Margo's Moments--Spirit-filled Suspense that touches the heart.
Last night we kicked off the new choir season. We invited new people, and our little church had 80in the choir loft. What a way to start the week.
My character, Maggie, marries a Navy pilot who sings. But when tragedy strikes, she wants to make her own kind of music before she can ever sing songs like these....
Click here and enjoy: More than Enough and Total Praise.
In a different direction this weekend, went to Memphis, Tennessee, with my church choir, to tour Graceland and sing concerts in two churches.
Graceland was amazing. I have blogged about Elvis before, (click here )--a kind and ultra-talented man who took kind of an, um, distracted side trip from his Christian roots. But he always eschewed the title, "The King," saying, "There is only one King--Jesus."
We also visited the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King. There had been a strike of sanitation workers. The basic issue had been lack of timely paychecks, as I understand it. And you know the rest of the terrible story.
Then, the reason for the trip: We sang in two churches, in Memphis and Brownsville.
The response ministered back to us. The first church we sang in stood up during one of our songs, "Something Happens." Click here for an online performance I found.
Well, something happens with that song, all right, it'll knock your socks off, but it's the first time I sang in a choir that got that response and it was awesome to know I was part of something the Lord was using to really bless people.
And did they bless us back, with lasagne, Southern fried chicken, fresh vegetables, chocolate chip pecan pie, and so on.
Before the second service, we had prayer time and I asked that the Lord minister to us through His people again--with their response to the songs, I mean.
And they did. The second church stood and clapped during a third of the songs!
I mean, right in the middle of a song, if they liked its message, they'd stand up and clap. Like for "How Great Thou Art."
And click on "When I Don't Know What to Do." The solo in our version was sung by a young woman who came out of a very rough background, mom and sibs in jail, to graduate with honors and attend college now. She has never sung in a choir or anywhere else before. And in "Cry Holy," "Grace," and again in "Something Happens."
The pastor made us sing the fun "Hallelujah Anyhow" twice.
It was exhilarating in the spirit. And such freedom for the Spirit.
Makes you think the Lord meant every word in Psalm 149 and Psalm 150.
What a great service!
That may sound too glib, because sending one's loved one on Home ahead of us is always hard.
But I hope that my homegoing will express joy and expectation the way this one did.
They showed a clip of Kristy when she first learned she had brain cancer, thanking the church for their gestures of love, and saying she just wanted to be in the center of God's will. That she believed in healing and always did, but that there are all kinds of healing.
Milton gave a beautiful euology. He held up a fat notebook of Kristy's writings and laughing, said "We'll start on page one."
Members of the family sang beautiful solos. Larry Ford, I think, sang, "I Bowed on my Knees and Cried 'Holy'" and the service ended with "How Great is our God."
If you would like to enjoy this service, click here.
And if you would like to understand more about how anyone could have peace and joy in spite of just losing a loved one, then scroll down and push the red button marked, "Ready?"
God bless!
Wow, going through old files in my discarded computer, I just came across this email from Kristy to the loop, posted on May (I forget already) 2006. I'm sure she wouldn't mind a bit if I posted it here, with her good thoughts.
Greetings from Kristy Dykes in sunny Florida!
Somebody asked what to do when you've faced a trauma and can't seem to write, or you're feeling directionless, etc. I was touched by the responses. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Wow, this loop is fantastic. Several things ministered to me, below. Thanks, ACFWers.
I saw Francine Rivers on TBN the other night and enjoyed hearing her story again. Great interview. She said she couldn't write for four years. Once she started writing again, she wrote REDEEMING LOVE! (Are you getting goose bumps like I am?)
1."God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them." Hebrews 6:10
2. So give yourself permission to grieve, and in grieving, pushing anything, making important decisions, is not wise.
3. All that said, remember that the battle you face isn't just an emotional or physical battle. It's rooted in the unseen. The enemy of your soul wants to prevent you from responding to the call of God. He certainly intends tosabotage or ambush any attempts to write for Him. It may be time tointentionally thwart the enemy's plans, to write to spite him (if that'seven theologically possible!), and to draw a hedge of prayer protection around yourself before even attempting to lay fingers to keyboard. Blank computer screen, be gone in the name of Jesus!
4. What Kristin B. said. She always says the right thing! On every subject.
5. Oh, and Laurie said to journal during this time.
Kristy Dykes, who's off to journal...
********
*Sigh,* that'll be some journal, now! Praise the Lord.
One of the sweetest people you could ever meet, Kristy Dykes, has gone on to be with the Lord.
"I can only imagine" the wonderful time Kristy is having, free of pain, dancing with Jesus.
For the rest of us, it's not quite as wonderful.
I wish I could be at the service. A few years ago, I emailed Kristy about writing, and a few days later, was surprised to find a brown manila envelope in my mailbox. She had sent me three of her books, to "show, don't tell me," how she did it. I was so happy when I finally met her at a conference.
I pray that the wonderful Holy Spirit do His good work as Comforter for all who love her.
Click here Kristy Dykes and here "I Can Only Imagine"
Click here to see the most adorable videos of babies in the womb.
And of course, everyone remembers this little hand gripping the surgeon's finger.
Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world!
Red and yellow, black and white,
Whether in or out of sight!
Jesus loves the little children of the world!
Diann Hunt's little dog is failing and she blogged about knowing it was time to put him down. I told her I hurt with her. I've been there several times.
The good news is, I believe we'll see our pets in heaven. The Bible says "creation waits" for glory.
Romans 8:18-20 (NIV)
Future Glory
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
I take that literally--all of God's creation.
My belief is that pets are like a class of angels. Why not? Look at the strange and wonderful critters in the Bible! Our pets don't sin, they just serve us and God by giving us love and give us pleasure, and then go to heaven. I'm convinced.
However, I was in Tokyo and saw only cars crossing that Rainbow Bridge, LOL
(Vets often send sympathy cards with a very touching poem about a rainbow bridge.)
I hated to give them up, but didn't want to keeping them suffering in their misery.
I figure that finally, *love lets go.*
Our little Shih Tsu was going blind and hard of hearing and when he cried out and his little back leg went stiff, we knew we had to let him go. So we took him to the vet and stayed with him while he left this world.
The assistant brought me scissors and I clipped the plume of his tail and brought it home. I don't even know where it is at the moment. I can't look at it.
He would walk around a corner of the hall and bump into one of those springy little doorstops and we would hear boiiiiing. Now, any time one of us does the same, I remember him.
Now, a few months later, we just got a new puppy. When Jocko died, we asked our other dog, "Do you miss Jocko?" The ears went up and it hurt my heart to know he did. I never asked him that again.
So we got another.
It's hard to think about it when we are losing one, but there are many other wonderful dogs out there waiting to bless us.
Barry Dean 4 Christ writes: Step back, take a deep breath, and weigh it against the Scriptures....
Dr. Albert Mohler dedicated his entire radio program to reviewing the book.... The book is being compared to “Pilgrim’s Progress” for it’s allegorical use. [but] the character Papa who is God (seen by Mac, the main character, as an African American woman) says
When we three spoke ourselves into existence as the son of God we became fully human.
This is a complete destruction of the biblical understanding of the Trinity.
The Godhead did not become human. On page 110 the character of Jesus does not say that I am the only way to Papa (God) but he does in fact say that I am the “best way” that any human can relate to Papa (God). ... [this] flies in the face of John 14:6.
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me It is impossible to get past this verse in scripture. No one has access to the Father except those who follow Jesus Christ. Tim Challies states it in his review of “The Shack”, “the book has a quietly subversive quality to it”.
Throughout the book there is this kind of subversive strain teaching that new and fresh revelation is much more relevant and important than the kind of knowledge we gain in sermons or seminaries or Scripture.
Click here for the full article.
There are those who believe in what Reinhold Neibuhr described as:
“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”
In other words, another Gospel, another Jesus, one watered-down and easy to swallow.
Does the popular book, The Shack, go against Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 4:6 Do not go beyond what is written?
Jan Markell, whose
On page 110 Jesus says that He is perhaps not the way, truth, and life, but the BEST way to relate to the Father and Holy Spirit. Papa God, the African-American female, says she has many followers of many religions in different lands. This is not Orthodox Christianity, yet millions of Christian readers claim it is! Discernment has taken a summer vacation or perhaps a permanent vacation.
Mack asks "Papa" God, the female, about God's wrath. The answer is that she doesn't punish people for sin; rather she wants to cure sin. No mention of repentance, the shed blood, and all the things the new "seeker" environment wants to leave out in the church parking lot.
Yes, clearly, the “Jesus” of The Shack is not Jesus Christ of the Bible.
And God in a muu-muu and turban and cooking turnip greens and saying "sho 'nuff" to show that He has a wonderfully sweet side?
Nothing wrong with a warm, nuturing ethnic character like that. Nothing wrong with allegory in itself, as long as it doesn't misrepresent Scripture or go beyond what is written.
And, yes, I know God has a feminine side to His nature. Isaiah talks about Him comforting like a mother.
The book tries to make God more approachable to those who don't know Him or His love very well.
I can understand and cheer that motive with loud applause and kudos to the authors.
But that Papa is not God the Father, to me.
I think about Jesus at the funeral at Nain, where a widow had lost her only son and now had no man to help her. Jesus brought the son back to life. Our tender-hearted Lord was so moved by the woman's sorrow, He had to pause long enough to tell her, Don't cry.
This is the sweetness of our God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. I would urge people to share that passage instead of that book.
If anyone meets Him in a muu-muu first, well, I just hope The Shack isn't the only book they read!
And, our wonderful Holy Spirit, God who lives inside of us, is also a female and her name is Sarayu? Where does that name come from? Sarayu is a river in India. Please go here and click on this this one about Hindu spirits.
Why associate even obliquely, the blessed Holy Spirit with Hindu gods??? It just raises a red flag with me. It implies Universal Reconciliation, God brings everyone home, with or without the cross. What a waste!
Chuck Colson's column includes many links at the bottom. If his points aren't strong enough for you, he obviously just gets a check in his spirit.
It can seem overwhelming to know how to guard our hearts or to share the Truth.
From The Kingdom of the Cults tapes by the late Walter Martin, I learned a few quick, mind-boggling Bible passages that could apply to The Shack, and definitely to other things out there:
There are other gospels, other jesuses, other spirits. Paul is dismayed that Christians have received them:
2 Corinthians 11:3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
Galatians 1:9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Whoa!
And to answer the error of the groups that tell us that works will qualify us for Heaven, that the goodness of our puny works is greater than God's hatred of sin and the complete work of the cross:
Galatians 3:1 You foolish Galatians! [Wow!] Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?"
Regarding being entertained by and taking lightly the things that God hates, such as wizardry and talking to the dead--spiritism:
Deuteronomy 18:9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in [a] the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
Hmm, God doesn't seem to be aware that enticing books on this subject also entice children to read~
Let's also consider the fact that God made us in His image and He adores us. He's not looking to condemn us, but help us into knowing and loving Him. Blameless in His eyes by coming to Him by Way of the cross.
And for those that have a new revelation for a new time, a new place, a new society, I fell in love with Jude verse 3: Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend (defend vigorously) for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
I love that one so much because I once explored a cult that came knocking on my door, and I could have been led astray, myself. I am yes, eternally grateful that I found the Truth of the Word of God. Not that I have it all down perfectly, not that I am perfect, by any means. But having been pulled to safety, I just want to reach out to others in danger.
Most of us probably understand that we as writers have a huge responsibility.
Like it or not, we are sort of taking on the role as teachers.
Like it or not, Christian author just sounds a little authoritative.
Like it or not, this warning's attached:
James 3:1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Ack! If we get it right, that's one thing. But, as always, and perhaps, moreso, today:
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
Unsaved people who do not understand sin and salvation and the power of the blood of Christ (foreshadowed by thousands of years of sacrifices of doves, lambs and goats) look to us and our writing to at least represent the Truth that sets us free.
Saved people will look to us for confirmation, or at least, no contradiction. Safe to enjoy and share.
Not talking here about whether to use hymns or praise songs, sprinkling or immersion, or to drink or not, but the John 3:16-18 Gospel, itself, and the definitions of the Persons involved.
Walter Martin said again and again, Ask for definitions. Ask for definitions. Ask for definitions.
With God's help, and His definitions, we and our books won't lead readers astray, at which point, we recall, it would be better to have a millstone tied around our necks, as Jesus said, and be cast into the sea.
We live in the Post-Christian era, some say. Roger Ebert, liberal movie critic, even says we are spinning out of control. We certainly live in troubled times.
People don't know where to turn.
Some will turn to us and our books.
What an awesome responsibility!
Obviously, we want to comfort and strengthen and maybe lead them to the Lord.
But with the wrong definitions, we could lead some astray with another gospel, another jesus, another spirit.
I have to agree with that quote at the top:
This false teaching about a “God” who “dwells in, around, and through all things” is the kind of New Age leaven that, left unchallenged, could leaven the church into the New Age/New Spirituality of the proposed New World Religion. And while many people have expressed a great deal of emotional attachment to The Shack and its characters — this leaven alone contaminates the whole book.
Clearly, the “Jesus” of The Shack is not Jesus Christ of the Bible.
Others may disagree and enjoy the book. I love and respect my friends and they have that freedom. : )
But if this book really does present another Gospel--no sin--and another jesus--the best way instead of the only way--then my friend, Patty Carroll is not exaggerating when she calls the Shack "Shacking up with the Enemy."
I doubt that I'll ever read the book. I've read too many questionable reviews about images I just don't especially want in my mind and spirit. I try to heed the warning, "Guard your heart."
There will always be controversial books that skirt the truth. I don't need to read them all, even though conventional wisdom says I should, not to let others do my thinking for me, to be able to share the Truth with others, etc.
But I don't have to read every counterfeit in every bookstore along the pike to recognize the traits of a counterfeit trinity. I just need to know and share the priceless original Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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