Sunday's Testimony ~ Jim Caviezel of his Experience in "The Passion of the Christ"

Sunday's Testimony

Jim Caviezel's Testimony of his Experience in 

"The Passion of the Christ"

Jim's Story 

 

Tuesday's Trust - Thrown to the Ground...

Tuesday's Trust

Thrown to the Ground...

Babygirl, amidst your crash, you were thrown to the ground...

Amidst our prayers for you and our acts of tough love,

Who knew that the way Up for you would be Down?

Our Heavenly Father heard all our cries and took you Above.

And now Babygirl, Mommy, too, has been thrown to the ground...

Like a kernel of wheat, buried in that ground with you that day.

And yet... I live, seemingly to stumble around,

Trying to heal, as if there were any way...

God has His plan; It obviously is not my own~

He allows our disability, our abject weakness

To remind us Who should always be on the Throne

While we are left aground to deal with daily duress.

And yet He reminds me, there is a way, only one ~

"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.

I have told you these things that IN ME you may have peace."

(Peace?! Living a life when I've lost my baby girl?!)

And yet, I am to live for there is work to be done,

But His words encoded clue me in; it's only IN HIM I'll find sweet release.

I must allow myself to "be like the kernel of wheat" . . .

Only when allowed to be thrown to the ground, will I find His sweet peace!

"IN ME" you may have peace . . .

~ NOT A TROUBLE-FREE, SUFFER-LESS LIFE AS SOME PREACH ~

But an obedient willingness to suffer amidst the world's worst grief

Enables God to have His way, for many souls ~just like you~ for Him to reach!

This world is not my home; I must allow Him to show the way

To prepare me for Heaven with hard-fought treasures to be stored up for that Day!

Babygirl, amidst your crash, you were thrown to the ground...

Who knew that the way Up, for both of us, would be Down?

~~~~~~

Jesus: 

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me."

~John 12:24-26 NIV

Jesus: 

"I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

~John 16:33 NIV

Jesus: 

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

~Matthew 6:19-20 ESV

Picture, Wheat being scattered to the ground, thanks to FotoSearch
Poem - Thrown to the Ground... - Angie Bennett Prince - 09/09/2012
Scriptures: NIV = New International Version; ESV = English Standard Version

Tuesday's Trust - "Lamentations"? or "Get Over It"?

I needed this trip to wrestle, bloodied and grunting in the darkness...to at last receive the blessing of light.

~Maile*

Tuesday's Trust

"Lamentations"?

or

"Get Over It"?

This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the Enemy has prevailed...

~Lamentations 1:16, NIV

There's a book in the Bible called "Lamentations"; last time we looked, it was NOT called "Get Over It!"

lament: a passionate expression of grief or sorrow

I can just see it now. If we wrote for a Christian magazine, or a church newsletter, such laments as we actually find in the Bible most likely wouldn't be allowed. It's as if they are saying, "What would THAT do to God's reputation, if we actually intimate that God ALLOWS suffering on planet earth?", or, more accurately, "What would that do to the magazine or church budget if we admit that suffering is alive and well, EVEN among God's chosen people??????!!!!!!"

So, where does such a mentality among the powers-that-be in churchianity leave us CHILD-LOSS GRIEVERS WHO SUFFER SORROW EVERY SINGLE DAY OF OUR LIVES at some volume or other on any given day?

We feel pretty much left out in the cold.

What an offense this must feel to the Living God that such churchianity dismisses a whole passel of people who are hurting as these pious ones wouldn't won't to "hurt" God's reputation by embracing the sufferer's difficult reality and all it encumbers ! In effect, such mere little human beings who set themselves up as God's spokesmen demean the powerful Living God by feigning a different reality so that HE won't look so bad!

Our contention is that the Almighty God who created Heaven and Earth does not need such false "protection." Think about it:

THAT is what FAITH is!

THAT is what TRUST is!

What are Faith and Trust, but learning to see with spiritual eyes when all our physical eyes can see is PURE DARKNESS!

And God so entrusts us with His heart, knowing that if we learn to believe Him, we will develop such Faith-and-Trust eyesight; we aren't born with it; we must develop it! Without stressing our muscles, they don't grow. Without stressing our bones, they don't grow. Without stressing our spirits, they don't grow either! At the very least, let us begin our honest lament, by humbly, but honestly, acknowledging before God this great distress of our mind, emotions, body, soul, and spirit due to the loss of our precious child…

May our Lament lead us straight into the arms of our Loving Lord...

For Jesus Himself said,

"Come to Me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest."

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)

(capitalization, mine)

*Picture and Quote, from Maile at http://mailesmucker.blogspot.com/2012/05/to-cavern-and-back-again.html

NIV: New International Version of The Holy Bible

Monday's Mourning Ministry - The Old Rugged Cross ~Alan Jackson

Monday's Mourning Ministry

The Old Rugged Cross

~Alan Jackson

The Old Rugged Cross

~Alan Jackson

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

The emblem of suffering and shame,

And I love that old cross where the Dearest and Best

For a world of lost sinners was slain.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross (old rugged cross)

Till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross

And exchange it some day for a crown.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true

Its shame and reproach gladly bear;

Then He'll call me some day to my Home far away

Where His glory forever I'll share.

And I'll cherish the old rugged cross (old rugged cross)

Till my trophies at last I lay down;

And I will cling to the old rugged cross

And exchange it some day for a crown.

I will cling to the old rugged cross

And exchange it some day for a crown.

picture: http://christianbackgrounds.info/the-cross-sunshine/

video: http://youtu.be/Za1-e9zuGV0

Friday's Faith - Are We to Embrace Cookie-Cutter Religion Or In Missing Our Child, Are We Learning to Walk By Faith?

Friday's Faith

Are We to Embrace Cookie-Cutter Religion

Or

In Missing Our Child, Are We Learning to Walk By Faith?

We watched a webinar by The Compassionate Friends tonight. One of the comments made by the speaker was,

"Child-Loss Grief is not an event but a process, and in most cases a life-long process."

Unfortunately for us child-loss grievers, it seems the church has adopted the same "Get-Over-It" syndrome that society has. So the child-loss griever very quickly feels alienated by such unrealistic expectations. The church's view of

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"

~Philippians 4:13 (KJV 2000)

heads dangerously in the direction of,

"This child-loss grief can be resolved, and you need to get back to the way you were!"

Yet we child-loss grievers intuitively know,

None of Us Will Ever Be the Same Again!

Whatever happened to the sweetness of Christ who walks alongside us IN our grief?

Where is that same sweet spirit in our brothers and sisters from the church?

We child-loss grievers who experience the tender compassion of our Lord are changed and transformed by God in a way that is much different than the standardized version that the church has prescribed.

For one, we now know what's important, and the church doesn't always know that. It is only in suffering that you discover what is important and meaningful in life.

And if the church is defining spirituality in terms of prosperity and success, then all is lost because "prosperous" and "successful" people have no idea what is important in life for they too often "sell their souls to gain the world" and lose touch with the very Source of Life. With prosperity, you lose a sense of your values. Jesus Himself said "If you try to save your life, you'll lose it. But if you lose your life, you'll gain it."

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.

~Matthew 16:25-27 NIV

Yet the church tends to push the absence of suffering as a sign of spiritual growth.

In contrast, our own Lord stipulated,

"In this world, you will have trouble..."

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

~John 16:33 NIV

Paul tells us you don't develop godly character without suffering.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

~Romans 5:1-5 NIV

Scripture tells us God's own Son learned obedience through suffering.

Even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things He suffered.

~Hebrews 5:8 NLT

These messages from Scripture are quite different messages than the ones projected from the church of today.

The church forgets Faith is the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. Thus we will always grieve this side of heaven, but we will --by faith-- hold onto things not seen by the human eye, but known in the spiritual heart.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

~Hebrews 11:1 KJV

We long for the day that God redeems His creation from the fallen world that it has become, filled with death and dying, war and decay, brutality and mean-spiritedness, longing for it to be restored to the Creator's loving perfection He originally designed it to be.

So too we "hope for" the ones we now cannot hold in our arms, but will forever hold inside our hearts until that Day our hopes materialize.

Like the speaker in tonight's webinar said,

"We are more and more being encouraged to increase the bonds that we have with our (deceased) child (versus the old message of learning to "let go" of your loved one)."

We would add,

We child-loss grievers learn to stay connected to our child by practicing bonding with them in new ways. When we cannot hold them in the flesh, we must learn new ways to hold them in our hearts.

By doing so, we are --in essence-- learning to walk by faith...

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

~Romans 8:18-27 (NIV)

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near...

Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

~James 5:7-8,10-11 (NIV)

Picture, thanks to FotoSearch

NIV - New International Version

KJV - King James Version

NLT - New Living Translation

Tuesday’s Trust - Your Power Works Best In My Weakness? / The Way Appointed ~Elisabeth Elliot

Tuesday’s Trust

Your Power Works Best In My Weakness?

and

The Way Appointed

~Elisabeth Elliot

Your Power Works Best In My Weakness?

Your power works best in my weakness?

You do more through me with a thorn in my flesh?

This messenger sent from Satan to torment me, to make me powerless—

Will be the very tool You use in me—You, myself, and others to bless?!

Your thoughts are indeed much higher than ours

Your ways far beyond what we can imagine:

Through every torment Satan sends to weaken, Your Spirit us empowers;

His inflictions sent to mar Your work, You redesign by Your own fashion

To be cords in our life’s tapestry to interweave Your Life more deeply in ours

As You weave bindings to bind each hurt with Your Healing Love and Compassion.

Effectively entwining our hearts to Thee

Despite our blinding pain, You give us new eyes to see…

Thank You Lord, that You will not be stymied whatever Satan may do,

For though Satan rips holes

in our tender souls,

You interlace Your love into each tear so that Your Love in each, shines through!

Satan’s holes

open my tormented soul

to the light of God’s grace

that I, and others,

–through my brokenness–

more clearly may see

His face.

*****

The Way Appointed

~Elisabeth Elliot

ONE ASPECT OF THE MYSTERY of God’s sovereign will is how the calculated evil of men is not only permitted, but actually becomes a necessary part of the divine plan. We are tempted to think of the wrongs done to us as hindrances, frustrations, interruptions.

“What has this got to do with the will of God?”

we ask, irritated and, we suppose, justifiably impatient with human interference. But the truth is that both our time and our way are in God’s hands—they are “appointed.” Surely it is so for all his sons as it was for the Son of Man. When He was on the verge of being “handed over for crucifixion,” and betrayed by one of his own disciples, He said,

“My appointed time is near…. One who has dipped his hand into this bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man is going the way appointed for him.”

[Mt 26:18, 24 NEB]

Out of the deepest depths of human evil the good God brought salvation—the very salvation of man whose sinfulness killed the Son He sent.

Nothing can reach us, from any source in earth or hell, no matter how evil, which God cannot turn to his own redemptive purpose. Let us be glad that the way is not a game of chance—it is a way appointed, and it is appointed for God’s eternal glory and our final good.

*Highlights, mine

Tapestry of a Heart Picture, thanks to FotoSearch

Poem – Your Power Works Best In My Weakness? – Angie Bennett Prince – 6/13/08, edited 9/12/2008

Elisabeth Elliot in ~A Lamp for My Feet: The Bible’s Light for Daily Living

NEB: New English Bible Translation of The Holy Bible

Tuesday's Trust - Strength Amidst Suffering??? ~with Viktor Frankl

Tuesday's Trust

Strength Amidst Suffering???

~with Viktor Frankl

A client said something to me this week that absolutely shocked me. She was describing a grandfather (who is now deceased) and mentioned that her grandmother divorced him. Calculating in my head that this occurrence had to have happened many years ago ~ at a time when a woman divorcing a man was fairly rare ~ I asked, "So why did your grandmother divorce him?"

Her reply was,

"...Because he was laid up in bed and couldn't work, so he was absolutely worthless."

I was dumbfounded. How could anyone describe a beloved family member as "absolutely worthless"? The subject gave us quite a bit to talk about in our therapy session!

When I asked her to describe her grandfather in more detail, she admitted he was a creative and a very spiritually-attuned man who had used these gifts as best he could, but he suffered debilitating depression.

"Absolutely worthless?!"

(That does not a worthless man make, we both agreed!)

She conceded later a recognition of her mind's inner workings when she said,

"I guess that tells you how I see myself..."

Ahhh. Now we were getting somewhere...!

*****

We are child-loss grievers. Most of us, if not all, have had the proverbial rug jerked out from under us, our lives turned upside down, often rendering us weak and helpless, fragile and often quite dysfunctional.

Add to that already vulnerable state the sad fact that outside family members can't seem to "get it" when it comes to the degree of our suffering. Many seem to want to cast aspersions at our weakness, and even ~ in their arrogance ~ want to "give us advice."

(As if we could just snap out of it because they speak such "wise" words to us!!!) The height of IGNORANCE A-N-D ARROGANCE!

But what about us? How do we see ourselves?

• What if we have been rendered so dysfunctional that we can barely eke out a living?
• What if we have to withdraw from the world to protect our fragile emotions?
• What if we are transforming into a "weak" person compared to the "strong" person we once were?

(All of this is basically where I am five years into my grief!) So, do we conclude that we are "absolutely worthless"? (Fortunately, I have more compassion for myself than that!)

Maybe it is a temptation to question our "value" at times. We certainly seem a lot different than we were before... weaker in many ways. And yet, our suffering is building inner strengths in us that many will never achieve as it requires dying to self, dying to this world's illusions, dying to the false gods that we know now offer absolutely nothing, dying to any illusions of having control, having power, having all the answers, or even having all our dreams come true...

And who is going to die to all of those illusions without first being thrown down to the bottom of the bucket of helplessness?

So now...

• We know what's real,
• We know what suffering does to people; therefore we have a new compassion for others,
• We know who is authentic,
• We know what is is to love, and lose a beloved child ~ So we know we have faced the world's hardest-possible loss, and thus far, have survived..., and
• We know we need God to be able to even make it from one minute to the next...

These are all "treasures" in the darkness that can't be received in the superficial world in which most people live...

*****

Viktor Frankl

After his years of enduring the concentration camps at Auschwitz, Dachau, and others during the Holocaust of World War II, psychiatrist and himself a survivor, Viktor Frankl admits,

"The majority of prisoners suffered from a kind of inferiority complex. We all had once been or had fancied ourselves to be "somebody." Now we were treated like nonentities. Without consciously thinking about it, the average prisoner felt himself utterly degraded."

In such circumstances, there is a great temptation to helplessly react to our circumstances or to give in to abject helplessness.

Frankl wondered,

"(Can) man escape the influences of his surroundings?

Does man have no choice of action in the face of such circumstances?"

He concluded:

"(T)here were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom."

He recognized that

"Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress... (Man) may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp... If there is a meaning in life at all, there must be meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.

"The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity-- to add a deeper meaning to his life.

"...Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individually...

"Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross.

• When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task.
• He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place.
• His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.

He and his fellow prisoners talked with one another, consoled one another, and encouraged one another.

"...Once the meaning of suffering had been revealed to us, we refused to minimize or alleviate the camp's tortures by

• ignoring them or
• harboring false illusions and
• entertaining artificial optimism.

Suffering had become a task on which we did not want to turn our backs. We had realized its hidden opportunities for achievement... getting through (the) suffering.

"...Whoever was still alive had reason for hope. Health, family, happiness, professional abilities, fortune, position in society -- all these were things that could be achieved again and restored. After all, we still had our bones intact. Whatever we had gone through --"

Then Viktor quoted to his fellow prisoners from the philosopher Nietzsche,

'Was mich nicht umbringt,

macht mich starker.'"

(That which does not kill me,

makes me stronger.)

Pictures of the concentration camp and surviving prisoners from Auschwitz, Poland, thanks to FotoSearch