Tuesday Tome - Everybody's Normal

I am leading a three-session discussion group on John Ortberg's book, Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them. This book is a good companion to my fall teaching series.

BOOK CLUB SCHEDULE:
    Session 1: October 6, 6:30pm - Part 1, Chapters 1-3     
    Session 2: October 20, 6:30pm - Part 2, Chapters 4-7
    Session 3: November 3, 6:30pm - Part 3, Chapters 8-12

We will be meeting in the church office conference room. You are welcome to join us even if you are not able to attend all three sessions. Please let me know if you plan to participate.

A limited number of copies of this book selection will be available at the Valley Christian Church office and resource center. You can also purchase the book at Amazon.

Everybody's Normal: Till You Get to Know Them
'by John Ortberg

Not you, that’s for sure! No one you’ve ever met, either. None of us are normal according to God’s definition, and the closer we get to each other, the plainer that becomes. Yet for all our quirks, sins, and jagged edges, we need each other. Community is more than just a word—it is one of our most fundamental requirements. So how do flawed, abnormal people such as ourselves master the forces that can drive us apart and come together in the life-changing relationships God designed us for?

In Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them, teacher and bestselling author John Ortberg zooms in on the things that make community tick. You’ll get a thought-provoking look at God’s heart, at others, and at yourself. Even better, you’ll gain wisdom and tools for drawing closer to others in powerful, impactful ways. With humor, insight, and a gift for storytelling, Ortberg shows how community pays tremendous dividends in happiness, health, support, and growth. It’s where all of us weird, unwieldy people encounter God’s love in tangible ways and discover the transforming power of being loved, accepted, and valued just the way we are.

Monday Music - If We Confess

If we confess our sins
He is faithful and just
And will forgive us our sins
And purify us from all unrighteousness.

If we confess our sins
He is faithful and just
And will forgive us our sins
And purify us from all unrighteousness.

O Lord, I have sinned,
Touch my life, make me pure again.
I wanna walk in the light,
Renew my spirit, make it right again,
Deliverer, Redeemer, and Friend.

If we confess our sins
He is faithful and just
And will forgive us our sins
And purify us from all unrighteousness.

"If We Confess" from Songs for the Real World,
Words and Music by Dave Burkum, © Copyright 1992.

Sunday Supplication - Courage to Stand Firm

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear us than we are to pray. Your readiness to provide for our needs is greater than our readiness to live for your glory. You remove our fears, you graciously bless us, and you draw us into fellowship with you through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Thank you for your promise to forgive and purify us. Thank you for being the one who saves. Forgive us our sins. Renew us by your Spirit. Show us how to act, think, and live as Christ.  As you have forgiven us, make us merciful and ready to forgive those who have sinned against us.

When we are afraid, O God, help us to be still and put our trust in you. When we feel like running in the face of challenges and obstacles, give us the courage to stand firm. Be our help, our shelter, and our deliverer.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Expertise

Friday Favorites - The Cactus Blossoms

The Cactus Blossoms have been on tour for the past couple of weeks. Nashville, Bristol, New York, DC, and many more. They're playing at Knuckheads Saloon in Kansas City tonight.

Thursday Thinking - About Persecuted Christians

From US Holocaust Memorial Museum - September 15
"According to the United Nations, more than 1.5 million Iraqis have been displaced by the conflict since June 2014, most of them forced to flee because of their religious beliefs. Intentionally targeting a religious group for destruction constitutes genocide.
- - - 
"Known to many simply as the “Vicar of Baghdad,” Canon White has dedicated his life to fostering reconciliation between religious groups in a region where religion itself is one of the primary dividers of people. He is an eyewitness to the dangers so many face in a country that has seen ongoing sectarian conflict for more than a decade. For his efforts, he has endured great personal danger and has seen his staff targeted and even killed for their work. 

"Canon White first went to Baghdad in 1998, where he took over the helm of St George’s Church. Since then, he has transformed its congregation into a thriving community that now includes hundreds of Iraqi Christians. He was named the Archbishop of Canterbury’s special envoy to the Middle East, has served as a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, and has received numerous awards, honorary degrees, and recognition for his reconciliation efforts."

Wednesday Words - The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


"The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry, from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998.

Tuesday Tome - The Divine Conspiracy

Valley's book club on The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard begins tomorrow night. CLICK HERE for complete details. 

We must understand that God does not "love" us without liking us - through gritted teeth - as "Christian" love is sometimes thought to do. Rather, out of the eternal freshness of his perpetually self-renewed being, the heavenly Father cherishes the earth and each human being upon it. The fondness, the endearment, the unstintingly affectionate regard of God toward all his creatures is the natural outflow of what he is to the core - which we vainly try to capture with our tired but indispensable old word "love".

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Kingdom praying and its efficacy is entirely a matter of the innermost heart's being totally open and honest before God. It is a matter of what we are saying with our whole being, moving with resolute intent and clarity of mind into the flow of God's action. 

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Many people have found prayer impossible because they thought they should only pray for wonderful but remote needs they actually had little or no interest in or even knowledge of. Prayer simply dies from efforts to pray about ‘good things’ that honestly do not matter to us. The way to get to meaningful prayer for those good things is to start by praying for what we are truly interested in. The circle of our interests will inevitably grow in the largeness of God’s love.

Monday Music - Your Word

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living, by living according to your word.

I seek you, Lord, with all my heart–
Don't let me stray from your commands.
I seek you, Lord, with all my heart–
Don't let me stray from your commands.

I have hidden your word–
Hidden your word in my heart–
That I might not sin against you.
I have hidden your word–
Hidden your word in my heart–
That I might not sin against you.

How can a young man keep his way pure?

"Your Word" by Dave Burkum from Fireside, © Copyright 2006 by Dave Burkum. CLICK HERE to listen or buy.

Sunday Supplication - Change and Strengthen Us

O Lord God, we recognize your power and might. We believe you are the author and giver of all good things.  By your grace and mercy, place in our hearts a deep and true love for you. Help us to follow Jesus. Nourish us with all goodness. And help us to bear the fruit of good works as your Spirit does your transforming work in us.

We confess our sin and ask you to forgive us.  And beyond forgiveness, we ask that you would change us and strengthen us that we might overcome temptation and escape the sins that entangle and diminish us. We also ask for the grace and generosity to forgive others, even as you have forgiven us.

We thank you, O God, for saving and reaching out to us. Thank you for being a God of deliverance. Help us to embrace the calling we have in Christ and to find our purpose and fulfillment in him.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Too True

Friday Favorites - Östen Lowe

My grandson, Östen Lowe Burkum, has inspired an art installation in Melbourne, Australia. I'd say that's gotta be my favorite news story of the week.  It sure would be fun if we could get over there to see it. Hopefully there will be pictures or, better yet, another future show in the USA.

The Boy Who Loved Tiny Things (installation theatre) 
Artist: The Seam, Drop Bear Theatre and Zoë Barry

Do you have a favourite tiny thing?

Using clay and illustration, storytelling, magnifying glasses, projection and mirrors, come and investigate the secrets and stories that precious little objects hold. You will invent magical tiny objects through sculpture, projection and lighting.

Parents and grandparents - you can recreate your favourite, precious things, share your stories and create new ones together with your child or grandchild. Part treasure hunt, part storytelling theatre, part museum, become a scientist of the imagination, as you create a fantastical museum of tiny things.

These workshops are part of the development of a new theatre performance called The Boy Who Loved Tiny Things - your involvement in the workshop will help create the show. The work is inspired by and will be co-directed by Östen Burkum, the original Boy Who Loved Tiny Things. Östen is 9 years old and lives in Minnesota, USA.

This workshop is part of the ArtPlay New Ideas Lab program where artists are supported to develop new work for children and families.

Age: 7 to 10 years
Dates and times: Sunday 26 October, 10.30am to 12.30pm; 2pm to 4pm and Sunday 9 November, 2pm to 4pm
Cost: $15 per child 

Thursday Thinking - About Communion

The current issue of Christianity Today magazine has a nice piece about the Christian practice of communion–The Lord's Table. He covers a lot of ground in a small number of pages. I think you'll find some excellent food for thought––insights, reminders, meanings, and challenges––on this often misunderstood and potentially divisive meal Jesus gave us.

Table Manners: Why We Take Communion Every Week
At the Communion Table, we grasp the grace of God 
and our need for each other.
John H. Armstrong
Christianity Today / September 12, 2014

I attended church twice a week growing up. I had no choice. It’s not that I disliked church. But like many children, I struggled to understand much of what went on. Easily growing bored, I found ways to entertain myself. I doodled on the bulletin and occasionally timed the pastor’s sermon. I counted the overhead lights, wall panels, and segments in the stained glass windows. While I occupied myself with trivial activities, two details caught my attention: the baptismal pool situated above the choir loft behind the pulpit, and the white table at the center-front of the sanctuary, etched with the words, do this in remembrance of me. Something about the white table got me thinking: Why do we eat bread and wine at the table every few months? And who can eat it?

My church celebrated the Lord’s Supper (also known as Communion or the Eucharist) four times a year. I remember asking why we celebrated it so infrequently. The answer I got never satisfied, and it still doesn’t: “If we do this very often, it will lose its meaning.” Precociously I thought, It doesn’t seem to mean much to us anyway, so why worry about it losing any more meaning? As I grew older, I discovered some churches took the meal weekly. I was then even more dissatisfied with the answer I had received...

GO TO THE CHRISTIANITY TODAY WEBSITE FOR THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

Wednesday Words - Porch Swing in September

The porch swing hangs fixed in a morning sun that
bleaches its gray slats, its flowered cushion
whose flowers have faded, like those of summer,
and a small brown spider has hung out her web
on a line between porch post and chain
so that no one may swing without breaking it.
She is saying it's time that the swinging were done with,
time that the creaking and pinging and popping
that sang through the ceiling were past,
time now for the soft vibrations of moths,
the wasp tapping each board for an entrance,
the cool dewdrops to brush from her work
every morning, one world at a time.

"Porch Swing in September" by Ted Kooser, from Flying at Night. 
© University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.