Christianity
This Day At the Vicarage 8-29-20
I awoke this morning with one of those leg cramps that make you scream yourself awake. You know the kind I mean, the kind where you are mindful enough to know that if you could just get to your feet the pain would stop, the kind which is so painful you cannot move out of the position you have contorted into.
After a minute of deep breathing through the worst of the pain, I swung my feet off the bed. I realized the day was dark and rainy, a reminder from God that I was in my current situation probably because I had let myself get dehydrated yesterday.
I pushed myself off of the bed. I thought back to yesterday and remembered that the Lord had changed up my sermon for Sunday on me. I was working in Psalm 84. Then, in my afternoon devotion the Lord had pushed me into Isaiah 8:11-20. When one sermon supplants another the sensation can be sort of like an emotional earthquake, especially when the supplanting comes on Friday afternoon. My new sermon prep got as far as reading the new verses to my sister after an evening ride around the area. Then I settled into an evening of wrestling internally with what I was to make out of the new passage given me. I went to bed with no more idea of what I was going to preach than when I first got the new verses in the afternoon.
This morning, as I paced about my bedroom trying to get my right calf muscle to release, the brain fog of sleep dissipated and I began to realize God had downloaded all the points of my new sermon while I was sleeping.
HAS ANYTHING LIKE THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?
Well you know I hobbled to my computer, and set the new outline down. I sent it off to my technical director so he could create the powerpoint. Then I heard the Lord say. “I have given you rain. Allow it to pace you. Allow it to slow you down to the place of prayer you need to be ready.”
So I have slowed down. I have hydrated. I have stretched. Most importantly, I have prayed and now I can say.
I am excited to see what tomorrow brings dear friends.
Pastor J
P.A.L. Breath Prayer Session 8-28-20
This Day At the Vicarage 8-27-20
My sister read something on the internet that said there would be two moons tonight, or that Mars would be as big as the moon, or some such nonsense. For just a moment I got really excited. I thought perhaps we would see something no other mortal had experienced for hundreds of years.
I grabbed my phone, as she put on her shoes, and out we went, two amateur astronomers ready to view history.
Sadly there was, as usual, just one moon. We had been hoaxed.
“Hoax” is a word that gets tossed around a lot these days. One would think by the amount of hoaxing being reported that the whole world is under the influence of a powerful hoax or something…..Wait a minute! It seems I’ve read something about that somewhere…… Yes this is it…
Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. 2 Thess 2:5-11
In today’s polarized society I do not think there are many people bringing us news, who are being totally honest about anything. I am taking everything that comes to me with just a little more than a grain of salt.
I have to admit I like to listen to certain storytellers (aka liars) more than others. With me it is more about form than substance. I like my news to sound like a news report, not like an episode of Jerry Springer. And I also like to listen to a new-person who sounds like a news person rather than someone who trained under Steve Erkel.
All this to say, there is precious little in the world I am trusting right now and that even seems to include the Constitutional Republic I grew up in. BUT each day I become more certain than ever that there is ONE I can trust in. The promises of JESUS CHRIST are sure and immovable.
While the powerful delusion seems to be breaking our society apart, while it seems to be causing certain people a great deal of consternation, it is driving me deeper into the ONE I can trust. Further, what is going on in the world is driving me further into a place of peace, a place of abiding in Christ. It turns out, that is where I was supposed to be all along.
If you are finding yourself anxious about what is going on in the world try pulling back a little. Try forgetting about the world and its promises and problems for a moment and just press into Jesus. He is the only one who can save us now. In His presence alone is fullness of joy and only at His right hand are pleasures evermore. I’m sorry….If you thought you could find peace, joy, or pleasure in someone else, you’ve been hoaxed.
OK that wasn’t exactly what I planned to say tonight, but it will have to do for now.
I am looking forward to tomorrow, my Dear Friends!
Pastor J
The Wall Prayer Meeting 8-26-20
GLAD TO BE BACK: P.A.L. BREATH PRAYER SESSION 8-26-20
Cornerstone Kids Church 8-21-20
The Wall Weekly Prayer Meeting 8-19-20: The Prayer Of Strength
And the Reason We Are Really Here…: P.A.L. Breath Prayer Session 8-19-20
This Day At the Vicarage 8-18-20
Since March the world has settled into a new rhythm.
Five and a half months in, I have grown use to the new pace. I do wonder how much of my old routine I will even want back when the pandemic is over.
Tuesdays is staff meeting day. Since our offices at the church are still not officially open, we meet by Zoom. A few staff members, including my daughter, vid in from the church office. I work from home.
So the rhythm for this day is: rise by 6 or 7, walk the dogs, pray, write the morning blogs, exercise, go to the store for mom’s daily supplies (papers, scratchies and cigs), then it is back home and with any time left before staff meeting I study and pray a bit more.
???????????????????????????
In answer to the question you may have asked in the last paragraph, yes Mom smokes. She has for almost 60 years. Stopping at 85 would probably kill her. She has no wish to stop and I really have no wish to fight that battle.
To be honest smoking is one of the few things Mom enjoys now. Dementia has stolen from her the ability to be comfortable away from the house. She gets very nervous even going outside now because it is too confusing.
She likes her living room, her TV (The Hallmark channel almost exclusively), her newspapers with the crosswords, and suduko (which amazingly she can still do), the daily comics, which after she has read, she likes to color…AND she likes her cigarettes.
Her doctor has tried to get her to quit, even using the argument that it will lengthen her life. That argument does not work because Mom has no wish to lengthen her life here, She is beyond ready to move beyond and is, as the saying goes, “Waiting on God”.
I have to say being the child of a parent who is fighting the battle with dementia can be confusing and difficult. As we lose mom…as she loses herself by inches to this disease we are caught between the two ideas of losing her to death or losing her to dementia. Part of me wants to have her stay with us in any condition because I do not want her to go. Another part of me doesn’t want her to suffer the ravages of this horrible disease. Both mindsets come and go, and both of them feel selfish in turn.
one of the reasons I love the pandemic rhythm is it has given all of us here at The Vicarage precious time to be together. To sit together. To watch TV together…. and it has given us time to talk, even if we do answer the same questions over and over, even if some of what is said is just silly.
Tonight after I had finished a remote sustainability seminar put on by a local resource group, I came down to sit with Mom, Brenda and Amanda. We were having a discussion about gall bladders….yes…. gall bladders.
Here is how it went in my daughter’s words
Convo with grandma…
Me: grandma do you still have your gallbladder?
Grandma: nope
Aunt Brenda: when did you lose your gallbladder
Grandma: I didn’t lose it…
Aunt Brenda: what do you…
Grandma: *interrupting aunt Brenda*… it got cut out
Everyone silent for a beat…then busts out laughing.
This new rhythm is perhaps the most massive lifestyle change I have experienced since my divorce. It has been hard and uncomfortable Honestly, though, I never want to go back to normal if I can keep having conversations with Mom about gall bladders.
Well i have blathered on long enough tonight. So I will sign off here saying….
I am looking forward to tomorrow dear friends
Pastor J
