Hope is not found in lamenting the flames; It is discovered in the process of celebrating those who have the courage to face them. -JE Lillie
Monthly Archives: May 2015
A New Thing: Being On Time.
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Beyond the Pale.”
The Daily Post asks, When was the last time you did something completely new and out of your element? How was it? Will you do it again?
I feel like life is constantly challenging me with new levels and opportunities for growth. I suppose that is a good thing. But I have to admit it is uncomfortable.
There are many things I am doing in new ways but I will share one stupid little item I am trying. I am trying to be on-time to events. Before we go on let me assure you, it is not what you think. All my life I have been early to everything I do (well except for that one brief period of time when the kids were little and the adjustment to having little kids made me chronically late to everything). My father taught both me and my sister that early is on-time, on-time is late and late is unacceptable. So being 1/2 hour ahead of the crowd is normal for me.
But recently the tightness of my schedule has been making it very stressful to be early. This morning I had a leadership meeting and I determined in my morning devotion that I was going to let go of my earliness expectation. The meeting was for 8 A.M; So I purposely took my time and didn’t even leave the house until 7:51 (the church is a 10 minute drive).
I arrived at the church to find the parking lot empty except for my daughter’s car. She was just leaving her early morning church cleaning gig.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Your meeting isn’t until 8:30 Daddy.” My daughter explained.
So the on-time thing is a work in progress. Yes I will try it again but next time I will try to make sure I haven’t actually written my early arrival time in my planner.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers Up Layers
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Intricate.”
Intricacy is a complicated topic…
Peacock Design at Delft Factory
Maybe what we are talking about is the intricacy of human craftsmanship. Our human penchant for detail.
Inside Guiness Brewery
Or maybe it’s the crazy support systems we use to keep our world together.
No one can deny the intricacies of a Bach played on a piano-forte.
But in the end nothing rivals the intricacies of life made and given by God.
The petals of a rose.
The mountain winds blowing through a forest of trees.
Or the sunlight settling on the smile of a child.
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Taking the Witness Stand Pt. 3
Taking the Witness Stand is one sermon in a series our church staff is preaching following the NBC series A.D. The Bible Continues.
If you missed either of the first two parts of Taking the Witness Stand you can find them here:
Taking the Witness Stand Pt. 1
Taking the Witness Stand Pt. 2
Here is today’s portion:
Yesterday we concluded by saying…
We Have To Obey God in the midst of opposition
Taking the witness stand for Christ is not always easy. In America, right now, we have a right to declare our faith freely without fear of retribution. It is not that way in the rest of the world.
These headlines come from Voice of the Martyrs
March 2015-News has just come to hand from Vietnam sources of the Vietnamese Evangelical Mennonite Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and his son Nguyen Quang Trieu being attacked by a group of seven young men while uniformed police sat back and did nothing to prevent the assault from happening.
April 1, 2015- A pastor’s daughter died, several people were injured and a Baptist church was torched during an attack on a village in the Rogo local government area of Kano State on the evening of 1 April.
We hear stories like this and cannot believe the ferocity of these attacks. We ask why. Jesus explained the reason in John 15 when He said,
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.
18“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.
Still, why would we choose Peter and John’s road in Acts chapter 4? If what Jesus said is true,why would we choose to take the witness stand for Jesus?
We choose to do it because we understand that
Jesus is the foundation and because
When we stand for Jesus, He shines through!
How is Jesus shining through your life right now?
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My Biographers
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Your Life, the Book.”
The Daily Post has asked, From a famous writer or celebrity, to a WordPress.com blogger or someone close to you — who would you like to be your biographer?
In spite of my writings here and the fact that I live a very public life as a Staff Pastor in a New England church there are few people who know me intimately enough to do the job of writing my biography. While many see the outside there are few who have watched the interior workings of my life and even fewer I would entrust my journals too.
I think it would have to be my children.
Maybe my sister
Or my best friend Jody.
Lillie-Put 