SIMPLY REJOICING 5: Laugh and Prepare for the Adventure

RECONCILE with your REDEEMER
"A testimony can result in a life-transforming reconciliation." (PL)

It was supposed to be a Log Cabin Quilt design, but.....

 WEDNESDAY, June 18
     We are on our way to Bandon this morning with an early departure for the 10 hour drive.  So my entry will be short for the day and I will work on a prayer drawing later.  Yesterday as I was clearing off posts in my email, I found Max Lucado's weekly column.  As I read through it, one line at the bottom jumped out at me.  It is a good reminder in the power of prayer:

The power of prayer lies in the One who hears, rather than the one who says it.

     We can pray boldly, but the power is God's alone.  Nothing is impossible.  



TUESDAY, June 17 
2 Corinthians 5:20 VOICE
[God] charges us to proclaim the message that heals and restores our broken relationships with God and each other.
      We have been given a job to do.  Various translations say that we are ambassadors, representatives of Christ, 'speakers on behalf', or champions.  We are the hands and feet, the voice of Christ.  Our job is straight forward: love without judging and heal relationships, both with God and with each other.  No problem, right??  So let's get busy!  
      To be in relationship we have to know each other.  This morning I gather together my new fellowship committee for a time of bonding and dreaming.  What is our dream for building our church family?  What is God's dream?  May we listen to each other and God as we begin the journey!  

MONDAY, June 16 Reconciliation 
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 (My paraphrasing)
Anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start. The old life is gone and a new life has begun. All this is a gift from God, who restored our relationship to him, and now wants us to amend our relationships with each other through him.  
     This is one of my favorite verses - out with the old and in with the new! Somewhat like Back-to-School shopping for new clothes, it has a new start feel!  Yet, with the chapter titled "Reconcile" I had to ask myself if I could really DEFINE reconciliation. Time for Google!  

RECONCILE:  to restore friendly relations, to coexist in harmony, to be compatible or resolve differences.  RECONCILIATION: to cause two groups or individuals to be friendly again after disagreement; 

      Something tells me our world is desperately in need of some reconciliation   Yet, musn't it start with our relationship with God?  We have to be spiritually at one before we can begin to amend with each other.  God has taken care of this in Christ.  We just have to accept the 'terms of agreement' - unending grace and forgiveness.  
      I find it interesting that all the definitions use the word 'friendly'.  It seems so common and ordinary.  Reconciliation is a big word and should have some sort of fancy definition.  No....just be friends.  Maybe that is why the Good News Bible translates this passage, "Through Christ [God] changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also."


LIVE WITH EXPECTANCY
"A message can enliven and enrich your journey." (PL)

SUNDAY, June 15  Treasures in Troubles
Isaiah 45:3 GNT
I will give you treasures from dark, secret places;
    then you will know that I am the Lord
    and that the God of Israel has called you by name.

Hope.
It can be a driving force. 
The expectancy of something greater,
Something more. 
Something sacred.

But when trouble comes
And the days seem dark
Our hope is hidden
In a vast chaos of broken promises
Disappointment and doubt. 

But God is there. 
Like little treasures in the troubles,
God is present.
Rays of light breaking out of shadows. 
Moments of beauty as
A butterfly flutters across the yard,
A hummingbird darts past the window. 
A knock on the door - a package!
Or a welcomed, but unexpected visitor.
A sunrise of color, the midnight starry skies.
A gentle touch, a single hug, a warm embrace.
All treasures in troubles.
All reminders that
Hope is not hidden,
God is with us - always.   

SATURDAY, June 14   Save Your Fork
Thessalonians 3:12-13 MSG
May the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you. May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God our Father when our Master Jesus arrives with all his followers.
     Much of Thessalonians is Paul writing to a church living in love and promise in spite of persecution.  It is a church radiating joy and hope.  This kind of attitude is contagious and Paul recognizes this in his praise of the people.  They are living love in the expectancy of something more - Jesus' return. 
   

       Much of what Lewis writes in this 5th chapter of Simply Rejoicing reminds me of Roxanne's devotion toward the end of our Habitat build.  It was a story I had heard before, but always worth repeating.  SAVE YOUR FORK....a dying woman wanted to be buried with a fork in her left hand.  Her confused pastor says Why? and she replies, "I've always been told to save my fork because the best is yet to come!"  Dessert!  And dessert can't be any sweeter than eternal life in heaven.  So...save your fork!  
     Live celebrating the good meal of the here and now before us, but live also with the joyful expectancy that it does indeed 'get better than this' - Even when we are so filled with joy that any better doesn't seem imaginable.  
    Remember the fork when the meal isn't so good and trials seem to be insurmountable obstacles. Dessert is on the way!  Put the fork in your hand and look for God in the meal!