Whatever He Says

By Belinda ...  Last week was Pride week in Toronto and on Sunday, our friend Dave sent this email to a few of us who share his faith in Christ. I cried as I read it. What happened reminded me of a passage in Blue Like Jazz  by Donald Miller when he wrote about the action he took one weekend with some friends on the campus of  Reed College . If you have read the book, you'll get the connection. Here's what Dave wrote: I hope you all don't mind... but it seems important to me to tell you about what happened at today's Pride parade. As always, there is a real spirit of fun and frolic - we were there with sprOUT which is a group for lgbt people with intellectual disabilities that Vita partly sponsors.  It is always gratifying to see people with physical and intellectual disabilities so very 'out' in public. I was enjoying the parade mostly by watching those I was marching with. Ruby filled up a super soaker at least five times and had a great time shooting wat...

  9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.     ( 1 John 1:9 , 21st Century King James Version ) By Belinda I sat, at the end of the day, thankful to rest at last, enjoying the cool, gentle, night breeze wafting in through the open screen door, carrying with it the call of coyotes from across the fields, wild and haunting. It had been a perfectly exhausting but perfectly wonderful day. Good Friday; good Good Friday. It had been 2.00 a.m. that Friday morning when I finally conceded that I had done as much as energy and common sense would allow, to prepare for our family dinner after the Good Friday communion service. Okay, scratch the "common sense" from that last sentence--sometimes common sense cannot prevail when there is work to be done. But the sweet potatoes and warm potato salad were ready and the potatoes for scalloped potatoes were ready to peel ...

Matthew 7:3 (New International Version) 3" Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? It happened a few days ago--someone shared something another person did that was questionable and it lodged in my brain and would not go away. I'm ashamed to admit how easily I fell for the age old ploy of the enemy, but I did. I dwelt on the fault of another; ruminating over it and shaking my head at it. And as I did, I noticed a pall falling over my heart; a distance growing between me and God. I couldn't stand the horrible feeling of being out of sync with him for long and I had to figure out what was causing it. It didn't take long to trace the feeling to its cause: a case of Plank in the Eye! Suddenly I felt like such a Pharisee; those religious leaders of Jesus's time. They looked so good on the outside but inside Jesus said they were full of dead man's bones and everything unclean. No one would k...

The candle flickers, the second of the advent season. I think of John the Baptist who went about in the wilderness of Judea urging people, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 3:3 NASV People in Jerusalem, all Judea, and the district around the Jordon went to John, confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the Jordon River. John was to tell of the Messiah. John's call for repentance helps us prepare, too. What sin lurks in the wilderness of our hearts? How are we stunted in our growth in Him by sin within us? What unconfessed sins linger? Careless words, unforgiving heart, a gift we will not give, offense harboured, critical spirit, a judgmental attitude? Will you repent with me? Will you prepare your heart with me for the presence of God-with-us? According to Webster's, to repent means to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life. Right now I am in this place of sorrow and regret. I know a contrite heart He will...

Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a time of reflection and cleansing; a day of fasting and trying to correct failings. As Jewish friends prepared for this day, I too, reflected on needed change. I like reading a blog called Beneath the Wings , written by a woman living in Israel. She wrote last week, "Our sages tell us that true repentance is being faced with the same situation you failed in, and doing properly the next time."I've been thinking about that; trying to be conscious when I faced those moments in which I habitually fail, to, "do properly," or "differently," this time.It helps to think of needed change that way. Susan and I were talking about that definition of true repentance, and she said, "Yes, that's actually the opposite of the well known definition of insanity, 'Doing the same thing and expecting a different result." I had some thoughts on prerequisites for change: First, face the truth of whatever patte...

It is quiet here tonight and I am alone with my God. I wish I could say that it is a comfortable thing, but it is not. Silence and solitude press down upon me; twin weights. The ticking of the clocks, which I usually find a comforting sound,tonight seems to carry a polite reproach. There is much to put right before him; a heart examined, and found sadly wanting. So little love and devotion to him, so little compassion and love for others. I believe in the maxim that we cannot lead people farther than we have gone ourselves. Those words sober me. I am a poor follower of him of late. How then can I lead? Well, perhaps I can lead on my knees. Dear Lord, please take my prayerlessness and make my life a prayer to you. Please take my old and tired heart in your hands and make it over, into a thing of beauty as only you can do. Romans 12:2 (New International Version) 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able...

I am often amazed at David's relationship with our Father God. God said of David, "He is a man after God's own heart." That He was. To cultivate a relationship with our Heavenly Father such as David maintained, is a treasure! David drew strength, power, comfort, wisdom, and blessing from an intimate, deep, and abiding relationship with God. He sought the Lord faithfully every step of the way. David was faithful yet He sinned just like each of us. When David sinned he returned to His loving Father. With a contrite heart he repented and each time God dealt mercifully with David. In spite of everything, God's favour rested on David. In Chronicles we learn that David numbered the people of Israel. God was displeased with David and He struck Israel. David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of Thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. I Chronicles 21:8 NASV The Lord gave David a choice of t...