Extraordinarily Happy Ordinary Days

Here I sit, blogging away, I hear the sound of the NFL football game floating in from the livingroom (my youngest son and my husband have this Monday night man-ritual), the voices of my newly married daughter and her husband (who are spending the night here tonight, just for kicks, in her old room) and the laughter of my other daughter Sarah, as she doubtless is on the phone with her beloved.

Josiah (oldest son) called me today just to tell me that he loves me and to thank me - a simple thank you for sticking by him, keeping him near to my heart, and for being his mom. Does life get any sweeter?

He also wanted to tell me that a friend of his that he brought to our college-age small group yesterday, a young man who doesn't yet know Christ, thinks that I'm a really, really great mom. I think I must have also won the lottery and just don't know it yet, because...well, because life is just that good today.

This kid, Josiah's friend, wants to come to Harvest - and this is after hearing the gospel, through various college kids and Tim and me, all evening long last night.

All twenty of us sat around our friends' built-in firepit, on their gorgeous, huge new undulating back porch, all made of flagstone. Picture if you can, a postcard-perfect Federal Blue painted, slate roofed, post and beam home, without a single television inside that home anywhere, as you walk through...no TV exists in this historic home - just the sound of a wood burning stove, and soft instrumental music playing. You continue out to the back porch. There is a large blue barn, also post and beam constructed, behind us. To the side is a horse barn with two horses, and down from there, you see goats frolicking, and one by one the stars began to come out...shining incredibly brightly, there in the country where there is no city light whatsoever.

Yeah. That mental image is a metaphor for my life these days. Completely. Good.

If you tramp the acreage that is part of this property, you will find a creek - more like a small river. Spring-fed, and refreshingly cool in the summer, or so all the teenage boys of Harvest tell me.

Tim and I were graciously and sincerely told to schedule anything, at any time on their property...to make use of this very sought after space anytime we needed it. We won't be taking unfair advantage of such generosity, though this family is part of our church, but we couldn't help but tearily smile. Well, I tearily smiled. Tim just grinned.

When God closes a window, He opens a barn door, apparently.

(...members of Very Large Churches in our city regularly ask to schedule their events here, to be near this quaint setting, to make use of the post and beam barn...we get first dibs.)

We were full of baked beans, home made potato salad, and chili dogs, all graciously prepared by Lynn, and one by one three guitars popped out, and we began to sing. The owners of this property were glowing with joy, absolutely loving having this group meet at their home. We sang in the freezing cold, sitting close to the fire, for a long time. It was worship. Josiah's friend thought it a bit strange, I'm sure, but he enjoyed it so much he is coming back. I don't blame him.

The goodness of God was in quiet evidence in the people and the place - a pervasive peace blankets the Bower's property. I hope they realize that they are very much a part of the sowing that took place in that young man's life. When he gets saved, they will share in that reward. That is how hospitality works.

On another note (and an oh-so-random note at that) here is a picture of "my new baby". Yup. There's a brand new baby at the Atchley house. He is an early birthday present from Tim for me, and he is named after Cary Grant:



Grant, the pocket parrot. (Also known as a "parrotlet")


Grant, sitting on Isaac's shoulder...

Last but not least, I made something called "40 Clove Garlic Chicken" today:




I had to take a picture of forty cloves of garlic, piled on my cutting board!
(later note: I promise, I didn't realize the card was back there when I snapped the picture. I'm not flaunting it on purpose. ACK! I clicked on this picture, after posting it, and realized that you can see this card, plain as plain. Oh well. I'm leaving this picture here, just the way it is. That card sits where I've had it since I got it in the mail four days ago...it puts a smile on my face all the time.)



You place some celery, onions, and a large roasting chicken in the crockpot. Sprinkle the chicken generously with coarse salt, fresh cracked pepper, paprika, rosemary and thyme. Pile forty...you read right: forty. cloves. of. garlic. all around the chicken and switch on the crockpot.

After awhile, you will be treated to the tenderest, best chicken you have had in a long time. Guaranteed. Just don't eat the garlic...it is there to flavor the chicken, or maybe just to smell startlingly good for hours and hours.
In short, this blog is about church life. Which also happens to be my life. Harvest Church isn't a "place" as much as it is a way of living. You have to experience it to understand it. It is abundant living, challenging living....purposeful and passionate living. It is community. It is all things ordinary and exquisite and frustrating and tedious and glorious.
If you don't have a church home, come experience this life. If you have a church home - please....stick and stay there. The rewards are stunning.

Interesting Bits from Other Places

Grace Vs. Deliverance

By: Preston Gillham

Proverbs 3:34b says, “…He (God) gives grace to the afflicted.”

I read that and wondered why God would give grace and not deliverance.

...Many times grace is a training ground run through tear-blurred eyes and which in the end leaves your heart strong, your spiritual muscles toned, and your head clear and organized.

Proverbs 3:34 is repeated in the New Testament in 1 Peter 5:5. It is interesting to note the context that Peter chose in writing this passage under the inspiration of the Spirit. Much of chapter five discusses hard times: Anxiety (vs. 9 and 10). After having defined the world of grace Peter closes the chapter and book by saying that he has spoken of the true grace of God… “Stand firm in it (grace of God)!”

Unless you live in the world of grace you will not get to know it. Grace cannot be learned apart from hardship.

At points in my journey I plead for an easier road and the Lord exhorts me that I have asked to hope only in Him. I would like to learn the ways of the Lord while seated by a mountain stream, but He faithfully encourages me that His way is the wilderness and only there will I really be able to trust Him.

Take courage in your hardship, trial, affliction, discouragement, etc. The Lord Jesus has given you His peace.

For Lifetime Guarantee, that’s our Lifetime Weekly.

"My Own" Friend

"Ripe age gives tone to violins, wine, and good friends."
~James Townsend Trowbridge


I would add "good Godly friends".

I attended the wedding of a daughter of dear friends last night. My Tim and I drove two hours in the rain to get there, arriving just in time. The church sanctuary was beautiful, but more than that, there was this sweet, sweet atmosphere in the air, the sort that doesn't come from decor, regardless of how elegant the look. That sweetness came from the people who filled the room - they all came out of love, and each person brought a unique and joyful energy. We couldn't wait to see this young couple say their "I Do's".

Tim and I were there when this young couple's parents got married. Back then, we all were young twenty-somethings together, and I remember Tim sang for them, during their ceremony. Fast forward, many many days....there we were last night...about two decades later, attending their daughter's wedding.

God means for relationships to be that good. Generational love.

As I sat, looking at faces we have known, loved, and worked with to some degree or another in Master Builders, some for twenty years, I was deeply content to simply be there. As I breathed in the fragrance of friendship, I thought to myself: This is the sort of continuity that can only come with the passing of years upon years. I would not trade this continuity of relationship for anything. I would not leave these co-laborers in the Kingdom for anything short of someone denying Jesus Christ.

Oh, dear ones! Good, gospel-loving friends are not a dime a dozen. To have a good, old friend is a piece of crazy-fortunate fortune, a priceless gift, a treasure beyond all reason. Look around you....who is "still there"? Who manifests the faithful love of Christ to you? Tell them how much you value them - do it today, please, because I assure you this, with all my heart: most men will each proclaim his own goodness, but a faithful man (or woman), who can find? (Proverbs 20:6)

Vows were spoken, as our dear friends (father and mother of the bride) looked on, misty eyed. The father both gave his daughter away, and then officiated her wedding. Tim and I remarked at his poise and sense of humor, and the great job he did for his daughter - he certainly did her proud. As the wedding party and bride and groom skipped back down the center aisle to the fun song "I Feel Good", everyone was smiling. I think there were as many people there for the sake of the parents, as were there for the bride and groom - I know how this feels, and it is absolutely a humbling sense of affection and relationship.

Tim and I ran back out into the rain, jumped in our vehicle, and started for home. Though invited to stay for the dinner reception, we had to get back to town for several important reasons. We left a lot of irons in the fire just to make the trip - two hours there and two hours back...all for 45 minutes of ceremony, if not less.

So worth it. We'd have traveled longer, were it necessary.

The words of a poem come to mind ~

"From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There's nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter
And the love of friends."
~Hilaire Belloc

I have only a few things that are "my own". My house is not even yet "my own". My wedding ring is my own. My husband is my own. Of the very few things that are my own, even fewer - two, in fact - are eternal: family and Godly friends.

Treasure both. If you are insanely blessed, you will find yourself laboring in the Kingdom alongside both family and friends. Make almost any concession to preserve that kind of continuity. God loves it, He smiles on it. There is no other way to establish a generational Kingdom work, but to stick and stay and care about the continuity. No. Other. Way.

It is never God's will that you "build houses, but not inhabit them, plant vineyards, but not eat the fruit of them." (Isaiah 65:21, contrasted with Zephaniah 1:13)

If you find yourself building relationships but not "inhabiting" them for very long, planting family bonds, sowing into friendships, but not harvesting the fruit of them (many many years later)...I will say this as gently as I can, but someone needs to tell you: you are under some sort of judgement. That is not God's version of normalcy. You need to find out why and fix it.

Don't leave those relationships. Nothing else is worth the wear of winning.

Proverbs 27:10 ~ "Do not forsake your own friend..."

The Adventure of Orienteering

Imagine you are plunked down into the middle of a forest wilderness, and given two choices as to how you will navigate it: you could be given a map and a compass....plus a row of little red flags to follow, each one marking your every step. Or you can be given a compass, and a map with a few significant points marked on it...and that is all. Which would you choose?

Most choose the map and compass and little red flags. And so it is with our relationship to God. What was intended to be the adventure of a lifetime, gets turned into boring, relentless do's and don't's dotting mile after mile a path that we are sure leads us to our destination, but takes no thought, no relationship, no real risk. But we follow those little red flags faithfully, consulting the map and compass without understanding either of them - all while keeping our eyes peeled for the next red flag. We feel so smug about our progress, mistaking our lack of imagination to be personal discipline.

Give me the way of the orienteer, any day. Give me the compass of grace, and the map of the gospel, plus nothing. This is the journey of a lifetime, this one life I have been given! I don't want to be looking for the next red flag, I want to be truly engaging the map and compass...

...and I want to need the others who travel with me.

The way of the red flag requires no effort towards true community. In fact, those little markers encourage dis-unity. If someone offends you, if anyone dare disregard one of the red flags, particularly one you deem important, or should anyone leave the way of the red flags and ask you to continue with them, using only your map and compass - regardless of how much you love them, it is an easy decision, requiring only a few weeks or months to make. You simply part company with them. After all, you have those red flags - who actually needs relationships? You can make this journey on your own if you have to.

All red flaggers are in the powerful position of being able to patronize each other, relying on one another's strength and giftedness only when it suits them, and avoiding the discomfort of setting aside their personal peace and preference. Those who journey with naught but compass and map realize their need for each other, and find themselves setting the individualism of ideals aside in favor of the real, hard-won wisdom that is found in a multitude of counselors, particularly those who have been in this part of the wilderness before and found their way out without the red flags.

There is safety in numbers. Safety is of paramount importance when there is actual adventure, versus simulated adventure.

For the orienteer, it isn't enough to follow the red flags. The orienteer wants to "orient" his whole being towards the destination. He will re-work and re-direct over and over again if necessary. He will get lost along the way, yet he is the truly disciplined one. And he discovers at adventure's end that his entire self - mind, heart, will, body and strength - has been integrated into a healthy whole. The way of the grace-compass and gospel-map absorbed him fully and challenged him relentlessly and changed him completely.

So as various believers come up out of the wilderness, how do you know who is who? How can you tell the red-flaggers from the orienteers?

The orienteers are dirtier. Messier. The red-flaggers are merely a bit bedraggled.

The red flaggers emerge either alone or quarrelling or walking in large-but-tolerably- compatible groupings.

The orienteers emerge together...triumphant, smiling...each one leaning on the arm of another.

My Full, Graced Life

I am a "daughter of God" and a "daughter of Abraham". I share certain spiritual likenesses that come from my spiritual heritage. Coming into this by faith has revolutionized my whole life. Consider Romans 4, beginning with verse 20 ~

"Abraham didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. (And, by God, neither will I!) He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us (me...Sheila Atchley)! The same thing gets said about us (Sheila) when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God. By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. "

Capturing Those Moments...

"Tim Atchley's Restaurant" (our back porch and fire pit)

Ribeye and swordfish - prepared last night by chef husband...

Flowers...table by the outdoor fire...yep. He did it all. For me.

On another note, this is my front porch, on any given day. Please note the three balls...

Flowers for me, from Jonathan and Sarah - perfect in that pitcher!

The table set last weekend, awaiting the arrival of our dear, esteemed Pete Beck.

Our guest room...we found a beautiful antique bed last week, and bought a new mattress for it. I had fun decorating the room for Pete's arrival...Pete, who is an Alabama fan. Ahem.

Lastly, my husband's filing cabinet. That's a card he received from the owner of an area business, thanking him for his steady, friendly ways, and his unrelenting Christian witness. The owner said in this card that several of her employees are considering coming to Harvest as a direct result of Tim's unassuming manner, together with his constant sharing of the gospel. Trust me, you can go many, many years and never get a card quite like this. How very encouraging! I'm proud of him - there is no one I respect more. He is consistent, no matter who he is with, his word is his bond, and he will always be honest with people. He refuses all church politics, and expects those who lead with him to be down to earth and honest as well.

Acts 13

"Be it known to you, men and brethren, that through Jesus Christ is preached to you the forgiveness of sins: And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that come on you which is spoken of in the prophets; 'Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which you will in no wise believe, though a man declare it to you!"

Truly, Lord, "Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord." (Luke 1)