Friday, June 30, 2006

One Great Sacramental Loaf


"All the world is one great sacramental loaf. We are not- nor will we ever be, God save us- solitary intelligence spinning in the dark void of space. He crowds upon from Sheol to the sea; he jostles our thoughts along the pathways in our brains. He hides in the bushes, jumping out in flames to startle us into seeing. He sequesters himself in stables and swaddling so as to take us unawares. He veils himself in flesh, the same flesh that drips into fingers at the end of my arms and sprouts into hair on my head.
Either the world is holy or it's not. Either the creator's work is a sign of himself or it's a sham. Where else can one draw the line between sacred and profane except around all the cosmos? For "profane", meant originally, outside the temple, and all creation was, in the beginning, a temple for God's "very good." Whenever we eat, drink, breathe, see, take anything in by any means, we are commanded to remember the sacrifice. We try to hedge in the holy, to pour it into tiny, trivial cups, to make bread as pale and tasteless as possible, like fingernails. We are saying to God: Get away from me. Just so, the desert Israelites implored Moses to keep God on the mountain and not bring him down among their tents. As though our immolation by the holy were not our only hope.
Still, we take the big black crayon in our hands and draw these little islands where we will let God live in the world.
In the tiny cups and on the unfamiliar silver plates so cold you can see your breath on them. We cover him up with white linen napkins just as they did in the grave. We draw more lines around Bibles and sanctuaries, thus adding a few more islands to this archipelago of the holy, and there you have it. Little concentration camps for Christ. Our incremental piety bristles around the perimeters like barbed wire, hemming him in."


- From And the Trees Clap Their Hands
By Virginia Stem Owens



I am still processing....this is one of my favorite quotes. I would highlight most (if not all of it) if I could.

Although we do not practice communion, I have always related to this quote because I know the God "who hides in bushes and jumps out in flames to startle us into thinking." He seems to like to surprise me and I am always looking for him around every corner.

Yet, I feel so often he is not acknowledged or recognized for the God of surprises that he is. Not recognized for how awesome and magnificent he is! He seems instead to be watered down in our lives so much that all we are left with is a weak impression of what someone once thought he was. Nothing taste good watered down that much.

In our own way, I think we too, box him in ....picking up our big crayons and marking the places we will allow him to move. I do not want to be left with "Little concentration camps for Christ." I do not want to be in a "little concentration camp for Christ."

How is it that we have "found" a way to box in a God who can not be contained?

He broke out of the temple box and spread throughout the world for all mankind.....we catch his wind and try desperately to shove him back in a box again..

Sometimes the box is old and familiar and sometimes the box has new ribbons on it and is more attractive.... it's still a box.

Surprise us Lord!


Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everybody can be great ... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Processing

God always ask
His people
To remember the past,
He established
Celebrations
And fulfils them,
Remember
What I’ve done-
He says.
My faithfulness
to all
Generations.

But, do not
Dwell on it.
Do not worship
What is gone.
For I know
The plans
I have for you
I’ve written
a new song.

Lord,
We’ve heard
Of what
You’ve done
In years
Gone by.
We’ve heard
Of your fame
Don’t leave us dry.
Renew them
In our day.

God doesn’t
Throw out the old
Unless,
It’s sin.
He fulfils all
As originally intended.
He makes it new,
He restores
He heals
God establishes
Traditions
And gives us
Boundaries
In pleasant places.
He saves the best
For last,
And tells us
The end
Is always better
Than the beginning.

When people
Are not what
We want them to be
How quick we are
To judge,
Their Christianity.
Their ways
And demeanor
Don’t suit ours.
Their traditions,
Are our restrictions.
They don’t see,
How they are trapped,
Content,
With what they have.
Hearing God through,
Their outdated methods.

Yet, they faithfully return
Some watch
And wonder why?
Without the overflow
Of emotion.
And their motives
Are questioned…
Pharisees?!
Traditions?!
Music?
With those instruments?!
You must be here
For something else,
You must be quiet
Because your sprits have
Fallen asleep!
Judgments are made
With little exploration.

Have you asked me how,
I came to be here?
Do you know the faithfulness,
And grace I’ve seen dear?
Come in my home
And have some tea-
Her gifts are reverence
And hospitality.

He says real gruff-
I play in the band,
Were not all perfect,
I’m an average man.
But the scriptures say
God will be trumpeted in
I hope to see
That day with Him.
I don't understand
your questions of me,
I come and bring
My family.

So, week after week
They come
To a Hall
That has seen it all.
And quietly,
Faithfully
Take their places
Listening
Waiting
for God.
Who doesn’t come,
To them,
In the storm,
Nor in the thunder,
Nor in the violent wind.
But speaks to them
Through a hymn.
They sit and wait
For the still small voice
And those who seek…
They still do find,
That God
Will meet them,
Every time.

-cjb


Gustave Flaubert:
Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.


If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
C. S. Lewis


Kurt Vonnegut:
History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

The myrtle will grow!

I am in Atlanta visiting my parents while three of my girls are at music camp and the little one is spending quality time with her father.
My mother has become quite the gardener just like her mom. She has dug deep into the red soil of Georgia and has planted many beautiful plants, trees and flowers. Weeds don’t stand a chance around her!
When I arrived she told me about her latest “find” of myrtle trees. She bought two of them and on the ride home from the airport she shared with me her concern on whether they would take to the soil and grow.
In the morning I “happened” to read these verses in my devotional time:

Isaiah 55:12-13

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed."
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society


At breakfast the conversation about the myrtle’s health and general well being, came up. I mentioned my verse…and laughed saying “ you wouldn’t have any juniper growing here too would you?!” and she replied “ yes, I planted it in the back.” So I ran and got my Bible and we read these verses together. God is good. He makes me smile.
So, my parent’s new retirement home has juniper in their backyard and myrtle in the front!
And, by the way…..we are taking it as a word from the Lord that the myrtle WILL grow! No thornbushes and no briers here.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Last Day of School

One more school year has just finished for my children. Heather brought home an excellent report card yesterday and we will see the other two report cards today. I am not worried.
I can’t believe how fast this year has gone! How fast the past three years have gone. We arrived here in Montclair 3 years ago and hit the ground running. I had many concerns (mostly valid) about the girls' adjustment to the States after living overseas for so long. God has worked them all out in His time. I look back now and see how He settled us in our “home”.

Hosea 11:11 (NIV)
11 They will come trembling
like birds from Egypt,
like doves from Assyria.
I will settle them in their homes," declares the LORD.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

This is the verse God gave me when I moved to Russia in 1994 and He settled me in my “home” there for 9 wonderful years. When it was time to come back to the States…I returned with the same feelings I had leaving. Fear and trembling seemed to resonate with me! Yet, God once again spoke these words to me and has been faithful to keep this promise in my life.
Transition can be difficult but our God is the God who calms not only the waves of Galilee but also those storms in our hearts and minds.
Many of our friends and their children are in transition this week. I share my testimony of God’s grace and power in transition and I share my verse with you. Take it as a promise from God.

Lord, as you have been faithful to me during times of transition, questions and upheaval – Lord, be faithful to those at this time who need you to calm the seas of their hearts and minds. Bring peace where there is worry. Settle them in their homes.
Thank you Lord for your understanding to our humanness.
Thank you for your faithfulness in our everyday lives.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Silly Test


Since, I have nothing very deep or profound to share with you today ....
take a look at this silly test.

What Famous Leader Are You?personality tests by similarminds.com

Hey, I answered the questions honestly! Really, I did!! LOL!

As it turns out .... I am ... Cough, cough- just clearing the throat! ;)
Mother Teresa! LOL!


Monday, June 19, 2006

Sprinkler days

Hot
Humid
Sticky ice pops
Giggles, wet grass
Running , leaping
Drops and sprays
Misty rainbow
Refreshment
Cool
-cjb

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Procrastinating or too busy?


I'm a mother of four
With laundry galore
A work that never seems done.
If that weren't enough
There's dishes and stuff
And toys all over the floor.

I'm also a wife
Whose chosen a life
To live with the man
That she loves.
He loves to spend time
But hardly a dime,
Except when it's for
a good cause. :)

I'm also a preacher
a mentor and teacher
A sister, a daughter
And friend.
I've hardly the time
To sit and to rhyme,
The laundry still needs
To get done.
-cjb

Monday, June 12, 2006

FYI stuff and Righteousness ( not my own)

My friend Beth has started a blog and she is a gifted writer. She has a poem up right now called two and a half hours. It is a poem almost everyone can relate to! I know I can.

On a different note, Commissioning weekend is over. It was good to see so many people and friends that we wish we had more time to fellowship with.

Then there was Natasha's 9th birthday party. It was also a success with 15 of her closest friends. ;) She said " It was the best day of her life!"
Pictures will be up on Flicker soon.

Hot off the press....another poem!
A "post commissioning" poem after seeing so many people, so quickly in such a short period of time.

How many times do I walk away and think
Why? Why did you say that?
How? How was Christ in those words?
No excuse, I should know better.

How many times do I walk away and think
Why? Why did I do that?
How? How was Christ seen in that moment?
No excuse. I should know better.

How many times do I stand in the presence of God?
Seek Him, speak to Him, desire more of Him
Then go into the world and disappoint Him?

Yet, He knows me and lavishes me with His Love
He pours out all the riches in Christ Jesus upon me.
He blesses and blesses again
as undeserving as I am.

I have no righteousness on my own
My battle ‘gainst flesh is still not won
But Lord I pray that I will see
Your righteousness;
Reflected,
Consistent,
Active,
Alive
in me.


- cjb



Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Lovesick Bear 'Falls' For People Of Spring Valley




(CBS) SPRING VALLEY A 300-pound bear roamed through the Blueberry Hill apartment complex in Spring Valley Tuesday, in search of a mate. Property Supervisor Patrick Flannigan said, "He looked right at me when I was over there, I walked around he just kinda looked around the building and walked the other way."He then climbed 25 feet up a tree, yawned, stretched, and took a nap.

Complete story at this link with video
also including a quote by Mordechai.
( isn’t he related to Esther ?!)
Poor bear looking for love in all the wrong places........No thrill on blueberry hill for him.

Observations in the midst of life

Falling roses in a window
Hung with fishing line.
Pedals lay on the counter
Beauty pleasant to the eye.

Leafy trees with helicopters
Clustered on a tiny twig
Waiting on the wind for take off,
Potential forest- dreaming big.

Beauty falling, hanging still
Pedals dying on the sill.
Potential clustered, clinging tight
Afraid the wind will start the flight.
cjb

Monday, June 05, 2006

100 posts


I was trying to think of something wonderful for my 100th post
but really...
I can't.
I imagine it is best just to acknowledge this mile marker in my blogging life and then quietly move on to post 101, 102, 103.

The name Alastair means defender of men.

On Alastair’s return our youngest ran to him, hugged him and then said
“Daddy! You took a long time!”

All 5 women in his life were happy that he was back, all vying for his attention, all telling every detail of 3 weeks and 5 days without him within the first thirty minutes of his return.

Poor Alastair!

Sunday, June 04, 2006

WANTED POSTER

Last seen boarding a bus at the N.J. Divisional headquaters
on May 9th, 2006
Name: Alastair Bate
Also goes by :
AL, Major Bate, Dad, Daddy and Hey you!
Can't wait till you get home!
Don't make me put your picture on a milk carton.

PENCILS!

“ I am only a pencil in God’s hand. God writes through us and however imperfect instruments we may be, God writes beautifully.”
- Mother Teresa

A PENCIL

A pencil in God’s hand
A #2 at best!
Life pressed on the paper
Will I pass the test?
Lines fill up the page
Drawings, letters- shades
More than I can be.
Write Lord, draw Lord!
In your hand make me,
an instrument for Thee.
- cjb

Saturday, June 03, 2006

mezhdu prochim ya obidelas! ;)

Some life experiences can wound so deeply. We grieve. Our loss may be: a person, a relationship, an appointment, even the death of a dream. These experiences can cause us to be bitter like Naomi. Naomi wasn’t bitter without reason. Her husband and her two sons had died in a foreign land. Naomi was so grief stricken she told people to call her Mara, which means bitter. At this point in her grief, she could not imagine or recognize how God had already planned for her healing, restoration and future blessing. Ruth had already pledged herself to Naomi before she arrived home and changed her name. With such a moving vow, one would think that Naomi would have felt comfort from her words. Yet, to Naomi, Ruth may have seemed more like an extra burden -- another mouth to feed. However, in the end it is through Ruth that Naomi’s healing, restoration and blessing comes.
I have a Ruth in my life. In the year 2000, I went to the Tblisi, Georgia airport to pick up a 19 year old Salvationist from Volgograd, Russia. She had felt God calling her into ministry and for a time she was called specifically to the people in Georgia.
When she arrived, I didn’t really know much about her and we had only been in the country a short time ourselves. She would be coming back to our apartment to live with us until we could find her a place. She would be responsible for the youth ministry in the region. Honestly, I was a bit overwhelmed with this new appointment and three children all under the age of 7. She was “another mouth to feed”. I was in transition, in-between appointments and in-between cultures. The Georgia culture was nothing like the Russia culture I had been serving in for 6 years. It was a time of adjustment.
How quickly everything changed! Lenna became such a part of our family. 3 months past and we never even looked for an apartment for her. When I asked if it bothered her she said she didn’t want to leave us, she wanted to stay with us. I was thrilled because she brought me such comfort. Lenna is the type of person that anticipates what is needed and then gets to work to do all she can do to help. She always goes above and beyond the call of duty. Lenna can laugh and make me laugh until my sides hurt. I like that part of our friendship. Sometimes she finishes my thoughts as well as my sentences.( in two languages!) Once when she was translating for me she went on to my next point in the study. I whispered to her that I hadn’t said that yet or did I??…she winked and said “ I know, but you were going to!” and she was right. Lenna is also a prayer warrior. She approaches the throne of grace with confidence and consistency. She translates, teaches the Bible, preaches and has the heart of a pastor. When we returned to the States, Lenna was already engaged to Zach. He’s American and they are happily married now living in Nebraska.
So, in a way, Lenna returned to my country with me. “My people are her people.” (As if one can find any similarity between Nebraska and New Jersey! But you get the idea.)

Lenna is my Ruth, God has blessed me through my relationship with Lenna. She has been part of how God has in many ways brought healing, restoration and blessing to me. God provided. God is the one who heals and restores, she was the one who was obedient in administering his grace and love at that time. Through friendship, prayer and a listening ear.

How much of a part of our life is Lenna now? Well, when someone asked one of my daughter’s about their family background….one of them said “We are English, German, Scottish, and Russian.” I chuckled and corrected her saying, “We aren’t Russian! We just lived there for awhile.” The answer came back quickly, “Yes! Mom, we are! LENNA….she’s Russian and she’s our family.” (Adding a tone of “Moms know nothing” helps the last quote to ring true)

Lenna now has a blog site….You will be richer for reading it!
Check her out and give her some comments!
I love you Lennichka!

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Our Corps band is on a quick tour in the UK!
We have heard positive reports.
Take a look at our site and you can see for yourself.