A book review of Lent-The Season of Repentance and Renewal by Esau McCaulley; Fullness of Time Series from InterVarsity Press I grew up in a non-liturgical church. We did have … Continue reading For those who want more than the seasonal department at Walmart to inform their holidays
I came across a quote the other day about writing down the ways you’ve witnessed God’s faithfulness. When they’re actually happening, don’t wait. Write it down. The idea is that … Continue reading Let this be a witness: There are still faithful men and women leading local churches
“There’s no preacher here today,” my dad whispered in my ear as I sat in the second row pew of my childhood church. When I visit my dad I always … Continue reading Church without the fourth wall
I cried buckets today.
My pastor (no one famous- IYKYK) Jason Vance, and his wife, my friend Karey, and their kids, who I love so much, were commissioned and sent to pastor a church in Oklahoma.
I’ve re-written this post three times trying to say how good it is to find a church with people like the Vance’s who will give their lives and the gospel to the people in their community.
In 2016, after a few years of church searching, I found Valley Life Church Surprise at a high school gymnasium near my home.
Within weeks of attending Valley Life a crisis hit my family. At the church’s newcomers desert in the Vance family living room with the pastor, Jason Vance, and the staff of Valley Life at that time, I found myself pouring out my concern for my family and sons and wanting a stable church.
Jason and the staff encouraged me with the hope of the gospel and prayed with me for my family.
I had finally found a church I could call home.
In the seven years since, I’ve grown in Christ because of Grace Point Church and the Vance family. I have learned to lead under the leadership and friendship of Jason and Karey Vance. My sons both professed their faith in Christ and were baptized under the leadership and friendship of Jason and Karey Vance. God has worked mightily through their family to serve and love me and my family well. And I am going to miss them terribly!
There are folks who have suffered hurt at the hands of pastors and churches. But under the leadership of Jason Vance, Rob Weiser, Tyler Tooley and the leaders on staff at Grace Point, I have experienced nothing but good.
I love the Church and I know in part it’s because the Vances have welcomed me, wept with me, discipled and worshipped with me.
Godspeed, Vance family! I love you. May God surround you with his goodness and kindness and keep you close to Jesus.
Good Friday, in all its horror is just as miraculous as Sunday and all its wonder.
I believe in the incarnate God. Immanuel. God with us.
Jesus is God bent low to save man. The cosmic breaking of all decorum angels and demons expect of the Creator of the Universe, in Christ Jesus.
So humbled. So low. So despised. So rejected. So tortured. So emptied. So willing to reverse the curse on his children and his world in the giving of his own body.
It’s an absolute miracle! No god does this! Humans don’t do this!
If Jesus was not God in flesh then he was just a victim of abused power at best. If he was not God in the flesh he didn’t die for me. He didn’t bridge the gap between me and God. He didn’t show me God.
But he is the God Man. And so I look at his humiliation and see the most miraculous, beautiful God no person or angel could ever imagine. A self-sacrificing God. God, who is miraculous love.
“Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided his clothes and cast lots. The people stood watching, and even the leaders were scoffing: “He saved others; let him save himself if this is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One!” and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” An inscription was above him: This Is the King of the Jews. Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other answered, rebuking him: “Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.””
Luke 23:34-35, 37-42 CSB
Sunday I sat with other kids ministry leaders at my church to plan and pray for our kids and families. One of the concerns we have is the way we teach kids.
This generation is born into the world of the cloud. They learn via visual images on screens that change quickly to keep their attention. This is what our kids are used to. This is the air they breathe. But I think it’s important that we do not trade in matter for the cloud when it comes to how we teach our kids.
I think there’s something spiritual that pushes back against the zeitgeist of AI, virtual reality, and screens when things you can touch are upheld as good and necessary.
Our kids need to touch books, open pages, hold their tiny fingers under the lines of scripture in paper bibles. They need to sit with us on the floor and sing together and dance and clap. They don’t need flashy attention-getting images on a screen. They need dirt in their hands. Leaves under their toes. Arms that are safe to hold good boundaries and love them well.
They need matter.
The Christian’s faith in God in the flesh, bodily risen from the dead is a tangible hope and solid ground for a generation confused and lost in screens.
God made the earth and all that is in it. And he said it’s good.
I fear our children and grandchild are facing an age that believes matter doesn’t matter.
They need the body Christ to have hands and feet and books and gardens and songs and stories told face to face. They need the security of the good creation of God.
I have an aversion to clean slates and starting over. Those things have their appeal and their place as well, but as a practice or rhythm for life they don’t … Continue reading A declaration: I will lament and love
“The riffraff among them had a strong craving for other food.” Numbers 11:4 I decided to remove the social media apps from my phone for the Lenten season this year. … Continue reading I am the riffraff
I went for a walk yesterday and paid attention to the birds. The fairy-like flutter and zoom of six hummingbirds captivated me. I noticed the stately and intimidating silhouette of … Continue reading A spiritual blessing in the trees
Since it’s a new year I thought I would do a sort of a re-introduction to this blog and the why behind it.
A central theme written over my life and tied to everything I write is faithfulness.
About 14 years ago I started blogging. Almost everything I write, whether on my blog, in a poem or essay is born out of nearly 30 years of marriage and 20 years of raising sons. And in those relationships especially, the pursuit of faithfulness and faithful love reigns.
I’m on a quest in life, in my marriage, my parenting, my writing, my work to see the faithfulness of God and learn to live faithfully as well. A persistent question never leaves me, “If I’m really a Christian, if Christ is really risen, if he really dwells in me, then can I learn to love like Jesus?”
Learning to love is tied closely to what it means to be faithful as a Christian. Throughout scripture, God describes his faithfulness in terms of faithful love. A simple search of the phrase, “faithful love,” in the Blue Letter Bible shows how often God is described by his faithfulness and faithful love. Jesus said loving God and neighbor are the greatest of God’s commands and the evergreen tree from which all his law and prophets hang like pine cones.
So what is faithful love? What does God’s faithfulness look like? And What does it mean for me to cultivate faithfulness? It would require much more than a short blog post to answer those questions. Exploring the answers to these questions is what I aim to do on this blog. It’s what I aim to do with my life.
As a point of reference, I looked up the words cultivate and faithfulness in the Webster’s dictionary the other day.
Cultivate means to prepare, to loosen or break up soil; to foster the growth of; to improve by labor; to further or encourage.
Faithfulness is being steadfast in affection, allegiance, firm in adherence to promises or observance of duty; given with strong assurance, true to the facts, to a standard, to an original.
But it’s the message of Psalm 37 that has illuminated my desire to practice faithfulness and faithful love more than any modern definition.
Trust in the Lord and do good; Live in the land and cultivate faithfulness. –Psalm 37:3 NASB
In Psalm 37, David explores the tension and feelings of anger and discouragement sure to rise up while living with people who don’t seek to love God and others. And what is the solution David lands on for how God’s people are to live in such stressful circumstances? Trust God. Do good. And cultivate faithfulness.
And this is God’s instruction to me.
In this marriage, God has not called me to save my marriage, prevent a divorce at all costs, make my husband happy, or employ any formula to get the kind of marriage I want. In my parenting, God has not called me to save my children, prevent them from wandering away from the faith, keep them happy, or make them the people I want them to be. He has called me to trust him and do good. To live in this Arizona suburb with this man, these sons, these neighbors, this church, this government, this job, etc., and prepare the soil of my life to grow the fruit of the Spirit. And to do so steadfastly.
This means not only am I to live out what Eugene Peterson called a long obedience in the same direction, but because of my prone-to-wander state, I must determine to live out a long repentance in the same direction.
God has planted his faithfulness in my life. He has given me the seed of his word. He’s called me to spend my life letting him teach me, and help me, to love him and my neighbors, right here under this roof, and down the street.
I do not claim to have the answers. I have in the past, and probably will still foolishly stumble into blogging, writing and speaking as though I do. If I have any answer it’s a mysterious and real relationship with the Jesus of the Bible. So, as Mary Oliver said in her poem Mysteries, Yes:
Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.
I pray this blog would be a place where I can say, “Look” and we can laugh together in astonishment and worship in response to God’s faithful love and the miracle of his work to produce this love in us.
With the Lord’s help I plan to spend my days growing in the faithful love of God; turning the fallow ground of my life, and learning to produce faithful love the way I was created to. Will you join me?
Sheila Dougal 