Grace

As you have noticed, I have been internet-deprived for a while. But I’m back! Yay! Amazing how life revolves around this modern marvel.

Anyway, I have had time to read, and I’ve dived deeper into the Dr. Jeremiah book, Captured by Grace, that I mentioned before. There’s so much I would love to share, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. Chapter three retells the prodigal son story like I’ve never heard before.

So, since I can’t just type the seven chapters I’ve read thus far, I’ll share some of my favorite quotes that have inspired me. I hope they spark something in you too.

p.12 Grace suggests that human beings may be something more than honor graduates of the animal kingdom.

p. 30 Grace can only shine in its ultimate brilliance because it emerges from ultimate darkness.

p. 37 Christ removes not only the penalty for our sin; He cleanses us completely from its slightest tint. You and I stand before God as if we lived a life of utter purity and perfection.

p. 57 If the sincerity of the son is ambiguous, there can be no mistake about the heart of the father… The power comes from the father’s grace, not the son’s guilt.

p. 62 There are two sides of the same coin: law and licentiousness. Either one makes slaves, and only in grace is liberation possible.

p. 108 Men and women who do the pursuing can only capture empty air. Nothing satisfies. This indeed is the definition of religion. What sets apart our Christian faith is the story told in reverse – one of a loving Father who pursues us because we are too foolish and too sin-stained to go to Him.

p. 109 I never had the experience of looking for God. It was the other way around: He was the hunter (or so it seemed to me) and I was the deer. He stalked me… took unerring aim and fired. And I am very thankful that this is how the first (conscious) meeting occurred. It forearms one against subsequent fears that the whole thing was only wish fulfillment. Something one didn’t wish for can hardly be that. –C.S. Lewis

p. 136 The weakness of humanity is the proper container to glorify God.

My birthday was yesterday. My 39^th year has completed and I am now on the road to the big 4-0. As I reflected on those years, GRACE is the defining factor – without a doubt. On SO MANY levels in EVEY facet of my life. God’s grace overwhelms me when I think of His speaking to me at such a young age, giving me amazingly loving and supportive parents, showering me with a wealth of relationships both family and friends, gifting me a best friend and lover to be my companion for more than half my life now, His protection and provision and patience with me… and much MUCH more. Sure, sometimes, life has been heart breaking and worse than tough. But His grace has been and will continue to be sufficient for me… and for you, no matter what you’re facing today.

Hope the last week of February 2013 is treating you all well, Dry Ground friends!

(photo by yours truly)

not yet

hoping to restore internet monday. overall enjoyed oscars. what do ya know argo won. hope you all have a great start to the week. talk to you soon dry ground friends.

down time

hi dry ground friends. i am without internet... so sorry. enjoy the oscars this weekend. i am hoping for silver linings playbook best pic but i think argo will win. argo was good. anyway... i will be back as soon as i can. happy weekending.

Answers!

Happy Weekending, Dry Ground Friends!

1. “Now, an army is a team – it lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap.” – 1970, Patton

2. “There has to be a mathematical explanation for how bad that tie is.” – 2001, A Beautiful Mind

3. “Forgive me, Majesty. I am a vulgar man! But I assure you, my music is not.” – 1984, Amadeus

4. “Well, I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb.” – 1934, It Happened One Night

5. “You want to know what’s wrong with our waterfront? It’s the love of a lousy buck. It’s making love of a buck – the cushy job – more important than the love of man!” – 1954, On the Waterfront

Lasting Lines

So, I put a little twist on the game this week for a couple of reasons. First, finding the actual last lines of all these good movies isn’t as easy as you may think, and for the next couple of weeks my resources are limited. I’m good, but not so good that I have them all memorized. Second, when we’re talking Oscar season, we’re talking the best movies of all time, and therefore the best dialogue. How could I limit us to the last words uttered? So many good quotes have proved memorable through film history – see if you can guess where these lasting lines originated! Hint: Every quote comes from a film that WON Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

1. “Now, an army is a team – it lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap.”

2. “There has to be a mathematical explanation for how bad that tie is.”

3. “Forgive me, Majesty. I am a vulgar man! But I assure you, my music is not.”

4. “Well, I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb.”

5. “You want to know what’s wrong with our waterfront? It’s the love of a lousy buck. It’s making love of a buck – the cushy job – more important than the love of man!”

Answers will be posted later on this evening. Happy Friday, Dry Ground Friends!

In Other Words

I was listening to this song the other day. The words tell in different words what I’ve been meaning in the past couple of posts on ‘dirt.’ Keep in mind the whole garden/tender/planting/growing analogy. Hope you enjoy Addison Road's 'Change in the Making'! (CLICK HERE to listen)

There’s a better version of me

That I can’t quite see

But things are gonna change

Right now I’m a total mess and

Right now I’m completely incomplete

But things are gonna change

Cause You’re not through with me yet.

This is redeption’s story

With every step that I’m taking

Every day, You’re chipping away

What I don’t need

This is me under construction

This is my pride being broken

And every day I’m closer to who I’m meant to be

I’m a change in the making.

Wish I could live more patiently

Wish I could give a little more of me

Without stopping to think twice

Wish I had faith like a child

Wish I could walk a single mile

Without tripping on my own feet

But You’re not through with me yet.

(Chorus)

From the dawn of history

You make new and You redeem

From a broken world to a broken heart

You finish what You start in everything

Like a river rolls into the sea

We’re not who we’re going to be

But things are going to change.

(Chorus)

I’m not who I’m gonna be

Moving closer to Your glory.

How’s the week going, Dry Ground friends? Remember we’re all a work in progress!

Oh, and HEY – Happy Valentine’s Day!

(photo by yours truly)

Shock Therapy

Whenever I read a story about grace, mercy and forgiveness – specifically a tale that details a heinous, unthinkable crime that is forgiven by the victim – I tear up. I can’t help it.

Like a story I read recently in Dr. David Jeremiah’s book Captured by Grace about a woman who, via a horrible traffic accident caused by some joy riding teens, had every bone in her face broken. The pain she suffered physically, the surgeries she endured for reconstruction, the scars she bore all described in the book send shivers down my spine. The teen driver stood trial, pleading guilty, clearly remorseful and sorry while standing in the courtroom mere feet from his innocent victim. But when it came down to sentencing, though some of the expected jail time was included, the judge drastically reduced the penalty because the victim requested it. She told the teen that day, “I forgive you. I want your life to be the best it can be.”

Come on. You got warm fuzzies, right? A little choked up? Smiled at least?

Why? Because it describes an amazing act of grace.

In the same chapter, Dr. Jeremiah says, “Grace is shocking – something like the heavenly converse of a traffic accident. When love is returned for evil, we can’t help stopping to rubberneck. Grace is the delivery of a jewel that nobody ordered, a burst of light in a room where everyone forgot is was dark.”

Love that. Grace is shocking… because it goes squarely against our self-centered, sin-hungry flesh.

I wonder if I’d have as much grace and courage to impart in a situation like the one above, even though I know God has done the same and more for me. If faced with such a thing, would I be able to forgive?

I’d like to say yes, but who knows until the experience occurs. Still, we can allow our minds to be cultivated to that end for not only the tragic events in life, but for the every day ones as well. Here’s how…

Remember that you’re the dirt.

Last Wednesday, I wrote about the same idea in a general sense (CLICK HERE if you missed it). But I’ve been thinking more on it and I decided that more than anything I need to remember that I’m the dirt. Not the farmer or the seed or the rain or the sunshine. I’m the dirt. I am that which is being tended for crops, growth, harvest – I am not the one tending my soil neither the soil in another field. And just like I need the grace of plowing, planting, fertilizing, rain and sunshine, so does my neighboring field. Because, we’re all dirt. Equally dirt. My dirt is no better or worse than my neighbor’s dirt because anything good coming from either plot will be of the Holy Spirit’s tending. In fact, there should be no comparing dirt at all. Because, like I said, we all are… dirt, that is.

So when a situation like I retold at the beginning comes about, neither party suddenly becomes not dirt. And since The Farmer has already deemed your dirt valuable and redeemable, how can another clod of dirt deem another clod of dirt not valuable and redeemable?

Pain and suffering offences and absorbing wrong done to you is tough, and a lot of times it lures our self-centered selves into a attitude of being owed something or being better than someone. Not exactly the environment in which grace can thrive. Remembering that we’re all dirt and that The Farmer found value in us while we were yet fallow and worthless ground, that’s when grace can grow. After all, The Farmer… okay, Jesus, I’m talking about Jesus obviously… He endured more pain, suffering, offences and wrongs than all of us combined – literally. And He still said, “Father, forgive them…”

Shocking.

Have a beautiful week, Dry Ground friends!

(photo by photobucket.com)

Last Lines Answers!

Answers!

1. “Really… what I want to say is I’m… I’m so glad you bought me that ice cream.”

     “ Me, too.”

2011 – Crazy, Stupid Love

2. “I haven’t?! Weeelllll… as Old Reliable used to say… he’d say…uh, he’d say, uh…    Dog gone! You know, I clean forgot what it was he used to say.”

1955 – Lady and the Tramp

3. Gregory – “I don’t care if you are pretty, I love you anyway.”

    Rose – “Listen, everything is going to drop as I get older and I’m gaining weight as we speak.”

     Gregory – “Well… that’s comforting.”

1996 – The Mirror Has Two Faces

4. “Because the one thing that turns the world from a lonely place to a beautiful place is love. Love in any of its forms. Love gives us hope. Hope for the new year. That’s New Year’s Eve to me. Hope and a great party.”

2011 – New Year’s Eve

5. “And so, ladies and gentlemen, you too, like this satisfied customer, can solve all your problems by subscribing to an answering service.”

1960 – Bells are Ringing

Enjoy your weekend. Although you have six days before the ‘official’ day, why not make every day Valentine’s Day and make sure yours knows you love him/her right now.

(photo by photobucket.com)

Last Lines – Valentine’s Day Edition

Here are a few happy endings to some romantic comedies I enjoy – can you guess them?

1. “Really… what I want to say is I’m… I’m so glad you bought me that ice cream.”

     “ Me, too.”

2. “I haven’t?! Weeelllll… as Old Reliable used to say… he’d say…uh, he’d say, uh…    Dog gone! You know, I clean forgot what it was he used to say.”

3. Gregory – “I don’t care if you are pretty, I love you anyway.”

    Rose – “Listen, everything is going to drop as I get older and I’m gaining weight as we speak.”

     Gregory – “Well… that’s comforting.”

4. “Because the one thing that turns the world from a lonely place to a beautiful place is love. Love in any of its forms. Love gives us hope. Hope for the new year. That’s New Year’s Eve to me. Hope and a great party.”

5. “And so, ladies and gentlemen, you too, like this satisfied customer, can solve all your problems by subscribing to an answering service.”

(photo by photobucket.com)

Let's Get Dirty

This past Sunday’s sermon was on the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. I’ve heard this passage and sermons on it – well dozens of times, if I prevent myself from exaggerating for it indeed seems hundreds or thousands of times. It’s a go-to sermon, usually about the Gospel being scattered like a farmer’s seed on different kinds of soils and showing us what kind of soil takes that seed and produces a crop.

I always thought that meant – the receiving soil became Christians and the others remained lost. And since I’m a Christian, I must have had good soil. Whew – I can move on to another part of the Bible.

May I take a moment to laugh out loud, please?

Bwhahahbwhahabwhahahahahahhahaha!!!!!!!

Okay. I’ve recovered myself. The reason I’m laughing is that recently God’s been revealing to me areas where I have been so arrogant in my faith. This past Sunday was one of those times.

The sermon was not directed at those in need of salvation, but the already ‘saved’ in need of sanctification. The ‘seed’ was not merely the Gospel message, but all of God’s Word. And the soils – this is the part that really opened my eyes – each kind of soil, no less, are descriptions my spirit can resemble on any given day.

In other words, just because I have accepted Jesus as my Savior does not mean that I will automatically act like good soil and produce a crop. The process of Sanctification does that – that long, tedious, difficult, faith-based process accomplished by the gardener of my soul, the Holy Spirit. And each day, I decide which kind of soil I’m going to be in order to receive the seed – God’s Word that the Holy Spirit wants to plant and tend.

Some days, I just might be the hard path from which birds snatch away the Word-seed I’m supposed to receive – but perhaps am too busy, too ambitious, too self-centered and stubborn and set in my ways to accept.

Other days, I’m the rocky soil, enthusiastic about the Word-seed I read that morning or heard in church, only to have my faith in said seed dashed by a hardship or trial I face the very next day.

Still, other times I’m thorny soil. I allow the worries and distractions of this world to choke out the Word-seed I’ve been given, missing a Truth the Holy Spirit wants me to receive because my focus is misplaced.

I seriously never considered that I could be any of those unfruitful soils.

Really, the only way to be the ‘good soil’ ready to receive the Word-seed into a nurturing environment that fosters growth, fruition and harvest is to YIELD to the farmer, surrender to the Holy Spirit and His sanctifying work. This requires allowing the farmer to do the necessary things for growth – tilling hard ground, applying fertilizer, waiting and watching the struggle of new growth pushing to the surface, enduring shifts in the weather and absorbing rainy seasons – all of which takes time. Much more time than we realize or our contemporaries are willing to tolerate. 

One thing the pastor said that really hit a mark was this – the soil doesn’t tell the farmer what or how to plant. Kind of like that verse in Isaiah that says the clay does not tell the potter how to form it – it is the Master’s business to decide and the clay’s job to surrender to his hand. Same concept here.

In this day and age, words like ‘surrender’ and ‘yield’ are social sacrilege, scary and scorned. Yet, via their essence, a crop is produced and harvested. Why wouldn’t we want to be that kind of soil?

Hope your week rocks, Dry Ground friends!

Oh, speaking of farmers, my favorite overall commercial from Sunday night, which I don't believe I'm alone in this, was the Ram truck one narrated by the late, great Paul Harvey. If somehow you haven't seen it yet or if you just want to see it again, CLICK HERE. It took on an even deeper meaning for me once I watched it again with the above principles in mind - God my Father and His farming Spirit. LOVE. 

(photo by photobucket.com)

Favorite Funny

I apologize for the lack of depth in today's post. But on the other hand, laughter is a good thing, and few opportunities present themselves these days - at least the kind that does not accompany a blush. Anyway, here's my favorite Super Bowl commercial from last night. Bonus for me, a story collector, that it takes place in a library.



Hope your week gets started off right - with a smile!
(photo by photobucket.com)

Answers!

1. “Good morning, wife.”

    “Good morning.”

2009 – The Young Victoria

2. “Then, how are you this evening, Mrs. Darcy? Mrs. Darcy. Mrs. Darcy. Mrs. Darcy.”

2005 – Pride and Prejudice

3. “Here, I’ve been carrying this around for months. I don’t want it any more.”

    “Cat? Cat?!?! Cat! Oh, Cat.”

1961 – Breakfast at Tiffany’s

4. “Oh, Joe. I have not eaten for a very, very long time.”

2008 – Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

5. “Razzles, Mr. Flamhaff?”

    “Thank you, Mrs. Flamhaff.”

2004 – 13 Going on 30

Happy Weekending, Dry Ground friends!

Last Lines

To mark the anniversary of my Daniel’s and my first kiss 20 years ago and our engagement 19 years ago this February 3^rd, today’s last lines come from movies I find romantic and sweet. Also, in a couple cases, I’ve backed up the clue to include a little more than just the last line – for context’s sake.

1. “Good morning, wife.”

    “Good morning.”

2. “Then, how are you this evening, Mrs. Darcy? Mrs. Darcy. Mrs. Darcy. Mrs. Darcy.”

3. “Here, I’ve been carrying this around for months. I don’t want it any more.”

    “Cat? Cat?!?! Cat! Oh, Cat.”

4. “Oh, Joe. I have not eaten for a very, very long time.”

5. “Razzles, Mr. Flamhaff?”

    “Thank you, Mrs. Flamhaff.”

Answers tonight! TGIF, go bros in the Super Bowl, and Happy Anniversary x2 to my best friend and lover, my Daniel. *SWAK*

(photo by photobucket.com)