Living In the Sonrise

My Sunday School lesson was on seeing God in all of creation today.  I am not the teacher of the class, I just really enjoy participating when I am not on nursery duty.  It is a privilege and sometimes a rarity for me to have conversations with adults of which many of whom are older and wiser than I.  It was interesting that we got to talking about the beauty of a sunrise and I was able to share with them my awareness of that beauty earlier this week and the quote I had been thinking about from C.S. Lewis, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."  Some in the class were able to hash it out a little further and talk about how God has created things that really have no useful purpose for us except for that of our pure enjoyment and delight in the beauty thereof  and that these "things of beauty" ultimately point us to acknowledge and to praise our Creator.  All those thoughts led me to thinking what it would be like if I didn't believe in God when I saw a sunrise...because usually when I do, I tell Him He did a great job with that one and I chat with Him for a while about it.  Hopefully there are others that do this too, but if not...it doesn't bother me too much that you know this about me.  Anyway, I guess I am thinking that Christians can see life differently because we can commune with the Creator of it all...that's pretty awesome to think about.

One thing I was challenged by, though, in my own thought progression was that it is easier for me to do this (praise my Creator) with things in nature than it is for me to do with people.  When a person uses their own talents and abilities to create something beautiful or meaningful...it seems as though I get stuck on the abilities of that person.  Not that I can't thank a person for using their abilities to glorify God and encourage them to continue doing so and enjoying using the talents God has given them, but still God did the gifting so that person would be able to accomplish this "thing of beauty".  Who are any of us that we could have been there when God was planning us and whisper in His ear the talents we would want to be blessed with?...that is a funny thought to me.  Like Tinkerbell when she was so upset that she was born a Tinker and tried to make herself into a different kind of fairy to no avail....I did like when she tried to be a light fairy...I know way too much about Tinkerbell!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkvSz-mKvhY 

I love that I can sing and now I love giving it all back to Him, but learning to live with a talent that is used in front of others has been a struggle for me personally...because I am an introvert...I am emotional....and sometimes I really worry about what others think of me.  When I was in college, God and I had a long conversation about my singing talent in front of a mirror in a bathroom of my college dorm at about 2 in the morning with the song Seize the Day playing on the radio.  I know it because that was when I finally surrendered this ability to Him...I had used it for Him before that, but I had always been so concerned about what others thought of me until that time. For some reason, that early morning I finally got it...that all the rest of my life...however many people were in the room...I was going to be singing for one and if I belted it out or decided to raise my hands or even dance a little bit...it was OK if it was for Him.  The talent is ultimately His, not mine.  I can't tell you the joy I have experienced since then in that area of my life.  I think there is freedom in acknowledging our Creator and submitting to Him.  I know so many people view submission as an opposite to freedom, but it really is not that way in my experience.  There is such a freeing that comes from getting self out of the way and giving something completely to God.  This is just one example for me of learning to live in the SONRISE...letting God change my perspective, letting God break me of some of my selfishness or my self-consciousness, and letting Him use me for His glory...what a privilege...every time!

So, I guess...even in the middle of a snowstorm....it is possible to feel like this...

When the winter wind comes chasin' after me, I think of you . . . And it's as though I crawl beneath the blanket soft and warm.  How did I get from dark to daylight, before you happened to pass by?  How did I find my way through life, before you brightened up my sky?  
Was there a sky at all, until you painted it for me?  How did I get on, 'till you came along?

 -words from I Think Of You- sung by Perry Como

Light Up The Sky

Did anyone else see the sunrise this morning?  It was magnificent....totally bright pink with this one amazing ray of sunlight that just shot right up through the gloomy clouds around it.  My work commute is only about 15 minutes long...so, I love that I usually get to see the sunrise somewhere between the 7:40am-8:05am time frame right now.

I read another quote recently that has stuck with me for a few days...I can't remember where I saw it.  I was thinking it might have been in the Bonhoeffer book, but it is by C.S. Lewis, so I am not 100% sure about that.  He says, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis

I just wanted to encourage you with a ray of sunlight that will break through the dismal weather days we have been experiencing...so, here it is...this is the best encouragement ever....the SON has RISEN!  

Have a glorious day! 

He is like the morning light as the sun rises 2 Samuel 23:4

Artist Showcase

Danielle took some time to experiment with watercolors while she was recovering from her tonsillectomy surgery and she did a fabulous job on these two pictures.  I think the boat/sunset picture is my favorite, but I really like the way she left some white down the middle of the water in the beach picture to show a reflection on the water.  I might be biased, but I think that shows an artistic maturity to not feel the need to have to paint the entire picture....she knew just what she wanted to leave white for the effect she was going for.  BRAVO, Danielle!

Here are a couple close ups....I know you want to see the detail :-)

Brad and I took some time this weekend to finish a couple home projects.  We have been working on creating a homework/craft/"get out of the bathroom and let your sisters in!" area for the girls and finally put some desk grommets in the counter top, so the girls can plug in computers or hair dryers/curling irons/straighteners...what evs :-) (That is an attempt at slang...haha!)  I am happy it is finished...hope it will be utilized, so my dining room table will not always be full of clutter....A GIRL CAN DREAM.

And, last...but certainly not least...I can finally use my....drum roll please....FIREPLACE...and I have a few times even though it was just fixed yesterday and I LOVE IT!  It hadn't worked since we moved in and then we changed our home over from propane to natural gas and we had to replace all the parts to the fireplace...blah blah...long story...not so interesting...ANYWAY...happy Heather!  Now, I will have to find another good book so I can read it by my fire.  FIRE...FIRE...(Kenna said I had to add that)...Kenna and I are Pyros.

God's Not Dead!

I just saw the trailer for this movie coming Spring '14...I am very excited about it.  I love that it hits on the college age group and educational institutions...there are a lot of hypotheses presented as truth due to what professors believe and, unfortunately, we have a lot of disillusioned young people as a result.  Some youth from our youth groups in the past have contacted Brad while in college to discuss how hard it is to be a Christian there...especially in terms of their Ethics or Philosophy classes.  It definitely takes guts to take a stand for God like this when the "highly educated", authority figures present their viewpoints as unchallengeable.

Here's a link to the trailer...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMjo5f9eiX8&list=UUKRU6yh8rHqmRuX2htuFDNg

Sometimes we worry so much that we won't have the words and if we speak out we may just make God look like a fool or we have already let Him down so much we are reluctant to voice a different belief because of our fears...I know I have operated out of an attitude of defeat at times.  Brad and a friend of his performed this incredible skit last week at church from the Skit Guys called "God's Chisel"...it really has amazingly powerful moments in it, but one that I love is when the man tells God he has let him down and God responds that he (the man) was never holding Him up...that in their relationship God does the holding.  So Powerful!  Then, this movie has a song called "Hold You Up" ...just one of the "take notice" moments for me, you know....and it is true...IF GOD IS FOR US WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? Romans 8:31  This should embolden us and give us freedom in the Spirit.

Enjoy this worship song...it is one of my faves...God will never forsake us in our weaknesses!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d9Lkgy-Nkc

The Faithful Bean Farmer

I finished reading Bonhoeffer today.  It is amazing to me the moments in history where a real spiritual battle has manifested itself in the flesh and humanity has been caught hanging in the balance.  I know it is really happening all the time, a war is being waged for souls.  A war is being waged for my soul..it is that personal, but we don't always realize it until we are able to look back at certain event sequences in history. Then, we are able to really delve into the lives and battles of key people who played critical roles in fighting for Truth and advancing the gospel.  Bonhoeffer was such a vessel for God.

I was challenged by his words in regard to faith, prayer life, hunger for God's Word, attitude toward circumstances, commitment to stand for Truth, and efforts toward discipleship and mentoring others.  Wow...there's a lot packed in there along with all the history.

Here are a few of my most cherished quotes and sections of the book...HBF indicates a few of my thoughts:

"There is no way to peace along the way of safety.  For peace must be dared, it is itself the great venture and can never be safe.  Peace is the opposite of security.  To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself.  Peace means giving oneself completely to God's commandment, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes.  Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God.  They are won when the way leads to the cross."-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

HBF: My daily bible readings have taken me a little ways into the book of Joshua and also some of Job...isn't it crazy how God puts it all together?  Somehow I feel like if you interviewed Job and Joshua and matched up their lessons side by side...you would end up with the above statement.

"A truly evangelical sermon must be like offering a child a fine red apple or offering a thirsty man a cool glass of water and then saying: Do you want it?"  "Do not try to make the Bible relevant.  Its relevance is axiomatic...Do not defend God's Word, but testify to it. Trust to the Word."-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

HBF: My testimony is only powerful in that I am testifying to the Truth of His Word...I am evidence that what the Bible says, its blessings and promises, are being fulfilled in me when I am obedient to the Will of God. Nothing I do can add to it or diminish it.  I am not such a creative being that I could ever challenge God with something more relevant than HIS WORD.  If my testimony is compelling..it is only due to Christ drawing another to Himself through me.  

"Today I can say Yes to you from my entire, joyful heart."-Maria Von Wedemeyer in response to his proposal...Then, Dietrich's whole letter back to her about her YES...and the rest of their letters :)

HBF:..so fun to see that side of them :).  I feel weird reading other people's love letters...like I am spying on them or something.  I wasn't sure I wanted to read the lovey-dovey parts...I was a little afraid it may make me see the serious stuff differently.. but there was a great sense of loyalty, respect and genuine love evidenced in all their correspondence.  Some of it made me blush, but it was worth it....like when they talked about how electrically charged their moments together where....they said it way more eloquently...haha!  I find it tragic that their engagement was never fulfilled in marriage.  Though Maria was so young, I was affected by her strength of character.

"Who stands fast?  Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God- the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

HBF: What would my life look like if it was an answer to the question and call of God?... You have to do some serious seeking to answer that question.  Have I truly sought for this?

AND, His poem, "Stations on the Road to Freedom" is a beautiful illustration of complete surrender to Christ unto death. Too long to add here, but if you have found the other quotes inspiring...you should read this too sometime.  Or, just get this book...it is so good.  I would let you borrow mine, but it is really Brad's and I am sure he is happy I am turning it over to him now.

Anyway, that has been my free time for a few days....542 pages worth.  I love that his name means Bean Farmer.  It mentions that in the beginning of the book and I kept thinking about it as I was reading.  It is a blessing to see how the seeds of his faith...his perseverance, have flourished into such a devotional inspiration for believers and leaders...we're all farmers, right?

Dine With Me

I have been enthralled, as of late, with a book about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Brad bought the book for all the elders at our church, but I, kind-of, confiscated Brad's copy...I am now to page 335 and he is way back at 119...not that this is a competition...what? ME, competitive? :).  He has a wedding and a funeral to plan for this week, so the book has been fair game.

There is an amazingly honest and beautifully articulated section that I have a strong desire to type out...I have read it a few times and I have a deep appreciation for the way Bonhoeffer communicates his increasing desire or hunger for the Word of God, but also his confession that he has not always viewed God's Word in this manner.

This was written to his brother-in-law, Rudiger Schleicher, in 1936:

"First of all I will confess quite simply...I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we need only to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive this answer.  One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books.  One must be prepared really to enquire of it.  Only thus will it reveal itself.  Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it.  That is because in the Bible God speaks to us.  And one cannot simply think about God in one's own strength, one has to enquire of him.  Only if we seek him, will he answer us.  Of course it is also possible to read the Bible like any other book, that is to say from the point of view of textual criticism, etc.; there is nothing to be said against that.  Only that that is not the method which will reveal to us the heart of the Bible, but only the surface, just as we do not grasp the words of someone we love by taking them to bits, but by simply receiving them, so that for days they go on lingering in our minds, simply because they are words of a person we love; and just as these words reveal more and more of the person who said them as we go on, like Mary, "pondering them in our heart," so it will be with the words of the Bible.  Only if we will venture to enter into the words of the Bible, as though in them this God were speaking to us who loves us and does not will to leave us along with our questions, only so shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible..."

"If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature.  But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me.  This place is the Cross of Christ.  And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross, as the Sermon on the Mount commands.  This is not according to our nature at all, it is entirely contrary to it.  But this is the message of the Bible, not only in the New but also in the Old Testament...
And I would like to tell you now quite personally: since I have learnt to read the Bible in this way - and this has not been for so very long - it becomes every day more wonderful to me.  I read it in the morning and the evening, often during the day as well, and every day I consider a text which I have chosen for the whole week, and try to sink deeply into it, so as really to hear what it is saying.  I know that without this I could not live properly any longer." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I can hear (almost taste) his passion, can't you?  Thank you for indulging me that lengthy quotation....Why did I want to type that out?  Well, I want to crave the Bible as did this man.  I want my obsessive nature to be fixed on God's Word and His Will for me.  I want to learn to rejoice in the Bible...lingering on His words and asking Him to reveal to me the intricate meanings for my heart as I seek Him...as I "enquire"  of Him.  Proverbs 10:3 says, "The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked."  He will satisfy the hunger of the righteous by quenching their craving...for Himself. Dine with me.

Here's the Skinny...

I have to give you a visual of something that happened last night...it was and is so funny to me that I sporadically laughed myself to sleep.  Then, I thought today...maybe that wasn't as funny as I thought, so I tested it on a co-worker and she laughed so hard she cried a little...(so that was good enough for me to know I am normal)....here's the skinny (HA, you'll get that joke soon) on what happened.

I have these cabinets in the kitchen that don't go all the way to the ceiling, so obviously they need decor above them, right?  So I looked around on decorating websites while I was home on Christmas break and found this super cute kitchen sign...see:

Cute, right?  I have seen signs like this at friend's houses...kind-of defines the kitchen in a nice "classy" "caveman" way.  I am laughing while I am typing, so this is going to be a weird post....I apologize.  I don't know why the simplest things go wrong for me...I think the Lord is always looking for ways to play tricks on me or something.  Plus, I have been stuck inside for way too long due to the arctic blast and I may be experiencing cabin fever.  ANYWAY, I was so excited when this little sign arrived last night.  I already had a place ready for it, so  I ripped the box open and got a chair so I could put it in it's place above my cupboard. Then, I stepped down to admire it and this is what I saw...

Can you believe that!  That totally shocked me...I mean, I can fix it by setting the sign on something that will lift it up a bit....BUT, now that I have laughed so much about having a sign that says FAT in my kitchen, I am so tempted to leave it there and let it be a conversation starter...haha! 

Karly Diem (Seize the Day...Karly Style)

Karlayna is such a little comedienne...sometimes she knows it and other times it just happens out of her ignorance or her 5 and 3/4 year old (that is how old she is telling everyone she is since her birthday is in February) "learning curve" BUT, I love the things she says sometimes.  We were having dinner tonight and I was explaining to everyone how I am going to try to have us eat more healthy this year...more fruits and veggies. I had prepared a stir fry dish, rice, jello with fruit, and a Caesar salad for dinner.  So I am looking around the table and all the girls are just picking at their food.  Two thoughts usually go through my head at those moments and I have to choose one...either I say the "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" lecture, or I remind myself the secret ingredient in every meal is love...and their picking and pouting is not personal. So, while I was thinking that through, Karly asked Brad for more of something...but she still had a lot on her plate that she was not eating, so he told her to eat more of whatever first....well, she started shaking her little fist at him and said, "Seize His Salad!"  I guess, in her mind, that was what I meant when I told them I made a Caesar salad.  TOO FUNNY!

IN WITH THE reNEW

We are having some really good friends over tonight, so I made it a goal today to tidy up a bit.  Savannah asked me if there is ever any time we don't have to clean for someone to come over...hummm...let me think about that...nope.  I saw this sign for teenagers that said, "I'm sorry, but I didn't know tonight's gathering was going to take place in my bedroom."  I always try to be serious when the kids say stuff like that to me because it is a little on the sassy side, but then there is this part of me inside that is thinking, "that was a good one"  and my pursed lips part into a grin which usually ends in laughter.  FOILED AGAIN!

Somewhere between cleaning and preparing a meal for us and our company, Brad and I and some of the girls worked on hauling things out of our basement because we are trying to prep it for finishing.  We chose this day because of the heat wave...haha...well, it hit the 20's at least and there is sunshine.  The weather for the next few days doesn't look very promising.  We used the girl's sleds and it really wasn't too bad... (except for the wind) we piled lots of junk onto the sleds and pulled them to the pole barn.  It is our hope that we can finish the basement this year and all the girls will have fun hanging out with friends down there....and we can have a place for adults too :)...especially as the girls are approaching middle school/ high school ages.

One thing I am realizing though is that when you don't intentionally use a space, junk can really pile up in it. Sorting and discarding is such a pain.  There are a lot of areas in our lives too that are easier to just shut the door and hide the junk away.  One of the most beautiful things to me about the Christian life is that we do not have to "clean up our mess" before we seek Christ.  We can and should let Him into these really embarrassing and disgusting spaces that we are tempted to hide away. BUT, even though we don't have to have it all like "Better Homes and Gardens" for the Savior to meet us and begin His work in us....the goal is still a transformation...we cannot be content with our mess or we will never be able to open the door to allow Him in.....that is the first step.  But, once that door is willingly opened, He will start directing a cleaning (purifying) process and sometimes things that we have held on to for years may have to go.  The thing is, this process is on-going...just like cleaning.  It really cannot be a one and done.

My last blog entry was called Out With the Old (Tonsils that is) and I was just being a little silly about the girl's tonsillectomy procedures, but as we begin a new year I think it is important that we do ask God to search us to see if there are any places in us that we have closed off to Him because of sin or have started to accumulate unnecessary amounts of clutter that make us ineffective for His use.  It is my personal prayer that my faith would be evident to others, but I know I am a work in progress.  Psalms 51 is a heart-wrenching cry for cleansing and forgiveness.  In my moments of allowing God to search me...I often end up praying or singing the song I know from verses 10-12...Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, O Lord.  Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation...and renew a right spirit within me.