"O God, You Are More Awesome Than Your Holy Places!"

"Oh, God, You are more awesome than Your holy places!"

Psalm 68:35

 This is a little country church that we passed in South Dakota--which turned out to be Catholic.

I was just talking yesterday to home school mom friends, while our three big families of children played soccer and other games in the park nearby.

The one mom came out of the Catholic church--little by little, as she read the Bible and began to see how the teachings of the church did not line up with Scripture.

"Why should we pray to a saint or Mary instead of going directly to God?" she asked.

"Because He is too busy?"

The Catholic church, she said, added so much to the Bible.
They could not trust the people to read it for themselves. The Bible had to be interpreted through the priests and the teaching of the church.
But do we in our churches do a whole lot better than the Catholics?
Must we interpret the Bible for people, or can we let them read it for themselves?
When we go to church, do we understand and believe that God is there already,
or do we depend on others, such as a pastor or a demonstrative saint, to create some sort of atmosphere to which we react by saying,
"God is here!" or "God was there this morning"?
 

It can be easy to idolize a person, a place, or a set of circumstances involved in some special manifestation of the Spirit.
We can idolize a pastor or a teacher or a mentor or some saint that God used in a special way.
We can idolize a memory or a dream or a moment in time or special service where people were demonstrating in the Spirit (or as a result of their own emotions), shouting or running the aisles.

Recently we heard someone bemoan about when was the last time that we saw someone "slain in the Spirit"?
The person had seen it twice, they said. Once a man came down the aisle near the start of church service, and he was so under the power of God that he just keeled over and lay there in the aisle, "slain in the Spirit," till sometime in the afternoon--
and God did more during that time, this person said, than anyone could have accomplished.

 So how do we respond to hearing stories like these?

By being discouraged that we haven't seen such a thing?
By assuming we aren't spiritual enough, and deciding we need to pray more, fast more, sacrifice more, do weirder and weirder things to try to get to where someone can be slain in the Spirit, too, since that is held up as being such a great thing?
First of all, I don't think we should discount such occurrences.
God does special things in special times and ways. May we never be guilty of discounting unusual occurrences that result in God working just because something is out of the norm.
But Paul the Apostle never exhorted believers to seek to be "slain in the Spirit,"
but to "be filled with the Spirit."

Being filled with the Spirit typically results in strength, not in being "slain."
Strength that enables you to be laid "down", not laid "out."
Strength that enables you to be stable and established and joyful and steady,
that enables you to praise, not pulaver,
to sing with understanding, not scream crazily and scare people.
What does the Psalmist say right after exclaiming, "O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places"?
He says, "The God of Israel is He Who gives strength and power to His people."
Not the God Who strikes His people down in the aisle so they lie there like Saul did after being anointed king, though God indeed did do that as a once in a lifetime experience.

That was a once in a lifetime thing. But as a rule, God gives strength to His people.
Strength to believe and love and do good works;
strength to worship and praise and sing and exhort and tell the next generation of His power;
strength to make difficult decisions and follow through; strength to do God's will,
to get up day after day and find our strength renewed.
When God manifests His power in unusual ways,  should we seek and pray and hope to see that exact kind of thing again,
Assuming God isn't present in power unless we see that again???
Did it ever occur to us that God does not often do the exact same thing twice?

At Pentecost, He came with tongues of fire and the sound of a rushing mighty wind,
and the apostles spoke with tongues.
But it never happened quite that way again.
Check out the other times God came powerfully in Acts.
He seldom if ever replicated Himself the same way twice.
With Cornelius, the Holy Spirit fell on them and they spoke in tongues, but sorry to say there was no wind and no tongues of fire.
Hopefully  nobody was looking for them or they would have been bitterly disappointed.
When Paul preached to the Ephesians about the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit fell on them,
they merely spoke in tongues and prophesied.
No fire or wind or lightning or lying prone in some church aisle.
After the wonders of Pentecost, what happened was a lot of conversions and a lot of healings--and a lot of persecution from religious leaders!
And it was all about Jesus--and people--and salvation--and God's glory.

The apostles didn't go out making a big to-do about the tongues of fire and the wind and how well they all spoke in tongues and how--WOW!--God was there that morning!
They didn't idolize the things they saw and heard.
They proclaimed the Risen Christ, Who is to be believed on by faith!
****
"O God," the Psalmist wrote, "You are more awesome than Your holy places!"
The upper room where Pentecost happened was a holy place.
Our church sanctuaries where God meets with wherever two or more are gathered together are holy places.

 But God is more awesome than His holy places.
He is more to be desired than demonstrations.
He chooses to come in many different ways--
and very often, it is in a still, small voice.

Very often, He comes in quiet ways to us as we wash the dishes or read our Bible in our room or sing to a shut-in or share comfort and counsel to a broken person.

God is still coming to us right here in America,
in our homes and churches,
in our imperfect and sometimes broken relationships.

When we come to Christ in faith through prayer, He gives rest to our souls so that we no longer need to strive and seek and labor for demonstrations or special occurrences.
They may happen, but God is God and He is present and working
 whether someone is prone in the church aisle
or crying themselves to sleep over their own pillow--all alone except for God.
 He is present whether someone is singing on the platform
or practicing at home to share with an invalid--
or just to sing because it is worshipful and uplifting.

Just because someone preaches eloquently or sings emotionally and everyone gets emotional,
or someone testifies in a way that gets our emotions stirred,
or someone shouts or jumps or runs the aisles,
doesn't necessarily mean that God is any more present or at work than in those quiet hours at home or at work or at church when we win silent inner victories over unthankfulness and bitterness and strife and temptations--when we turn our hearts heavenward and know He is there.

"O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places. 

The God of Israel is He Who gives strength and power to His people." (Psa. 68:35)
We seek for You, O God, as the Lord's Day arrives tomorrow!
We seek for You Yourself, not for some demonstration,
for You are an awesome God!

Kites or Roadblocks--Are We Blocking People from God, or Are We Channels to Him?

A few days ago, my kids were flying kites .

I loved the sight of this one against the sky.

I can't help thinking of the verse, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles..."
Like kites!

We won't always be mounting up with wings like eagles--feeling so close to  God and so high above the cares of this life and the burdens that press.

Sometimes we will be on the ground.

Most of the time we will be having to "wait upon the Lord."

It isn't always easy to "pick up your wings and get up and fly."
And it isn't easy to know how to help someone else who is on the ground to get up and soar.
Last weekend we heard story after story of brokenness and were able to share what had helped us.
We had bought a whole box of Caring for the Heart Material to share--and we shared it out at least three different directions.

I had just received a phone call last week, from another state, telling me how much a couple had appreciated the CFTH material I had shared with them. They said it was the most helpful material they had ever had in their lives, and they were wondering how to get more of it to share with others.

Another person, they said, needed it right now.

Sometimes there are blocks that keep us from being in relationship to God as we would wish--
or in relationship with other Christians as we would wish--
--like this roadblock our mischievous children set up for us one evening when Jonathan and I arrived home from somewhere.

A block.
Bicycles across the road.
Dogs barking.
Slits of eyes glaring--or eyes that refuse to  make eye contact.
Distressing words--or silent treatments (which aren't as obviously ungodly).
Damaging actions-or lack of needed action-(something that doesn't appear so unholy).
Hurtful Attitudes (or just neglect and the attitude that you do not exist).
Rejection...and a host of other things.

Something blocks us from mounting up and soaring on eagles' wings.

Something blocks us from joy.

Something blocks us from God.

Instead of soaring we are hunkering.

Instead of feeling safe, we feel anxious and fearful and used and hurt and vulnerable.

We can't make eye contact.

We can't read our Bible or get anywhere when we pray.
We lack confidence and don't feel like exploring or adventuring or even smelling the mums--
much less the roses!

Sometimes the block is a person or group of persons.
Sometimes it is a circumstance or an injury or a misunderstanding or a doubt.
Sometimes it is just a cloud or a maze or something we can't explain.
We just know it's there--a block to God and relationship.

We can try so hard to please that person--or to please God.
We can act just right, tilt our head just so, try to say or do what will please them.
But will the block go away?

To get to God, sometimes we have to forgive and love someone because our unforgiveness or lack of love is blocking us from God or from relationship with that person--
but sometimes we have to leave a situation because it is something else about it that is blocking us from Him.
To get to joy, sometimes we have to accept what we cannot change,
but sometimes we have to reject something that is false or wrong or hurtful or unBiblical or that is damaging us.
Sometimes we have to lay aside our hurt and grief and injury--whatever that costs--whether it means to stay in a situation or leave it.
Whether we stay or leave, we must get past the block, for our heart's sake--
around it, over it, under it, or through it. God will help us know which way to take, and it may be very personal, and difficult for even our closest friends to understand.
But we have to get past what our friends and enemies think of us, and we have to look to Jesus alone.

Because no matter what others think or say, we have to keep the channels clear and unclogged between us and God.
Tuesday morning I went up the steps into Hope Family Chapel in Mission, South Dakota.
I was checking the carpet to see how much mud we'd tracked in as we worked, and was looking for a vacuum.
On my way back out, I stopped by a bulletin board on the wall.

It said how we can take EVERYTHING to God in prayer.

It was safe to tell Him everything.

It was safe.
 I stood there thinking how safe I felt with my  Jesus since being to Caring for the Heart,
 and for a moment I forgot about tracks of mud and finding a vacuum.
I walked softly in that chapel in God's presence.
I realized that as my heart turned toward Him, I felt safe rather than condemned.
I felt loved rather than guilty.
I felt that He was there, and He was open to me, and that it was okay to come to Him just as I was.

Ever since those days of counseling and training at Caring for the Heart Ministries,
I had felt safer and safer to come to Him.
Ever since in my  mind's eye I saw Jesus--
that beautiful Man in a white robe standing within my memories of praying at the edges of a Pennsylvania meadow by the woods,
and reaching out His arms to receive me when I came to Him with my burdens and care...
I've felt so safe going to Him!

"Thank You that I can bring everything to You!" I told Him Tuesday in the chapel.
"Thank You that I feel so safe!"
I used to envy the Muslims who got visions of Jesus.
I have my own now!
I used to think we Christians in America have the gospel, so Jesus won't come to us like He comes to the Muslims.
But He does come to us!
And it is not a dream--it is a reality!
We live by faith, but sometimes God gives us a "picture" of Jesus, whether a vision or a word thought or a picture that helps us understand His love.
I can't describe the beauty of that picture of Jesus in my heart and mind that day as I was searching for a way to relate to Him as a safe Person.
Just knowing He was reaching for me!
He cared! He loved me!
He was right there when life was the hardest.

Now we are sharing this joy and love and hope with others who are struggling in their lives--several opportunities came up last weekend.
In one, Tazbah Lavery shared her burden to somehow be able to connect with the dear native American girls that she is trying to reach, ones who have no concept of a Father God, because they have no fathers, or abusive or neglectful ones.
She wishes she could be a more adequate mentor.
I was able to leave CFTH materials and the information for more if she wants.
And it occurred to me after writing this, that I could just share a link to Caring for the Heart's website.
http://caaringfortheheart.com
Here is also a link to their materials, with pricing, etc.
http://www.biblical-concepts.com/products.html

Lord, let us not be a block, but a channel to You!
Because I want to help people get up from the ground and soar--on eagles' wings--like kites!

With Laverys in South Dakota

"Adventure starts where plans end!" 

We had a different plan for our time in South Dakota Sunday through Tuesday, but God worked out something different, which we were delighted about. 

We had originally planned to finish siding the church at Winner that we had started siding, since several young men would be available to help those days.

But nearly at the last minute, we found out Bro. Sherman was gone and he did not want anyone working on the church while he was gone.

Well, we had already made plans with friends in Nebraska for Friday night through Sunday morning, and were going to travel on up to Hope Family Chapel (below) in South Dakota from there,

so since Keith Lavery said he had plenty of projects for us at his mission, we decided to stick with our plans to go on up to SD.

We love Laverys' church and the people there.

Here are a few pictures of the fellowship time in Laverys home after church with church folk and the native American youth that attend. Keith's brother Kevin is the man to the left. Kevin and his wife attend here, too.

Everyone crowds in and doesn't worry if there aren't enough seats. We sit on stools, stairs, or maybe even the floor, and nobody minds.

We love Laverys' cute home that he added on to. He built a little loft that you can see.

Tazbah has all kinds of inspirational thoughts stenciled onto walls, or on placques or hangings.

I had made cherry cream pies to contribute.

The next morning, work begins.

We were so glad we went ahead up to SD.  We had so much fun helping an overworked maintenance director who has to spend most of his time fixing needs at the other missions under SIM.

Keith's church has not had a restroom, meaning if you need one, you have to go across the road to the Lavery's home.

Sooo--Monday morning, we started clearing out the area around the corner where two restrooms are going to be.

Not only did they need restrooms, but also they needed a bigger Sunday School room for the youth. 

Monica Anthony teaches around ten children or youth, while Tazbah Lavery teaches the other class, and they needed the room taken up by old pews and other stuff.

It always gets worse before it gets better!
What an awful mess we made!!!!!

I told the girls to have the boys help haul these old pews out, but Rose promptly turned up her nose

and turned on her heel with a "Pfgh!" (HOW on earth do you spell the noise she made?) and, "We can do it!"

and left me in the dust!!! 

So while I had to drive 33 miles to Valentine later in the morning to pick up grout, adhesive, and toilet flanges,

the girls cleared out the rest of that side of the church basement, including these pews which greeted me when I got back.

Poor Keith did not know what to do with those pews, but at least they were out of the church basement!

Chip Yarrison groaned about how many times he's had to move those pews around!

And guess what!
The Lord had a plan!

All it took was setting those pews out in front of the church, and someone stopped and asked about them.

The man wanted them for some bunkhouse, and Keith was only too happy to be rid of them. 

Here the man is back with a relative and a trailer, and they load up the pews.

Inside, after helping check the men's work in the big warehouse/shop where concrete was to be poured that morning,]

Jonathan prepares to tile the floor for the restrooms. 

He has me hold the chalk line for him. 

I love to watch my hubby do what he is so skilled at.

Meanwhile out in the huge shop, Sam and the Yarrison boys, who were in from Pennsylvania to visit their brother Chip,  get ready to pour concrete. 

It had been a hassle for Keith to find someone to bring concrete, as the local concrete company had no other orders Monday and didn't want to fire up their equipment for just one truckload. 

Somehow they got them persuaded to come.

It was a blessing to have the Yarrison boys to help. They are the family we'd met at Judy Hunt's wedding to Tonweya Sherman two and a half years ago, and whom we'd visited in PA on our way to take Crystal to her first year at Penn View.

Mrs. Yarrison is cousin to Dale Sherman, Tazbah's father. Tazbah told us how Mrs. Yarrison helped Keith and her get together by having Keith and Tazbah both to their home on weekends when they were both attending Penn View years ago.

Chip Yarrison has been working on a ranch here in SD near Lavery's church and had told Jonathan that his brothers were coming out to visit and could help Monday with siding the Winner church.
It ended up that instead we poured concrete and worked on Keith's church basement and restrooms.

Sam and Luke Yarrison set up the forms for the strip of concrete that needs to be poured, on which to set up a bunch of shelving later.

About the time we were ready to call for lunch, the concrete truck roars up!

Sooo--instead of lunch, we all gather in the shop to watch the men pour concrete.

The job went fast with the four Yarrison boys, who do concrete work a lot, and Sam helping.
They were much more comfortable with concrete work than siding work, as they do a lot of concrete work.

Luke (lower center with neon green hat) and Lance (lower rt) level the concrete. (There is probably a more professional term for running this board across the top of the forms!)

while Lethaniel guides the trough and Linden ("Chip," in the white cowboy hat) and our Sam rake.

And the three Lavery girls and our children and I watch!

It didn't take long at all to pour this strip.

Getting the last bit poured.

There was just enough left over to pour a doorstep on the side. Lethaniel and Chip keep the concrete coming.

Our Timmy and Luke rake the concrete level.

Chip wheels the concrete in while Lethaniel cleans the last bit out of the top of the trough.

In the cozy house, Crystal has been helping Tazbah make these delightful pumpkin rolls,

along with chili.

I discovered that Hannah had been teaching Cassie Lavery to knit!

Tazbah had wanted to be able to teach Cassie, but didn't know how herself.

So we mothers were so happy to see our little girls happy with each other!

After lunch before returning to work, the guys tried out this wacky smacky game that might smack cream onto your face!

You squirt a bit of cream from an aerosol can onto this plastic purple hand, and you spin the spinner, and then you have to stick your face through this frame and turn a handle as many times as the spinner said, and HOPE you don't get smacked with cream!

It is totally random! You never know whether it will smack you on turn 1, turn 2 or 3 or 5 or never.

Jonathan did it, and got away with not getting any cream on his face.

Sam was not so lucky!

Chip (24) had his turn, and got away scot free. So he urged and insisted and wheedled, and finally Luke (21) learily took a turn.
Woooops!
You can see Jonathan got a great kick out of it!

Those boys (and ours, too!) were great sports.

I know it was a stupid game, but it gave us some huge laughs, and we need to laugh every once in a while!!We really do!

Promptly after lunch, while the guys went back to work, Crystal and I cut up two bags of apples left from our apple picking a few weeks ago, and Crystal made four delicious pies. 

Little Cassie helped, too! That was special!

We ladies and girls also cleaned up the yard--something hard to find time to do when there are lots of little kids who like to play in the mud and wood chips!
Most of the boys had to go back to move cows at the ranch, but Lance stayed all afternoon to smooth the concrete. 

Mrs. Lavery gave Lance a pie to take home to his brothers, but the next day

he laughed about how he had called his brothers the night before to tell them about the pie he was bringing home!

Chip had been playing music with some others at a wedding music practice. 

He and the others were so excited about apple pie, but Lance told them he was going to eat the pie because he was the one who had stayed and worked all day!

And he did eat most of the pie,  he said!

That was hilarious! So it was good that I didn't know Mrs. Lavery had sent a pie home, for I sent a second one home with him the next day! Maybe some of the other brothers got some pie this time. I'll have to check in with them to find out if they got some or if Lance ate it all up again!

Tuesday morning, the kids helped Jonathan a lot with framing the walls for the restroom.

After washing breakfast dishes, I got the other children busy helping me split wood.

A certain child of mine (I won't say who) had been extra grumpy that morning, and I know they mostly just needed something to do!

So this is what some of us did.
We got quite a big pile split.

Inside the old house (now a kind of bunkhouse and office)  is where Laverys lived for two years.
They live in quite an impoverished area, where most everyone lives low. 

Inside the church basement, the men and young people have the walls framed, about to be hung with drywall.

We had to leave in mid-afternoon, but Jonathan and Keith and the kids were able to get the partition wall drywalled, and one toilet set and working before we left!

I'm so proud of  my handsome and hard-working husband and sons,
and I so love and appreciate my sweet, helpful and willing girls!

They helped me gather up trash to put in the dumpster. 

Here Rose is sweeping up the mud and dirt that got tracked in from the rain and mud outside

while Keith is also hauling more stuff outside.

Hannah makes quick friends with just about anyone she meets, like Cassie!

Just before we left, Lance came by again to do a sealer coat on the concrete. 

He and Sam are visiting here by the Laverys' house.
I have rarely met such fine young people. My hat is off to their parents!

We invited the Keith Lavery family to stay with us in two weeks when they hope to come down to Colorado Springs to hear the best-selling author of Kisses from Katie,  a lady who has invested part of her life in Africa, I believe.

Breathe a prayer for the Hope Community Chapel in Mission, SD, where the Laverys work. 

You can see the side of the chapel to the left, and our motor home parked by the Lavery's house and office further down the road.

The Laverys were never called to preach, but to work with their hands in maintenance, and he has at least seven missions to be in charge of.

They also are reaching out in their own community to many children and young people.