Need to laugh and ponder and rejoice?
July 8, 2014 | My Jottings
Happy Tuesday everyone. I have just a few minutes before the second part of the Breakfast Brigade begins, and I thought I’d recommend a book to you. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I’ve been reading Donald Miller. Years ago I read his Blue Like Jazz and loved it. Last week I finished A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and it made me think about my life in ways I never had before. And it gave me a dream I shared with the Lord and left in His hands for fulfillment, or not. If you haven’t read these books I think you should.
Spurred on by A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, I just ordered a used copy of Miller’s Searching For God Knows What, it conveniently arrived yesterday in the mail, and I’m already chuckling and feeling stirrings of correction and hope. This book will bring some smart humor, pondering and rejoicing your way. Anyone need some of those?
Friends, when I ask you if you need to laugh, I mean the kind of silent laughing that shakes the bed at night when you’re trying to keep quiet. The kind you can’t stop. (By the way, are you familiar with Paperbackswap? I’ve been trading in the books I don’t plan to keep for years, and receiving books I want to read in the mail in exchange. Check it out.)
So here’s a quote from the book I thought I’d share (and the author is referring to Robert Tilton’s imposter ministry and Shirley MacLaine’s outrageous belief that she is God, as she has stated in one of her spiritual books and the subsequent made-for-TV-movie):
“If you ask me, the way to tell if a person knows God for real, I mean knows the real God, is that they will fear Him. They wouldn’t go around making absurd political assertions and drop God’s name like an ace card, and they wouldn’t be making absurd statements about how God wants you to be rich and how if you send in some money to the ministry God will bless you. And for that matter, they wouldn’t be standing on a beach shouting about how they are God, twirling around in the waves. It seems like, if you really knew the God who understands the physics of our existence, you would operate a little more cautiously, a little more compassionately, a little less like you are the center of the universe.”
I realize that the above quote probably didn’t make you chuckle, and it wasn’t meant to. It was just something I read last night in bed before I turned out the light, and it moved something deep in me and made me think that sometimes I trifle with the God of the universe, don’t love and respect Him as He deserves.
I will say more later but for now I must get dressed and prepare to welcome some of the dearest women I know into my home for our weekly summer Bible study. The kitchen isn’t clean, the chairs aren’t set out, and the coffee isn’t yet made.
Grace and peace to you all….
Hello Sis:
Sometimes I ask myself questions as I read some of them somewhere and they have caused me to think of others and most of the time it is before I take communion with him.
Those questions I ponder are:
I ask myself if the Sacrifice of YOU JESUS my SAVIOR has made me a different person?
I ask myself – Have I taken to heart what the Family of God has done for me?
I ask myself Openly – am I willing to live my life differently in order to show YOU LORD of all creation, That it is YOU I love with all my very being, all my existance.
I ask myself is my gratitude enough for you?
I ask myself – With the Sacrifice you JESUS my MESSIAH made, did I become a better person?
I ask myself – Have I taken to heart – what the Family of God TRULY has done for me and my family?
I ask myself – Am I willing to live my life differently since I have become in faith your follower, your worshiper?
I ask myself – Am I willing to follow YOU where ever it leads me?
I ask myself – Am I willing to take up my own CROSS?
I ask myself – Am I seeking to not only have communion with you but rather do I desire to have it often?
I ask myself – Am I willing to throw away everything that has become something that hinders?
I ask myself – Do I really fix my eyes on just HIM?
I ask myself – Will there be a day in loving HIM that my time will come for me to shed my blood?
I ask myself – Is will HE going to discipline me as HE did HIS SON?
I ask myself – Do I realize that HIS disciplines are for my own good?
I ask myself – Am I willing to take what is in HIS desires for me though perhaps painful – for the purpose of producing in me a harvest of righteousness?
I ask myself – Do I truly realize in my body, my mind and in my spirit that HE is jealous for me with a GODLY jealousy?
Sis, we all fall short!
Keep pushing in, there is light at the other end, a Godly bright, clear and fantastic light we can not yet see.
When you are done with that book, can I buy if from you?
It sounds as if it is a blessing, as I would not only like to read it but perhaps also study it as to how he felt when he wrote it.
Blessings
Love you and thankful that you are my sis.
Larry
Hey Larry — you are welcome to the book as soon as I’m done, yes. Your questions are very thought-provoking! xoxo
Hi Julie!
I’m reading and enjoying each post you have shared, even though I’ve been quiet on here, lately. Just wanted you to know that I am thinking of you each day with love and prayers. Always am interested in, and enjoy,
hearing about what you are reading!
Love and hugs to you my dear friend…
xoxo
Shari
God bless you for your love and encouragement, my friend of 45 years! xoxo