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Only If You Feel Like Having a Little Cry
HT: Challies.com for this link: Please do keep praying for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen, and marines; their families; and all of the chaplains serving them too.
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Worship is …
“Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose-—-all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable.” William Temple (HT: RZIM Slice 2070)
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Fred IS My (Guitar) Hero
We had a wonderful Sabbath yesterday with Fred’s brother John (3rd of the 5 Barthel boys) and his family … Happiness really IS Aunt Penny’s kitchen: And her garden … But those cousins are pretty wonderful too! Even if one of them HAS led deacon Barthel away from a quiet life of engineering / programming / peacemaking to the hard-rockin’-world of GUITAR HERO PLAYIN’: I’m thanking God for our dear family— Yours, Tara B.
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Cable Cars and Fisherman’s Wharf
The California fun continues for the ol’ Barthel fam! A really nice conducter found a way for all of us to squeeze onto his car (which was cramped and crowded and a little scary on the hills, but super fun!): Couldn’t go past the salt water taffy store without buying a few BUCKETS of taffy. Oh, and the grossest jelly beans EVER—made to match jelly bellies, I guess you ask, “Is it cafe mocha or EAR WAX?!” “IT’S NOT CAFE MOCHA!!” Yeek! Total boy thing: The weather was beautiful and the company was perfect. (Oh! And happy birthday sistah Kali!) Now we’re looking very forward to meeting Uncle John,…
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Conflicts Over Church Building Use Policies
Well … just like most topics in life, I surely didn’t know one QUARTER of the potential issues, interests, challenges, and pitfalls associated with this one. Yes, yes, like most Christians I had (casually) “mediated” (discussed?) topics and conflicts related church building usage over the years. And thinking back on it, I’d have to say that pretty much every conflicted church intervention I learned about or reviewed when I was still on staff at Peacemakers had at least one church building use issue—even if it was only a presenting issue. Still, I was surprised by how diverse the documentation from various churches is. Some really go the “three paragraph, only…
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Marcy Won the Leadership Series!
Congratulations to Marcy! YOU WON the $179 Peacemaker Leadership Resource. Please just email me your mailing address by November 18 and it’s yours! (And if you get me your address by this Tuesday, I’ll send it out this week. Otherwise, I won’t send it until after the 18th.) Congratulations again and thanks to everyone who joined in the fun! G’nite and God bless, Tara B.
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Add in one good thing …
Years ago, my dear friend Joe Adams gave me some great advice re: disciplines / health goals, etc. I was trying to cut back on my soda consumption. (Yes, yes, I know how HORRIBLE soda is. Truly. But it’s still hard for me to give up.) And he encouraged me to NOT think of it as “giving up soda,” but instead to have a nice big glass of cold water (from a GLASS glass, not something plastic because glass makes it taste so much better) BEFORE I have a soda. Because just by adding in something good, my desire of something less health/redemptive would lessen. And he was right. Plus,…
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Paul does not glory in …
I am rereading (and enjoying thoroughly) Eugene Peterson’s “Traveling Light: Meditations on St. Paul’s Letter of Freedom”. (Thanks again, Pastor Bostrom, for the wonderful gift of this book for our family!) My current chapter is on Galatians 6:11-18: “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast…
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One Conscious Hour Not Influenced by the Lord’s Return?
We are almost done with our women’s study on 1 & 2 Thessalonians (“Living the Gospel to the End” by Kathleen Buswell Nielson—if you’re not familiar with all of her excellent, gospel-centered, rigorous Bible studies, I encourage you to get to know them!) … And I have to say, I am much more mindful of Christ’s imminent return than I was before we began the study. Still, this quote from the IX Marks blog set me back on my heels simply because of the depth of love and devotion to Christ (and confidence in the Lord!) that it reflected: “I do not think in the last forty years I have…
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Prodigal God Resources are Now Available
Great news! Tim Keller’s Prodigal God resources are now available! If you haven’t already read this book and shared it with others, you are going to LOVE it. And having led a group of women through it already WITHOUT the study helps, I’m particularly excited that now there are guides/questions/etc. available. Enjoy!
