How to Gripe in the Spirit
May 5, 2009
By Sandra Glahn
As a new Christian, I read guides that told me to pray using the acrostic “ACTS”: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. And years later when my husband and I experienced seven pregnancy losses and three failed adoptions, I found myself continually drawn to the psalms. New phrases such “How long, O Lord? (6:3) and “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (22:1) filled my prayers. And while echoing these spiritual gripes, I discovered to my surprise that the ACTS formula had left out the most common form of psalm in The Bible—the lament.
We find the psalms of lament in 6, 13, 22, 27, 44, 69, 70, 74, 102, and 142.
In these prayers of complaint I found some frequently recurring elements: (1) an introductory appeal (2) a description of what’s wrong (the lament itself) and (3) a formal request. Sometimes I’d also see evidence that the psalmist received (4) an oracle from God in response. And finally, following such an oracle, the lament usually ended in (5) an expression of confidence or praise.
Consider Psalm 12, a lament from a victim of slander:
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Bank on Him
May 4, 2009
By Greg Atkinson
God will do whatever it takes to get your eyes on Him - to get your focus, desire, trust and hope in Him; in that way, He is relentless and can go to extremes (as Scripture, myself and countless others can attest to) to get our attention.
In light of our recent economic situation, it occurred to me that God may be at work all around. I travel the country speaking on innovation. One of the ways that I teach innovation is birthed is by desperation, but I go on to say that “it’s a desperation that leads to a dependence upon the Holy Spirit.”
When you hit the bottom in your own way: maybe lose your job, your retirement, your house, your savings, your stock portfolio, your (you fill in the blank)… Could it be that it’s by design by our Creator to bring us back to trusting in Him alone? To quote two spiritual giants and long distance mentors: “God is most satisfied in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.” – John Piper. In The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis says, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
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CBS: Slain pastor’s wife expresses forgiveness for his killer
March 27, 2009
(Video HT: Denny Burk)
The nitty gritty of sanctification
March 25, 2009
By Kim @ The Upward Call Blog
I hear teenagers complain a lot. Truly, I do. And I don’t just mean my own. As I chat with the teens of our youth group at our weekly get togethers or whether it’s just in a casual, everyday setting, I often hear complaints. They are the typical teenage complaints. Things are “boring.” They don’t like their jobs (I sympathize; I didn’t like slinging hamburgers, either). Their teachers are a pain.
Some of the complaints are a little more serious; they don’t like the “bubble” of evangelicalism. The church is legalistic because the church leaders want people on the platform to wear ties. One of the more serious allegations is that our church is anti-intellectual.
And of course there are the complaints about their parents and families.
What I have noticed is that the people who have the most stress and difficulty are often the quietest …
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A ‘pandemic of fear’: Gun sales, demand for gold, antidepressant use on the rise
March 13, 2009
Peggy Noonan, WSJ (HT: Rod Dreher)
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalm 34:4
NY pastor David Wilkerson predicts imminent catastrophe, rioting, fires
March 8, 2009
Prediction on Wilkerson’s Blog
Grieving with Those Who Grieve
February 12, 2009
By Glenn Lucke
I met a pastor the other day. We rode in a van to a dinner, and then at the dinner, amidst eight other people, we ended up sitting across from each other and talking. The next morning we were on the same hotel elevator and had a moment or two while I was waiting to check out of the conference hotel.
In those three conversations I got to know a man who struck me as humble, kind, very bright and well read, proud of his sons and one who enjoyed life with his sons. The one mention of his wife was the high level of excellence with which she had homeschooled their boys.
Because he is a potential client for my business (some of what we had talked about) I decided to look him up online and find out more. I ended up at his blog where I read about the death of his wife. His story about cleaning out her clothes closet, over a year after her death, slew me.
‘If this review causes one person to decide NOT to read the book, I will feel that I have done my job’
February 12, 2009
Why Joe Blackmon didn’t like The Shack
the human condition
February 11, 2009
By Mark Powell
tomorrow morning i will conduct the funeral of a sixty-four year old man. he was a husband and a church member, and he lived a troubled life, struggling with various physical and mental ailments. his wife came home from work last thursday and found him on the floor. the emergency technicians attempted to revive him, but she thinks he was probably already gone.
when she telephoned me, the emt’s were still at work on him and she was hysterical — who wouldn’t be?
Sometimes It Gets Worse
February 9, 2009
“Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery” (EX 6.9).
God had promised Israel deliverance from the crushing weight of Pharaoh’s cruel fist and their hopes had soared. Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh, demanding Israel’s release. But instead of letting them go, he turns the screws even tighter, intensifying Israel’s cruel slavery.
God again promises to deliver them, but this time Israel doesn’t listen because Pharaoh’s brutality had broken their spirits.
The Scripture above teaches us that sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. But that doesn’t mean God has abandoned us. It means he’s setting the stage to gain even more glory and give us even greater joy than if he answered our prayers right away.
The Miracle on Highway 75
January 31, 2009
We collided at 7:44 a.m. in a crush of steel that should have killed us both.
Two days later, we’re both alive.
Psalm 77:14 says, “You are the God who performs miracles.”
I know. I am one.
***
Jan. 17, 2009 — I awoke to howling wind and white ribbons of snow blowing across corn-stubble fields. I had an all-day planning meeting for a spiritual retreat. The meeting started at 8:15 a.m., and the sun had yet to rise on this new day …
‘Is it possible to live a joyful life with cancer and the threat of death hanging over your head?’
January 29, 2009
JollyBlogger David Wayne on his experience
Let the Sunshine In
January 27, 2009
By Jay Adams
I’ve lived in bleak wintry weather in the hills of W. Pennsylvania. I’ve shoveled snow two feet deep in Kirkwood Missouri. I’ve had my fill of strong winds and bitter cold blasts that go right to the bone. I’m thankful that at last I’ve been able to escape those things.
Sure, it can get cold here in South Carolina. In the winter the temperature can drop below freezing many nights—but the days are usually in the 40s and 50s. And then . . . right in the middle of winter . . . there can be one, two—or even a week—of 60-70 degree weather that suddenly descends like a blissful summer day. Plants are deceived into thinking its summer and begin to bloom—only to have their blossoms suddenly destroyed by a hard frost. Sweaters are once more exchanged for coats and jackets: suddenly, it’s winter once again!
But those few days of warmth! How they lighten the load. How they cheer the spirits. How they anticipate things soon to come in February, when the tulips appear and the jonquils grow tall. “Summer,” those days say, “is just around the corner; don’t give up hope!”
What NOT to say when someone is grieving
January 20, 2009
Don’t start any sentence with “At least. . . .”, says Sue Bohlin at the Tapestry Blog
‘Spike Lee: Hand of God Caused Economic Crisis to Get Obama Elected’
January 20, 2009
Jeff Poor, Business and Media Institute (HT: Kris Rasmussen)
