Java with Jennifer Journal

September 2011 Taste This!

What I Am In To Lately

Our first Fresh Grounded Faith in September was in Chattanooga, Tennessee with Michael O'Brien and Stormie Omartian.  We were surrounded by sweet Southern women who made us feel so welcome!  The weekend was special and many women got a fresh start in their relationship with the Lord.  We were so grateful.  The big surprise was that Kay Arthur joined us!  She was so kind and supportive to attend, and then she graciously sat at the bistro table with us and answered the audience's questions during Spill the Beans!  

The highlight for me, personally, was spending the night at her home Saturday evening. I will never forget my time with her--sitting around her table, sipping peppermint tea from a Russian tea pot and eating cashew cookies from Singapore on plates from Romania.  It was so rich.  She is wise.  She is 30 years my senior and I felt as if God sat me at her table to give me a map for my future ministry. I am so blessed.  We need to be willing to share, guide, listen and receive.  We need each other.   Do you have someone older from whom you can learn?  Do you have someone younger in your life whom you can guide?  Find someone you admire and become her for someone else.  

Okay, another person I admire--C.S. Lewis!  Are you surprised?  This month I read God in the Dock. It is a compilation of 48 essays and 12 letters written by C. S. Lewis between 1940 and 1963.  Walter Hooper, whom I introduced you to last month, compiled and edited the volume.  The essays deal with many subjects from theology to science, and his letters show both his personality and intellect.

God in the Dock takes its name from the essay with the same title.  It places God on the witness stand and places us as judge and jury.  It's a provocative and humbling testimony as to our audacious and demanding relationship with God. If He answers our questions, then we "acquit" Him.  Oh, may it never be that we place Him there! That is where we belong, not God.  It is very interesting and eye-opening.  You should give it a taste test.  

The month ended in Syracuse, New York at a Fresh Grounded Faith event with Kathy Troccoli and hundreds of our best friends!  KT always wows the crowd and then so gently ministers to them.  I love to see how God works within her.  We began the month in the South and ended it in the North!  What a beautiful sisterhood we have!  

So, give these things a taste test:

1.  Peppermint tea with a friend

2.  Any Bible study by Kay Arthur

3.  A Fresh Grounded Faith event near you

4.  God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis and Walter Hooper

September 2011 Fresh Grounded Thoughts

What God Has Been Teaching Me Lately 

Hide and Seek        

When I was a girl, we had a fluffy poodle named Cannoli.  If you've ever seen that Italian pastry, you can imagine what she looked like!  She was a puffy, fluffy ball of white fur!  She was adorable, but she didn't look like a traditional poodle.  So, one day, my mom decided to restore dignity to her breed and groom her to look like the refined gal she was meant to be.  When Mom arrived home after Cannoli's shaving, styling and pampering, she called us kids to see how pretty Cannoli looked. The door opened, we squealed and the dog darted past us and buried her head under the couch!  Her well-groomed behind and her cotton ball tail shivered as they stuck out!  We prodded and pled, but she wouldn't pull her head out.  "She's hiding," Mom explained. "She's embarrassed and she thinks because she can't see you, you can't see her!"  Poor puppy, she liked her fur coat, not her sleek shave!  Cannoli's logic makes me laugh until I think about how similar mine is to hers.  If I can't see God, I wonder if He can see me.  Hmmm.... Sometimes we feel God isn't there - that He is hiding or can't see us.  

The Psalmist prayed, "Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper.  Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior." (Psalm 27:9-10)

The Psalmist asked God not to hide, turn, reject or forsake him.  None of us want to have that experience with God, either.  We want His presence with us and we want to know He is not hiding.  

Think of Eden...who acted that way?  God...or Adam and Eve?  Sometimes when we feel God is hiding, it is really us who have hidden our face from His.  And, because we can't see Him or experience His presence, we feel He can't or won't see us either.  Shame can make God feel absent because we are like Adam and Eve...hiding.  

Genesis 3:7 describes the awful sting of shame we all feel.  After Adam and Eve bit the fruit, their eyes were opened and they saw their own shame.  The result?  They hid from God (verse 8).  As God walked in the Garden, they were shivering behind a bush!  Yet, God was not hiding...they were.  He called to them and they answered.  They hid because of their shame, but God responded by making garments for them and covering them (verse 21).  

There is nowhere we can go from God's Spirit.  And there is nowhere we can flee from God's presence.  So, why hide?  (Psalm 139:7)

My sweet puppy hid.  She couldn't see us, so she thought we couldn't see her.  She hid, but I saw her.  She couldn't see me, but I was there begging her to come out.  Sin and shame often make us want to hide or make God feel hidden or separate from us.  But, come out, sweet sister. He sees you.  He is with you.  

The Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (Romans 10:11)

 

Well, that's what's been percolating in me lately.  

 

    

September 2011 Spill the Beans

 

You Ask It, I'll Answer It  

God Are You There? [first answered April 2011]

Question:

 

My name is Carol. I read your book Lessons in the Dark. I have been going through a time of feeling distant from God. The more I try to feel Him, the harder it seems.  It's been 8 years.

Everyone says to walk by faith. I agree. I just know that we should sense Him and know He is there. I wonder what I have done, and I have repented of everything. I wonder about that verse in Hebrews 6:4-6.  Please let me have your comments on that verse and how to trust Him more.  

 

Answer:

Hi Carol,
Well, sister, you sound like you are in quite a state of confusion.  I know how hard that can be, especially when it lasts so long.  Let me, with sisterly love and honesty, offer a perspective.  You mentioned we should "sense Him and know He is there."  I am not certain the exact concept of "sensing" His presence is in Scripture.  I could certainly be wrong, but I am not aware of it.  We do not "sense" Him to know He is there.  We simply accept He is there because Scripture tells us He is.  Jesus told us that He would never leave us or forsake us.  Believe me, being blind, I cannot count on "sensing" someone is there when I am visiting with them.  If they are exceptionally still or quiet during our visit, I just have to count on "knowing" and trusting.  Our senses are not ultimate confirmation of truth.  As believers, when it comes to God's presence, faith is knowledge.  

The best evidence of God's presence in our lives through His Son, Jesus, is in our unexplainable peace and in the fruit we bear--such as love, meekness, etc. (Galatians 5:22) We all have seasons where we are less aware of the Holy Spirit in our lives due to our own apathy, over-analysis, sin or distraction.  That's why we don't measure the truthfulness of God's presence by our senses or the way we feel.  He promised He would never leave us or forsake us.  Never.

Because you mentioned the scripture in Hebrews 6 which refers to people once involved in the Christian faith falling away, I wonder if you are questioning your own salvation.  That is something you can determine through prayer and wise counsel.  But, I do know there can be times of barrenness, confusion and seeking that occur, and they are often evidence of God's presence in our lives, rather than His absence.  

I often read Matthew Henry for insight into scriptures so I copied a portion where he explains the passage you questioned.  Perhaps his insight can grant you some clarity.

Carol,  I really like his last point.  Perhaps you've stumbled and walked through a spell of darkness, but that's not the same as falling from His presence.  I want truth to be your guide.  God is faithful. May He strengthen you to trust Him more than feelings and may He graciously grant you clarity.

Bless you sister,
Jennifer
 
And now the beans are officially spilled.

 

 

 

 

Got a question? I might just spill the beans.