Snapshots of Life Lived In Community

Our friends the "wee Scottish Prophet" Joe Ewen, and his lovely bride Yvonne are here from Scotland. They flew straight across the pond, landed in Atlanta, rented a black Dodge, and drove until 2 A.M. to get here, yesterday morning.

Joe will mess with your idea of a prophet. He is a people-person, down to earth, pleasant, and delivers a spot-on word from the Lord, if the Lord gives him a word for you. He has always "just so happened" to be scheduled to speak at Harvest at pivotal points in our history as a church. Moreover, when he hasn't been with us, he has called us on the phone, from across the pond, on a couple of random occasions this past year or two, because the Lord spoke to him a word concerning us.

If you miss getting to be with us in the morning, to receive from the Jesus who Joe incarnates, don't hate on me for saying it: you really will have missed a blessing.




Today is his bride's birthday, so we felt a celebration was in order...

There is no other way to be truly blessed, than to be part of a local church.

And I do mean a part...not scaffolding, helping to build only up to a point, and then disappearing...I mean a load bearing wall. Integral. Part.

If you think you are blessed, and you are not an integral part of a local church, that is because you have only known a measure of blessing, and you think that what you know, is all there is to know.

There is so much more in store for you, if you'd but let go of the bitterness and pride, and become part of something that actually requires you to stick it out, love past your limits, past your pain, beyond the imperfections you find in local church leaders.

If you could...oh, if you only could become part...you'd understand the privilege of knowing people like this:

The Finished Work of Christ

I say this with decisive confidence, as a student of the Scripture, and a disciple of Jesus Christ: authority will pass more and more into the hands of men who have the courage to preach the "whole gospel", which is the New Covenant gospel...

...and it does take courage to preach it...great courage. When you get the chance, ask Paul the Apostle how much courage it takes. The New Covenant is the completion (and replacement) of the Old - and any gospel that gives greater weight to the law is an incomplete, "unbalanced" presentation.

The man who preaches the Finished Work of Christ will bear authority and rule, because all authority flows from the gift of righteousness we have been given. We have no authority based on our own puny, filthy efforts.

The New Covenant man will rule lovingly and modestly, because wrapped up in the revelation of the grace of God, is a revelation of his own falling short, and the manifold power of the atonement.

But make no mistake - the Grace-man will rule. The fact that anyone may disagree with that observation does not make it not so. Hound dogs always howl at the moon, but the moon is unaffected.

These men (and women) will be able to bear authority with a trustworthiness that far exceeds their self-aware antinomian-legalist friends, because they have taken the trouble to educate themselves in the whole gospel.

Grandaddy and Grandson's First Trip to the Hardware Store

Poppy and Timothy decided to go to the hardware store recently...Poppy is pricing the supplies for a very special project for me...to be revealed in due time.

Said project has the potential to be very interesting, having to do with our ongoing dabbling in urban homesteading! But it might be a 2012 kind of thing, instead of this year - simply because of our schedule between now and the end of the year. We don't have a lot of breathing room. This project will take some research, then the building of it, then the ongoing maintenence. More time for all that next spring, perhaps?

The gist is this: we are developing a clearer and clearer vision for the sort of life we want, in this brand new season called "Grandparenting". After a lot of wisdom-seeking, we are seeing that we will, Lord willing, grandparent babies and young ones for even more years than we parented babies and young ones.

Grandparenting will be vastly different than parenting - we have no desire to hold the place of mom and dad in the hearts of our grandchildren. We don't even plan on being always the default babysitters - our children will have each other for that. We fully plan on having our own good thing going on, just us two. But at the same time, Biblically, we still bear a large measure of joyful responsibility to grandchildren, our present one, and all future arrivals.


We think there will be a wagon load of 'em. Each one, as celebrated as the first.

So we are going to spend and invest a few years(and it will take some time, even though our plans are simple, our time is limited) designing the sort of lifestyle we want to have with them, in hopes that the payoff will last for years, through the childhood of each grandson or granddaughter. It is a big and blissful job, this creating the back-ground against which all their future memories with us will be made.

Our vision is for our grandchildren to one day, when they think of us, to immediately think of church, of church family, of picnics and tire swings, of our cul-de-sac (if we are still here) of tree forts, and maybe three or four urban chickens and one nanny goat, all in storybook cute enclosures, of course. I would have it no other way! We want them, even after we are in heaven, which is not a morbid thought at all, to be able to conjure images of Mimi's flower and vegetable gardens, and her Engldoodle (my next dog - my dream doggie - expensive as all get-out, but I am allowed to dream!)...

(my next dog...huge!)

...of Poppy and his pond, and of his "Tracker Rides" - getting to ride with him in his Barbie jeep to drop the canoe-boat into the lake and go fishin'!

(This is a replica of Poppy's Barbie Jeep - tiny! post-edit: Both the canoe and the Barbie Jeep are no more. We are on the look-out for another one of each. We aren't in a hurry, but if we find a crazy good deal....)

When his present Tracker gives up the ghost, as it certainly will eventually, he will get another - at least that is the plan. But believe it or not, these little cars are becoming collectible, and sometimes it is hard to come by a good one!

And then....inside this home, music always being played by hand, all of us singing for our supper, a supper made of garden fresh beans, potatoes, squash, and crusty loaves of homemade artisan bread. There will be small to medium projects always having to be laid aside for supper...shelves or cubbies inside the house, and out in the garage,with each grandchild's name on it, for storing each little one's project until the next visit, where it can be resumed with fresh eyes and energies. ...we want these tiny little "flesh of our flesh" humans to have a solid sense of all that is simple and fun and hard work but good, here at Mimi and Poppy's.

Once again, as we already have, (and according to the premise this blog was begun on!) we shall prove that no one has to live the rural-McMansion-agenda, to have it all. (I wrote a book on the unsung joys of suburbia in 2004 - this has been a theme of mine for many years...)

We'll have a nanny goat, maybe, and berry bushes, we already have a teeny tiny "catch and release" pond, plus we have more time to enjoy it, and people who are actually always here, who truly visit. We have a very detailed plan (a conglomeration of several books I've read on the subject of suburban/urban gardening) that will allow us to do as much as we want, right here with our 3/4ths of an acre, oddly shaped plot of suburban homestead.



Vision. We set out with a vision when our children were being born. We are satisfied with the results of it - things didn't turn out perfectly. Perfection visits no one, so it is quite a good thing to simply be fully satisfied, so far.



We gave our children a beautiful childhood, replete with read aloud books, music, uncounted nights spent around our outside firepit, woodworking, crafts, and time with mom and dad. And we did it on very little income, at the time. We did it right here, in quintessential suburbia.



Now, we set out with a new vision for the "grands"....those ones we will assist in raising up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but only to the precise point their parents ask for our assistance. Mostly, we'll be here, ready to make a childhood memory, which is what raisin' children or grandchildren is all about.



Our kids are, and will be great parents, so we don't anticipate doing a whole lot of  raisin' - maybe a summer or two, or a weekend, here or there, from time to time. But we want to be ready.


Ninety-plus percent of living is doing the mundane work that prepares the way for mere moments of glory. We want, when our job as grandparent is done, for the suitcase that is in each little heart, to be stuffed brim-ful with quirky, hilarious, serious, moving, and musical memories.



This means we must continue to be vigilant about living this life we've dreamed, being unafraid to tweak it and change it until it looks just like the life we further imagine. What we imagine is so sweet.


Proven fact: people grounded in the doctrines of grace have the ability to project themselves into the future ("For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord!"), and come back with a happy set of blueprints for today, and the optimism to always be working hard - building towards the freedom and joy they see in all their tomorrows.

The Reason For the Garment of Praise

Proverbs says that heaviness in the heart of a woman makes it "stoop", but a good word makes it glad.

There is no greater heaviness than to be, to even the smallest degree, responsible for your own righteousness before a holy God. (If you think you can handle that, you don't understand His holiness. Or you have a skewed opinion of how very much you fall short.)

There is no greater good word than the Gospel. If you are continually exposed to the preaching of it, if you continually soak yourself in the reading of it, your mind begins to be renewed in it. There is such power in the good news of the finished work of Christ.

Your falling short was credited to Him, and His obedience is credited to you. The mountains will melt away and the hills depart, and in fact, God will no longer be God, if He breaks His promise to never be angry with you, once your life is hidden with Christ. God would have to be angry with Christ.

Your woman's heart, with all its overload of guilt and depression, loneliness and stress and responsibilities, can completely trust in the lovingkindness of God, through the cross of Jesus Christ.

The law as a standard of righteousness?

Yes.

The law as a means of righteousness?

No.

When a woman's heart looks to the law, even partially, as a means of right standing, and therefore blessing and favor, the door is thrown open to all kinds of psychosis. Dis-ease in the mind always results in disease in the body.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician? Absolutely, there is. And He has clothed you in righteousness, and topped it with a garment of praise. Put. It. On.

You cannot know how personally I know these things.

Grace IS The Balance

I'll never forget, when a friend of mine made the remark, in our church's online ladies' "Cafe". The question on the table (about three years ago - we've come a long way since then!) was "do we balance law and grace"?

My friend said, "Grace IS the balance."

So, so true. For all human history, from Mt. Sinai until a mere 2011 years ago, law held full sway. Most legalists and their legalista counterparts, don't take the law nearly far enough. They pick and choose the parts of the law (about less than 2% of it) that are palatable to them, and try to claim they are "blessed" by keeping those parts...that 2%.

Let me point out - the law was radical. If you - regardless of your age right now today - dishonor your parents, for any reason, you forfeit a great deal of blessing. A rebellious son or daughter was stoned. For most of us, both we ourselves, AND our children, should not be living long lives on the earth. And if you were the source of sin in the camp (greed for financial gain, for example)...well...

But it was not so, from the beginning. I say this, not because God changes, He does not. I say this because Christ is the exact image of God, not the law, not the Torah. Before there was a law, there was Christ, planning in His wisdom to die for us. Before there was a law, God knew that the law, once it was given, would not be kept by any human being from Adam till Christ.

Therefore, a righteousness by the law was not the plan from before the beginning! (And a truly mature believer knows He who was from the beginning...very significant!) Nor was it so, under the Abrahamic covenant, which is the covenant in force through "the seed, singular", Christ Jesus. God made that covenant with Himself, by Himself.

And don't even bother to wave the Scripture under my nose where God says, "Be ye holy as I am holy." You still aren't getting it.

That would be precisely like me telling you, "You must be an Atchley, as I am an Atchley." To accomplish that, I would have to adopt you.

You can't be holy as God is holy! Are you crazy?? Friend, you have to be adopted! You have to have the mystery, once hidden from the ages, now at work in you, that being, "Christ IN YOU, the hope of Glory!"

You've forgotten that holiness has less to do with your petty behaviors, and more to do with His Name. Oh, His Name is Holy! To be a Holy one, you have to be adopted into the Holy Father's family. You can't keep the law good enough to earn the name.

Here is your takeaway:

The law, as a schoolmaster, to teach us what righteousness looks like?

Yes.

The law as a means of righteousness?

No.



We are no longer blessed by keeping the law. Suddenly, a radical change came about, as it pertains to the promises of God. (Any and all promises of blessing...)

The change? Suddenly, after thousands of years of blessings coming through obedience to the law, today every promise of God is now "yes and Amen" through Christ Jesus, not through the law. If even one promise was "yes and Amen" through keeping the law, the Holy Spirit would not have made this distinction.

Funny thing is, those of us who have repented of our law addiction, who have had our veil removed, are characterized by keeping the law. We sort of bear the kind of fruit, against such there is no law.

But that's another post for another day, delving deeply into the book of Isaiah, side by side with Galatians, and going back and forth, letting Scripture confirm Scripture.

And your problem with any of this is....?

They Add Such Sparkle to Life...

...and they pull your tablecloths off.

::sigh::

Glad there was nothing on it! He was doing this, and I happened to catch him in the act, when I came around the corner. No more tablecloths for this grandmommy. That makes me sad, but only a little.

He's so worth it.

Superfood Breakfast - steel cut oats

Oatmeal is a known "superfood", but not the oatmeal you might think. Not the kind in the little packets, that comes in "flavors". Not the instant kind.

Think steel cut, whole grain oatmeal instead. The difference in appearance is big. The difference in nutrition is big. Difference in taste is....big. Think margarine-versus-butter-kind of big difference in taste.


Steel cut oats. Beautiful.

It's a big deal, people. Superfoods are a big deal. I have been incorporating them into my diet more and more, with the goal being almost every meal featuring a superfood. It is a slow process, because I also prefer to eat seasonally...so I won't be eating alot of pumpkin (also a superfood) until the fall.

Guess what else is a superfood? Blueberries. Guess what goes together beautifully? Oatmeal (the steel cut kind) and blueberries.

How to prepare steel cut oats? A pre-soak is best. About a cup of water, to 1/4 cup of oats (for one serving), and soak it overnight.

Next morning, bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer it for about ten or fifteen minutes. (If you don't presoak, make that thirty minutes). Add some butter, some brown sugar, some salt, and even some cream...I do it. Not everyone does it, but everyone should.

That's my motto.

...and lots of blueberries.