The Rabbi's Heartbeat: a short story

Parables are word-pictures used to convey timeless truths in simple ways. Consider this one for wherever you are in the journey today...


"A pious jewish couple married with great love. Their greatest hope was to have a child so their love could walk the earth. But there were difficulties.
And since they were very pious, they prayed and prayed and prayed until---lo and behold, the woman conceived. And nine months later a delightful boy came rumbling into the world.

They named the child Mordecai. He was rambunctious, zestful, gobbling down the days and gulping the nights. The sun and moon were his toys. He grew in years and wisdom and grace, until it was time to go to the Synagogue and learn the Word of God.

The night before his studies were to begin, his parents sat down Mordecai and instructed him on the importance of God’s Word. They told Mordecai that without the Word of God he would be an autumn leaf on the winter wind. And He listened wide-eyed.

BUT the next day Mordecai never arrived at the synagogue. Instead he found himself in the Woods, Swimming in the lake & Climbing the trees.

When he returned home that night, His parents were beside themselves and everyone in the village knew of his shame. But they had no idea what to do.
So they brought in the behavior modificationists to modify Mordecai’s behavior, until there was no behavior of Mordecai that was not modified. And they went to bed knowing Mordecai would go to synagogue to learn the Word of God.

And the next day Mordecai found himself in the Woods again, Swimming in the lake & Climbing the trees.
So they called in the psychoanalysts to analyze and unblock blockages for Mordecai to unblock.

Nevertheless, he found himself the next day in the Woods again, Swimming in the lake & Climbing the trees.
Mordecai’s parents grieved for their beloved son. Sorrowful and without hope.

And it happened at the same time that the Great Rabbi came to stay in the village. He was an imposing, somewhat fearsome man, revered by all. So Mordecai’s parents humbly took him to the Rabbi and told their sad tale. The Rabbi replied simply, ‘Leave the boy with me, and I will have a talking with him.’
It was bad enough that Mordecai would not go to the synagogue. But to leave their beloved son alone with this lion of a man was most unsettling. But they had come this far, and one does not easily dismiss the command of the great Rabbi, so they left the boy and returned home to wait.

Now Mordecai stood in the hallway, and the Great Rabbi stood in his parlor. He beckoned, ‘Boy, come here.’ Trembling, Mordecai approached the great man.
‘Put down your belongings,’ the Rabbi directed, and Mordecai did.
And then the Great Rabbi picked him up & held Mordecai silently against his heart for a very long time.
At dusk, Mordecai’s parents came to take him home.

The next day Mordecai went to the synagogue to learn the Word of God. And when he was done, he went to the Woods. And the WORDS of the woods became one with the Word of God, which became one with the words of Mordecai. And he Swam in the lake. And the WORDS of the lake became one with the Word of God, which became one with the words of Mordecai. And he climbed the Trees. And the WORDS of the trees became one with the Word of God, which became one with the words of Mordecai.

And Mordecai grew up to be a great man himself. People seized by panic came to him and found peace. People who were without anybody came to him and found communion. People with no escape came to him and found a way out. And when they asked how he came to possess God’s Word so powerfully, he said, ‘I first learned the Word of God when the Great Rabbi held me silently against His Heart’."

-story adapted from Brennan Manning book "Posers, Fakers, & Wanabees" pages 144-147
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"It was a simple thing for a boy like me
To pray a prayer and then believe
Those were simple times, how times change
Boys grow up and life complicates
I am older but am I wiser?
Has my simple heart grown colder?
Oh, simple heartbeat in me until I can see
A simple heart will set me free to let extraordinary things
Flow through this ordinary heart of simplicity..."

Simple Heart LYRICS by Geoff Moore

THOUSAND YEARS LIKE A MINUTE ; MILLION DOLLARS LIKE A PENNY ?

Overwhelmed? Consider, God the Father who is never overwhelmed by anything. Continually turn your fears, doubts, worries, frustrations, and even your questions to Him. Ask Him to open your heart & eyes today to SEE Him for who He is where you are.

The following illustrations OF HUMOR, HUMILITY, & a HUM have brought me back around in this matter as of lately.
May they have the same impact on you, as you consider their meaning...

Humor:

“One day little Izzy asked God, ‘Yahweh, is it true that for You a Thousand years is just a Minute?’ Yahweh answered, ‘Yes, Izzy, that is true’. Izzy asked, ‘And Yahweh, is it true that for You a Million dollars is just a Penny?’ Yahweh replied, ‘Yes, Izzy that also is true.’ Extending her right hand with palm upturned, Izzy said, ‘Yahweh, give me a Penny please.’ And Yahweh said, ‘Certainly! It’ll take only a Minute’.”

- adapted from an illustration from Brennan Manning PAGE 52 from book RUTHLESS TRUST

Humility:

Francis Chan quote - “it’s time for some of us to stop apologizing for God and start apologizing to Him for being embarrassed by the ways He has chosen to reveal Himself”

- page 102 from book ERASING HELL

Hum:

“Have you counted the stars in the heavens
Have you walked the circumference of the earth
Have you measured the boundaries of the universe
Do you tremble at the Word of God

Have you uncovered the source of the thunder
Have you tamed the crashing mighty sea
Have you defied the force of gravity
Do you tremble at the Word of God

CHORUS:
The wise will hear Him and obey His word
Long and blessed will be their days upon the earth
The fool will perish in the folly of his ways
Do you tremble at the Word of God

Have you considered the scope of eternity
In the light of unwavering truth
Have you regarded the works of a strong and mighty hand
Do you tremble at the Word of God

CHORUS

Oh, do you tremble at the Word of God
At the Word of God
Yeah, do you tremble at the Word of God”

- lyrics by Wes King 1995

9/11/2011 - to Remember & to Rejoice

Can't think of 3 more fitting ways to Remember 9/11 ten years later and to equally Rejoice that Christ still shines out in tragedy.

1) This Scripture passage "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."—Isaiah 61:3.

2) This Photo of the Cross Beams standing among the wreckage at "Ground Zero" that continues to receive tremendous circulation after an entire decade...


3) This Photo (wall of names) & Video of the U2 Super Bowl 2002 tribute to the victims of 9/11 through the songs "MLK" and "Where the Streets have No Name"...enough said. Go to this link on youtube and crank up the volume!!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=og0V1UtjPt4

On this past Wednesday night, I issued a challenge to our students to work together within their circle of friends to raise money to purchase Bibles for the Persecuted church in China. Currently, through VOICE of the MARTYRS 97, 450 believers have been identified by name this to provide Bibles for.You are also able to become prayer partners for them.
I wanted to briefly clarify a few ways that you and your student and/or friends of your students can partner together to participate in providing Bibles for specific people in China within the next few weeks:

1) You can work together with Crosspoint Student Ministry: The simplest way that money can be collected and turned in is to either have envelopes of cash OR a check to Crosspoint no later than WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 12th. The goal for Crosspoint is: $150 which will provide 25 Bibles to Chinese People(@ $6 per Bible).

2)You can work independently of Crosspoint: As a individual, a Family, Group of Friends, Athletic team, or School club. Have a monetary goal in mind , pay one selected person in your group, and then have that person pay the bill online in your family or groups name. Independent teams online deadline is Saturday October 15th. Let me know if you do that so I can keep a record of People/amount given just out of interest...

You can learn more about this Ministry at this website www.persecution.com/chinabibles.

Thank you for your prayers, support, and cooperation in this very dire need for our Asian brothers and sisters in Christ. So now, go get creative on raising funds to go towards putting God’s word into others hands!

Sincerely yours through Christ,
Matt Loving

You and God’s Turkey...

Ni hao & Hola!
Wow. It's been around three months since the last posting. Trip to Asia, Family Vacation, & Trip to Puerto Rico. Well those items will be shared for an upcoming blog. But for now, here's a little glimpse into what I'm currently learning on the journey:)
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It is truly amazing how we project onto God all too often assumptions based upon our life’s experiences. Sometimes it’s the form of thoughts such as “God would never do that or this” because of our feel-good view of Him instead of a recognition of His holiness. Or maybe the thoughts turn toward even a cry of desperation such as “I can’t believe you are letting this happen to me God”.
Learn today from Scripture, a minister, and a little unlikely story that God is faithful to His children. ALL things at ALL times are for their good & His glory. He always is working to sanctify us and not to sever us. He embodies faithfulness to us when we embody faithlessness.

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“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” A.W. Tozer

Writer Flannery O’Connor tells a short story about a young boy named Ruller. He is different than other kids and his own parents have told him he is unusual. He feels he has to prove himself to everyone, including God.
In his desperation, one day he decides he must chase and catch a wild wounded turkey that he comes across to bring home to his family. Maybe then he will prove himself to them.

He actually catches the turkey and is so excited He believes that it must be a sign from God himself. He even declares that He wants to do something for God. He believes that it is “he and God’s turkey”.

The story takes a turn when Ruller meets some other kids on the way home. He kindly offers to show them the turkey and one of the boys slings the bird over his own shoulder hitting Ruller in the face. Those boys run away with God’s turkey!

The story ends in this disheartening way by saying that as Ruller “turned up the road to his house, his heart was running as fast as his legs and he was certain that Something Awful was tearing behind him”.
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Author Brennan Manning adds this insight to that Story about Ruller:
“a lot of us think what Ruller thinks about God. The God we believe in is someone who gives a Turkey with one hand and takes it away with the other...”. Manning goes on to explain that in contrast, SCRIPTURE clearly teaches us that for all who are in Christ “God won’t stop working on us until the job is complete AND God doesn’t hold back his love because there is evil in us. Not now, not ever...It breaks God’s heart that we are afraid of Him, afraid of Life, afraid of each other, afraid of ourselves...It breaks God’s heart that we run from him instead of to him when we fail”

-- selected passages from book Posers, Fakers, and Wanabees
by Brennan Manning (pages 17-22)

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you...the one who calls you is Faithful and He will do it” 1 Thessalonians 1:23a and 24

A Good Laugh...

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones" (Proverbs 17:22, NIV)

Laughter really is the best medicine for so many things in life that we feel like drives us crazy.

The next 2 weeks airports will be a huge part of my life, so have a good laugh with me as you read these comments from comedian Jerry Seinfeld about Airports and Airplane travel:

“I love Airports. Feel safe in airports. Thanks to the high caliber individuals we have working at x-ray security. How bout this crack squad of savvy motivated personnel...what is the story on the sinks in the airport bathrooms that they will not give us a twist-it-on twist-it-off human style faucet. Is that too risky for the general population?...
Do the people that work in the little shops in the airport have any idea what the prices are every place else in the world? Yea, fourteen dollars tuna sandwich we think that’s fair. That’s what we charge in our country.
The Pilot of course has to come on the p.a. system. This guys’s so excited about being a pilot he can’t even stand himself...
Then the stewardesses have to come out and have to do their little emergency equipment show. You know that thing they do. One reads it and the other one acts it out...
They show you how to use a seat belt in case you haven’t been in a car since 1965. Oh, you lift up on the buckle. Ohhh...
Then they always point out the emergency exits always with that very vague point isn’t it?...
It’s a whole tiny world on the airplane isn’t it? There’s always that little tiny table there, tiny computer, everyone’s in cramped seats, tiny food, tiny utensils, tiny liquid bottles, tiny sink, tiny mirror, tiny closet. There’s always a small problem. Gonna be a slight delay. Gonna be a little late!”


Also, please keep in touch with my wife over the next few weeks and give her some adult conversation as she will be taking care of the four kids alone! Pretty sure there will be more than one occasion that they will be driving her crazy. She will also definitely need to hear anything that can help her have a good laugh...

“Remember This...”

There is an insane amount of amazing ways that God has designed our bodies and in particular our brains to work. Recently, I learned about one of those ways that in turn affects every aspect of our lives. At the base of our brain stem is a cluster of nerve cells called the reticular activating system (RAS). This enables us to deal with the constant and countless stimuli we encounter throughout each new day and our lifetime--think sights, sounds, smells. The RAS enables us to determine what needs to be noticed or should go unnoticed, a type of mental radar system.
In his book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Pastor and author Mark Batterson explains how he first learned experientially about this amazing aspect of God’s design for our brains:

“I was writing and thinking about Lions so much that I started noticing Lions every place I looked. I noticed lion logos. I noticed how many T-shirts have lion designs. And I noticed lion statues in front of countless DC buildings. I’m sure they were there all along, but I hadn’t noticed them. Why? Because I wasn’t looking for them. I didn’t have a cognitive category for lions. So what happened? In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day created a category in my reticular activating system. I now notice lions wherever and wherever I see them.”

Now, this can be a life-changing truth for all of us if we allow it to be. This God-given design is relevant to how we spent the time we are given on planet earth.
Think about the people you know that you call a “prayer warrior”. It’s not so much that prayer changes things but that praying regularly and intensely to the Lord of Heaven and Earth changes you. God designed it to work that way when He uniquely created the human brain. In prayer, God is ultimately the one who does anything not simply a specific type of prayer. But isn’t crazy to think that the one whom we pray to also designed in us a mechanism that we would be able to utilize if trained in order to see Him at work concerning the things we seek Him about.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that having a Jesus Bobblehead on your car dashboard or that using a Rosary or even praying the “Prayer of Jabez” over and again is the answer to keeping Jesus and the things of the Lord on our minds. He is not a gimmick or a good-luck charm to be manipulated. Nor is He a media gimmick to be used as an agenda much like the billboard I saw years ago that had a artwork rendering of Mary nursing the baby Jesus while written beside it was the phrase “if it was good enough for Him, it’s good enough for our children”. Too bad that image stuck in my personal RAS after all these years...
Likewise, unfortunately there are other abuses of this mechanism in the Christian church today when people say things like, “the Lord has show me Favor and given me....(fill in the blank with any type of selfish agenda)”. Churches or church leaders walking all over people in order to get to their agenda because it’s what works(philosophy of pragmatism vs. servant heartedness).

This, I firmly believe is also why in Scripture we see direct or indirect challenges to keep the truths of the Lord always before us, in particular by what is on our minds and what we train our minds to be set upon. Our single combatant against the ungodly philosophies is God’s written Word and consequently our minds trained to be set upon it filtering the things we encounter. The reality here is what we are promised in Ephesians 2:10 to be transformed into the “workmanship” of doing the good we were created to do “in Christ Jesus”.

Below is a List of Scripture that reveal this connection between thinking and doing concerning the life of Faith in Christ. Most of them were incidentally written as passages given as a “charge” to the original hearers or readers:

“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Deuteronomy 11:18-19

“I have set the Lord always before Me” Psalm 16:8

“and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” Matthew 28:20

“This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come i may not have to be harsh in my use of authority--the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down” 2 Corinthians 12:10

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
Philippians 4:8-9

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” Colossians 3:2

You see this truth about “remembering” yourself or who you are in classic books or movies or even in songs. It is a gift that God has given to us to be used, as with all things to know Christ and to make Him known.
So, whether you are like the author Chad Gibbs who utilized his “love” for SEC Football to point others to the grace of Christ, a teacher who sees life through the eyes of the learner and therefore enables them to truly learn, a singer/songwriter looking for that perfect song, a Pastor needing a new passion for sharing the word of God and leading a congregation toward God, a mother who changes the world one child at a time, or any other number of talents and abilities, I challenge you with this charge to REMEMBER this: the Love of God in Christ exists for you and for you to share. Set this blaring truth as forefront on your personal RAS and watch just how you begin to “see” the Love of God all around you at work in places you never imagined.
Begin in your own heart and mind to REMEMBER THIS or as Albert Camus stated, "In the midst of winter, I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer." Start also with the meaning of this poetic and timeless message of this song written by a married couple back in 1991...

“When you sing
The sound disappears
As it moves through the air
But the music still rings in you ears
When you laugh
The feelings release
And they soon fade away
But you know that the laughter was real
When you wish
You could capture this moment
And hold it inside

Remember this
Beyond this moment
The love of God exists
When the music fades
And your feelings change
You must remember this
When today becomes tomorrow
This is my only wish - remember this

When you hear
Each word ringing true,
As if written for you
Keep their meaning in your memory
When you know
Beyond any doubt
This is true love you found
Don't forget it when the passion fades
When you wish
You could capture this moment
And hold it inside

Remember this
Beyond this moment
The love of God exists
When the music fades
And your feelings change
You must remember this
When today becomes tomorrow
This is my only wish - remember this”

Lyrics to “Remember This by Out of the Grey written by Scott & Christine Dente’ and Charlie Peacock 1991

GOD Is...(What it is-Part 5: final definition)

The power of Words.
This is the final installment of attempting to grasp some of the most important Words in our lives by investigating their meaning. Words like Life, Love, Story, & Christmas were selected because I believe that one’s perspective on this short list shapes the lens of how much of the rest of life is interpreted, particularly as a Christian. Hopefully you have gained insight from this series and will pass along what you have learned. The final term is the single most important one that provides shape for the previous ones. If you are just now joining, I can’t think of a better place to end or begin....GOD.
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Leo Tolstoy once wrote that “God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part.”
Additionally, “god” (noun)as defined in Webster’s dictionary is “the supreme or ultimate reality; the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe”.

And in the fictional story of NARNIA :The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, when a character is asked to define who they are, the conversation goes as follows:
“ ‘I am a star at rest, my daughter,’ answered Ramandu.
‘In our world,’ said Eustace, ‘a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.’
‘Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.’ ”

So, below is a collection of quotes that provide a glimpse about the character of God from various perspectives. I hope these ideas help to clarify or challenge your working DEFINITION of who GOD is, whether through agreement or disagreement. At best, the list is utilizing some thoughts from finite minds to glimpse into the infinite one, probably only understanding what God “is made of” and not completely what He is. This, as in the case of the other definitions, will I believe in turn ReDefine how you Live one way or another...
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“If God had a name, what would it be? And would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with him in all his glory,what would you ask if you had just one question?
Yeah, Yeah, God is great.Yeah, Yeah, God is good...
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us, Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home...”
- Joan Osbourne song “What if God was one of Us”

“Man ... has an inborn religious sentiment that whispers of a God to his inmost soul, as a shell taken from the deep, yet echoes forever the ocean's roar.” - HORACE MANN, Thoughts

“They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.”
- Emily Dickinson

“There is a God and He is good, and his love, while free, has a self imposed cost: We must be good to one another.” - GEORGE H.W. BUSH, RNC acceptance speech, August 18, 1988

“If there were no God, it would have been necessary to invent him.”
- Voltaire

“God enters by a private door into each individual.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“After God created the world, He made man and woman. Then, to keep the whole thing from collapsing, He invented humor.”
- Guillermo Mordillo

“After 9/11, there were a lot of things being said about how the God of Islam and the God of the Christian faith were one and the same, but that's simply not true ... The God that I worship does not require me to kill other people. The God that I worship tells me I am to love my enemy, to give him food when he's hungry and water when he's thirsty.”
- FRANKLIN GRAHAM, Newsweek, Aug. 14, 2006

“There is a God-shaped vacuum in every heart.”
- Blaise Pascal

“We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them.” - Charles C. West

“We are but a point, a single comma, and God is the literature of eternity...We need not fear shipwreck when God is the pilot.”
- HENRY WARD BEECHER, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

“God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight.”
- Reggie White

“Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”
- Garth Brooks

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”
- St. Augustine

“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. The way we learn those lessons is not to deny the feelings but to find the meanings underlying them.”
- Stanley Lindquist

“Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He’s going to be up all night anyway.”
- Mary C. Crowley

“God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.”
- Jean Paul Richter

“We can never escape God’s lovely essence.”
- Sonnett Branche

“Life is God’s novel. Let him write it.”
- Isaac Bashevis Singer

“God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things done.”
- Harry Emerson Fosdick

“A lot of people are willing to give God credit, but so few ever give Him cash.”
- Robert E. Harris

“We always keep God waiting while we admit more importunate suitors.”
- Malcolm de Chazal

“People see God every day, they just don’t recognize him.”
- Pearl Bailey

“God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way.”
- Leighton Ford

“God’s will is not an itinerary, but an attitude.”
- Andrew Dhuse

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.”
- Mother Teresa

“When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God.”
- Charles L. Allen

“Of all created comforts, God is the lender; you are the borrower, not the owner.”
- Samuel Rutherford

“A man with God is always in the majority.”
- John Knox

“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him ” - 1 JOHN 4:15-16
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LOVE Is...(What it is-Part 4)

For this installment of Defining some of life’s most important terms, I have simply selected the word LOVE. And, yes, I waited post-valentines day intentionally so both your chocolate “high” and possibly skewed view of love during that time could be over and done with in the month of February.
So, what is love? Cue, the song and image from the Saturday Night Live skit/movie “Night at the Roxbury”...Right? Not so much. Let’s see if the dictionary can get us somewhere.

While usually a source of insightful definitions, Webster’s cheaply defines Love as a noun: (luv) “Deep affection and warm feeling for another”. Hmmm. Still not getting anywhere.

Oddly enough, this post will be dated March 9th, 2011 and on this date and calendar year a religious holiday called “Ash Wednesday” is emphasized.
Ash Wednesday simply put is the 7th Wednesday before Easter and the 1st day of Lent. It is emphasized as a time for a variety of well-intentioned Christian denominations to fast, repent, and live in moderation due to spiritual discipline. For example, no chocolate during lent is a huge “sacrifice” for some participants. I feel your pain. And I completely understand the reasoning behind the emphasis. 2 Corinthians 5:15 admonishes all believers with this truth, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again”. Lent is correct conceptually but is quite often and unfortunately abused practically.

Irish rock band, U2, and their frontman, Bono, once had a press release in a New York City Kmart on Ash Wednesday. When asked if their was any connection to this particular day amidst the flashing blue lights, lead singer Bono slyly replied, “Ash Wednesday and Kmart—that about wraps us up.”
Hmmm. Thanks Bono for the amusement. Still not completely where we need to be on this definition of love.

So, if love is more than a noun or a holiday for giving cheap gifts (and expressing cheap sentiment not consistent with behavior the other days of the year), nor a religious emphasis time to “sacrifice” from your lifestyle something temporarily to show at best a seasonal devotion, what exactly and where exactly can we find the truest definition of Love?

Love for Christians is defined in a variety of ways. However, the Apostle John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, understood firsthand what Love was all about as he was graced with spending time with the only full embodiment of Love that has ever lived on planet earth.
1 John 4:7-21 provides us with one of the most amazing definitions of what authentic and consistent Love actually is. So here goes:

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
   God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
 We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”


Love and Ash Wednesday--that about wraps this up!

STORY Is...(What it is-Part 3)

G.K. Chesterton once wrote said “I had always felt life first as a STORY---and if there is a STORY there is a STORY TELLER”.

We often dismiss the term “STORY” as pertaining to myth, legend, fairy-tales, or playing make-believe as a child, as if to infer that those things are not “real”. And in doing so, we have often dismissed one of the key ingredients necessary for following and being taught by Christ daily in faith - to have “childlike faith”. This, however, must not to be confused with childish ways. We all know deep within us that STORY is an essential God-designed teaching method for communicating eternal truths about life.
Jesus Himself quite often used the STORY form of Parables to TEACH eternal truths about the one true Kingdom we are all invited to be a part of and the grand STORY unfolding.
Here is a collection of 25 quotes that TEACH about the God breathed power of STORY through insight from various perspectives. I hope these truths help you better DEFINE what STORY is, which can in turn, if you apply that “childlike faith”, redefine how you Live your Story...
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“If you are a Dreamer, come in; If you are a Dreamer, a wisher, a liar; a hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire; For we have some flax-golden TALES to spin. Come In! Come In!”.
Shel Silverstein “Invitation” poem from book Where the Sidewalk Ends

“Sam: It’s like in the great STORIES, Mr Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were...those were the STORIES that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those STORIES had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding onto something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo...and it’s worth fighting for...

Sam: I wonder if we’ll ever be put into songs or TALES...I wonder if people will ever say, ‘Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring’. And they’ll say ‘Yes, that’s one of my favorite STORIES, Frodo really was courageous, wasn’t he Dad?’
Frodo: You’ve left out one of the chief characters - Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam’.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: The TWO TOWERS movie

“In a STORY, the character wants something. Rudy wants to play football at Notre Dame, Harry wants Sally, Frodo wants to destroy the ring and so on. It’s true in every story, or else a story doesn’t make sense. If we don’t want something in our lives, our stories feel boring, long, meaningless and tired. We feel this way because we are sitting in the theater of our mind watching a story that isn’t getting started. Or worse, we are praying and asking God to give us a story while the entire time God is handing us a pen, telling us to write it ourselves. That’s why he gave us a will. So spend some time thinking about what you want with the year. Do you want to pay down the house, get into shape, deepen a relationship? Make your ambition clear and focussed. Choose two or three dominant desires and write them down...The idea is to create scenes this year you’ll remember for the rest of your life, and to invite others into the thrill of being alive. I often think of it as worship in the sense that God created this beautiful expanse as an exposition within which to live remarkable stories, and it’s our job to match the STORY to the expanse, to make use of it, to fill it with memorable scenes”.
Donald Miller Blog (1/1/10 and 1/5/10)

“You tell a STORY because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell him to read the story”.
Flannery 0‘Connor

“Myths are not by definition lies. The STORY of Christ is a ‘true myth, a myth that works on us the same way as the others, but a myth that really happened’.”
-Mark Eddy Smith

“God did not give Joseph any special information about how to get from being the son of a nomad in Palestine to being Pharaoh's right hand man in Egypt. What he did give Joseph was eleven jealous brothers, the attention of a loose and vengeful woman, the ability to do the service of interpreting dreams and managing people’s affairs, and the grace to do that faithfully wherever he was.”
"We do not find happiness by being assertive. We don't find happiness by running over people because we see what we want and they are in the way of that happiness so we either abandon them or we smash them. The Scriptures don't teach us to be assertive. The Scriptures teach us—and this is remarkable—the Scriptures teach us to be submissive. This is not a popular idea.”
- Rich Mullins on Joseph’s STORY and our Story too

“I believe that being successful means having a balance of success STORIES across the many areas of your life. You can't truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.”
- Zig Ziglar

“People have forgotten how to tell a STORY. Stories don't have a middle or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.”
Steven Spielberg

“If I’m gonna be a preacher one day, I gotta know the Bible front to back. I mean, you can’t help nobody if you can’t tell ‘em the right STORY”.
- Johnny Cash’s brother, Jack, in the movie WALK THE LINE

“Why does anybody tell a STORY? It does indeed have something to do with faith, faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically”.
Madeleine L’Engle

“STORY is the primary way we impart what really matters to the next generation...Story is one of the most powerful ways we pattern our world and discover its meaningfulness. It goes beyond mere embellishment of a spiritual point to providing a nurturing form or substance for the God-hungry imagination, one that helps young people inhabit a narratable world”.
Sarah Arthur book The God-Hungry Imagination

“Since all the World is but a STORY, it were well for thee to buy the more enduring story, rather than the story that is less enduring”.
- Columba of Iona

“When people ask how we are doing, the first thing I always say is, ‘I want Maria back. I want my son Will Franklin not to have this as a chapter in his STORY. I want my children to be healthy, my family secure. I don't really care whose life has been touched or changed because of our loss’...It has been agonizing to choose to see God at work through the tears of losing my daughter. I have, however, experienced the kindness, sweetness, faithfulness, and redemptive heart of God. I believe none of my tears have been wasted”.
- Mary Beth Chapman commenting on the 2008 death of their adopted daughter Maria

“Don't tell fish STORIES where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.”
Mark Twain

“All my STORIES are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal...There is a certain embarrassment about being a storyteller in these times when stories are considered not quite as satisfying as statements and statements not quite as satisfying as statistics; but in the long run, a people is known, not by its statements or its statistics, but by the STORIES it tells”.
- Flannery O’Connor

“People create STORIES create people; or rather stories create people create stories”.
- Chinua Achebe

“STORY is the language of the Heart. After all, what’s the world’s favorite way to spend a Friday night? with a Story--a book, a favorite show, a movie...It goes far deeper than entertainment, by the way. Stories nourish us. They provide a kind of food that the soul craves...What if all the great Stories that have ever moved you, brought you joy or tears--what if they are telling you something about the TRUE STORY into which you were born, the Epic into which you have been cast? We won’t begin to understand our lives, or what this so-called gospel is that Christianity speaks of, until we understand the Story in which we found ourselves. For when you were born, you were born into an Epic, that has already been under way for quite some time. It is a STORY of beauty and intimacy and adventure, a Story of danger and loss and heroism and betrayal”.
John Eldredge book EPIC

“If history were taught in the form of STORIES, it would never be forgotten”.
Rudyard Kipling

“My STORY is this: I’ve fallen in love again with the hero of the story, and I’ll never be the same . Sometimes though, I must confess, I still love the storytelling more than I love story itself”.
Jimmy Davis

“Our Songs and our STORIES do more than persuade others that an order exists: they build the house; they weave a world; they companion our listeners into the experience of such ordered cosmos”.
- Walter Wangerin, Jr.

“Our basic struggle, on a Sunday morning, revolves around the questions: Who gets to name the world? Who is authorized to tell the STORY of what is going on among us?”.
William Willimon

“How do I happen to believe in God?...Writing novels, I got into the habit of looking for plots. After awhile, I began to suspect that my own life had a PLOT. And after awhile more, I began to suspect that life itself had a plot”.
- Frederick Buechner

“So here is my question: Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling STORIES about? Maybe it is time to quit running and time to start chasing. Try something new. Take some risks. Start doing some things that are worth recounting in jaw-dropping detail. I think we owe it to our kids and grandkids...Too many of us pray as if God’s primary objective is to keep us from getting scared. But the goal of life is not the elimination of fear. the goal is to muster the moral courage to chase lions...Soren Kierkegaard went so far as to say that ‘boredom is the root of all evil’ because it means we’re refusing to be who God made us to be. If you’re bored, one thing is for sure: You’re not following in the footsteps of Christ”.
Mark Batterson book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day

“Fix these WORDS of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. TEACH them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up”.
Deuteronomy 11:18-19

“I will open my mouth in PARABLES, I will utter hidden things, things from of old--what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done”.
PSALM 78:1-4