Refreshed!
Elizabeth's personal reflections
on living and growing with Jesus

Current month's Refreshed!

April 2010

Longing

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 speaks of the hope of heaven, and particularly to the hope of shedding our earthly bodies for imperishable ones one day. This morning I breathed a prayer of thanksgiving that I am graced with good health. I am fit and healthy and I'm rarely forced by my circumstances to think about my body's frailty. Yet. It's pure gift, which I don't take for granted, that I rarely feel limited by my 50+ body.

Yet this passage speaks to me instead of another kind of frailty, that of my soul life.
It too is frail and in need of God's grace. I responded this morning with this prayer:

Longing. For heaven, for wholeness,
knowing that one day it will all be complete.
Yet confident even now that all is well in Christ
who is busy with me, working in me,
restoring my soul.

Lord, who has assured me of eternal life,
a new body which will not perish
and the promise that I can stand before you
without blemish and without fear,
I yield my soul to you today.

I let all thoughts which hinder me go,
shedding them as yesterday's clothes--
thoughts of judgment, could have's,
should have's, should-have-been's--
and stand before you now in freedom and grace.

26/04/10

I am not who I was

I've just finished reading Mitch Albom's have a little faith in which he follows the lives of his NYC rabbi Albert Lewis and Detroit pastor Henry Covington. Henry is an ex-drug addict who leads a little community who ministers to the homeless. It's a ministry of identification because most of them have been homeless and started coming to church since Henry had met them right at their place of need.

have a little faith is an intriguing read loaded with quotables. One part has stuck with me since closing the cover last night. I find myself identifying, not because of a similar past but because of a similar conviction.

Henry is preaching to his Black congregation which Mitch Albom frequently visits. Henry believes in transformation. He believes passionately that God changes lives, and he refuses to get stuck on who someone was in the past. Faith in Jesus is about transformation. We do not have to keep being who we once were. Change is possible, what we're meant for. Let's listen in ...

In the Book of Acts, we read that Paul--after his conversion--people distrusted him because he used to persecute the church, but now he praised it. 'Is this the same guy? Can't be! Nuh-uh.'...It's amazing how folks can't see you, 'cause they want to keep you in that past. Some of our greatest problems in ministering to people is that they knew us back before we came to the Lord--"

"Yes it is!"

"The same thing with Paul...They saw him...they couldn't believe that this man's from Jesus, because they looked at his past--"

"That's right!"

"They just looked at his past. And when we're still looking at ourselves through our past, we're not seeing what God has done. What He can do! We're not seeing the little things that happen in our lives--"

"Tell it now."

"When people tell me that I'm good, my response is, 'I'm trying.' But there's some people that know me from back when--anytime I make that trip to New York--and when they hear I'm the pastor of a church, all of a sudden, it's like 'I know you gettin' paid, boy. I know you getting' paid. I know you.'"

He paused. His voice lowered.

"No, I say. You knew me. You knew that person, but you don't know the person that I'm trying to become."

(Mitch Albom, have a little faith, p.191-193)

21/04/10

Spring Growth

Doesn't the new growth of spring refresh your spirit? I love to bathe my eyes on the fresh greens of new leaves and the bright yellows of happy narcissus. (Or is that narcissi? Let's go with daffodils!) I find such satisfaction in seeing the bulbs I planted last fall and the plants I cut back for the winter come to life, my efforts in the garden nicely rewarded.

Several new people have approached me over the past couple of weeks for spiritual direction. Three of them are brand new to me and weren't even recommended by someone I know. They came to me via my website where my written words connected with something in their hearts.

Throughout the fall and winter I laboured hard over the site's design and its words. It's encouraging now to see new growth sprouting from my labour as the first signs of green pop up from below the ground.

15/04/10

The power of your love

Occasionally in our lives, if we're fortunate, we get to see something truly extraordinary happen. The fortune was mine last evening. The Crossroads Ministry Center was packed with 90 people for the celebration dinner of our Alpha course. I served the meal and then remained behind the bar to watch the extraordinary unfold.

The room pulsed with love, a sweet brotherly love, strong and real.
Testimonies spoken of lives given meaning, purpose and peace.
Enthusiasm expressed among the guests to join in the next Alpha.
A sense of something holy, something miraculous having taken place: so many who have traveled so far on the road of faith in such a short time.
The love of Christ, just as real and tasty as Fieneke's delectable dinner.

The love of Christ has touched lives, and he gets all the glory. But, as one of the team members shared last night, Jesus has had a rather remarkable helper in our friend Anouk van Tooren.

There's an old Debby Boone song that popped into my head this morning, which I just managed to locate on iTunes. Think Latin rhythm energizing these words:

Teach me how to love the way that you love
To pour out my life for another
Teach me how to care the way that you care
I've got so much to learn from you

Anouk has caught what it means to love like Jesus. As she loves, people see Jesus instead of her. Barriers to faith seem to 'simply' fall away. I see it over and over, and I stand in awe every time.

A heart that beats with great compassion, pulsing our lives with hope
A love that just begins when human loving ends, a love I want to know

As I watch Anouk loving people to Jesus, I wonder why we've missed it. They will know you are Christians by your love has been the challenge for nearly 2000 years, so why do our lives so often speak so little love?

Anouk, I want to learn to love like you love. I will keep watching and learning from you, always keeping in focus that you have learned what you have learned from Jesus who loved you first. Extraordinary friend, be blessed today after having given your all so beautifully.

09/04/10
song lyrics

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