The Way of Love

Tommy’s taken some time out of his successful life as a doctor, spending the day out on the golf course with his buddies when he receives an alarming phone call from another part of the world. 

His son, Daniel, is dead. 

And all at once, a life that seemed to have every duck carefully placed in a row was upside down.

And thus begins a father’s journey in the movie The Way with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez.   It is a poignant look at a man who has been caught up in the world’s version of success and has, ironically, become somewhat cynical and bitter.  And when the unthinkable happens we see the ensuing inner struggles of a man who suddenly realizes he doesn’t have things figured out quite the way he thought.   

FYI - If you haven’t seen the movie yet, this will contain some slight spoilers. 

The last time the two men spoke they were engaged in an awkward conversation as Tommy drove his son, Daniel, to the airport. Daniel tells his dad about the journey he’s going to make and, in an effort to try connecting with his dad, asks him to come along.  Tommy cynically laughs it off, saying that not everyone has the luxury of taking time off from work to do such a thing. 

And now the time was gone. 

Tommy makes the pain-staking trip to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to retrieve his son’s body and his belongings.  Daniel had just begun his journey on the road of El camino de Santiago, The Way of St. James, a pilgrimage that millions have traveled over the last thousand years.  The journey can begin on any of a number of paths, but the destination is always Galicia, Spain, where some believe the remains of the apostle James are buried.  Depending on the origin of one’s journey, the pilgrimage can take weeks to months. 

Tommy arrives in France and decides to have his son’s body cremated for the return trip.  He begins looking through his son’s backpack at the things he’d chosen to take with him on his journey of discovery.  It’s perhaps the first time in a long time that Tommy had taken a few moments to really study his son. 

And we can’t help but think about how we’re spending the days of our own short lives. 

Tommy decides to honor his son by taking him on the journey anyway.  He throws the backpack over his shoulders, the box of ashes tucked safely inside, and he sets out to make the 500-mile trek in his son’s stead. 

Tommy reluctantly picks up a few friends along the way, each of whom has their own reasons for traveling The Way.  But their reasons seem rather selfish and superficial compared to the heavy burden that Tommy carries. 

The others approach their goals half-heartedly, but Tommy remains steadfast in his mission to do this last loving act for his son. 

As they all reached their destination together, it occurred to me that the only one who successfully accomplished what he set out to do was the one who, in love, set out to do something for someone else. 

It was too late to reconcile with his son, but through choosing this unselfish and loving act he gains much more—a heart of forgiveness, humility, love, and peace.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."  John 13:34

Jesus made this statement to the apostles the evening He had washed their feet.  He didn’t just say He loved them, He became their servant.  That is what God says love really is and this is the way we’re to live our lives. 

It’s love that gives us the strength to do the hard thing--the ability to lay aside our pride and our own lives in order to finish what God’s called us to do. 

We are all on a journey called life, and loving others is what makes life worth living. The specific ways we’re called to sacrifice throughout our lives may sometimes go against all common sense.  Sometimes we may just not feel like it, just like Tommy didn’t feel like going on the trip with his son.  But God says that by choosing to live a life of sacrifice we’ll gain a lot more that we ever gave up.

As I watched the movie I couldn’t help but also make comparison to Christ and the road He walked in our steads, too.  Like the story, while we were dead in our sins, Christ embarked on a journey for us, a journey we couldn’t take ourselves.  He journeyed to the cross and laid down His life for us to purchase our souls from hell. 

It was His love for His Father and for us that kept Him steadfast on the road to an agonizing death.  But to Him, the reward of giving us eternal life made the journey worth it.

Question4U: What is one thing you can do to live your life more unselfishly?

Blessings and Love,

Dorci

A Whole Week Off, Prayer Requests and a Call to Prayer

Vacation {woot!}

At noon today I officially began a week of vacation.  Ten days, to be precise.  Ten days of book-slash-blog-writing, movie-watching, book-reading, cookie-making and just plain ol' hanging around doing nothing.  Maybe I can catch a nap or two.  God is good to bless us with a breather just when we need it. 

So what are your weekend plans?  Whatever they are, I hope you're blessed! 

Prayer Requests

Please leave a comment or email me with your prayer requests and I will be happy to pray for you.

*   *   * 

A Call to Prayer

This U.S. budget crisis looms over our heads as I write this.  I don't claim to be politically savvy, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know we're in a heap o' trouble right now if Congress can't come to a united conclusion here in the next few days. 

As we have pushed God out of our schools, government and lives slowly but surely over the last few decades, God has respected our wishes and left us alone.  And now our world seems to be crumbling down around us.  Long-established businesses are closing, jobs are being lost, mortgages are being foreclosed on at an alarming rate with the threat of property values plummeting further, and now our government may not be able to pay its own bills. 

We need God in every aspect of our lives more than ever.  I hope you'll join me in prayer over the next few days for our country, for our government, for our President and for all those who are making critical decisions about the way this country will be run financially. 

I pray that pride and reputations and politics will be set aside and a new posture of humble submission to the Lord will be adopted, both individually and collectively.  I pray that the men and women in Washington will come together, refocusing their attention as united citizens of this country instead of trying to win the game.  Right now no one's winning, and we're all losing.  All because people don't want God in their lives.

I pray that President Obama will set aside all pretense, all reputation, all politics in order to rise up and lead our Congressmen and women and our country to the One, True God in repentance for going our own way and seek His wisdom.

Jesus said that He is "THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me." {John 14:6}

Our country has been great, and we can be great again, if we will turn to God through the only way of salvation--His Son, Jesus Christ. I shudder to think what will happen if we continue to push God further and further away.  We must pray or watch our country continue to collapse. 

"For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD." {1 Cor. 1:22-31}

We are of the called, by the will of God, to pray and to proclaim Jesus Christ. Let us set aside the ungodly things of this world--things that put distance between ourselves and the Lord--in order to get down to the business of calling on God, first, to ask for forgiveness for ourselves, and then that He will bring about a revival in the Name of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray that the enemy of God will be bound, that the hearts of men and women will be changed and turn toward Him for salvation and that our land and its people will be healed.  God holds the power to do great and might things and the prayers of the righteous--His children in Christ--can unleash that power and God's will for our country. 

God bless you!
Dorci

 

God of the Mountains

I was watching The Waltons a while back (yes, with John Boy, Mary Ellen and the rest), and in this episode John Boy was all grown up and going to college. The clothes he wore, the car he drove and his slight southern mountain twang always threatened to give him away as a country bumpkin in a sea of rich, college boys.

The annual horse race that was held on Walton’s Mountain was coming up, and since John Boy’s family was too poor to afford a horse, John Boy decided to enter with his faithful, hard-working mule, Blue. One of John Boy’s rich, college buddies--who was forever playfully rubbing his wealth in John Boy’s nose--caught wind of this contest and decided to compete with his prize-winning race horse.

John Boy seemed fairly confident at first, but as the weeks went by and the contest neared, his friend’s boasting began getting into his head and the thought of racing against a purebred stallion had him a little worried.

The day of the big race came and people from all corners of Walton’s Mountain came to cheer on their favorites. John Boy sat on ol’ Blue, and the rich, college buddy strutted up to the starting area with his beautiful, quick, pedigreed horse, clearly standing a number of hands taller than Blue.

The rules were given to the riders. They were to ride to a certain spot, round a marked tree, and head back. How the riders and their mounts got there and back was up to them.

The race was on. College Boy and his thoroughbred were off, racing straight for the turnaround tree along with most of the other riders and their horses. John Boy and Blue knew the shortcuts. They veered off the main route, making up for Blue’s lack of speed with John Boy’s wisdom of knowing the terrain like his own bedroom, and Blue’s strength and sure-footedness that comes from being bred a mule.

They climbed up and down the steepest slopes, ran through creeks that might spook any other horse, climbed up out of the forested mountainside and onto to the homestretch path just ahead of all the other riders, including College Boy, and won the race.

Just as John Boy and ol’ Blue had a wisdom and strength that College Boy and his fast horse knew nothing about, so God’s children have been granted a godly wisdom and strength that is far richer than anything found on any college campus or in a bank account that is bulging at the seams.

Now, in case you think I’m saying that an education is unimportant or even wrong, I’m not. An education is great when you can get it, but its wisdom will never replace the wisdom of God. It is not a degree that grants us entrance into the kingdom of heaven, gives us eternal wisdom, never-ending strength or a peace that surpasses all understanding as we face our own uphill battles. It is only as we rely on the Lord that He will fill us with power, strength and peace to victoriously endure those mountainous terrains of suffering.

It is God, the Creator of the Universe, Who is able to sustain us and mature us in Christ, not just in spite of our suffering but because of it. It is the obstacles that are placed in our lives, coupled with the leading of the Holy Spirit that brings us a spiritual maturity that the world will never know. Unlike the world’s, His wisdom and resources are infinite and so is His love toward us.

So fall on the Almighty God, El Shaddai, which, ironically, is also translated as “God of the mountains.” He will more than take care of us and we, in turn, are blessed to have our lives used to glorify the Eternal God.

“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-32)

"Therefore, as it is written: 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'"  (1 Cor. 1:31)

Let God Be Magnified

This is not the post I was going to write for today.  But I'm too angry to write that one.  I'm too upset and saddened by news I just got about someone in my extended family.  I won't say what it is, but suffice it to say satan is having a heyday right now. 

I hate the enemy. 

With a passion I hate him.  He takes anything that God wants to give us for our good and enjoyment and pleasure and he twists it and makes it ugly and painful.  He takes rainbows--given to us by God as a sign of hope and His enduring, holy love--and distorts it into something that is used to symbolize an unholy, irreverent sexual act. 

he takes marriage--ordained by God as a union between one man and one woman--and deteriorates it into meaning little else than hooking up for a while and then leaving when it gets boring. 

he takes relationship that God has given to each of us through His Son, Jesus Christ, and turns it into nothing more than a religion of self-pride.  And then he takes those religions down deeper, darker avenues of God-distorting, Christ-lowering, self-elevating, heart-crushing, lying, mindless, evil organizations. 

And people swallow the lies hook, line and sinker. 

And the aftermath is never-ending.  The pain goes on, the disappointment continues, and true love goes unfulfilled.  And it's not just the story of my loved one I'm talking about.  I keep hearing about others who are faced with their own enemy-warping joy-stealing stories.  And all in the week of Christmas.  What a coincidence.  Not. 

This is Christmas week and I will lift my God high.  I will magnify the Name of Jesus above all names.  I will ascribe to Him the glory and honor that is due His Name and more, if there ever could be more. 

He is my Abba, my Father, my Counselor, my Comforter, my Truth.  He is my Hope, my Future, my Love, my Teacher, my All in All. 

He is the blessed King of kings, Lord of lords and God of gods.  He is Elohim, Jehovah-Jireh and Jehovah-Rophe.  He is Jehovah-Nissi and Jehovah-Shalom.  He is the great Shepherd, the eternal Judge and He will have the last word. 

He is El Shaddai. 

He is the Alpha and the Omega and His Word will stand forever.  He is the Rock of solid ground. 

He is beautiful and His love is perfection.  He does no wrong and tells no lies.  He keeps every promise.  Every soul who asks He will receive.

His Name is Emmanual--God with us.  He stepped down from His high and lofty throne where He was worshipped and controlled the universe to show us just how much He loves us. 

I think no one has said it better than S. M. Lockridge.  I hope you join me in worshipping the one and only true God as you listen to Pastor Lockridge extol the great and mighty Name of our God.






You can read the Names of God here. 


With all love and sincerety and hope for all God's blessings,
Dorci

Friday Funnies - A Lego Lesson {Jonah 1:4-17}

{Jonah 1:1-3}


And the saga continues....

Friday Funnies - A Lego Lesson {Jonah 1:1-3}

All credit goes to Lego moviemaker extraordinaire, Riley Taylor.  Way to use your talents for the Lord, Riley!  

Friday Funnies - Me Community Church

Sprint's cashing in on the whole pervading "it's all about me" attitude. Just a couple of weeks ago, I found a Sprint cell phone brochure, obviously geared toward very young adults. On the front it had a young 20-something guy, smiling and having the time of his life with his new Sprint phone. At the bottom it read: It's finally all about you. Oh brother.

Have a great weekend. And put away that Sprint cell phone at church on Sunday!

Do You Want Peace Now or Later?

In early 1999, I was a stay-at-home mom of two boys, ages 7 and 9. We had been living in our first house for about 7 years and God was blessing us with a new house that was in the process of being built. My husband had been an employee at his company for about 7 years, and there were rumors of layoffs. I told him that if he was laid off that he’d better call me before coming home to ease the harsh news. Within a day or two, I received a call from him.

He came home, started looking for a new job, and I started praying. Almost from the start the Lord gave me an incredible peace about the entire situation. We had no savings, I had no job and we had two children and a mortgage – the only peace that was possible to have was from the Lord.

God was good to give me the following verses to hold onto:

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest-when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end-then you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.

And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” (Deuteronomy 8:7-18)

We had already put money down on this brand new house, but there was so much in the air at this point with my husband being out of a job that there was no way in the physical realm to know if we would lose the house or not. But when God spoke these words into my heart, I knew that He was giving us the new house.

And that wasn’t even the end of the layoffs. My husband was hired and laid off about 4 more times in that same year before the house was ever completed. But I kept reading these words of Moses and knowing that they were meant for us, too. And the part that always stood out to me was this: “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God..”

The Lord reminded me over and over that yes, I am going to give you a land that is better than you could have ever imagined, but do not ever think that you have built this yourselves, it is a gift from Me. Remember to always be thankful for it.

And indeed, my husband secured a job that was better than we would have ever imagined having just before the house was finished being built. And the Lord moved us into a house with things we had not had in our previous house: some space, two bathrooms, carpeting in all the rooms, a garage for all the junk we were blessed with, and a beautiful, sparkly, new dishwasher. Yes! I was no longer the dishwasher! Well, at least I had help.

Compared to where we had been living, we really did feel like God had moved us into the land of olive oil and honey. We even have valleys and hills, and the Lord provided us with our own “fountain and spring” in our backyard in the form of a pool with a waterfall. Amazing and miraculous.

The Lord had given us what we needed in our previous house and we were careful to live wisely on the one income we had, no credit cards, and we tithed faithfully. And now He was blessing us with more. It was nothing of ourselves, but purely the goodness of the Lord.

There are many right now who have been laid off, or their incomes have been cut drastically, and they’re wondering what the future holds. I will tell you what the future holds. The future holds Jesus.

At the first sign of trouble, do you turn to Him or do you try to figure things out on your own? There is much peace that we forfeit by waiting to use God as our last resort. He should be the first place we go when we don't know what to do, and even when we think we do.

If you lack peace today, look to the One who holds everything in His hands. Go to Him for direction and then, when He tells you to, move in complete trust.

Be faithful with what He has given you and remember that it is He who has given it. And when He blesses you, take care lest you become prideful and think that your own hands have made it.

Praise His Name and remember Him. Seek Him in the day of trouble and in the day of plenty. Honor Him in all you do and He will take care of you.

The Long and Winding Road - Part 3

(Part 1 and Part 2)

I think I started serving the Lord the same month I was saved and I’d been serving in one capacity or another ever since. But in about June of 2008, the Lord apparently knew it was time for some pruning.

The year before had been especially difficult. I had taken on even more ministry responsibilities, I was working part time, my son had started homeschooling (with a internet program that had the difficulty of an advanced college course and the confusion, at times, that left me and even the teachers scratching our heads as we tried to figure out the program), a number of interpersonal relationships had become strained, and by that time I had been suffering with daily headaches for just over two years. By the summer of 2008, I was stressed beyond belief and exhausted, physically and mentally, and spiritually I was hanging on by a thread.

So after earnestly praying for God’s will, He told me to take a break. Not only did I desperately need the rest, but the Lord told me that it would be a year of healing. So I reluctantly stepped down from all my ministry duties, we found a much better homeschool program for our son, and I set about seeking the Lord.

And after a while, I began to hear the voice of the Lord again. He spoke to me at first through song, specifically and unexpectantly, through Third Day’s cd, Revelation. We had picked up a copy after we’d gone to a concert and as I listened to it, the words began to melt into my heart like a balm from heaven.

Some of the songs are sung from the perspective of the Lord toward his children and some from a child to a loving Father. And as I listened, the lyrics seemed to echo the aching of my heart.

Let Me Love You

Ever since the world around you shattered
You’ve been looking everywhere for something more
Sometimes you feel like your life doesn’t matter
But it does
I tell you it does

Call My Name
It’s been so long since
You felt like you were loved
So what went wrong
But do you know
There’s a place where you belong
Here in My arms

Revelation
My life has led me down the road that’s so uncertain
And now, I am left alone and I am broken
Trying to find my way
Trying to find the faith that’s gone
This time,
I know that you are holding all the answers
I’m tired of losing hope and taking chances,
On roads that never seem,
To be the ones that bring me home
Give me a revelation,
Show me what to do
Cause I’ve been trying to find my way,
I haven’t got a clue

Run To You
If I run to you
Will you hold me in your arms
forevermore

And I started to realize that God was not only wanting to heal my heart from the pain of the last few years, but of the grief that an entire weary life had left me with. I listened to the words over and over and through them the Lord began to draw me to Himself and to soften my hardened heart.

What I hadn’t realized was that I was still angry about my past – my whole wretched, distorted, disjointed, ugly, lonely past. And I was resentful that God had allowed it, all of it. I was angry at God.

But God knew that and He didn’t turn me away, He didn’t disown me, He didn’t stop loving me, He didn’t even get angry with me. His love and compassion and grace and mercy were poured out onto me as He sought to restore me and our relationship and make me into the daughter He created me to be.

I had wrestled with God for far too long. Oh, there had been times before when I had prayed that God would deliver me from living in my past, from asking a million times “why,” and He had. But like a recurring nightmare, the past always kept creeping back into my present.

And so I began to take my eyes off my physical health and put them back onto my spiritual health, and I began to earnestly pray again.

“The opportunity arose when Moses killed an Egyptian for beating a slave (Ex. 2:11-12). Realizing the crime had been witnessed, he fled to the desert to escape Pharaoh's wrath. It was there that he came to the end of himself.”

The Lord used this excerpt from a Charles Stanley email devotion to remind me that, just like He did for Moses, God had used all the pain in my life to bring me to the end of myself. I had been in a desert of sorts and it was time to give up. It was time to not just let go of the past, but to die to myself altogether.

It was time to die to my feelings of having a right to a certain kind of life, even if others around me were experiencing that kind of life. It was time to die to my expectations, to my dreams, to everything I had wanted to live and to be, not because those things were bad, but because God wanted something better.

Moses’ life as the son of the Pharaoh of Egypt may have seemed like a good deal. And maybe he spent a large portion of the next 40 years after being run out of Egypt resenting God for removing him from that position and putting him in the desert instead. But God had a plan for Moses’ life, and living as Pharaoh’s son was paltry compared to what God had in mind.

And I now had a sense of direction, and I prayed for the better way – God’s way. I asked my Father to help me die to myself and to live for righteousness. And as I did, the Lord put these verses on my heart:

“Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:20-21 NIV)

I had served the Lord, but now I would truly know the Lord. Like Peter had admitted at the breakfast after the resurrection, I had loved the Lord in the sense of friendship, (and lately, not even that) but God was calling me to love Him with an agape love – a sacrificial love that was more intimate than I had ever known or imagined.

To be continued...

A Daughter's Sacrifice

Please take from me my life

When I don't have the strength

To give it away to you, Jesus.....

Things That Make You Go Hmmm...

A truth God recently poured into my guarded heart:


God's light shines brighter through a transparent soul.


Hmmmm........

Roots

I was thinking the other day, praying really, about the roots of bitterness. I have always thought that the roots of bitterness were the very beginnings of unforgiveness. But as I was praying the other day, a thought occurred to me. What causes the unforgiveness? Unforgiveness may be weed seed from which the stalk of bitterness grows, but what burrows that weed deep into the soil is pride.

We all have people to forgive at one time or another. That’s no sin. But what allows that unforgiveness to hang around too long and to eventually take root is pride. Pride keeps us from forgiving. Pride is the root of all bitterness. It is the character weakness that precedes the unforgiveness that allows it to linger in our lives like a stinkweed.

Pride is an ugly, haughty, vengeful belief in one’s own superiority that spreads its tentacles and grabs a hold of our hearts and doesn’t let go without a fight. Pride convinces us that that person is not deserving of our forgiveness. That we should hold onto our unforgiveness like some prize after a fight. But what pride forgets is that we don’t deserve forgiveness, either.

But God, (those precious words that interrupt someone’s existence to give them life) showed us true humility when He sent His only Son to be the bridge between us and Him; but Jesus was born a poor child and died a sinner’s death to grant us forgiveness; but the Holy Spirit allows Himself to be contained within us to ever so patiently and gently teach us and shape us, and pull out roots….

“Follow peace with all, and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord; looking diligently lest any fail of the grace of God, or lest any root of bitterness springing up disturb you, and by it many are defiled.” (Hebrews 12:14-15)