Younger loved one....

the one named after the Gospel writer (you think you know which one?) is in Mexico on a mission trip. They are building a house without the use of power tools.
It has been unseasonably cool this week, in the 70's. I think that is blessing for these young men who I think may not be used to hard labor in 95 degree heat.

Younger one started attending his current church because his friends were attending and SERVING there. Their congregation meets at a high school so there is set up and tear down each week. He and his friends help with this each week. The majority of his close friends have chosen to attend a Christian college.Your peers influence you.

I'll give you a hint on the Gospel writer with the same name as my son. He went on mission trips :)

Loving Day

"It’s not a “Hallmark” holiday,but June 12 is LOVING DAY. On that day in 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that laws banning marriages between the races were unconstitutional. In 1967 there were still several states that had laws against miscegenation. Relationships between the races were deemed “unnatural,” and marriage - a legal binding contract, illegal. Loving Day has a double meaning because the case (Loving vs. Virginia) that the Supreme Court heard, involved the 1958 marriage between Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jetter, a black woman, in Virginia. The Lovings were arrested in their home and told to leave the state for 25 years or face imprisonment."

The above is from an article my friend wrote for the June 2009 issue of the monthly magazine Positively Naperville, I won't use her name because I do not use my name in blog. She is like me in that our knights in shining armor are white, we fell in love with white guys.

Some have felt, and some still do feel that the Bible supports miscegenation. I believe the Bible clearly states that marriage prohibitions were based on believers marrying non believers. If one married a nonbeliever it could open the door for believers to turn away from God. The Old Testament has a number marriages where the nonbeliever chose to follow the God of the believer so these marriages were fine.

Tomorrow I will toast the Lovings with some sparkling grape juice.

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER

June 3rd was the last day of the school year. I was not looking forward to it as many were. I missed 44 school days so I do not feel that I need time away from school. More importantly, I knew that the end of the school year would mean a change in relationship for two coworkers and me.

These two listened to me, advised me and helped me to keep it real from day one. Seeing them daily was a highlight of my day. One lives in another state and the other's daily life will probably not intersect mine any longer. As I have said in an earlier blog, sometimes people are in our lives only for a season. This season is over. :(

I want to share a couple of continuing thoughts regarding last week's blog. The book Network listed "creative communication" and "craftsmanship" as Spiritual gifts. I had never heard of such before, but reserved judgement when they provided the Bible references to support the idea. The authors state "Talents can be an indicator to your giftedness but do not necessarily equate to your Spiritual Gift.""The affirmation of any Spiritual Gift must be consistent with glorifying God and edifying others." This brings to mind the constant dialogue particularly in the Black community can one\should one be a Gospel singer and one who sings secular music for pay.

Again I welcome your thoughts.

GIFT AND \OR TALENT, HOW DOES ONE USE IT?

Ten years ago, I took a class to help me discern my Spiritual Gifts. The guide book we used was Network by Bruce Bugbee, Don Cousins and Bill Hybels. Using the book’s methods of self discovery and after prayerful consideration by my husband, friends, and myself, we determined my Gift. I will not share what that Gift was because in this season of my life, I’m not feeling it. I have changed in many ways in the past ten years. Among other life changing experiences, I have become more aware of and involved in drama ministry.

Network lists Creative Communication as a Spiritual Gift. “The gift of Creative Communication is the divine enablement to communicate God’s truth through a variety of art forms.”

“People with this gift:
Use the arts to communicate God’s truth
Develop and use artistic skills such as drama, writing, art, music, etc
Use variety and creativity to captivate people and cause them to consider Christ’s message
Challenge people’s perpective of God through various forms of the arts
Demonstrate fresh ways to express the Lord’s ministry and message”

“While Spiritual Gifts are unique to the believer, talents are common to all. Both are God-given…… The affirmation of any Spiritual Gift must be consistent with glorifying God and edifying others.”

The scripture references given for Creative Communication are:

Ps 150:3-5 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals. NIV

2 Sam 6:14-15 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets. NIV

Mark 4:2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said NIV

He taught them by telling many stories in the form of parables, such as this one NLT

Mark 4:33 Jesus used many similar stories and illustrations to teach the people as much as they could understand. NLT

It was not until this week that I really thought about the fact that Jesus always taught the crowds using parables, stories and illustrations. Isn’t that what sketches, plays, dramas can be in a worship or church service, stories and illustrations to help people to have a better understanding of Jesus’ message? So here is my question for you: If one feels he has the Spiritual Gift of Creative Communication does that mean he should not use his acting talent to sell Mr. Clean or Saturns or to star in “G” rated sitcoms?

Post your comments or email me and I will post the comment for you without using your name.

Our younger child graduated from high school last night.

It was a beautiful night, not too hot or too cold. The family was there of course including Grandma and the Minister of Youth. The night ended with fireworks (Thursday morning a citizen of town came to school to speak to an administrator to find out if his tax dollars were spent on fireworks for such an occasion. Both high schools in the district conclude the evening with fireworks. He felt in times like these we should be spending our money more wisely.) After the commencement, it took several minutes to find younger beloved, he was hugging friends. When we finally hugged each other I sensed he was crying. That set off the water works for me. I felt like every good thing and every thing not so good that has happened to our family in the last four years was just pressing on me. I wept so that some who witnessed it felt like crying too. I had to sit before I fainted.

God has blessed younger beloved to have the opportunity to attend Wheaton College where the motto is "For Christ and His Kingdom". My baby wants to go to a school where the motto is "For Christ and His Kingdom".

"But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides." Matthew 6:33 Amp

Are we blessed or what?

MOTHERS

Mothers have great responsibility. Because we usually spend more time with our children than their fathers, we often have greater influence in their developing personality. We all have heard the jokes saying when someone has dysfunctional tendencies look at the relationship with the mother.

I love my mother and count it blessing that I still have her. None of my girls from the high school days still have their mothers. Mama has been a believer from a young age and always been active in her church. She has been a member of the same church for 66 years. No church hopping for her! My mother and father taught us the importance of supporting our church through giving and involvement. No one could say my family is a bunch of pew sitters and have that stement be true.

My motherly philosophy was based on my childhood experiences. I think that I turned out OK, so I thought my way would be fine for my sons. :) I take no credit for our sons turning out to be the fine young men that they are. God has chosen to show us favor in that regard. Hubby and I tried to follow Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” NIV

My father’s oldest sister and my uncle, her husband, were like minded. Some of my favorite childhood memories were being with my cousins at church. My cousins called my aunt Mother Dear, M’dear, for short. I always thought it would be great to be called Mother Dear. But do you ask someone to call you that or is that a term of endearment that is earned? Tyler Perry has tarnished the name somewhat for me with his Madea character, but maybe one day my grandchildren will call me M’dear.

Do you agree with me?

I believe true followers of Christ are of the universal church. I do not think there will be a Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Assembly of God etc. sections in heaven. So I was hesitant in renting the movie Doubt because so often in movies people of the Christian faith are bashed. My husband and I watched the movie. We felt that it was well acted and that it was just a story and not the story of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960’s.

I know many people whose church experience has brought them a true quality of life. But, I have friends whose church experience was negative, so negative in fact that they have stopped attending church. The bad thing about church is that it has people with issues and the good thing about church is that has people with issues. The Bible tells us “ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV

When a church, the body of believers, is functioning properly the attendees are
- involved in true corporate worship
- loved
- comforted
- held accountable in a non judgmental way
- growing in their relationship with Jesus and with other believers
- giving freely and cheerfully to advance God’s Kingdom

Here’s something to think about: Would anyone say “I am going to stop driving because there are drunks on the road, reckless drivers, speeders, folks you can’t see well, folks whose reflexes are too slow, and some who just don’t know how to drive”. No, you drive because it has benefits to you that are worth the risk you take when you are on the road with those other people.

Finding a church home may take effort but the potential benefits to you are very much worth it. Do you agree with me?