Day: June 23, 2015

Categories
Discipleship

Not for the Faint of Heart, or Is It? – by Ashley Foxworthy

(Photo Copyright Darren Smith, Special K Blurred Berm, Flickr https://goo.gl/CDhM7a https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

“Make plans and God laughs.” I completely disagree. I believe God encourages us to make plans. The devil laughs. It is not very often when I open the word that I find myself getting stopped by one verse. I like to read to whole story. I want the happy Disney ending.

Not for the Faint of HeartThis picture is a small snapshot, a screen capture, from a video on August 13 2014. Ten months ago I was living in a hotel in Gunnison for a few weeks. I was training in adaptive downhill mountain biking multiple days a week, visiting friends,  and enjoying God’s amazing beauty every day. All of this was made possible by companies who saw my athletic ability. My day was literally turned upside down. In my fifth year of riding my skill had increased. The same would be said for my challenges.

I knew this trail. I knew this jump. I slowed myself and quickly found in a very precarious situation. My brain slowed, my thoughts quickly decided that this was either going to be the most incredible save… or was really, really going to hurt. I managed to save myself through at least three different fishtail turns. Then gravity took over and it hurt, it hurt very badly.

Tonight, while reading, I opened to “In all this you greatly rejoice, although now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” 1 Peter 1:6 NIV. I stopped several times wondering what it would look like if Peter didn’t continue. Right now that “little while” seems like a very, very long time. Just as my thoughts slowed during my attempt to save myself, so has the last ten months. I am the owner of a titanium plate extending from my shoulder to my elbow and 19 screws through 13 trips to the operating room and another probably to come.

I am so very thankful that the chapter continues. “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire- may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:7 NIV. Praise God! Although I feel very stuck in verse 6 at times I hold to the hope and truth I know in verse seven.

There are still days that I really do not want to share with the guy three aisles over how I got that “awesome” scar on my arm. As I am sure you also as my readers want to know.

I quickly did a self-assessment, found all my vitals intact but something was very wrong with my arm. An hour drive from the nearest hospital on a trail in the middle of the mountain. As my junior coach tried to stop riders coming off the jump and close to landing on me, I tried to figure out how I was going to talk my coach into doing what I knew would have to be done to save my arm and do it.

As God’s gift of adrenaline filled my body I repeated to my coach “I’m pretty sure I broke my arm.” He stared down and confirmed time again that he agreed. Two riders stopped. An orthopedic surgeon (a specifically trained doctor to work on bones and joints) and his wife, a doctor also. Only God and a power much greater than myself can place a trained surgeon on that mountain, on that trail, at that moment. What ensued made me even more thankful for the gift of adrenaline and perspective. What seemed like a dire situation now became one to be extremely thankful in.

I never did get the man’s name. Despite playing a pivotal role in saving my arm. His name is not recognizable on the video and I cannot locate it in any of the paperwork. I thank God for him often and the others who helped save my arm.

I have been asked “how I can have so much faith.” I have been told by multiple people that they could never go through what I have. I will say that I wish many times that it didn’t take lying face down in the dirt with an eighty pound bike on top of me to scream out for God in agony. However He created and planned this stubborn redhead. Unfortunately, multiple times I have often learned the hard way that He loves me more than anyone ever could.

Thank God for verse seven when I’m stuck in the sixth.

Copyright 2015

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

Here Comes the…Rain?

Colorado Springs, Colorado

By clicking on this SoundCloud link you can listen to today’s PWTE devotion

“Sing to the LORD with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp. He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.” Psalm 147:7 New International Version

The average rainfall in Colorado Springs is sixteen inches a year. That’s the number ONE then SIX, not SIX then ONE. We’re nearly halfway through the year and we’ve already received over thirteen inches of moisture, and guess what, it’s raining as I write this blog. Ugh! Come December 31 that total might actually read 61. Another Ugh!

Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Yet, how quickly we forget what happens when there’s drought. A few years ago Colorado Springs was hit with two massive fires that affect many lives and destroyed trees that I will not see recover in my lifetime. Yes, the rain has also come with a price in flash flooding and in waterlogged basements. It takes its toll on our mental health. If we lived in a perfect world we’d receive sixteen inches of moisture every year at just the right time, but we don’t.

We humans have a way of seeing the bad in the good, don’t we? There is a little bit of Eeyore in all of us as our inner voice groans, “It’s going to rain.”

The psalmist reminds us that it is God who covers the sky with his clouds, and it is God who sends the rain making the grass green, and boy is the grass green this year. The psalmist can’t help but sing with a grateful heart for God’s provision because there’s the hope of green grass.

It might be “raining” in your life. You might feel soaked to the bone with struggles, pain and unresolved conflict, and find yourself questioning whether anything good can come out of all this toil. Hope is a powerful gift when it seems that life is filled with raindrops. The psalmist looked beyond the clouds and rain to see the green grass that comes as a result their presence.

Jesus felt the weight of this “rain” on the cross. He knows suffering, pain and conflict as he was rejected, beaten and hung on his cross. His despair is our hope. His abandonment is our security. His death is our life.

May God also fill you with hope in the midst of your rain. May you see see the green grass of Christ’s victory when all you feel is the rain of sorrow.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner

Categories
Spiritual Formation

Spiritual Formation – by Jennifer Brukiewa

Welcome to the Spiritual Formation corner of Praying with the Eyes. Our prayer for you as you wander this space is that you will find fresh inspiration for cultivating intimacy with God and be deeply nourished by the gospel in your daily life.

So, what exactly does the term Spiritual Formation mean? Simply put, Spiritual Formation is the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts conforming us into the likeness of Christ so that in every part of life we may reflect Christ and give God praise. Our God is always at work molding us into the beautiful likeness of His Son. 2 Peter 1:3- 4 says that because of the promises we have in Christ, we get to share in the divine nature, that is, the very character and heart of God! We get to become like HIM! Is that not an incredible gift?!

Before unwrapping this gift further, it is important to note that salvation comes before this kind of transformation, through faith in Christ alone. Salvation gives birth to transformation by the Holy Spirit poured into us and then He does the work in us. We do not transform ourselves to earn salvation or favor with God, like other religions require. In fact, God declares that we are already New Creations and counted as righteous before God because of the great exchange on the cross. Our sins went on Jesus and His righteous life was laid on us.

So, if we are already saved and are declared righteous, then why are we still in need of forming? Glad you asked!

Copyright Scania Group, Scania Clay Modelling Flickr https://goo.gl/0VFkHD https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Copyright Scania Group, Scania Clay Modelling Flickr https://goo.gl/0VFkHD https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Being declared righteous means we no longer will suffer ultimate punishment for our sins, (separation from God and all goodness), and we can now enjoy a relationship with our perfect God who can’t tolerate any evil. But we also know all too well that we still struggle with our sin, don’t we? We have this ghost from our sinner-self that hovers around and waits for a chance to take the helm. Indeed, without paying attention to our hearts and our God Who pursues us, this sinner is our autopilot. We have deeply ingrained habits and ways of coping on our own without God. There are idols we have been worshiping unawares that still grab at us and demand us to serve them instead of the One True God. In addition to this we live in a world full of messages contrary to God’s ways that can creep in and pull us away from the Truth. AND, if that ain’t enough, there is an enemy who seeks to steel our life away from God, whispering lies about Him and about us that cause us to lose hope and doubt God’s goodness. We need a steady diet of Truth and His presence to live the Life God gives us. Therein lies our need for continual transformation in which we learn to live more and more from our new life offered in the gospel and in harmony with God’s Word and desires.

How does this formation happen? Let’s look more closely at 2 Peter 1:3-4.

“But by His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life . . . And because of His glory and excellence He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share in the divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

The promises Peter mentions here are all gift-wrapped in the gospel. All that we are and are becoming flows from Who Christ is and what He has done for us by His power and because of His goodness. What grace! Because of this, any growth that occurs in us is deeply humbling. There is never a place for self-righteousness or comparing ourselves with others. Our worth is found in Christ’s love alone and not dependent on our own goodness. Being formed is not about trying harder to make ourselves better in our own power which only leads to despair or self-righteousness. It’s all about breathing the gospel, receiving His promises, and learning to relax into our Redeemers hands. As we do this, we will begin to move with His divine nature already at work in us. This is how we “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25) which results in us being formed increasingly into the image of Christ.

“In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises . . .” 1 Peter 1:5

I love the word “respond” here. He initiates, we are invited to respond. Now, in His great mercy, our God will use anything and everything in our lives to draw us to Himself. He will always work to form the most stubborn of us even as we fight Him or simply ignore Him. But, just like any good Father, He longs for us to trust Him and look to Him to gently lead us.

Copyright HalharaSudhan Govindarajan Potter's Wheel Flickr https://goo.gl/1W0uGN https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Copyright HalharaSudhan Govindarajan Potter’s Wheel Flickr https://goo.gl/1W0uGN https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridal or they will not come to you.” Psalm 32:8-10

We’re His children, not donkeys! Of course, I’m sure you’ve never acted like a mule! Yeah. Me, neither. (Heehaw!)

So, if formation happens as we learn to respond to His promises for us, then what are some ways we can practice responding?

On Sundays, as a church community, we nourish our spiritual life by the teaching and study of the Word, communion, baptism, corporate worship, and encouraging one another in our faith. This is essential for the life of a believer. But what about Monday through Saturday?

In this section of Praying with the Eyes we will be offering many spiritual disciplines and exercises including prayer practices and scripture meditations. Several of these disciplines are classics and have been practiced throughout the history of the church. They are excellent ways to relax into our Potter’s hands and practice attending to the river of grace that flows continually through every day of our lives.

Have you heard an invitation stirring in your heart today? I hope you will join us as we explore these disciplines together and seek to deepen our intimacy with the One who always keeps His promises. This is meant to be a conversation, so feel free to share your experiences and ask any question you have in the comment section.

Are you ready to respond to His invitation? Me, too. Let’s go!

_______________________________

SONY DSC Several years ago, Jennifer Brukiewa set aside her professional stage career and gig as a Disney World actress/singer to pour into the lives of teens working along side her husband in youth ministry. Currently, as a retreat leader and Certified Spiritual Director, she is honored to create safe places for others to share their stories, joys and struggles and explore with them ways to listen for the heartbeat of God and “breathe the gospel” in their day to day life. She loves to garden, art journal, and admits to being slightly addicted to the BBC show Dr Who. Her home is in Elbert, CO where she lives with 1 dog, 3 cats, 14 chickens, 1 hermit crab, 2 rats, 3 daughters (15, 12 and 8) and her incredible husband of 22 years. She and her family have been members of Holy Cross Lutheran Church since 2007. To learn more about her ministry in Spiritual Direction go to www.attendinggrace.com