Blog Archives - IRONSTRIKES

Can you love without a heart?

10/31/2013

I love watching a herd of horses grazing in an open pasture, or running free across the wide, sage-covered plateaus in Montana. I love hiking in the high country when the wildflowers are blooming-the purple lupine and the Indian paintbrush when it's turning magenta. I love thunder clouds, massive ones. My family loves to sit outside on summer nights and watch the lightning, hear the thunder as a storm rolls in across Colorado. I love water, too—the ocean, streams, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, rain. I love jumping off high rocks into lakes with my boys. I love old barns, windmills, the West. I love vineyards. I love it when Stasi is loving something, love watching her delight. I love my boys. I love God. Everything you love is what makes a life worth living. Take a moment and make a list of all the things you love. Don't edit yourself; don't worry about prioritizing or anything of that sort. Simply think of all the things you love. Whether it's the people in your life or the things that bring you joy or the places that are dear to you or your God, you could not love them if you did not have a heart. Loving requires a heart alive and awake and free. A life filled with loving is a life most like the one that God lives, which is life as it was meant to be (Eph. 5:1-2).

Of all the things that are required of us in this life, which is the most important? What is the real point of our existence? Jesus was confronted with the question point-blank one day, and he boiled it all down to two things: loving God and loving others. Do this, he said, and you will find the purpose of your life. Everything else will fall into place. Somewhere down inside we know it's true; we know love is the point. We know if we could truly love, and be loved, and never lose love, we would finally be happy. And is it even possible to love without your heart?

This post was taken from the book, Waking the Dead by John Eldredge

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Connecting

10/30/2013

The heart is the connecting point, the meeting place between any two persons. The kind of deep soul intimacy we crave with God and with others can be experienced only from the heart. I know a man who took his daughter to dinner; she was surprised, delighted. For years she had been hoping he would pursue her. When they had been seated, he pulled out his Day Timer and began to review the goals he had set for her that year. "I wanted to burst into tears and run out of the restaurant," she said. We don't want to be someone's project; we want to be the desire of their heart. Gerald May laments, "By worshiping efficiency, the human race has achieved the highest level of efficiency in history, but how much have we grown in love?"

We've done the same to our relationship with God. Christians have spent their whole lives mastering all sorts of principles, done their duty, carried on the programs of their church . . . and never known God intimately, heart to heart. The point is not an efficient life of activity-the point is intimacy with God. "You will find me," God says, "when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). As Oswald Chambers said, "So that is what faith is—God perceived by the heart."

What more can be said, what greater case could be made than this: to find God, you must look with all your heart. To remain present to God, you must remain present to your heart. To hear his voice, you must listen with your heart. To love him, you must love with all your heart. You cannot be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life he meant you to live, unless you live from the heart.

This post is taken from the book, Waking the Dead by John Eldredge

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

A Noble and Good Heart

10/29/2013

It's undeniable: the new covenant, accomplished through the work of Christ, means that we have new hearts. Our hearts are good. Or God's a liar. Until we embrace that stunning truth, we will find it really hard to make decisions, because we can't trust what our hearts are saying. We'll have to be motivated by external pressure since we can't be motivated by our hearts. In fact, we won't find our calling, our place in God's kingdom, because that is written on our hearts' desires. We'll have a really hard time hearing God's voice in a deeply intimate way, because God speaks to us in our hearts. We'll live under guilt and shame for all sorts of evil thoughts and desires that the Enemy has convinced us were ours. God will seem aloof. Worship and prayer will feel like chores.

Of course, I just described the life most Christians feel doomed to live.

Now listen to Jesus:

Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. (Luke 6:44-45, emphasis added)

Later, explaining the parable of the sower and the seed, Jesus says,

The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. (Luke 8:15, emphasis added)

Jesus himself teaches that the heart can be good and even noble. That somebody is you, if you are his. God kept his promise. Our hearts have been circumcised to God. We have new hearts. Do you know what this means? Your heart is good. Let that sink in for a moment. Your heart is good.

What would happen if you believed it, if you came to the place where you knew it was true? Your life would never be the same. My friend Lynn got it, and that's when she exclaimed, "If we believed that . . . we could do anything. We would follow him anywhere!"

This post was taken from the book, Waking the Dead by John Eldredge

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Forgiving the Church

10/28/2013

When we have been wounded by the Church, our temptation is to reject it. But when we reject the Church it becomes very hard for us to keep in touch with the living Christ. When we say, "I love Jesus, but I hate the Church," we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness, at least not officially. But the Church as an often fallible human organization needs our forgiveness, while the Church as the living Christ among us continues to offer us forgiveness.

It is important to think about the Church not as "over there" but as a community of struggling, weak people of whom we are part and in whom we meet our Lord and Redeemer.

Written by Henri Nouwen: http://www.henrinouwen.org

Sunday Meditation

10/27/2013

The Church often wounds us deeply. People with religious authority often wound us by their words, attitudes, and demands. Precisely because our religion brings us in touch with the questions of life and death, our religious sensibilities can get hurt most easily. Ministers and priests seldom fully realize how a critical remark, a gesture of rejection, or an act of impatience can be remembered for life by those to whom it is directed.

There is such an enormous hunger for meaning in life, for comfort and consolation, for forgiveness and reconciliation, for restoration and healing, that anyone who has any authority in the Church should constantly be reminded that the best word to characterize religious authority is compassion.

Let's keep looking at Jesus whose authority was expressed in compassion.

Written by Henri Nouwen: http://www.henrinouwen.org

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Loving the church

10/26/2013

Loving the Church often seems close to impossible. Still, we must keep reminding ourselves that all people in the Church - whether powerful or powerless, conservative or progressive, tolerant or fanatic - belong to that long line of witnesses moving through this valley of tears, singing songs of praise and thanksgiving, listening to the voice of their Lord, and eating together from the bread that keeps multiplying as it is shared. When we remember that, we may be able to say, "I love the Church, and I am glad to belong to it."

Loving the Church is our sacred duty. Without a true love for the Church, we cannot live in it in joy and peace. And without a true love for the Church, we cannot call people to it.

Written by Henri Nouwen: http://www.henrinouwen.org

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

There is only one you

10/25/2013

He made you you—on purpose. You are the only you—ever. Becoming ourselves means we are actively cooperating with God’s intention for our lives, not fighting him or ourselves. God accepts us right at this moment, and he wants us to accept ourselves as well. He looks at us with pleasure and with mercy, and he wants us to look at ourselves with pleasure and mercy too! Accepting who we are includes accepting and being thankful for our imperfect bodies, but it isn’t limited to that. We can accept other truths about ourselves. Our personality is our own. Our story is our own. Our taste is our own. The way we have chosen to self-protect is ours. We have a style of relating, a kind of sin we easily fall prey to, and a favorite way to spend a free afternoon. We already are ourselves. Unique. (Cookie cutters only work well for cookies.)

God not only accepts us, He embraces us. Embracing ourselves is a stretch for most of us, but consider: Jesus commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. How can we love our neighbor as ourselves if we do not love ourselves? How can we become joyful if we are unable to see the humor in our own folly? We do become even more ourselves as we repent of areas in our lives that have nothing to do with faith or love, but God does not live in a perpetual state of disappointment over who we are. Berating ourselves for our flaws and our weakness only serves to undermine our strength to become.

This excerpt is from the book, Becoming Myself by Stasi Eldredge

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Who have you carried lately?

10/24/2013

Today at Church our Pastor talked about how as Christians we need to take the opportunity to carry people in their time of need. Although this isn’t a physical action, it does require effort. The action of carrying someone means to take someone and they are down in a valley or having a hard time and walking alongside them. Now your responsibility is to only walk with them as far as you are capable of, then someone else will take over. I got the opportunity today to carry someone. I’m not telling this story to toot my own horn, but to show the power of God!

I was at the gas station earlier and I saw a guy standing outside the door. I had never met him before and I don’t even know his name. He was holding an empty gas can. I asked him if he needed help, and he said “I am begging for change so I can get gas, I need to get to the south side of town and get some money from my mom so I can feed my children.” Now there is a disclaimer that comes with this. I usually don’t help people in this situation. This is because I know we don’t have a lot of money. But something made me go back to our van and get him some change. But something stopped me and I proceeded to take him over to the gas pump and fill his gas can up. He then proceeded to tell me that his car was down the street parked at an apartment complex. So I ran inside and purchased what I came for and took him home. The Lord changed my heart and my attitude during this experience. I got the opportunity to carry someone in their time of need.

So I ask you who have you carried lately?

This post was written by Ironstrikes member, NazyP. For the original post, go to: http://fpccnazyp.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/who-have-you-carried-lately/

The real world

10/23/2013

Most pastors, at some point in their careers, seek jobs that simply pay the bills. Perhaps they have not found a church yet, or perhaps the church they are in is a volunteer situation. Either way…it is a common occurrence and these pastors know that this is what they must do at least for a season.

Years ago, I was hired to work in a hardware store. This is not my area of knowledge, so some of the products and their uses confused me. It was obvious that I was not going to be employee of the month any time soon. Tools, lumber, doors, windows, shutters, and locks were not things that really interested me. I was pretty good at making a sale though…I knew enough to talk about what I was selling to get them to the cash register.

On one occasion, there was an older woman who came into the store in the midst of a bad mood. She said words that made my eyebrows raise and she needed a particular product…and she needed it NOW. I told her I would be right with her and I searched for her product. With each key I stuck on the keyboard, this woman became more enraged. She was obviously in a hurry and told me that the previous hardware store did not treat her well. You guessed it….the product she was looking for was on back order. Fast forward through the raised voice and stomping out.

My supervisor knew that I was a pastor by trade. After each tense moment in our job (which simply came with the territory in retail) he would say the same phrase. “Landon, this isn’t your church work….this is the real world…get used to it.” The first time I heard him say this, I nodded my head and moved on, but after a few times, I realized that he was more inaccurate than I once thought.

The real world? This is the real world?

I realized that what I did all day was meet customers who I never saw again, and sold them a product that I knew little about. Sometimes they would be happy with my recommendation, sometimes they would not be, and other times they came in angry to begin with (such as the lady above).

My supervisor thought that I was out of my element and he was absolutely right. I was actually used to the real world….not the fake one I was standing in.

In the “real world” he was describing; how many times did he sit down with a freshly divorced lady and comfort her as she talks about the deeper issue. How many times, selling doors, will I talk to a young teen who will admit she has been cutting herself to get attention. The adulterer? The alcoholic? The couple that needs counseling? The man who has it all together and is contemplating suicide? I usually just met with customers for about 5 minutes and never got to know them, or sit with them in their home after the loss of their grandparent as they weep uncontrollably.

When you say the phrase “real world” what do you mean? Often we never actually get to see this side.

The fact is God wants us to be in the real world, and bind the wounds of those who are deeply hurting. Wake up from the theatrical production you may be in, and develop deep relationships.

This post was written by Rev DeCrastos. For the original post, go to: http://other-words.net/2013/10/19/the-real-world/

A nagging discontent

10/22/2013

In the quiet moments of the day we sense a nagging within, a discontentment, a hunger for something else. But because we have not solved the riddle of our existence, we assume that something is wrong—not with life, but with us. Everyone else seems to be getting on with things. What's wrong with me? We feel guilty about our chronic disappointment. Why can't I just learn to be happier in my job, in my marriage, in my church, in my group of friends? You see, even while we are doing other things, "getting on with life," we still have an eye out for the life we secretly want. When someone seems to have gotten it together we wonder how did they do it? Maybe if we read the same book, spent time with them, went to their church, things would come together for us as well. You see, we can never entirely give up our quest. As May reminds us,

"When the desire is too much to bear, we often bury it beneath frenzied thoughts and activities or escape it by dulling our immediate consciousness of living. It is possible to run away from the desire for years, even decades, at a time, but we cannot eradicate it entirely. It keeps touching us in little glimpses and hints in our dreams, our hopes, our unguarded moments."

He says that even though we sleep, our desire does not. "It is who we are." We are desire. It is the essence of the human soul, the secret of our existence. Absolutely nothing of human greatness is ever accomplished without it. Not a symphony has been written, a mountain climbed, an injustice fought or a love sustained apart from desire. Desire fuels our search for the life we prize. Our desire, if we will listen to it, will save us from committing soul-suicide, the sacrifice of our hearts on the altar of "getting by." The same old thing is not enough. It never will be.

This post is excerpted from the book, Desire by John Eldredge

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.