Random quotes from "The Shack"

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

"Whose choices should we countermand, Mackenzie? Perhaps I should never have created? Perhaps Adam should have been stopped before he chose independence? What about your choice to have another daughter? Or your father's choice to beat his son? You demand your independence and then complain that I love you enough to give it to you."

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"Through Jesus' death and resurrection, I am now fully reconciled to the world...The whole world, Mack...Reconciliation is a two way street and I have done my part, totally, completely, finally. It is not the nature of love to force a relationship but it is the nature of love to open the way."

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I especially love the final line of this one:

(Jesus speaking) "Those who love me com from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims, Democrats, Republicans and many who don't vote or are not a part of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. I have follwers who were murderers and many who were self-righteous. I have no desire to make Christians, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sisters, into my Beloved."

"Does that mean," asked Mack, "that all roads will lead to you?"

"Not at all", smiled Jesus...."Most roads don't lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you."

Read this!

One of the best books I have ever read. Blew through it in 3 days. Hard to put down! I wouldn't do it justice to try and explain it...So I'll just recommend it...It has already impacted my relationship with my Heavenly Daddy-O as well as other people.

You can see more info here: www.theshackbook.com

Enjoy!

Funny...But not...

After school last week Katie and I were cleaning up the room and waiting with 3 students for their buses to be called. Colten said something about "they said a bad word"...Katie, who was paying most of her attention to her task at hand said, "who said a bad word?"

Colten answered "You know, in that song".

"Oh - what did they say?" Katie asked, thinking he was refering to one of our school songs which occasionally have lyrics like "dumb old lummuck".

"Crazy B*tch" Colten answered plainly.

I was sweeping the floor and had to turn away to try not to laugh.

"You're right - those are not nice words" Katie said, downplaying it so the other 2 kids in the room wouldn't catch on that those are REALLY bad words. Fortunately they didn't seem to notice. Katie and I recovered and all was well.

Later we talked about the humor factor of the moment but also wondered why people think that it's OK to play songs with lyrics like that around children as if they won't understand them. Colten is 5 years old and he's as smart as a whip. He knows what he is hearing. I just hope he always remembers those are bad words and doesn't repeat them. Of course this is also the same kid who hurt himself on the monkey bar dome and said "ouch - I cracked my nuts". He wasn't trying to be funny (although it was at the moment due to the unexpected nature of it!) I think that's just the way they talk in his home. Nice.

Family Reunion

While not under the most joyful of circumstances it was good to see my family in South Carolina this weekend. I love my family. They are a close-knit and fun bunch of folks. It amazes me the way God can take what the enemy meant to breed fear, ugliness and anger into an opportunity for people to love on one another. There is big stuff in this spiritual war we're in, but sometimes I think the simple things do just as much, if not more damage to the gates of hell than an evening of deliverance ministry or an Easter Sunday alter call. The love that was in that house was tangible. There were moments of helplessness of course - like the night Aunt Helen's meds left her kind of out of her head....of sadness at the possibility that this is Aunt Helen's last family reunion here on Earth...But there was also a lot of hope because this is an entire house full of people who believe that God is bigger than anything. Above all that, it was simply the sense of abiding love. And that's the whole point anyway. LOVE WINS. PERIOD. as we like to say at church.

That can be hard to remember when you're in the thick of it - preparing a heavy lesson on repentance for a Bible Study, or working up a good sermon about God's dealings with people in Scripture that didn't look very warm and cuddly or when we're face to face with evil. But I have to remember that God's sole purpose in all of it is to make it so that one day we will all walk in unadulterated "agape" with him and one another. And if what we do does not reflect the worth he has given to all of us and doesn't stem from an overflow of the love He pours into us then it isn't from Him...

Lord, help me come from this place always!

Mountain Moving

God is up to something...I don't know what. I just know that he is not allowing me to sit back and let cancer kill my aunt without a fight. I was well prepared to do that. She has said she is ready to go. She is more concerned for the people she'd leave behind. I was ready to accept that. I am completely at peace with where she will be headed when she leaves here. Jesus has prepared a mansion for her beyond belief I am sure!

But when I went to God in scripture the night I first learned about this circumstance and was unsure of how to pray for her, I opened up to the gospels...Any gospel was fine. Where I opened to was John 14:11 which says this:

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

OK, that's one scripture...big deal. Next I had an e-mail from Francis Frangipane ministries. I like Francis, but he speaks in a lot of apocalyptic language which tends to give me a rash so I often skip these e-mails. I decided to read this one as I didn't feel the usual apprehension. This message was about not having a passive spirit - especially in the middle of a war.

The next morning I woke early and was chatting with God about it all and was asking what I should pray for Aunt Helen...How should I word my prayer for her? I got "Mark 11" in my head. So I looked it up. It contains, first of all the story that Lee Jones used in his message that asked "are you willing to let Jesus use your ass?" (IE - use you to do his work). It also includes this:

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered". I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Not to mention that a healing prayer conference I have been trying to attend but that I keep missing will be taking place in June 5 miles from where my Aunt is staying.

??

I don't know what God has in mind...I know what I want it all to mean. But I have learned not to try and figure out what He's thinking. I'm on a 'need-to-know' basis. I just do what my Father is doing. And right now He is asking me not to be passive and to believe I can move mountains in His name.

My Aunt Helen

That's my beautiful Aunt Helen there on the left in the purple shirt...Then me, then my gorgeous, fantastic and wonderful mom, then my awesome and lovely Aunt Ann. I was named after both of my aunts and I am proud to carry their names.









This is my Aunt Helen again, in her very trendy and becoming sun hat. Next to her is my cousin Iris and my other cousin, Greg.



Aunt Helen is full of life and humor and love. She loves Jesus, her family and her friends. I can only hope to be half as cool of an Aunt Helen as she is. My nieces will have to let me know someday how I am doing...

My Aunt Helen is very sick. They say that the cancer is in her lymph nodes and there isn't much they can do. They say she doesn't have a lot of time. I don't think I have ever quite felt the way I feel before. I have never known my life without Aunt Helen. Even though she lived in North Carolina and Florida and we lived here in Ohio, she was always there...You know? And now I have to face the reality that Aunt Helen will eventually go home to be with our Jesus. I know she will love it there. But it won't be quite right in the world down here ever again.

I have been reading alot about miracles. And I have become really stoked to start living out the commission Jesus gave us. I want to heal the sick and set the captives free in His name. I have seen it happen. And I want to see it more. My Aunt Helen is 75. I know that we still live in this halfway world between the resurrection and the second coming of the Lord. And that we all will still die sometime. And that our life spans are pretty set on average somewhere between 75 and 90. So I'm not sure what to pray for Aunt Helen. I just don't want her to go. And I don't want her to go like this.

So...I'll just let the Holy Spirit do the work right now until I know. And I will pray for the cancer to stop in its tracks and do no more harm to this wonderful woman of God...And that I do get to see her again before she makes her journey to the Father.

If anyone wants to join me in prayer I would love the company...I don't feel very powerful right now and I have seen so many people die of cancer despite thousands of prayers and commands and spritual warfare that my mustard seed of faith might be a little shakey in the face of this giant.

Thanks for listening....

Update: 8:34pm

I had prayer with a small group of powerful prayer folks this evening...It was a blessing to be with brothers and sisters who would stand with me for Aunt Helen. We prayed selfish prayers and asked that we get to keep her here with us for a while longer and also prayed again for the cancer to stop where it is and do no more harm. That Aunt Helen's body would be free from it. I'll never be able to answer why some people are healed and some people aren't. That's a God-sized question. But I do know that I can't stop praying for miracles just because they don't always happen. I remember that in Jesus' time, he could do very little healing in his home town because their faith was not only small, it was non-existent.

To let doubt and hopelessness reign is to let the enemy win.

Martina McBride has a song called "Anyway" that has this lyric:

God is great
But sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway.

Because sometimes things do turn out like I think they should.