#reality

SHARE YOUR WORLD FROM JUNE 17, 2024

/ joseph elon lillie / 5 Comments

THIS POST IS WRITTEN IN RESPONSE TO THIS WEEK’S SHARE YOUR WORLD CHALLENGE. CHECK IT OUT!

HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS AND MY ANSWERS:

 If you are feeling below par and a bit down, how do you lift your spirits?

I try to take extra time to pray when my spirit is challenged and weighed down. Time spent with God always helps me.

Do you believe that laughter is the best medicine?

Yes. That is even Scriptural. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Proverbs 17:22

What makes you smile?

My family makes me smile. Seeing progress at the work on The Vicarage also makes me smile. The church coming together to fulfill God’s mission also makes me smile. Oh! and the ocean…the ocean makes me smile. Summer…Summer also makes me smile…..

Do you have a ‘comfort’ food.

Cheesecake is my comfort food. Pizza is my comfort food….Macaroni and cheese, yes macaroni and cheese is my comfort food. Unless there is ice cream, then ice cream is my comfort food…..Oh wait….Fried chicken. I feel like my answers are taking on a format.

I HOPE YOUR WEEK HAS BEEN BLESSED. MINE SURELY HAS BEEN.

TIME SPENT WITH FAMILY
TIME SPENT WITH FAMILY
TIME SPENT WITH FAMILY
A WEEKEND OF CELEBRATIONS

What’s New At the Vicarage This Week June 19, 2024

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

We are heading into peak blooming season here at the Vicarage.



The day lilies are beginning to open
The Lupine is going by, but still looks and smells beautiful
The Daisy garden is in full bloom
The tomatoes have started to flower and my herb garden has sprouted. I have cilantro, dill, parsley, chamomile, and thyme. I also have apple mint spearmint Greek and Italian oregano and lemon balm.

Of course, the Vicarage is a forest garden, a very old forest garden and as I walk about it this yearI am learning more about those who originally planted this small but very wild space.

The property is filled with liguster sometimes called Japansk. I’ve always called it honeysuckle because it smells so sweet, but it is actually a fragrant tree imported from Asia.
We also have Walters Dogwood growing wild all over the property. It is a native of Korea.

At some point, somebody had a lot of Asian plants put onto the property. I am thankful because these plants add a wonderful fragrance to the garden.

We are also getting ready to add chickens to the Vicarage. my daughter-in-law is just putting on the final coats of sealant to the coop

I have yet to clear space for the coop. We have decided that a stand of sumac is going to be taken down to make space for our new residents.

What’s happening in your world?

PREPARE YOUR LOVE PT. 2

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

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

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

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!