Tuesday Tome - Surprise the World!

I'm currently enjoying this little book recommended to me by my friend, Brad Dewing. It's a gem and gives insight on some basic perspectives that can shape and direct our personal interactions with others.

Surprise the World
by Michael Frost

Christianity is a surprising religion. It has changed the world in remarkable ways throughout history simply through Christians living out their faith. More recently, we’ve become afraid of a habituated Christianity, thinking that routines will rob our faith of its vitality. The net effect is that we’ve replaced the habits that surprise the world with habits that mimic the world―and both we and the world suffer for it.

Integrating the five habits in the BELLS model―Bless others, Eat together, Listen to the Spirit, Learn Christ, and understand yourself as Sent by God into others’ lives―will help you spread the gospel organically, graciously, and surprisingly.

Michael Frost, a world-renowned expert on evangelism and discipleship, makes evangelism a lifestyle that is fulfilling, exciting, effective, and easy to live out!

Monday Music - Joan Chamorro

I've had a blast watching Joan Chamorro videos in recent weeks. Great music and so inspirational to see the way he encourages and teaches young people, like Rita Payes and Andrea Motis, to make music. Also love the virtuosic piano work of Ignasi Terrazo.

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Sunday Supplication - Willing Hearts to Do Good

O God, you are our strength. We put our trust in you. We come to you in prayer because you are merciful. We come to you in our weakness because you are gracious and faithful and able to help us do what we could never do on our own. Help us to fulfill your purpose for our lives. Help us to walk in your ways. Help us to please you in our attitudes and our actions.

We confess our sins and ask you to forgive us.  We ask that you would change us and strengthen us. Help us overcome temptation and escape the sins that entangle and destroy us. Give us the grace and generosity we need to forgive others, just as you have forgiven us.

O God, you have fearfully and wonderfully made each one of us. You know the purposes you have for us and you have equipped us to accomplish those purposes. Help us, as we seek you with whole hearts, to discover our gifts and to understand how we can use them to serve you. Give us good things to do and willing heart to do them.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Bad Lip Reading

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Friday Faves - Valley Annual Chili Cook-Off

Come and enjoy the fun and the good food TONIGHT!

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Thursday Thinking - Living in a "Post-Truth" World

"It’s one thing to dispute someone’s interpretation of facts, it’s another to deny that there even are facts, and it’s all a matter of interpretation." 
– Ben Witherington

Postmodern liberals and alternative-fact conservatives should all take note. If there is no trust in honest inquiry, research, witnesses, reason, or scientific data, you can say good-bye to any hope or pursuit of truth. When people are more committed to finding affirmation than they are in dealing with reliable information, you can be sure culture, community, and even Christian faith will fall apart.

This recent post on Dr. Ben Witherington's blog is timely and worth your time. Note that it was published before last Sunday's news programs (January 22).

Do We Live in a World of Post-Truth?
January 21, 2017 by Ben Witherington 

According to the OED (the Oxford English Dictionary), the new word of the year for 2016 was— post-truth. We have talked about post-modernity, and post-Christianity, but now, it appears we have to talk about post-truth. I am quite sure that there is a connection between talking about post-Christian culture and post-truth, at least when it comes to the issues of epistemology (how we know what we know), theology, and even what counts as reality. So, a few comments are in order about post-truth. Firstly, if this means the denial that there are facts, then we have arrived at straight-up nihilism. It’s one thing to dispute someone’s interpretation of facts, it’s another to deny that there even are facts, and it’s all a matter of interpretation...

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Wednesday Words - Say It

Say that it is the continuous life
you desire, that one day might stretch into
the next without a seam, without seeming
to move one minute away from the past
or that in passing through whatever comes

you keep coming to the faces you love,
never leaving them entirely behind.

Say that it is simply a wish to waste
time forever, lingering with the friends
you’ve gathered together, a gradual
illumination traveling the spine,
eyes brimming with the moment that is now.

Say that it is the impulse of the soul
to endure forever. Say it again.


"Say It" by Joyce Sutphen from Modern Love & Other Myths.
© Red Dragonfly Press, 2015.

Tuesday Tome - A Lifelong Love

I'm reading this book and watching a companion video series in preparation for a marriage enrichment reading and discussion group I will be starting in February. If you are interested in participating or if you have questions/suggestions, please contact me.

A Lifelong Love: How to Have Lasting Intimacy, Friendship, and Purpose in Your Marriage
by Gary Thomas

From the publisher...
Gary Thomas believes couples often settle for too little when it comes to marriage. We fail to understand how deeply God cares about our spouse. We diminish our need to not only understand what biblical love really is, but also to become a people who excel at it. We let ourselves drift apart instead of making the daily choices to grow closer together.

Whether your marriage needs a complete makeover, a touch up, or just a new purpose, A Lifelong Love promises to set your relationship on an entirely new dimension. You will never look at worship or your spouse in the same way again. You will understand how living for that day will so radically transform the decisions you make this day. And Gary will guide you through the power shifts and seasonal mine fields that blow up so many marriages so that you can grow in your love instead of in your disappointment.

Thirty years of study and two decades of working with couples has led Gary Thomas to his most significant book yet on the relationship between husband and wife. Find out for yourself what all the fuss is about—and why A Lifelong Love is sure to challenge the way the church talks about marriage.

Monday Music - James Taylor: Let It All Fall Down

Time to bring out this brilliant classic from JT. Those who have ear to hear, let them listen.

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Sunday Supplication - To Readily Seek Your Will

O Lord, help us to answer the call of our Savior Jesus Christ. Help us to seriously and readily seek your will for our lives. Help us, by our words and actions, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to all people. Help us to recognize the salvation he brings and to share that salvation with the world around us.

Thank you for the forgiveness and renewal you give to us through Christ Jesus.  Help us to be forgiving toward each other. And help us to become a redemptive and healing community. Help us to make a saving and healing impact on the world around us.

O God, life is often more than we can face on our own. Help us to navigate our way through our many challenges and conflicts. Help us to live with integrity and care toward others in authentic Christian fellowship. Help our Valley community to be an instrument of your grace, your truth, and your peace. Make us a blessing to our community and our world.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Sloth

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Friday Favorites - Tyler Burkum Concert

This should be a fun evening of music.

TYLER BURKUM • PERFORMING LIVE 
at the Hastings Arts Center
Saturday, January 21, 2017 - 7pm
$20 Online / $25 at door
SEASON PASS Subscribers: This is one of the featured concerts on your pass.

GET INFO AT HASTINGS ARTS CENTER FACEBOOK

GET INFO AT HASTING ARTS CENTER WEBSITE

Thursday Thinking - T.L.C. for S.A.D.

Here is a wonderful article from a young friend of mine.

How to Really Care for a Loved One 
with Seasonal Affect Disorder
by Cassie LaFollette
Upwrite Magazine, January 12, 2017

On the coldest winter mornings, we often experience a physical taxation: our feet flinch on the hardwoods, our legs move a bit arthritically, and as we enter the day, we notice an overall slowing of body. Even the young are impeded by their marshmallow coats. For some people, the season pries its way past a regular chill of the bones, and they find their very dispositions are caught adrift. Both my husband and my dad can identify with this, and through the years my problem-solving self has been frustrated at how hard it can be to help.

There is plenty of great advice on the web about how to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), including lists of products that simulate natural light and myriad noonday exercise tips. Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I look at these my brain kind of shorts out. It’s hard enough to implement my own self-care habits, let alone someone else’s. The how-to slideshows all begin to feel the same: like receiving only the first half of a recipe, just the ingredient list with no direction on how to make it all work together in context of our already busy schedules and depleted energy reserves.

Thankfully, I have managed to find a few unexpected things that seem to really help...

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Wednesday Words - Winter Morning Walks

Just as a dancer, turning and turning,
may fill the dusty light with the soft swirl
of her flying skirts, our weeping willow –
now old and broken, creaking in the breeze –
turns slowly, slowly in the winter sun,
sweeping the rusty roof of the barn
with the pale blue lacework of her shadow.




"Winter Morning Walks" by Ted Kooser from Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison, Carnegie-Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 2001.