BeLOnGings

This blogging’s a bit of a learning curve…..especially for someone as techie illiterate as myself

You may have noticed the three errors… in our last notification. I’d forgotten to adjust the title and date….and realized I’d also spelt Be-LOnGings wrong.

“Oh dear!” I thought.

Then turning I heard that “gentle whisper” at our kitchen sink, through the apostle Paul’s words quoted on our Oswald Chambers calendar reading for the day…“I delight in my weaknesses” These words from his second letter to the Corinthians come at the heart of a rather embarrassed defense of his ‘apostolic’ ministry.

Over the years we have been in and around several ministries that laid claim to that title. My deepest conviction from all these experiences is that the most essential element of the ‘apostolic’ is just this, the ability to delight in our weakness, in other words –  to be able to laugh at ourselves!

I remember once in the middle of a week of prayer and fasting one brother stood up. We were all ears for the next ‘Word from God’  “Thus saith the Lord.” he began. “Lighten up. Go home and have a pizza!” We knew it was Father! In this “gentle whisper” He was jokingly saying that we had started taking ourselves (not Him) too seriously!

Another way in which delighting in our weaknesses manifests is in a genuine listening (for the “gentle whisper”) in everyone and everything around us conscious that no matter how called and anointed we may feel ourselves to be, we are only a ‘part’ of the whole…no better and no worse that any other part. It is God who determines who is a “vessel of honor” and who is a “vessel of dishonor”, so what room does that leave for arrogance even if we believe we are in the former category?

Paul goes on to talk about how our weakness makes room for God’s grace, for it is ALL grace from start to finish. That’s bible too! I believe the first phrase in Genesis has the same gematria (The study of the numerical values designated to Hebrew and Greek letters) as the word for “grace” (911) and the very last verse of Revelation reads, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.”

So I reckon it’s OK to fumble about a bit at anything until we find our feet …….or maybe even better, to never find our feet and keep fumbling…. so that we can remain forever, fumblingly humble – and connected to His grace. (1 Peter 5:5)

P.S.  The answer to last week’s question is 12, I think : – )

We are blessed to have our son Ben, his wife Kim, their 4, soon to be 5, children and 3 chickens living within happy earshot – right next door.

The other day they were flying home from a vacation with Kim’s folks. On my way to pick them up the airport I noticed a road sign advertising this place:

 

 

“That really captures today’s cultural norm” I thought.

Then Father whispered “Small Still Family” and I realized He was giving me a contrasting phrase to “Big Thrill Factory” in order to to describe the culture of His kingdom.

It’s a kingdom that’s not about a product, it’s about a people – a people who are distinguished by their quest for the “still small voice” – the ‘gentle whisper’ that is their Father (1 Kings.19:12)

At our next little family/community evening here in our home, Ben described the part of Florida they had escaped to from the Minnesota chill – “Not exactly rich in culture – really just one long strip mall!” He said “But that really didn’t matter. The joy of the trip was in each other and in just being family together.”

I thought of “that culture song”, “Harder to Hear” from his new CD. You can listen to it at the end of this great 13 minute Youtube video. How many Kyles sneak into the footage? Answer next blog.

Alternatively you can just skip directly to the song at 9.15. (You might have to crank up the volume to catch all the words : – )

 

 

 

Our youngest son Gilbert, our administrative co-pilot in the cockpit, asked me, “Who on your email list should I notify about the blog?”

I shot back, “Oh just send it to everyone” conscious that the list included a wide variety of people from the electric company to some people I knew no longer wanted to hear from me!

We smiled at the number of friends who responded with a YES…It was like our birthday as those names of people who have been part of our lives kept popping up!

One lady in Europe, who I have actually never met personally, wrote in broken English that she had just been thinking about us that morning. She described her painful journey of rejection by her husband and by the ‘religious’ establishment over the last few years and how it had been brightened by His Be-ing present with her through our songs!

I wrote back to her.”It’s good to know that when we follow Jesus ‘outside the camp’ (Heb. 13:13 ) we are not alone there….but He is with us, and like Elijah in the story in 1 Kings 18 and 19 “there are 7,000 others” with whom we Be-LOnG, who “have not bowed the knee to Baal” I believe in our day, Baal takes the form of any idol in our hearts that we sincerely want God to uncover and remove so that we might hear His voice of TRUTH. I develop this in the next blog.

When in Ireland recently we had a wonderful time with a few friends who came together around the topic (Out of the box) God is, to share with tears and laughter their own stories of discovering God in ‘unexpected’ places….beyond the ‘controlled’ box of  ‘carnal’ thinking and ‘cultural’ norms.

God does not promise a reward for those whose doctrine gets an A+ for orthodoxy, but for those who ‘earnestly seek him’ (Heb.11:6 )  We are not meant to settle for “safe truths” but only for the one who is The Truth……for our reward is with HIM (Rev.22:12)……..as the subtitle of this blog says, “…..and Be-ing with you nothing else I desire.” (Ps.73:25)

Consistent with the “Family Blog” vision I share about in the introductory piece “Why Be-LOnGings ?” (click on the menu) we would be glad to get your feedback and will try to respond. I’ll aim to write about a blog a week. I hope if you come with an open heart it will be a worthwhile weekly investment of 3- 13 minutes…depending on how long you choose to linger.

So welcome to the Be-LOnGings family, and to complete the standard flight farewell:-

“We know you have a choice of blogs and we do appreciate your friendship : – )”

P.S. Thanks to Peggy, for sending me this link of Dylan Thomas reading his own poem, after my first blog, “Just getting Started”. There you’ll remember I responded to Thomas’ passionate appeal with the hope of resurrection !!!

This morning I woke thinking about this new blog……..Be LOnGINGS

As the words “I’M JUST GETTING STARTED” came to mind I knew Father was speaking to me beyond the blog……. about the purpose of my existence.

I’m in my sixty third year and statistically that means I’ve likely lived at least three quarters of my life on earth, but in my spirit I knew that growing in knowing God in these years has been preparation for what is ahead.

Yesterday I ‘stumbled’ across a Dylan Thomas poem that as a favorite of mine as a young man.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The year Dylan Thomas died I was born.

Over these last 62 years I have discovered that the purpose of this life is not to rage as it comes to an end but to engage throughout in such a way that we go joyfully into that bright light that is the next step.

“What time is it?” Hilary asked as I scribbled these thoughts down on the scrap of paper beside our bed.

“8.22” I said

Romans 8:22 says, “We know that The Whole Of Creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

The number 8 represents “new beginnings” and 22 represents “light”

BE-ing present to hear these whispers from the one our hearts are LONGING for in each moment of time, is our preparation for that moment in time when we are finally revealed as the ‘sons of light’  as we pass from this age to the next. (1 Cor.15:52, Rom. 8:19)

P.S. Watch out for our new CD to be released shortly called, “The Whole Of Creation”