Advent 2017

I read an Advent devotional by Paul David Trip called, ‘Come Let Us Adore Him.’ It was such a good read for me as I remembered why Jesus came. I wanted to share some of my takeaways here. 

Unwilling/Willing

We are often UNWILLING. We are unwilling to inconvenience ourselves, to wait, to confront others. 

But Jesus was WILLING...

to endure an undignified stable birth

to expose himself to hardships of this fallen world

to serve when he deserved to be served

to be misunderstood and mistreated

to endure rejection

to preach a message that would cause him harm

to suffer public mockery

to rise AND be our advocate.

Unleashed Grace

I love this word picture. 

“Glory came to unleash grace on all who would believe.”

UNLEASH 

Synonyms: release, set free, loose, unbridle, untether, unchain, unshackle, unbind.

A prayer:

Lord, please unleash Your grace here. It still lies in sin and error pining. Let the people use words like hope and peace. Bring them a thrill of hope. May this Christmas season cause this weary town to rejoice. Bring Your law of love and gospel of peace. Break chains even today. Make slaves free. Bring all oppression to an abrupt end. May the least to the greatest know You. I’m not asking for a few but for the whole city. May Christ finally receive the praise he is due. 

Adam Had It All

ADAM HAD IT ALL. No earthly needs unmet and no separation with God. How could he have turned from all that to something lesser? It was an act of outrageous rebellion. What more could he have needed? Even wanted?! Yet he acted as we all still do. Your fullness is mine yet... 

I saw this played out in an episode of ‘Victoria,’ a PBS series about England’s Queen Victoria. She was described as the queen of the richest nation in the world. She had just proposed to Prince Albert and he had accepted. An exchange between them went something like this:

Albert: Before the wedding there are things that have to be decided. 

Queen Victoria: But everything I have is yours. 

Albert: That’s exactly my point. It’s yours. I do not wish to ask you for money each time I wish to buy a handkerchief. 

Queen Victoria: But I have a palace full of handkerchiefs. 

I think it is such a good picture of how we are with God. We have a king with all the riches imaginable. We have it all and we turn. We want a little independence for ourselves. 

A prayer:

Father, We are eternally grateful for Jesus.

His name indeed is lovely, amazing, history-changing, and eternally significant.

Our sin(s), (oh that is was only ONE!) are outrageous rebellion. We turn from having it all to ourselves, to sex, food, tv. We turn from beauty and creating/healing power to stuff . We turn from our provisions because we want to sit on the throne. This is OUTRAGEOUS REBELLION.

Your response: not punishment, not destruction, not a self-help program, not “Do good works.” 

No, instead, You gave us You. 

Glory Thieves/Enemies

We are all GLORY THIEVES. Mary magnified God. I magnify myself. I want glory for myself. I want the throne. This is a rebellious coup. 

Why do I get angry? Because someone has broken God’s law or my own?

“In those angry moments, our problem is not that we are around difficult and disagreeable people; we have a kingdom problem, and blaming them misses the whole reason for the conflict.”

Our biggest problem isn’t something outside of us. 

Sin makes us active enemies of God. 

Sin captures and controls us all. It is height of arrogance or depth of delusion to think we’re ok.

“He came to dethrone us so he can sit in His rightful place and us in ours. Let’s face it. We don’t belong there.”

Jesus came to decimate our little kingdoms.

We want the throne. We want our way. And we want others to stay out of our way. WE want our own rules. WE want to be served, indulged, agreed with, accepted and respected. We judge God and others when our felt needs (wants) are not met. This is sin.

May this line from the Christmas carol become our daily cry, “Jesus to Thee be all glory given!”

Outrageous Redemptive Love

As glory thieves, as rebels, we deserved death. We got the opposite. We were made sons. 

“The king would die as a criminal, so that criminals against his rule would be welcomed into his throne room and live with all the rights and privileges of being members of his royal family.”

Enduring Rejection

“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” -Heb 12:3

Any paths I could possible find myself on (being rejected, hurt, treated unjustly) he has already walked. He did it because of joy. He shouts to us - It’s worth it!!!!

His love is outrageous! A sinless king dying for sinful common rebels. We lay our lives down, we take those uncomfortable and hard steps so others can know this outrageous love.   

He served and suffered for people who would regularly despise and reject him. He took it all in a righteous, sinless, holy way. He who deserved all worship was despised and rejected. And I get frustrated with people who belittle me because of him. He didn’t flinch back from or retaliate in light of the despising or rejecting. Their response did not change his value or worth. He was still king and it didn’t rock him. So why do I let it rock me? Why do I care more about men’s opinions than God’s?

He Came to Serve

“He took the form of not just a man but a lowly servant. It would have taken great humility to come live a lavishly rich life.”

“The One who is worthy of human worship willingly exposed himself to human rejection.”

And still after the violent grace I want You to serve me. 

I WANT ALL THE GRACE FROM YOU. BUT I’M LAX TO GIVE IT TO OTHERS. 

HE DIDN’T FIGHT FOR WHAT WAS RIGHTLY HIS. Praise God he didn’t. If he had, we would have no hope.

Celebrating my sinfulness

“We all (myself included) swindle ourselves into believing that we are wiser, stronger, and more righteous than we actually are.” 

We defend when accused. We deny our need for grace when we defend rather than confess.

I’ve been freed forever from denying or minimizing the sin inside of me. I celebrate the recognition and remedy of sin. I’m not righteous! I’ve become worthless! I have nothing good about me! The fact that I know this is a gift.

God Keeps His Promises

“Christmas is a time to remember that God always keeps His promises.” -JT

The Light Overcomes

One day I was trying to blow out the Advent candles. I huffed and puffed 5-6 times but the flame would not go out. I was reminded of this verse:

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Darkness, Satan, Death, Sin, Disease

will not overcome. 

The Dawn of Redeeming Grace

I loved the imagery of this line. Redeeming grace has dawned. We are living in the daylight period of that grace. I tried to capture it in a painting.

Hopelessness Leads to Hope

“The Christmas story reminds us that hopelessness is the only doorway to true and eternal hope.”

We were...

dead in sins

without ability to rescue ourselves

stuck in our sins

trapped in a cycle of rebellion

slaves to our passions

objects of God’s wrath

Dead. Doomed. Helpless

Without You, Jesus, there is no light at the end for sinners, no happy ending, no home waiting. There is only darkness, defeat, judgment, death.

This painting and poem came to mind.

Free me from choosing the trash over the treasure. 

May each act of my life on earth be a declaration of freedom.

A Picture Post - Episode 8

Here is an aerial view of where I live. 

I found this shirt that said FUN = Sleep less and dream more. With all the dreaming of late, I want the opposite, Sleep more and dream less. 

We spent the night before and Thanksgiving day with friends. This was most of the things that we were attempting to leave our house with. Thank God for elevators and friends with cars. There is no way we could have carried all of that on the bus.

J and I decided to do a thanksgiving tree this year. Each day we wrote out something we were thankful for but we did it in Turkish so our friends could appreciate it. We also invited a few friends to write something as well. This was the end product. 

We had the E family over to help decorate our Christmas tree. Mr. E proceeded to come in and fall dead asleep on the couch. We decided to have fun with that. Brooke painted his fingernails. We all had a good laugh. He was a good sport about it too.

Locals have special holy nights. They tend to give out certain foods to neighbors and candy or money to children. Our neighbor gave us a few salty cookies and these prayer beads. She gave them so we could have a souvenir of our time here but I think she was trying to use them to ev us. She told me there are 99 beads on the women’s version. You say a certain name or phrase 33 times then move to another one for 33 times, then finally a different name or phrase for the last 33 beads. I don’t know how they don’t get bored. Apparently the men have ones with only 33 beads and they go around it 3 times to get in all the names/phrases.

I went to my friend Shelly’s house. She is from a nearby country. Her mom stuffed everything. We ate stuffed peppers, eggplant, potatoes, onions, zucchini, and grape leaves. It was delicious. I wish you could taste the goodness.

A Picture Post - Episode 7

Life has been hectic and I've been unable to find time to blog. I'm hoping to catch up a little with some quick pictures posts.

A friend recently described my life like this:

“You have often been too hot, too cold, too tired, and had your personal space invaded far too much.” This is an accurate description of my life. Here is a pic showing the E girls invading my space. Have I mentioned that one of them snuggles me like a cat would???

I found this in a bookstore. It translates like this: “Warning...! Reading a book can harm your ignorance.

You never know when you’ll stumble on a camel here in the most random place.

An unexpected parade on our street.

I had coffee with a friend one day. Have I mentioned that this place has turned me into a coffee drinker? I liked this picture of me.

I liked the ingenuity that this sock salesman had. A sock canopy!

J and I found a new restaurant we like. The chicken is really tasty!

I was riding a city to city bus one day. We were speeding down the road as I watched this bus driver descend the steps. He then disappeared. He reappeared 2 hours later just before we arrived. I learned there is a secret, tiny compartment on those big busses for the driver who is not driving. Apparently every bus has two drivers so they can take turns. 

I was able to see Di for her birthday. We spent an afternoon walking by the sea.