reality blog

PREPARE YOUR LOVE PT. 2

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This year our church has been given a congregational sentence that comes through the many prophetic words which have been spoken to us over the last year or so. That sentence says: “Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare you Spirit (come out of the decay of your strongholds). Prepare your Souls(Prepare to practice and feel compassion). Prepare your facility (your structures, infrastructures and plans). Prepare for the storm (Pray for action plan, Pray for a spirit of perseverance). Prepare your witness (know your gifts, earn the right to speak, build your relationships with those outside the church, build your example). Prepare your hope and faith (think hope, speak hope, act in hope). Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open).“

seven prepare statements will be broken down into three brief devotionals a piece to give us 21 devotionals to share over 21 weeks.

TODAY IS DAY 20- Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open.

Photo by Liza Summer on Pexels.com

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48

We are being called to prepare to love those who disagree with us. I will be the first to point out that just because a person disagrees with us on something, that does not necessarily make them our enemy. But in our hyper-tribalized society, we are quickly becoming a people who view it that way. In fact we are raising up a generation that thinks that in order to love someone you must agree with and accept everything they think. That, of course is not the truth. Love is something that flows through agreement or disagreement equally well, because it is not based in our comfort, logic, emotion, or will. It moves through those things but it is based in and flows from the Spirit.

WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO LOVE THROUGH A DISAGREEMENT WITH RIGHT NOW? PRAY FOR THEM? WHAT GROUP DO YOU HAVE THE GREATEST DISAGREEMENT WITH RIGHT NOW? PRAY FOR THEM.

Father’s Day: An Unexpected Journey

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Father’s Day started with big plans.Kristine was up at 5 A.M. cooking the lechon and cilantro lime chicken for our Father’s Day Feast this afternoon. Melanie was to bring the tacos and guacamole. So the day started out peacefully enough as we all got ready for church. BELOW IS THE LINK TO OUR CHURCH SERVICE WHICH WAS ENTITLED “RISE UP.”

We had quite a few visitors and I got to meet them all at the end of the service! Amanda and I stayed to close up the church while Melanie and James and Joe and Kristine went home to get our feast ready. As we were waiting Amanda told me she had been having some chest pain through Children’s Church. That in itself was concerning, but she also had major surgery a few weeks ago and chest pain was one of the symptoms she was told to look out for.

We locked up the church and drove to The Vicarage to get her doctor’s number in Concord. The doctor was quick to call us back and to send us off to the Emergency Room at Emerson Hospital in Concord.

So Amanda and I put the feast aside and went for testing.

It was about an hour and a half before Amanda got in for testing, but once she was off to XRAY I went to The hospital cafeteria for a belated lunch. They didn’t have Mexican food so I opted for some clam chowder, salad and a coffee.

After another hour and a half or so the tests all came back negative so the doctor sent Amanda home with her mystery pain and instructions to take Tylenol, to go to bed and to “come back if things get worse.”

Through this whole time I kept going back to part of our teaching in yesterday’s leadership training.

We were having a discussion about suffering and blessing and how those two things are just two sides of the same coin. Our suffering (trials and difficulties) and our blessings are both tools to bring us deeper into the presence of God if we allow them too. As I was sitting in the cafeteria eating my clam chowder I was thinking how quickly an expected journey of blessing turned over into an unexpected journey of difficulty and I began to remind myself that this unexpected difficulty like the expected blessing is just a tool to be used to bring both Amanda and myself deeper into God’s presence.

As Julian of Norwich said, All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well”. We just have to continue to believe that by faith through the difficulty and through the blessing.

We got home. Amanda took her Tylenol ate a bit of taco meat and gave me her Father’s Day presents a mixed gift bag from The Vermont Country Store. In it were two whoopee pies a jar of orange marmalade and some beautiful bamboo wind chimes which I immediately hung in my outdoor prayer chapel.

Melanie and Joe gave me their gifts too and fed me cilantro lime chicken and cake!!!

It was an unexpected Father’s Day. It started in blessing circled around to difficulty and came back to a blessing just like most good stories in our world today. It was an adventure and I am learning I do really love those.

HERE’D TO THE ADVENTURE OF TOMORROW!

Father’s Day Divine Appointments

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I knew going into this weekend that it was going to be very full. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the opportunity being presented, so I spoke about it with my life- coach on Thursday to strategize about what to say no to and what to say yes to. On Friday I spent time praying that my weekend days would be directed by God and that I would know the difference between Divine Appointments and distractions.

Saturday morning started with me and Paul Hackett teaching our monthly leadership class on gifting.

It was a such a dynamic class I came away feeling full of energy and ready to conquer the rest of the day. I felt like my friend Ray in the picture above.

After class my son and daughter-in-law treated me to coffee and pastry in one of the newly opened coffee shops in town. I think I may be a regular at Sippin’ Serendipity.

Then we were off to the Summer Solstice fair in the center of town. Several of our church members were involved in the fair as vendors.

Paula Lambert and her daughter Crysta Rathier were selling their crafted wares. We had a great discussion about sharing Christ in the work place.

This is Tamie Charbonneau who is part of our on line church community. She is a dispatcher by trade and a wood burner by choice. I bought one of her pictures.

This is Andy and Walter two more of our congregants who worked the fair as part of the Fidelity bank team.

Sevy really loved the sheep at the petting zoo.

And we had lunch at the Solstice from the CAC tent. Miranda Jennings is the director of the CAC project. We are so blessed by all she does for our community. She was recently named a State Heroine.

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE ARTICLE HONORING HER.

I had some really awesome conversations with people at the fair about: church, and church membership, and going to church, and things that get in the way of going to church and ……well it was just a great time.

Then it was off to The Strawberry Festival at our local Catholic Church. Father Henry has sent me an invite, so I went to have strawberry shortcake (delicious) and there I met quite by accident my cousins. I spent two hours just chatting about family stuff.

Cousin Dale and her husband Richie just celebrated 50 years of marriage.

Cousin Todd and his son Bobby were out enjoying the town after a visit to his Dad.

Now it’s time to walk the dogs and set up my bean poles, before I go over my sermon for tomorrow one more time.

WHAT DOES YOUR WEEKEND LOOK LIKE?

The Vicarage At Night

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

One of the projects I’ve started at the vicarage this summer is the creation of a fenced in patio with a prayer gazebo. The fence was finished two weeks ago and my son and I got the tent up this week that is serving as our prayer gazebo.

I have to work on our bug repellent, but the space is shaping up nicely.

Here is the outdoor prayer chapel during the day

And here’s the view at night