San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

Jesus, and What He Apparently Thinks About Social Media

Last Sunday, Chris preached at a friend’s church about the God Who Came Near.

I feel like He came near to me today. In the line at the post office, while I was reading Twitter.

I mean, it wasn’t an earth-shattering moment. I didn’t fall on the floor, speaking in tongues. (Thank goodness. That would have been awkward.) It wasn’t even a specific tweet that caught my eye.

But somehow, as I read my twitter stream, I felt the Lord come near and grow my heart for Him. He stretched my understanding of His nature. By His grace, He allowed me to gain a deeper wonder for aspects of His character that my humanity isn’t inclined to “like.”

There are so many paradoxes in that experience. I wasn’t doing anything “Christian-y.” I was using social media, which isn’t considered spiritual. I was mailing a Christmas package, which could be viewed as commercialism. And Jesus met me.

And that’s so spiritual. Because Jesus wants to encounter our hearts in the mundane. He isn’t afraid of social media or the commercialization of Christmas. He’s so much bigger than that.

I kind of feel like we shouldn’t fight and kick and rail against “non-spiritual” aspects of life. Rather, embrace them as opportunities to meet with Jesus. You never know where He might show up. Maybe at the post office.

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San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

You might not have liked Jesus…

I’m not very faithful in reading other people’s blogs (except my husband’s, but that’s probably only because he’s so cute). But John Mark McMillan always has such interesting blog titles that he’s snared me in more than once. Besides, it’s a safe bet that, loving his lyrics as much as I do, I’m bound to be intrigued by his other writing as well. Today was no exception and I wanted to pass an excerpt on to you:
Jesus isn’t exactly so safe himself: He might spit in your eyes (Mark 8:23), he might call you a dog (Matt 15:26), he may ask you to do things that you can’t do (Matt 14:29), he might bring 120 gallons of wine to a party where people have been drinking all day (John 2), he may lead you to open sea in a storm (Mark 4:37), he might change your life then ask you not to tell any one (Luke 8:56), he and his friends might get arrested (John 18:12), he might offend your friends (John 6:66), he might insult the “righteous” people (Matt 23:27), he might let guilty people off the hook (John 8:10-11), he might offend his own family members (Luke 8:19-21, 14:26), he might hang out with people you don’t like (Luke 19:7), he might start a riot (John 2:15), he might use toilet speak to support a spiritual principle (Mark 7:20), he might tell you that what you’ve believed your whole life is wrong (John 3), he might use offensive language at the dinner table (Luke 11).
The way I see it, Jesus is anything but safe, but he’s never boring! And isn’t that what we really want?

I like that. Jesus did what the Father was doing regardless of how it appeared to others, regardless of who it bothered. I wonder what would happen if I lived like that?

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San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

Life NEAR the Big City

Leah is growing too fast. It’s hard to believe she’s already 6 months old. She tried her first solid food about a couple weeks ago. She was not impressed. But I kept shoving rice cereal in her face every day. Finally, a couple days ago, she decided she liked it! Since then, she’s also tried a little banana. She liked that a lot! She also rolled over from her back to her belly a couple week ago. I actually missed the first time she did it. She was laying on the floor in her room. I had my back to her, putting stuff away in her dresser and when I turned around she was on her belly. So I got the camera and waited for her to do it again. She did, but she was so laid back about it, it didn’t look like the big event it was. Now she rolls over all the time. She’ll roll over in bed and then fuss because she’s still all wrapped up in her blankets.

We are enjoying our new house in PA. We’re only 20 minutes outside of Pittsburgh, and about 5 minutes from a major shopping center, but we also get quite a taste of the country. One night I got up to feed Leah and my half asleep eyes saw something standing in my neighbor’s yard. I did a double take, thinking that it was awfully big to be a dog. It was actually a deer!

We have a couple friends from CA staying with us. One of the girls was looking out my kitchen window and she said calmly, “You have a beaver in your backyard.” I freaked out! I’ve never even seen a real beaver, much less had one wandering around my yard. It was about the size of a big cat and the fattest little guy you can imagine. He was waddling around all cute. I was surprised by his tail. I always thought they had leathery tails, but his was furry. So our theory is that they just look all smooth when they are wet. We saw the beaver again today, so think he’s taken residence in our area, which makes me happy. I hope he’ll build a dam in our creek. That would be exciting! Yes, I am a city girl.

Tonight I was putting Chester outside and he saw a deer in the woods behind our house. She saw him too, and took off running. Chester almost dragged my arm off as he tried to chase her. He did not appreciate having to share his yard with another animal. He’s a city dog, too.

We had a nice Easter! Our church had really pretty services to celebrate. Both our Good Friday service and Easter morning were a delightful blend of traditional and modern, tastefully woven together. Like I said, we have friends visiting from CA, which is a big treat! My children both looked adorable in their Easter clothes. We had a fun little Easter egg hunt with Isaiah. And we ended the day with a fabulous meal over at Pastor and Clara’s house.

Speaking of our church, one of the things that really blesses us is how much Isaiah is learning in his little classes. The other day I heard him making a lot of noise in his room, when he was supposed to be napping. I went in to lay him back down and he defended his actions with “But, I say ‘Jesus!'” And then he demonstrated how he had been jumping on his bed shouting, “Je-sus! Je-sus! Je-sus!” How can you correct him for doing that?

Then, a couple nights ago, I told him he couldn’t have a toy in bed with him. He was unhappy about my decision and then told me, “Jesus help me.” I said, “Jesus helps you?” He responded, “Yeah, Jesus help me when I’m sad.”

We have videos of Isaiah hunting Easter eggs, Leah rolling over, Isaiah singing, and Leah eating. You can view them by clicking here: Videos of our kids!

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