Correspondence: A Direct Relationship To or With

Then He who sat on the throne said,

"Behold, I make all things new." 

And He said to me, 

"Write, for these words are true and faithful." 

(Revelation 21:5 NKJV)

God is in the process of making all things new. This was such an important concept, He directed John to write it down, letting us know that God's word is faithful and true. A crucial aspect of our relationship with God is reading Scriptures. He uses correspondence to communicate with us about His relationship with all of creation.

The Bible doesn't specifically say whether anyone kept a diary or journal, but several times God invites His prophets and scribes to write down a message. I believe writing things down can transform us. So, I keep a journal. And I find this practice one of the most beneficial means of connecting with God. 

Not everyone embraces this practice, yet I think writing your prayers of various kinds, your responses to God's word and even questions that you ponder are great ways to experience God's presence. Another benefit of a journal is having a written account of your journey with God.

Pam Farrel explains how this practice enhanced her quiet times:

I remember the encouragement to to close down the windows  of responsibility of my life just like we close down the windows on our computer programs. As I slow down . . . I then find I have better reception to what God is saying. Sometimes I do this by freewriting in my journal, logging random thoughts as they enter my mind. I record turns of phrases, poems or emotions as I need to release them from the confines of my heart. I find that if I close down my frenzied activity, I have much I want to journal back to him!

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam www.Love-wise.com

If you find it hard to journal, why not just start with Dear Jesus . . . or Hello! Write a short note to God or lavish Him with a love letter written in long hand or type Him a missal on your computer. God loves to hear from us whether it's through mental, verbal or written expression.

What benefits have you experienced while keeping a journal? Have you ever thought of the Bible as God's journal? If so, how would thinking of the Bible in this way effect

 the way you read it?

Linking up with Random Journal Day

Season of Joy

 

He grants the desires of those who fear him;
He hears their cries for help

and rescues them.

(Psalm 145:19 NLT)

 

 

 

 

On Easter Sunday, we gathered around my mom's picnic table feasting on the spread placed before us. Afterwards, I gave the nieces and nephews tote bags for them to keep their jammies and bedtime books safe and in one place. Patrick proclaimed himself a hobo, and the three little ones paraded around the yard with their "hobo" bags. I don't remember telling them about my hobo honeymoon Lenten journey, but it made me smile that they wanted to be hobos.

 

Then Loryn, the youngest, surprised me with a presentation and a gift she made for me. She ran in the house and came back with her hands behind her back. She said something like:

 

First: I love you. Second: You're the best aunt and so are all my other aunts. Third: This is a gift for Easter.

 

She handed me a scrap of notebook paper with words scrawled in her own hand, with one correction made by her mom.

 

I read it out loud to all present, and barely could keep from choking back tears as God loved me in words from the pen of a child. (I was touched by her desire to record her worship experience with pen and paper.)

 

 

 

 

She wrote:

 

Today I am going to church.

Day 1: Alive  

God is always with you.

You can hare (hear) God.

God loves you.

God is always in your hearts.

 

As I read the sentence, "You can hare (hear) God," it pierced my heart, because earlier that morning I was doubting my ability to hear. Later my sister told me that was the exact question she and Loryn were discussing at church. Loryn knew God heard her, but she wondered if we could hear God. Her mom assured her that we can hear God, so Loryn wrote it down, affirming her new found truth.

 

The other message that seemed directed to my heart was; "Day 1: Alive." After these past forty days of observing the fast of Lent, I sensed that in her simple way of keeping track of the first day in her journal and the title of the sermon, she hit on another truth. Easter Sunday is Day 1. We can keep counting on the aliveness of Jesus each day. Alleluia!

 

 

Day 2: Alive! Jesus lives and I am glad to be alive!

 

And for those following the church calendar, I was pleased to be reminded that Easter is a season, not just one Sunday. I look forward to the continued feasting which lasts fifty days, until Pentecost. Grace, grace, God's grace!

 

 

In This City

For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our city in heaven,

which is yet to come.
(Hebrews 13:14 NLT)

 

I took the Metrolink to our fair city of St. Louis today. It was an expirement of sorts, a hometown adventure. I was seeking inspiration away from my usual surroundings.

I am not a city girl and I am no longer a country girl. I am a just another suburbanite looking for adventure and glitz in the city. I am a writer, and I have come to realize that as a writer, much of my life is spent in the imagination.

As some of my friends can attest, I come up with these crazy, romantic ideas, like becoming a world traveller in my own city or starting a hiking club or designing a "Bible as Literature" book club. I have a lot of ideas, not that all of them pan out

For my latest adventure, I am recreating the atmopshere of A Writer's Paris, here in St. Louis. I mean, we do have some French roots, thus our name, St. Louis, from the Louisana Purchase and all that. In Paris, people go to the train stations to people watch and enjoy art, why not see if I could do the same here?

I was a little giddy, wondering what or who I would encounter. In light of my hobo honeymoon, I chose to go down to Union Station, our famous train depot and home to Union Station Hotel. I hadn't been in a while, so I was pleasantly surprised to find the food court still open and a few people milling around. Mostly locals and some college basketball fans-- this weekend the city is hosting Arch Madness. I did  find a few people to watch and very little art, except for the train memorabilia and the architecture in the hotel lobby.

For lunch, I sat at a cafe table in the sunny atrium. I ate my sandwich, while trying to scribble in my journal. I mostly wrote about how I didn't like my new journal or my new pen, and kept fighting the urge to just go home and be comfortable in my blue thinking chair.

Since I was getting restless, I checked my map for the location of the newly renovated Central Library, then I walked over to check it out. There were some tourists on Market Street walking toward the Arch and a few folks sitting on the benches in Keener Park Plaza.

The difference between St. Louis and other cities that I have visited is the people. Downtown St. Louis is sparsely populated. It feels more like walking through a deserted town, than the cosmopolitan feel of New York City and Chicago. It just lacks volume. Hardly any cars, so you feel foolish waiting to cross the street. The people who are out and about look warily at each other. I found myself mumbling to myself and looking at the skyline. Do people do this in Paris?

Inside the library was quiet, too. A beautiful building with stained glass windows, marble staircases and dark mahogeny tables blended with some modern rooms and seating areas. A potential place for undistracted writing.

But before I could find a writing spot, I noticed on the ornate wall clock that it was 2:10pm, so I quickly peeked around some more rooms and then headed back to the Union Station Metrolink. My surburban sensibility didn't want to get caught in rush hour traffic on 70 west.

All in all it was a good day: out in the sunshine, people watching and riding the Metrolink. (For $4.50 you can take a roundtrip to many locations in the Greater St. Louis area. I was thinking it would be worth it just to sit on the train and read. Or eavesdrop on conversations, which I know is not polite, but who knows what great dialogue I might catch for a novel.)

Back in my SUV, I tuned into our local Christian station. I smiled as they were playing God of This City by Chris Tomlin.

Greater things
Have yet to come
And greater things
Are still to be done in this city
(Chris Tomlin)

 

 

Embryo: Something in an Early Stage of Development

 

I think a journal is like an embryo. It is the incubator for my writing life. The ideal place for thoughts and ideas to gestate, in their early stage of development.

 

Today I am linking up with Random Journal Day with Dawn and Susie over at Beneath the Surface: Breath of Faith.
 
Here's the entry I randomly chose in a journal from 2010:

 

  
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 Morning. Rainy Day. Cold & Damp.

I woke up around 6am and decided to rouse myself from bed and begin the day. Right now the house is cluttered and dust laden. Barely enough time to make sure we have clean underwear. Final days of the semester mean I must make the most of every moment. Also preparing for trip . . . and keeping up with family and friends.

(That’s all I wrote in my journal that day.)

It’s strange when you go back to a journal entry looking for some seed of thought that might inspire greater things. In this entry, I notice that my life was very full. During that semester of life, I learned to accept that I had the normal amount of time, but it was divided amongst several different interests and pursuits.

Time to rest and reflect, even for a few lines in my journal. Barely time to do laundry. Never enough time or motivation to dust.

One key phrase in the paragraph, “making the most of every moment” gives a glimpse into my heart. Time and people are important to me. Cultivating relationships and nurturing the embryonic ideas that often generate from my ever active mind are seeds of who I am. See how a journal can reveal or affirm something about yourself!

I love keeping a journal. My journals are treasured, sacred places to process my days, to notice patterns and to discover truths about life. A journal can be a place of healing or a place to discover your purpose. Or even a springboard for blogging or other writing projects.
 

If you have a journal, and want to link up with Random Journal Day, the link is open all month.



Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
it may be an everlasting witness.
(Isaiah 30:8 NIV)



Light: Something that Makes Vision Possible

 

Blessed are those who

have learned to acclaim you,
who walk in the light

of your presence, O Lord.

Psalm 89:15 NIV

I like Mondays. On Mondays, I observe a day of rest. I call it my extra Sabbath. On Sundays, my husband and I serve and worship at our church. And I often take a nap in the afternoon.

But resting on Mondays is different. I don't schedule any outside appointments. I don't have to rush anywhere. I can linger with my coffee. I let go of agendas and I do my best to listen. There is no hurry to leave the presence of God. I read, journal, listen and pray to my heart's content.
 
This particular Monday, I am enjoying time on our porch swing on a warm, balmy winter day. The sun is shining, the birds are calling each other with warbles and whistles and chirps and trills.
 
Sometimes, I go back and read over my journal to gain insight. To see what light has been poured out through my pen. I notice what God and I have been dialoguing over the past several weeks. Since I had the leisure to do so today, I thumbed through my journal, highlighting the glimpses of a theme or a direction. Path, desire and want were common words. Also hope, blessing and love. Here are some quotes and musings that resonated with me today. I hope they are a sweet balm of warmth on this wintry Monday.

"As wonderful as it is to have Jesus' blessings,

it is even more wonderful to have Jesus."

(Roy Lessin)

 

 

 

"O LORD, the house of my soul is narrow; enlarge it that Thou mayest enter in. It is ruinous, O repair it! It displeases Thy sight; I confess it, I know. But who shall  cleanse it, or to whom shall I cry but unto Thee? Cleanse me from my secret faults, O LORD,

spare Thy servant from strange sins."

(St. Augustine)

 

 

"To have someone to absorb us, who wants to understand the shape and structure of our lives, who will listen for more than our words,

is one of friendship's greatest gifts."

(Paul D. Robbins)

 

 

Below is a written prayer that I copied down today, and my response to that prayer:

 

"Almighty God, whose word is authority and power and whose way is love, grant us today clear minds, understanding hearts, and willing spirits so that we may wisely appropriate Your word of truth. Amen."

 

 

My response:

 

"Let us not try to change each other, but rather trust each other. Trust ourselves. Accept that each other's personalities, skills, gifts and life experiences inform the whole of who we are and how we interact with one another. Let us love one another."


Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts. 
(1 John 5:21 NLT)

 

 

 

 

Expedition: A Journey Undertaken for a Specific Purpose

 “… the Holy Spirit compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness.”

Mark 1:12 NLT

 

 

Over the next forty days, I am planning to go on a spiritual expedition. A spiritual experiment of sorts. Not a forty day fast. Nor a forty day retreat, but forty days of preparation. Forty days from today marks the weekend before Thanksgiving. The weekend after Thanksgiving will mark the forty days of Advent.

As the end of this year approaches, I am surprised by an invitation to continue to rest. I started out the year with a forty day Sabbath, seeking to be ready for what I hoped would be a new season of encouraging women in my home. I wanted to offer a place to retreat and be refreshed by God. This vision birthed out of my own desire to practice more solitude in the midst of a world that distracts so easily.

Even last year, this desire was growing. I wrote about it in a journal entry dated: Tuesday, June 22, 2011.

 

“…but what I really want is my life to matter. To enjoy what I have—to share what I have with others. Out of the overflow of this…I long to invite women to retreat and be refreshed, renewed and restored.”

By now, I thought I would be offering day retreats in my home to weary souls. Yet God in his ability to see beyond my thoughts has invited me to wait in His presence. To soak in His Word and rely on Him as the Spirit moves me into this “wilderness” season.

Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days. We know that part of the purpose was a testing, but I think mostly it was a time of preparation. And that is the specific purpose that leads me to a season of staying home more, reading more and praying with intention to discover and develop ideas that have been whirling around my heart, soul and mind. To test them, and see if this is the direction God would have me to go.

Pray for me as I embark on this expedition. You may hear more musings about it here. Who knows? I just know that I must follow hard after Jesus, and trust Him to lead me on into New Frontiers.


Linking up with: