The Ragamuffin Gospel

I started reading the Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning a while ago. I am slowly making my way through it. I started several books and realized I need to slowly finish each one-at-a-time instead of trying to read four at once. Anyway, this is a passage from it that I had underlined and it is a refreshing reminder today as I find myself undermining God’s lavish grace by trying to perform my way to His acceptance and provision.

This is the God of the gospel of grace. A God who, out of love for us, sent the only Son He ever had wrapped in our skin. He learned how to walk, stumbled and fell, cried for His milk, sweated blood in the night, was lashed with a whip and showered with spit, was fixed to a cross, and died whispering forgiveness on us all.

The God of the legalistic Christian, on the other hand, is often unpredictable, erratic, and capable of all manner of prejudices. When we view God this way, we feel compelled to engage in some sort of magic to appease Him. Sunday worship becomes a superstitious insurance policy against His whims. This God expects people to be perfect and to be in perpetual control of their feelings and thoughts. When broken people with this concept of God fail—as inevitably they must—they usually expect punishment. So they persevere in religious practices as they struggle to maintain a hollow image of a perfect self. The struggle itself is exhausting. The legalists can never live up to the expectations they project on God.

Now reread the first part of that passage, focus on the gospel of grace and keep that fresh in your mind and let it be encouraging to you (instead of focusing on the drawbacks to striving for God’s love). Also, one year ago (almost exactly!) I posted something that is also so relieving to remember:

God does not make his love for you conditional upon your love for him. He loves you even when you are not loving him (1 John 4:19). Your heavenly Father was willing to pay any price in order to save you (Rom. 8:32). (Experiencing God, Blackby)

Experiencing Father’s Embrace

This morning, as I was walking past the bookshelf in our dining room, a book that my husband received as a gift caught my eye. It is called Experiencing Father’s Embrace. I opened it up to a random spot and read a few pages. It was good. It spoke to me, as I struggle with the performance issue he refers to and believing that God is always delighting in me and accepting me. This passage (pg. 40) jumped out at me, but I think within the context of all three pages I read its message is even greater.

Are you comfortable with love? Are you continually filled with the understanding of how much Father loves you? Are you aware that Father takes delight in you and that He thinks good thoughts about you all the time? (See Jeremiah 29:11.) Do you realize that He feels nothing but perfect love when He thinks about you? First Corinthians 13:5 tells us that “love thinks no evil” (NKJV). Many of us struggle through life because we are afraid to receive and give love. We are basically afraid of intimacy (into-me-see). Either because of a deficiency of expressed parental love or because we experienced some sort of traumatic form of rejection in the past, we set up boundaries and walls to keep people out so that we can protect ourselves from the pain of more rejection. This hinders us from having intimate fellowship with God and healthy relationships with others.

At the core of this fear is deception. We find it difficult to love because we have believed a lie about God. The enemy, who is described as “the father of lies” in John 8:44, continually lies to us about the loving nature of Father. Our adversary tells us that God does not love us unless we perform well enough to earn his love. He tells us that God is abusive, angry, aloof [distant or withdrawn], impatient, and constantly disappointed with us. If the enemy of our souls can convince us that God has rejected us, is upset with us, or has withdrawn from us because of some sin we committed, he knows we will hide from God and try to live our lives performing well enough to earn His love, thus increasing the depth of our shame and guilt.

Beware: Dog will lick your (arm) pits.

You know, I have a weird confession to make.

I like dog arm pits. They are really soft.

And I think I have passed this love on to Basil.

Lately, she’s been trying to lick my arm pits. (Okay, the licking part she didn’t get from me, I do not LICK dogs’ arm pits.) I just can’t understand how she finds this enjoyable. I mean, have you ever tasted deodorant?

Okay, here comes confession number two: I may or may not have, but definitely have, licked a stick of deodorant or two in my day. I was curious, you know. And the second time, well, that was just to refresh my memory I guess. And, no, it does not taste good. It tries to work its deodorant magic on your tongue instead of your pits. That is, it leaves a weird dry feeling on your tongue. And that shower fresh taste sticks around for several minutes too.

Anyway, Basil likes to lick arm pits. That is the vitally important update I wanted to share. Strange lady, that dog.

It’s a Summertime Thing

Neglecting my blog, that is. I feel a bit convicted though, because The Fancy Fig has kind of become the new little sibling who is getting all of my attention. But CTF (Coming to Fruition), stop where you are. You are not being replaced, you have not been forgotten. For now…I shall update thee.

Summer. We are right smack dab in the middle of it. It is going by quickly. Very quickly. But there is still another month before my mind will be filled with thoughts of fall, school…and apple crisp. Okay, stop right there. Look outside. It’s sunny, right!? It’s warm, right!? Soak it up. Frintering (that’s fall-winter-spring) is nine months of the year, so we need not waste one moment of this precious summer season by even mentioning the others.

This post is more or less an update. Here’s what I have been up to.

1. Growing a Basil (the puppy variety). She is getting cuter and sweeter and smarter every day. In fact, I am ashamed I never formally introduced all of you to her. Yes, Basil. The newest member of our family, a British Labrador pup. She is 3 1/2 months old. She likes loves to eat dog food kibbles, go for long walks on the beach (and the sidewalk), get her tummy rubbed, snack on grass patties (flat clumps of grass clippings) and attack flowers.

2. Growing a garden. Or rather, providing moral support for my husband, who is growing a garden. I guess I water it too. And eat from it. It has turned out to be much more successful than we planned. We planted peas, cucumbers, zucchini, basil (not the puppy), cilantro, carrots, onions, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers. We’ve had more lettuce than we know what to do with, so we ate a LOT of lettuce last week and gave a lot away.

3. Cabin-ing with my love. Our vacation this year was spent at my parents’ cabin in Battle Lake. We spent the first couple of days with my parents, sister and her boyfriend.

4. Writing this man’s amazing testimony!

5. Going here. Growing in God’s grace. Recovering. Celebrating.

6. Writing at The Fancy Fig. Enough said there.

7. Becoming an aunt of this cute little guy, Alden Blake. Born June 23.

8. Visiting friends. I went to Minneapolis to visit some old friends for a couple of days this July. I was able to meet up with my friend Ashlee for dinner and some catching up. It was hot. We were sweaty. We had good laughs. I also got together with my girlfriends Natalie, Krista, Amanda, Ayla, Jessica and Martha for some treats, games and hanging out. Amanda’s baked goods, Natalie’s hospitality, Ayla’s easy-going sense of humor, Jessica’s contagious laugh, Krista’s mad charading (is that a word?) skills and Martha’s warm (and unexpected) presence made the night enjoyable and well-worth the short visit’s drive.

The Religious Refrigerator

Many churches are like the refrigerator. They do not change corruption; they  just slow it down. The only way to change a person is to make him or her a new creation.

God does not patch up or reform the old man. He does not improve or educate him. He puts him to death. In his place comes forth a new creation that is the product of God’s truth. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

-Derek Prince, Bought With Blood: The Divine Exchange at the Cross

The Fancy Fig

Hi everyone! I have created a new blog! Visit it here.

I have removed my most recent post, Triple Berry Vegan Smoothie. I have reposted it on my new additional blog, The Fancy Fig, which will feature fresh vegetarian and vegan recipes. I came up with the idea for TFF some time back, however, I didn’t think I would start it as soon as I did. But here we are! I am still in the process of  designing it, so bear with me if it isn’t the most lovely blog masterpiece you’ve ever seen (yet)! “Why?” You might ask. “Are you a blogaholic and one blog just isn’t enough?” No. Well, maybe. But the real reason is that I have been hoping to expand my PKU cooking horizons in recent months; I need a little more variety in my diet and especially a little more aesthetic appeal to my meals. Well, I suppose I don’t need it, but, you know. I love to cook “normal” food and eat out, but my experience of both can be somewhat disappointing, or at least limited. So, now I am going to put more effort into MY low-protein fare since I have the time this summer to dabble…and then I am going to blog about it and share these choice recipes with you. These recipes aren’t just for vegans and vegetarians though! I will be modifying recipes that I find in a wide range of cookbooks and other blogs so that they are fit for this little lady to eat AND I will probably throw in some alternative options for dairy/meat eaters for my husband’s sake. So stay tuned for some good eats. And keep visiting Coming to Fruition because TFF isn’t a replacement!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Birthday in Photos

My birthday was a very relaxing, fun day full of both simple pleasures and special treats. I have complained a lot that there are not enough thunderstorms in the Duluth area, so I would consider the morning thunderstorm that rolled through before work to be my first gift of the day. Then, shortly after that, the mail man dropped off a couple of packages (not sure why he was four hours early), but I received the book I ordered from Amazon, The Ragamuffin Gospel. I waited to open the other package until later. I was welcomed by a “Happy Birthday, Ms. J!” and a card from the teacher I work with and our students as I walked into my classroom. Later, we had root beer and orange floats to celebrate our last “Cooking Friday” of the school year. After I got home from work, I played with Basil outside and opened the package I had received in the mail from my mother-in-law. She gave me a lovely card and a thoughtful gift. I felt spoiled with love, thoughtful words, gifts and beauty throughout the entire day. Peter came home from work early and we played with Basil for a little bit before heading up the shore. We stopped at a candy store we like and eventually made it to New Scenic Cafe to celebrate year 24. Dinner was great, as usual, I just love that place. It is relaxing, special, delicious, and I can actually eat food there that isn’t horrible for my  PKU diet. After dinner, we headed back home for some gift opening, cake, and to watch The Parent Trip (Lindsay Lohan style). Everything was wonderful and I am very thankful for where I am now at 24.

The Birthday Girl with Basil

Treats at Great Lakes! Candy Store

Tulips at New Scenic Café

The two of us just before dinner

Appetizer Butternut Squash Ravioli

Bibb salad with avocado and apple; Curried roasted red pepper with asparagus soup

Opening my gift from Peter!

Birthday cake and cupcake prior to watching The Parent Trap

Living Stones News

As some of you know (mostly close friends and family), I started writing not so long ago for a paper in the area. I want to offer the link here so you can have access to it, since we do not distribute the paper in many places outside of the Twin Ports. There are some great articles and it’s really fun to get to meet so many people and hear the stories about how God is at work in their lives. I recently wrote about a Duluth photographer and her new business, Shutter Stories. Read the article here.

Also, here is the low-protein banana bread photo I said I would post back in March. It turned out! And it tasted like real banana bread. I am very grateful to have a low-protein treat that is made of REAL food and is somewhat healthy. I would recommend it to PKUers and non-PKUers alike (really)!

Happy Thursday!

Habbakuk? What a gem.

Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls,  Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation!

The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!

Habbakuk 3:17-19

The Author of Peace

“You don’t have to fret about where your story is going because the One who writes it is big in wisdom, power and love.” (Paul Tripp) This quote speaks to me on two levels today as I continue to work on my second article.

Also, here’s a good video our pastor shared at church on Sunday, kicking off a new sermon series, Too Good Not To Be True.