Where You go, I’ll go

 Where You stay, I’ll stay

 When You move, I’ll move

 I will follow…

 All Your ways are good

 All Your ways are sure

 I will trust in You alone

 Higher than my sight

 High above my life

 I will trust in You alone

 Where You go, I’ll go

 Where You stay, I’ll stay

 When You move, I’ll move

 I will follow You

 Who You love, I’ll love

 How You serve I’ll serve

 If this life I lose, I will follow You

 I will follow You, yeah

 Light unto the world

 Light unto my life

 I will live for You alone

 You’re the one I seek

 Knowing I will find

 All I need in You alone, in You alone

 In You there’s life everlasting

 In You there’s freedom for my soul

 In You there’s joy, unending joy

 And I will follow

 Where You go, I’ll go

 Where You stay, I’ll stay

 When You move, I’ll move

 I will follow You

 Who You love, I’ll love

 How You serve, I’ll serve

 If this life I lose, I will follow You

 I will follow You

Chris Tomlin, “I Will Follow”

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of joy within them.  I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

My prayer is not that you would take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth.  As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

(John 17:13-19)

Jen Hatmaker referred to this verse during Media Week in The 7 Experiment.  Our group fasted together from (most) all media for a whole week.  We learned some good lessons.  (And, yes, I realize how ironic it is that I’m typing about this on media…) 

Here are some of the things she had to say:

“I grew up in a Christian culture that valued a sequestered worldview.  ‘In the world, not of the world’ was the mantra that kept me separated from ‘sinners,’ isolated from complicated questions…Doubts made me uncomfortable.  Messy issues boggled my theology.  A heavy emphasis on morality reduced my concept of discipleship into simple lists; do this and be esteemed, do that and be condemned.

I artfully skipped over the part where Jesus said, ‘I am not praying that You take them out of the world…As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.’ 

I avoided this concept, preferring a protectionist viewpoint, meaning pull out, detach, ignore, disengage, disconnect, wall it off.  My answer was to live in a Christian bunker where none of it could reach me and mine.  Problem solved.

But Jesus chose a different way to protect us: truth.  Evidently, He deemed that enough to anchor us, severance was apparently unnecessary.  Armed with truth, we can live in this world with great purpose, extreme effectiveness, boundless hope.  Truth is the linchpin, protecting both our holiness and usefulness…

But as Jesus insisted on sending us into this world, perhaps there is a strategy superior to pretending none of it exists.  Maybe remaining culturally savvy, sharp, and discerning, shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves is an advantage…

Truth is why I pulled up programming aimed at children wrought with high school sex, lies, betrayals, and rebellion and talked my two middle school kids through it.  We discussed how characters were reduced and stereotyped, consequences were trivialized, and the views became normative and socializing.

Truth is the reason we enjoy certain shows and movies together, no problem.

Truth protects our identities from the popular media qualifiers of power, position, possessions, and beauty.

Truth turns us into wise teachers, not simply avoiders.

Truth helps us embrace the good elements of media and resist the bad, for it contains both…”

In a way I can’t explain, our church seems to find this difficult balance with seemingly minimal effort.  Our pastor takes a calm, wise, relaxed stance on things like TV, movies, even Santa Claus. 

Most people in our church are up to date on the news – locally and around the world.  Almost everyone I know has hearts for people outside of themselves and their own families – even as they invest intentionally in their own families.  (There are moms in our church I want to be like when I grow up.)

I’m just so grateful to be part of a community that finds more important things to focus on than avoiding the bad. 

The next portion was written just for me I believe.  Smile.

Proverbs 29:20 “Do you see a man who speaks in haste?  There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

“My name is Jen Hatmaker and I am a hothead.  Information sears me quickly and dramatically…but always recedes after walking away and getting my head on straight.  My knee-jerk response can almost never be trusted.  I wait at least a day to respond [on social media] to harsh criticism, post a controversial blog, or pile on a volatile issue online.  Not because I am so wise, but because I’ve made an idiot out of myself one too many times, and I’m sick of saying I’m sorry.

Social media is unprecedented, because truly, once that picture goes up, it’s on there forever.  Once you comment, it’s recorded for infinity.  After you thrust your opinions onto the World Wide Web, that intellectual property is no longer yours.  Relationships can be destroyed.  Trust can be violated.  Feelings can be wrecked.  Reputations can be ruined.  It’s never been so easy to injure one another and ourselves…

We are going to make social media safer or poisonous…”

So it seems this is the time in which we are to live. 

Jesus, give us wisdom.  We so desperately need it.

I’m outside watching the boys make a mud hole in the yard in the one spot Dan hasn’t had a chance to fill out yet.  They’re gonna make me a mud pie before big one’s T-ball game!

These words were ringing through my mind earlier from Believing God:

“When I finally started to walk between the ditches, I adopted a set of spiritualized ‘nevers’ to protect me from becoming like people in Christian media who I thought were weird.  I now realize that at the heart of my list of ‘nevers’ wasn’t the desire to be like Christ.  I don’t doubt He can use media to further His kingdom. 

My desire was to not be like others.

How arrogant can a person be in her attempt to be humble?

The issue to God, however, was not growth of the ministry, participation in radio, or any other kind of media. 

The issue was authority.

He is God, and He alone has the right to say what we will and will not do in our callings.

As I wept in prayer, I felt as if God spoke a gentle question to my heart:

“Beth, what are you afraid of?”

With bitter tears I blurted out, “I’m afraid I’ll fail You!”

Goodness knows I had before. 

I cried until I was sore.

That next morning Kay Arthur was speaking in Houston, and I had the privilege of opening for her in prayer.  I was absolutely desperate for a word from God, so I sat riveted on the front row.

Not coincidentally, Kay’s text that morning was Joshua chapter 1.  At one point in her message, she walked down the platform of stairs, looked straight at me, and passionately proclaimed a pointed phrase from Joshua 1:5:

I

Will

Not

Fail

You!

Only twenty-four hours earlier I bore my soul to God and confessed my worst fear: “I’m afraid I’ll fail You!”

Through His dear servant, God responded, “But Beth, I will not fail you.”

I could still sob over it. 

Boys and Man are outside practicing T-ball.  (I just heard Dan say, “Get your glove up.  And if it hits you it don’t hurt that bad.”  Hee hee.  Boys are funny.)

Anyway, I’ve been told I can feel free to have some alone time.

Today is from Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with God.  Most of this is from Beth Moore’s The Patriarchs: Encountering the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

After [Jacob] had sent [his wives, maidservants, and 11 sons] across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.  So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.  When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.  Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’

But Jacob replied, “I will not let go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?”  Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel [the face of God], saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip…

(Genesis 32:23-31)

Some notes from the video session:

The basic idea behind ‘could not overpower him’ is that the man could not make him quit.  God taught Jacob how to face up and fight honestly.  Sometimes in our night seasons, we don’t know with whom we’re struggling until the light begins to dawn.

When God allows or even invites us to wrestle with Him, His constant goal is to make us overcomers.  Even when God appears to be against us, He is for us.

Jacob wanted an honest blessing.  The name Jacob means deceiver and cheater.  He got a new name.  In every struggle do not let go until the blessing comes!

Jacob got a new name.  An honest name.  Few things define us more than how we struggle.  When we struggle through the crisis with God all the way to the blessing, we are gloriously redefined!

Now onto Genesis 33…

“Begin today’s lesson by visualizing the sun rising on a limping Jacob as he emerges from an all-night wrestling match with God.

Consider how carefully Jacob arranged his family as they prepared [fearfully] to meet Esau and his 400 men.  In Genesis 32:22-23, Jacob sent his family ahead of him. 

But then in Genesis 33:3, Jacob steps up to the front.  After he wrestled with God, he had the courage to step ahead and take the lead, meeting his brother first.

Though he was still terrified, he knew his place.  An intense encounter with God can give us the courage to do the necessary things we wish we didn’t have to do.  We may still be afraid, but we’re more afraid of disobeying God than facing a mess we helped make…

Genesis 32 concludes with Jacob limping.  The first thing Genesis 33:1 tells us is that he ‘looked up and there was Esau, coming.’

According to verse 4, Esau approached Jacob running.  Do you find the contrast peculiar?  Ironic?  After all, Jacob was God’s chosen one, not Esau.  God’s presence was with Jacob, yet He allowed His own child to limp while the other ran.  What is wrong with this picture? 

Beloved, sometimes God will wound His own child to make him walk differently while the profane and ungodly seem to run with endless confidence and vitality.

We are to walk as people who have encountered God, and some of the most transforming encounters are wrestling matches..

Please understand that our wounding and hurt are only temporal, yet they carry great eternal benefits: ‘For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all’ (2Cor4:17).  So let the Esaus of this life run!  This is the only chance they’ll get.  And, yes, let the Jacobs limp.  We have been with God!  Though our humanity may be wounded, our souls are made whole by the One with whom we wrestle…

One of the most powerful quotes I’ve ever read is from the Talmud: ‘God says to man: ‘With thy very wounds I will heal thee.’

We should not be surprised that God planned a meeting between the brothers on Jacob’s way to the promised land.  We too will have the opportunity to face our deepest conflicts and to resolve relational differences on the way.  We’ll often have to return to our weakest state to those we want to see us at our strongest…our limps in full view.

Think again on the scene depicting Jacob bowing down to the ground seven times as he approached Esau.  Imagine the grimace of pain on his weathered face as he took such a humble posture with his wounded hip.  Like Jacob, our promised lands are practically under our noses when we’re closest to the ground.

Bowed down.”

Patriarchs, pages 149 – 153

If His grace is an ocean then we are all sinking.

–  David Crowder

I know they say that the space between

 Can make it stronger than we’ve ever seen

 They might be right but I disagree

 Cause I’ve never felt stronger than when You’re with me

 Sometimes I wonder why You even care

 Cause even when I leave You’re always there

 And like a candle makes a brighter place

 This mark You’ve made on me can’t be erased.

 I wanna be so far gone in You

 So far nothing else will ever do

 I wanna be so far gone in You

 In you..

 I’ve stood alone and I’ve fallen down

 Your hands were there to pick me off the ground

 Sometimes I cry cause I can’t believe

 Your love is big enough to cover me

I wanna be so far gone in You

 So far nothing else will ever do

 I wanna be so far gone in You

 In you..I wanna be lost

 I wanna be lost in You

 Like a ship in the night

 I wanna get lost in You

 Underneath Your sky

Thousand Foot Krutch, “So Far Gone”

Oh my.

Summer is really here in our house.  With Dan & Caden being done with 4-H and me having the week off, we’re trying to figure it all out.

I may be more sporadic on here, can’t tell yet. 

Either way, while WWF commences in the basement, I thought I’d type some verses from earlier this morning. 

Enjoy!

That stirred up a hornet’s nest of questions among the disciples: “What’s he talking about: ‘In a day or so you’re not going to see me, but then in another day or so you will see me’? And, ‘Because I’m on my way to the Father’? What is this ‘day or so’? We don’t know what he’s talking about.”

Jesus knew they were dying to ask him what he meant, so he said, “Are you trying to figure out among yourselves what I meant when I said, ‘In a day or so you’re not going to see me, but then in another day or so you will see me’? Then fix this firmly in your minds: You’re going to be in deep mourning while the godless world throws a party. You’ll be sad, very sad, but your sadness will develop into gladness.


 “When a woman gives birth, she has a hard time, there’s no getting around it. But when the baby is born, there is joy in the birth. This new life in the world wipes out memory of the pain. The sadness you have right now is similar to that pain, but the coming joy is also similar. When I see you again, you’ll be full of joy, and it will be a joy no one can rob from you. You’ll no longer be so full of questions.


“This is what I want you to do: Ask the Father for whatever is in keeping with the things I’ve revealed to you. Ask in my name, according to my will, and he’ll most certainly give it to you. Your joy will be a river overflowing its banks!


“I’ve used figures of speech in telling you these things. Soon I’ll drop the figures and tell you about the Father in plain language. Then you can make your requests directly to him in relation to this life I’ve revealed to you. I won’t continue making requests of the Father on your behalf. I won’t need to. Because you’ve gone out on a limb, committed yourselves to love and trust in me, believing I came directly from the Father, the Father loves you directly. First, I left the Father and arrived in the world; now I leave the world and travel to the Father.”


His disciples said, “Finally! You’re giving it to us straight, in plain talk—no more figures of speech. Now we know that you know everything—it all comes together in you. You won’t have to put up with our questions anymore. We’re convinced you came from God.”


Jesus answered them, “Do you finally believe? In fact, you’re about to make a run for it—saving your own skins and abandoning me. But I’m not abandoned. The Father is with me. I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.”


John 16:17-33 The Message

What could I do to leave a legacy?

 How can I speak with authority

 When I can’t see You, I can’t see You?

 How can I know the dreams You have for me?

 How can I believe beyond what I have seen?

 When I can’t hear You, I can’t feel You now?

 You’re my revival song, You start where I belong

 On my knees, on my knees

 When I am weak You’re strong You meet me here

 When I’m on my knees, on my knees

 Oh, it starts with me

 Why do I try to work outside of You?

 Knocking down doors I should be walking through

 But I’m so tired, I’m so tired

 You take my burdens off of my shoulders

 You break the lies that hold me back

 I’m not sure enough

 I really wanna change the world

 I really wanna sing Your Song

 But I know revival’s got to start with me

 You’re my revival song, You start where I belong

 On my knees, on my knees

 When I am weak You’re strong You meet me here

 When I’m on my knees, on my knees

 Oh, it starts with me

Tim Timmons, “Starts With Me”

All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.  They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.

John 16:1&2

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