I don’t know what’s going on with this blog… so… unless it really changes, maybe I’ll just post things on my site. This one’s pretty buggy.
Category: Potpourri
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,
that in the latter times some shall
depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits,
and doctrines of devils;
Speaking lies in hypocrisy;
having their conscience seared
with a hot iron;”
1Timothy 4.1-2
the companion journal
This is the companion Journal to The Welcome Home Blog
thoughts and slices of life between sips of coffee.
motherhood means dying to self
I’m often surprised at the events or changes each season brings. Sort of like knowing that snow’s coming but not realizing how cold it will feel or how distracting it will be.
Bcz this isn’t the first time or the second or the third… I knew it would be hard to say another goodbye-for-now to Timothy this morning. I knew the children would be sad and we’d all go through the litany of wouldda-shouldda-couldda dones. And, I knew I’d run the gamut of emotions as I helped with last minute stuff and stood on the porch waving i-love-you’s and goodbyes. But I didn’t really know. I didn’t know this part of the road—I didn’t know this part of this season. And I didn’t know how this would ache in a different kind of way than other times…
So, more and more I’m seeing that motherhood is a series of goodbyes. And with each goodbye we learn. With each goodbye we learn to make a choice to live a little more or to die a little more. Sort of a prompting to experience more joy and die to self. That dying to self is the hard part sometimes. It’s hard bcz we spend a lot of our early motherhood in the it’s-all-about-me phase. My pregnancy, my birth, my nursing, my schedule, my baby… my next pregnancy, my baby shower, my greatest-child-ever-born, my baby’s first_________, my midwife, my rocking chair, my quiet-time, my baby quilt, my dishes, my appliances, my memories…
And then, suddenly it hits: Owow. Wait-a-second… what? It’s not all about me. O, it’s not about me, it’s all about whoever it’s about at the time. And usually when you come to this realization, you discover it’s all about them. Their plans, their schedule, their clothes, their discoveries, their meals, their tickets, their books, their mail, their studies, their calling in life, their stuff, their coming’s and going’s. And it’s all necessary… it’s part of their season. It is all about them.
And mother stands on the porch and waves goodbye.
And it’s all good. It’s all right. It’s the way it oughtta be.
note:
Slice of Laodicea is now Christian Research Net!
IMNSHO, it’s the best of the best church, social, trend, etc., etc. commentary.
It’s truly a go getta cuppa site!!
family size
On trying to have as many children as you can…
I’ve always thought that that’s a pretty condescending statement made to moms of many by people who limit family size or think family size ought to be restricted.
Actually, in all truthfulness, I’ve also thought for a long time that birth-control is for people who ought not be getting pregnant for ___________ reasons. You can fill in the blank there, but words like affair, unmarried, adultery, etc., etc. come to mind. I used to say that “birth-control” is for people who shouldn’t get pregnant. And I never meant bcz of financial reasons, or logistical reasons or whatever. I meant bcz of those conditions listed above.
[[an edit is necessary here: None of those situations listed should be entered into by anyone—really, that’s not what I meant to infer. But what I did mean to infer was the general thought that “birth control” has no place in marriage. —This might just further muddy the waters—no hostility is meant here.]]
To say I feel strongly about this is probably an understatement because I actually believe that one of the greatest single threats to the church in the last forty years or so has been “the pill” or birth control.
Very few days go by that I don’t receive an email requesting prayer support for conception and pregnancy by women who long for a baby or who long for a family to raise for the LORD. Their hearts are full and ready to love and care for a child but their arms are empty. These don’t restrict God… they wait on Him—very, very different entirely from those who purposefully limit, destroy or cut off the possibility of God’s blessing. And then, occasionally, even from couples who’ve cut off the blessings of the LORD and seek to reverse that decision—some even if they never have another child, simply want to, in obedience to the LORD, demonstrate their sorrow over making that decision. It’s an incredible grief to many. God hears those prayers. And we trust Him for His answers.
It’s common to us to see families with many children. In fact, when we are with people who are surprised by seeing a family with several children, we are surprised that they are surprised. Large families are a common or normal occurrence to us. And actually, I think they ought to be very normal in “the church” as God has surely made plain in His Word that children are a blessing of the LORD. The saddest thing is that the common cults and other “religions” don’t cut off children. That’s sobering and really ought to be grabbing the attention of the church!
So, to that question: “Are you trying to have as many children as you can?” That’s not really an appropriate question in my mind. O, not because it’s tactless and inconsiderate, it’s because it places the weight of responsibility in the wrong place. For couples who are walking with the LORD in the Light of His Word, that decision belongs to Him—for, truly, it is the LORD who opens and closes the womb. It’s His to create life, to determine lives — His to determine the path of our life. Proverbs 16.9: “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
Consider the great enemy of our souls. What does he do? He continually stalks the earth seeking to steal, kill and destroy. Where does he start? Yes! The home and the womb—marriage and God’s created order. Feminized men and masculine women. God’s created order upside down. Where does birth-control fit in here? Well, simply, the great threat to the church is the killing of godly seed and/or birth-control. And, really, when you consider it…birth-control isn’t. It’s not birth-control… it doesn’t control the birth, really. Really, it’s responsibility avoidance, it’s deception, it’s humanistic and worst of all, it’s death. Death because the pill doesn’t actually prevent conception… it prevents an environment where the baby can grow and thrive and then be born into its father’s and mother’s arms. Death occurs when the cycle is forced to return and that baby –yes, small as it is, is expelled. Other forms of “birth-control” have a similar result by frustrating the implantation and preventing life to grow. Sadly, it’s the common view of “the church” to limit God—to limit the blessing of the LORD and His ways for families—and then to pray for God’s blessing?!?!
More on this later… there are bright spots to this dim picture. What if Christian couples stood before the LORD and genuinely prayed for children to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the LORD and then should He do so, what if they said, LORD would You super-size that request?
the peculiar path
And it has been sort of a peculiar path we’ve traveled over the last few years – one, that for a variety of reasons, I’m not sure I’d ever have chosen early on in our life, but one I’m thankful to be traveling now.
And this morning I read an article that resonates well with our experience. I haven’t talked a lot about “home-churching” bcz it tends to be one of those sort of “volatile” subjects – you know, the home birth vs. hospital, or unmedicated brith vs. medicated, home-school vs. public school and on and on. Also, when sort of boasting of great experiences or results or reading an article that touts the benefits of an particular common experience, it might tend to offend those who don’t share that experience or methodology. It’s like touting the benefits of one diet regimen or car or daily schedule: “your results may vary.” So, identifying with the results of the Barna research article might be sort of like homeschoolers identifying with, say, the winner of a national spelling competition and saying: “See, homeschooling works!” And so, just bcz something works for one individual, that same thing won’t work for all.
And just as soon as I say that, I want to defend my reservation and maybe even deny it. For, as with most things I do, I wouldn’t do them unless I thought they were the best or right thing to do. I might even go so far as to say: the best or right thing for all people in all places for all time. But then, that might just be too radical… the statement of a “peculiar people.” That might be no dating, distinctive masculine and feminine dress, home-birthing, divine birth ordering, home-schooling, home-making, submission and headship, home-industry and on and on. So, it’s no surprise, then, that strong conviction might be present concerning the home, or non institutionalized, church.
Here’s the Barna link. My strong disclaimer or addendum here would be that I have *no* animosity toward the those who see thing differently regarding the institutional church per se. It’s the program driven, prescription for growth, dialectic or commercialized stuff that really has nothing to do with the Way and Word. At all. Those are the grievous things to me.
Speaking of house church, and I guess I was, it was sure a great blessing to have as our guests yesterday, Jason and Sharon Nightingale, with Wordsower ministries. Sharon’s living example and Jason’s commanding presence in stature and deep base voice only increases the benefit of his teaching and recitation of the Word of God. Generally, when he visits churches [ in buildings or houses 😉 ] he proclaims or speaks the Revelation. I think the first time I heard him quote the whole book of the Revelation, I was so wowed that he was actually reciting the whole thing I kept thinking of that over and over. But, as with all things, the hearing of God’s Word never returns void and now, many years later, I read the Word and often hear the tremendous inflection of that deep voice resonating in the back of my mind: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches…”
Hey… a little friend is in the News!
ENN, that is! A little friend of ours shares a bit about their little town, Dichton, on the Everyday News Network. A division of the Vision Forum, the Everyday News Network, presents short video stories highlighting everyday things of family life. Every family can benefit from the seeing and hearing of others’ “everyday events” and stories of life in other families.
I share more about this in my “Slices of Life.”
A letter from LightHouse Trails
| I received this letter from Lighthouse Trails today. Interesting.
—-ps
This story is a follow up to our previous AFA articles that you may view here.
American Family Association’s Resource Center is now including categories in their Spiritual Growth section (*see note below) titled: “Mysticism,” “Contemplative Life,” and “Spiritual Formation.” As we have reported in the past, AFA has been aware that many of the books they sell on their site promote pantheism, altered states of consciousness (i.e., the silence), Eastern mysticism, etc. Emails to numerous customers from AFA staff, as well as AFA president Tim Wildmon, indicated that these books were removed. On the contrary, AFA now has categories specifically for these titles. Under Mysticism, authors include mystics Jean-Pierre De Caussade, St. John of the Cross, Evelyn Underhill, Calvin Miller, and many, many others with panentheistic persuasions. In Miller’s book, Into the Depths of God, he states:
Centering is the merger of two “selves” – ours and his [God’s]. Centering is union with Christ. It is not a union that eradicates either self but one that heightens both.” (A Time of Departing, p. 185)
On AFA’s category Contemplative Life, they sell books by Phyllis Tickle (who recently said Brian McLaren was like another Luther), pantheist William Shannon (Thomas Merton’s biography and author of Silence on Fire),Brother Roger of Taize, and titles such as The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, Silence and Stillness in Every Season by John Main, and the list is lengthy. On the Spiritual Formation category, AFA lists emerging church leaders and writers like Rob Bell and Don Miller as well as C. Peter Wagner, Dallas Willard, Richard Rohr, Jim Wallis, and over 700 other titles in this category.
Other authors the AFA store includes are Henri Nouwen, Larry Crabb, Brian McLaren, Ruth Haley Barton, Brennan Manning, Thomas Merton, Rick Warren and countless others who promote contemplative spirituality. AFA has made a bold statement by adding these categories. And just what does this statement tell us? Three things. First, AFA misled people, and quite frankly they seem indifferent to the consequences of that. Secondly, AFA is absolutely promoting heretical books and authors, and it doesn’t look like they are going to stop. Thirdly, this illustrates very well that the concerns, which compel Lighthouse Trails and its authors, are not something obscure, on the fringe, or faddish. Christendom is without a doubt immersed in contemplative spirituality so much so that those who oppose it are standing on the outside of this mystical, contemplative church and being labeled divisive, false converts, resisters, leaders from hell and just plain old—standing in the way of progress. With that in mind, each of us must decide to which church we belong … a church where the biblical Jesus Christ is the head or a mystical contemplative church that ultimately denies the Cross and replaces it with a pantheistic universal spirituality.
*Note: To find these categories on AFA Resource Center site, 1. Go to AFA main website. 2. Scroll down to bottom of left column and under AFA Support, click on AFA Products 3. Then at top of page, click on Resource Center 4. Then at top left of page, click on BOOKS. 5. Then see right hand column, Browse by Category, and scroll down to “Spiritual Growth,” then open up “+” sign.)
|
Another year…
Praise the LORD! And may He be honoured and blessed throughout the 2007 year.Psalm 65
1 Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed.
2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
3 Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.
4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.
5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:
6 Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power:
7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.
8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.
10 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.
11 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.
12 They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.
13 The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing
Thou crownest the year with thy goodness;
and thy paths drop fatness.
I had put this in the blog entry for January 2006 and was looking back at that month’s blog and the blog for the year before that and the year before that and…