Many Changes, Worries, Transitions In Daily Routines, Yet Rooted In Christ

Suddenly life is happening very quickly. This past month has brought on a lot of changes and new opportunities. A new home, the to-do list of unpacking and settling in, a new job, kids who are now a year older, a looming birthday for myself (yikes 34), a few exciting opportunities, and more responsibilities. All of these things are exciting and worth being quite happy about. Yet, so much change so quickly has a way of stressing me out, making me anxious, and challenging me.

Now, I certainly know that all of these is the normal stuff of life. Such things are not unique to just me and my experience. Everyday life in its own right has a way of being chaotic. When our plates get full we can easily get overwhelmed. Normal life can leave us feeling perplexed as if we are a tumbleweed without any roots.  It's easy to lose track of who we are.

People move all the time.  From one continent to another, or from one state to the next. We simply moved across town.  So what gives when I feel homesick? I think it has a lot to do with leaving good and bad memories behind. I wholeheartedly LOVE our new place, but there is still the gap of not having created many memories in this home yet while the past seems so far out of reach. Also, there are the new routines that come with a new home. Certainly these routines are good, but establishing them takes discipline. Discipline and planning the management of a household is hard work, and not everything always happens the way I'd like. The kids knew their routines before, but it seems much of that has to be retaught because the laundry hamper and toy boxes are in a different location. Establishing new routines challenges my patience... and perhaps my sanity.

It's the same with the kids having birthday's and getting older. All the memories seem so very far away.  My kids grew up so much in the past five years at our old house.  The move draws a lot of attention to this, along with the celebration of three birthdays. I miss the toddler days, the sweet baby smell and soft coo's and silly giggles at their daddy. This is amplified as I still continue to grieve the two that passed away before they were born. Yes, even years later, these things stick with you. Memories that seem so long ago or that never were. The thoughts of what should have been, linger in my mind. I certainly adore watching the kid grow through each stage, I just wish the other stages didn't seem to vanish so quickly.  What if I forget how they were as little kids?

What If????

Changes in life, even when they are good lead me to ponder the "what if" question a lot. Even positive changes can leave one feeling insecure or fearing that somehow everything is going to turn bad. A new job as exciting as it is can bring on a good share of worry too. What if my new boss is difficult? Will I fit in with my co-workers? Will I miss big moments in the life of my kids now? Is my marriage strong enough?  How am I going to spend all of this new income? I quickly can get carried away thinking I should control it all on my own.

Life changes have a way of turn our eyes back to ourselves. We easily can become prideful, greedy, conceded, puffed-up or the stress of it all can cause us to crumble into our anxiety. The devil wants nothing more than to use the circumstances of our life to tempt us and cause us to doubt who we are in Christ.

As much as life changes one thing never does. Christ and His Word. His promises remain the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. When I worry, sin and doubt, Christ takes me up and finds me, calling me through His Word and Sacrament. There in the Divine Service I receive forgiveness, righteousness, salvation and strength. When all the changes wear me down, Christ says come to me and I will give you rest. Our Good Shepherd doesn't send us out to be lost in the pasture of life.  He comes with us.  All our needs He well provides us.

When the tumbleweeds and thorns of a fallen world seek to drag us out of the fertile soil, God's Word reminds us to be still and know that even as life changes we are still redeemed and rooted in Christ. As my family and I gather for devotions and prayer we find rest and stability through the working of the Holy Spirit in this restful routine. We are also reminded that the stuff of life, home, family, love, joy, memories are gracious gifts of our Heavenly Father. As a family, we remember who's we are, children of God in our baptism. We, therefore, are rooted to bear the crosses of life, all life's changes and transitions in peace with each other within our vocations as we live and serve together.

Sweet Friend, Cling To Christ Not Your Dream

It's not a secret, I have a distaste of false spiritual statements that are cheesy, puffed up, legalistic, or self-centered.  I've written about the tumultuous path of false spirituality here and here.   Honestly, most of the stuff produced by women who write and market themselves other women via the mainstream postmodern Christian culture falls into this category of false spirituality. Or a spirituality of glory.  I am not trying to engage in any particular personal attack on any of these women, that's simply not the goal.  My case is against the false teaching that these devotionals and social media posts promote.  Typically many of these things deal with our feelings, personal experience, Christian living, and individual purpose.

Here is a prime example of the kind of material, that sends shivers up my back, and not in a good way.  This was posted a few weeks back by popular author Lysa Terkeurst.

"Sweet friend, I don't know where you are as you read these words. I don't know the circumstances of your life. I don't know the dream God has given you. Maybe you don't either… yet.

But I do know you're reading this post for a reason… to be reminded that God has a plan for you. A dream you can't even imagine, an assignment you can't figure out and wouldn't even dare to consider as being for you.

I pray that you will find great hope in these words today that God really can use any woman who surrenders her inadequacies and circumstances to Him. ‪#‎WalkinFaith‬" 

You may be wondering why this sort of thing bothers me.  Perhaps, you think I am a bit of a curmudgeon and I should learn to lighten up a bit, after all, the advice helps so many, and it makes people feel good.  But what is the hope that is uttered in these few short sentences?  Where is the spiritual center?  At the end of the day, the focus of these words is founded on a dream, and not a very concrete one at that. Sure all of this jibber jabber may be just the therapeutic Facebook post you thought you needed at the end of a long day.  Yet in reality it's lofty, vague, elusive, and abstract. This sort of material confuses Law, Gospel, and the blessing of vocation, by encouraging us to get closer to God and His blessing by what we can produce from within ourselves.  God's will is so much deeper than just achieving our earthly dreams.  I know our Old Adam, our sinful, nature wants to do whatever possible to clamor up to God, to find signs from within that indicate a hidden knowledge of what God's will is.  But the thing about our dreams is that often times they are quickly fleeting and lead us only to want the ideal (fake) green grass on the other side of the fence.  Simply put, statements like this do not genuinely offer the relevancy the modern Christan woman claims to crave, these statements do not offer the truth about the kingdom of God.

We need more. 

We need more than fancy strings of words that only point us back to ourselves.  

We need more than the hopes and dreams of our flesh.  

We need more than the devil's temptation that we can somehow know and hear the will of God deep within ourselves or a self-appointed spiritual guru.  

The path to God and what he wills for our lives is not found through our surrender.  We can never surrender enough.  Christ is our surrender. Our dreams and our imagination can not bring us to God, The path to God is the cross.  We are brought to God through Christ who sought us through His sinless life, death and resurrection.  Jesus says of Himself "I am the truth the life and the way".  Jesus breaks into our lives from outside of ourselves.  He finds us in our inadequacies, brokenness, and dark circumstances. The blood and water that poured from His side is our healing balm.  Salvation from sin, death and the devil is God's will for us.  His will is done, finished on the cross through Christ.  Christ Himself declares it.  This surrender of Christ makes us whole, gives us life and frees us to love and serve our neighbor.  In this new life, there is no dream too small, task too mundane or purpose to trivial.  We are free to be daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, co-workers, friends.  By faith, we know that God uses our hands to care for others, pray for others, and deliver Christ to others. 

Sweet friend, I call you my friend in Christ our Savior.  We may share the life of motherhood together, or our circumstances may be completely different.  We struggle beneath the cross of Christ together, we may have achieved much or our dreams may have been shattered.  Yet, in our brokenness, the light of Christ breaks through.  His loss is our gain.  His Word is our life.  His truth is our truth.  We are yoked together through Christ's surrender so that we may be called redeemed, the apple of His eye, a servant to others, an heir to eternal life. 

Raising Kids Who Are Simul

It's a precious bundle of joy, a bubbling silly head, a soccer star, honor student, music prodigy, princess, or superhero... they are our children.  It is so easy to get caught up in the personalities of our kids.  Parents wish so much for their kids to shine, to make a mark, or to rise to the top. We become rather disillusioned with the fact that they can't be and won't be perfect.  We just want to build them up so that their dreams (ours too) can come true.  If we tell them they are awesome enough, with enough willpower, they will be able to make their way to success and happiness...right??  We just have to believe in our kids and their futures.

Wrong!

Really, all of this won't bring them into a successful pain-free life. Cultivating your child into an affirmation guided, narcissistic, praise needing, overachiever, isn't what we are tasked by God to do as parents.   The culture of child rearing has parents jumping to stroke our kid's ego, feeding the frenzy of a self-made identity.  Now, I am not saying that we should not show affection or encourage our children, building them up in truth and love.  Certainly we should nurture them, equip them, encourage, and train them.  However, we live in a culture of child raising that is rather naive about the struggles of life.  In fact, child-rearing these days is downright self-centered. This habit leaves our kids with a selfish attitude and a deep uncertainty about their identity.

But.. but..

They're special, everyone's special...

Huh...is that real life?

Honestly, it's rather shallow to think that most the precious thing our child can be is one of a kind.  Sure, all people are unique creations of God.  But there is so much more to being a child of God than simply being a special person with special dreams.

What Is Their Identity?

Ultimately we can not find our identity in the "awesome" things that we do, neither will our kiddos.  Yes, we have talents, God-given ones. However, it's pride that seeks to find God's ultimate purpose for ourselves or our kids through these talents.  Talents that are given to us to love and serve our neighbor by, and in this way they are a wonderful blessing, but not our idol.

Real life is that we screw things up all the time.  We can make up excuses to avoid the accusations of the law, but we can not hide, nor can our kids. Yes, kids feel this internal struggle.  As parents given charge of child rearing we bear the burden of this with them.  So then how can we help them?  How can we help kids to know who they are as believers?  The church's teaching that we are at the same time sinners and saints (not one or the other depending on the moment, but simultaneously) is very helpful.   Here is where the theology of the cross becomes practical for daily life for our relationship with our kids.

Monkey See Monkey Do

My kid is a sinner, so is yours, but then so are we.  Parents and their offspring are in the same boat.  Totally depraved,  incapable of making ourselves righteous.  Sure, we can do things that look good to other people.  But before God we can not stand. Children mimic our sins. Yeah, the funny thing about sins is that they are often generational. Some of what my parents struggle with, I do too.  Sin is like an infection.
Worse yet, we often times act like our sins aren't that big of a deal, because we're the adult. The mentality becomes "do what I say not what I do".  Our kids have inherited their sinful nature from us.  Many of the obnoxious behaviors we've seen them act out they've watched us do or heard us say 1,000 times over.

This is a hard pill to swallow, I know.

Life is an everyday struggle.  Kids are well aware of the tension sin causes.  Often they know when they fall short.  Kids feel guilt, the devil threatens them with the law's condemnation.  Kids also deal with the fallen world the way we do. They struggle with the bad stuff that happens each day. Things out of their control affect the way they handle life. Weaknesses of life take their toll.  As parents we know kids will act out when they are hungry, tired, sick, stressed, insecure, going through puberty or struggling with temptation.  The whys and questions swirl around their heads.  It's easy for kids to doubt.

Kids need to know you know this about them.

Our children need to know we relate to them on the deepest level.
Our Heavenly Father knows our needs.  Jesus experienced the pains of life in the flesh, family problems, rejection, loneliness.  He knew temptation and strife.  He took it on for us. He responds in mercy. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8)  

Turn To Christ 

The lament of Saint Paul is also the cry of our children. "The bad I do not want to do, I keep doing and the good I want to do I can't do."  
Many times when mom says "make good choices" the child sighs within "ugh!"
When my son was 3 and learning to clear his plate from the table he struggled with the task and cried "I'm not a good jobber".  I can't do it is often our cry when it comes to following the commands of God.  We want to be pleasing, but we can't, and we despair.  Our kids go through all of this too.

Christ has come to us in our need.

He knows that human works are like filthy rags.  Jesus is there as the Good Shepherd, Great Physician, and Teacher for our kids. Using these titles for our Lord can help kids understand His care for them.

Jesus takes our sins and filth to the cross and dies for them.  He washes us clean.  In the waters of baptism, the sinner (Old Adam) is drowned.  And even when that guy pokes his head above water kicking and screaming the Holy Spirit pushes him back under with the proclamation of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  "We were buried therefore with him into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Rom. 6;4) 

In Christ, our Heavenly Father sees us as righteous and holy.  This makes our children saints in the eyes of God.  His beloved children, which He has entrusted to our care. I don't think a parent can remind their child of this promise enough!

Remember Your Baptism

The practice of reconciliation, confessing our sins and forgiving each other, is truly comforting.  It is absolutely difficult. It's hard to admit to our kids that we sometimes lose it as parents?  But they need us to model this for them.  Show them what forgiveness is by forgiving when another sins against you.  Husband and wife should make this a visible part of their marriage, just so that their kids can see.  Allow your kid to remind you of God's love for you and others in the waters of baptism.

Ask you child to forgive you. Encourage this practice between their siblings also. Being comfortable with this practice will serve them well in adulthood.

When kids sin, do not withhold discipline, but more importantly show them Christ. Respond with empathy to the tears. Our kids need us to train them up.  They need us to remind them of who's they are.  Baptismal remembrance is a comfort for the entire family.  baptism bestows us with our true identity.

When a child goes astray the parent is comforted by the external promises of baptism, and can therefore bring that comfort to a contrite and repenting child, teen, or even an adult child.  

This promise is practical in all points of life, from the kid who colored on the wall, to the teen who is hurt by a fight with their peers, or the student who failed a test. The knowledge that we are saints and dear children in the eyes of the Lord is a sweet sweet balm giving us and our kids endurance though the struggle.

The Busy Family Needs Both Law And Gospel

Life is busy.  Disciplining our kids, is a lot of law.  Many times in the hectic routines of the day we find ourselves repeating "no, don't do that... do this." If I had a nickle for every time I've said "just stop it" or "time for a time out".  Sometimes the consequences are natural, but many times we get to be the "bad guy" who lays down the punishment. It's important for kids to learn that there are consequences to sin. They need to know that when they sin it hurts others and themselves.  People are wired to learn and grow though the consequences of our actions.

Discipline involves both law and Gospel.

Even on days when the kids are well behaved and life seems rather smooth, families need both law and Gospel.  In bigger issues, it may actually be easier to turn to the Gospel in the midst of the hardship.  Many times the big things will lead us to seek care from our Pastor. Good!  That's what he's there for.  However, it's relatively easy to forget in the smaller conflicts.  We don't always have time to stop and reflect on a situation.

Take time at the end of the day to pray together. Confess together.  Luther's Evening Prayer is simple, yet makes a point to ask for forgiveness.  Talk to your kids about what their struggles are. Talk about what is going well.  Help kids to remember Christ's promises by memorizing and meditating on God's Word.  Take care to choose a devotional that is rightly divided, it's easy to find legalistic stuff, but harder to find resources that actually point to Christ.  Discuss ways the child can work on avoiding the sin, when appropriate. For example, if a child is struggling with respect, practice respectful responses with them. Remind kids that we don't just sin freely, but when we do we need not fear.  

Point kids to Christ's return when we will live in perfect holiness, the burdens of life will be gone, for eternity.  Pray, "Thy Kingdom Come".

Go To Church As A Family

Teach kids what it means to go to the Divine Service .  Teach them that the gifts of Christ given in worship are for them also.  God's heavenly kingdom crashes into the chaos of the earthly kingdom as He gathers us around His gifts.  Our kids have a place in the service, right along side of us.  Invite young kids to fold their hands, teach them the sign of the cross. Help them learn the basic elements of the service, the words of confession, The Kyrie, Lord's Prayer, The Creed, hymns, Sanctus, and so on.  Remind them that when Pastor stands up and says "your sins are forgiven" those are Christ's words for them.  As kids get older talk about the sermon together.

Teaching about the Lords Supper is something that should be continual also.  The true body and blood of Christ is located in, with and under the bread and wine for us.  As sinners we revive this gift by grace.  As saints it strengthens and preserves us in righteousness and holiness.

Going to church as a family equips us for live together through the week.

Sanctification Is Good News Too

Often times the "fruit of the Spirit" is taught as law.  Things kids (and ourselves) should muster up from within.  Sure we can try.  However, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control are GIFTS! They are gifts that come freely to us, our kids, and all of God's Children through Word and Sacrament.  We don't always see the fruit, we don't have to go on a hunt, but we can trust in the promise that the Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of our kids to give them these things. We can pray together that we may have these things among our family. 

The redemption of Christ, justification by grace through faith,  the promise of the Holy Spirit as our Helper who enlightens to life in Christ, and the hope of our Lord's return, encourages our children as saints and comfort them as sinners.  This brings a peace that passes all understanding and a harmony into the lives we have with our kids and as families. 

The Lutheran Culture Of Worship: An Insightful Quote

I have for some time now been reading Heaven On Earth The Gifts of Christ in The Divine Service by Arthur Just.  I find the study of why we worship the way we worship to be exciting and insightful.  A favorite Latin phrase is lex orandi, lex crendi, the law of worship founds the law of believing.  One of the most glorious aspects of the Lutheran theology of worship is that Scripture shapes the culture and practice of worship.  Scripture supplies the context for why we do what we do, leading us as we gather around Christ present for us in simple means each week.  God freely pours out Christ for us in worship. Worship gives us forgiveness, assurance of Salvation, and life! 

Worship feeds us, sustains, preserves, and is always equipping us to serve in our vocations as children of the Light, delivering Christ to our neighbor.  Lutheran worship impacts the ins and outs of our daily lives in that it shapes the way we live as Christians.   In the Divine Service we are given the reason for the hope that is in us, so that as we take up our crosses our hope and faith is firmly set on Christ's return.  This brings us significant comfort in all seasons of daily life. 

"Lutheran worship is it's own culture, distinct from both the pop culture of secular society and the worship that characterizes most evangelical denominations in our country  today. The Lutheran Church must develop and maintain its own cultural language that reflects the values and structures of Scripture, not of the current culture. And this language can be shaped only by a biblical theology that affirms Christ's work of making right what has gone wrong in declaring us righteous and offering this righteousness to us through His bodily presence in our worship in Word and Sacrament. Our belief that Jesus Christ is present in worship binds our Church together as a community, confessing one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all.  This community is the Body of Christ, the Church.  One day, the liturgical problems will no longer exist for the Church, for we will worship the Lamb in His Kingdom that has no end.  For now, however, we must constantly remember that we have now the one God who is sacramentally present among us as Savior and who continually invites us to the ongoing feast. "  

- Arthur A. Just Jr.  

Heaven On Earth The Gifts of Christ in the Divine Service  Pg. 29

Lost In Translation?? When the Gospel Gets Lost In Human Doctrines

From antiquity, the message of  God's Gospel promise has been effectively passed down from person to person, generation to generation orally.  Yet in recent postmodern times many people cringe at the idea of the church speaking and confessing with scripture as its rule and norm.  The song of the church in the liturgy has become offensive and traded in for "relevant" bubblegum pop songs.  The Creed and the rest of the chief parts of the faith as confessed in Luther's Small Catechism continue to collect dust. Our postmodern culture asserts that truth can not be absolute.  Contemporary words don't necessarily need to carry much meaning as long as experiences can cultivate and gratify a sense of individualistic wisdom.  Unfortunately, these ideas have infiltrated the church and caused many to be ashamed pure doctrine and a faithful confession.  Ultimately this leads to being ashamed of the Gospel.

For example, what are we to make of comments like this?

"How often do we get so caught up in our own church-speak that 

the Gospel gets lost in translation?" 

"Just talk Jesus not doctrine"

Huh? What?  

I've heard these coined new phrases a lot lately.  Yes, I get that often times those who make such comments have good intentions.  They just want to get the Good News out there.  But we want to be sure we're getting the right Good News out there, yes?  Absolutely! We believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6) we want others to know.

Cliches and platitudes like those above seem to assert that we should disconnect what we confess and teach with doctrine and theology when talking about the faith with those outside of the Body of Christ.  Or when passing down the faith to young and new believers. Such phrases insist that we should contextualize what we believe to make it more palatable or understandable as we witness.  Now we should not depend on abstract academic, philosophical dogmatic rhetoric.  Most of the time that approach is pretty overwhelming to the listener.  Yet, we should not throw in the towel so quickly when speaking the language of the faith as the church has always done.  

The doctrine of man vs. God's doctrine

Let's stop and consider the many doctrines of man.  All world religions have doctrine and teachings.  All societies seek knowledge and understanding of humanity in relation to God.  If you talk to a Buddist they will speak to you in terms of their doctrine.  It shapes their worldview.  Even an atheist holds to some kind of doctrine, that God does not exist.  When speaking to the world about God they will have their own doctrine and dogmatic rhetoric. They will not shy away from it. People have the general intelligence to understand words of doctrine.  It's insulting to those we want to reach to assume they can't understand.  It's a denial of the work of the Holy Spirit if we think the faithful teaching should be watered down.  God's word is efficacious.  God's Word does what it says and will not come back void.  Why should we shy away from the doctrine we confess to be true?

If we toss aside our doctrine (teaching) and theology (words about God) what are we left with?  Our logic, human reason and philosophies. The doctrine of man.  See, it's all about which doctrine becomes the expression of our faith.  Do we use the doctrine God gives us, the language of the faith, revealed to us in His Word.  Do we remain steadfast in our heritage? Or are we going to express ourselves through our man imagined doctrines, buzz words or fluffy platitudes?

What happens to the faith in the midst of human doctrine? 

When we choose to water down our "church-speak" are we not basically "tossing out the baby with the bath water"?  What are we left with?  What god are we talking about?

Often times we arrive at  a general god.  A "Bruce Almighty god".  A Hollywood god defined by the culture.  This is a god who basically just asks for a little obedience here and little more there, a few well-spun prayers and you can earn a "blessing".  The more you dedicate and work to appease this god the more "best life" you have, right?
Or, this god is capable of miracles like "parting tomato soup" but when it comes to parting the Red Sea, we are better to explain that with science.

We might make use of a historical apologetic to prove His existence.
Now, this argument may have some value but it does not get to the why of Jesus.  In this context we get prideful, the tendency is to leave Jesus defeating sin, death, and the devil on the back burner.  The teaching begins to should like this:  As long as we can follow His example we are good.  My buddy Jesus is a much more friendly manifestation anyhow.
His touch can be easily felt through personal experience, nature, mysticism, churchy entertainment.  That light show was cool, that guy in the skinny jeans is so hip, yeah man... We just have to keep up with the Jesus's Jones's trying to be God.

Human doctrines push us to look for signs.  Sure we can "part tomato soup too" yeah it's a little messy but we can get the job done.  All we have to do is huff and puff a little harder with each challenge.  After all this god doesn't dish out more than we can handle in life right?

In this context the evangelist many times comes off as a "holy than thou" arrogant jerk to the ears of the listener.  The message they carry is: "get your life together, look how good I'm doing, you're just not doing it right, god can't help those who won't help themselves. Rededicate, just give your heart to Jesus.  That sin isn't really a sin, but that one is.... be more pure, be less wordily, take up a new 40 day plan, you have to show God how good you are, he loves you, you can do it, just pray harder!"

Huh... that pride quickly turns to despair when the path becomes rocky.
The way, the truth and the life has not been passed on, faith fizzles, hope is lost in this cultural translation.  This postmodern context of no absolute truth is an artificial light that is still darkness at the crossroads of a moralistic, mystic, legalistic journey.

The Kingdom of God is confessed though pure doctrine

The 2nd and commandment demands of us to honor the Lords name when we speak of Him. God can not me molded to the whims of human doctrine.  It is our duty to fear and love God so that we honor the Word and teaching He has revealed to us, as we gladly hear, learn and share it.  When we mold God into the doctrines of man we despise the very revelation He has freely bestowed to us.

Pure Biblical doctrine starves the lies of the-the devil and feeds us with the truth.  We have to rely on a confessional expression of doctrine, to express The Holy Trinity.
An almighty Father who creates and sustains. A Savior incarnate, Word mad flesh, who dies and rises from the dead, sits at the right hand of God, and promises to come again.  And a Holy Spirit who creates faith within us.  Forgiveness, grace, mercy, hope, eternal life are all free gifts from this ONE TRUE GOD.  When speaking to the world we can only truly comfort with the language of faith.  We cling to a clear foundation rooted in scripture. Law and Gospel rightly divided.  Doctrine prepares us to give a reason for the hope that is in us. It guards us against being tossed about by idolatry and the false gospels of the world.  All other human reasoning and doctrines are sinking sand.

How can they know if the have not heard?

A Tale of Two Spiritualities

Empowering words, so innocent and well meaning.  Charging me to reach out take the journey onward. Just step forward... pray.  The music plays and the lights dim.  God has a great purpose for my life.  He loves me.  Jesus just wants to be my king. God wants me to have His blessings.
I just need to...

Become what God wants you to be. Hear his voice.  Be his.
The words sound good, they are pleasing and inspiring.  Imagine what will be.
I'm on a journey.  I'm captivated.
Filled with the spirit (whatever that means... maybe one day I'll get it)

I'm on a faith walk. I can do all things...
Living the dream, an inward change... pledging that this is true through outward works of faith.
Can I measure up?  Are these works of my hands acceptable?

Life is good right now.  Easy breezy. I am blessed.
I feel so much more alive.
I sing out... I want to be set on fire.
Here I am. Send me.

The crowds are exhilarating... overwhelming...
I'm lost in them sometimes.
Am I known? Cared for?
I commit and recommit, filling out the card, the time and talent survey.
I clamor to the altar again then again.

I'm unique.  There is good in me.
All I have to do is proclaim it.  I only have to give up the bad and seek the good.
Be pleasing like Him, follow the example.  Be a Jesus freak.  Stand out.

God is my all in all.  I can reach Him.
The feelings of elation fill my soul.  I want to give Him my best.
Win others, shout it out, build the kingdom. Obedience brings me closer.

I journey onward.
It's harder.  I keep my chin up.
I can't keep up with the footprints in the sand. Is He carrying me?

I am looking for for the next new spiritual movement.
I need experience, relevancy, more pragmatic words to fill me up.
I journey from trend to trend.  Jesus take the wheel...please!
Think positively, try harder, serve, seek.

I open my Bible... what does it mean to me? How does it speak to my life?
If only I could feel His presence...
Pray harder they say... It's only a minor sore in my soul.
Let go and let God. Unite with His creation.
He loves you.  You just need to love Him back.

It's only a flesh wound. Deny the suffering.
They say that when I look back at the storm I will see the beautiful picture God is making.

Where is God?
Try harder. Find the cutting edge.

Perhaps the conversion didn't take?
The infection is beginning to ooze.

Be still and listen... I can't hear.

I'm not listening...

I am dust in the wilderness...

From dust I came from dust I shall return.
From death to life His Word brings me.

Out of the deep He calls.  "Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest."
The Word of life. My sins covered by the blood of the Lamb.
Daily washed in baptism.

Grace, mercy, peace...SALVATION... come freely from outside of me.
No longer do I have to muster up the feelings and works from inside myself.

I am brought to the foot of the cross.  I see my healing hanging there. For me.
For me he lived and died, rose and ascended.
What I can not do He did.
Fulfilling the law.  Fulfilling all things.
It is finished. The victory is won.


For me, the nails were pieced though His hands and feet.
Smitten, stricken and afflicted.
What a love, so unfathomable.

God made man,  Emmanuel... God with us... for me.
The Word made flesh. My savior and redeemer.
There is my healing.  There I see. There is my refuge and strength.

I am nothing.  I am His.
He has called me His own though water and Word.
He gives me faith to trust Him.
To love him.

Jesus is my advocate with the Father.
He brings back the lost.
He yokes me to himself and bears the weight of my burdens.

He gathers me though His Holy Spirit to receive His free gifts.
Words of forgiveness, comfort, promise, wine and bread. His body and blood strengthen, fortify, and preserve me in the one true faith.

When suffering comes, He is there, suffering with me.
He weeps at brokenness and death.
He prays for me.  The Sprint groans for me.
His Word comforts me.
Jesus is the light in the darkness.

I am grafted to Christ my Savior.
He is the vine, I am the branches.
His Word produces good fruit, love, gentleness, patience, kindness.
I am free to serve my neighbor.  His Word guides and teaches me.
To God be the glory.

God is faithful and just, I confess my sin, and the pastor proclaims forgiveness.
I am renewed again and again.
Fully justified and sanctified.
From death to life.
My heart rejoices in God my Savior.

My eyes have seen my salvation.
By His resurrection, comes the hope of my resurrection.
He promises life eternal.
A new heaven and a new earth.
There will be no crying there.

I depart in peace.
In heavenly rest I come into the arms of my redeemer.