Making God in our own image

"With God...the first and most important point was not to understand him but to trust him. The idea that you might begin by looking this God up and down, giving him a cool appraisal, and then, if you understood him and approved of him, you might respond to him, is to deny that he is God at all. If he is God, our primary role is not to analyse him but to worship him; it is not for *us* to figure *him* out but to let *him* figure *us* out. Yes, I know: this sounds like a leap into the unknown. But the alternative is a sure route to idolatry, making a god in our own image." - Tom Wright, Simply Good News.

NT Wright quote

“Albert Schweitzer, a century or more ago, used another strong image. Jesus, he said, was like a man convinced the wheel of history was going to turn in the opposite direction. He waited for this to happen, but it didn’t. Then he threw himself upon the wheel, and it crushed him—but it did indeed start to turn in the other direction.” ― N.T. Wright, Simply Good News

GK Chesterton Quote

Picture taken at a local reservoir

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

The greed to be loved

"The greed to be loved is a fearful thing. Some of those who say (and almost with pride) that they live only for love come, at last, to live in incessant resentment.” The Sermon and the Lunch, CS Lewis

Charles II was a prophet!

1675 sounds very much like 2016, hahahaha!

"Whereas it is most apparent, that the Multitude of Coffee-Houses of late years set up and kept within the Kingdom, the Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick on Tweed, and the great resort of Idle and disaffected persons to them, have produced very evil and dangerous effects; as well for that many Tradesmen and others, do therein mis-spend much of their time, which might and probably would otherwise by imployed in and about their Lawful Callings and Affairs..." Charles II, 29th Dec 1675

Being all we were created to be

My longest bloggy friend Michele shared a quote on her lovely new blog Our Daily Work, in her post 'Becoming Yourself':

"The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” — Anna Quindlen

This is so important.

There can be so many voices in our lives telling us who we ought to be to make us 'perfect': the preacher/pastor at church, our family, articles written by fellow Christians, magazines, TV, etc. But what we really need to ask is - who was I created to be? If we try to be like someone else, or to be what someone else thinks we should be, we forget our Creator intended us to be ourselves! Even right down to the colours we love, songs we enjoy, our sense of humour, the skills we possess.

I was thinking this when reading a book about the different kinds of fish there are with my youngest (I know even fish can cause me to think deep philosophical thoughts - ;) LOL). The variety of fish is amazing, some are beautiful, some are plain, some are downright weird looking - but they're all amazing. If that is how God created the little (or big!) fish then how much more variety there must be amongst us humans! :)

Another thought - the Greek word translated 'perfect' (telios), like when Jesus told us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, actually means perfect as in 'complete' or 'fullness' - i.e. we should be all that we are meant to be just as God is all that He is meant to be. I love that.  I always imagined it meant perfect as in without fault, but really it means full and complete.  Being all we were created to be.

Who did God create you to be?  What do YOU enjoy doing?  What makes your heart sing?  When you were a child what activities did you enjoy the most?  What colours are your eyes drawn to?  What books do you read over and over? What scriptures particularly feed your soul?

This is all part of you.  Every human hears the call of heaven in their hearts, it is that which draws us to beauty and to love.  We were created in the image of God, we were created to show every aspect of our Creator.  In this messed up world it has become distorted, but Jesus has set us free to be made complete, to be the fullness of all God intended us to be, to be beautifully different every single one of us.

Living Faith

"[T]here is enough loveliness, enough beauty, enough love in this world — enough food in this world —- if we would just share...

[T]he problem of evil in the world isn’t a problem for proof of God —- but a problem of our own turned-in hearts...when we turn our heart outward — we in turn bear testimony to the loving existence of God, of the body of Christ right here…"
~Ann Voskamp

I'm studying the book of James at the minute and have just worked through Chapter 2.  The above quote taken from Ann Voskamp's recent post spoke to me especially because of what I had been meditating on in God's Word.

James speaks of that love in action.  The fruit of faith.  I ought not love anyone for what they can do for me, but simply because God loves them and so I must love.  To care for the poor and brethren who are not able to meet their own needs.  To show mercy because I serve a merciful God.  To have a faith, not of mere intellectual assent ('for even the demons believe') but a living faith in Christ.

It is our living faith that shows the world we serve a living God.  He most certainly exists and He most certainly cares.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
~ Philippians 3:17-21

God's Rest

“God never asked us to meet life's pressures and demands on our own terms or by relying upon our own strength. Nor did He demand that we win His favor by assembling an impressive portfolio of good deeds. Instead, He invites us to enter His rest.” ― Charles R. Swindoll

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” ― Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine

Real life is a gift

"Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery; it is not essentially a philosophy of love but a love affair; it is not keeping rules with clenched fists but receiving a gift with open hands."

~Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

"The crucial point here is that, in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus’s life. In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast (as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the elder-brother type does not. Jesus says to the respectable religious leaders ‘the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before you’ (Matthew 21:31)." ~ Tim Keller

The more I learn about Jesus the more his life makes me consider my walk with God and how I view the world and church-life.  It fits in with the verse from Hosea quoted by Jesus in Matt 9:13 and Matt 12:7, which has been in my mind a great deal recently: "I desire mercy not sacrifice".

From: Keller Quotes
Hat tip to this post: Christianity and Respectability

Forgiveness

I'm reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, it's one of those books I pick up and read from time to time but I'm not sure I've ever sat down and read it cover to cover in one single time frame.

Anyway, there are some things that have struck me and so I don't forget them I'm going to record them on my blog here and there.

[W]e might try to understand exactly what loving your neighbour as yourself means.  I have to love him as I love myself.  Well, how exactly do I love myself?...

A good many people imagine that forgiving your enemies means making out that they are not such bad fellows after all, when it is quite plain that they are.  Go a step further.  In my most clear-sighted moments not only do I not think myself a nice man, but I know that I am a very nasty one.  I can look at some of the things I have done with horror and loathing.  So apparently I am allowed to loathe and hate some of the things my enemies do.  Now that I come to think of it, I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a man's actions but not hate the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin  but not the sinner.

For a long time I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did and not hate the man?  But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life - namely myself.  However much I might dislike my own cowardice or greed, I went on loving myself.  There had never been the slightest difficulty about it.  In fact the very reason why I hated the things was that I loved the man.  Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things. Consequently, Christianity does not want us to reduce by one atom the hatred we feel for cruelty and treachery.  We ought to hate them.  Not one word of what we have said about them needs to be unsaid.  But it does want us to hate them in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves: being sorry that the man should have done such things, and hoping, if it is anyway possible,. that somehow, sometime, somewhere he can be cured and made human again.
~Chapter 7, Forgiveness, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis.

Prodigal Son

“For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life—pray always, work for others, read the Scriptures—and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself. I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?” The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?” And, finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God?” God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.”

~ Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

I have never read a Henri Nouwen book, but this quote moved me so much.  I am re-reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis at the moment and a thought occurred to me whilst reading the chapter on Christian Marriage.  The thought wasn't particularly related to marriage, but it was simply how often we try to make the words of Jesus law rather than life, we live in fear of breaking the 'law' and hide ourselves in shame from the giver of life.  The scripture that I thought of in particular was where Jesus speaks about divorce in Matthew 5.  I won't go into it in depth, it's a fairly well known scripture.  I simply reflected how we (in Christian circles) have made this scripture into a law - the 'law' being that unless your spouse is unfaithful you cannot divorce or remarry.  But it isn't law, and I don't believe that Jesus was instituting a new rule.  The only law we are under as Christians is the law of love and it is the lack of love that Jesus is speaking against using marriage as an example; because the ultimate law is to love God and love one another.  There were obviously some who were using God's law as an excuse to discard a wife to get a new one, misusing the teaching of Deuteronomy 24. Not showing the love of God, but selfishness and unfaithfulness.  Of course, God loves us and if our spouse is beating us or being unfaithful...well, he offers us grace for all things.  There is no condemnation for the broken, the damaged, the enslaved.  Equally there is forgiveness offered for those who sin.

Anyway, I said I wouldn't get into that.  The point is that it isn't our work that gets us close to God, it isn't our strict keeping of Old Testament or even New Testament teaching that gets us close to God.  (The Old Testament law simply proved to us we couldn't even in our wildest dreams ever be perfect.) It is God who gets us close to God.   He is the Father seeking, longing for his prodigals.  When we make a mistake, or we sin, we have our speeches (prayers) all planned out, we plan to grovel, we plan to work really hard for him to impress him, we plan to make ourselves lowly slaves for him, we cannot even lift our eyes because we feel so unworthy.  But, before we even reach the threshold of God's throne he is running to us arms outstretched.

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! [Here's the planned speech] I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. Luke 15:17-20

God is waiting for you arms outstretched.  Watching the road, scanning the horizon for you.  He is longing for you.

He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.  Isaiah 40:11

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:10

I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands. Psalm 119:176

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18

He simply wants us

I came across this quote by CS Lewis via a picture Sandra shared from a page called 'Jesus Daily' on Facebook.  It's beautiful:

God doesn't want something from us.  He simply wants us. 

~ CS Lewis.

I wondered if anyone knows which Lewis book this is from?  I've searched online but cannot find it.

There is no formula for life except Jesus

The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to do good. The Christian thinks any good he does come from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us. ~ C.S. Lewis

It is damaging when I reduce my Christianity to formula.

Too often I rely on orthopraxy and not Jesus.

Too often I fear rejection by God because I cannot follow the formula someone has prescribed for 'a great Christian walk' - despite the fact that God says He will never forsake me or leave me.

There is no formula for life except Jesus.  He gives His life to those Who ask.

It's all about Jesus.

Jesus loves me.

I love Jesus.

It's Friday...

What time is it?

08.02 am

My plans for the day.

To fit black-out lining to Chatterbox's curtains - I'm taking them down to Mum's later today we are going to do it together (they're quite heavy). She did have a blind but the plaster is so bad in our house the blind kept falling down.

Work - I have to go in an hour earlier because we are a member of staff down for a while.

Some ironing, a bit of cleaning.

What am I listening to.

The music on my blog.

What song have I been singing this morning?>

Jesus is Lord, creation's voice proclaims it, and by His power each tree and flower was planned and made!

What I am thinking.

How wonderful our God is and how beautiful Jesus is. My heart swells with the wonder and the depth of what we don't even know and yet will one day. Our Lord and Saviour, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Amen.

What I am reading.

The Stripping of the Altars by Eamon Duffy, a look at religion in pre-Reformation England and the aftermath.

Chronological reading of the Bible - I'm in Genesis now with the stories about Abraham, I've read part of Genesis and all of Job so far.

To Chatterbox: we are about to start The Sea of Adventure by Enid Blyton

To Squidge: James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Cat of the Week

Simon's Cat - Hidden Treasures



Some blog plans:

I want to put some profile stuff on - perhaps as 'Page Elements': what I believe, my testimony, a few likes and dislikes. Other than that I'm quite happy with the look of my blog right now.

Scripture thoughts:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13.

Love abides eternally. The love we have outside of God is transient and doesn't last - as CS Lewis wrote: "Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment". The love of God lasts forever. The greatest act of love in all time was the giving of Jesus upon the cross. The only way we can show love is through God abiding in us by His Holy Spirit. Love is the greatest of the gifts from God. What we understand now is just a shadow of the truth that awaits us when we will meet God face-to-face.

When He died in the Wounded World He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less. Each thing, from the single grain of Dust to the strongest eldil, is the end and the final cause of all creation and the mirror in which the beam of His brightness comes to rest and so returns to Him. Blessed be He! C.S Lewis

Have a great weekend!

Oh Sisyphus, I understand.

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labour. ~Albert Camus

I love my home. I really do. Many a post I have written about home - and I'll always be passionate about making a home for my family. But, of late, too much I have concentrated on housework and not home, until I am Sisyphus endlessly pushing that rock that never reaches the top of the mountain. I am the woman that Rudyard Kipling speaks of: You sometimes see a woman who would have made a Joan of Arc in another century and climate, threshing herself to pieces over all the mean worry of housekeeping (From Plain Tales of the Hills, Rudyard Kipling). But I am a perfectionist. I make no joy of my housework, but make myself a martyr to it. If I haven't thoroughly cleaned my living room by Tuesday I am stressed. But who made the rule that it must be done by Tuesday? Me. And if it is done by Tuesday by Wednesday it looks like it did Monday, so then I'm stressed again. Oh Sisyphus, I understand!

But what is the plan? Yikes, I always need a plan (that can't be good). Moving on with trepidation then...

• Firstly, the husbando helpfully informed me that I simply have to lower my standards - yep, still working on that.
• Secondly, I have decided to enjoy my home - that is not the perfection of the cleanliness (no cleanliness ISN'T next to godliness!) but the family and friends therein.
• Thirdly, I will remember one of my favourite quotes by Thomas More: the ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.To enjoy each simple task in itself. It's not a race, it's not a competition. To find God in the small things and to thank Him for it.

I'm not sure if Sisyphus really did find life meaning in the all-encompassing task of pushing that rock up the hill (as Albert Camus suggests), I'm sure he'd much rather stop and do something else for a bit at least! Surely there had to be a worthwhile point to his rolling?

But will my inherent perfectionism let me let go? Watch this space. Can you make home without the perfect house? Intriguing.

I'll leave the last words to Mother Teresa:

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do...but how much love we put in that action
~ Mother Teresa

Anyway, enough of my mardy moaning, let's talk about the Kittehs!

Here's a cute site: Cat in a box We all know that if there is a box and a kitty the kitty will be in the box. Rather like if there is a kitty and a piece of paper in the middle of the floor, before long the kitty will be sat in the middle of the paper. We love the kittehs.

Toodle-pip chaps.

Inspiration and whimsy

Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do Thy will, O Lord our God. - Amy Carmichael



"Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh?" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. "I just wanted to be sure of you."
— A.A. Milne, 'Winnie-the-Pooh'

The first frost

Some leaves hang late, some fall
before the first frost--so goes
the tale of winter branches and old bones.
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

Today we had our first frost. The sky is blue and clear. The weather forecast earlier in the week that today would be clear cold weather and my first thought was, "Ooh I will wash my bedding then". I'm easily pleased. My mum and I get inordinately excited about hanging washing outside. You can hang laundry out in freezing weather, it will get stiff as a board but when you bring it indoors it dries very quickly.



I love Autumn. :)

I keep spying this bucket outside, it's been there since hubs last washed the car. I think very soon wildlife will be spawning in it! ;)

Now I need to go and tackle the bedrooms.

Have a lovely day.

Jack Frost took his paintbrush
as he sailed across the sky
so every morning as the sun comes up
his artwork greets the eye
there's reds and gold's and yellows
all of a breath taking view
but no matter how hard he tries
he can never make leaves turn blue
so when you're in bed sleeping
and outside everything seems faint
just remember at midnight
Jack Frost begins to paint

by Carl Jesse

Autumn

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns". George Eliot

I love autumn. Love it. The colours are beautiful.

“But I remember more dearly autumn afternoons in bottoms that lay intensely silent under old great trees” CS Lewis

It's wonderful to sit cosily indoors - oh how I wish I had a wood burner (one day, one day) - as the wind and rain howl outside.

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree” Emily Bronte

But there are also bright sunny days that highlight the colours in the trees are simply idyllic.

Flickr

Autumn is a time of exploring for children. Today we collected conkers, there weren't many, I think the Squirrels have taken most of them. But there are berries like jewels, the leaves are golden, the bugs are out in force. It's such a fun time for children.



I'm so desperate to find time to get out with the children and hunt for treasures. Here is a great Autumn calendar of fun activities for children from Holy Experience.

Autumn also feels a nostalgic, shadowy time. The bats are out, the mornings are misty, the evenings are foggy. There's a smell of wood smoke in the air and of burning peat on the moors. There is a quietness, a silence. Summer is noisy, autumn is peaceful.

“I saw old Autumn in the misty morn Stand shadowless like silence, listening To Silence” Thomas Hood

It's the time to read a mystery or a magical fantasy like The Children of Green Knowe. I love that book. I'd read it to my eldest right now, but we're in the middle of one of the follow-up books to the Malory Towers series. Chuh!

1954 edition (I think)

Have a happy autumn.


~My pictures on this post are from last October (except for one from creative commons photos on Flickr, see link underneath photo).