Restless Heart

by Hanna Baker
My Pandora station played "Your Grace Is Enough" by Matt Maher (we sing the song frequently during Sunday morning worship, too) this morning, and one of the lines stood out to me in a way it hadn't before.

Great is Your faithfulness, oh God, You wrestle with the sinners restless hearts...

 It suddenly reverberated in my heart, connecting with some things I've been mulling over the last couple of days. 

When I gave my life to Christ 25 years ago I made a commitment to serve God through my actions. As I've gotten older and developed my relationship with Him more, becoming more aware of the risks, struggles & blessings of that decision, there have been days and seasons I had to reaffirm that commitment. Those "big moment" decisions are critical to have a moment to look back to when things get rough; I made a choice, and refuse to look back.


What is harder, however, is the day-to-day decisions and moments.


I've realized lately that my focus & thought life has drifted from what I would like, and from the commitments that I have made. It's a continual pattern & cycle in my life - I start having regular quiet times, good prayer times, get more attuned to hearing His voice, and watch my attitude, energy, joy and peace increase. Then I get distracted & tired, things come up, I choose an extra 30 minutes of sleep or a movie or book instead of taking time to spend with Him, and before I know it my habits and thought patterns are shifting.


The shorter explanation: I have a restless heart. God is constantly wrestling with my it, and the battle goes round and round.


At Bible Study lately we were looking at Jacob wrestling with the "Angel of the Lord" (Jesus), and discussing how the concept of literally fighting with God seems so foreign and scary. In a physical sense, it still is... but I'm realizing that it's also an image of our hearts struggling to accept His Sovereignty and leadership over our lives. I wrestle constantly, daily with God.


1 Timothy 4 says to, "Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come... For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe."

I want to refocus on training for myself in godliness. Anyone else ready for a new start?

Christmas

It's December, the month that the modern day church & world celebrates the birth of Jesus. David has begun going through the Christmas story in the flannel-graph children's sermon for church, and we are making plans for our Christmas Service this coming Sunday morning (12/19/10).

As I was listening to Christmas music on the radio this morning, "Breath of Heaven/Mary's Song" (Amy Grant) started playing. I've always loved the song, but it started registering in a new level as I thought about the lyrics.

I have traveled
Many moonless night
Cold and Weary
With a babe inside

I, as have many other believers, have been through seasons in my life that have felt dark and weary, cold and confusing.  These days often feel very distant from God, and the promise that Christ is still there, living inside of me, and that He will never leave us can be hard to hold onto.

And I wonder
What I've done
Holy Father
You have come
Chosen me now
To carry your son

I've been through days where I have wondered and been amazed that the God of the Universe would choose ME to carry His presence to the world around me. Why me, with all my mistakes and failings? He must have been able to have some other plan, instead of using messed up fallen people to change the world. Yet He didn't - He chose me.

I am waiting
in a silent prayer
I am frightened
by the load i bear
In a world as cold as stone
Must I walk this path alone
Be with me now
Be with me now

The Creator of the galaxies has entrusted me to share the story of His Love to a lost and dying world who has forgotten the meaning of what love is, and has rejected Him. Yet He does not send me to walk this path alone - He is here, giving me strength and security and bringing a light to the darkness. He has, is, and will redeem me from my sin, washing me with His holiness for the remainder of my life until I stand before His throne.

-----------------------------------
Breath of Heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of Heaven

Breath of Heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me, your holyness
For you are holy...Breath of Heaven

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Do you wonder
As you watch my face
If a wiser one, should of had my place
But I offer-all I am
For the mercy-of your plan
Help me be strong
Help me be
Help me

Why doesn't God question this plan, or choose someone better & more capable than me to walk this road? Because that's the great adventure, the truth beyond the Christmas story: God takes ordinary, weak people who are willing to say, "Yes!" to His plans, and gives us the mercy & strength to take up the role. And He will be there, helping me along every step in the road.

And His gifts extend beyond that. The words we display this time of year (Love, Joy, Peace, Faith) are promises, and are ours to keep as we seek the Baby that was born so long ago. Lay hold of them, and remember the One who was born... and grew up to lay down His life. Who was a man, in order to lead us by true example to His Father. Who is Majesty. Emmanuel. God.


He is holy. He is the greatest gift of all.

A Forgotten Power, or a Fanciful Myth?

by Hanna Baker
Not all blog postings will be about Bible Study, I promise!

Our Wednesday night Bible Study started off this week in typical David George fashion - with a movie clip. To everyone's surprise and amusement however, this one wasn't WWII related; instead, we settled in to the opening strains of the LotR - The Fellowship of the Ring (don't worry, we only watched the first few minutes; we try to avoid 5 hour long Bible Studies!).

The correlation David drew was impressive. In Middle Earth, the residents at one time were fully aware of the power that the rings - especially the One Ring - had; that power affected every aspect of their lives. Through a series of events, however, that power was misplaced, lost, and eventually forgotten. A few tales remained as a distant legend, but most people didn't even believe them anymore.

As followers of Christ and beloved children of God, we are intended to have power as well. Jesus told his followers that, "anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these" (John 14:12, NIV). The New Testament contains tale after tale of Jesus & the early church performing incredible miracles, healing sick, raising people from the dead, prophesying, casting out demons, speaking in unknown tongues, and more. We are intended to have and operate in that power!!

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, the Western church forgot. The stories slipped into history instead of practice, and "some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth." (quote from Galadriel, The Fellowship of the Ring.)

It's time to get back to the truth, and learn how to access the gifts that God intended His church to use - the gifts that allow us to be effective and powerful at communicating and spreading the love of Christ to the hurting world around us.

New Season

by Hanna Baker

We are two weeks into our Fall Semester Bible Study. This semester we're going to be going through a book entitled You May All Prophecy by Steve Thompson. We haven't actually started the book yet, as we took the first two weeks to set the stage. David being the WWII buff that he is, the discussions included (tasteful) war video clips to illustrate these questions.

 Week One
~ What are the spiritual gifts? Why are they important?
 Week Two
~ How do you begin to step out and operate in the gifts?

We looked at how every Christian has certain weapons at their disposal in the forms of prayer, fasting, and Scripture. These are the equivalent of basic rifles, handguns, etc; effective, but only a limited amount of power.

The spiritual gifts (tongues, prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, healing, miracles, faith) are the equivalent of the heavy weapons, such as grenades, M-16s, anti-tank missiles, etc.

Everyone who has committed their lives to Christ, making Him Lord and asking for and accepting His forgiveness for our sins has the power of God; the problem is that it's hard to access, or (using the illustration from this Wed) 'dammed up.' Requesting to be filled or baptized in the Holy Spirit begins the process of destroying that dam, and allowing access to be used by God in the full extent of His power.

Those of us at Bible Study who have received this gift shared our stories. It's amazing how everyone comes to that point in different ways, and how the stories differ, just like stories for each person are unique for how we came to salvation.

New Member in the Family

by Hanna Baker

Our church has been eagerly awaiting welcoming a new member into our church family as we are approaching the date that David & Jenn's new baby will be born. A new life is an amazing miracle and blessing, and is surrounded by joy for all concerned.

There is only one miracle that can surpass the birth of a baby. I was privileged to witness that miracle yesterday when I had the opportunity to welcome a new member into the family of God.


In addition to the delight and awe of seeing a friend make the most important decision possible and choose to follow Christ, this also gave me an opportunity to process through what salvation is, and what it means to be a Christian. It's difficult to describe the joy of explaining the message of what Jesus did for us, and the impact that it has on our daily lives. It's so simple, yet takes a life time or more to process.  What is this reality?

• God is holy, and entirely perfect. This perfection, beyond our comprehension, makes it impossible for sin to be in His presence.
• Every person born was born with sin, with the natural tendency to do things wrong. Each of us lies, is jealous, snaps at someone, and does countless other mistakes. Because of God's purity and perfection, the consequence for everything we do has to be death - both physical death as our bodies deteriorate, and spiritual death, eternal separation from God in hell.
  
• Because of God's incredible love for us in spite of our failures, He was willing to sacrifice Himself in order to be near us, and to welcome us back to His presence. With Jesus' death on the cross he took the guilt and burden of every thing we've done and will do, and his resurrection three days later opened the door for us to have life with Him forever.
• We have a choice. Do we accept that free gift, choose to believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and rely on God's strength, forgiveness and power to lead us into a relationship with Him and the ability to walk in freedom from our struggles, temptations, hurts and pain? Or will we reject Him, foolishly believing that we can survive this world and whatever happens after death on our own?

Life can still be intensely difficult as a Christian. God doesn't make all our problems go away. He doesn't protect everyone and everything around us, and He doesn't promise that we won't suffer the consequences of living in the world as it is today. What He does do, and does promise, is to be there beside us every step of the way, providing love, comfort, advice, forgiveness and peace. All we have to do is accept, surrender, and ask.

Being able to be a part of someone taking that first exciting huge step is the greatest gift and honor I could ever have. There is nothing better, beyond my own salvation and relationship with my Heavenly Father, than being able to introduce someone else to Him. One less person will suffer a life and eternity in torment. One more person will join us for the celebration of the ages on that day we get to see Him face to face.

Thanksgiving

by Hanna Baker

After successfully indulging in 4 scrumptious and massive holiday meals (River of Hope's annual Thanksgiving Dinner, 2 large family gatherings, and my brother's birthday!) within an 8 day period, I'm thankful that I have a small break before the next big event.  It has been wonderful, however, to be reminded of what is important, and that I can choose to be thankful regardless of what my circumstances are.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. My family grew, as a result of a new sister-in-law and a new nephew, both wonderful and dearly welcomed and loved. Our church has grown in the last 12 months, resulting in new friends and new connections with old friends. I'm blessed with a great roommates, a good job, and a nice house. It worked out for me to take a vacation this year.

There have also been a few stresses and frustrations this year. As much as I appreciate and (usually) enjoy my job, I work in a very busy and stressful office. I hugged a dear friend and cousin goodbye before she left to live in Africa for two years. I had a roommate move out, and a brother move away and get married. Every time I hug my grandma, I see how her body is failing her, and wonder if I'll see her again.

What I'm thankful for most of all, however, is that I have a God who is worth thanking. He is, and has promised to always be, my Friend when I'm lonely, my Strength when I'm weak, and my Comforter when I'm stressed and overwhelmed. He is my Savior, guaranteeing both my eternal life and the ability to cling to Him to defeat sin and fear in my life.  Without Him, there is no reason to be thankful, for there is no one else to thank.

The Limitations of Science

by David George

Science was one of my favorite subjects in school. It ranked second only to history. I especially enjoyed science when I got to high school and I realized that science had entire disciplines within it that I could study: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Geology, Astronomy, etc. So I took AP Chemistry & AP Physics my senior year of high school for the fun of it. (I realize that I have a strange concept of fun.) In fact the biggest disappointment in my college academic career is that I couldn’t fit any geology classes into my schedule in 7 years. That still irks me to this day.

Webster defines science as: “the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.” Inherent in this definition is the inability of science to explain supernatural phenomena. That is where religion comes in to the picture. Throughout all of human history man has been unable to explain all of the phenomena that he has experienced through just natural laws and processes. Now in many instances, supernatural explanations were given to natural phenomena that simply were not understood. For instance the ancient Greeks believed that lightning struck the tallest trees in the forest because the gods were trying to humble them.

But just because natural phenomena were incorrectly explained in the past, we can’t presume that all phenomena that we experience have natural causes and supernatural explanations are just symptoms of ignorance. That would be a great presumption and presupposition. But in fact that is the great presupposition of Naturalism, the philosophy that manifests itself in the Big Bang theory, Darwinian Evolution and most science textbooks. Webster defines naturalism as “the system of thought holding that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws without attributing supernatural significance to them.”

Naturalism masquerades as science because it holds scientific investigation as the supreme source of knowledge. That would be true in a world in which there are absolutely no supernatural phenomena, but what would happen if something supernatural took place? What if a stone suddenly turned into a loaf of bread? If a Naturalistic observer found the loaf of bread after the transformation took place and tried to explain its existence, they would conduct several experiments and determine that the bread was a composition of flour, salt, water, oil and carbon dioxide. Reason and experience would dictate that someone mixed the ingredients together, baked the bread and then left it where it was found. Measurements of the moisture content and temperature of the bread could even allow them to estimate how old the loaf of bread was. And even though this would seem to be a reasonable assessment of the origin of this loaf of bread it would be incorrect because of the philosophical limitations that Naturalism placed on the observer and the fact that he didn’t actually observe its origin.

So in a universe that has both natural and supernatural phenomena, science finds itself inadequate to explain everything. To be sure, it is very useful in explaining the natural phenomena, but it comes up very short in explaining supernatural phenomena.

That means that in the Origins debate we need to first determine if this universe is limited to natural phenomena or if it has supernatural phenomena too. If it does indeed have supernatural phenomena then we’ll need a lot more than just science to explain the universe.