Three streams of influence take us to the main point of today’s post… i  hope the kids will take the time to read this, and the rest of you? well, you might something useful which will come to you when you last expect it.

A.  Back in the day, Peggy, Becky and I would without fail put this book into the hands of every new believer we knew.

The Fight

it was a boot camp manual to this new life breathing heavenly air. What the Christian life looked like, how to do Bible study, how to pray, how to find a church. When Joel made a profession of faith, we ordered the book for him. I plan to soon re-read it. I recommend it.

B)    Another ministry that i loosely follow is Ransomed Heart Ministries. by follow i mean i read their books from time to time, read their newsletter, etc. I am a romantic in the literary criticism sense of the word: The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and terror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, made of spontaneity a desirable character (as in the musical impromptu), and argued for a “natural” epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language and customary usage. from wikipedia…  a simplification but does the job here… a greater simplification is that  it was a reaction against rational criticism which insisted upon only measurable and tangible  qualities in discussing literature.

Ransomed Heart Ministries has written some powerful essays and explorations of masculinity and femininity. They have three basic tenants they are forever trying to remind us of… 1) there is more going on than meets the eye, 2) there is a fierce battle being waged all around us, and 3) you and I each have a specific role or purpose in this battle.

C)    Believing God by Beth Moore is a study i have written about before. Beth seeks to take us from believing in God to believing God. She has five major points…

I believe God is who He says He is
I believe God can do what He says He can do.
I believe I am who God says I am. (ephesians 1 says that i am blessed, chosen, adopted, accepted, forgiven and redeemed.)
I can do all things through Christ.
God’s word is alive and active in me.

okay now we swirl our ingredients together, lol…

there have been times in these last months when i was too beaten physically to do anything except lie there… where i had envisioned i would spend glorious hours in prayer and spiritual warfare, I often did nothing but lie there. I was not letting empty thoughts or wrong thoughts fill me, but there was in my mind nothing of value going on… Sandy P reminded me that God’s definition of making me lie down in green pastures might be different than my definition. That was an important thing for me to hear and accept.

God is in His mercy has me in a new place. I am still fatigued and often wish i could be “doing” more. And sometimes prayer is still too much. I have much scripture memorized and have been able to pray God’s word in doing battle for loved ones. However, the nature of this chemo and radiation induced fatigue have made that near impossible at times. Leona gave me a beautiful journal and a cross pen which i have begun like an illuminated journal of old… with small sketches, a list of my spiritual “house” (the people God has given me a special burden to pray for,) and specific scriptures written out that i will often pray through with each person on my heart. Even with such an awesome “cheat” sheet, it can be too fatiguing for me.

But as i said, I have more energy than before… so what do i do?  in the night, when pains, phlegm prevent sleep i can waste time online, or fretting, or i can recite the five steps of Believing God. And as i hit each step… I believe God is who He says He is, I recall and repeat who He says He is… creator of the universe, holy, perfect, my redeemer, Lamb of life… as they come to me, I repeat them, I believe God can do what He says He can do… make me into a writer, heal me, bless me with every spiritual blessing; I am who God says I am… i am loved, i am forgiven, i am a writer, i am a redeemed sinner, i will eat again; I can do all things through Christ, i can do radiation, i can swallow more everyday, i can walk around the block, i can write, i can be creative; God’s word is alive and active in me,  He inhabits my praises, He is my shepherd and i have everything i need…. get the idea? i begin with a spiritual truth (the 5 principles of Believing God) and piece by piece, i talk about it; piece by piece, I rehearse it.

Bringing these three streams together> there are practical ways of walking out, fleshing out this life of faith and it does us much good to learn and practice some of them. They can be turn into tools of comfort. Because there is so much more going on than we see with naked eye and because we each play a role in this great battle, we need to use our time wisely. I bring to bear those two truths to the greatest task I have currently… trusting God.

** for my children, bonus and birth… if i dont write down the things i have learned in this life, how else will i remember to speak of His great mercies to them day and night

Tags: Christian disciplines, Glorious God, illness, prayer

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Books, Our glorious God. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.