Using What We Give

Confronted with an overwhelming problem, Jesus did not ask the disciples to do the impossible; He asked only for them to bring to Him what they had. He then multiplied the small offering and used it to do the impossible. The principle here is so very important for those of us who are overwhelmed with the immensity of human suffering and need in our world: God never asks us to give what we do not have... But He cannot use what we will not give. 

The Hole In Our Gospel, Rich Stearns

The Imitation Of Christ

We are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.

The Imitation Of Christ, Thomas A Kempis

Preparation

God is preparing His heroes; and when opportunity comes, He can fit them into their place in a moment, and the world will wonder where they came from.

Let the Holy Ghost prepare you, dear friend, by the discipline of life; and when the last finishing touch has been given to the marble, it will be easy for God to put it on the pedestal, and fit it into its niche.

Streams In The Desert, April 28

Respectable Sins

I know I have had a lot of book recommendations lately, but I have one more. It is Respectable Sins: Confronting The Sins We Tolerate by Jerry Bridges.

I was not sure what to expect when I opened this book because it could have been rather accusatory and condemning, but turns out that it was not. The author was very vulnerable about his own struggles with "respectable sins." I enjoyed reading it, and the book gave me a lot to think and pray about it.

My life in Christ seems so often to be about my "blind spots." Blind spots to me are different than just plain sin. There are those things in our lives that we are know are sinful, and then there are our blind spots, which still involves our sin but those that we are oblivious to. Maybe an attitude or a quirk or an old/bad habit or something we declare to be part of our "personality" and therefore unchangeable in a take me or leave kind of way. The stuff we justify and the stuff we don't even see about ourselves. Our blind spots. 

The funny thing is the people around us know what our blind spots are because they are the ones that have to deal with our not so great behavior that results from them. And yet, we still don't see them most of the time.

Whatever our blind spots are, and believe me I know I have plenty, they seem to be a part of that interior battle between the self in us versus Christ in us. In our self, we become so used to acting or thinking or feeling a certain way that we grow blind to the negative impact those actions, thoughts, and emotions have on our lives and our relationships. 

We wonder why things aren't working or going right in some aspect of our lives, a friendship, a relationship, our job, our home, and yet the last thing we ask is how we may have contributed to the problem or if we are the problem. Because really, who wants to ask "Am I the problem?" and actually be told that they are. That is a hard pill to swallow.

Whether or not we have the courage to ask others what they view as our blind spots, our best bet is to pray. I have to frequently and consistently ask God to show me my blind spots: the things I do not see about myself and how I may come across to other people. 

Thankfully when we ask, the Lord is often gentle as He reveals to us the things we cannot see. He changes us and mold us so that in our lives there is more of Christ and less of our self. It is the kind of change we can believe in.

Sins Of Omission

We are so preoccupied with our own lives and the daily issues in our churches that we overlook the challenges faced by churches in other lands. Our sin is not one of commission but rather omission. Sins of omission are sometimes the most difficult ones to address. To do so requires intentional and relentless self-examination, a commitment to serve those in greatest need, and a keen awareness of the broader world in which God has placed us. Only then can we become consistent and effective in using our considerable resources for the benefit of the church worldwide.

The Hole In Our Gospel, Richard Stearns

Guard Us/ Guide Us: Divine Leading Through Life's Decisions

I have to say that I loved this book, so much so that I have given it to several people. But be warned, it requires all your brain power to read it. There is not one wasted word in the entire text. There is so much packed into each sentence that is theological in nature but from a pracitcal point of you. I learned so much from this book.

I gave it to my old boss at Young Life (aka Randy "Randolpho") and a couple of days later I saw him and he said "Taytay, I have to read each paragraph about three times to understand what it is saying. You must be a genius!" And to that I said, "I have to read each paragraph about three times to get it too!" Me, a genius. As if!

But don't let the meatiness of the book deter you from reading it. Guard Us/Guide Us is an amazing work and will change your life!

From Ashes To Africa

In the last couple of weeks I read a book that was just released, From Ashes To Africa. It is the story by a couple about their journey from infertility to international adoption. It is very sweet and I leaned a lot about the adoption process. If you are interested in adoption, it is a great resource and a great story. Definitely worth reading...

Trusting Him Wholly

Through the leaves of every trial there are chunks of light to shine through. Thorns do not prick unless you lean against them, and not one touches without His knowledge. The words that hurt you, the letter which gave you pain, the cruel wound of your dearest friend, shortness of money - are all known to Him, who sympathizes as none else can and watches to see if, through all, you will dare to trust Him wholly.

Streams In The Desert, January 12

Bono

I have just finished reading two very interesting books about Bono. The first is Walk On: The Spiritual Journey Of U2, which is written by and Irish pastor from their hometown of Dublin. The books is full of a good deal of interesting insights about their spiritual lives and how their faith has influenced their music. The other book is On The Move, which is the text of a speech Bono made at the National Prayer Breakfast recently. It is an excellent speech, so I would highly recommend reading that book. It is a fast read, but very moving. 

My Stack Of Stuff To Read

I have a little bit of a book problem. Meaning, I love books, so while I do read a lot, I also buy them a lot. This is what my bedside table looks like. I can say that I did not buy all of those books. Many were gifts, particularly for Christmas, and my father gave me his entire soft back set of Anthony Trollope books, which are scattered among all those stacks. But I love to learn about new books that are worth reading, as well as find great bargain books at places like B&N.


This is my stack of stuff I look forward to reading...

Traitor To His Class: The Story Of Franklin D Roosevelt
Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn
Three Cups of Tea
The Fringes of Power
Potluck
Getting Out Of Our Kids Faces and Into Their Hearts
Atlas Shrugged
Born On A Blue Day
Grace Based Parenting
Ghandi and Churchill
Too Small To Ignore
Respectable Sins: Confronting The Sins We Tolerate
Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2
In God's Underground
On the Move
From Ashes To Africa
Fields Of The Fatherless
Red Letters
Murder By Family
Guilty
Damaged But Not Broken
Praying
The Boleyn Inheritance
The Other Queen
The Human Factor
A Lion Among Men
Cool It
Jayber Crow
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters
Parched
Leeway Cottage
The Knitting Circle
The Butterfly Garden
A Problem From Hell: America In The Age Of Genocide
The Last Days Of The Romanovs
Planet Of Slums
Scared
Revolutionary Road
Mr. Darcy's Daughters
In Harm's Way
The Afghan Campaign
Safe People
The Discipline of Grace
The Marching Season
The Kill Artist
The English Assassin
The Confessor
A Death In Vienna
The Prince of Fire
The Messenger
The Secret Servant
Moscow Rules
Guard Us, Guide Us
In God's Presence
The Defender
We Die Alone
Dare To Discipline
The Mom Factor
Boundaries With Kids
Raising Great Kids
Christ of the Indian Road
Parenting by the Book

To Be In Christ

To be "in Christ," Paul told the Philipians, means to have in you the mind of Christ Jesus, to think as Christ thought, to have the ideals Christ had, to throb with the desires that filled Christ's heart, to replace all your natural actions to persons, events and circumstances with the response of Jesus Christ. In a word, a christocentirc life means to live in the heart of Jesus, to share His tastes and aversions, to have the same insterests, affections and attitudes, to be motivated in everything by His loving compassion. It means making the habitual thought patterns of Jesus Christ so completely your own that truly, "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."

The Relentless Tenderness Of Jesus, Brennan Manning

Our Condition vs Our Comfort

When God shakes us to wake us, we often find ourselves surrounded by the unfamiliar and unfriendly. God wakes us up from the secure by pushing us out of our comfort zone. By comfort zone I am referring to all that is familiar, expected, constant, and under our own control...

God is more concerned with our condition than our comfort. At times, He stirs our nests to make our comforting things uncomfortable.

This is how young eagles get their flight training. The mother eagle grabs the nest with her talons and flaps her wings up and down, blowing all the nice, comfortable padding out of the nest. She tears up what she had so carefully provided. Then she takes each baby eagle and carries it outside of the nest into the wind. This is where young eagles learn to fly. You can't try your winds if you're sitting in the nest. 

A Gentle Spirit, February 29

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never had a family or owned a home. He never set foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never wrote a book, or held an office. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness.

While He was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends deserted Him. He was turned over to His enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had --- His coat.

When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure for much of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as this "One Solitary Life."

Restoring What Was Lost

After five and half years as a widower, my father announced recently that he is getting remarried. My mother died suddenly and without warning, leaving a hole in my family and in all our hearts over half a decade ago.

I have been reflecting back on that period in our lives, when one day my mother was alive and then one day she was not. The truth is that her death broke all our hearts. Her husband's heart, her kid's hearts, her sibling's hearts, and her parent's hearts. We were all overwhelmed with grief for a long time.

But it did not dawn on me until some time after my mother died how uniquely my father had been impacted. In the two years preceding her death, he lost his health and his career (as a result of his declining health) and then out of nowhere he lost his wife. The things that make a man feel most like a man were removed from his life, and although he still had his children and his home, he had a great deal of starting over to do.

Several years ago, I started praying very specifically for my father and his life. I am still not sure where the idea came from, but I prayed that God would somehow restore all that he had lost. I did not envisioned anything as I prayed, like he would become a multi-millionaire with the health of a twenty year old male. I certainly did not envision him remarrying someone much younger and them having babies together. We would have had some very serious conversations about what a bad idea that would be. Instead, I just prayed that wherever God led my father, and whatever the future held for him, that it would also include God restoring all that had been taken from him.

And in my view, those things were taken from him. God allowed those things to be removed from his life. Some of them, like my mother, were taken from all of us. The sovereign God who controls all the details of our lives permitted that heartache to touch all of us.

But in the past year, I have watched as God restored all those things. The things that seemed lost were not lost forever. My father built a new career for himself, his health stabilized, and he met someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with. God worked in a way that demonstrated He is a God who gives even after He takes away.

When my friends hear that my father is remarrying, they immediately ask me how I feel about it and my new "stepmother."

And mostly, I just feel thankful. My own child was born with no biological grandmothers. She had no one to dote on her or spoil her or buy her frilly dresses, at least not the way a grandmother can. She may have been the apple in the eyes of both her grandfathers, but she needed grandmothers. Now, with both our fathers remarried, she will have two grandmothers! And for that I am so thankful, because my child will experience what I experienced growing up; four grandparents who loved me deeply and gave me wonderful memories.

So, as we prepare for the upcoming wedding, where our lives will be changed and bound in new ways to new people forever, I find myself deeply grateful to God that He not only heard my prayers but answered them, restored what was lost, and used the broken things in our lives for His good purposes.

By Taylor Martin Wise, Copyright 2009

From Ashes To Africa

Any time art touches your life with tears, whether thought a story, song, film, or painting, it was wise to pay attention to those tears because your tears could help you find your heart.  And if you found your heart, you found what was dear to God. If you found what was dear to God, you found the answer to how you should love your life. 

From Ashes To Africa, Josh Bottomly

Pure Love For Jesus

Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for awhile, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the blessing of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolations yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus - love that is free from all self-interest and self love.

The Imitation Of Christ, Thomas A Kempis

Tom Davis

I posted this on my other blog, but I wanted to post it here too. I just finished reading two books by the author Tom Davis. The first is Fields Of The Fatherless: Discover The Joy Of Compassionate Living and the other is Red Letters: Living A Faith That Bleeds. Both were really good but Red Letters is better. The theme is about living a "red letter life," as in we are in dire need of rediscovering and following Jesus words that are printed in red in some versions of the New Testament. It is very thought provoking and gave me a lot to think and mull over this week. If you are looking for some fresh reading material, I highly recommend those two books. Tom also has a cool blog Notes From The Field. Click here for links to purchase the books. They are definitely worth reading.

Faith and Works

The real journey of faith requires that our choices, our actions, and everything else in our lives be surrendered to Gods will rather than our own. For the Christian, it is a lifelong process. Belief - that is, faith - is just the beginning. Yes, we must believe that Christ lives us, but Christ also calls us to demonstrate His love to others through the good things that we do, what the Bible calls "works." Faith without works is no faith at all. But authentic faith, rooted in the heart of God, is expressed in deeds done to ease the pain of others; it is imbued with personal sacrifice, and it comes with a cost. Jesus understood that not everyone who called Him "Lord" would truly surrender their lives in sacrificial service, and He reserved some of His strongest words for those who professed to be His followers but whose lives showed no evidence of their faith. Surely this is one of the hardest things ever said by Jesus to those who claimed to follow Him. "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord' and do not do what I say?"...

He could not have been any more direct. Jesus was telling not only His hearers but all who would someday read His words that if we dare to call Him Lord, then He expects us to do what He says. In other words, once we believe that Jesus is Lord, then our lives must change; we must do as He commanded.

The Hole In Our Gospel, Richard Stearns

A Life Of Faith

Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not understanding and reason - a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.

My Utmost For His Highest, March 19

Faith and Trials

There is no way of learning faith except by trial. It is God's school of faith, and it is far better for us to learn to trust God than to enjoy life. 

The lesson of faith once learned is an everlasting acquisition and an eternal fortune made; and without trust even riches will leave us poor.

Streams In the Desert, March 7