Why I Like House Church

I found a bunch of cool videos of house churches on Utube. Most of them are in large cities. Of all the types of "non-traditional" churches I have looked at, house church has been the most attractive. The NT churches are house churches and it seems to reflect the spirit of authentic Christian community. I think this particular house church is in the Midwest somwhere and I like the interview style video. Notice how the children are included as part of the congregation. They are not saying how much they like thier Children's program or youth group, but they are actually part of the congregation! Well, take a look and get an idea of where we hope to head in the future.

The View From Mt. Nebo

I find it terribly ironic that God has given us a place to live on Mount Nebo. In Deuteronomy 34 God takes Moses up Mount Nebo to see the promised land that he will never be allowed to enter in. It is another story of God's people that emphasizes the importance of our journey and that no place on this Earth, physically, ideologically, or socially is our final destination. Our final destination is the presence of God through Jesus only. But there is something that we are striving for, a promised land we have an innate need to seek out. The various forms of what I call "Alternative Communities of Faith" are doing just that. Emerging Church, Open Church, House Churches are all seeking that promised land, living in the real presence and promise of God here in this place. I have been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, "The Cost of Discipleship" and seem to have found an instant identification in the area of frustration I have had specifically with the Emerging Church and Open Church communities. There are several places just in the introduction that I feel Bonhoeffer's frustration when he writes,

"...It is no use in taking refuge in abstract discussion, or trying to make excuses, so let us get back to the Scriptures, to the Word and call of Jesus Christ himself. Let us try to get away from the poverty and pettiness of our own little convictions and problems, and seek the wealth and splendour which are vouchsafed to us in Jesus Christ."

That is what I seek, to get out of "discussing" what is "wrong" with the world and the "established church" or the traditional minded Christian and get into Jesus Christ through the Word and call. I think the temptation of being on top of Mount Nebo is to want now what we see and cannot have at the moment. In the process of longing for the promise we collapse into blabbering heaps that constantly jibber about what is wrong with the other guy. We are on the constant defensive waiting to react against the next critic of our movement.

I am frustrated with God today. We have been brought to Mount Nebo; gazing across the plain at the promised land. Intimate fellowship with a group of serious disciples committed to the "Word and call of Christ". What Bonhoeffer envisioned when he directed an illegal Church Training College on a Baltic peninsula seeking to establish a "community life". Or as G. Leibholz writes in the Memoir of the book;

"...how in the twentieth (twenty-first) century a Christian life should be lived in a spirit of genuine brotherhood, and how such life could naturally and freely grow if there were only men who entirely belonged to the Lord and, therefore, in brotherly love to one another."

Yes, I can see it, the promise of God fulfilled for me but across the plain. Down there in a valley that is still very far away. The temptation is to fall into criticism of the established church and defending myself against real or imagined attacks. Yes, standing in view of the promise while still in the midst of the wilderness wandering is an almost embarrassing place to be. But the vision is mine, given to me and I will wait on God while trying my best to think and respond in love to all those who are trying their best to seek and fulfill the vision God has given them. Moses may have died on the journey but he lives in the promised land!

He's God and He knows what He's doing

In my devotions last night in a book by Grace Fox called " 10-Minute Time Outs for Moms", I ran across this quote:

"Indeed we can trust God. He may not always provide as we might choose. He might make us wait longer than we would prefer. He might answer with unexpected means. Sometimes He allows us the privilege of walking through lean times to experience the joy of contentment with little. Whatever He does, it's His business- He's God, and He knows what He's doing. Our job is to trust."

Wow. Did you catch that? It's a privilege to go through hard times because it produces contentment and joy. I know this is sounding a lot like my last post but this is a lesson that keeps coming up in my life and my devotions. I starting thinking if we truly want to be Christ-like doesn't that mean going through some suffering? Our Lord was and is victorious but we cannot skip over the suffering He went through. If we are to truly identify with Jesus, we have to suffer. Now don't get me wrong, I cannot say I wish to suffer but maybe I should. Maybe I should worry more about my spiritual growth than my physical circumstances. There is something miraculous that happens when we look past our situation and focus on Christ and His wonderful grace bestowed upon us.

My prayer is that through this time of transition, God will work in my life more than He ever has. I have already realized some attitudes and thought patterns that need to be prayed out of my life. I do not think we let God reveals things to us when we are in the "land of plenty" but it takes getting into our "desert of isolation". We do not need God as much when things are going our way or we are comfortable in the body. But when we hit hard times where do we turn with fervor, to the One who loves us. It is in these times, God gently says "My child, here is what you are now, but I love you too much to let you keep on doing these things that keep you from seeing my power move in your heart and life. I want you to become what I have envisioned for you from the beginning of time. Keep seeking Me, and let Me show you that I am all you really ever needed. I am where you find true contentment and joy."

The Joys of Hardship

I have come to a conclusion about hardship- perceived and real. Hardship does two things- it brings out the best and the worst in us. Let's start with the best. Hardship often unearths our hidden talents that God has given us. When we go through hard times, we have to cope with it. At times we have to do things out of necessity that we never had to do before. For me, it's cooking. I have never considered myself a good cook well maybe an ok one but never good. Since we have moved, I have been trying to stretch the dollar so we have been eating home cooked meals (a lot of times from scratch) which would fall into my realm of the workload. Not to toot my own horn, but I have really discovered I am quite a good cook. Soup is becoming my specialty. My husband seems to enjoy our meals more and my children are trying all kinds of new dishes. (I'll try posting some pictures next time) I never would have discovered this had we had all the money in the world. So the hardships we so despise can actually make us more into the person God created us to be.

Now, the worst. Hardship tends to work out all the things hidden under the surface of our "perfect" lives. Bitterness, resentments, prejudice, critical spirits, superiority complexes....well you get the picture. When these things surface we can deal with them with God's help and overcome in time or we can wallow in them feeling sorry for all the injustices we have experienced. ( I hope you picked up on the whininess of that last bit). We can turn the worst part of hardship into the best part by letting God draw us closer into His presence. I have come to the point where I want to grow past the worst and let God make me more into the compassionate, caring, loving, kind, generous, holy person He intended me to be in the first place.

Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

James 1:2-4

Me do it! Me do it!

As I was going through my daily ritual of killing ants in my daughter's room and now the hallway, I started thinking. Last week, I gave up. I said I am calling a professional to come and fight this problem because I cannot do it. It cost some money up front for them to come out. (they are coming tomorrow morning, praise the Lord!) I am usually very frugal when it comes to spending money so I have been feeling extremely guilty about paying someone. I keep telling myself- if only we tried harder or waited longer maybe we could have overcame it on our own. But I am so tired and weary that I just couldn't do it any longer.

Why do we feel guilty about not being self-sufficient? Why is it that we feel bad about asking for help or admitting that we cannot do it alone? How many times have we held back from sharing our inmost struggles because we wanted to overcome on our own? Why? So we could say "I did it all by myself"? When my children were toddlers they came to the point where they wanted to do things for themselves. If you tried to help as you watched them struggle, they would say "Me do it, me do it". Then, they would become frustrated and break down in tears. Do we act like toddlers sometimes when it comes to our community of faith? We need to bear one another's burdens. Let's not feel guilty for sharing our hearts with others. Lose the self sufficient attitude that says "I can do it alone". We need each other and we need to call upon the Professional to help us all. God does not want us to do it alone-He's there waiting for us to call upon Him.

Cast all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

Tera lost her first tooth!

Our baby is growing up. After months and months of sporadic wiggling, Tera's first baby tooth came out tonight. Check out more on my personal blog at www.eclecticmomma.blogspot.com

Ants, Ants, Everywhere

Disclaimer: This post is being written by a very frustrated person. Any or all this information may or may not be exaggerated or blown out of proportion due to the emotional state of the writer.

Today my battle has been with ants- those tiny black sugar ants that seem to appear out of no where. One minute there are none then you look at the same spot your eyes just left one second ago in the middle of the counter and there it is. So far they have been limited to the kitchen counter. I have tried the natural remedies- vinegar, keeping everything cleaned up on a daily basis by trying to eliminate all crumbs, drawing a chalk line (ants are not suppose to cross it- HA). I took care of the ones in the kitchen only to answer the phone in the bedroom to find JP's nightstand table covered and some on the floor around it. JP was calling when I discovered the little boogers. He said forget the vinegar- get the spray. So I sprayed the table, the floor under the table, and the wall around our bed which seems to be the point of entry. Then I had to get the fan to air out the room. I moved the floor screen and found the mystery attraction- a lollipop stick and wrapper. I would like to blame our children but we don't let them eat anywhere else but the table. We did it. Now we are confined to eating at the table even candy. I think I took care of the problem but only time will tell. They seem to always pop up when I least expect it. We'll go a few days without seeing any and then I guess we let down our guard or something because then we are playing this little game again.

It seems as I write these everyday situations, spiritual truths come to mind. These little ants remind me of how temptation and sin creep in on us if we let down our guard. We think "Oh I have a handle on this problem or that addiction or those thought patterns" and we let down our guard. We are not vigilant about sweeping up or wiping up or leaving any trace of "food" for the enemy to zero in on. We think we can make it through the day without our personal prayer and bible study time. We forget to confess our sins daily and ask for help to avoid temptation. We need to be in the habit of confession every day. Just like I need to clean my floors and counters every day. When we confess our sin and ask God to help us overcome our temptations, we are guarding ourselves. Now that doesn't mean that things won't creep in on us from time to time, but hopefully just like my ants those times will get fewer and fewer. Who knows maybe there will come a time when the ants will go away completely. But until then lets keep guard and be vigilant lest we fall into sin.

God cares about blue bathmats.

Have you ever got into the thinking that the little things in our lives are unimportant to God?
Sometimes I have fell into this trap especially lately.

Since we have moved I have had to deal with a lot of mixed emotions. I have struggled to find a new time and place for my personal devotions and prayer time but the last few days I think I have found the answer. After JP goes to work and the kids go to bed I have the house to myself for a long time. I have started a Lectio Divina study on the book of James. Every night it seems like God is speaking to me about another issue in my life that needs work. This bible study was written exactly for me. It has been great to get reconnected to God through a daily time of bible study and prayer.

If you are wondering what the title has to do with my ramblings, here goes. For a long time we have said we want our house to be one where the power of God is seen in our lives. We want our kids to see His power move in our everyday life. Lately I have been looking at life pretty negatively but through my times of prayer the last few days, I sense God changing my attitude about everything. The place we are renting has this type of marble flooring in the living room, hall and bathroom. We have had yellow bathmats in the bathroom but they show up dirt so bad that I have had my heart set on getting a blue bathmat. Since JP hasn't been working for one whole week yet, I couldn't justify any thing that I consider a luxury. This morning we had to go out to Wal-mart for some necessities. I prayed "Lord, if you want me to have a blue bathmat, give me one today at a cheap price." We were dropping some things off at the Salvation Army and passed one of those discount houses with all the rugs and mats outside. JP said "Let's stop on our way back" So we did and there outside I had my pick of blue bathmats at the cheap price of $5, which ended up being $3.75 because they were having a sale. I was so excited, I told the cashier about the answer to my prayer. We also found an awesome area rug for the living room. I have never seen our kids more excited. They sat on that carpet all night.

The Lord is teaching me or should I say reminding me, He cares about the little things that matter to us. We need to remember that God is not bored or irritated when we bring Him the little things in life.

God cares about blue bathmats because He cares so much about me.