May 8, ’13 Whiting, NJ
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Time: |
8:30am – 3:00pm |
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Speaker(s): |
Dee Brestin |
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Name of Event: |
Spring Ladies Day |
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Location: |
America’s Keswick Activity Center |
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City: |
Whiting, NJ |
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More information: |
Phone: (732) 350-1187 (ext. 21) |
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Contact information: |
Bill Welte |
MARY PONDERED ALL THESE THINGS IN HER HEART
HOW DOES A PERSON CHANGE?
ONE IMPORTANT LINK BETWEEN
PUTTING OFF THE OLD SELF
AND PUTTING ON THE NEW
IS “BEING RENEWED IN THE SPIRIT OF OUR MINDS”
MARY SERVES AS AN EXAMPLE
REPEATEDLY WE ARE TOLD
SHE PONDERED ALL THESE THINGS IN HER HEART
LET’S NOT SAY GOOD-BYE TO CHRISTMAS
WITHOUT PONDERING
Many of you have a favorite Christmas movie. I love especially the scenes from Luke 1 and Luke 2 in Jesus of Nazareth, as pictured below. Olivia Hussey is a believer and has a radiance that seems befitting Mary. She shows awe, wonder, and amazement. We see her pondering, truly.
"Greatly troubled at the saying, trying to discern what sort of greeting this might be"
"Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to thy word."
"My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
"They went with haste and found Mary, and Joseph, and the baby...But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart"
- And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
The verses in the captions above are all from Luke. They are so familiar that we tend not to hear them. I listened to my son dramatically read Luke 2 to his children last week, but saw their eyes glaze over. It’s hard when it is so familiar. But at least on this Christmas day, this day that falls once every seven years on a Sunday, let us ponder the verses below the pictures and see if we have a question, a comment, a new insight. And then I will lead you into pondering some other Advent thoughts. Many of these are questions that could be done with children as well.
I promise to keep the homework simple this week — and I’m not giving you a sermon, though if you want one, I’d recommend Keller’s How To Sing at Christmas — about Mary’s Magnificat I also want to give my website manager David a break this week, so don’t have an easy link, but here is what I can do and you can paste into your browser.
How To Sing At Christmas: http://sermons.redeemer.com/store/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=6&Name=How+To+Sing+at+Christmas&monthrecorded=&yearrecorded=&scripture=&speaker=all&messagetype=&SKUsearch=&sort=DateNew&CFID=3459427&CFToken=23274446
Christmas Day and Monday: Pondering the Word
1. What’s your favorite Christmas movie and why? (I’ve already told you my spiritual favorite, but I also love Elf and love watching it with my daughter-in-law who laughs through it all every time. I have a son who wouldn’t watch it because it wasn’t spiritual and we made him, and he rolled on the floor with laughter.)
2. Read through the above verses that are captions below the pictures. If one quickens you, camp there, and tell us what you see. Ponder, ponder — for He’s speaking to you!
3. Name one memory from Christmas Eve or Christmas Day of 2011. Why do you want to remember it?
Tuesday: Pondering the Gifts: Though it is true this can become the focus, gifts can also be a way of showing Christ’s love if done not as a duty but as an expression of love. Maybe because people knew I’d be alone this Christmas (though I’m not really — the Lord is so present and I was with dear friends last night) I was given some very thoughtful gifts this year — and each time sensed love from the giver and the Lord. My daughter Annie knew I treasured some small pottery dessert plates that Hallmark once made that have the words grateful, thankful, abundance, and blessed on them. For years she has been combing e-bay, Craig’s list, garage sales…this year she found them! She is the best gift giver in our family for she listens and watches and prays to do it well! I have a friend who reads this blog and and noticed I mentioned I liked Bath and Body and the balsam fragrance and gave me B and B balsam candles. This is “paying attention.” Isn’t that what we all crave — someone who will “pay attention” and not give as a chore? I have a friend who is an amazing bread maker and mailed me, with dry ice, four loaves! And my sister Sally sent me some old pictures of Steve and me that I had never seen, and I melted. So much love. Gift giving can be meaningful. It’s one of the ways God showed me His love this year, that He is Emmanuel.
Challenge question: The wisemen brought three gifts. What was each and how did each foretell something about Jesus?
5. What was one of the most thoughtful gifts you received this Christmas and what do you learn about expressing love through gifts from that giver?
6. What was the most thoughtful gift you gave, and did it provoke the response you hoped for?
How might you improve in this area?
7. What are some of the most efficacious ways to articulate thanks for gifts given — to people, and to God?
Wednesday — Thursday: Pondering the Music
Music penetrates the heart and when done in true worship gives pleasure to God. How blessed we are. I loved your reflections on music at church, The Messiah, your you-tube postings.
8. I’m going to give you some familiar lines from carols and ask for your reflections.
A. For the hard times, for those of you who are persecuted in your families, for those of you with illness, and with heavy burdens — this from It Came Upon A Midnight Clear:
And ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low
who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow
look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing.
B. For welcoming Him in on a regular basis, from O Little Town — think of it not just for the salvation from the penalty of sin but from the power of sin.
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin
where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in
C. Do you agree with this theology from Away in a Manger? Why or why not? What do your children think?
The little Lord Jesus no crying he makes
D. After our studies, does this mean more to you? Explain, from O Come All Ye Faithful
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing
E. Joy to the World is really a song of the second coming — what hope does it give you?
No more let sins and sorrows grow
nor thorns infest the ground
F. O Come O Come Emmanuel prays this line — did it happen for you with anyone this Advent?
Bid now our sad divisions cease
and be thou now our Prince of Peace
G. From O Holy Night — He appeared and the soul felt its worth — Are you realizing this?
H. Share a line from a carol that impacts you and why
Friday-Saturday Pondering How God was Emmanuel, with us in Advent 2011
8. What stood out to you in your own life and why?
9. Share one story you read on this blog and why it stood out to you.
10. If you did listen to “How To Sing At Christmas,” what stood out to you?
11. Give thanks to God for gifts from Him this Advent.
INFINITY WALLED IN A WOMB
I MEMORIZE LUCI SHAW’S POEMS OF THE INCARNATION
BECAUSE THEY FEED MY SOUL EACH ADVENT
WHEN MY SOUL IS HUNGRY FOR MORE
THAN SENTIMENTALITY,
SWEETS,
SANTA,
AND SAPPY CHRISTMAS MOVIES
(NOT THAT I DO NOT ENJOY ALL OF THE ABOVE!)
BUT I WANT MORE
SO MUCH MORE
LAST YEAR I MEMORIZED “MADE FLESH”
TURNING OVER PHRASES THAT MADE ME WORSHIP
THE GOD WHO WAS MADE FLESH
THE GOD WHO WAS WILLING TO BE
“INFINITY WALLED IN A WOMB”
If you are not familiar with Luci Shaw, you are in for a grand adventure. She is my favorite contemporary poet, a woman of great talent, wisdom, and integrity. I can hardly believe how merciful God was to me to let Luci be the woman who opened the door to the writing world for me, mentoring me, publishing my first work. If you love poetry (I know some of you are learning to do so!) then you must get Luci’s book on “Poems of the Incarnation.” When Luci was about four or five years old, her dad recorded her first poem, recognizing her genius. This pre-kindergartener said:
I see a loon
standing against the moon
and it reminds me of
the judgment of God
God gave her a talent, and she has not buried it. She is also a woman of enormous integrity, which I have experienced firsthand. She has been my mentor, and I wrote so much about her in The Friendships of Women that I embarrassed her. I want you to meet her — and here is a clip of Luci talking about her book, “The Crime of Living Cautiously.” It begins with her doing a stunt I cannot imagine doing at my age — which is about how old she was when this was filmed. Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL2PExlczrU Please listen too to the challenge she brings about how risks in obeying God can bring us closer to Him. Ponder what this means for you this week. You will see this philosophy again in the 2nd part of Luci’s poem.
Along with Luci’s poem, “Made Flesh” we will listen to my favorite Christmas sermon from Tim Keller, also inspired by the prologue of John. I promise you, this will feed your soul. There’s not a lot of homework, because I know it’s a crazy busy week, but your soul needs it, and it will help you slow down and sense His light in the darkness, His love in the loneliness, and His strength in the exhaustion of all there is to do.
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it
SUNDAY/MONDAY: ICE-BREAKER AND DOWNLOAD KELLER’S MESSAGE: http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/word-made-flesh
1. What stands out to you from the above and why?
2. Luci, in her video, challenges us to take risks based on our talents, based on God’s leading — how might you live less cautiously this Advent week — how might you love outrageously, how might you trust Him boldly?
Monday-Tuesday: Read John 1:1-5 and Meditate on Luci Shaw’s Poem: Made Flesh, Part I.
After
the white-hot beam of annunciation
fused heaven with dark earth,
his searing, sharply focused light
went out for a while,
eclipsed in amniotic gloom:
his cool immensity of splendor,
his universal grace,
small-folded in a warm, dim
female space—
the Word stern-sentenced to be
nine months’ dumb—
infinity walled in a womb,
until the next enormity—
the Mighty One, after submission
to a woman’s pains,
helpless on a barn’s bare floor,
first-tasting bitter earth.
2. What phrases about Jesus stand out to you and why? (Go slowly – this is fine dining.)
Wednesday: Read Part II. of Luci Shaw’s Made Flesh.
Now
I in him surrender
to the crush and cry of birth.
Because eternity
was closeted in time,
he is my open door to forever.
From his imprisonment
my freedoms grow,
find wings. Part of this body,
I transcend this flesh.
From his sweet silence my mouth sings.
Out of his dark I glow.
My life, as his,
slips through death’s mesh,
time’s bars,
joins hands with heaven,
speaks with stars.
“Made flesh,” in Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation
3. What phrases stand out to you from the above and why?
4. List one example from this Advent or this year that the phrase you chose is being made real in your life.
Thursday-Friday Listen to Keller’s sermon and answer:
5. First Point: The Word
A. Keller gives the illustration that you can’t really say you “know” someone until you have spoken to him. Can you give an example?
B. Concerning the above, what have you learned about dialoguing with God?
C. Keller says Philosophy 101 says you can’t prove anything is true. Therefore, we cannot present a watertight case for Christianity, but we do have a watertight Person. List three ways that Jesus has shown His love by coming down and experiencing the pain we have experienced.
6. Second Point: Became Flesh
A. Keller relates the story of the woman who cried out from the street for help because she was being stabbed. Lights came on, but no one came down. In what ways did Jesus make Himself vulnerable by coming down?
B. By taking on human flesh and experiencing our pain, He became our “Wonderful Counselor.” Explain why this is so and one way He has been a wonderful counselor to you.
7. Third point: Dwelt among us
A. Keller said that the incarnation was “the end of religion as we know it.” Explain what he meant.
B. Write a prayer of praise to The Word who became flesh and dwelt among us.
Saturday
8. What’s your take-a-way and why?
Next week is our final Advent week, then New Year’s Day, and in early January we will launch a new and exciting adventure, and I hope you will join us and invite friends too! I’m 90% sure what it will be, but would love your prayers for wisdom.
GOD WITH US
IMAGINE THE TERROR OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
WHEN GOD CAME NEAR
THE SHEKINAH GLORY
WHENEVER HE CAME
THEY WERE FILLED WITH FEAR
MOSES TOOK OFF HIS SHOES AT THE BURNING BUSH
PLOUCHARD: BURNING BUSH
ISAIAH CRIED WOE IS ME
JOB WAS FLATTENED WHEN GOD CAME IN A WHIRLWIND
WILLIAM BLAKE: JOB
AND AFTER FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF SILENCE
ON THAT HOLY NIGHT
THE PRESENCE OF GOD AGAIN STRUCK FEAR
"The Annunciation of the Shepherds" Benjamin Gervitsz Cuyp Dutch (1612-1652)
When I was young, long before most of you were born, I loved watching television Christmas specials: Perry Como, Andy Williams…and though there were plenty of songs about chestnuts and winter wonderlands, they always had sacred songs as well, often closing with the spine-tingling O Holy Night, where you were reminded of the holiness of Christmas.
This year I watched a few and thought how different this world has become. Michael Buble’s 1st Christmas special did not have one sacred song. The New York Rockefeller Special with the lighting of the tree became pornographic and had to be turned off. No fear. No sense of the holiness of God.
But before I get too critical of the secular world, who does not know Jesus, let me turn this searing light on myself.
Early in our marriage, Steve and I came to love this simple Christmas chorus:
Emmanuel, Emmanuel,
His name is called
Emmanuel.
God with us,
Revealed in us,
His name is called
Emmanuel.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel,
Your name is called
Emmanuel
God with us
Revealed in us,
Your name is called
Emmanuel.
When we realize that God is not only with us, but revealed in us, it should change our relationships with even the difficult people this Advent. Last Sunday after church, doing dishes with my dear daughter-in-law Julie, I told her I had an ethical dilemma. I told her of a new neighbor who was a believer, but whom I perceived might be difficult, and whom I feared could consume me. She had been calling and e-mailing frequently, asking to get together. Frankly, I was afraid if I opened the door I might be swallowed up. I was looking for support and agreement from Julie, but I didn’t get it. She said, “Mom — don’t you think Jesus would have you be open to her? Just be honest with her about your time. Set boundaries — but don’t close the door.” I protested, but Julie was firm, repeating her stand.
So, I got home, called the neighbor, and told her I had an hour. She came right over, and the poor lady put her watch on the coffee table so she wouldn’t stay more than an hour. She is a widow, talkative, and I asked God to help me listen, to be His love, yet I was antsy. Obedient on the outside but shutting up my compassions on the inside. But then God began to break through. She had been talking about Joel Olstein and how much she loved him, and I realized she had been under false teaching. She suddenly stopped talking and asked me if I liked him too. She was flustered when I said I did not, but she also was very open to finding out why. She listened. Then she told me she was trying very hard to live for Jesus so that she could be in heaven one day with her husband.
SUDDENLY GOD’S COMPASSION FOR THIS WOMAN WELLED UP IN ME. I stopped her, said her name, and pled with her to listen to the assurances Christ gives us. God was with us. She wept. Then suddenly she saw her hour was up and jumped up to get her coat and respect my boundary.
SHE WASN’T DIFFICULT AT ALL. I WAS.
I was not fearing God. I was not being the presence of God to my neighbor.
I was shutting up my compassions from one in need.
God with us. Revealed in us. Our Lord is called Emmanuel.
This week I want to begin with the free Keller sermon where he simply takes these three words: God with us.
It is an amazing phrase. It was first spoken by the prophet Isaiah, proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds, and should be the amazement of our lives. Keller said that when John Wesley was dying, his last words were: “The best thing is God with us.”
Yet Keller spends most of his sermon just on the first word, GOD, before he gets to what he calls the “soft” part, that He is with us.
Sunday/Monday
Icebreaker and download free sermon (I’m sorry the other link did not take you to the free sermon): http://sermons.redeemer.com/store/
1. Of the paintings above, comment on one and how you think the people or the individual felt. Have you ever experienced that kind of fear? A God-quake? When?
2. Comment on Dee’s story with her neighbor. Could you identify? How is God calling you to be His love to someone this Advent?
3. We are half-way through Advent. Have you sensed the presence of God? When?
Tuesday-Friday
4. Listen to the Keller sermon, “God with us” and record your initial thoughts.
5. The bulk of the sermon was on the Word God
A. Jesus is God. Look at Isaiah 9:6 and find evidence from those names that Jesus, indeed, is God.
B. Keller differentiates between a general knowledge of God and an experience of God. He gives examples of Old Testament saints that experienced God.
What stood out to you from this and why?
C. Pray for yourself and each woman reading this blog, that she might have a sense of the holiness of God this week.
After all the terrifying experiences when God came near, why, Keller asks, would He now present Himself to us as a helpless baby?
REMBRANDT: SIMEON
WHAT IS MORE HELPLESS THAN A NEWBORN?
JULIE BRESTIN AND NEWBORN OCTAVIA
OR WHAT IS MORE APPROACHABLE THAN A NEWBORN?
YOU CAN’T KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF A NEWBORN BABY!
BIG SISTER TIKI (TEAGHAN) WITH TAVIE (OCTAVIA) AND BABY SADIE IN BACKGROUND
6. Keller talks about why, when Christ came, God suddenly becomes approachable. He tells a story of his wife Kathy in traffic court coming with all kinds of pictures and charts — and winning. But that is not how we will approach God on that terrible judgment day. What will be our defense?
7. Read Matthew 1:21-23
A. According to verse 21, why is this baby given the name “Jesus?” Explain how this great truth allows God to be approachable.
B. Approach God now in prayer, knowing He hears you, knowing you are clean in His sight because of the Savior, and ask Him to be near to you this day. Ask Him to help you walk in the light, to be His love.
C. What was the prophecy of Isaiah according to Matthew 1:23, and what does the name Immanuel mean?
frankincense God with us
Last week at church we sang a new Getty Christmas carol that talked about the prophetic meaning of the gifts of the Magi. Gold meant He was King, and myrrh meant He would die, and frankincense meant He was God with us.
Though I find the fragrance of incense too pungent, I love either the fragrant Christmas balsam candles or the balsam oil you can put in a burner with a tea candle underneath (from Bath and Body) The fragrance wafts up, filling my living room, reminding me:
God is with me.
God is with me.
God is with me.
This will be my first Christmas where the children will all be with their in-laws. (I know I’ll still get to see several sometime during that week.) But I will not be alone. God is with me.
Truly, He is. His presence comes to me through the body of Christ, through the music and fragrance of Christmas, through His glorious Word, and through His Spirit which will never leave me nor forsake me.
God with us.
8. What else impacted you from Keller’s message and why?
Saturday
9. How has God been with you this week?
10. What is your take-a-way and why?
NO LONGER AT EASE IN THE OLD DISPENSATION
LIKE THE MAGI WE HAVE JOURNEYED THIS YEAR
AND WE, LIKE THEM, ARE NOT THE SAME
THIS 2ND WEEK OF ADVENT WE WILL CONSIDER
TWO PIECES OF ART
FIRST, T.S. ELIOT’S THE JOURNEY OF THE MAGI
SECOND, TIM KELLER’S FREE SERMON: THE COSMIC KING
At the close of each year, I consider what books impacted me the most. One of my top four this year was Surprised By Oxford. This is Carolyn Weber’s memoir of her first year at Oxford as a young agnostic who was thunderstruck by both the intellectual Christians she met and their enormous joy. In the world of C. S. Lewis, J. R. Tolkein, and Dorothy Sayers, the stimulating conversations seized her. It’s a love story as well, for one believer she met, whom she calls TDH (tall, dark, and handsome) is particularly persuasive. One of the many things I loved about the book was all the great poetry she referenced. Her opening chapter had me laughing so hard for she completely misinterpreted one of my favorite poems, Batter My Heart Three Personed God (John Donne) thinking it was about male domination and rape. Her professor straightened her out, the beginning of her surprise. She reminded me of my freshman year at Northwestern University, when I completely mis-interpreted Yeats poem, “The Second Coming,” having not a clue that it was about Jesus. Just as blind, just as foolish. Carolyn Weber also quotes T. S. Eliot’s The Journey of the Magi, and I was so struck by the closing lines. I’ve heard them before, but this time, because this has been such a year of growth for all of us, they were fresh and new.
Here is The Journey of the Magi, which I’d like you to contemplate all week. You can listen to T. S. Eliot reading this poem by clicking here:
THE JOURNEY OF THE MAGI
T. S. ELIOT
“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The was deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.”
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires gong out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty, and charging high prices.:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
SUNDAY/MONDAY
ICE-BREAKER
1. Comment on the above
2. Listen to Eliot read The Journey of the Magi and record your initial thoughts. (It’s a deep poem, but catch what you can.)
MONDAY-TUESDAY
3. Continue to reflect on The Journey of the Magi, recording more thoughts.
4. Read Revelation 1:1-8 and then zero in on verse 5 where you will find momentous truths about Jesus. Contemplate each and write down, first, what it means, and second, how it impacts you.
A. the faithful witness (What does this mean and then how does it impact you?)
B. the firstborn of the dead (What does this mean and then how does it impact you?)
C. the ruler of the kings on earth (What does this mean and then how does it impact you?)
D. has freed us from our sins by his blood (What does this mean and then how does it impact you?)
5. What else do you learn about Jesus from Revelation 1:6-8?
WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY
LISTEN TO FREE KELLER SERMON ON THE ABOVE PASSAGE. I recommend downloading it or it might stop in the middle:
http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/cosmic-king
6. Write your comments on the sermon
7. What did Keller say “the Alpha” meant and how should it apply to you? Is Jesus the “Alpha” in your life?
8. What did Keller say “the Omega) meant and how should it apply to you? Is Jesus the “Omega” in your life?”
9. Contemplate The Journey of the Magi again and write down any new thoughts.
Friday — Praying for our Loved Ones during Advent – just intercede today
I want you to put the following people “on the mat” and pray that God will open their eyes that:
Each might journey this year, as the Magi did, and behold the wonder of Christ. That they might realize who he is — the One who is the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of kings, the one who can free them by His blood. Pray that they will realize He is their Alpha, the reason they are living, and that they will make Him their Omega, their goal in life. There are eleven people here, and I’m hoping you can give a minute or two to each. Pray the above and however else you feel led for each of the following loved ones. The fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much (and we are righteous, clothed in His white garment)
Anne’s husband for a God quake
Dawn M. S.’s father, who may be dying
Dee’s sister Bonnie, who will receive the Ipod shuffle with Keller sermons Thursday of this week – that she will listen and be open — a God quake please
Meg’s mother Karen
Susan’s mother Virginia (angry at God since death of grandson)
Kim’s husband — especially that he might understand God’s grace & son Brad
Diane’s brother Philip chained in bitterness
Joyce’s brother Dennis, losing wife, perhaps becoming bitter
Laura-dancer’s daughter Sarah
Rebecca’s son Elijah that he might experience the wonder of God
Angela’s oldest daughter Kaitlyn who is at a point of struggle and crisis — she thinks intellectually, which is sometimes a hindrance
Elizabeth’s daughter and mother-in-law Edith (see end of last blog)
Cyndi’s brother-in-law
I hope I didn’t miss anyone who participated in the blog last week, but if I did, e-mail me and I will include you for sure this Advent.
Saturday
10. What’s your take-a-way and why?
HOW THIS ADVENT CAN MELT YOUR IDOLS
MAY THIS BE AN ADVENT LIKE NO OTHER
WHAT LOOSENS THE GRIP OF THE ICY FINGERS
OF OUR IDOLS?
IMPACTLAB.NET
COMING INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD
EXPERIENCING
HIS HOLINESS
AND TRULY WORSHIPING
JESUS OF NAZARETH
This Advent I will lead you through passages in Isaiah and the gospels that will help you behold His holiness, His beauty, and may we all pray that we will experience Him — as Isaiah did, as Mary did, as the shepherds did, as the wisemen did. For when you encounter God in His holiness, you are humbled, and if you start worshiping Him, you will stop worshiping your idol.
We saw it happen to our own dear Elizabeth last week — a breach with a friend, a posture of humility, a plea to God, a step of faith, an experience with a holy God, and the melting of an idol. And she found, as we all do, that idols reform, but that humility brings back the heat that melts them again.
We are seeing it with Diane, our newer sister from Canada — the impact of Tim Keller’s worship sermon has brought her into the presence of God, and she is excited to worship God this Advent and is already seeing the icy fingers of her idol melt.
Anne wrote me asking if we could incorporate more prayer this Advent, and I will. I will put it right within the Bible study and you can respond with a prayer request and others can pray for you as they feel moved to do so — either on the blog or silently. Though the purpose of this blog is primarily Bible study, one of the very most effective ways to pray is to pray Scripture — so we will do that, and in so doing, slam the window down on the icy fingers of our idols! If you have another emergency prayer request, we are glad to pray — but I’d love for you to give priority to the prayer request that comes from each week’s lesson. One author said we tend to pray to “feed our idols,” and by praying Scripture, we will not be so prone to do that. We also know, when we pray the Word, that there is power because we are within the will of God.
The sermon this week on our passage, Isaiah 6, is free, and is a stellar Keller.
Sunday/Monday Icebreaker and Download Sermon: The Gospel and Yourself (Isaiah 6)
http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/gospel-and-your-self
1. What comment do you have on the above?
2. Contemplate how beholding God in His holiness has melted one of your idols. What connection do you see?
Bible Study (Monday-Wednesday)
Read Isaiah 6 and the following from My Utmost for His Highest. I will be quoting from this during Advent, for I think it is still one of the very best devotionals available, and bears reading and rereading.
When I come into the very presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sense, but I suddenly realize and the focus of my attention is directed on the concentration of a sin in a particular area of my life. …The effect of Isaiah’s vision of the holiness of the Lord was directing his attention to the fact that he was a man “of unclean lips.” …The cleansing fire had to be applied where the sin had been concentrated.
Oswald Chambers (July 3)
Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves.
Oswald Chambers (Jan 16)
Begin praying now that you will encounter God’s holiness this week and that He will show you specifically what needs to be cleansed. May we each be attuned to His call for us for each day.
3. Describe, in verses 1-4 what Isaiah:
A. Saw
B. Heard
C. Felt
4. Take each phrase of Isaiah’s response, meditate on it, and allow it to heat your heart. Write any comments:
A. Woe is me
B. For I am lost
C. for I am a man of unclean lips
D. and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,
E. for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!
5. In verses 6-7, what did the seraphim do and what does this represent?
We are so focused on ourselves, it takes discipline and faith to focus on God and experience Him.
It is so hard to be still. So hard to give the sacrifice of worship. But it is the secret to experiencing God. Sing along with Hillsong, asking God to help you contemplate His holiness:
If you have a favorite Christmas carol emphasizing God’s holiness, sing it — and share it with us.
6. What did Isaiah overhear God saying and how does he respond? (Isaiah 6:8)
7. When you are still before Him, what are His primary callings on your life just for today?
8. PRAYER REQUESTS GOING WITH THIS LESSON
A. What idol, what area of your life does God’s searing sharply focused light shine upon? Tell us, and we will pray for you that the seraphim might fly to you with his holy coal of fire and cleanse you. (Please be sure to tell us if and when God moves in your heart.)
B. Name one loved one for whom you would like us to pray that he or she might experience the wonder of God, as Isaiah did. (Tell us if and when you see God moving in his or her heart.)
C. Anne shared that in one group each week they put one sister on the mat and prayed for her, referring to the story where four friends let a paralyzed friend down on a mat, through the roof, to Jesus.
Healing of paralyzed man
This week let us “put Diane on the mat” and let her down to Jesus. Here is her testimony and request from last week:
As we approach the Christmas season, when I review my notes on Keller’s sermon on Worship, I realize I need to apply this to Christmas. For many years I have dreaded Christmas. I have felt an inordinate pressure to measure up to others. My husband’s family has a lot more money than we do and for years I have felt that they looked down on our simple gifts. I was jealous of the amount of money they spent at Christmas. After my husband’s mother died 11 years ago, his sister stopped speaking to us. …Bitterness because of this even has caused me to struggle with everything about Christmas (a terrible thing for a pastor’s wife)! I even resented how other churches had better Christmas programs than we had, because they were bigger and richer than we. These thoughts have taken away much of my joy at Christmas. As a result of this study, I realize God can change me in this matter. I do not want my hurt, and bitterness to be my lord any more. Comparison is a monster!
As I see my idol this year and realize that God’s love is all I need to be satisfied, to feel valued and is more powerful than my negative emotions, I am approaching the Christmas season with more hope and happiness than I have not had in many years. Please pray for me.
Let us pray that Diane so senses God’s love for her, and is so filled with His wonder, that she is willing to pay the cost of forgiveness, truly letting hurts go, and to know how pleased God is with this offering to Him and with all offerings of love. May He truly come to her, transforming her heart, giving her His joy and peace this Advent.
LISTEN TO THE FREE KELLER SERMON (THURSDAY-FRIDAY)
Keller quoted a friend who said Isaiah was going into worship and was shocked to meet God. May we meet God in our worship services this Advent!
9. Keller said Isaiah had a “God quake,” where concept became reality. What did he mean?
10. Share about a recent God quake in your life if you have had one.
11. First, Keller said, we must see the BEAUTY of the Lord. What do you remember about this?
Don’t answer this question on the blog, but in your own heart. Keller said most people give to feel good about themselves. Ask yourself — how am I giving in time or money secretly, simply because I love God?
12. Then we must be humbled. The man with the golden tongue had to be humbled. What do you remember about this?
One of the best definitions of the Gospel is illustrated by Isaiah 6.
Isaiah was deconstructed — he had to see how wicked he was, how needy he was of salvation.
Isaiah was rescontructed — he had to see how loved he was that God would rescue Him.
13. How does Keller relate this passage to Jesus and to the quake that came to Him?
14. What else stood out to you from the sermon and why?
Take-A-Way (Saturday)
15. What is your take-a-way for the week?
GRATITUDE BRINGS JOY TO OUR GOD AND MAKES US WHOLE
THERE’S A SIMPLICITY IN THANKSGIVING
LOVED ONES GATHERING TO SHARE THE BLESSINGS OF THE HARVEST
AND TO GIVE THANKS
Norman Rockwell Freedom from Want
In our home, we would always go around the table with the same question:
“What are you thankful for this year that you could not have been thankful for last year?”
The answers could be simple, or deeper, delving into spiritual growth or insights.
But it was always a rich sweet time, and as children grew into adults, it could last hours.
Some of you will be in situations where giving thanks is not the custom.
This Norman Rockwell painting always makes me smile.
- Norman Rockwell Giving Thanks
But whether or not you are blessed to have a rich time of
sharing on Thanksgiving Day, we can have one on this
blog. We can help one other see!
Our Town by Thorton Wilde
In Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Emily is allowed to come down from heaven and visit earth invisibly for a day. She sees everybody hurrying — not really seeing, not really engaging with one another. (Personal note: Don’t let Black Friday rob you of fully embracing Thanksgiving Day!) Emily’s words upon leaving earth are forever etched on my heart:
Take me back — up the hill — to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by Grover’s Corners…Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking…and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths…and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. …Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? — Every, every minute?
The stage manager answers: “No.” (Pause) “The saints and the poets – they do maybe, some.”
Here is where we as “saints” (the New Testament word for believers) can play a part in cooperating with the Spirit who is at work within us.
As we grow in the practice of thankfulness, in a mysterious way, more of our heart of flesh is unbound from its encasing stones. Gratitude produces life, joy, and healing.
Each year in my Christmas letter I choose “my book of the year.” This year it will be
One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voscamp. (Many of you love it too.) She tells of how she
came to realize the power of giving thanks, of “realizing life” while she was living it.
She was reading the account of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed. Always before she
thought the moral was simply to be thankful, but this time, when she read the account,
a verse she hadn’t noticed jumped out at her. When the lone leper returns to give
thanks, Jesus said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Wait. I trace back. Hadn’t Jesus already completely healed him? Exactly like the other
nine who were cured who hadn’t bothered to return and thank Him. So what does
Jesus mean, “Your faith has made you well”? Had I underinterpreted this passage,
missed some hidden mystery? I slow down and dig…
Ann’s epiphany was that the continuing miracle of
being made whole, of being, indeed, saved from our
prisons, is related to gratitude. She began to make her
famous list of one thousand gifts – of swaying
sunflowers, of jam spread on heels of homemade
bread, of freckled noses… And one day, months later,
in a friend’s kitchen, she hears:
“You’ve changed.” She turns to me, and I turn to catch the words.
“I have?”
…I don’t say it, but I am thinking she may be right and I had felt it for
months, the maturing, the swelling, the something different that had
begun to happen. But I had thought the re-creation was still embryonic, a
bud of hope. I hadn’t thought it had fully bloomed. I hadn’t thought that
anyone could see the light in the eyes.
“It’s that list you’ve been writing, isn’t it?” She clatters down bowls.
I want to keep this week simple, for I know it is a busy one. But minimally, could we
each come on frequently giving thanks for “gifts?” For seeing things simple and profound.
Do this, if nothing else, for homework.
For those of you who have more time, I’d love you to reflect on the words to a wonderful
Thanksgiving Hymn that is full of images of the harvest, and then, if possible, listen to
message by Tim Keller on one of the harvest parables mentioned in the hymn.
We also are going to meet Kim Taylor this week — so jump on any time and affirm Kim!
Next week we begin Advent! Please invite friends to join us for the season.
ICEBREAKERS
1. ANY REFLECTIONS ON THE ABOVE?
2. WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR THIS YEAR THAT YOU COULD NOT HAVE BEEN THANKFUL FOR LAST YEAR?
ALL WEEK — AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN COME ON
3. JUMP ON TO LIST A FEW “GIFTS” WHENEVER YOU CAN. IF YOU NEED A LITTLE
HELP, REFER TO THIS LIST FOR BROADENING YOUR THANKS
- Worred? Let your requests be made known with thanksgiving (See Philippians 4:6)
- Confess sins and give thanks both for His conviction and His tender mercies (Psalm 32)
- Remember times of great mercy when your mouth was filled with laughter (Psalm 126:1-2)
- For any harmony in relationships (Psalm 133)
- For the power of the Word (Psalm 119)
- For all His benefits (Psalm 103)
- For the beauty of the heavens and the earth (Psalm 19)
- When I have trouble sleeping at night, I go through the alphabet listing names or attributes of Jesus (You are Alpha — I’m so thankful You are the beginning and the end, and all things are held together in you; You are Beautiful beyond description — and yet You love me…)
- Share your helps for thanksgiving with us!
4. If you read One Thousand Gifts, share one part you loved and why.
5. IF TIME PERMITS, MEDITATE ON THE LYRICS TO “COME YE THANKFUL COME” AND SHARE ANYTHING THAT QUICKENS YOU, OR HELPS YOU TO PRAY THIS WEEK. THIS HYMN IS SO FILLED WITH SCRIPTURE, IT IS A GREAT ONE TO MEMORIZE.
Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take His harvest home;
From His field shall in that day all offenses purge away,
Giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store in His garner evermore.Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.
6. TIM KELLER SERMON:
A. THIS ONE GOES WITH THE ABOVE HYMN BUT IS NOT FREE: Link
B. THIS ONE IS ON WORSHIP AND IS FREE: Link
MEETING OUR BLOGGERS! KIM!
I knew Kim when living in Nebraska and loved her spirit. On a personal note, I remember one time when I was in a group and was seeing things quite differently from everyone else and feeling isolated. She suddenly spoke up and defended my point of view. (I may have been completely wrong — but I appreciated her brave support!) I also have heard, since leaving Nebraska, what a wonderful difference she makes in the children’s Bible club that accompanies a Bible study network that I began with a few other women thirty plus years ago. There are so many kids in that Bible club, and my dear friend told me how wonderful and dedicated Kim is in this ministry.
Here’s Kim’s testimony, followed by a picture of Kim and her husband, two sons, and daughter-in-law (who has also participated on this blog).
I am happily married with two grown sons and a lovely daughter in law. I am blessed to be a homemaker and seasonal business owner. I grew up in a Christian family with two brothers and one sister. I find joy in volunteering at my church and mentoring young women. My passion besides homemaking is decorating and re-purposing used things.
I remember like it was yesterday the email from Dee inviting me to join the Stonecutter study. I wanted to ignore it but God had other plans. I was far too religious to say audibly to God what I was thinking, that if I participated it had better be the answer once and
for all. By this time I had tried so many false answers that my heart had turned concrete. Proverbs 13:12a says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…” My heart was so sick that when we sang “Victory in Jesus” in church, I felt anger rise up in me for I saw few living in victory over sin.
I joined the study and although I bowed before all the idols listed, I determined to crush the biggest first-my comfort idol (food). Food comforted me when I was afraid, made me feel momentarily happy when I was sad and filled up time when I was bored. It was the sedative I took to ease the pain of life but the more I consumed, the more I needed to use, to cover the consequences my food overuse caused.
Proverbs 13:12 says: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
God answered my prayers and used this study to fulfill all my longings and heal my heart. He has now become my comfort and happiness. I once believed I must behave myself to get to enter heaven. I now know I have nothing to offer Him. He paid the price in full. I am humbled at His sacrifice and great love for me.
7. How can you affirm Kim?
8. WHAT IS YOUR TAKE-A-WAY FOR THE WEEK?
STONECUTTER REVIEW (INCLUDING THE TREE OF LIFE)
WE HAVE BEGUN A JOURNEY WE WILL
BE ON FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES
BUT OH!
STONES ARE BEING CHISELED
HEARTS OF FLESH RELEASED
TO LOVE, TO FEEL, AND TO EXPERIENCE
THE POWER OF GOD
This week, before the beauty of concentrating on Thanksgiving and Advent, we will review where we’ve been, and as part of that review, discuss a movie that portrays some of the themes we’ve discussed. The Tree of Life grapples with what Romans 6, 7, 8 calls the old nature (simply called nature in the film) and the new nature (called grace in the film) and with the difficult question of suffering, drawing upon the close of Job. The story of this Texas family shows how “nature” and its natural bent of clinging to idols destroys, and how “grace” and its gift of trusting God can overcome. I’ve received e-mails from those wondering why I would recommend this movie, and it true it is not a light movie, but I believe it to be one, when discussed, that may act as a hammer in the shattering of stones in your heart. I was so moved by it in so many ways. I sensed the quickening of God on the writer/producer — more than he may have even realized. To my knowledge, none of the lead actors are believers, yet God used them. (As He used Cyrus, “though he does not know me” to free the Jews.) It might be a movie to discuss over the holidays with people you love — even non-Christians.
Here is an excellent review from Christianity Today which I recommend that you read before watching. (They feel it is appropriate for children and I do too, though not the very young.) Here is that review:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/movies/reviews/2011/treeoflife.html
STONECUTTER REVIEW:
When we began, I asked you to begin to identify a heart idol. Tim Keller, in Counterfeit Gods, identifies three primary heart idols.
1: COMFORT/SECURITY
2. POWER/CONTROL
3. AFFIRMATION/APPROVAL
So often in the past we have tried to work on the “near sin” but ignored the deep heart idol. For example, someone with the near sin of losing his temper might try to count to ten, but as long as he ignores his deep heart idol of control, he will not be likely to have victory. It isn’t enough to try harder, or to be a faithful church goer, but you absolutely must identify how you are trusting in something other than God. We all do it, for it is our natural bent.
In the same way, someone with a near sin of overeating, overspending, or oversleeping may get a better diet, budget, or alarm clock — but until she allows God to be her comfort instead of food, or shopping, or sleep, she will not have victory.
We may have never considered that we have an idolatry problem. We are simply living in a way that feels natural, or, as The Tree of Life puts it, “the way of nature.”The father in The Tree of Life loved his family, and yet he nearly destroyed them, and passed down his abusive ways to his eldest son. It isn’t until he loses the job that he gave his all to that he sees the clay feet of his idol. We may not realize we are living for power or approval or comfort — but seeing our idols and how they destroy is indeed, half the battle. Realizing they are not our friends can change our whole lives, as many of you have seen.
We also learned that idols cannot be removed, only replaced. We must allow, in faith, to allow God to be our approval, our comfort, our security, our control… That is a journey that happens as we abide in Him, and as we practice the habit of turning from the darkness of our idol to the light of the One True God. Repenting must become like breathing. The more you experience God’s love, the more you long for it, and your heart of flesh will continue to be released.
Sunday/Monday (Icebreaker and make plans to see the movie)
1. During our journey, name at least one heart idol you identified and ways that You saw the Stonecutter move in your life, both in chiseling the stone and in being to you what your idol could not be.
Monday-Wednesday: Bible Study
The prophets use the terms of idolatry and adultery almost interchangeably. Their point is that sin is not so much “breaking a rule,” but breaking God’s heart. Hosea was commanded to marry an unfaithful woman as a living parable for God’s people, that we might see the futility of running after our idols, how we are breaking God’s heart, and what He longs to show us about Himself.
Broken-Hearted Bridegroom by Martin French (Forever in Love with Jesus)
When Kathy Troccoli and I were praying what book of the Bible we would use for the third in our trilogy about approaching Jesus as our bridegroom, Kathy wanted to do portraits of Christ from The Gospel of John. I wanted to do portraits of Christ from the prophet Hosea. After praying for God’s heart and likemindedness of two very strong-willed and different women, one night, I woke suddenly in the middle of the night thinking, “I wonder if we might see the same portraits of Jesus in both the writings of Hosea and the writings of John.” I could already see The Redeemer, The Lion, and The Bridegroom in both — but the most important portraits of Jesus in John are the eight great I AM’s, and I didn’t see THE GREAT I AM in Hosea. But I wondered… I went downstairs in the middle of the night and curled up with Hosea in my green leather chair — might I find THE GREAT I AM? During that reading I wondered if THE GREAT I AM might be seen, in the negative in Hosea 2:2. The next day I called Dorian Coover-Cox, a Hebrew expert at Dallas Seminary, and she confirmed it. She said, “YES! YES! He is saying, because of your infidelities, for a time, I am separating from you — and I AM NOT your husband. It’s temporary, to bring her to her senses, and He sees a day when she will again call Him her husband and He will enable her to keep her covenant.” Forever in Love with Jesus therefore shows the portraits of Christ that are in both Hosea and John,because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And it is filled with amazing portraits by Martin French done especially for that study.
2. Read Hosea 2
A. Why is the Lord going to “separate” from His people, saying I am not her husband, according to verses 1-2?
B. Why, according to verse 5, did she decide to go after her lovers?
C. What does she not realize, according to verse 8?
D. Describe God’s heartbreak in verse 13. How has this fact helped you resist your idols more effectively than approaches in the past? Be specific by describing the old approach and the new approach.
E. Why did God lead His bride into the wilderness? Meditate long on Hosea 2:14-15.
F. Describe a way that the failure of an idol in your life ultimately led to you hearing God’s tender voice.
G. In Hosea 2:16-23, describe how we will be truly changed when we see Jesus face to face. (“In that Day”)
H. What stands out to you from Hosea 2 and why?
3. Preparation for watching The Tree of Life
A. The movie opens with Job 38:4. Read this verse in context. What point is God making to Job with this verse and with the ensuing questions in the close of this magnificent book?
B. Suffering can turn our hearts to stone if we do not trust God, but God has given us far more evidence than Job ever had for us to trust Him. Name a few things that you can cling to when suffering comes.
4. The movie opens with the statement that there are two ways of life — the way of grace and the way of nature. Meditate on this passage from Romans 6:
12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
In terms of our Stonecutter study, you often have the choice during the day to present yourself to your idol or to trust God. What promise can you find in verse 14 and what does this tell you about “the way of nature/idols” and “the way of grace/God.”
5. There is a point in the movie where the eldest son is becoming abusive like his father and he quotes Romans – I do not do what I want to do, but I do what I hate. How have you experienced the power of sin spiraling you down — and how has God been able to reach down and rescue you?
REFLECTING ON THE MOVIE (Friday-Saturday)
The Tree of Life
6. WHAT CHRISTIAN THEMES STOOD OUT TO YOU FROM THE MOVIE AND WHY?
7. DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT WAS SAID ABOUT “THE WAY OF GRACE” AND “THE WAY OF NATURE” IN THE OPENING? COMMENT, IF YOU DO.
8. THERE IS A KALIEDOSCOPE OF IMAGES FROM THE CLOSE OF JOB AND THEREFORE CREATION IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE MOVIE. (NOTE THAT THEY TAKE PLACE IN THE SAME AREA THE BOYS PLAYED.) WHAT STOOD OUT TO YOU AND WHY? FAVORITE IMAGES?
9. The mother represents grace, but grace does not mean licentiousness or freedom from the law. Find examples of when she talked sternly to her eldest son about his abuse. When you are aware of a parent’s love (or God’s love) why is obedience more likely?
10. What do you think the father’s idol was and why? How was it bringing destruction?
11. What awakened the father to the futility of his idol? What evidence of repentance did you see in the father in his words to his wife after the son died?
12. Do you think the mother could have handled the situation any differently? Why or why not?
13. What did you think the closing scene represented?
14. Describe the forgiveness scene between the two brothers. Comment.
15. Why do you think the movie was called “The Tree of Life?”
16. What was your take-a-way from the movie — positive or negative?
BEHOLD WHAT MANNER OF LOVE!
IT’S LOVE THAT CAUSES A PARENT
TO GET UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
Norman Rockwell Two-O-Clock Feeding
IT’S LOVE THAT LISTENS, TEACHES,
DISCIPLINES IN ANGST
LONGING TO TEACH THE CHILD TO
TURN FROM THE DARKNESS TO THE LIGHT
NORMAN ROCKWELL SPANKING
IT’S LOVE THAT READS “GOODNIGHT MOON”
A THOUSAND TIMES
TUCKS HIM IN
AND PRAYS GOD WILL KEEP HIM SAFE
NORMAN ROCKWELL FEAR
IT’S LOVE THAT KEEPS ON, ALL THROUGH THE YEARS
IT’S LOVE THAT DOES NOT TURN AWAY
WHEN TAKEN FOR GRANTED
OR TREATED WITH DISRESPECT
BUT INSTEAD PRAYS FOR HIS SOUL
AND WAITS LONGINGLY FOR HIS RETURN
For the most part, children have no idea of the sacrificial love that their parents have bestowed upon them.
When I was about ten, and my dad wouldn’t let me do something, I accused him of not loving me. That was quite brash of me for I had been taught to treat him and Mother with respect. I can still remember where I was sitting — on the floor of my walk-in closet, and he was standing at the door. I’ll never forget the look of shock on his face — and the tears that sprung to his eyes. I had stunned him with my lack of appreciation for all the sacrifices he had made for me. He was a man I respected, a CEO of a large company, and yet here he was, weeping at his youngest daughter’s thoughtless accusation. He told me that everything he did was out of love for my mother and the three of us girls. His words and his tears penetrated my hard heart. It was a turning point for me.
I saw a movie this week that brought this memory back. I want to recommend it. (I received an e-mail recently from a woman questioning my recommendation of movies that were not “feel good” movies. This is another, but it impacted me and gave me compassion for the illegal immigrant, especially the one who is simply trying to make a better life for his loved ones.)
A BETTER LIFE
A BETTER LIFE
You may not have time to rent and watch it, but watch these two trailers. The first gives you a summary of the movie, and the second is the pivotal conversation that this father has with his son, before he has to abandon him in America, for he is being shipped back to Mexico. It takes place in prison when they are saying good-bye. (Important things are said when time is running out.) That conversation is a turning point for the boy, for he finally understands his father’s love.
Here is the trailer for A Better Life
Here is the pivotal scene when the father says good-bye.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_better_life/trailers/11146907/
If a child does come to understand a parent’s love, it can make a tremendous difference in his life.
And if we, as children of God, can come to understand how great the love the Father has lavished on us, it will help us let go of our idols. Our idols cannot love us, but oh, what manner of love our Father has bestowed upon us!
Truly, though our love for our children is deep, it cannot be compared to the love our Father has for us. The phrase in 1 John 3 that says “Behold what manner of love” literally means “from what tribe or nation” is this love? Or, better said:
FROM WHAT PLANET IS THIS LOVE?
ICE-BREAKER AND DOWNLOAD SERMON (SUNDAY-MONDAY)
THE SERMON IS FREE AND SUPERB!
HERE’S THE LINK:
http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/beholding-love-god
ICE-BREAKER
1. Could you identify with Dee’s story of not appreciating her father’s love? If so, why or why not?
2. Why is it, do you think, that most children are prone not to see the depth of a parent’s love?
3. What stood out to you from the movie clips from A Better Life and why?
4. Are you growing in appreciation for your heavenly Father’s love for you? If so, tell us either how this is happening or pray that it will.
5. Do you have any other comments on the opening?
BIBLE STUDY (MONDAY-WEDNESDAY) (WONDERFUL PASSAGES — BUT I’VE KEPT IT SHORT SO YOU CAN ALSO MEMORIZE AT LEAST TWO VERSES FROM THIS HYMN. PLEASE SING, SING, SING THE LOVE OF GOD INTO YOUR HEART)
HYMN ASSIGNMENT:
SING “HOW CAN IT BE?” EACH DAY — AND BY THURSDAY HAVE LEARNED THE FIRST TWO VERSES. YOU CAN USE THE ORIGINAL MELODY OR FIND INDELIBLE GRACE’S VERSION ON YOU-TUBE.
Here are the four most popular verses:
1) And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?2) He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
EXTRA CREDIT — THESE
LAST GREAT VERSES — this painting goes with verse 3
ST PETER FREED FROM PRISON BY PIER FRANCESO-MOLA 1612-1666
3 ) Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.4) No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
CAN A MOTHER FORGET HER BABY?
Beth Brestin Harrington and Katherine Elizabeth Harrington
6. Read Isaiah 49:15-16
A. What rhetorical question is asked in verse 15a and what is the implied answer?
Keller, who has a great (but not free) sermon on this passage, says that Isaiah 49:15b literally says “she will forget.” As deep as our love for our children is, we will at times fail.
B. But there is One whose love never fails. What does He promise in Isaiah 49:15c?
C. What does He tell us in Isaiah 49:16? How did Jesus “engrave us” on His hands?
IT WAS I WHO TAUGHT EPHRAIM TO WALK
7. Read Hosea 11:1-4
A. What does God think of Israel in verse 1?
B. How did Israel respond to God’s tender love according to verse 2?
C. What picture does God paint of Israel in verse 3? What does this tell you about His love and patience?
D. Now he turns to a picture of caring for an animal. What tenderness and care do you see in verse 4?
8. As you reflect on the lyrics to “And Can It Be?” what stands to you and why?
Sermon (Thursday/Friday) http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/beholding-love-god
9. Keller says 1 John 3:1 is an outburst. Explain.
10. What is the subject of the outburst?
11. We want to move to understand this love, and Keller gives us some ways.
A. How does John show us that this has moved from his head to his heart.
B. Give evidence this this fact has moved from your head to your heart.
C. Keller says one of the ways you know if someone gets it is the way they respond to the question, “Are you a Christian?” Explain.
D. What else stood out to you from the sermon and why?
TAKE-A-WAY (SATURDAY)
12. What’s your take-a-way and why?
I3. If you watched A Better Life (I think it would be good for teens as well — the boy in the story is fourteen) what Christian values did you see?
NEXT WEEK PLAN TO RENT THE TREE OF LIFE! WE WILL DO A REVIEW OF THE STONECUTTER AND USE THAT MOVIE AS PART OF OUR REFLECTIONS.
THE FOLLOWING WEEK WILL BE THANKSGIVING REFLECTIONS
THEN A NEW STUDY FOR ADVENT!
THE FATHER OF LIES
WHEN HE LIES HE SPEAKS HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE
FOR HE IS A LIAR
AND THE FATHER OF LIES
JOHN GIVES US REPEATED WARNINGS ABOUT OUR ENEMY
ABOUT THE SPIRIT OF THE ANTI-CHRIST.
WE MUST BE ALERT TO HIS LIES, AND THEN, AS REBECCA SAID
“SMACK HIM OVER THE HEAD WITH THE TRUTH!”
We often fail to be alert, to realize that we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with powers, with principalities, with the prince of darkness.
How clearly I remember a night when our boys were little and we had invited our new neighbors in Seattle over for dinner.
J. R. and John Brestin at 4 and 1
J. R. was looking at our guests and piped up, as only a child would:
“Do you guys love Jesus?”
The silence was awkward.
“Oh, oh — do you love the devil?”
We laughed, thankful for the comic relief. Then the man said:
“Well, little man, are those our only choices?”
I can’t remember how we recouped the moment, or if we did, but I do remember thinking, Yes — those are the only two camps. We’re either in the realm of darkness or the realm of light.
The spirit of the anti-Christ is everywhere. At the close of 1 John, he tells us “the whole world is is under the power of the evil one.” John gives us many “signs” to be alert to the spirit of the anti-Christ, and he also tells us the ultimate lie in 1 John 2:22 when he says:
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
Kenneth Wuest, in Word Studies of the New Testament, explains that the word Jesus means “Jehovah saves,” and Christ means “anointed one, Messiah.” Therefore this denial is a denial of who Jesus is and of the atoning work on the cross He came to accomplish.
Early in my speaking ministry I was asked to speak at a retreat in my state for women ministers from a mainline denomination that I knew to be very liberal in its theology. My book, The Friendships of Women, had just been released and I think the retreat coordinators felt that friendship would be a light and “safe” topic, one that would not delve into the atoning work of Christ or His literal resurrection, neither of which they embraced. I accepted the invitation and prayed and prepared earnestly. It seemed an opportunity to share the gospel and its power within the framework of friendship.
When I arrived Friday afternoon they welcomed me. A fire blazed in the dining room of the lodge and we sat at tables eating pizza and answering light get-acquainted questions the coordinators had put at our places. We were laughing. The ice was broken.
But I was only about fifteen minutes into my first talk when the ice returned. The talk began well when I opened with how my closest friends and I had had a heated argument right in the middle of my writing The Friendships of Women. I told them we were talking about how to be good mothers, a dangerous topic, and we disagreed. We were full of pride and not careful with our tongues. One by one my friends left in tears. The women were attentive.
The ice began to form when I told them how God led us to forgive one another. None of us wanted to, but when we got alone before God He reminded us of how much we had been forgiven, and of the price Christ paid on the cross for us. How could we not forgive one another?
Eyes began to avert and papers began to rustle. The temperature dropped. The gospel is either the fragrance of life if you embrace it, or the stench of death if you resist it.
Afterwards, the plan was for women to stay up and play games. The retreat coordinator approached me and told me I didn’t need to stay. She also told me firmly that she wanted me to stay with the topic of friendship.
I went back to my room, prayed, and called my husband, telling him of the icy response. He promised to pray for me the next morning while I spoke.
That next morning I spoke about the friendship of Ruth and Naomi. I felt compelled to also show them how hidden in the book of Ruth was Boaz, a Christ figure who paid a ransom for Ruth. I told them the gospel is everywhere, from Genesis to Revelation, and it also turns up in every biblical friendship. I thought if they could just see how it is woven everywhere, it would open their eyes. But they didn’t want to listen. They began to turn to one another, muting me with their whispers.
Afterwards, I sat at the book table, but only a few browsed, and no one bought books. At lunch I was ushered to a table where I sat alone. I decided to pick up my tray and join a group of women, but as soon as I did, their talking ceased. I asked them to tell me about themselves, but they didn’t. One woman asked me why I was so dressed up, since this was a camp. Another asked me icily where I had learned to speak. I wanted to cry, I wanted to run.
I went back to my room and called my husband again, this time in tears. He listened empathetically and he prayed for me. Before we hung up, he quoted Peter to me:
Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the home that in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.
1 Peter 3:13-16
“I’ll pray for you while you are speaking, honey.”
In my final session, I opened with my testimony, thinking that even if they didn’t believe the Bible, that this might persuade them. I told them how selfish and spoiled I had been – how difficult I was as a wife, how frustrated as a mother. I couldn’t see that the problem was my sin. I didn’t understand that the hunger in my soul was for God. It wasn’t until my sister came and shared the gospel and the dramatic claims of Christ that I began to see and to fear the Lord, which the Bible says is the beginning of wisdom. And it wasn’t until I surrendered to Him that I had the power of transformation in my life.
It was very quiet. Many were looking at their shoes.
Then I turned to the topic of friendship again, using Mary and Elizabeth and their excitement over being part of God’s plan to bring the Savior into the world.
Afterwards the retreat coordinator expressed her disappointment to me. She told me again I had not stayed with the topic of friendship as requested. She also told me I had been insensitive to use only biblical women who struggled with infertility as my models, for many there struggled with infertility. Though I recognized that as a fiery dart from the enemy, it still tore at my heart.
Never was I so eager to leave a retreat. I packed up my unsold books, carried them to my car, and drove home weeping. I had experienced a fraction of the pain that many of the prophets experienced every day all through their lives, and I didn’t like it. As far as I could see, the retreat had been a bust. I wept for the women themselves, for the sheep they were leading astray, and for my failure to break through.
I was so eager to get to Steve, to let him hold me and help me process the weekend. He reminded me that I had been faithful, and that was all God asks. He reminded me the women had a vested interest in not believing, for it’s hard to admit you have been leading whole congregations astray. He also reminded me that I didn’t know what might happen — there might have been someone listening, and with God nothing was impossible. When Ezekiel was his most discouraged, God showed him a valley of dry bones that came to life!
Steve and I didn’t talk in terms of idolatry, though I see it clearly now. If they embraced the gospel, they could lose their jobs, they would have to admit they had done severe damage, and they would lose one another’s approval. For those women, every idol was threatened: comfort, approval, and security. And I am sure the enemy was there, for he had a lot to lose. He was whispering his ancient lies, that God would not be enough for them.
But it isn’t just unbelievers who are lured and blinded. It is a battle every Christian faces every day.
A DAILY BATTLE
The difference for us is that we are in a battle we cannot lose, though we certainly stumble and fall along the way. Rebecca has told us of her fears of giving up over-eating at night. She wasn’t sure she could handle the pain. She wasn’t sure God would be there for her. But when she did move out in faith, He was there. What happens, and you are going to see this, is that victory leads to victory, because we see the lie more quickly, and we trust God’s faithfulness as we remember His faithfulness in the past. For example, Rebecca shared last week that she had made a mistake at work and didn’t want to own it. But she saw her idol of approval and went and confessed to her boss. This time she wasn’t as vulnerable to the enemy, because God had been there for her with her comfort idol, so she was able to trust He would be there for her approval idol. She smacked the serpent over the head with the sledgehammer of truth and he went slithering out.
Likewise, I so appreciated Kim’s testimony last week, of how God is helping her look at her sin in a new way — not that she could lose her salvation, as her old church taught, but that it could keep her enslaved to idolatry, and she wants to be free. The truth can slam the enemy on the head, and that is what we must do!
Anne made herself vulnerable and prayed so honestly and vulnerably for the walls to come down in her marriage. I loved what she wrote near the end of the week about God pulling up the bitter root in her and her relying on the Spirit. She said she had HOPE.
Susan gave a wonderful testimony (which I will repeat in full in an upcoming post) of how seeing her idol is giving her more victory in the way she responds to her husband. Then others, including Joyce and Laura-dancer, encouraged by her vulnerability, shared they struggle in similar ways and asked for prayer.
Elizabeth saw a turning point with her daughter as she felt led to share the parable of the sower with her, and her daughter wept. Tears are such a sign of life! Though she says this will be a lifelong journey, she has HOPE.
Meg is experiencing victory with her besetting sin and praying she will care about the things the Father cares about.
Angela, though she is often laid low by Lyme’s disease, wrote of how she often is experiencing intimacy with the Lord in those times, seeing something new in Scripture, feeling flip flops in her heart. She shared a painful story of cruelty to her daughter, but also of responding in grace.
I almost waited to post Terri’s testimony below because she’s having a busy week — but when I reread it, and saw she has gone through the deep waters many of you are going through, I felt I should — for she could be a powerful mentor IN BOTH MARRIAGE AND MOTHERING. (Consider her wonderful daughter Stacy!)
So God is on the move!
SO TAKE THAT, YOU OLD DEVIL!
Because we are children of the light, let’s walk in the light. We are in a battle we cannot lose.
ICE-BREAKER AND REVIEW (Sunday-Monday)
(DOWNLOAD THE FREE SERMON NOW — YOU DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO IT YET, BUT YOU’LL HAVE IT READY IF YOU HAVE TIME. HERE’S THE LINK
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
2. What stood out to you from Dee’s story of speaking to the women ministers? Why? (I’m thinking of using this in The Stonecutter so I want you to be honest, please.)
3. What do you learn from any of the testimonies that I quoted above or any other testimonies from the women on this blog who are seeing victory with the enemy?
4. Using an example of an idol in your life, what lie is the enemy likely to tell you? How can you be ready for him with the truth? Remember to get your sword ready.
BIBLE STUDY (MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY)
I realize this could be a frightening study, but it can be a powerful prayer guide. Our only two offensive tools against the enemy are the Word and a prayer of faith — so combine them and find power! Last week I finally got around to reading Philip Yancey’s book on prayer and it has revitalized my prayer life, which is my area of accountability. The enemy hates prayer, especially prayer that uses God’s Word.
So let’s go after the father of lies.
5. What is the ultimate lie according to 1 John 2:22-23? If you have someone you love who believes this lie, pray for him or her, using 1 Timothy 2:25-26. Paul prays that “God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
6. John gives lots of red flags that let you know the spirit of the antichrist has a hold on someone. If you see these flags in yourself, then repent and move into the light. If you the flag in someone you love, pray for him. Find each flag:
A. 1 John 2:4
B. 1 John 2:9
C. 1 John 2:15
D. 1 John 2:19
E. 1 John 3:10
F. 1 John 4:2-3 (Keller discusses this so we’ll come back to it in the sermon part.)
G. 1 John 4:5
7. How does John encourage us in 1 John 4:4? Have you been able to slam the enemy with God’s truth this week? If so, share and encourage us!
8. Watch this video from the publisher of Kisses from Katie and find some ways she overcame the lies of the enemy with the truth: Link
SERMON (THURSDAY-FRIDAY)
9. WHAT COMMON LIE DOES KELLER TACKLE AND HOW DOES HE SLAM THE ENEMY WITH THE TRUTH?
10. KELLER TALKS ABOUT DENYING THAT CHRIST CAME IN THE FLESH. HE SAYS CHRISTIANITY, UNLIKE MANY OTHER RELIGIONS, DOES NOT TELL US TO ESCAPE THE FLESH BUT REFORM IT. GIVE AN EXAMPLE — CHOOSE SEX, FOOD, HALLOWEEN, OR WHATEVER YOU LIKE! (Some would say Halloween cannot be reformed for it was never from God, no Christian origins, but I think there are ways to overcome its spirit. I have an opinion on this and may share it if you are interested, but neither do I want to rabbit trail here.)
SATURDAY
11. HOW CAN YOU AFFIRM TERRI IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY?
12. WHAT’S YOUR TAKE-A-WAY AND WHY?
GETTING TO KNOW OUR BLOGGERS! TERRI!
I’ve been so glad to have Terri with us — I sensed her maturity right away, and felt a kindred spirit because of her prison ministry. I also was impressed with her daughter, and we have so many younger moms on this blog who could be blessed by her mentoring. This week she has two sisters with her, so she may not respond a lot til later. She had more pictures and I had trouble technically with them, but we might be able to get them on during the week. Note how she writes below that God has used her marriage to help her mature. What a good word!
Here’s Terri:
I was a teenager when God began speaking to me through the messages I heard at my youth group and church. God through the Holy Spirit convicted me of sin and I received the forgiveness of my sins and the assurance of eternal life. The support I received from my pastor and my youth leaders were instrumental in my spiritual formation.
I married my best friend who I met in church when I was 18. After he finished seminary, he served as a pastor, in for a total of 19 years in two churches. I loved being a pastor’s wife and having the opportunities to minister , especially to youth and to the women he brought into our lives.
My spiritual gifts are hospitality and helps/serving- and most of my life I have served as a youth leader in youth groups in the churches I have been in. On my day off you will find me in the kitchen cooking or baking –often with my grandkids, or in my vegetable garden. I love to have people into our home to share food, fellowship and games. Scrabble is a family favorite and Dawn and I have some friendly competition going on when we get together!
I have 2 sons and 2 daughters age 23-33 and two daughters in law, one son in law and 7 of the most precious grandchildren on earth—age 18 months-8 years / I work 4 days a week and Friday is Grandma day, and I watch the two grandkids that live with us.
Some of my greatest challenges in my life have been control and anger. My husband and I are polar opposite personalities. I have a pretty big personality and I am quite strong and opinionated. My idols have been affirmation and control, and God has often used my marriage to reveal areas of sin in my heart. I have been a slow learner but thankfully I have a godly devoted husband who loves me and even in the tough times, affirmed his covenant to God for a lifetime together. A lesser man would have left me years ago.
God has used these online Bible studies to challenge me and I jumped in at a time when I was not connected to a local church. The honesty of the women on the blog has been such a blessing to me and God has challenged me and keeps showing me how to walk closer to him. The most significant thing to me has been Speaking truth to my soul and dialoguing with God to work through an area of struggle instead of trying to legalistically conform to what I know is the truth. I want God to make it a change of heart not just a change of behavior.
This is Stacy and me
Husband Chuck
My oldest sons three daughters, Lily, Jane and Kate
Terri's kids
Susan, Dawn, Mom, Terri and Kristine (Terri's sisters and Mom)
Terri with grandchildren Gabi and Jake
CONFIDENT AND UNASHAMED AT HIS COMING
THERE ARE RICH PARALLELS BETWEEN WEDDINGS IN BIBLICAL DAYS
AND THAT GREAT DAY WHEN CHRIST COMES FOR US
THE FATHERS WOULD BARGAIN OVER THE BRIDE PRICE
FROM "THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW" COURTESY OF FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
THEN A BETROTHAL TOOK PLACE, A PERMANENT COMMITMENT
BEFORE THE SON WOULD GO AWAY TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR HIS BRIDE
FROM "THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW" COURTESY OF FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
ADDING A ROOM TO HIS FATHER’S HOUSE
WHEN THE FATHER SAID ALL WAS READY
FROM "THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW" COURTESY OF FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
THE SON WOULD COME IN A GLAD PROCESSIONAL
AND A SHOFAR HORN WOULD BLOW
AND HIS BRIDE WOULD KNOW
MY BRIDEGROOM IS RETURNING FOR ME
FROM "THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW" COURTESY OF FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
EVERY BRIDE WANTS TO BE BEAUTIFUL
FOR HER BRIDEGROOM
TO DELIGHT HIM
TO BE CONFIDENT AND UNASHAMED ON THAT GREAT DAY
- Dee’s Mother
IT IS HARD FOR US TO IMAGINE
HOW WE COULD EVER BE CONFIDENT AND UNASHAMED
WHEN OUR HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM RETURNS
YET 1 JOHN 2:26 HOLDS OUT EXACTLY THAT HOPE
THE WEDDING GARMENT IS SYMBOLIC
OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WE ARE GIVEN
WHEN CHRIST BETROTHS US
IN A PARABLE JESUS TOLD, THE GUEST
WHO TRIED TO COME TO THE BANQUET
WITHOUT A WEDDING GARMENT
WAS CAST INTO OUTER DARKNESS
WE CAN BE SO THANKFUL CHRIST PAID OUR BRIDE PRICE
AND COVERED US WITH HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
FINE LINEN WHITE AND CLEAN
FOR THOUGH OUR SINS ARE AS SCARLET
THEY WILL BE AS WHITE AS SNOW
AND WHEN WE CONFESS OUR SINS
HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US
AND TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS
WE KNOW HE IS PREPARING A PLACE
WE KNOW HE WILL RETURN
HE SAID, “IF IT WERE NOT TRUE, I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU.”
ONE DAY A TRUMPET WILL SOUND…
JOHN TELLS US HOW TO BE READY
HOW TO BE CONFIDENT AND UNASHAMED
AT HIS COMING
In my studyguide on 1 John, “A Woman of Beauty,” I show how this amazing letter is like a great orchestral symphony, tying together three related themes of truth, light, and love. These themes, as in a musical piece, ebb and flow into one another, strengthening one another, building, creating a masterpiece. You also cannot separate them. If you truly believe Christ is who He says He is, if you truly know Him, then you will walk in the light, then you will love your brother — because His seed is in you, and that is how He is. Reflecting on these three themes will also help you grow into a beautiful bride who is confident and unashamed at His coming.
Yet our tendency is to forget the wonder of our Bridegroom, as Jeremiah said:
Does a maiden forget her jewelry,
a bride her wedding ornaments?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
days without number.
Jeremiah 2:32
John urges us to “continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.” (1 John 2:28) How do we “continue in him?”
We continue in His truth by staying in the Word, allowing it to penetrate our hearts. This last week you gave me good input and I long to be helpful to you. Lord willing, I will post weekly, and I think you would be wise to do a little each day. (I’ll give suggested days, but you must determine what is best for you.) David has shaded my comments, but at this time, he cannot shade all of the latest comments so I suggest if you want everyone to see your comment, to put it at the end. I’ve shortened the lessons as many of you are in other studies.
We continue in His light by turning from the darkness as soon as we see it and, in faith, turn to the light. Elizabeth provided a wonderful model for us last week and I will review that in this lesson and ask you to incorporate it into your own life.
We continue in His love by practicing His presence, not forgetting Him, but allowing Him to guide us in each interaction and to open our eyes to our brothers in need. Truth and light culminate in love and the “new commandment” which Jesus pronounced at the last supper when time was running out. Important things are said when time is running out. I know that. I was at the death beds of my father, husband, and mother — and important things were said. Time is running out for John — and he is also remembering what Jesus said when time was running out for Him. This lesson is important. Go slowly, breathe it in, and put it into practice.
SUNDAY/MONDAY (Read the opening, do the ice-breaker, the review, and get the sermon or sermons downloaded on your Ipod or computer so you are ready to listen when a time is good. This week the best fit is:
Loving and Growing Part I by Tim Keller: Link
A free sermon that is related more to our last week’s study, but is excellent is: Link
ICEBREAKER:
As you reflect on the opening pictures on this post, what parallels can you see between weddings in Jesus day and that great day when He returns?
What comments do you have on the opening and why?
Review
1. What are the three great orchestral themes of 1 John?
2. CHALLENGE QUESTION: See if you can find all three of them in 1 John 2:7-11. How do you see them related?
3. DON’T FORGET:
A. The truth of Who Jesus is. Find truths about Him in 1 John 1:1-4
B. The light we are called to and why. Describe God and our responsibility in 1 John 1:5 through 1 John 2:2.
C. The love we must walk in and why. Summarize 1 John 2:3-11.
BIBLE STUDY AND APPLICATION (TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY)
4. Read 1 John 2:12-14 and find the three groups of people John addresses that show three stages of growth in the Christian life. List them.
It should give you confidence that if Christ is in you, that you will continue to grow. When a child is born, he or she is an eternal life. Nothing can change that. Likewise, a seed that has been planted will grow. You may not be able to see it when it is beginning, but it is growing. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. Your responsibility is what Larry Crabb calls “dependent responsibility.” Turn from the darkness and to the light. Read carefully what Elizabeth wrote last week in her take-a-way:
I love what Dee said-“We do have a responsibility to hear well — and that means repentance and faith — I see the repentance as turning from the darkness and the faith as turning toward the light.”
I asked myself what does that look like in my life right now? Repent of the criticism, bitterness, un-forgiveness I feel towards others. And the faith part—trust my newly exposed heart in His care. When I let down my guard, I’m more vulnerable—trust Him in faith—seek Him, rest in Him.
I’ve been thinking about what a heart of flesh looks like—the soft, tender, play-dough-ness of it.
In his sermon on Ezekial 36, Spurgeon says hearts of flesh “repent even at the very thought of sin” , he also says, “The heart of flesh says—‘Thou know’st I love thee, dearest Lord, But oh! I long to soar Far from this world of sin and woe, And learn to love thee more’I think, a fleshy heart is teachable, tender to God’s leading, sits shiva with those who hurt. A fleshy heart repents, and a fleshy heart gives grace because it is so aware of the immense grace it has received. A fleshy heart sees God’s gifts poured out around us and is thankful.
I think on these things and I’m reminded of the parts of my heart that are still stone. I am still quick to hold a grudge with certain people, to want to make them pay for an offense, instead of taking it on myself. I am still quick to anger and criticism. And so back to repentance. Letting Him chisel hurts at first—I so often cling to my self-righteousness. But, Schaeffer said, we are called to love even when it costs us something, for me, it is usually my pride. But He is FAITHFUL. I’ve seen Him work patiently in me–my heart towards my mom has changed so much, I have even found myself missing my her since she went back home!
I remind myself this Truth: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
5. Now — and this is the most important part of this study, I want you to be still before God and ask Him what turning from the darkness in repentance and toward the light in faith looks like in your life. You may want to think about this in terms of an idol or a particular relationship. But make a plan and ask God to help you live into it all week. What is it?
6. There are three things that John urges believers to remember, to “not forget!” Keller gives us the alliteration of POSITION, POWER, AND PERSON.
A. Find the Position in 1 John 2:12 and comment on how this can strengthen you.
B. Find the Power in 1 John 2:13b (b means the second part of the verse) and comment on how you have experienced this power.
C. Find the Person in 1 John 2:13a and comment on any way you have experienced intimacy with this Person in the last week.
7. Important things are always repeated, which John does in 1 John 2:13c through 14. Find the Position, Power, and Person again.
THE SERMON (Thursday, Friday)
8. in Keller’s message Loving and Growing Part I, what did you learn about:
A. How we can know our sins are forgiven?
B. How children are, and how Jesus responded to the disciples when they were like children in the storm:
C. Keller gives insight on what John means when he tells young men that “the word of God” lives in them so they have the power to overcome sin. What does Keller say “the Word of God” means and on what basis does he say that?
D. What else stood out to you from this sermon and why?
E. How might you remember these things, value these things, so that you can become a beautiful bride?
9. If you listened to the free sermon, what stood out to you from that and why?
TAKE-AWAY (SATURDAY)
10. Look back at your answer to question 5. How are you doing?
11. WHAT DID GOD IMPRESS UPON YOUR HEART THIS WEEK AND WHY?
COMING UP!
NEXT WEEK WE WILL GET TO KNOW OUR BLOGGER TERRI!
IN NOVEMBER, WE’LL BE DISCUSSING A MOVIE! WISH WE COULD ALL GATHER AND WATCH TOGETHER, BUT WE CAN WATCH SEPARATELY AND DISCUSS TOGETHER!
My daughter and I watched what I think may be the best movie I’ve seen in years!
The Tree of Life
It so relates to the study we did on The God of All Comfort and to our current study of The Stonecutter. I want to assign it to you and have us discuss it mid-November. It will be out on Redbox and Netflix by November 8th inexpensively. When I speak on the close of Job, I do visuals — but oh! I have never seen the end of Job done so well. And the whole story is captivating and will lead to such rich discussion. The father in the story has a deep idol of power, and there is so much of value to ponder and discuss. Sally and I had a rich discussion, and I know we will too — because you are wonderful women who bring so much to the table.
So plan to rent it come November — and watch it sooner if you like!
HOW IS A HEART OF STONE TURNED INTO A HEART OF FLESH?
A HEART OF FLESH IS
AS GENTLE AS A SPRING RAIN
AS FRAGRANT AND TENDER AS A ROSE
AS PURE
AS COMPASSIONATE
AS OTHER-CENTERED
AS CHRIST HIMSELF
CALVIN CARTER
HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?
IS IT OF US?
OR IS IT OF GOD?
I am privileged to be able to go into prisons, to see firsthand hearts of stone transformed into hearts of flesh. So many women I meet in the faith dorms are women transformed. Many have committed horrendous crimes and came in with hearts as hard as flint, with souls as dark as caverns. If we met them when they came in, we would hold out little hope for transformation. It certainly wouldn’t do any good to preach to them about how they should behave, to tell them to “work on their character.”
WE HAVE NO POWER IN OURSELVES TO CHANGE
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NOT MECHANICAL
IT IS ORGANIC
IT IS ALL OF GOD
THE SPIRIT COMES
THE WIND BLOWS WHERE IT WILL
THE LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS
IN THE PRISONS
HE MAY SHINE HIS LIGHT THROUGH
A VOLUNTEER
A TRANSFORMED INMATE
A BIBLE DONATED
A DREAM
BUT HE COMES
PLANTS A SEED
SHINES HIS PURE LIGHT
AND BEHOLD
THERE IS THAT FIRST BUD
THEN THE OPENING OF THE FLOWER
Just recently in a Texas prison I met Clare, the infamous orthodontist who ran over her husband. Clare was a woman as lovely as I’ve met anywhere. I thought, If you were in my town, I would pursue you as a friend. I love talking to you — you sharpen me, you have the fragrance of Christ. Clare is a miracle of God. Though she had been taught of God as a child, she married a man who was an unbeliever. Then, when he was unfaithful to her, her heart grew bitter and hard. One day when she saw him escorting his mistress from a hotel, rage took over and she ran over him with her Mercedes, killing him.
She didn’t have to tell me she wasn’t the same woman. I could see it with my own eyes.
When Karla Faye Tucker, who became known as an axe murderer, shared her testimony, she said that God reached into her heart and tore up by the roots the violence in her. Before that, she said she “honestly didn’t care that she had brutally murdered two people.” A heart like flint transformed into a heart as tender as a rose.
Karla Faye Tucker after Christ
Karla said, “How can I explain it? It’s supernatural.” That’s exactly right. We cannot transform ourselves. Someone else must take out the rocks, the weeds.
God tore the violence up by the roots.
When you see, firsthand, these dramatic conversions, you know, as Karla said, “It’s supernatural.”
Jesus’ parables often referred to farming: to seeds growing secretly, to wheat and tares, to vines and fruit. The life of Christ in us is organic, and the seed comes from God.
This all brings me to the last two weeks, where we have seen God in the move. I want us to step into where He is leading us.
I know many of you do not have time to read all the comments — but I want to highlight a few things that happened so you don’t miss this koininia.There was so much I cannot cover, but I want to cover HIGHLIGHTS that warmed my heart, and I believe will yours as too. They fit perfectly, as only a Master Designer could do, into our study of 1 John.
ICEBREAKER
WHAT STOOD OUT TO YOU FROM THE ABOVE AND WHY?
IN A SENTENCE, HOW HAVE YOU FELT THE LOVE OF GOD IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS?
BIBLE STUDY
So often you have found that our online study dovetails with another you are doing face to face. I remember how refreshing it was to have Anne bring us truths about idolatry from her BSF Isaiah study. Meg is hearing about idolatry in her Beth Moore Daniel study. In the last post, Rebecca brought up the parable of the sower and I referred her to a Keller sermon (he has two on this parable). I decided to listen to it myself and found a key in it that relates to what we are doing.
We know Jesus does the sowing, and that the four soils represent four different hearts, but “who does the cultivating?” Rebecca asked. She apologized for this being a tangent, but instead, as so often happens, it it exactly where God is leading us.
Look with me at the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. Read Matthew 13:1-23.
HE WHO HAS EARS LET HIM HEAR
1. There are four kinds of soil.
A. The first soil is hard, and the seed never takes root. Find everything you can learn about this soil in Matthew 13:18-20. Whom do you think this soil represents?
B. The second soil is shallow, filled with rocks. How does it at first seem to respond, but then why does it fail to let the seed take root? Whom do you think this soil represents?
C. The third soil is the most interesting — for the seed does take root, yet it is not fruitful. Why?
D. Describe the fourth soil.
Keller said the soils represented:
1) A hard heart (Exposed but not changed at all)
2) A shallow heart (Receive it eagerly because they think they will get blessings — but not interested in God Himself)
3) A divided heart (Torn between God and idols)
4) A fertile heart (What we pray we will be!)
2. Read carefully the description of the third soil, representing the divided heart. Write down everything you observe. Go slowly. Do you believe this soil represents a believer or not? Why?
3. How do you think this promise from Ezekiel 11:19 relates to the divided heart?
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
In truth, we must realize each of us has a divided heart, and that it will not be completely undivided until that day we see Jesus face to face.
Yet, on the other hand, if we continue to practice sin, to take the cross lightly, are we His?
I John has a tendency to either make us nervous or give us confidence for he makes black and white statements.
4. Find some of John’s black and white statements in this book — I’ve gotten you started:
A. 1 John 2:4
B. 1 John 2:9
C. 1 John 2:15
D. Now you find some that strike you and list them here:
John’s letter can strike fear in the heart, for we all fail in every way. What does he mean when he says that one born of God will stay in the light, will love his brother….when we know we fail every day? John Stott explained that this refers to the metaphor of the seed. God’s seed is in the one who is born again, and that seed cannot sin. How do we know if we have that seed?
Last week one of you expressed fear that you had never truly repented because you keep committing the same sin over and over again, trusting He will forgive you.I dare not answer that, for Jesus said to leave it to God to separate the wheat from the tares. As ambassadors for Christ we are to comfort the distressed and distress the comfortable — but it can be hard for us to discern true believers. But I do know that as we walk in the light, His light grows in us. As we walk in love, His love grows in us. John’s letter is actually meant to give us confidence. When you see yourself loving, choosing the light, abiding in Him, you know that can only be of God. His seed is in you, growing. An increasing awareness of His holiness and your depravity is another sign you know Him. Apathy is a sign you do not.
If 1 John troubles you, I highly recommend this sermon by Crawford Loretts, which I just “happened” to hear on my way to the airport last week. Here is the link. It’s 2.99 to download. (Link)
My take-a-way from the message centered on the word “practice” as found in 1 John 3:4. If we keep on practicing the same sin, if we keep treating his death lightly, we do have reason to doubt our salvation. Yet 1 John is actually meant to inspire confidence in the believer, to show him that the reason he is disturbed about being in the darkness, the reason he has the power to love his brother, and the reason he longs to have fellowship with God is because indeed, God’s seed is in him. It may be small, but as he abides in the vine, as he responds to the light, it will grow.
My favorite quote of all concerning 1 John is from John Stott:
Our love and our light not only reveal if we are in Christ, but actually contribute to the love and the light we are already in.
DO YOU SEE?
THE MORE YOU RESPOND TO THE LIGHT, THE MORE THE LIGHT GROWS IN YOU.
THE MORE YOU LOVE, THE MORE HIS LOVE GROWS IN YOU.
It happened for Elizabeth recently when she laid down her desire for her mother’s approval at the feet of Jesus. When she was out with her mother, her mother said, “Look, a white horse.” There stood a white horse in the field, a kiss from the King for Elizabeth, reminding her that Jesus loved her and was coming back for her on a white horse. His approval was enough, even if she never feels the blessing from her mother.
It happened for Susan, when she laid down her idol of control, giving up her desire for a new carpet to prepare for the gift of a piano. God gave her a spirit of gentleness and contentedness with what she had. I love to think of Susan playing praises to the one who loves her so. Perhaps she can learn Cowper’s “There is a Fountain” that so touched Diane and Elizabeth.
And what I thought was one of the high points of the week occurred when Shelley from Canada came on and spoke, in love, of her concern about Ann Voskamp’s phrase “I flew to Paris and made love to God.” I felt confident, and was pleased, that you would listen to her, respond in love, and learn. And you did. You were obeying “the new commandment” that John talks about in 1 John 2:7-14. Whether you agreed or disagreed with Shelley, you responded in love. We’re going to return to this new commandment next week — and discuss this time with Shelley again. But what I saw was the love of Christ that allowed a beautiful discussion.
PART II. AN ESSAY (EXTRA CREDIT — BUT I PROMISE, A GREAT BLESSING)
This little book was life changing for me, so I want to offer it to you. If it is too hard to read on your computer, I heartily recommend getting it for yourself. It’s on 1 John 2, and entitled: THE MARK OF A CHRISTIAN. So as not to overwhelm you, I’m suggesting this instead of a sermon this week. (But if you want a sermon, one free Keller that would dovetail is from 1 Peter, who also discusses the mystery if the imperishable seed and the new birth: Link)
YOU CAN READ THIS SHORT BOOK ONLINE BY GOING TO THIS LINK: Link
5.What does Schaeffer say the mark of a Christian is — and why?
6. When we disagree with another believer, what does Schaeffer say will be remembered ten, twenty years from now?
7. What stood out to you from The Mark of a Christian and why?
PART III. GETTING TO KNOW OUR BLOGGERS
Meg is one of our newest and youngest bloggers. We’ve come to love her honesty and vulnerability. Here she is with her mother in beautiful New England.
Meg writes:
Hi my name is Meg (Meaghan) and I am single and I will be 29 at the beginning of November. I had a very hard upbringing. My dad left our family ( I have one brother he is younger and he is married and lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and their son Peyton) I was 2 and my brother was 6 months old.. I didnt see much of my dad in my upbringing years. I was physically abused by my stepadad, Sexually abused by my cousin and verbally abused by my stepmom. I was involved in a homosexual relationship for about 10 years which i just ended 2 years ago. I still struggle with that a little bit but God is good and he is helping me have a passion for him instead.I came to know Jesus in January of 2003. through my best friend Jen. I know that her and her family had been praying for me for a long time. My passion in life is to Love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength I serve at my church here in Vermont. I work in the nursery and help out in our Church library. One of my other passions is children! I love them and connect so well with them.My favorite Verse is Phillipians 4:13I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!Blessings to you all!
8. How can you affirm and pray for Meg?
PART IV: REMEMBERING
On a personal note, my husband Steve went to be with the Lord seven years ago. I know seven is the number for completion and I’m not sure what that means, for I don’t think our grief will be over until we are with him again. But I give such great thanks to the Lord for blessing me so abundantly with him. God’s seed surely grew in Steve. Many of you who have read The God of All Comfort have come to know him. Even the day after he died our newspaper’s headline was Beloved Doctor Dies. Here he is the day we adopted our daughter Beth. Steve cared about what God cared about — and the joy of the Lord was so present in him. He did abide in the vine. We heard him singing to the Lord in his den. He was the good soil and his life bore much fruit.
The day we went to get our daughter Beth in the orphanage in Thailand
9. What is your take-a-way from the week and why?
10. I’d also like your input. Some of you are keeping up, but many are not. I’m thinking of shortening the weekly lessons, or I could do two week lessons. And I’d like your prayer for wisdom about this.
INTIMACY WITH GOD: A TWO WEEK STUDY
WHEN ANN VOSKAMP SAID SHE FLEW TO PARIS
AND MADE LOVE TO GOD
THE BLOGGERS AND THE CRITICS CRIED OUT
TOO MUCH!
I THOUGHT AGAIN
WHY CAN WE NOT EMBRACE THIS METAPHOR?
IS IT OUR WORLD?
IS IT SPIRITUAL WARFARE?
OR IS IT OUR HARD HEARTS?
(THIS STUDY IS TWO WEEKS — SO DON’T BE OVERWHELMED WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE LENGTH. FOR I DO WANT YOU TO GO SLOWLY AND I HAVE DIVIDED IT INTO TWO WEEKS. I ALSO NEED TO DO THIS FOR MY SCHEDULE AS I’M TRAVELING AND MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CHECK IN SOME DAYS — PLEASE STAND IN THE GAP FOR ONE ANOTHER.) I WILL POST AGAIN ON OCTOBER 16TH. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT LESSON — SO GO SLOWLY, PLEASE! CHEW. CONTEMPLATE. OPEN YOUR HEART TO THE STONECUTTER.)
WEEK 1
INTRODUCTION
One reviewer of One Thousand Gifts said “Run for your life!” Rachel Stone from a branch of Christianity Today seemed to have missed the point completely. One blogger said “this metaphor is not in Scripture” (What?) But then I was so thankful to have some thoughtful responses to the scathing critiques, such as Marvin Olasky’s in World Magazine. (For the full article click here: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/18212) He wrote:
A poet who praises Jesus Christ? What’s not to like? But in this fallen world, nothing is without controversy. Several bloggers have taken exception to the final chapter of One Thousand Gifts, which states, “God lays down all his fullness into all the emptiness. I am in Him. He is in me. . . . Anywhere—in the kitchen scrubbing potatoes, in the arching cathedrals, in the spin of laundry and kids and washing toilets—anywhere I can have intimate communion with the Maker of heaven and earth. . . . The intercourse of soul with God is the very climax of joy.”
One post critical of Voskamp, titled “Intercourse with God,” quoted those passages and concluded, “This is what garners five stars from Christian women at amazon.com?” To which another blogger responded, “If you’re really able to extrapolate some kind of offensive message from Ann’s book, you are entirely missing the point. Ann uses lots of figurative, metaphorical language. This Is What She Does Best. It’s called a literary device.”
I thought about Jesus warning not to cast our pearls before swine. As Keller says, Jesus isn’t name-calling, He’s making a point. If you put a pearl in a pig’s trough, his snout will push it aside because it isn’t what he is looking for. (I know it doesn’t work to give Ann’s book to unbelievers, because I’ve made that mistake. I think you need spiritual eyes.) But the believers that struggle may lack spiritual vision as well (or, if they are writers, they could possibly be jealous of her writing — I was initially — because we are tempted toward jealousy when someone else is extremely gifted in our field. Sin blinds us to what is really going on in our heart, for there is a downward spiral of darkness). But this book is a joy that gives glory to God. God helped me repent and I bought a case to give to others. The metaphor Ann uses (and she waits until the last chapter to use it) can open windows and let light into our darkness. We must of course remember that marriage to God with its ensuing connotations of intimacy and passion is a metaphor. I loved that one reader said, “It’s called a literary device.”
IT’S A LITERARY DEVICE
IT IS SHOCKING
BUT GOD LACES IT THROUGHOUT THE PROPHETS AND THE PARABLES
TO WAKE US UP
IT IS
A PEARL
AND NOT FOR EVERYONE
BUT OH!
IF YOU CAN GRASP IT
IT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND INTIMACY WITH GOD
God uses this very intimate metaphor throughout Scripture. He uses it in both a positive way, to show His deep love for us, and in a negative way, to show how we break His heart. For some, this next part if review, but we need it.
THE METAPHOR OF INTIMATE MARRIAGE
Consider some of the positive ways:
As the bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.
Isaiah 62:5
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you by his love;
He will exult over you with loud singing
Zephaniah 3:17
Consider some of the negative ways:
She went after her lovers,
And forgot me, declares the Lord.
Hosea 2:14
I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk…
But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and
lavished your unfaithfulness on any passerby…
Ezekiel 16:10 & 15
These are pictures, meant to turn the light on – both to His intimate love, and to our unfaithfulness.
I would never dare to use a sexual metaphor like this, except that God does it repeatedly in the poets, the prophets, the parables and Paul’s letters. But please remember this is a metaphor. For example, when Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said He wished He could gather her under His wings, we must not press the metaphor to ridiculous lengths, Instead, we must grasp His heart for His unresponsive people. Basic hermeneutics (the art of interpreting Scripture) will tell you to interpret genre according to genre. You must interpret prose according to prose (you can press every word) and poetry according to poetry (look for the central meaning).
In the same way, when Scripture uses the sexual metaphor (and I feel a foolish even saying this, but know I must because of the e-mails and letters I received after Kathy Troccoli and I wrote Falling in Love with Jesus) it certainly doesn’t mean we are engaging in a sexual act with God, like some ancient and modern cults say. It means that as we increase in our love, trust, and intimacy with the Almighty, as we willingly put ourselves “in His arms,” that our lives will have a fruitfulness that can only come when we fully yield to the Spirit of God. Conversely, when we run to our idols, we are “getting into bed with another lover,” breaking His heart, and grieving Him, pushing Him away. Just as infidelity can grievously wound a marriage, so sin grievously wounds our relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is a Person who can be wounded, who can be grieved. This “adultery” will hurt our relationship. It will rob us of the joy we feel when we sense His pleasure in us.
THE METAPHOR CAN HELP YOU UNDERSTAND JOHN’S EUPHORIA
As we are turning to John’s first letter and trying to understand his euphoria when he speaks about fellowship with God and with His Son Jesus Christ, I turn again to the best metaphor of all: the intimacy of marriage. It illuminated intimacy. Most of the time intimacy with God feels like the quiet sweet companion moments in a marriage -
AS WHEN ELIZABETH DESCRIBED A QUIET GAME OF SCRABBLE WITH HER HUSBAND
OR REBECCA’S GRATEFULNESS WHEN SHE WAS SICK
AND HER HUSBAND CAME HOME AND TOOK OVER
cartoon for Moody Monthly that accompanied an article by Dee
IT’S THE GENTLE SENSE OF
CARING
AND
COMPANIONSHIP
MOST OF THE TIME INTIMACY WITH GOD IS LIKE THAT
A QUIET STREAM THAT FLOWS QUIETLY
UNDERNEATH YOUR SOUL
GIVING YOU LIFE
Many miss the quiet moments, the companionship, for they fail to see. Elizabeth gave this link last week to Ann Voskamp describing how to live fully, embracing the quiet moments — something we are endeavoring to do. Please watch if you have not!
We are trying not to miss these intimate tender moments, by thanking Him when they come. They happen in the wonder of life and of the Word. Just this morning as I was reading in Jeremiah 31: “He has loved you with an everlasting love,” my heart burned. Really? Even though I AM SO DIFFICULT? You love me! You do not give up on me. This is the gentle stream, flowing, flowing, flowing.
YET THERE ARE ALSO TIMES
WHEN THERE IS PASSION
EUPHORIA
IT OFTEN HAPPENS WHEN YOU FIRST ENCOUNTER GOD
AS WHEN YOU FIRST MET THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE
Beth Brestin on first date with husband-to-be Seth Harrington
THE EUPHORIA IS RARER
AND YOU CAN’T PLAN IT
SOMETIMES HE SIMPLY COMES TO YOU
AND ASTONISHES YOU
IT MAY ONLY BE ONCE OR TWICE
IN A LIFETIME
OVERWHELMING YOU LIKE
A CRASHING WAVE
When i read the accounts from D. L. Moody, Jonathan Edwards, Daniel Steele (Keller tells of this in this week’s sermon) or Blaise Pascal — I admit I feel a little jealousy. I want that too. Yet it also creates in me a hunger, a good hunger, for more more more of the presence of God. Here is what is written about the defining moment in Pascal’s life.
This experience occurred on November 23, 1654 when he was reading the 17th chapter of the gospel of John. …Pascal recorded this experience in his own hand in a document known as The Memorial, which was sewn into the lining of his coast and found by a servant after his death. Evidently, Pascal had so treasured the experience that he had kept his reminder preserved in the lining of his coat and always transferred it whenever he replaced his coat by again sewing the document into the lining.
THE MEMORIAL
…On Monday, 23rd of November…from about half past ten in the evening until about half past twelve…
FIRE
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
God of Jesus Christ. …
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything except God…
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have separated myself from Him….
(Blaise Pascal, quoted in Dean L. Overman’s, A Case For The Existence of God, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, 2009, p.119-120)
Most of us have not had this — but it is possible. I have come close a few times — moments almost too sacred to speak of — so I know it is possible. When it happens, intimacy is no longer a quiet stream, but an overwhelming wave. And then, you hunger for more! You are in prayer and in the Word because of that hunger — not out of a sense of duty.
John the Apostle experienced this intimacy — when he opens his letter, it feels more like a wave — and he certainly was overwhelmed when he received his revelation to write the final book in our canon.
ICE-BREAKERS
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
2. Is the metaphor of marital intimacy helpful to you in understanding intimacy with our ultimate Bridegroom? If so, how does it help you?
PART I. BIBLE STUDY
3. Find a metaphor for marriage in the prophets, the poets, the parables, or the letters of Paul that speaks to you and explain why. (If this is new to you, go to www.biblegateway.com and try searching for a word like: lovers, Bridegroom, or wedding.) Or, look at The Song of Songs with new eyes. I’m eager to see what you find!
1 JOHN
Intimacy. The synonym John opens his letter with that captures this is “fellowship,” or in the Greek, “koinonia,” when we have this sense of sharing something “in common.” The joy you and I feel when we see the same thing because the same Spirit indwells us both. When God touches us and gives us His eyes, we have that joy again. He makes us to understand, and we share this in common. Often it is like a quiet stream. We see the stars, and lift our eyes to Him, rejoicing, as He does, in what He made. His Word cuts us, and we agree with Him this is where we have failed, and ask Him to remove the stone. Or His Word kindles a quiet fire in us, reassuring us of His love, and again, in humble gratitude, we give thanks. This is intimacy. This is fellowship. This is koinonia. This makes our joy full.
Review 1 John 1:1-4
A. Find a few phrases that capture John’s euphoric excitement.
B. Look at the way John uses the word koinania, probably translated “fellowship.” Where does the fellowship begin, and how does the circle complete?
I want to give you an example of the “circle” of koinania from last week.
Susan was looking at the photo of the dead flower and the live flower.
I had used the analogy of Rachel being on the left and Leah on the right, but Susan thought about the verse of how a seed must die in and fall to the ground in order to live. That verse, I know, came to her from the Holy Spirit. Susan was experiencing “koinanIa” with God. Beautifully she then wrote on the blog this:
I began to see and imagine the flowers as Leah being the one that looks brown and dead, and Rachel the beautiful, showy flower.
Rachel was beautiful; so beautiful, in fact, that Scripture mentions her beauty. Yet Rachel made her life all about those surface things; her beauty, her power to attract, her idols of her husband and children. She never died to self but clung to her idols. So she was lovely outwardly, but was there an inner beauty? Did she ever develop character qualities that would last? She was the showy beautiful flower, but we know the flower will eventually lose its petals, or wilt, and the bloom will die.
Leah, at first, is caught up with winning her husband’s love and admiration; her children are at first a means to get that desired attention. But we see Leah mature, and she dies to self and gives God the praise and glory and honor, instead of seeking those things for herself. So I look at the dead bloom and I know inside of it are many seeds; it looks dead but inside it holds life. Leah died to her self, and gave up her idols and became beautiful in a way that her sister never could. That plain, brown, dead-looking bloom holds the life of future blooms inside of it – and from Leah, came Judah, and from Judah, the Messiah. The Messiah, Jesus, who would tell us that “if the kernel dies, it produces many seeds”.
When Susan wrote that, Chris S immediately said, “I saw this the same sideways way!” They connected over this truth. Then others of you began to see it the same way. So their fellowship was not only with God the Father and His Son Jesus, but with each other. And their fresh way of looking at it flowed into me — and i’m sure — into some of you. Then I praised the Lord and it went back to Him. This is the circle of fellowship that John describes in verses 3 and 4. This is koinania, this is intimacy, this is joy!
C. Can you give an example of the circle of koinania that happened for you from the blog?
WHAT BLOCKS INTIMACY?
JOHN’S LETTER GIVES US THREE OBSTACLES TO INTIMACY
4. As an overview, see if you can name, using one word or a simple phrase, what each is:
A. 1 JOHN 1:6
B. 1 JOHN 2:11
C. 1 JOHN 4:1
WALKING IN DARKNESS — A WORD PICTURE FOR SIN
5. Read 1 John 1:5-6
A. What do you learn about God in verse 5. Meditate on this picture and write down everything it teaches you about our LORD. (There are so many characteristics of light — use this verse to worship Him.)
B. What happens to our fellowship with Him when we walk in the darkness? Why?
It is important to see the difference between relationship and fellowship. Compare this to a marriage. You can be married, yet not in fellowship. Sin is blocking fellowship. But you still have the marriage relationship. You do not lose your relationship with God when you sin, but you do lose intimacy.
HOW THIS RELATES TO OUR STONES
We have learned that idols cannot be removed, only replaced by intimacy with God. I am going to give you an example of two ways to talk to your soul when tempted — one effective, one not effective. I’ll give you the example of when I felt jealousy for Ann’s writing. It’s funny now — I started reading and thought, “Wow.” Then I thought, I hope she’s old. I turned to the back cover and saw she was young. Here is the ineffective approach I might have used in the past before God helped me to see my tendency toward idolatry/adultery.
You are being jealous. That’s wrong. Stop it, Dee.
6. For those of you who have been with us in The Stonecutter journey, explain why the above approach is usually ineffective and can even make it worse.
Now my thought process is different. It is more like this, using what we learned from Psalm 42, where the psalmist takes his soul in hand and talks to her.
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Because Ann Voskamp’s a wonderful first time writer and her book is soaring way past what my latest book is doing and I would like that kind of approval, security, and power.
Put your hope in God.
You O Lord are my approval, security, power. Forgive me. Help me. Change my heart, O God. I do not want my darkness to drive You away, to wound You. I need You to come to me, cover me, and fill my soul with Your love.
Have I had to have this conversation more than once? Yes. But He has been faithful and just to forgive me, lift me up, and come rushing back to me. He is not only removing my stone of jealousy (with the underlying stones of approval, security and power) but replacing them with Himself — with His glorious light.
And it is like a marriage — when the repentance is genuine, the intimacy is sweet. I sense His pleasure.
7. Now I want you to do the same thing. Take an area of temptation and show how the ineffective way to talk to your soul and the effective way so that you get out of the darkness and into the light, so that intimacy with the Lord can return.
8. Read 1 John 1:7-10
A. What is the first promise you can find in verse 7?
B. What is the second promise of verse 7?
Even when we feel we are walking in the light, because of our depravity, there is some darkness — yet His blood covers that too.
C. How does verse 8 confirm that there is always, on this earth, some darkness within?
D. What promise is in verse 9?
E. The reason He forgives us is that He is “faithful and just.” It isn’t that Jesus is telling the Father, “Dee did it again — but she’s really tired.” No, that is not the way He advocates for me. What can He say?
F. What does verse 10 say?
We must come to terms with the depravity in our soul, or we will continually deceive ourselves about our sin and not keep short accounts, and we will not experience the intimacy that this marriage to our ultimate Bridegroom can give.
9. Are you seeing this first chapter of 1 John in a fresh way? If so, articulate it here.
WEEK 2
PART II. THE SERMON
HERE IS A SERMON THAT IS 2.50 FROM KELLER, MY TOP CHOICE: Link
10. IF YOU CAN LISTEN TO THIS ONE, ANSWER THESE:
A. What stood out to you and why?
B. Keller uses the story of Sally Field as an illustration — what was it and how does it speak to you?
C. Keller quotes John Owen who says there are three stages in intimacy with God. What are they?
D. Keller quotes William Cowper’s Sometimes a Light Surprises. There are several different musical styles of this on U-Tube. Find one you like and share it.
SOMETIMES A LIGHT SURPRISES
Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord, who rises with healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain.In holy contemplation we sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new.
Set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow bring with it what it may.
D. What do you learn from Cowper about finding intimacy with God?
HERE IS A FREE AND WONDERFUL SERMON WITH SOME OF THE SAME CONCEPTS: Link
11. What were the main points in this message by Keller?
12. What particularly impacted you and why?
PART III. TAMMY’S TESTIMONY
For those of you who are new, my functional idol was marriage and in 2008 my fourteen year marriage was annulled after I learned my now ex-husband was still legally married to another woman. Many in my local sphere of influence still can’t believe I have totally forgiven the man who betrayed me but I have chosen to do good to the one who hurt me and would rather walk alone on the road of forgiveness than be with the masses on bitterness avenue.
God used the Stonecutter study to teach me that the oppression, calamity, and sorrow I have experienced the majority of my adult life came as a result of my being an idol worshipper. After being hurled into an abyss of catastrophic pain, I faced a spiritual life or death choice: continue sacrificing my sanity on the altar of my functional idol or present myself as a living sacrifice on the altar of the One True Living God. I am most grateful I chose the latter. And, although I did not realize it at the time, God was with me in the abyss covering me with His undeserved grace, mercy, and truth. God reconciled and restored me unto Himself and assured me He has totally cleansed and forgiven me of my spiritual adultery. As an idol worshipper I thought I knew what living in freedom was but I did not. What I thought was freedom was in reality bondage. Today, instead of residing in a cell in the prison called bitterness, I walk the road of TRUE FREEDOM.
14. What stood out to you from Tammy’s testimony and why?
15. Why might it have been ineffective for Tammy to tell herself, “You should forgive, Tammy — you are a Christian.” How was her approach different and more effective?
16. How can you affirm Tammy?
PART IV. REFLECTING
AUGUSTE RODIN'S THE THINKER
17. Name a way you have allowed God “to fill up your senses” these past two weeks, where one of His many gifts helps you turn to Him in gratitude.
18. Was there a moment when His word lit a quiet or a bonfire within you? If so, share.
19. What is your take-a-way for these two weeks and why?
EXTRA RESOURCES
IN THE KELLER PAID MESSAGE HE REFERRED TO THE SONG “SOMETIMES A LIGHT SURPRISES” — A GREAT SONG FOR SURPRISING MOMENTS OF INTIMACY WITH GOD. I TALK ABOUT IT ON THIS MIDDAY PROGRAM: Link
THIS IS A FAMOUS THOUGH CHALLENGING ESSAY BY JONATHAN EDWARDS ON SUPERNATURAL LIGHT. IN IT IS THE FAMOUS QUOTE “THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAVING A KNOWLEDGE THAT HONEY IS SWEET AND ACTUALLY TASTING IT.” Link
EXPERIENCING THE LIVING GOD
HOW DO WE KNOW
IF WE TRULY KNOW HIM?
HOW DO WE KNOW
IF WE ARE TRULY EXPERIENCING THE LIVING GOD
OR JUST GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS OF RELIGION?
IT’S VITAL TO KNOW
FOR IT’S THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN DEATH AND LIFE
In our study on The Stonecutter, we’ve seen God’s promise from Ezekiel to exchange our dead hearts of stone for living hearts of flesh. We’ve repeatedly talked about letting The Stonecutter remove the stone idols from our hearts — the things we often think we have to have to be beautiful, significant, or satisfied. But those idols lie — they have no life giving power at all, Instead, if we cling to them, we will go into a downward spiral, and we will shrivel up — like Rachel did. Though she was the wife who was loved, though she was the woman who was so beautiful she made men weep, she is the dead flower on the left, whereas her sister Leah, whom the world did not value, blossomed into life and left a legacy. Rachel clung to her idols. She thought she could not live without them. She said to Jacob: GIVE ME CHILDREN OR I’LL DIE! Rachel is also the one who stole her father’s household gods, hiding them under her skirt.
The Seduction of Lesser Gods by Leslie Williams
In The Seduction of Lesser Gods, Leslie Williams writes something I think is worth memorizing:
Without knowing fully what we are doing, we hide the things we secretly love under our skirts, like Rachel, sitting primly and righteously on our camels, wondering why we are not whole, why we still suffer, why we feel un-reconciled to the God we profess.
We have also learned that idols cannot be removed, they can only be replaced. Our only remedy is a vital relationship with the living God. It is He who gives us beauty, significance, and satisfaction. This is where we are turning in our final leg of The Stonecutter. Many of you are grasping it, and those who have just joined us may feel breathless to catch up, but let me know when I am not clear, and I and the sisters on the blog will try to help. Keller said once, “If you think you understand the Gospel, you probably don’t — if you think you are just beginning to get it, you probably are.” The Gospel is so much bigger than just being saved from the wrath of God — it is about realizing, on a moment to moment basis, both how weak and needy you are, and yet how loved you are and how He longs to be your all in all. Jack Williams put it like this:
We are so sinful Christ had to die for us.
Yet we are so loved that He did.
This truth must shine in your heart so you are willing to release your idols, the things that in the past you thought you had to have, even going to the point of “hiding them secretly under your skirts.”
Last week Terri and Anne articulated the joy of grasping the Gospel:
Terri: –I have been overwhelmed this week by the truth that God pursued and pursued me because he loves me so much and wants me to be free from guilt and the bondage of sin.
Anne: I remember an image from a sermon a few years ago of driving the gospel deep into my heart. It is like a peg, the deeper it goes the stronger it becomes. I feel like that is what has happened to me this week.
So we are going to let the Word of God keep hammering the peg of the Gospel into our stony hearts, that our stones may fall apart, and that He may give us hearts of flesh.
Richard Lovelace, a Puritan and poet from the 17th century, made this comment on why it is so important to grasp the full power of the Gospel:
Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure
persons, much less secure than non-Christians, because of the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God and the
righteousness they are supposed to have. Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive criticism of
others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger. They cling
desperately to legal, pharisaical righteousness, but envy, jealousy and other branches on the tree of sin grow out of their fundamental insecurity… So it is our insecurity regarding our acceptance with God which is the reason we make idols. We look at our knowing of him (which fluctuates so much) instead of his knowing of us, in Christ. We are desperately trying to firm up a positive self-image by using our idols. Paul reminds us that in the gospel we don’t need to make ourselves beautiful or lovable to God; he already knows us. If this is the case, we don’t need to make an idol out of other people’s approval or even our own self-approval. The classic statement of this is in I Cor.4:3-4. There Paul says that he does not only not care about other people’s evaluation of him, he does not even care for his own evaluation of himself. Rather, all that counts is God’s evaluation or “judgment” of him.
Some of our newcomers, and I’m so glad they did, expressed confusion, the sense of getting lost in our journey. So I am feeling led to turn to the New Testament letter of John, one of my favorite places to go. It always feels like going home to the arms of God. It is a letter that has helped me more fully comprehend the breadth of the Gospel.
Come home with me.
1 John is perhaps my favorite letter in the New Testament, My guide, A Woman of Beauty, is on this letter, and Kathy Troccoli and I also delved into it in our curriculum, Living in Love with Jesus. Plugging into 1 John with your heart, mind, and soul will help you experience God. It has helped me, and it has also helped to reassure me that I know the living God. I have seen in your posts how you often, as I do, can feel discouraged — you’ve made so much progress, and yet, those stubborn stones come back. But you can know you know Him, that His mighty energy is at work within you, and you can have the joy John expressed. Yet we must ever be vigilant. John closes this letter with this warning:
My little children, keep yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:21
If that seems like a strange command, perhaps this paraphrase from Today’s Living Translation will clarify:
Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
Idols are not the stone gods people bow down to, but anything from which you are getting your significance. Examples:
Rachel had to have children or she didn’t want to live, so having children became the most important thing.
Practicing homosexuals have to have intimacy with the same sex or they feel life is meaningless, so that intimacy becomes the most important thing.
Many of us feel like we have to have the approval of others or we despair, so that approval becomes the most important thing.
Christ wants to be our all in all.
Christ wants us to experience God. To have an ongoing intimacy with Him, an awareness of Him, a joy in Him.
How do we do it?
Let’s just take two ways this week:
Child gazing at stars
1. Let Him fill up your senses by living in the present.
When you enjoy one of His gifts, let it turn your heart to Him in gratitude. Live in the moment, like children do. They are neither feeling badly about
the past or worrying about the future — they enjoy the moment.
Look at this clip of my fifteen month old grand-daughter Miabelle (David — our website guy’s daughter) loving the moment.
Now, as you live in the moment, give thanks — and you will be enjoying intimacy with God. A person who doesn’t know God simply enjoys His gifts, but a person who knows God allows that gift to turn her face to Him in gratitude. Think of Ann Voskamp’s “Eucharisto.” Consciously live that way this week, letting life lead you into gratitude and into His arms.
2. Let His Word light a fire in your heart by going slowly, waiting until it burns.
I’m not going to give you a lot to study, because I want you to slow down until it lights a fire. I am praying you will experience God.
Let me pray for us before we begin — please join me in praying for your sisters.
Father, we want to know You more. We do not want to be dead, lifeless — we want your pulsating life to fill our hearts. We know that is the secret, and we are helpless without You. As we turn to this letter of John, to this Apostle whom You chose to remain to the end, please quicken our hearts, please light a fire, please help us understand the breadth of the gospel and thereby experience You. I ask this in the name of your precious Son Jesus.
ICEBREAKERS: (Do both!)
A. Look at the picture of the dead versus blossoming flower, imagining them as Rachel and Leah. What have you learned about the contrast between these two sisters that could help you turn from your idols to God?
B. Take one or at most two things from the introduction that stood out to you and contemplate it. After telling us what it is, tell us why it impacted you.
PART I. BIBLE STUDY:
FELLOWSHIP, KNOW, WALK, ABIDE — ALL TERMS FOR EXPERIENCING GOD
1. Read 1 John 1 through 1 John 2:6 in your first quiet time. Read slowly. Then read again, circling these words which are interchangeable words for experiencing God. Circle them in any form (fellowship, fellowshiping…walk, walking…abide, abiding, know, knowing)
2. After doing this, write out your reflections on what you’ve learned about better experiencing the living God.
GETTING TO KNOW JOHN
THE OPENING OF HIS GOSPEL
AND THE OPENING OF HIS LETTER
CONTAIN THE SAME AWE
THE SAME JOY
HE CAN HARDLY CONTAIN HIS ENTHUSIASM
HE WANTS YOU TO KNOW
WE SAW HIM WITH OUR OWN EYES!
WE TOUCHED HIM WITH OUR OWN HANDS!
THIS IS THE APOSTLE WHO WAS ONE OF THE THREE CLOSEST TO JESUS
HE IS THE APOSTLE WHO RAN, BREATHLESS, EASTER MORNING
Eugène Burnand: Peter and John Running to the Tomb
INDEED, AS HIS OPENING SAYS
HE SAW HIM
HIS OWN HANDS TOUCHED HIM
Caravaggio's Doubting Thomas
BY THE TIME JOHN WRITES HIS LETTERS
ALL OF THE OTHER DISCIPLES HAVE DIED MARTYRS’ DEATHS
JOHN ALONE IS LEFT
AND HE LONGS FOR US TO GO DEEPER
TO EXPERIENCE THE LIVING GOD
THAT OUR JOY MAY BE COMPLETE
3. What stands out to you about this opening concerning John the Apostle and why?
4. Read 1 John 1:1-2
A. Compare Genesis 1:1; John 1:1; and 1 John 1:1 and find the similarity.
B. In the opening of Peter’s 2nd letter, he says, “We were not making up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” (2 Peter 1:16 NLT) John wants us to know the same. How does he express this here?
C. Can you remember the first time you became aware Jesus was real — and that He really cared about you? Share something about it.
D. Has there been a time in the last week when you were aware of the same? It may have happened when you “let Him fill up your senses and gave thanks;” or it might have happened when His Word lit a fire, or it may have happened in another way. Share, if you can.
5. Read 1 John 1:3-4
A. In verse 3, John talks about two kinds of fellowship, one vertical and one horizontal. First, he talks about the horizontal: having fellowship with other believers, Christianity is not “me and God,” but corporate. Fellowship with one another is essential, for this is one of the ways we experience God. Name one way you experienced joy this week interacting in Christ with another believer.
B. John also talks in verse 3 about fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. This is “interactive,” just like our fellowship with one another is inter-active. This is harder, but vital for experiencing the living God. We’re concentrating on two ways this week. Re-iterate what they are:
6. Has His Word lit a fire in you yet? If so, share.
PART II. THE TIM KELLER SERMON
My first choice for you is one that is not free. It is called “To Know The Living God” and it is on the opening of 1 John by Keller. (LINK)
Here’s a quote I love from the above sermon:
Daniel Steel – a Methodist 19th century English minister
Almost every week and sometimes every day now a pressure of his great love comes down upon my heart with the light of his radiance presence. The inner spot of my heart has been touched and its flintiness has been melted in the presence of love divine all loves excelling.
There is also a free sermon that has many of the same truths. Some of you have heard it before, but it is one I have listened to many times. It is where he says, as he does I believe in the above, “That the sense of His absence is a sign of His presence.” (Link)
7. Please write down the points that stood out to you from the sermon and explain why.
PART III. REBECCA’S TESTIMONY
Rebecca has been with us for some time, and it gives me joy to see the transformation in her. She exemplifies what happens when we turn from idols to the Living God. She also truly lives out what we are talking about this week — letting God fill up your senses. Her testimony is filled with word pictures, as she does this. Though she has a challenging life with four boys, two of them special needs, she enjoys them, seeing God at work in them. She’s a cheerleader to not just her boys, but to us. (My daughter-in-law also tells me she has a wonderful husband. )She abides in His Word until it is honey in her mouth. She sings amazingly, and God is whittling away her fear of people so that she can shine for Him.
I was depressed, sinking into the abyss, feeling so far away from God. I blamed everything around me for my condition.
I was overeating both with food, and politics. I clung to politics like if we had the perfect leaders everything would be well and just in life. My desires were telling God that He wasn’t the desire of my heart, that He couldn’t comfort me like food could and He was certainly not a God of justice. I couldn’t trust Him for the future because my hope was in these things. I was isolating myself from other brothers and sisters in the Lord as my world continued to spiral downward.
Then I remembered what my sweet sister in the Lord, Julie Brestin, Dee’s daughter in law, told me about Dee a few years ago. I had heard of her studies, but didn’t know about her. What Julie shared reminded me of an older woman who discipled me years ago. I remembered what a well that was and how God used that in my life. So, I went online and noticed Dee had an online Bible study, although reluctant of what others might think of me being on an online study, I joined anyway. I so desired to be mentored by Dee.
Immediately I was drawn to the women who were godly, transparent and teachable, and whom God had given a heart to pursue Him. This became a well for me given by the hand of God and he started getting my heart ready to hear what He was about to tell me.
A few months after being involved in the Bible study, Dee started the Stonecutter study. I was filled with a lot of pride, let me tell you! When she posted the topic, I thought “Great! I don’t have a heart of stone. I know the Lord! “
I was wrong. As our study moved on, God soon revealed in me a heart of stone and that I was an idolatrous and had been deceived for many years. He began to chip away at my stone and revealed to me the core of my problem with depression. I had some real stressors in life, but instead of running to Him for comfort I was running to my comfort idol who promised me food would bring me comfort and politics would bring me hope.
I was in bed with my comfort idol tasting the sweet honey he offered, that soon became bitter. His love was like a worthless poison berry-beautiful, enticing and and inviting on the outside, but once eaten poisons the soul.
I was drowning and though I could rise up for air for quick relief from the things my idol offered, I grew weaker and could no longer get to the top as my idol wrapped weeds around my ankles pulling me deeper down into the depths of depression.
God came in like a gentle, shy lover at first and then like a hurricane when he revealed his jealous passion for me. Dee took us into Jeremiah 2. God spoke to me-it was the turn in the road for me. When we got to verse eleven it stuck with me “But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.” I was his bride in a covenant relationship with Him-my glorious God, my husband, provider, comforter, who loves abundantly overflowing, in bed with another lover-a worthless lover, a dead stick bent on my destruction. I saw God’s jealous, passionate love for the Israelites and how their idolatry grieved him. I knew mine did too for God never changes.
My stone began to crumble over time as I started to see how jealous, how passionate and how deep His love is for me and how my sin grieved Him and that drew me to repentance over and over again and I fled from my idol.
I drew closer to God as He pressed me into Him deeper and he began to peel back the layers of lies and replace them with truth. I gave up over eating and watching political shows and replaced it with spiritually edifying books.
I gave up sweets and trusted God for the timing on when I could eat them, not as a tool to bring comfort, but just simply to enjoy as a gift from God.
I did lose weight, but unintentionally it became a fast, and I soaked in the Lord instead.
I could enjoy the birds singing again in the mornings, every song new, every sunrise was as new as God’s mercies! He opened my eyes and ears to really see and taste His love for me both as I saw His majesty and wisdom in creation and as I drank from His well in the word.
The honeymoon was renewed, yet sweeter and deeper . I truly tasted the sweetness of His honey.
Yet, around the corner my idols vie for my attention daily, so having my time with the Lord in His word every morning, and to be in sweet communion with him throughout the day is crucial in me hearing Him and taking heed to the Holy Spirits red flags when these idols began to start drawing me in again. I am still an idolatrous who can easily be led away from God, but at the same time I am His princess and I have tasted Him in a deeper way which compels me to abstain from my cheap, worthless idols and fall into the arms of my glorious, passionate, creative and loving God.
8. What stood out to you from Rebecca’s testimony and why?
9. How can you affirm Rebecca this week?
10. What is your take-a-way this week and why?
P. S. If you feel ready to send a Stonecutter testimony, please send it to comments@deebrestin.com If you are not ready — then wait! :-)
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT PRACTICING HOMOSEXUALITY
DO YOU REMEMBER THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
THAT PAUL DESCRIBES IN ROMANS 1?
IT BEGINS BY SUPPRESSING THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD
THOUGH HIS GLORY IS CLEARLY SEEN
EVERYWHERE
SO THAT MEN ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE
WHY DO WE SUPPRESS THE TRUTH?
WHY DO WE EXCHANGE THE TRUTH FOR A LIE?
SO WE CAN RUN AFTER OUR IDOLS
SO WE CAN WORSHIP THE CREATED THING
INSTEAD OF THE CREATOR,
WHO ALONE IS WORTHY OF WORSHIP
THE ILLUSTRATION GIVEN IN ROMANS 1
IS THE PRACTICE OF HOMOSEXUALITY
FOR SO LONG I ONLY APPLIED THIS PASSAGE TO THAT SIN
BUT I HAD A LOG IN MY EYE
EVERY TIME I EXCHANGE THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR A LIE
TO CHASE MY IDOLS
I TOO GO INTO A DOWNWARD SPIRAL
I TOO LOSE THE LIGHT
I TOO LOSE THE POWER
I TOO EMBRACE MISERY
OPEN MY EYES LORD
SO I MAY RUN IN THE PATH OF FREEDOM
Last week Leslie Vernick and I kayaked down toward the village as the sun was setting. Concerned it would get too dark, I said, “We’d better turn back.”
We turned to behold crimson everywhere. A sudden glory. Leslie said, “I feel like we’re headed toward heaven.”
We paddled in silence, breathing in His beauty.
I thought about Romans 1 and Paul’s statement that the glory of God can be clearly seen everywhere so men are without excuse. Then I thought about a book I’d been reading by Wesley Hill and his struggle to live a celibate life though he had strong sexual desires for the same sex. I knew when we got back to the cottage I wanted to discuss the book with Leslie, for I’m naming it in my top five books of the year.
We got into our pajamas and cradled mugs of hot spiced tea in front of the fire. I pulled out Wesley’s book, telling her the heart of it.
Washed and Waiting by Wesley Hill
Wes is a gay man who has chosen to live a celibate life because of his love for God and his faith in His Word. He wrote it because so many Christian testimonies on this subject end up with the individual becoming a happy heterosexual. That is not his story. His is a life full of temptation, loneliness, and yet, power and joy.
He is open and honest all the way through the book with his struggles, his temptations, and yet he keeps choosing to live a celibate life. He sees the lie that so many who are gay have succumbed to, that “suppressing their temptations lead to a lesser life.” He quotes C. S. Lewis who said it is those who believe that lie from the world that actually have the “lesser life.” They miss the light, the power, the intimacy with God. Yet still, Wes told of his struggle with feelings of unworthiness because of his bent and broken sexuality. He wonders how, with these feelings, he can be loved by God. Then he tells of a break-through point.
Leslie leaned forward. “What was it?”
He quoted a priest. Here, let me find it.
I searched for my highlighting at the close of the book.
Here it is – the priest was Thomas Hopko and he encouraged gays “to see their refusal to act out their feelings as part of an extraordinary opportunity for imitating Christ and participating in His saving Passion.”
She nodded.
The book ends in such victory – not that he doesn’t recognize an ongoing struggle with temptation and loneliness, but he does begin to see his struggle as a gift, for it presses him closer to God and he is indeed, experiencing Gospel transformation. He is also experiencing the joy of God’s pleasure – and that this life he has chosen by faith is not less, but more.
(IF YOU’D LIKE TO SEE WESLEY HILL INTERVIEWED ABOUT HIS BOOK, HERE ARE THREE SHORT VERY INTERESTING CLIPS. HE REALIZED HIS PRINCIPLES WERE IMPACTING MANY CHRISTIANS, NOT JUST THOSE WHO STRUGGLE WITH HOMOSEXUALITY)
http://engagingchurchblog.com/2011/03/14/video-wesley-hill-discusses-washed-and-waiting/
I asked Leslie her thoughts on my “book report.” She said:
“He chose the power of the Gospel over the power of the lie. This,” Leslie continued, “This lesson is not just for gays.”
“Yes. He talked about how he appreciated one pastor who said, ‘I am not going to single out the practicing homosexuals in our congregation who have no desire to change any more than I am going to single out the practicing materialists in our congregation who have no desire to change.’ It is so easy to just see the sins of others and not our own. When I studied Romans 1 for so many years, I applied it only to practicing homosexuals. I missed the log in my own eye. When I indulge in overeating, I am exchanging the truth of God for a lie, believing my idol of food can better comfort me than the God of All Comfort. Or when I exaggerate, to make myself look better in the eyes of others, bowing down to the god of approval, I too lose power and joy. I too move into darkness.
Leslie nodded, saying:
I have seen in my counseling practice how sexual abusers exchange the truth of God for a lie, telling themselves their victims like the abuse. We have such a propensity to deceive ourselves so we can run after idols.
My thoughts turned to the biography I’d read the summer before of John Newton, [the slave-trader who repented and went on to write the lyrics for the hymn Amazing Grace] and how amazed I was that it took him so long to wake up to the realization that engaging in slavery was sin. I told Leslie about it:
It took decades for Newton to see the lie he had exchanged for the truth. Though he was a proclaiming Christian, would kidnap Africans, praying for favor with God to seize them. He was the captain of a slave ship that stowed the slaves so mercilessly, like they were lumber instead of living people.
This detail from a diagram of a slave ship shows how captured Africans were stowed for shipment to markets in the New World. Unclothed, underfed, and forced to lie on hard planking in unhygienic conditions, many failed to survive the transatlantic voyage.
I remember a letter he wrote to his wife Polly from his slave-trading boat. He said:
“I feel I’ve been shut up with almost as many unclean creatures as Noah was, and in a much smaller ark”.
Leslie paused, and then said,
That’s a perfect example for your book, Dee. Newton exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
“That Africans were not really people.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “lies help us pursue our idols.”
“And then they blind us and strip us of the power of the Spirit.”
EXCHANGING THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR A LIE
We do it all the time.
One of my favorite remarks from you last week was just Saturday, when Susan was responding to her sisters on the blog who were empathizing with the pain she felt at seeing how she could make an idol of her children. Keller’s sermon had helped her to see how easy it is for us as mothers to “exchange the truth of God for a lie,” by making our children the most important thing. Susan responded to her empathetic sisters like this:
I thank you for your empathy and your prayers for me, but don’t feel too sorry for me because this is a good thing for me to be seeing the idolatry in my life! What Keller said about the depth of the wound being your own making….yes, people, my children, can say and do things to hurt my feelings and it does hurt, but when the wound cuts so deep that it makes me feel like I just want to go home to heaven or when it makes me feel like a complete failure and an idiot and like I have no worth or significance, then there is a bigger problem there, and now I see it. I have made idols out of my children because I look to them, as Keller put it, to “functionally” save me.
We all tend to worship the created thing instead of the Creator. And it wonderful when we begin to see it, because then there can be healing. It is akin to being sick for a long time and finally figuring out what is wrong and what can be done about it.
Romans 1 is not just a helpful passage for those who have made the same sex the object of worship, it is for every single one of us.
ICEBREAKER:
What stands out to you from the above and why?
PART I. REVIEW
We’re doing some challenging material, so I don’t want to move too fast. Last week we looked at Leah, if you were with us, and how she kept chasing something that she thought would fulfil her, and only became more and more miserable. I would say one of the best comments from last week came from Cyndi, and many of you agreed!
Leah thought that she needed Jacob to love her to be happy, to fill her up. As she continues to experience God’s gifts…son after son, she still is grasping to that ONE “need.”
Demanding what we do not have keeps us from being joyful over what we do have.
1. What were some of the lies that Leah embraced that robbed her of joy?
2. What was the truth that she finally embraced that brought her into freedom?
3. CHALLENGE: WHAT TRUTH OF GOD DID LEAH EXCHANGE FOR A LIE?
PART II. BIBLE STUDY
We’re going to look first at Romans 1, then turn to ourselves to see how we too have the propensity to exchange the truth of God for a lie.
4. Read Romans 1:16-30
A. What does Paul say about “the gospel” in verse 16?
Remember that the gospel has a power to save us not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of sin.
B. Why is God angry according to Romans 1:18-20?
C. In verse 21 we are told that “although they knew God” they did not… What two things did they refuse to do and what did it lead to? (verses 21-22)
D. The example given in verses 24 through 28 is the practice of homosexuality. Find the three phrases that begin with “God gave them up,” or “God gave them over” and trace the downward spiral.
E. What else happened to them according to verses 29-32?
Again, this is not just about practicing homosexuality. When you see the final result in verse 32, you know that is true of those who have embraced racism, abortion, materialism, gluttony, and all kinds of sin. When we sin we encourage others to sin, either by our words or our model. Sin spreads like poison ivy.
When I was discussing this passage with Leslie Vernick, she kept talking about verse 25: EXCHANGING THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR A LIE. This is what we must be aware of in ourselves. I asked Leslie to give me a practical example from her own life. Quickly, she painted this scenario:
I’m in line at the store, in a hurry, and the clerk is slow. I feel myself getting angry, irritated. That’s the signal from my body that my idol is operating, that I am worshipping something besides God, that I am exchanging the truth of God for a lie.
So what do you do?
I ask myself what the idol is. In this case it is myself, my agenda, my schedule.
Then what?
First, confess the idol, the lie. I am not more important than this clerk. I am not loving her as God does. Then I must repent, asking Him to help me turn and love this clerk. I want to worship the Creator instead of the idol of myself and my own agenda.
5. Can you give a simple example, as Leslie did, of how you might exchange the truth of God for a lie and then, therefore, sin?
PART III. TESTIMONY FROM ELIZABETH
Elizabeth is another blogger who has been with us for some time. In many ways Elizabeth is a mentor’s dream mentee, for she studies hard, has a heart eager to respond, and does indeed show the power the Gospel has to transform. As you read her testimony, and how she is seeing gospel transformation, consider how it happened, how the truth of God moved in to replace the lie. For the same can happen for you!
HOW GOD HELPED ELIZABETH SEE THE STONES
Before this study with Dee, I had overlooked the idol beneath several relationship struggles in my life. Three major family relations in particular, I had spent years living in my own state of self pity and hurt, never realizing the idol I had covered up was approval. My feelings of rejection had escalated to the point that I was no longer actively trying to get approval, yet I longed for it. As we progressed through the study, God began to show me how I had been holding these people at arms length, an invisible wall between us, trying to protect myself from the pain of their seemingly absent approval. I had become bitter, angry, cold.
God used the story of the prodigal sons to melt my heart. I saw that I am the younger son, running away from home, trying to find quick fulfillment from worldly pleasures. I am the older son, judging others harshly, with-holding forgiveness and trying to make myself beautiful by performing well and doing good works. As God has opened my eyes to this and my self-righteousness and anger have begun to melt, and I can feel compassion for the younger sons in my life as well as humility for my pride. I can see we are all lost at some point, but welcomed home by a Father who dearly loves us, and there is no price for any of us left to pay.
God has shown me, that it is ALWAYS my move. This has been monumental for me. For as long as I can remember, I have hid behind a protective shield of self-righteousness, waiting for the offender to seek me out, to apologize. When God used a Keller sermon to speak this truth to me, it was the last thing I wanted to hear! But it has changed my actions nearly every day since. It is always my move, to break the silence when I would rather sulk. It is always my move, to go up to my child’s room and open my arms for an embrace, when there has been disobedience and harsh words.
AN ILLUSTRATION OF GOSPEL TRANSFORMATION
After one of those rough days with deliberate disobedience and melt downs at every turn, my anger fuming…I got my child and took her for ice cream, a RARE treat. When we got there she said: “WHY would you take me here after EVERYTHING I did today, Mamma?” And God gave me the chance to say: “Because my love for you has NOTHING to do with how you act.”
WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE?
The more I see my need for grace, and His outpouring of unmerited favor–the more I start to in some tiny way GET the Gospel–the more I can give it to others. Like the woman caught in adultery, I have tried to fill my void with other loves. It seems to work for a time—lots of praise for my good works, my children, my marriage…but it isn’t enough. It is a mask I have tried but found does not work. But He has come for me. He has welcomed me into His embrace, He has removed my mask, and He clothes me with His righteousness, and that is more than enough.
I am completely dependent on the Holy Spirit in me to obey God, and completely responsible to obey. My part is to be honest about my sin and what the Holy Spirit is revealing to me. I must learn to recognize when my eyes are looking at other loves, and to instead fix my affection on my Greater Love. My idols cannot be removed, only replaced by a greater love. I do this practically by finding Scripture that applies to my specific areas of sin—for example, replacing my judging thoughts with “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14. There is no quick fix though. I find myself struggling daily to die to Self, displace myself from the inner throne of my heart. And yet, I am thankful for the conviction of my sin. I would never even desire to turn my eyes towards Him, without Him initiating it in me, through His Spirit. I am utterly dependent on Him. “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14
6. Comment on Elizabeth’s testimony. What stood out to you and why?
PART IV. THE SERMON
The sermon I’d really like you to listen to is 2.50, though I think if you contacted them at Redeemer and told them you couldn’t afford it, they would let you have it. It’s a classic on the Gospel and it is on Romans 1:16 and more. Keller says the more we understand the Gospel, the greater its power will be in our life. So that is 2.50 well spent!
Here it is: Link
7. Keller makes three points. Comment on each.
Rembrandt: Return of the Prodigal
Alternative free sermon. Elizabeth talked about how the story of the prodigal sons impacted her. Here is a free Keller sermon on that. When I was reading Wesley Hill’s book he kept referring to Henry Nouwen, who also struggled with homosexuality and wrote the amazing book The Return of the Prodigal. Nouwen is the one who sat in front of Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal for days, saying the painting changed his life.
Here is Keller’s opening message on The Prodigal Sons. It’s free: Link
8. If you listen to the above, what stood out to you?
9. What is your take-a-way for the week and why?
THE STONECUTTER RETURNS
TODAY WE REMEMBER 9/11
WE THINK OF THE SORROW
AND WE WONDER IF THE RETURN OF JESUS IS NEAR
Martin French Revelation 19:11-16
WE KNOW HE TOLD US TO BE READY
WE LONG TO BE THE KIND OF BRIDE
THAT WILL NOT BE ASHAMED WHEN HE APPEARS
AND SO WE ARE RETURNING TO A STUDY THAT HAS BEEN CHANGING OUR HEARTS
AND TO THE PROMISE FROM EZEKIEL THAT
GOD WILL REPLACE OUR HEARTS OF STONE
WITH HEARTS OF FLESH
TO REPLACE DEAD, UNRESPONSIVE HEARTS
WITH PASSIONATE, REAL, AND POWERFUL HEARTS
Welcome to those of you who have done parts of “The Stonecutter” study before — I’m counting on you to be mentors!
Welcome to those who are just joining us. We are so glad you are here.
I don’t think it is coincidental that Leslie Vernick, author and counselor, is visiting me this week — for she pours her wealth into my heart as I prepare. We biked ten miles yesterday (she pushed me!) and then dined on butternut squash and whitefish at an outside cafe. I have been pondering a question, and so I posed it to Leslie, as we lingered over supper. “I know we will have many begin The Stonecutter study Sunday, but drop out — a smaller percentage will be faithful. And then even among the faithful, some will see dramatic changes, and others will not. Why?”
Leslie quoted Tozer, the words flowing out of her heart:
True spirituality manifests inteself in certain dominant desires. These everpresent deep-seated wants are sufficiently powerful to moderate and control a life.
“What are those desires?” I asked.
“To please God, to honor God, to love God, to glorify God with your life.”
“Yes,” I said, “that is what it is.”
May we ask God to give us these dominant desires. To want Him instead of just what He gives.
HOW THE STUDY WORKS
This study will have three or four parts. The first two are essential, and I pray you will be able to do all of it. But go at your own pace. I suggest doing some each day, same time, same place, to develop a habit. It is more important to experience God than to look at this as a task to be accomplished and hurried through. Having said that, I must say that the sermons I am suggesting in Part III. (usually by Tim Keller) are igniting hearts. If you have an Ipod or similar device, you can download them and listen as you work, drive, exercise… They are saying that his sermons are resulting in the first “internet revival.”
PART I. THE FOUNDATION (THIS IS REVIEW, BUT ESSENTIAL FOR THE NEW PEOPLE AND HELPFUL FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN WITH US. AFTER READING, ANSWER THE ICE-BREAKER.)
PART II. BIBLE STUDY (AGAIN, ESSENTIAL)
PART III. THE SERMON (I will try to give you free sermons, but sometimes they will be 2.50 to download. This is optional. Redeemer is using the money for ministries in New York City, so the money is well spent.)
AND SOMETIMES: PART IV. THE TESTIMONY (If you have been in this study and want to send me a half page or, at most, page testimony of how God is working in your life, you can send it to comments@deebrestin.com.) Anne, who has been with us since almost the beginning, will start this week, though I am incorporating her testimony into Part I.)
NEWCOMERS:
Because the participation is growing, and we are so glad, if you have a common name, you might give us a middle name, or even give us something unique such as Mary from Indiana or Linda the nurse the first time you log on. There are directions on how to get started on the right side of this page — and if you have trouble, contact my great website manager at david@deebrestin.com The first time your comment will need to be approved — but after that, you usually will come right on. Think about what you write before you write it, for it is hard for me to delete it. Many have found it is helpful to copy the study to a word document and then paste their answers when they are satisfied with them. Thoughtful careful answers are so very appreciated by all because as we grow, there can be a lot to read. Please pray for God’s anointing for us all!
DON’T LOOK FOR A QUICK FIX. THE NEXT FEW WEEKS WILL HELP YOU GRASP THE CONCEPT. BE PATIENT.
PART I. THE FOUNDATION
Why is it that some believers in Jesus Christ are set free from besetting sins, and others remain mud-bound? Each group seems to know the Lord, each group wants to change, but only one does. Though the mud-bound group is weary of repeating their failures and weary of their wilderness wanderings, they are stuck. In despair, they cry:
I don’t want to be so anxious, but nothing seems to help.
I’ve tried so many times to lose weight – it’s hopeless.
I hate it that I get so angry, but I cannot change.
Kim Yoeung Seng PHOTOGRAPHY: LAS VEGAS DESERT PICNIC SITE
A mediocre Christian life with occasional picnics in the desert is not what God wants for us.
The salvation God promises is a “double cure.” Remember the lyrics in Rock of Ages?
Be of sin the double cure
Save from wrath, and make me pure.
We not only can be saved from the penalty of sin, (save from wrath) but indeed, He is saving us from the power of sin (make me pure). The first cure is instantaneous, and the second is a process, but the same power that brought us new life can also transform our hearts, freeing us from the sins that have bound us for so long.
One of the rich metaphors God gives for this transformation is from Ezekiel, where He promises to transform “our heart of stone” into a “heart of flesh.” He is the Cardiovascular Surgeon who can give us a heart transplant, excising our lifeless cold hearts and replacing them with pulsating and passionate hearts, hearts that have the power to overcome sin.
ANNE’S TESTIMONY:
Anne, of our faithful bloggers who has a rich contemplative spirit, and has been through this study, writes this:
The Stonecutter series has been the most life changing study I have ever done. I won’t say that it was easy or that I don’t need to do it again because neither is true. I will continue this fall so that I may continue on the path to freedom. When we began the study there was a picture of a heart of flesh with stones dropping off it — I so wanted that heart.
When we began to discuss what idols we would like to be free of Dee made it clear that we should choose just one so that we would not be overwhelmed. I looked at what seemed my greatest struggle and thought it was comfort. Fortunately I also prayed and God began revealing one so deep that I was not even aware of it. It controlled me like a rudder and I did not even see it. One pivotal incident happened at work through an offhand comment from one of my coworkers that opened my eyes. This person saw in my soul with startling clarity. As we learned on the blog about how to recognize our physical reaction to idol threat I knew that I must first deal with the idol of approval because it was setting off all the sirens. When I began to take steps against my approval idol, I saw assault from everywhere. I think it was for about a week that I suffered deeply. I felt weak and shaky at times but as we studied I learned how to speak truth to my soul which brought victories. Just a month or so later I had a dream that spoke deeply to me of God’s love for me. Realizing His love for me gave me just the kind of strength I needed for my battle. Another thing the dream helped me to understand is that my idolatry is an attempt to cover myself before God and that prevents intimacy with Him. Greater intimacy led to victory in the area of the comfort idol also.
I am learning that God is the Stonecutter. He will remove the stone from my heart. My job is to allow Him. It is heart surgery and painful at times, but if I allow it, I will quickly be healed. If I pull away it could take 40 years in the wilderness!
Anne referred to idols — we aren’t talking about the stone gods of the Old Testament or even the little Buddha that may be in the place where you get a pedicure. Ezekiel says we have idols of the heart — these are our “functional gods.” We may think we trust in Jesus, but often we trust instead in the approval of others, or our comfort, or having control over our lives. These are hidden stones in our hearts, like hidden boulders under water that can cause a shipwreck.
http://cutcaster.com/photo/100605854-Boulders-under-water/
These treacherous stones lurk beneath the deep waters of our souls – stones that have stymied our journey and cut us to pieces. But God’s light is shining down into the deep dark waters revealing the Scylla that have shipwrecked lives. (In Homer’s Odyssey, “Scylla” looked from a distance like a dangerous rock shoal, but was in actuality a six-headed sea monster. Her long necks stretched down to the ship as she passed, seizing six of Odysseus’ sailors.)
In response, many of us are crying out to the Stonecutter, asking Him to remove the stones. And He’s doing it. An amazing excitement is rippling out, the joy so characteristic of revival. The Stonecutter is exposing that we are, indeed, idolaters. Even though we love God, there are others things in our heart of hearts we think we must have to be fulfilled. We think thoughts like:
Unless I succeed in my career… unless people love me… unless I get out of this crummy apartment…unless I get married…unless ___________________then I have no life.
When we make money or marriage or ministry our foundation, our security, and our identity we are idolaters. These stones in our hearts block the presence of God. Jesus, the Stonecutter, is in process of chipping those stones away so we can experience real life.
Why is it that a study on idolatry leads to victory when other studies have failed?
ATTACKING THE ROOT PROBLEM
So often we have failed to conquer a besetting sin because we have attacked the symptoms of our sin instead of the root problem. Alcoholics Anonymous knows that there is no hope for deliverance until an alcoholic sees and names his root problem. She must come to the point where she can stand up before a group and admit, “Hi – my name is Jane, and I am an alcoholic.” As long as she denies her root problem and attempts to control the symptoms, she is doomed to failure. She may try to control her anger by counting to ten, her frequent accidents by naming a designated driver, and her absenteeism at work by asking her spouse to get her out of bed in the morning. But as long as she denies the root problem, her alcoholism will win.
In the same way, unless we as believers identify the root problem that leads to a multitude of surface sins, we are doomed to failure. Though our surface sins are many, there are three categories that cover most of the deep idols that lead to these surface sins. They are:
- Control/power
- Affirmation/approval
- Comfort/security
Why does understanding our root problem free us when other plans fail? Consider. Someone with the deep idol of comfort/security may want to overcome over-eating, over-spending, or a lazy devotional life – but she can’t seem to stop running to the refrigerator, buying impulsively, or hitting snooze on the alarm clock. She hates herself for failing and renews her efforts to attack the near sin: “I’ll start a better diet, a better budget, and buy a better alarm clock.” But her DEEP idol of comfort will CRY OUT when he is restricted. He will tell her lies: Just one potato chip… just window shop… just a little more sleep… He is crouching at the door, waiting for her to open it a crack, and when she does, he barrels in, attacking her.
She must open her eyes to the beast, the liar, the stone god within her heart. He promises relief but delivers bondage. THEN SHE MUST LEARN, AS LEAH DOES IN OUR BIBLE STUDY THIS WEEK, HOW GOD CAN BE WHAT HER IDOL NEVER COULD BE, TURN FROM HER STONE IDOL, AND ALLOW GOD TO COME IN AND FILL THAT SPACE.
ICEBREAKER:
1. Tell us your name, one thing that will help us identify you (I’m Cyndi the homeschooling mom from Ohio; or I’m Terri who leads prison ministries in Texas…) and one reason you have decided to do The Stonecutter.
2. What is one thing you want to remember from Part I.?
PART II. BIBLE STUDY
STONE SCULPUTRES OF LEAH AND RACHEL BY MICHELANGEO
Leah and Rachel. Sisters. They were real women, like you and me. They wanted to have meaning in their lives, to be loved, to feel like their lives mattered. Though each might have told you, that they loved the God of their ancestor Abraham, each had “functional idols,” something from which they really thought they could get their meaning in life. God is The Stonecutter. With one, He successfully removed the stone. The other died, seemingly, with a heart of stone.
Let’s go.
Jacob is fleeing his brother, having tricked him, and comes to his Uncle Laban’s home. There he meets the love of his life, Rachel.
3. Read Genesis 29:9-20 to understand the background.
A. Find evidences that Jacob has fallen deeply for Rachel.
B. In verses 16 and 17, what contrasts do you find between the two sisters?
Though some translators diplomatically describe Leah as having “delicate or weak eyes,” as if she simply needed glasses, the context reveals otherwise. If, indeed, she simply had poor vision, the contrast between her and her sister would be: “Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel could see very well.” Instead, the contrast is:
Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
It is likely Leah had an eye malfunction, such as cross-eyes or a lazy eye.
C. How long did Jacob agree to work for Rachel’s hand? How long did it seem to him and why?
4. Read Genesis 29:21-30
A. Describe Laban’s ruse.
B. When morning breaks and the sun falls on Leah’s face, after the marriage has been consummated, how did Jacob respond?
C. How do you think Leah felt? How would you have felt?
LEAH’S STONE
READ GENESIS 29:31-34
5. What evidence in verse 31 do you see of the Lord’s compassion for Leah? How might this speak to you in whatever pain you are facing right now?
6. Leah’s first three sons. Find the names she gives each son, what they mean, and what they tell you about what Leah thought she had to have to be fulfilled.
7. CHALLENGE QUESTION: WE HAVE IDENTIFIED LEAH’S FUNCTIONAL IDOL — BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK COULD HAVE BEEN THE DEEP IDOL UNDERNEATH? (I DON’T KNOW — IT COULD ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN ANY OF THE THREE MENTIONED ABOVE — BUT I’D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.) OFTEN WE IDENTIFY ONE IDOL, AND THEN WE LOOK AGAIN, AND SEE ANOTHER.
It was my friend Leslie Vernick who suggested we pay attention to our body language to identify our own deep idols. I can picture Leah becoming anxious, even feeling ill as she watched Jacob with Rachel. I imagine her depression at being ignored by Jacob. Often our thought life reveals our idols — and I’m sure Leah’s thought life was consumed with wanting Jacob’s love, approval, and having the security of being beloved in his eyes.
8. BE ALERT TO YOUR OWN BODY LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT LIFE. WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU ANXIOUS AND ANGRY? WHERE DOES YOUR MIND GO WHEN IT IS FREE TO ROAM? THIS WILL HELP YOU BEGIN TO IDENTIFY YOUR IDOLS OF THE HEART. BECOME SELF-AWARE AND WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU OBSERVE.
Often, it isn’t until our world is shaken that we can see the futility of our idols. After three sons, Jacob still does not love Leah. Listen to this Bonnie Rait song and imagine Leah, sitting by the fire, mourning that Jacob does not love her.
9. READ GENESIS 29:34-35
What did Leah name her fourth son and why? What turn do you see?
10. In the following passages, do your best to find ways that God met Leah, cared for Leah, and had compassion on her.
A. Genesis 30:17
B. In this next passage Jacob is speaking — remember how unusual it is for a woman to be mentioned, to be remembered, in Scripture. Genesis 49:31
C. Ruth 4:11
D. Hebrews 7:14
E. Revelation 5:5
11. When God denies us a desire of our heart, He always has a plan, a plan not to hurt us, but a plan for our good. Have you experienced this? If so, share one illustration from your life.
12. Leah’s learning to praise the Lord was key in creating her heart of flesh. Some of the ways we can follow her model are to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in our quiet times and throughout the day. Try learning one simple song or verse from a hymn this week. What will it be?
13. I have also learned the power of praying Scripture. I’d like you to look at Martin French’s depiction of Revelation 19:11-16 above and then pray through those verses. Take one — and use it as a way to praise God. For example:
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
Lord, this takes my breath away. You are returning. You are Faithful and True. You have always been faithful to me, even when You have allowed pain in my life. You are True, and I cling to that. One day You will make war against our enemies — but not against me — for You have taken the punishment I deserve, and I will never stop praising you.
Now — you try! READ THIS PASSAGE IN REVELATION, LOOK AT MARTIN FRENCH’S DEPICTION OF JESUS ON A WHITE HORSE, AND PRAY IT, MAKING IT YOUR OWN.
PART III. THE SERMON
(FREE SERMON BY TIM KELLER ENTITLED THE GRAND MYTHOLOGIZER: JESUS AND THE IDOLS OF OUR HEART)
To download the audio: http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/The-Grand-Demythologizer-The-Gospel-and-Idolatry
To watch the same on video:
14. RESPONDING TO THE SERMON
A. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WAS KELLER’S MAIN POINT?
B. WHAT STOOD OUT TO YOU FROM THIS MESSAGE AND WHY?
15. WHAT IS YOUR TAKE-A-WAY FROM THIS FIRST WEEK?
EXTRA RESOURCES THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU
KELLER’S SERMON “THE GIRL NOBODY LOVED” TO BE FOUND AT WWW.REDEEMER.COM
SALLY LLOYD-JONES CHILDREN’S STORY, BY THE SAME TITLE, IN THE JESUS STORYBOOK BIBLE
THE GOD HUNT
NEXT WEEK : THE STONECUTTER
BUT THIS WEEK
WE’RE GOING TO PAUSE
AND TAKE A BREATH
AS WE SAY GOOD-BYE TO SWEET SUMMER
AND PREPARE TO FACE, WITH JOY
THE BRISKER PACE OF FALL
Labor Day itself was designed to honor the Labor movement that brought relief to so many workers who were abused and over-worked by those in power. Many have come to think of it as a day where you have a break from labor, pause, and relax, and, perhaps, reflect.
It’s a good time to slow down and think about what life is really about — a pause, a “selah,” before we turn to the many responsibilities that come with the fall. The homework this week is lighter – I want you to slow down and experience God!
Last week there was such a sweetness when Meg came on an apologized for going too fast after I had told her to slow down and chew on the questions. When I told her that it was more important to experience God than to finish the task, several of you jumped in and said, “Me too! I go too fast!” Honestly, we all need to remind ourselves to slow down and experience God. Though it is a secular song, I love the heart of the Simon and Garfunkle song that begins”Slow down, you move too fast, you’ve got to make the morning last…” We can be so busy in our Christian lives that we miss God — how wild is that?
ICE-BREAKER
Can you identify with being so busy, moving so fast, that you miss God? If so, what are you learning about ways to “slow down” and experience Him?
This week I’m having you meet one of our faithful bloggers — Joyce Keim Peterson. (See below) After you read what she has written, take the time to affirm her!
PART I. BIBLE STUDY
We can also miss God when we aren’t looking for Him. This week’s lesson is one of my favorite stories and a GREAT one to act out if you have children.
But Peter continued knocking
1. Read Acts 12:1-5 and describe the background for this story.
2. Read Acts 12:6-11 and name some of the ways Peter experienced God.
3. Read Acts 12:12-14 and describe what happened and how and why Rhoda responded as she did.
4. If possible, tell about one time when God answered a prayer and you could hardly believe, because of joy!
5. Read Acts 12:15-17 and describe what happened.
This week I have been with two of my dearest friends. For the six summers since Steve died, we have gotten together for five days at my cabin. We discuss books (this year Bonhoeffer and One Thousand Gifts), we pray, and we read over our journals from the year before so we can be alert to how God has answered prayer. We are always amazed. I’m thankful for our journals, for without those reminders, we truly may have missed “Peter at the door.” We’ve seen God answer prayers for our own spiritual growth, for removing besetting sins, for stronger marriages, for the gift of babies, for quickening in our ministries… Peter has been at the door so many times!
PART II. THE GOD HUNT
One of the most fruitful devotional habits Steve and I practiced with our five children was one we learned from Karen and David Mains. It’s called The God Hunt. Our kids loved it and we did too. It was a way to be alert to God in your life. So we are going on a God Hunt this week! What I’d like you to do, is see if you can spy God at least once every day and come on and tell us about it.
FOUR WAYS TO SPY GOD
1. I SPY GOD BECAUSE OF AN ANSWER TO PRAYER
A. So often we pray for His help in trouble, or His gifts. He is gracious and gives us abundantly. What is a way He met you in trouble or gave you what you requested this summer?
B. Sometimes we pray for our own character or the characters of those we love. If you do that, what is a way you have seen Him meet you?
2. I SPY GOD BECAUSE OF UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES OR TIMING
The year of the babies! Mesmerized here by a dancing Grandma! :-)
In my family this one was hard to miss. My three daughters and daughter-in-law did not plan this nor did they plan to all have daughters. But how can we ever forget or stop rejoicing at the obvious hand of God. These are the four babies last April. This summer they all turned one. Joy, joy, joy, joy!
If you think about the story in Esther, for example, the hero is neither Mordecai nor Esther, but God, who orchestrated everything so that the Jews could be rescued. That is the way the story of Esther must be read — and we would be wise to look at the story of our own lives in the same way.
Be alert!
Just this week I ran into a distant young cousin at the airport. Surprised us both. But I knew it was God, for she has always been one who has seemed open to God. And now we are in contact again. He is on the move.
A. As you look back, what unusual circumstances or timing made you think, in a particular situation, that God was involved?
B. Be alert — watch for unusual circumstances or timing this week and be ready to report.
3. I spy God because of unexpected and undeserved grace.
We fear we are going to fail an exam, and we get an A! We are sure the policeman is going to give us the ticket we deserve, and we get a warning. We have a near miss with an accident, kindness from a stranger, or a rainbow on a stormy day. My dad used to tell me, “Be alert to be amazed.”
When a person gives us grace and we don’t deserve it, we should recognize that ultimately that unexpected grace is a gift from God. For a person cannot extend grace unless she has received it. One of my favorite stories from you was one from Elizabeth. Her young daughter had pushed the boundaries all day and then Elizabeth, who is very much into health food, took her out for ice cream. Her daughter was mystified and asked why, “since she had been bad all day.” Elizabeth told her that her love was unconditional. Grace. God’s unexpected grace.
Last month when I came back to the cabin after a speaking engagement on my birthday, there was my oldest son, surprising me. This was unexpected grace in many ways. He and his fiance did so many things to surprise me. It was particularly sweet because my relationship with them has had lots of rough spots — because I have hurt them often through my perpetual attempts to change them. (If you are new to this blog, you will learn that one of the idols God is working on in my heart is control.) They both love the Lord deeply, however, and have given me grace. This homecoming was certainly evidence of that — and a surprise!
A. Can you think of a way in the last year when you received unexpected and undeserved grace?
B. Be alert for the same during the week.
4. I spy God because of His help to do His work in the world.
He gives each of us gifts and calls us to use them, but we cannot do anything without Him. Often the world, the flesh, and the devil stop us — but He is the Overcomer. How beautifully we saw this lived out in Rebecca’s life. He has given her the gift of a beautiful voice, but she was so overcome by the fear of man that is stopped her from being what He called her to be. She even posted pictures of the big stage at her church so we could empathize with her fear! But then, God did a work in her, helping her bask in His approval instead of looking for man’s. She then posted a wonderful video of that Sunday — singing her heart our to the Lord and living evidence of His help to do His work in the world. If you missed it, here it is: http://vimeo.com/27992059
Here I must say that you, my sweet sisters on this blog, have been such a gift to me, and truly, His help to do His work in the world. It was not my intent when I began this blog, but it has been so sweet for you have given me friendship, encouragement, prayer, and stories that I am often using — I repeat them at times on this blog, and I may ask you if I may use them in my writing. I didn’t expect any of this — but I thank you for your hearts, for your perseverance, and for your pressing into God. We do need one another, and you have certainly been a wonderful gift to me, making a three-fold cord. (You, me, and the Lord.)
A. How has God helped you to fulfil your calling in this world — as a mother, a nurse, a teacher, a wife, an encourager, a friend…?
B. What is one (I know there are many) way a woman on this blog helped you to fulfil His calling on your life?
C. Be His work in the world?Be on the alert and be ready to report how you spy Him this week.
PART III. FREE TIM KELLER SERMON: A REASON FOR LIVING
This is a wonderful free sermon — will help you slow down and think about what life is really all about: Link
WHAT’S YOUR TAKE-A-WAY FOR THE WEEK?
PLEASE PRAY FOR NEXT WEEK AS WE RETURN TO THE STONECUTTER — INVITE YOUR FRIENDS!
MEET OUR BLOGGERS: JOYCE!
During the last Stonecutter study we met many of you, and I didn’t get to post Joyce, who has been with us for a long time. So this week I’d like you to meet her — and I will do this again sometime. I know Joyce personally for I used to live in her town in Nebraska. I have always been impressed with her spirit despite many trials that would flatten most people. She is one of our greatest encouragers and prayer warriors. How thankful we are for you, Joyce!
Maurice, Kendra, dog Penny, and Joyce!
JOYCE WRITES:
My passion is to become more like Jesus. I feel, I’ve wasted so much of my life before really living for God. I wasn’t raised in a christian home, but I gave my heart to Jesus in my 20’s, during a very abusive first marriage. My second marriage , we had three children and after Kendra was born with CP and epilepsy and mentally challenged, he left me for someone else. My husband now, Maurice (pronounced like Morris) and I have been married 21 years now, and Kendra is the only one at home and she is 24 years old. His wife left him also with two kids and I had three and he was the most worried about taking on a disabled child! Well the older kids fought and there was so much jealousy between them (but are close now) , and Kendra and Daddy became inseparable! Maurice is the Daddy God wanted for Kendra. Maurice calls us “his girls”, even our doggy, Penny! And he is a wonderful Husband and Daddy. Everything does work out for the best! I feel so blessed. Trial’s do make you grow closer to the Lord.
I’ll be 62 this summer and caring for Kendra is my ministry I believe. She is our Love and Joy here on earth, as is our older kids, but God is number one and we are trusting him each day.
The study on Idolatry has truly opened my eye’s to all the many idols I have. If I had to choose the one I’ve been praying for the most would be my idol of food…..running to it instead of Jesus for comfort. I’ve learnt so much from all of you and am aware of how I am only harming myself, my body, “The Temple of the Holy Spirit”.
When I was in the hospital for 4 days recently, I was praying much of the time when alone. During one of those prayers, I felt a hand on my shoulder and opened my eye’s to find no one in the room. I know it was the hand of Jesus and I felt like he was saying to me, “Trust me”.
I worry so much about who will take care of Kendra when we can’t anymore.
I pray so much for all my sister’s in Christ, here , and Dee, on this wonderful study. I’m not very well versed or wise, as most, but I am a prayer warrior for everyone that needs me to pray, and love being an mentor to anyone I can help. And I do have great empathy for anyone hurting or going through hard times.
TO GOD AND TO THE LAMB, I WILL SING
“Each new morn
New widows howl,
new orphans cry…”
Suffering, Shakespeare knew, is a given in life.
Yet God has not hidden His face.
Earthquakes come to places they have rarely come.
Hurricanes increase in frequency and ferocity.
Yet God has not hidden His face.
Our own sins reap us sorrow
cut us to pieces
Yet God has not hidden His face.
When the storm is raging
When the terror and rumble of
the world, the flesh, and the devil
come to us
He asks us to come to Him
To find shelter under His wings
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, would that I could gather you under my wings
When we suffer
God is not punishing us
For He took that punishment
He is the Lamb of God
Who takes away the sins of the world.
Francisco de Zurbarán, The Bound Lamb
And when the mighty waters come
I will find refuge in Him
and to God and to the Lamb,
I will sing
I will sing
We are at the final week of The God of All Comfort, and it has been a privilege to journey with you. This week will be a review, and I have found that reviews are a way to truly etch truths in our hearts. I want to use pictures, for pictures penetrate the heart, and I will share from just a few of you who have journeyed long and faithfully with us. (Don’t feel slighted if I don’t share from you, for I may another time.)
Next week will be an individual study for the Labor Day weekend, and then we will return to The Stonecutter, which is about how God can remove our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh. I will begin with a review, so if you haven’t been with us, please consider joining us, beginning on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
Many of you have been so good at looking carefully at the artwork and photographs that illustrate a phrase from the psalms — and I am expecting that from you again. Take, for example, the beautiful photo Joyce sent me above of the mother bird shielding her babies. When Elizabeth looked at it, she wrote: I want to be the little bird on the right of the picture–eyes shut! trusting and only listening to His voice.
Seeing the Psalms by William Brown
One resource that I recommend to you in praying the Psalms is William Brown’s commentary: Seeing the Psalms.
Brown tells us to read the psalms “as a lover reads, lingering over the images.” I truly believe this is the best approach to the psalms.
I have been in classes where the psalms are categorized and dissected, and left dead on the operating table.
This approach to the psalms reminds me of a comment Luci Shaw’s daughter Kristen made when she had to dissect a grasshopper in her high school biology class.
Knowing a grasshopper
AS IF THAT’S ANY WAY TO KNOW A GRASSHOPPER!
Likewise, we must let the psalms live.
We must let them come leaping into our hearts.
Let us linger over the images and allow Him to penetrate our hearts.
ICE-BREAKER
A. What stood out to you from the above and why?
B. Choose one image from this study, from Scripture or from the artwork, that penetrated your heart and explain why.
PART I. BIBLE STUDY REVIEW
1. Repeatedly in the psalms of lament, the image of drowning is used. That is how we feel. Silverlene, a new widow, expressed it so poignantly:
In many ways my head knows my husband is gone, but I am still in denial. One month ago, at the six-month mark I had a major meltdown sitting at my desk at work. It seemed that all of a sudden I was hit with the knowledge that everything had just happened. I felt a sharp pain in my chest and then it seemed to move all through my body. All I could do was put my head on my desk and sob. It seems that I am struck with this feeling often at night, which keeps me up or causes me to wake up. I often find myself curled up in a fetal position on one side of the bed; it is the only way I can cope. I am feeling quite overwhelmed and anguished today. To date my response to all of this has been to withdraw from everyone; as a result I have few friends or family I am able to talk to. It seems that everyone wants me to move on, but it is hard to move on from something that my heart screams daily is not so. I dream of waking up and finding out I have been dreaming. My anguished spirit does not feel God’s presence.
A. Find the image of drowning in Psalm 18:4-5. Linger over the image and let it speak to you of the pain that can come to us in life. Does any of it sound like Silverlene’s account? What do you “see” in the description of this psalm?
B. This Psalm is also filled with images of the Lord’s heart for the suffering and His response. Find one that speaks to you and tell why it does.
Our own Anne, in contemplating the above painting and Psalm 46, which is also filled with water images, said:
It makes me think of the unraveling of creation. The first thing I noticed about the painting is how the waves seem to have claws and the ability to grasp and pull in. Fear seems that way to me.
It was so interesting to me that Anne talked about “the unraveling of creation.” That’s what hurricanes, earthquakes, and death all are — yet God is also the One who can stop the storm, give a new earth, and give us a new raised body.
2. Read Psalm 46:1-3 and linger over the images. What do you see?
3. Read the rest of Psalm 46 and find an image of hope in the midst of the tumult. What is it and why does it speak to you?
4. Psalm 46 inspired two great hymns — if either has spoken to you during this journey, please comment on how they have helped you and anything you remember learning about them.
A. A Mighty Fortress
B. Be Still My Soul
Another famous “water hymn” is “It is Well with My Soul,” which Horatio Spafford wrote after his four daughters drowned. Our own Susan wrote: Jesus takes note we are drowning and comes to shed His own blood to save us; the final day when the clouds are rolled back and He will descend; our sin being nailed to the cross and its awful burden is taken away!
Likewise, Joyce wrote: God is always there, even if he doesn’t answer your prayer like you think he should. And he rescues us, and even in the worst suffering, we grow closer to him and we become more intimate with him. He saves us from that awful drowning or frozen feelings and gives us “HOPE”.
Our own Chris, who lost her teenage son just a year ago, has, even in her fresh grief, been ministering to us. One thing she said that I hope we all have learned is:
I have realized that to be grieving tremendously is not sin.
She also told a story of seeing a painting like the above in the hospital emergency room when they were there with their son. She talked about how it comforted her.
5. Contemplate on the above painting and how it portrays Psalm 46. Can you share how God has been A Mighty Fortress to you in the midst of a storm this summer — whether it was a hurricane force or a lesser storm. (Terri confessed she felt guilty her storms were smaller — yet if we put these principles to work in the “smaller storms,” we will be better prepared for the hurricanes.)
6. There are four water pictures in Psalm 42.
A. Do you remember what they are? What do you learn from them?
B. The last was a waterfall with the famous phrase “deep calls to deep.”
What do you think this means and why?
7. In addition to the psalms, we considered the three appearances God made to Job, where “Deep called to Deep.” Most of us are familiar with the closing of Job, where God does not really answer Job, but points to the sunrise, the stars, and the seasons as evidence that He knows what He is doing. Think about an image from creation that spoke to you this summer, that spoke to you of the majesty and wisdom of God — and share it here with us.
8. In a relatively unknown passage in Job 14 we see the value of the lament, for God actually speaks to Job in his spirit. Do you remember what He tells him and how this shows God’s love for us?
7. The most famous passage, perhaps, becauses of Handel’s Messiah is Job 19 where Job has a vision of the day he will see His Redeemer on the earth. What did you learn about heaven that was a comfort to you?
When Tim Keller gets to the part in his sermon where it points to Christ, my heart always stills. I loved how Keller said that Job demanded to see God’s face and did. But “a greater Job,” when He hung on the cross, and longed to sense God, sensed instead abandonment, for God turned His face away as Jesus was bearing our sins. Then Keller said, and I cherish this and sing of this: “Because He was abandoned, we never will be.” So unto God and to the Lamb, I will sing. I will sing.
8. Many of you listened to Keller’s sermons on Job. Is there anything you would like to share with the group?
We studied “sitting shiva,” and Kim tells of how her friends and father lived this out:
The catastrophic loss I will comment on is not a death it was when our youngest son walked out of our home to live in a drug house. My best friends came around me and let me cry. They had no verses or words just love. One day my dad drove out to our place and simply said, “I don’t know what to say.” and sat and cried with us. That divided our pain.
9. What will you remember about “sitting shiva?”
When there is no one to “sit shiva” with you, Jesus, the Man of Sorrows does. Perhaps the hardest thing to trust in the midst of high-tide grief is God’s love for you. The lie that threatens to undo us is that we have lost His love. We think about how sinful we are, and we think, “It makes sense.” That’s why I loved what so many of you wrote (how you encouraged my heart) after listening to Midday Program 9 on Jesus Lover of My Soul. Elizabeth, for example, wrote this:
“…in our romance with Christ, I am not worthy of His love, I have, by God’s standards, fallen way short- un-loveable on my own. Without Christ, I am dirty, smelly, and even if I clean myself up on the outside, my mind has unclean thoughts. BUT, because of Christ, I am the sought-after, chased-for, fought-for Bride! Through Him, because of Him, I am beautiful, clean, new, and my prayers a fragrant offering. He never, ever gives up on me, He pursues me like the Ultimate Leading Man, and no matter how many times I turn away, I doubt, I use my words for pain…He not only forgives, but He pursues. And His arms never cross or push me out of His embrace.”
Kim said that this truth about Jesus being our “Lover” is something Satan does not want us to know, because it is such a powerful weapon again his lies.
10. When the storm hits, what arrows of truth will you have ready to fire at the enemy?
Suffering is a given in life. Death is certain. The enemy will prowl. But we have One who will never leave us or forsake us, and one day, He will make all things right. As He told Job, He will call for us, because He will miss us, He will raise us out of the grave with new restored bodies, and we will be with Him and our loved ones who have gone before forever.
11. Psalm 90, which was the psalm I happened to be praying through on my birthday, prays “Teach us to number our days, that we might apply our hearts to wisdom.”
Suffering is a definite in life, but if we do not let go of our only lifeline, He will enlarge our souls and make us great hearts. I am seeing that in you. I would love for you to share something you have learned here, and how you will apply this wisdom to your life.
PART II. Listen to Midday.
Because we do not know if the tech people at Moody Radio will get the link working, I encourage you to try to listen live on Monday central time. I realize that might not be possible, but if you can do. They have also now fixed the links to programs 7 (A Mighty Fortress) and 9 (Jesus, Lover of My Soul) if you missed either, you could choose one of those. Here is the link: Link
12. What stood out to you?
PART III.
Heaven is our real hope. You can hear our own Rebecca’s voice singing Sara’s Grove’s song: Going Home. Listen — read these lyrics — and respond. Here is the link: http://youtu.be/EjOgZ2pr9NE
Here are the lyrics to read as you listen to Rebecca sing:
I’ve been feeling kind of restless
I’ve been feeling out of place
I can hear a distant singing
A song that I can’t write
And it echoes of what I’m always trying to say
There’s a feeling I can’t capture
It’s always just a prayer away
I want to know the ending
Things hoped for but not seen
But I guess that’s the point of hoping anyway
Of going home, I’ll meet you at the table
Going home, I’ll meet you in the air
And you are never too young to think about it
Oh, I cannot wait to be home
I’m confined by my senses
To really know what you are like
You are more than I can fathom
And more than I can guess
And more than I can see with you in sight
But I have felt you with my spirit
I have felt you fill this room
And this is just an invitation
Just a sample of the whole
And I cannot wait to be going home
Going home, I’ll meet you at the table
Going home, I’ll meet you in the air
And you are never too young to think about it
Oh, I cannot wait to be going, to be going home
Face to face, how can it be
Face to face, how can it be
Face to face, how can it be
Cuz this is just an invitation
Just a sample of the whole
And I cannot wait to be going home
13. What are your thoughts?
PART IV. EXTRA CREDIT! Listen to this free sermon from Keller called “A Spirit Hath Not Flesh and Bones” Link
I PROMISE THIS IS WONDERFUL — PASSIONATE — WILL GIVE YOU HOPE!!!!
Caravaggio's Doubting Thomas
14. What did you learn from this message?
Angela tells of how God can enlarge our souls through suffering:
When I was very sick with Lyme disease. I could barely function. I wondered where God was but looking back He was there all along showing me Himself as Jehovah – Jireh my provider, Jehovah rappa my Healer, The God who sanctifies, and many other aspects of His character. Many forsook me but He never did even in His silence. I have a much more amazing relationship with Him because of it. It is more special now.
15. How has God enlarged your soul through suffering?
16. What is your take-a-way from this series?
RAINY ROMANTIC RESCUE MOVIES AND OUR REDEEMER
Casablanca
Breakfast at Tiffanys
Sleepless in Seattle
Pride and Prejudice
Miss Potter
(The following excerpt is from The God of All Comfort)
I’m not giving away Steve’s trench coat.
I want to see it when I open the closet. I want to run my hand through its soft furry lining. If I have to run up to our mailbox in the rain, it’s that trench coat I reach for – a sheltering shield covering me from head to foot, protecting me from the wet, yet flooding my heart with memories:
- The day I met him – a cold February day on the campus of Northwestern University. He caught up with me after class and introduced himself. I was so excited that this man whom I’d secretly admired was approaching me that I was trembling. Steve thought I was shaking from the cold wind off of Lake Michigan, and there, right in front of Deering Library, with hundreds of students passing by, he gallantly took off his trench coat and put it over my shoulders. My knees nearly buckled.
- Our first date, just two days later – shy with each other while we were walking to the movie. Suddenly the sky opened up, pouring down buckets and buckets of water. Steve opened his coat and tucked me in, covering me, as we ran laughing into the theatre.
- Running into him by surprise downtown. We’d been married twenty-five years, but my heart still did flip flops to see him. I saw him first: taking long strides, looking strikingly handsome and masculine. His hands were in the pockets of that trench coat, his head down – concentrating, thinking hard about something. I stood still, right in the middle of his path, smiling, anticipating his reaction. Startled to be blocked, he stopped and looked up. A sudden smile of delight, then, that laugh I loved. He spread his arms, which opened his coat like sheltering wings, inviting me in. There we were, on Central Avenue, enveloped together, more in love than newlyweds.
But of course this isn’t about trench-coats, but about something far, far deeper.
THE MYSTERY
It’s a mystery, Paul says in Ephesians, but marriage is a foreshadowing of a much more lasting relationship: Christ and His Bride.
When a husband tenderly protects his wife, he becomes a reflection of the ultimate Bridegroom. The quaint Old Testament phrase for this husbandly protection is “covering.” He is to “cover” his wife by bringing her under “his wing, or his skirt, or his garment.” It is personal and tender: like a mother bird sheltering her young with her wing; like a father wrapping his shivering little girl in a blanket; and like Steve opening his trenchcoat and shielding me from the rain. In medieval Jewish wedding ceremonies, the groom would take his prayer shawl and cover his bride as a symbol of his willingness to also tenderly cover her with protection, provision, and love.
If we look deeply at the love stories that move our hearts, we will inevitably glimpse Jesus.
Saturday, September 22 (3 years after Steve’s death)
Thank You Lord for a lovely day. Lee and her friend Susan came and we spent the day watching the waves, laughing, and lingering over a dinner at sunset. Then we got in our pajamas, popped popcorn, and watched “Miss Potter,” the story of Beatrix Potter, the creator of “Peter Rabbit.”
Oh. I wept copiously. How Norman believed in Beatrix when no one else did, and helped her to fly. Of course I saw Steve, who even wanted me to keep speaking when he was sick. But I also saw You, Lord. You love the ones Your hands have made and want them to fly.
When Norman “taught her how to dance” I wept again, for it was so much bigger than dancing literally. Even in this time of sorrow, You are, indeed, teaching me to dance. You want me to put my hand in Yours and let the music fill my heart.
Their tender parting scene at the train station. He was wearing a trench-coat (of course!) and he kisses her for the first time. Parting scenes always move me. My parting for the last time with my father, my mother – and of course, with Steve. “Such sweet sorrow,” as Shakespeare said.
And when Norman dies young, of course, that did me in. Yet Beatrix carried on, and life still had meaning, because she knew “he was right behind her.” I know Steve is “right behind me,” but even more, You are there.
Thank You, Lord – for this picture of Your love.
Icebreaker
1. What is your favorite romantic movie and why? Can you see a parable in it (a reflection of Christ?)
2. Do you have any comments on the above?
BIBLE STUDY
In the romances of the Old Testament in Ruth, Song of Songs, and Hosea, this word “kanaph”) appears when the groom or groom-to-be covers his bride. Martin French did this painting of the “Kinsman-Redeemer” for Forever in Love to portray Hosea covering Gomer when she was ashamed and being sold on the auction block.
- Martin French: Kinsman-Redeemer Bridegroom from Hosea
The passage in Hosea 3 is a bit cryptic and challenging, but basically what has happened is that Gomer has run after her other lovers and they are selling her on the auction block, and Hosea buys her back. He is her “Redeemer” for a Redeemer is One who pays a price to rescue another.
1. Read Hosea 3:1-2
A. What does God tell Hosea to do and what comparison does He make?
B. What message does God want you to hear in this story concerning how He will respond to us when we fail?
C. What does 1 Peter 1:18-19 teach?
D. One of the hardest things to believe, and our doubts are fanned by the enemy, is that God is not punishing us for our failures. That has already been paid for. If we have regrets, and that often happens in grief, what truth must we speak to our souls?
2. Another “kinsman-redeemer” is Boaz in the book of Ruth. The Hebrew word “kanaph” appears here and may be translated corner of garment, wing, or garment. It is another challenging passage, but so full of tenderness. Read Ruth 3:6-8 and find what Ruth asks Boaz to do. What is it?
3. Watch the beginning of the last video where I talk about “The Covering” to the women in prison. Click here and watch for about five minutes, until I get to the “Court Date.” Write down what you learn: Link
Our own dear Joyce and another silent blogger each sent me this wonderful picture of Psalm 91:4 where the word “kanaph” is translated “wings.”
Under His wings you will find refuge
4. Read Psalm 91:1-4 and write down the promises. Comment on this word picture as well and what it means to you.
5. Some have interpreted these promises to mean no trouble will come to the believer. How does the close of the psalm, Psalm 91:14-16 clarify this?
6. The concept can also be found in the phrase “hiding place” which is in Psalm 32:6-7. Meditate on this and find the phrases that comfort you and calm you.
You are my hiding place -- you always fill my heart with songs of deliverance
7. One of my favorite songs of Sara Groves is based on the above passage and is called Hiding Place. It’s actually fairly easy to learn and to sing. You can listen to it on U-Tube by clicking here: Link
I’d like you to meditate on four phrases in her song and think about how you could apply them to your life:
A. Early when the day is new, before the stirring
B. I will come and talk to you and confess the ways I’m broken (Psalm 32:3)
C. And recall the words You’ve spoken
D. And to try to comprehend the love you have for me (Psalm 32:6-7)
8. How has God shown His love to you recently? List at least three ways.
Part II. Listen to Midday Connection and Comment Here: Updated Direct Link
Part III.Listen to Keller
He has so many good messages on The Bridegroom — here are two, but they are not free. Choose one of these if possible, listen, and comment: Link
Extra Credit Fun: Watch Miss Potter and find spiritual parallels and list them here. (And if you rent it, be sure you hear the extra song by Kate Medula on the disc. Oh!) Or one of the Pride and Prejudice movies — for Austin’s lines are amazing. What spiritual parallels do you see?
PART IV (Challenge and Optional) Ezekiel 16:1-22 is a similar portrait to Hosea in a nutshell.
9. Read it carefully — find the tenderness, the covering, and how she responded to the Lord. What do you see here?
OH — SUSAN REMEMBERED REMBRANDT’S THE PRODIGAL — SO I ADDED IT LATE — NOUWEN SAYS, “SEE HOW THE FATHER’S CLOAK ALMOST LOOKS LIKE WINGS?”
10. What is your take-a-way from this whole week?
DON’T SEND A SYMPATHY CARD
I thought I was a wise comforter.
I wasn’t.
I’m wiser now.
Yet I still need to be continually reminded on what helps and what hurts.
Dogs know how to bring comfort.
They simply come alongside and are silent.
Briton Riviere
But people, even Christians, often try to fix the unfixable, uttering platitudes, pointing out the silver lining, or preaching little sermonettes based on Romans 8:28. I believe Romans 8:28, but it was all I could do when people quoted it to me not to give them a swift karate kick. Solomon tells us there is a “time to speak and a time to be silent,” and high tide grief is the time to be silent.
Ironically, two women who comforted me the most were those who would not call themselves born-again Christians.
One was my childhood friend Barbara. When I wrote her with our dread news she e-mailed back with three words in gigantic bold black:
NO! NO! NO!
It comforted me.
She did not tell me to trust God, or to think positively…she got into my pain with me.
Likewise, when I called my sister Bonnie, all she could do was sob. She tried to talk, but she simply could not. She called me back a little later, apologetic, but I told her it was just what I needed. I don’t know why it divides the pain to have someone weep with you, but it does.
Sisters Bonnie, Dee, and Sally in younger years
Shortly after Steve died an article poured out of me which Focus on the Family published entitled “Don’t Send A Sympathy Card.” It isn’t that I’m opposed to all sympathy cards, and there actually are some good ones — but, as I said in the article, “I have an invisible knife sticking out of my heart — people who have suffered see it — but those who don’t press up against me with platitudes, pressing that knife to excruciating depths of pain.” Sympathy cards can drip with platitudes and some, when I opened and skimmed, went directly in the trash. I knew the people meant well — they didn’t mean to push the knife in. I needed to show them the same grace Jesus has shown to me. I needed to remember how many times I had stuck my foot in my mouth!
It meant so much to me when people would take the time to write a note, telling me what they remembered about Steve and loved. I know there are times when you don’t know the person that was lost — and a card seems your only option — but just choose very carefully so you don’t exacerbate their pain. No preaching. Just sympathy. And write a line — even just a “I’m so very sorry.”
(If you want to read that one page article, click here: Don’t Send A Sympathy Card 2 )
I understand wanting to fix someone’s pain — I’ve done it — I get so nervous, I so want to help them, that I begin to stammer and a platitude slips out, slapping a tiny band-aid on a gaping wound. But in trying to fix the unfixable I am making it worse, minimizing their pain, pressing that knife in deeper.
There is a Jewish custom called “Sitting Shiva.” When a friend had a catastrophic loss, family and friends would come and sit for seven (“shiva” means seven) days to comfort him. (Since seven is God’s number for completion — this means — stay alongside for “as long as it takes” to bring comfort.) Some of the principles of “Sitting Shiva” are:
Go and be silent.
Listen.
Don’t give advice.
Listen.
Mourn with those who mourn.
But even “sitting shiva” can become a religious practice devoid of heart. Job’s friends sat shiva, but all the time they must have been preparing their condemning speeches.
ICE-BREAKER
A. Comment on the above and/or the article from Focus.
B. If you have experienced a catastrophic loss, was there a friend who truly brought you comfort? What did he or she do or say? Why was it helpful?
BIBLE STUDY
1. Read Proverbs 25:20
A. What do you think it means to “sing songs to a heavy heart?” Give some examples of this.
B. To what two things does Solomon compare “singing songs to a heavy heart?”What do they have in common?
C. Get out a little baking soda and pour a little vinegar on it and watch what happens. (Don’t worry — it’s a mild reaction.) This combination can also be much more dramatic with heat or in a bottle, and has been used to make rockets and bombs by many amateur scientists. What does this illustrate about how you make a person feel when you sing songs to their heavy heart?
D. Why do we do it, even when it makes it worse?
Experimenting with vinegar and baking soda
3. What two commands are given in Romans 12:15? Give examples from your life of someone who did each with you and how it made you feel.
4. The next time someone has a loss, how might you plan to respond? What might you say if you see them? How might you write them?
5. Read Job 2:11-13 and see how Job’s friends practiced the custom of “sitting shiva.” What did they do? Find everything you can.
It is hard to know their hearts. Verse 13 says they did see his suffering was very great. They may have empathized, but we also know, from the rest of the book, that they were judging him. They assumed suffering is a result of sin. Their sympathy did release Job and allow him to lament honesty. However, I do think this shows how easy it is to go through the motions, to visit, to send a card — yet not get into their pain and really help them. We need to walk in line with the gospel, to be the heart and hands of Jesus to those who are suffering.
Contrast Job’s response in Job 1:21 with his response in Job 3. Job neither stuffs his feelings nor vents them, but prays them. Find phrases in this honest lament in Job 3 that stand out to you. Why?
6. How does Eliphaz now pounce on Job in Job 4. I want you to note two portions particularly.
A. Describe the words of Eliphaz in Job 4:7-9 and describe the assumption behind it.
B. Elihu had a dream that he assumes was a word from the Lord. Describe it in Job 4:12-16. Whom do you think was the source of this dream and why?
Mike Mason writes, in The Gospel According to Job:
Eliphaz tells of being visited in the night by a spirit that filled him with terror…One even gets the feeling that, as frightening as this experience was, Eliphaz would not have missed it for anything….He leaves no doubt that despite his terror he considered the visitation a good thing, and one that brought him a genuine spiritual insight, “a word from the Lord. (4:12) How different is Eliphaz’s mystical fear from the sort of fear expressed by Job back in 3:25 when he said, “What I feared has come upon me, what I dreaded has happened to me.” Job’s dread, by contrast, was a feeling that he wanted nothing to do with, for in it he intuitively sensed the grip of something evil. Far from taking any secret delight in such a thing, Job recoiled from it in horror, and in his deepest instincts…he sensed the real and personal presence of the great enemy of his soul… How tragic it is that so many religious people accustom themselves to hearing and obeying the voice of fear rather than the voice of peace. In so doing they unwittingly pay heed to the Devil, even while fooling themselves that they are trying to follow Christ.
C. Mason said we too often obey the voice of fear rather than the voice of peace. Ponder this for your own life. What might it mean?
7. How did Eliphaz and his friends press the knife in Job’s heart to excruciating depths of pain?
8. What does God tell Eliphaz and his friends to do in Job 42:7-9?
Friends may fail you. Yet there is One who understands, for His friends failed Him in His greatest hour of need. I remember the summer after Steve’s death my daughter Sally called me — she was getting her Masters in Counseling at Wheaton — and said, “My professor was talking today about how Jesus can “sit shiva” with us when our friends fail. That comforted me so.
9. Have you ever sensed Jesus “sitting shiva” with you? If so, share something.
Eliphaz and his friends were critical of Job’s honest lament. They also assumed that if trouble came into a life, that it was because the person was in sin. Honestly, we often believe this for ourselves. We know we fail, and even if we are walking daily in repentance, we let the accuser of the brethren get to us. This is why I truly want you to listen to this free Keller sermon and answer questions that go with it. It will look like you have to pay for this sermon, but when you click, you will see there is no cost. However, before you listen, please prepare yourself by doing this study:
10. Read Psalm 39:13
A. Most laments end with the psalmist remembering God’s character and vowing to trust Him. How is this different?
B. What is your reaction to this?
11. Read Psalm 126 and type out verses 5 and 6.
LISTEN TO TIM KELLER ON “PRAYING YOUR TEARS.” CLICK HERE:
12. EXPECT TEARS
A. Why should we expect tears?
B. What happens if we assume that sorrow is always a result of sin?
C. Why does Keller think Christians will actually weep more than non-Christians?
13. INVEST TEARS
A. God will give you grace for your laments, your tears. How does Kidner’s comment on the close of Psalm 39 demonstrate this? (Worth its weight in gold.)
B. How can we know God has not abandoned us, even when we have failed?
C. Keller comments on Psalm 126:5-6 and says look ahead to glory. This indeed, is what sustained Job. He knew His Redeemer would stand upon the earth and restore everything. What have you lost that will be restored to you?
14. PRAY YOUR TEARS
A. What is the tone of the last 5 psalms in the psalter?
B. Keller says if you keep in communication, keep talking, all of your prayers will eventually (though it may take a lifetime) turn to praise. Have you experienced any of this in learning to lament?
15. What do you want to remember from this message and why?
LISTEN TO MIDDAY CONNECTION: CLICK HERE (UPDATED LINK)
16. Describe God’s three appearances to Job.
17. What stood out to you from the program and why?
18. What is your take-a-way for the week?
THOUGH STILL OUR ANCIENT FOE
WE MUST NOT FORGET
WE MUST BE SOBER-MINDED
WE WRESTLE NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD
OUR ANCIENT FOE
STILL ROAMS
STILL LOOKS FOR THE WOUNDED
STILL HUNTS EASY PREY
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
(I PETER 5:18)
The great hymn of Christendom, “A Mighty Fortress,” became the theme song for our personal battle. God gave it to us right away, though we misunderstood what we were fighting. We thought we were fighting cancer.
It was the week after Steve’s diagnosis. We had come rushing home from the Indiana retreat, despondent. He told us that the Lord had told him “to fight.” We were heartened. If the Lord told him “to fight” then the Lord is going to give him this battle. Steve will not die. John and Julie and their kids had also rushed home — this picture was taken that week — all smiles — we were going to face this battle and God was going to give us victory over this terrible cancer! We would not lose our husband and father and grandfather.
READY FOR THE FIGHT -- GOD WOULD GIVE US VICTORY!
That week Steve was so tired, resting on the living room sofa. Sally sat at the piano, singing hymns to him, asking him to choose one for the solo she was going to sing in church on Sunday. When she sang “A Mighty Fortress,” he said:
“That’s it. That’s exactly it.”
I recorded this in my prayer journal, and in The God of All Comfort:
Sally sang “A Mighty Fortress” in church this morning. Annie and Beth on one side of Steve, pressed into him, me on the other. John and family in the pew behind with John’s hand on Steve’s shoulder. Sally sang it as a fighting song — I’d never heard it sung that way — I don’t think I’d ever really understood it before. I’ve heard it sung majestically, but never with righteous anger. Yet, it seemed so right. It is a call to battle against Satan and all the spiritual workers of darkness. Sally kept shaking her fist at Satan, at “the prince of darkness grim,” at the one “armed with cruel hate,” at the one who must not “this battle win.” each verse grew stronger, and our hearts found courage for the fight ahead. But when Sally got to the phrase “let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also,” she looked at Steve and faltered. It was too much for her, and she stopped, paralyzed with grief. Suddenly — and I will never in all of my life forget this — Judy [the pianist] began to sing, then the congregation rose — standing in the gap for us, finishing Sally’s song for her.
Thankful for the support of our congregation, still, it was the shadow of the cross. A foreboding. Were we to let kindred go?
No. My denial kicked in. Sally just was overcome by fear momentarily. We will win this battle.
It wasn’t until ten months later, in the same church, after a strong message on 1 Corinthians 10:12 (Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall) that Steve leaned over to me and said:
“I’m seeing the fight differently.”
I looked at him, confused.
“It isn’t a fight for my life.”
I was still. Finally, “Then, what?”
“Satan wants me to deny God.”
We both thought of the message. How a man who said he would never deny God did, to avoid martyrdom — and how the man who asked for prayer glorified God as flames burned up his body. I was silent. Then weeping. Steve put his arm around me.
The photo below is one that was in an emergency room where our own Chris S. brought her son who died — she drew strength from it and tells about it in the last post. Though the waters rage, the LORD is our MIGHTY FORTRESS. When Steve told me the fight was different, again, I was overcome with fear. This meant the waters might actually take my husband. Overwhelming. Sense of drowning. And he, simply wanting to glorify God. But his pain was becoming overwhelming and his sadness at the thought of leaving us. Where could we go? Only to Him, our Mighty Fortress in the storm.
Jean Guichard
Did we in our own strength confide
Our striving would be losing
Were not the right Man on our side
The Man of God’s own choosing
Doth ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabbaoth, His name,
From age to age the same
And He must win the battle
The LORD strengthened Steve to glorify Him to the end. He spent a week in the Milwaukee hospital just two weeks before he died at home. He made such a strong impression on the doctors and nurses that there were about twenty who came into his room as the helicopter was coming to get him to say good-bye. When one young doctor said to me, “I’ve never met anyone like him,” I was able to tell her it was Jesus in him. The Lord is strengthening us in our grief, and we do better know His heart, His love.
Sally sang “A Mighty Fortress” without faltering at his funeral. All the children shared how their Dad loved God — to the end. You can see a video of Anne sharing and also a memory film she played at her wedding at this link: http://www.deebrestin.com/about/steve-brestin/
A few years later, Sally and I went to see a production of Screwtape Letters in Chicago, the C. S. Lewis book inspired by the story of Job, and his fight against Satan, his fight to glorify God no matter how bad it got.
