ministry life

Mountains, Threads, New Batteries and Slobberknocker

/ joseph elon lillie / 4 Comments

This has been a good week for staring at mountains.

My sister and I have rented a breakaway cabin in Tennessee. We are deep in the Cumberland Mountains. The remoteness of this place lends itself to what I call the following of the threads. Following the threads is a form of prophetic prayer. It takes time and the sense of wonder and how God is moving in the world around us.

It is finding God and the pathway He would walk with you.

I have spent many hours, staring at the mountains, listening to the Scriptures and wondering at God‘s work in my life. It’s funny how prayer produces situations which reveal the heart of the man of God.

Yesterday I spent the morning following the threads. I was gaining what I thought was a lot of understanding. When the time came for my sister and I to drive down the mountain for lunch at a place called the Pour House. The car battery was dead.

My inner calm was instantly gone. Our host here at the cabins, gave me a jumpstart and the name of a local mechanic. Chris, the manager of Shadden Tire in Centerville, Tennessee, took good care of us. We had a new battery, and were back on the road by 12:30 in the afternoon.w

We went to the Pour House And had an amazing lunch.

We then went grocery shopping to get what we will need for our trip home. And we finished off the day with custard at the Custard Cabin.

The custard of the day was slobber knocker: Vanilla, frozen custard, mixed with Oreos, Butterfingers and frozen Snickers bits.

It turned out to be a really good day, and I learned something about myself. My sense of calm is still tied too much to circumstances rather than to the immovable nature of the Holy Spirit. I need to work on that.

What aspect of inner healing or inner growth, are you working on right now?

The Calm Before the Crazy

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I am in the Cumberland Mountain Range this week. Our scenic cabin is in a place called Eden Ridge.

There isn’t much to do here, except rest, and pray, contemplate and study. At some point, we will have to make our way back down the mountain for a little more grocery shopping and probably stop at the country club attached to this retreat center for a swim in the pool.

Today I have spent several hours in prayer and study. I put together the outlines for all the Royal Ranger devotions and church sermons through the new year.

Tomorrow I will put together the outlines through June.

One of the hours I spent in prayer was at The World Missions Park by the visitors center.

During that hour of prayer, I had a really strong sense that our congregation is about to face some challenges in the near future. Specifically, I feel as though God is going to challenge us to new levels of spiritual health. This will involve us letting go of some unhealthy cycles we have allowed our personal lives and relationships to fall into.

I have the sense that ministry is going to get increasingly complex when I get back.

I am grateful to God for this period of calm before what I think will be a period of crazy.

The Drive’s End!

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In the last two days Brenda and I have driven from PA to TN. We have spent something like 15 hours in the car together.

A rest stop in VA somewhere.

We stayed the night in Nashville with one of Brenda’s friends and mentors Rob Fraser. Here we are going to Five Daughters Bakery.

We visited with the Fraser’s until about 1 PM and then meet our way back up the plateau into the Cumberland Mountains to our cabin at Eden Ridge.Here is the sunset from our cabin deck.

Driving Day 1

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Here are some photos of our drive today.

We left the vicarage just before 8 AM

We were in the Catskills by 11.

By 4:30 PM we were at the Shady maple smorgasbord in New Holland Pennsylvania

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We drove through some back. Roads of Amish country as the sun set. We arrived at our hotel for the evening sometime around 7:45 PM

APPROACHING THE STARTING LINE

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We are coming g up on the beginning of the 2023 road trip for me and my sister.

Photo by Tomu00e1u0161 Malu00edk on Pexels.com

The car has been to the mechanic.

The notes for running the house while I am gone have been written.

The food for the road trip has been bought.

I have been to my bank to make my deposits and to let them know I am on vacation.

I still need to: pack.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com

I still need to set up Mom’s pills for the next two weeks.

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

I still need to give the dogs a bath.

Joe and Kristine have to go to New York tomorrow to meet with someone from The Philippine consulate. So Amanda, Brenda and I are watching Sevy for the day.

I still have one meeting before I am on break.

But I feel ready!

WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR YOU TO GET READY FOR VACATION?

The Multiplicity Of Minds

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Paul the Apostle warned his followers….

“Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.[d] 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. “

As the Vicarage has filled up one of the things that has become clear is how differently the various Lillies all think and practice this thing called life. The differences show up in big and little ways. For instance my son and his wife have taken over washing the dishes. I never considered that the three pockets on the edge of our strainer are for presorting the silverware into spoons, forks and knives. When I do the dishes the silver just falls into whatever pocket I happen to chuck it. Joe and Kristine just seemed to understand that the pockets were there to help with the organization.

MIND BLOWN…

My sister and I are headed out for vacation on Saturday to a Missionary retreat called Eden Ridge.

The kids are taking care of things when I go. My daughter Amanda has the incredible thought processes of a lead administrator. She called the whole Lillie/Franklin team together for a planning session last Monday night so that schedules and duties are all marked out before my departure.

It is so powerful to see this multiplicity of minds working in my family. It is also beginning in the church….AS WE DISCOVER OUR GIFTS WE WILL CHANGE THE WORLD.


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Outreach

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Our church at Cornerstone is organized into what we call DLT groups. Each group has five purposes.

  1. To study the Bible together
  2. To pray together
  3. To break bread together
  4. To build Authentic Transparent Vulnerable relationship together
  5. To use these methods to outreach our community

I have just started a new DLT group. It is composed mostly of octogenarians in the church. We call ourselves “The Saints of Fire and Valor.” Our outreach is to the Senior Center in our town. We are joining in with another group, “The Warriors of Fire”.

Here are some photos from our first outreach as a group.

I WISH I COULD READ THE MINDS BEHIND THESE EXPRESSIONS.

Shake It Off

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My grandson, Sevy, is a climber. He climbs stairs with no gates. He climbs gates blocking stairs. He climbs chairs and stands up on them if unattended. He has knocked more than one chair down on top of himself.

My grandson, Sevy, is a runner. He runs everywhere he goes even when he has nowhere to go.

There is no stopping this young man. I think is part mountain goat!

Anyway. because he is a runner and a climber he is often falling down and banging himself on things.

This morning he was running in the kitchen and fell down.

This is actually Sevy sleeping not falling down, but it serves the purpose of illustration.

He started to cry.

My sister said, “Shake it off!”

He did.

I thought how from the very beginning of life we are trying things and falling down in them and having to learn to “shake it off”.

Shaking it off may be one of the most important lessons we learn in life.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Four Days Goes Fast

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

It has been four days since I last wrote anything here on Notes. Four days goes fast and four days brings a lot of change at The Vicarage.

Four days ago Amanda was just returning from. her time at St. Scholastica.

Four days ago Joe, Kristine and Sevy were in South Carolina visiting with family and friends.

Photo by Paul Kragthorpe on Pexels.com

Four days ago Brenda was getting ready to preach her final message before vacation, was still packing her bags for her trip to the United States and was still getting her house ready for her house sitter.

Today Amanda drove me to the office, as my car is in the shop, Joe has started his new job at Gardner Middle School and Brenda, Sevy and Kristine are at the Vicarage with Gramma. When I left them Sevy was playing trucks in the front room and Mom, Brenda and Kristine were finishing their morning coffees.

From quiet house to full house. Four days goes fast and four days can bring great change.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU IN THE LAST FOUR DAYS?

It Seems Early

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This summer has gone by so fast. It seems like just yesterday I was enjoying the lilacs. Today we are enjoying the late summer and autumn flowers which are in full bloom.

It seems like everything is about two weeks ahead. The blackbirds are flocking in large numbers to my feeders. They are nervous things this year and getting pictures has not been easy.

Photo by Chelsea Mosteller on Pexels.com

But twice a day about 100 grackles and starlings and cowbirds swoop into my feeders eating us out of house and home.

Last year I remember commenting on the fact that there wasn’t any flocking at all in the area. So I certainly won’t complain. But it does seem early to me.

DOES IT SEEM EARLY TO YOU?