Time for a break

Taking a break for a bit.

Obsessed

I'm reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. It is a small book, only 185 pages. But, I find that I can only read a few pages then I have to stop and chew on it and read it over and over. He talks about the fact that the idea of holding back didn't come from scripture and that the life of a Christ-follower is one consumed with Christ and faithfully living out His words.
Over and over Chan mentions obsession and I yearn to have it. The picture that Psalm 1 creates with a tree firmly planted by streams of water caught my eye this morning like it has never before. Probably because gardening is a major challenge right now.
I have a garden that has green (young) vegetables. They aren't ripe yet, so keeping the plant hydrated is a life and death daily struggle for that fruit. If the plant withers, so does it's fruit, and it becomes completely worthless and bitter. My tomato plants need just the right amount of moisture and the balance is delicate. Too little it withers, too much and it creates a fungi-happy atmosphere.

Chan says, "People who are obsessed with God have an intimate relationship with Him. They are nourished by God's Word throughout the day because they know that forty minutes on Sunday is not enough to sustain them for the week, especially when they will encounter so many distractions and alternative messages."

This nourishment is not religious duty. When I am hungry I don't say, "I'm gonna eat this chicken and potatoes because it will restore my glucose levels to feed my cells." I gobble it down because I'm darn hungry; I gobble it down and do the 'What About Bob' hmmmmmmmm as it goes down. It satisfies and delights me. That's the feeling I want to have when I spend time with my Father. HMMMMMM.

When I water my garden, I know the relationship there. I water, they produce, then, I eat.
Guess what. God is complete without my help or worship or work.
Romans 11:35-36 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."
When I am in His presence all I can do is praise him. That is comforting. Like children, we are completely reliant on his provision. I love that. God doesn't provide for my needs so I can pay back something he needs. Any good work that results from his love for me is all, all, because of him.

"A person who is obsessed with Jesus knows that the best thing he can do is be faithful to his Savior in every aspect of his life, continually saying "Thank you!" to God. An obsessed person knows there can never be intimacy if he is always trying to pay God back or work hard enough to be worthy. He revels in his role as child and friend of God."

Bread of Life, or, Life of Bread?

Hearty, tasty, sourdough bread!
Honestly now. Doesn't your mouth just water when you think of a warm, buttery piece of sourdough bread? Me too.
This is my latest mini-obsession. Baking sourdough.
Ok, I have the little monster starter in my fridge and I feed the little beast often. It is getting more and more sour in there and I make bread once a week. You would think that it was no big deal, but it takes hours and hours for a good sourdough batch to rise a couple of times.
Another problem is that I really have no idea exactly what the dough should "feel" like in the various stages. Do I have enough flour or don't I?
Every week I go through this process of trial and error. Yes, I follow a recipe. But recipes of great bread makers are somewhat vague, and require you to know how the dough should feel.

I have found a good website that teaches you how to make it step-by-step, but mine doesn't look like theirs in the end.
I also have a book called The Bread Baker's Apprentice which is designed to give you the techniques that famous baker's use to make bread, but in terms that a home bakers can use in their own kitchens. Well, I love the book, but again, I need hand's on instruction!!!!!
(I'm definitely a kinesthetic learner)

So, I have put in my next birthday request: Bread baking school in San Francisco for the weekend! (my heart is beating hard just typing the words in) I found the The San Francisco Baking Institute online and they offer weekend classes in Artisan bread baking, holiday pastries, German breads....I could go on and on, but I might wet myself. oops.
This would be the best gift ever. Problem? It's $400 for a 2 day course...yes, that's too much.

All I have to say now is "Dave Ramsey better help me save for that in the budget somehow!"

A Wake-up Call

This is worth the time to watch it all the way through.

New Babies On Board

Well the Family Jules farm has acquired new babies. We have 13 baby chickens all happily peeping with content after a horrendous ride through the U.S. Postal service from North Carolina to Cali.
As regular babies do, they sleep and poop profusely. But, we find we can't stop playing "peck" the finger or chase the plastic pooper-scooper with them. So cute....right now that is.
We named them several weeks ago. I realize how totally silly this is, but we had a theme in mind....eggs.
So here are the names we chose:
Huevo
Foo Young
Fritata
Sunny
Quichea
Shelly
Yolko
Omletta
Scramble
Poachy
Merengua
Pavola
Easter

Laugh if you must, they are ours to love now.

We each picked OUR own chicken to specifically name. This last picture is mine. Her name is Quichea. She has fuzzy feet. Not sure exactly what kind she is right now, but she's gonna lay the best quiche eggs in the county!!!

Discipleship?

I can't remember a time when I didn't go to church. My conversion, the time I finally realized I needed saving, came at age nine with a Sunday night service. I watched a young man dressed in loincloths and carrying a very large wooden cross walk down the isle of our little Baptist church. I took a nail and a hammer from his hands and drove that nail into the cross myself, even though I was barely old enough to swing the hammer. I knew my sin had weight and needed to be paid for. This was the eye-opener! Soon afterward, I was baptized, then....nothing.
Up to that point, I had grown up with AWANA and Sunday School and Vacation Bible School all teaching me verses about how to accept Christ. But, what now? I found that I didn't have a consistent path to follow to find out how to actually follow Christ. I floundered even though my spot in heaven was secure.
Later, at a private Christian High School, I was taught the bible. Starting in the old testament, we used our New American Standard like textbooks every day. But, as a teen, I saw it as "the Textbook". I floundered even though I saw the bible every day.
My parents, although Christians themselves, seldom spoke the name of Jesus in our home except in concluding the dinner prayer. I guess I thought this normal, because I had never known anyone who took "classes" on how to follow Jesus. I knew of no parents who were training their children weekly in these matters.

As an adult, I now see there was a cost in non-discipleship, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains in his book, The Cost of Discipleship. I have also been reading Dallas Willard's thoughts on this very subject. When Jesus walked on the earth, a disciple was to go with him, "in an attitude of study, obedience, and imitation". The 12 left everything and followed him as he went from place to place, watching and learning what he did in order to learn how to do what he did.
We cannot literally do that today, but I love how Richard Foster interprets Willard's attitude of a disciple.
"We cannot literally be with him in the same way as his first disciples could. But the priorities and intentions--the heart or inner attitudes--of disciples are forever the same. In the heart of a disciple there is a desire, or there is a decision or settled intent...above all else to be like him."

Since moving to the mountain area near Yosemite over 3 years ago, I came to realize that my church community, farther away now by 45 min., was not as readily available to disciple my children. I have always known that this is not wholly my church's responsibility either.
I helped lead each of my children to Christ. I saw that they had a spot in heaven. Wow. Now I needed to go about discipleship, real discipleship in my home including modeling, serving and study? I could direct school studies most of the time with efficiency, but this was an area that I needed to be committed to. This is my real education for them, to Him.

The cost of non-discipleship, according to Bonhoeffer, "costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God's overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstancs, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring in John 10:10."

Do I want to see my children flounder for years like I did? Dear Father, NO. Can I rely on my church to provide it for each and every child that comes through their doors? (That would be great in the perfect Christian world I pretend I'm in sometimes.) But, I doubt it. This discipleship is a most certain course of study, as is Math, Science or literature, but with the settled intent to be like Christ and to do what he did. This is not a textbook issue anymore, but one that truly gives up all to follow Jesus.

Richard Foster, author of Devotional Classics, seems to state perfectly what I have come to feel.
"There is much more we can do to overcome our 'dicipleless Christianity'- Jesus, our ever-living Teacher, will show us the way....To counter this sad state of affairs we must determine that, regardless of what others do, our intention is to come under the tutelage of Jesus Christ, our ever-living Savior, Teacher, Lord, and Friend. We seek to undertake the general pattern of life that he undertook--not in lavish mimicking but in overall lifestyle. Disciplines of prayer, solitude, simplicity, and service will mark our overall pattern of life."

God's Answer to (almost) EVERYTHING

Maybe you don't hail from Cali, so I will have to fill you mid-westerners and right-coast folks in on what the blog title is referring to.

Have you experienced a hardship lately?
Have you worried about money or how your kids will go to college?
Have you found that your marriage could use a little more...umph?
Are you lonely?
Are you spent with too many activities?
What is your hardship?

Well, in California (and a few other places) we have found God's favor. We have THE answer. It's so simple. It's so...easy to obtain. Listen closely peeps. There is one thing that can change wrongs to rights. That can make your worries disappear. Not forever, mind you, but for a significant moment or two. It's home-grown here in Cali and we are being blessed even now in our state with this beautiful blessing.

We receive this blessing with such gratefulness that we use the gift to bestow blessings on each other. Even now, after church today, I received the blessing and will be passing this blessing along to other believers this very evening.





Yes! You know this blessing?
Adding dark chocolate makes this even more holy and sacred.
John 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.
Amen.

Compassion Bloggers in India---follow their journey with me

I am currently following the lastest team of bloggers who are making a trip for Compassion International. I have read and followed some of them since I started blogging. They just arrived in Kolkatta, India and I have been reading their posts. Pete Wilson's post brought tears to my eyes.
The child we sponsor is there in India, though they won't be visiting her city.
This really gives me insight on how to pray for her and what her life might be like.

Pete said that he visited an orphanage today. All the bloggers were looking at a baby girl. When they asked one of the workers what her name was, she told them that she didn't have a name because she wouldn't live long.

Heartwrenching. But Jesus knows her name.

Follow their stories here:
Pete Wilson - Without Wax
Anne Jackson - Flowerdust
Melissa Fitzpatrick (Beth Moore's Daughter)
Angela Smith
Robin Dance
Shaun Groves
Spence Smith
Patricia Jones