within a half hour. Some oils are thicker than others and they diffuse at a much slower rate. Other oils are thinner oils and may diffuse through rapidly. Also, this will depend upon the way you have adjusted the little clear plastic knob on the air pump itself. This allows for greater or less air flow going into the diffuser itself. I find that keeping my diffuser primed and not letting it run dry causes it to work the very best. When I see it getting low or the air stream does not sound as powerful, I add about 10 more drops unless I am preparing to turn it off for the day. On a typical day, I usually run my diffuser most in the afternoon and evening. Everyone is usually home at that time and I am preparing to run the vacuum and do a quick pick up of the house before we all settle in for the night. The smell of the diffuser adds to the cleanness of the air and dispels any little germs that family members have brought home with them from work, school, play, etc. Put your diffuser in the room where you most commonly stay. Position it so that it can flow to other rooms as well. Turn on ceiling fans to help with the dispersion of the oil throughout your entire house. If you have fried fish or cooked something particularly odiferous, diffuse briefly in the kitchen with Purification, lemon, lemongrass or Thieves.

 The oil that you want to diffuse should be poured into the little well. You can diffuse a blend, a single oils or create your own blend by pouring in one single oil and then adding another. Peppermint and Lavender are a great combination used like this. You may invent your own. I would not mix blends unless one blend is almost gone and then you want to add another. Instructions on the diffuser probably tell you to remove one oil before adding another but I never do this, unless the two are radically different. In my, case, I diffuse such similar oils so often that I do not find the need for this. However, if you have been diffusing something like Joy and then you want to switch to R.C because someone is fighting a cold then you can use an eye dropper to remove the joy oil as best as possible and replace it in its original bottle. If you are very particular you can wash the diffuser before beginning the next oil.

Cleaning your diffuser:

 To clean your diffuser simply unplug, detach the clear tubing (this should never need cleaned) and submerge the glass nebulizer and the the metal base in hot, sudsy water. I simply use my mild dish soap. After letting them soak for about 30 minutes, rinse and lay out on a towel to dry or dry with a hair dryer if you're in a hurry!  

Remember that even though the diffuser has an air pump to cause the oil flowing in to be dispersed, the flow of the oil itself from the little well into the actual nebulizer works by gravity. Therefore, the more oil in the well, the greater the flow will be and the better the diffuser will work. If you are diffusing throughout the day, continue adding oil as you see necessary. If company is coming over, I would diffuse for at least a full hour before they arrive but not during their time there. You can run your diffuser all day if you wish but I would not recommend this. The pump needs a chance to rest occasionally. Diffusing at night is wonderful- as you sleep or as your children sleep. It guarantees 8 hours or so of inhaling the therapeutic oils and receiving their benefits.

Favorite Diffusing oils:

Abundance- almost a rich perfume smell. The smell directly from the bottle I do not care for but it diffuses beautifully and creates a sense of just what the name implies...abundance.

Cinnamon Bark- Wonderful for the Fall and Christmas seasons. This oil supports a healthy immune system and wards off infection.

Any woodsy oils like Douglas Fir at Christmas time.

Geranium- not necessarily a fall or wintry smelling oil but just wonderful. Your home will feel like a beautiful flower garden. Geranium is wonderful for women to inhale and helps everyone's respiratory system.

Lemongrass- one of the best and very affordable for frequent diffusing.

Christmas Spirit- just as it says and very affordable. Diffuse all through December.

Purification- I save this more for Spring cleaning and summer diffusing but it is wonderful.

There are so many more but these oils are affordable and diffuse well. If you want to splurge for the Balsam Fir you will be hooked forever but it is a significant price difference. It does diffuse longer, however, and is well worth it. Save it for special days- particularly those when your mood needs elevated. It works like a natural anti-depressant. Wonderful!

Come up with your own favorites-- I would love to hear!