My Favorite Books of 2014

Last year I resolved to read more slowly, to choose books of depth that would require thinking, meditating, and savoring rather than devouring.  I pretty much failed and ended up reading 90-100 books in 2014, very few of which were on my to-read list that I posted in January. My interests changed, and as I look over my list, I read 14 spiritual memoirs, which are currently my new favorite genre. 

Here were my favorite reads of 2014 that I would recommend:

Spiritual memoirs:

1. Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions, by Rachel Held Evans  
2. Girl at the End of the World, by Elizabeth Esther
3. Flunking Sainthood, by Jana Riess
4. Rare Birds, by Anna Whiston-Donaldson
5. A New Kind of Christian, by Brian McLaren

 Spiritual Growth:

1. Mere Churchianity, by Michael Spencer
2. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, by E.R. Richards and B.J. O’Brien
3. The Jesus Creed, by Scot McKnight
4. Almost Catholic: An Appreciation of History, Practice, and Mystery, by Jon Sweeney
5. My Sisters, the Saints, by Colleen Carroll Campbell

Fiction (for the thrill of escape):

1. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
2. What Kind of Mother Are You? By Paula Daly
3. Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty 

Other Nonfiction:

1. The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why, by Amanda Ripley
2. David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, by Malcolm Gladwell
3. Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience, by Laurence Gonzales

How to Open Your Eyes to the Presence of God

Just because we have eyes that see does not mean we use them to see what we should.  

Close your eyes and think of everything around you that is green.  I remember the plant in the corner and the green tapestry in the drapes.  Now look around you and notice everything that is green. I see the palm trees on the coaster, the number on a dollar bill, the color of a pack of gum my husband left on the desk, the pencil holder, a button on my cell phone, the binding on a couple books on the shelf....actually, there is a lot more green around me than I realized!  I had to put on my "green glasses" to see them.

In the same way, we can develop "God glasses" - sensitivity to seeing evidence of what we know to be true about God in our lives, to see Him at work in us and around us.  If we know that God is with us, that He is omnipresent, how much time do we spend noticing? How can we see better?

Donald Whitney, associate professor of spiritual formation, gives some practical steps to opening your eyes to God's presence (from Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health):

1. Go often to the place where God has revealed Himself most clearly - the Bible.  Absorb it, linger over it, let it percolate the soil of your soul.
2. Acknowledge His presence with you by talking with Him.
3. Seek Him in the manifestations of His presence in congregational worship.  His presence there is accessible in ways different than solitary worship.
4. Continually reaffirm the truth that He is omnipresent.

I would add praying - being in conversation with God throughout the day, asking Him to give you His eyes to see as He sees, to love as He loves, to forgive as He forgives.  And then listening.  

Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

My small group leader urged us to read the Bible every day because it will completely change us.  I've been reading the Bible every day for many years, but am I changed?  I've been contemplating this question all week, from whether I am really changed to how I could be reading my Bible better.  I stumbled across a book in my public library by Donald Whitney called Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Heath, and discovered that over the years, God truly has been changing me and still has a lot more transformation to accomplish.  The transformation has been gradual, but occurring, nonetheless.

Donald Whitney, associate professor of spiritual formation, asks the following questions in assessing spiritual growth:
1.  Do you thirst for God?
2.  Are you governed increasingly by God's Word?
3.  Are you more loving?
4.  Are you more sensitive to God's presence?
5.  Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
6.  Do you delight in the bride of Christ?
7.  Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly important to you?
8.  Do you still grieve over sin?
9.  Are you a quick forgiver?
10.  Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

Some of these I could not say yes to five years ago, and I am encouraged to be able to see that indeed, God IS changing me.

Seeing the Wolf

Sometimes I plod through the mundane routines of life with my eyes half closed, assuming without contemplating, surviving without experiencing, skimming the surface without searching the depths.

Years ago, I displayed a stereogram picture in my office – one of those two-dimensional kind that if you stare at it just right, it turns into a completely different scene.  Co-workers would stop and stare at the multiple images of a wolf in rows, a rather uninteresting picture on the surface.  After staring for a few moments, they would suddenly exclaim when the repeating wolf heads changed into a completely different scene - a wolf standing on a cliff (or howling, or something, I don't recall).  I never could see it, no matter how hard they tried to explain it or outline it for me.  I would stare at it for hours hoping to see what everyone else could see, but I never could.

I don’t want to skim along the shallow surface and miss reality.  God wants us to open our eyes, search the depths, look beyond preconceived notions and live beyond a limited faith packed neatly in a tight little box.  I want to live surrounded by “aha” moments.  I want to see the link between His Word and the circumstances around me, to hear Him speaking into my heart, like those “aha” moments when my co-workers suddenly saw something completely different from a changed perspective.  I want to live like I am seeing the wolf standing on a cliff, perceiving beyond the obvious.

How to Release Control

I was a control freak.  I’m not sure what broke me from it.  Perhaps it was rooted in feeling fiercely disappointed when I tried to control the outcome and yet still things didn’t turn out ‘right’.  Perhaps it was a result of perceived failure, taking fault upon myself when the circumstance I tried so hard to control didn’t turn out as I expected.  Or perhaps it has just been a part of my Father’s work, gradually transforming me into the image of His Son, teaching me to release control to Him, but not in a way that makes me passive.  I still have to buck control-freak tendencies sometimes, but here are some ways to release control into His hands:

1)   Insulate yourself from power brokers (people who make you want to keep track of how well you are doing or who you want to impress).

2)   Make decisions as a result of listening to the Spirit of God and obeying rather than just on what is expected or what makes sense or what you want.

3)   Die to yourself and to your neurotic tendencies to manage and protect everything. But remember – the main point isn’t in dying but in the living that comes from dying to self.

4)   Live in today, humbly receiving that comes your way instead of pining for more stuff or a better future.

5)   Let God work.  He is working, so abandon yourself to Him fully each day without holding back.

This post was inspired by Francois Fenelon’s writing “Let God”. Thank you, my friend John, for giving me this book!

Linking up with the Soli Deo Gloria party at Finding Heaven

How Does God Change Me?

How do I change? How does God change me? If God is doing the changing, what am I responsible for?

This gradual transformation is not up to us to do on our own.  The Holy Spirit is the source of change.

This gradual transformation is not something we just sit back and wait to happen.  We have to be willing to follow the Spirit's leading.

Change is like bread dough. We have to have both the yeast and the flour working together in order for it to become bread. In order to be transformed, we also need a couple of ingredients - both the Holy Spirit, and our willingness to follow (even if we don't do it so well). Both kneaded together.

The rising process is lengthy.  It's a lifelong process. It begins when we take the hand of Jesus and choose to follow Him, when we receive His gift of forgiveness through His work on the cross. When we take His hand, we join a lifelong partnership.  The yeast must have the flour.

The flour must have the yeast.  The flour can't become bread all by itself, no matter how hard it works at it.  Gradual transformation is not about trying to be better. It is surrendering. Not a resentful surrendering that says, “whatever, you win,” but rather, a joyful surrendering that says, “what ever, however, I want your way because it’s better than mine." It is about allowing the Holy Spirit to change us.  And it is obedience to Him.   

Be Free

Nothing has happened or will happen that, by God’s grace, you can’t climb on top of and rule over and, in the power of the Holy Spirit, be set free from.

-- quoted from James MacDonald in Lord Change Me, page 24

A Transforming Thought...

Change isn’t coming like some big sweeping force over you, or like a large blanket. Here is how it IS coming: It’s arriving one adjustment at a time, bit by bit, measured progress on specifics.  (quoted from James MacDonald in Lord Change Me, page 66)

Three steps forward, two (and-a-half) steps back – sometimes the progress of becoming more like Jesus seems so miniscule that I wonder if I’m changing at all.  Or once I find I'm making progress in one area, there are three others revealed to me that need a lot of work.  But when I look at the specifics, the things I struggle with and the things I am handling better as I pass through various seasons of life, I can see that Jesus is changing me. 

Today at work, I was commended for having a positive attitude and being even-tempered, not letting things get to me. I had to look backwards over my shoulder to see if someone else was the object of the compliment.  So maybe, maybe sometimes this negative, cynical, critical, emotionally-ruled old self is being transformed -- one adjustment at a time, bit by bit, until eventually it becomes noticable. 

What is God working on in you?

Christ-Like Middle-Aged Womanhood

What does it look like for a middle-aged female to be “Jesusy”?  Jesus wasn’t a woman. Jesus didn’t face the loss of youthful beauty and the tortures of perimenopause.  Even though I can’t see a literal picture of what I’m supposed to look like, God tells me to open my eyes and look around.  He put some Jesusy women in my life to show how I, a middle-aged woman, can be more like Him. 

My Jesusy girlfriends just seem to ooze God’s love and grace through their pores.  It’s not that they go around with cheery smiles and happy dispositions.  It’s a quiet, joyful strength in the midst of raging battles.

They wrestle with the flesh, with relationships, with low self-esteem. They experience deep suffering through financial disaster due to job loss or difficult marriages or the death of those they love.  Yet they grow stronger in their faith and are full of hope in Jesus.  Their joy runs visibly deep.  The element they all have in common? Jesus is their everything and it shows in their work and in their lives.

They didn’t go to seminary or Bible college, but they long to have more knowledge. So how did they get to be so Jesusy?  George Barna says, “Some people reach the ultimate stages of wholeness and maturity within just a couple decades while others failed to achieve such maturity after more than five decades of consistent religious activity and positive intent.” Why do some grow and mature while others stagnate? 

With menopause approaching, more than ever it seems that life careens out of control while I simultaneously grasp for control of things I have no business controlling.  Add to that a face that is growing more haggard, a waistline that expands when I look at a cookie, freckles peppering my body in places they’ve never been, and ‘silver’ hairs taking over faster than I can pluck them, things that I can only control to some degree by artificial measures – getting older doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easier to be Jesusy. 

But I can choose – choose to try to be in control or relinquish everything to Jesus, to continually turn to Him inwardly, and outwardly to seek to overflow His love.  I can choose to open my eyes and ears to see and hear what He is speaking into my life to grow me, so that I, too, can be more Jesusy.

Jesus did suffer. He suffered loss, battled the flesh, and endured inconceivable pain. And He was victorious.  He gives us women the power to endure, to grow and even find victory through the mountains and valleys of middle-aged womanhood.

Linking up with: Soli Deo Gloria Party at Finding Heaven and A Pause on the Path 

The Key to Living the Spiritual Life

Most of my life I have associated with churches where emphasis was exclusively on believing in Christ and then bringing others to believe in Him too. Toeing the line of correct doctrine was essential.   Salvation by grace through faith was of central importance.  And I still believe it is. 

But by believing I have arrived because I assent to the truth that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and that I am ready for the next step of heaven doesn’t mean that I will live the life of faith that God desires for me.  I look around and see plenty of dull, sluggish, and indifferent Christians who “live a life that is still half animal and who barely put up a struggle to keep the breath of grace alive in their souls” (Thomas Merton).  Too many seem to live as if being a Christian just doesn’t work for them, not looking any different than the rest of the world.  And then I have to wonder if that is me and what kind of life I am missing.

For years I thought that the Christian life after salvation was a life of service and good works as a natural expression of faith in Christ – a matter of duty that honored God, even if you didn’t feel much like doing it. This was the Christian life until I died.  Oh, but there is so much more between being born again and dying…

While reading about the faith of great Christians from a variety of Protestant denominations as well as Catholic, and even before there were such divisions, I am awed at the breadth and depth of their spirituality.  I discovered they all really have one thing in common, besides being Christ followers.  They lived lives of continual seeking.

C.S. Lewis wrote that doctrines are not God; they are only a kind of map.  The Christian life is a seeking life, a life of movement, not a statement.  It is not the extraction of data and knowledge from the Bible but is listening to and experiencing God’s words.  

A seeker desires more grace, more life, and more love that fills us and overflows, spilling on those encountered.  It is expressed more through the doctrine of love than the love for doctrine.  But it’s not a life without doctrine. The richness of theology grows as it is experienced.

Am I a seeker? The older I get, the greater my appetite for more of Christ, more holiness, more living in a moment-by-moment effort to follow His will and think His thoughts.  Thinking His thoughts means knowing His Word – meditating on it, memorizing it, talking it through with Him.  The more I feed this hunger, the more it grows and paradoxically the more satisfaction I find.

Once in a while, He gives clarity, insight, and truth over a span of time, and through it increases my ability to live the life of faith and love while growing in understanding of His character – a character to which I want to be conformed because I know that in that conforming is the ultimate joy, love, and peace, living life on a higher plane where circumstances cannot threaten me.

The seeking life is a life of continuous inner conversation with God.  Although I wish I could be more consistent, I find that when I keep Him constant before my mind, listening and acting as He moves my heart, I am more able to empty myself and be filled by the Spirit. Then I can see His working in the world around me, the real presence of Jesus in real people.  He opens my eyes so that what was cloudy and opaque becomes clear and beautiful.  When I begin to see what is ordinarily hidden in the world and His Word, I grow in deeper awareness of His beauty and love.  The rare moments when I get a glimpse from his perspective and see how things really are moments of grace that fill me with complete awe. 

There is no greater gift than sensing His immediate presence.  More…I want more…I seek more...more of His fire burning in my life, a supernatural kind of life ready to sacrifice it all for the treasure of Christ. 

A seeker – this is what it means to be a disciple - seeking the treasure of Christ and being gradually transformed by the process. 

Linking up with: A Pause on the Path

My 397-Day Journey

 Today marks day 397 – the end of this journey of contrasts. Pain and joy. Betrayal and forgiveness. Despair and hope. Apathy and love.  

When day 1 was logged, I had no idea how long this journey would be.  When I sprinted across the starting line, I didn’t know I would be running a marathon.  If I had, maybe I would have paced myself differently.

When I reached 166 days, I “hit the wall”, ready to completely crumble, not knowing how much longer I could survive it while somewhat resembling the woman God wanted me to be. 

Chronicling this leg of the race in my life would have created a meaningful blog, but I dared not even journal it privately.  I would prefer to erase the hurdles that tripped me up. I wonder if someday I will regret not documenting it in writing.  If I don’t have the written tangible evidence of how concretely God worked in these difficult days to show me what it means to live like Jesus, will I forget?

 I look at the topics of my blog over the last 397 days for any record of the valleys and mountains of where I have been and here are a few posts inspired by this journey:

·         Getting a Grip When Under Attack

·         Victim or Warrior – Choosing Unshakable Faith

·         The Meaning of Hope

·         Life is Hard: Hype or Hope

·         Prickly Burs – Forgiving the Little Things

·         Should I Forgive If They Aren’t Sorry?

·         No More Mr. Nice Guy - Speaking the Truth in Love

·         Loving a Brother Who is Hard to Love

At times, my flesh exposed all my selfishness, self-centeredness, and ugliness that I bowed in shame, clinging to the foot of the cross.  At other times, my spirit soared with compassion, empathy, hope, and love at times when I could have felt disheartened, frustrated, resentful, or self-righteousness instead.  Maybe in these times, this is what it looks like to live and love like Jesus.

 I can find no rhyme or reason why one wins over the other, why God sometimes infused me with unexplainable strength and other times left me on the verge of unravelling.  Yet He sustained me.

I want to find out why I sometimes have “it” and why sometimes I don’t, and then find out how to have “it” now that I know “it” is possible in the most unexplainable of moments.  In any circumstance – even despite circumstances. 

I want to live “it” all the time.  The outcome of this 397-day journey – it’s a gradual transformation through which the obstacles serve as catalysts.

So now one chapter closes, and a new one begins.

Linking up with A Pause on the Path

Evaluating How I Lived Today

When my head hits the pillow at night, before sleep overcomes me, I want to start praying an idea that I got from Ken Gire who was quoted in the book I just reviewed (What’s Next? by H. Norman Wright). I want to start asking God, “Did the life I lived today please you?”

Not that the things I do will make Him love me more, and not that the things that I do will make me more worthy of His love.  I want to live a life that pleases Him because it pleases me to express my love for Him by becoming more like Him. I want to live a life that pleases Him because I know that is His will for me.

So does that mean I check off a to-do list of my accomplishments? Or does it mean admiring the length of my list of good deeds for the day?  Ken Gire reminds us that this is indeed NOT what we should do. It’s a matter of one easy question: 

"Have I loved well today?" A simple question. It encompasses everything God asks of us.

So as I think about today, could people feel God’s love in my presence, hear His love in my words and my attitude, see His love in the way I acted? At work, I listened to others’ opinions and pondered their concerns before jumping in with my own ideas.  I offered to take the afternoon off to care for my sick niece.  I disciplined my teenager with restrictions that made her unhappy but was necessary because I love her.

But maybe there were some things I could have done to love better.  I could have been more yielding behind the wheel on the drive home from work. I could have been more respectful to my boss. I could have been more loving to my husband in my attitude on the phone this morning.

Then I remind myself it’s not supposed to be a list of failures nor a list of good deeds. Maybe it can be a simple yes or no answer instead.

I resolve that I will love well again tomorrow and ask God to show me all the ways that I can do this better. And may at the end of the day, I can say, ‘Yes, today I loved well.’

This post is linked up at:
Soli Deo Gloria
Working Kansas Homemaker
A Pause on the Path

Longing for God - Hindrances & Catalysts

I’ve been embarrassed to admit it out loud to my circle of friends or in small group studies because I don’t want to sound ‘holier than thou’, but I just listened to a sermon on Philippians 3 that inspired me to no longer keep it to myself.  Having a daily quiet time with God, reading His Word, is something I do not struggle with. It’s ingrained into my life so deeply. It’s as much a part of my morning routine as brushing my teeth or getting dressed.  I don’t do it to check it off my list. Maybe at one time in my life I did, but not anymore.  And I only reveal this in hope of inspiring, not to inflict guilt.

Most mornings at 5:15 am, even on my days off or when I am traveling, He is calling me to meet with Him. I might hit the snooze button sometimes, but when I finally awaken enough to remember that sleeping more cuts into my time with Him, I’m ready to fly out of bed. Some mornings if I miss it, I still yearn to find time in the day to get alone with Him. I thirst for Him. I long for Him. I want to follow hard after Him and know Him more and more. I want Him to transform me.

Some activities increase my affections for God, while other activities deplete my desire for Him. These activities have changed over the years.  The things that used to hinder me – the moral choices of outward actions – these no longer have their pull on me. My hindrances now tend to be more neutral – activities that suck my time into an empty black hole that leave me nothing but emptiness in the end. Facebook. TV. Not bad in themselves, but don’t offer me much good either. 

Lately, many of my hindrances have been internal – busyness, self-pity,  negativity, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness.  But these hindrances have served as catalysts. By fighting them out of my life, I lean hard on God, and He uses them to draw me to Him even more, to desire Him even more, and to change me.

Just as there are hindrances, there are also activities that increase my desire for more of Him: reading posts from my blogging friends of faith, hearing how my dearest friends are persevering through the struggles of life through faith in Christ, listening to music that expresses my heart cry for God, listening to expository sermons, reading Christian books, forcing myself to be still and just listen to God.

I love Jesus with every fiber of my being. No matter how much I study and spend time with Him, the more of Him I want…the more of Him there is to know.  If I could spend every second of my earthly life for 100 years trying to know Him, I will have only scratched the surface of knowing all there is to know of the infinite God.  And to think…He will give us an eternity!

Measuring Spiritual Growth

Spiritual growth is not easily measured.  New lessons must be learned, and old ones must be repeated in new situations in order for them to be applied firmly to the heart. Sometimes I wonder if there is any progress. For every line in the following poem that is true in my heart, I know I am growing leaps and bounds, even if it is taking a long time.

Once it was the blessing,

Now it is the Lord;

Once it was the feeling,

Now it is His Word;

Once His gifts I wanted,

Now the Giver own;

Once I sought for healing,

Now Himself alone.

Once it was busy planning,

Now it’s trustful prayer;

Once it was anxious caring,

Now He has the care;

Once it was what I wanted,

Now what Jesus says;

Once it was constant asking,

Now it is ceaseless praise.

Once it was my working,

His it hence shall be;

Once I tried to use Him,

Now He uses me;

Once the power I wanted,

Now the Mighty One;

Once for self I labored,

Now for Him alone.

All in all forever,

Jesus will I sing;

Everything in Jesus,

And Jesus everything.

A.B. Simpson

Victim or Warrior – Choosing Unshakable Faith

My eyes flew open in surprise at 1:25am last night during the middle of a peaceful sleep.  “I have a lump on my breast!” I exclaimed into the darkness before it even registered if I was still dreaming or not.  My husband must have been awake because he answered, “Why are you touching your breasts in your sleep?”  I laughed. I had no idea, maybe I had an itch, but there was no doubt that the pea-sized lump at the edge of my breast near my armpit was there.  After my husband verified its existence, we laid there in silence for a while. I wondered how we would fall back to sleep.

I thought about my previous post, how much I want to walk so close to God that I can see His hand in every thing, every day, and trust Him so much that nothing shakes me.  Was this a test? I knew this had the potential to rattle me and fill me with anxiety.  This was not an unfamiliar road.

God knew it was there. He knows when it formed. He knows whether or not it is benign. He knew that I would discover it when I did. He knows the path in front of me and will guide me through each step for my good (yes, MY good) and His glory.  His consolation delighted my soul, and he calmed the anxious thoughts that could have multiplied.  The heavy breathing of my husband also soothed me. He is my rock, too, and if he could find rest, then I could too. Peaceful sleep returned to me.

As with any illness, we have a choice how to react. When the circumstance is beyond our control, will we give into pity and ask the why questions that only stirs up anxious thinking? Will we feel play the victim? Or will we fight with anger that leads to bitterness and blame? Or will we trust God and stand strong?

I don’t want to be a victim, nor do I want to be an angry warrior lashing out.  But I do want to be a warrior – a strong one who knows who the commander is!

I can’t change the circumstances, but I can choose my thoughts and my actions.  My next action will be to make a doctor appointment Monday morning. My next thoughts are to walk as closely to my heavenly Father as I can so He can keep me from victim-thinking and grow me into something stronger and more beautiful.

What Kind of Blogger Do I Want to Be?

I’ve struggled with knowing what to post lately or what kind of blogger I want to be. My last three posts have been strictly book reviews because of the forced accountability that comes from publishers who provide copies of new books with expectation of a review in a timely manner. 

A book review blogger is not who I want to be, though it is something I enjoy periodically.  A humorous or light-hearted writer is someone I’d love to be, but it’s not who I am.  A technical writer is more in line with my profession, but it’s not what I want to blog.  Devotional blogging just comes across too corny and shallow for me.

Yet something in me compels me to write, and blogging forces me to go beyond journaling.  The process of becoming a better writer is much too snail-like, but when I look back, the trail is truly visible. The trail in front of me is too foggy to see, but I know it exists. It’s a gradual transformation, just as my faith journey is gradual.

While I was in seminary, I was certain God had called me to write. My surroundings fade and time disappears when I am studying the Word and organizing information and ideas.  How God wants me to link my passion with writing or blogging is a mystery in progress. 

Gradual transformation, sanctification, growing in faith, becoming more like Jesus, walking so close to God that I can see His hand in everything everyday and trusting Him so much that nothing shakes me – this subject is my passion.  The books I review, the things that I study, and the words that I write revolve around this. This is the blogger I want to be.

As Silver Refined, by Kay Arthur - Book Review

If you are weary of the deceiver taking your thoughts captive, or if you often allow your thought process to send you into a spiral of defeat, Kay Arthur’s magnificent book As Silver Refined: Answers to Life’s Disappointments, can help you break the cycle.  The core of this book centers on the truth that life’s disappointments are actually God’s appointments to make us more like Christ.

Kay Arthur explains that you must know how to handle disappointment head on, in the battlefield of the mind, before you find yourself slipping and spiraling downward into the deadly D’s – discouragement, dejection, depression, and  despair. It is essential to blast out  disappointment with biblical truth, and she provides insights that will change your perspective and help you practice taking every thought captive before it grows into a stronghold. 

She addresses the issues of failure, regret, stress, physical pain, emotional anguish, etc.  While thoroughly explaining the sovereignty of God and His character, she also provides tools for overcoming strongholds, learning victory over dejection and despair, and practicing the secrets to everyday endurance.  In 15 chapters, she applies Bible verses abundantly and sprinkles brief stories of her own humbling experiences that felt like failures at the time but were actually used by God to transform her character to be more like His. 

A study guide in the last third of the book would be a great resource for either a women’s Bible study or for personal use to examine Scripture and process the truth in relation to past, present, and future. The questions are thought-provoking and present great opportunity for lively discussion.

During the duration of time spent reading this book, I was repeatedly pummeled by disappointing circumstances beyond my control.  I clung to the thesis of this book and absorbed every word, which brought me comfort beyond measure.  This is among one of my most favorite books that I have ever read, perhaps because it was so timely. I want to soak up every single word and saturate myself so fully with trust in God’s sovereignty so that I transform my thinking of disappointments into His appointments.  I will be reading this book again and again.

Check out chapter 1: http://www.scribd.com/doc/53092241/As-Silver-Refined-by-Kay-Arthur-Chapter-1-Excerpt

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for this review.

God's Plan

"God has a plan for your life," I told my daughter nearly every night ever since she was a baby. I wanted her to know that God had a purpose in her existence and to feel her sense of worth. 

One night when she was four years old and I was tucking her in bed, she asked, "Where is my plant?"

"Your plant?" I questioned, furrowing my forehead in confusion.

"Yes, my plant!" she insisted. "You keep telling me God has a plant for my life and I keep wondering when He's going to give it to me."

She is 15 years old now, and whether God has a plant or a plan, she still wants it now.  She wants to see the blueprint of her life all mapped out - college, career, husband, family, etc.  At least she is firmly convinced that God has something in mind for her.

Or is that such a good thing? She is so firmly certain that God has a plan for her life, that her choices that she makes now will not necessarily impact that. In fact, she says that maybe God wants her to make specific mistakes so she can be more usable.

This thinking is totally foreign to me.  When I was a teenager, I never really felt for certain God had a plan for my life, and if He did, I was pretty certain I kept messing it up. I figured He gave up on me. I know better than that now. This is why it seemed so important for me to let my children know that they were significant to God and He had a plan and purpose for their existence.

It's hard trying to teach the balance between God's sovereignty and our responsibility.  Just because God has a plan doesn't mean it will be fulfilled when we deliberately choose our own way instead of His. Maybe it would have been better if I had said that God had a "dream" for her life.

God has a dream for how He wants us to live and how we become a greater reflection of Him. But sometimes we resist. Sometimes we can choose sin. Sometimes we think our own way is easier or we'll miss out on something if we go His way. Sometimes we can turn our back on Him and the dream might never be realized. Then we miss it.

But I also think that when we've missed it and we turn back to Him, he weaves our mistakes into the plan, His dream, and can change them into something beautiful. The biggest key is in our turning back to Him.  Still, the road might be more difficult as a result of our choices.  But for God, nothing is wasted.

Just when Satan thinks he's winning, God graciously takes the defeat and turns it into a magnificent victory.  Just like the cross.  Except in the cross, there were never any "mistakes".  Jesus was obedient to the very end. God knew before He created the world that there would have to be the cross.

So how do we live God's plan for our lives? I think that no matter what is thrown our way, He wants us to lean hard on Him, depend on Him, follow His ways. He wants us to know Him and His ways more by studying the Scripture and listening to the assurances He places on our hearts. He wants us to talk to Him and to listen so that we can see from His perspective. He wants us to believe Him, trust Him, and to obey Him.  He wants us to love others and to show them His greatness. 

If we are doing these things, then we are living His plan, no matter where the road takes us--even if it doesn't fit the neat little map we have pictured in our minds, even if it's through the valleys of the shadow of death.  It's always worth it to obey the Father and trust Him - just like Jesus.  If we do, in the end our joy will be full and complete.

Not a Self-Improvement Course (with a Book Review of More Than Ordinary)

The transformation process is not about self-improvement or the pursuit of good character qualities so we can have a better life. It is about experiencing God in a moment-by-moment connection with Him and processing all of life with Him through His Word. Walking with God does not happen merely by obtaining biblical knowledge or having a daily morning quiet time or attending church regularly.  It is simpler than that, AND much harder than that, according to Doug Sherman in his book More Than Ordinary: Enjoying Life with God. In his book, he expands on the two main steps of your walking feet: 1) Seeing God more clearly and 2) Responding to Him accordingly.

I already know that I will not reach perfection on this side of heaven. Still, sometimes when I mess up, I picture God heaving a big sigh and shaking His head in dismay.  Doug Sherman reminded me that we will make daily mistakes as long as we keep on growing up, but that doesn’t mean God gets disgusted with us.  Not only can we approach each day with a clean slate through repentance, but God actually wants us to walk with Him through all the wilderness of our daily lives.  Besides, speed is not as important as endurance.

Doug Sherman goes on to say that walking with God is the hardest thing you will ever do, and if anyone told you it was easy, they were wrong.  Your loyalty and love for God will be tested as well as your determination and confidence in His leadership. However, you will avoid a lot of self-inflicted pain that people suffer when they go their own way. Life is simpler when only one thing really matters to you, and you can live above your circumstances by relying on His strength and power.

Don’t judge the book by its ordinary title or simple cover.  More than Ordinary is full of biblical truth on who God is, what it means to walk with Him, and how to truly practice experiencing His presence through a moment-by-moment walk with Him.  It is easy to read yet profound. It is not just theological, but practical too.  I wrote six pages of notes of truths that I want to remember and practice from this life-changing book to help me walk more closely with God.  This book really spoke to my heart because it is the theme of my blog.  I want to share it with everyone I know!  Here is the link to a sample chapter: http://www.navpress.com/images/pdfs/9781615216161.pdf

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.