Beyond Ourselves

Beyond Our Selves by Catherine Marshall



This is my 2nd time through this book. I read it about 10 yrs ago and find it as refreshing again today. Catherine Marshall is such an in-depth and willing "sharer" of her life and her emotions. Her book/movie A Man Called Peter is riveting.
An additional thought from the book: Catherine recounts a memory of her mother who meets a boy named Raymond. Raymond has a heart desire to attend college but he has two problems; one he is a foster child and two, his foster parents are against that idea. Catherine’s Mother is a visionary or dreamer. She tells him that you never have a dream that you cannot share with God and that He loves to hear and answer His children to fulfill that dream. God did answer that little boy’s prayer and he went on to give God the praise and God answered it beyond his wildest imaginations! He became one of the world's most authoritative voices on Atomic Energy. God not only has a sense of humor but He sees the desires of our hearts and if we pray in His will, He will answer not just answer but in mighty ways. Stay alert to hear the "inner voice" and be obedient as God is listening and He wants to answer those prayers.

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God's Underground Creation

How often do we stop to see God’s visual reminders of His grace, mercy through His creation? On a recent journey to Chattanooga, TN this author was given a glimpse of God’s amazing Creative Designs and rejoiced in His handprints of Stalactites, Stalagmites, Columns, Drapery formations, Flowstone, and Helictites. It truly is a geologist’s dream come true but for a believer in Christ it is a visual representation of the Savior who is Creator, Savior and Illuminator of all. This marvelous picture is found in Ruby Falls which is only accessible by one little elevator which drops you off 360 ft underground. From there you must walk for an hour up and down through a massive underground cave along a narrow winding walkway descending foot by foot until you are 1000 ft underground. Just seeing the different formations as you descend, twist and turn are a visual picture of Rev 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created!” At the end of the walkway you expect to be greeted by this waterfall you have been told about by your tour guide-BUT-instead what greets you is an intense blackness where even your fingers and fingertips are invisible. It was a fitting reminder as I stopped and thought…this is what those miners saw everyday yet as of that one day in history they will no longer will see the rays of sunshine. It was a powerful and moving moment not lost to this author’s meditation. Yet, to this and other believers, the intense darkness was yet another visual reminder of Gen 1:2-3 where we read: darkness is without form, without shape and is impenetrable except to God alone. Then standing quietly in this intense darkness, one is instantly ushered into a time of reflection; listening to soft music which slowly radiates and rises to a thundering crescendo! Waiting in anticipation, your physical heart beats forth with a great amount of exertion, all senses primed for what lies ahead. But for the moment, this intense darkness and the radiating tempo sets the stage for something not having experienced before, and then it happens! Just as the “orchestra” reaches the climax and the light bursts forth startling your eyes and the mind, your senses are set on alert, quickened with the emotions within as you struggle to understand this new phenomena and willing your entire being to be on guard to capture this sight lest it be just a fleeting memory. Stopping on the walkway and viewing the sight before you leads one who walks with Christ to recall a similar scene in which the heavenly Father shouts from heaven , Let there be light! And there was Light”. The excitement in this moment is now, and before you in brilliant light the Creator’s full force is put into motion as the body and mind work in harmony to sense, process, take in, and hold that fleeting picture soon to be left behind. Before you is a sight of a waterfall which descends 145 ft into a pool of water, sustainable by the Hand of God from a destination only known by Him. You stop and breathe a prayer of thanksgiving for the Creator you serve and you recall Jesus’ words: John 7:37 “Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and 7:38 let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.” Ruby Falls is God’s legacy: “I AM--- there is none like ME!”

How will you celebrate Christmas

In just 24 days it will be Christmas once again. How do you celebrate this season? Share your ideas here on my blog.

Gaye

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a grand time and we have so much for which to be thankful.
here's a link to a wonderful page which will give you a marvelous way to ponder the phrase "One Nation Under God"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VUo8OuFaiI

Word of the Week: Gratefulness

WOW (Word of the Week) GRATEFULNESS

Luke 17 & 18 gives us a contrasting picture of gratefulness vs. ungratefulness. A principle is taught by our Lord: Gratefulness is a direct result of humility and is demonstrated in our words and actions, specifically in our worship of the Father of Lights with whom there is no variableness of turning (James).

In Luke 17 & 18 we are given two very sharp contrasts which causes us to see that we quickly forget from whom we are blessed, and we fail to respond with appropriate gratitude.

The 9 lepers quickly “forgot” from whom they had received the healing --note they were from Israel, that is implied, but the 1 leper who was grateful was a Samaritan! He returned and worshiped. The Pharisee failed to see all that he had was a direct result of the Father's blessing and instead of worshiping Him he worshiped himself. The Publican saw who he was and was grateful that God would be merciful to him as a sinner. He was the one who went home justified. The ungrateful rich young ruler failed to see that all his riches were a blessing from God and that they were temporary; he worshiped his riches and not God. Bartimaeus was asked a question by our Lord; it was answered and he worshiped and followed Jesus.

Out of all of these only three worshiped Jesus...the leper, the Publican, and Bartimaeus. Interesting the contrast between them and the Pharisee and the rich young ruler. The leper, the Publican, Bartimaeus had a need and when that need was met they were grateful and worshiped. Neither the Pharisee nor the rich young ruler saw their need and thus they worshiped themselves and their riches. They were neither grateful nor humble.

May we remember this idea this week: Lord , open our eyes to see our need that we may be humble before you, grateful and using all we have been given for the kingdom, which Jesus said is within us.

How do you celebrate Oct 31?

Oct 31…Halloween or Reformation Day? Does it matter? As a believer in Christ perhaps it does. As many years as I had been a believing Christian, the church I attended never mentioned it nor did they honor the man for whom it is remembered. It was not until I was a Reformed Christian Day School teacher that I was awakened to what this day symbolized for me as a Protestant. This was new to me and as the “new kid on the block” so to speak, I had no idea about what was before me. With my teammate, Linda we decided we would combine classes on that day and have a “Reformation Party”. A Reformation Party? I had just come from 12 yrs in a public school where the party idea was centered around Halloween, costumes, candy and spooky music! What an awakening I was about to experience which would forever alter my view of this day. We planned games, readings, food, costumes and a special chapel centered around the key character of Martin Luther. To prepare myself I set off to do some research. Why was this a new idea? Why didn’t my church celebrate this day? What was so special that we should devote an entire day to him? I found that he, as a respected professor, was drawn into a controversy with the Catholic hierarchy about the sale of indulgences (certificates sold by the Roman Catholic Church that promised people release from works of penance for absolved sins, both in life and in purgatory). These indulgences “assured” the peasant population of their entrance into heaven. Luther realized from the study of the scriptures that this was a blasphemy against Christ and a deception on those truly seeking their eternal destination. Because of this Luther drafted a series of 95 statements in Latin explaining this and nailed them to the door of the Wittenburg Church on All Saints Day, Oct 31, 1517. Martin Luther was sure that once the church realized this error they would change their ways and he could have an academic discussion with the church and “reform” their thinking. Instead this document brought Luther into conflict with the Pope and the rest of the Church. In the end Luther was excommunicated from the church. Martin Luther then began preaching and teaching the masses of the truth he had come to learn from Paul in Romans: “the just shall live by faith”, that man is saved not by works but by faith in Jesus Christ alone. It learning about this that gave me another viewpoint of why this is an important day for Protestants and should be so honored.
So as a parent, grandparent or even a school aged child how might this day be celebrated? Here’s some ideas I found cruising through the web: http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/SpecialDays/Reformation/ReformersWordSearch.pdf Have a Reformation Day Faire:
http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/SpecialDays/Reformation/activities.html#anchor58776
Sing “A Mighty Fortress is our God” written by Martin Luther: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/m/i/g/mightyfo.htm
Print out this picture for little ones to color as you explain this day: http://www.teacherhelp.org/images/Martin%20Luther.pdf
Excellent ideas for teaching about this special day; activities, books etc.
http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/SpecialDays/Reformation/#anchor22952

What a testimony to your neighbors if you welcome each trick or treater dressed as Martin Luther! Post your “95 theses” as an additional welcome: Rom 1:17 “The just shall live by faith.”

An Appointed Time

Word of the Week: Time
Appointments! We live our lives here on earth by our day timers and our appointment books. We know we have to be at work at a certain time, we have to pick up Susie or Johnnie from school at a certain time. And we even have to be in our pew at a certain time on Sunday a.m. Did you ever think that Jesus too had an appointment calendar? Listen to what the Apostle John recorded about Jesus “My time has not yet arrived” Jn 7:6; “My time has not yet come” Jn 7:8; “no man laid a hand on Him, because His time had not come” 7:30. But at the appropriate time Jesus’ Calendar book turned the page to the right date and the right time: Jesus replied, "The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Jn 12:23. I often pondered why God chose that time and not a time earlier? Why not in the time of Noah or Abraham or David? Why the 1st century? What made that time the “right” time? Theologians and Scholars say this prophecy and that prophecy had to be fulfilled. But, God is God, couldn’t he have expedited those prophecies to be fulfilled earlier? I don’t have the answer except what Isaiah wrote long ago and I trust God in His sovereignty to have brought about it in His perfect time: Isa 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The word “time” is especially relevant to me this day. It was on Oct 23, 2008 that my precious Mother’s appointment book came to the last page and the last verse. At approximately 9 a.m. Jesus sent His angels to close her earthly book and begin her new book in the heavens with Him. It was her appointed time just as the author of Ecclesiastes reminds us: For everything there is an appointed time, and an appropriate time for every activity on earth Eccl 3:1.


So what does all of this mean to us today about our appointments and our daytimers? We all have an appointed time as Hebrews reminds us: 9:27 And just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment.. The question is are you ready for your appointment? If God should send His angels to close your earthly daytimer will you say as Jesus said “The time has come…”