Crow For Breakfast

Hmmm… It would appear I need to make a few clarifications about my last post. I think that for those of you who know me, you understand my heart, you know my passions, and probably didn’t bat an eyelash at the way I said what I did, but for others who maybe don’t know me so well, I’m afraid my loose wording may have caused some misunderstanding. Upon re-reading it I can see how that could happen, so I feel the need to clarify. A concerned reader wrote;

“You state in the beginning that you are starting to read Leviticus and that it is a struggle for you to read that book with enthusiasm. And then you say that you hope "Max" (Lucado) will plant a seed of excitement! I am shocked and disturbed by this hope in another human to get you to enjoy the bible.”

Firstly, I was being vulnerable when I shared what I did about my heart sinking when I saw Leviticus. I’m not proud of it. I KNOW that each and every chapter in the Bible holds amazing truth and mystery and marvels for me. I KNOW this. And I know that the less superficial and easily gleaned they are, the greater the delight usually experienced upon unearthing them. But clearly those types of passages require more “mining” on our part. More energy, more attention, more…. work. And I’m human, I’m sinful, I’m lazy, and I am as guilty as the next person some times of wanting to be spoon fed, and not have to pick up my mining tools and sift through rocky soil in search of gems.

When I said “trust Max”, I was saying it very comfortably, with my hair down, just like I would say “trust so and so to make me laugh through my tears” or “trust my dog to come alongside and nuzzle me when I’m down.” I wasn’t using the word trust in any weighty sense of the word, merely that I have found, any time I have read something by Lucado relating to anything that I myself am pondering, I can pretty much trust that he, in his gift of making profound things simple and practical in such a beautiful way, is going to, in some way, enrich my own ponderings. I think this is what fellowship is about, and how God created the body to function. To encourage and equip others through our gifts. I think Max has a gift for preaching. And good preachers will make people passionate about the Word. And I think I can appreciate a good preacher for his spiritual gifts and for how those gifts help enrich me. Which leads to another possible concern;

“Your hope should be that God will plant the seed of pleasure when reading His word. Even if God uses an author to encourage us, our hope should be in the Lord and that He blessed the author with what God is trying to say to you through their book, but that it's God who is putting the words of excitement into the pen of the author. This is why working in devotional books is sometimes difficult. You put to much on the human author that is just writing their interpreting of the Bible. Rather than just reading God's word for what it is! So if you do read a devotional book or bible, remember that the author is just a human, God made and sin-living human just like you who is just as powerless without the help and blessings for the Lord. “

Absolutely. It is my hope that God will plant the seed of pleasure in all of His children when it comes to reading His word. I shared in a private email to this concerned friend how distasteful and disturbing I found it upon moving back to Canada and hearing everyone go on and on about stuff they were reading in books and yet they weren’t even reading the bible for themselves. I couldn’t agree more! I was so turned off by it that I went to an opposite extreme where for a number of years I refused to read anything BUT the bible, no study helps, no devotionals, no Christian lit. Just me and the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

I still am a meat and potato kind of girl, I like to just read my chapter and let it speak, and see what God makes stand out to me today, which could and most likely will be totally different from what He will make stand out to me the next time I read the same chapter. That thrills me. The Word speaks. But at the same time, I still believe in the power of fellowship. And I still have a thirst for more fellowship in my life. It is empowering, encouraging and exhilarating to know that just as God is speaking into my heart, He is speaking into yours. Or Max’s. It excites me when a preacher is passionate about devoting his life to planting seeds and when those seeds fall on ready soil, they are embraced, and by God’s grace receive sunshine and rain in turn and are nutured into thriving and maturing plants that can in turn drop their own seeds.

The spiritual life is not just “me and my Bible and the Holy Spirit.” The Bride is a corporate entity of whom I am just one part and Christ is the head. Of course He is directing all the members, of course the glory and praise is all due Him. Of course Max says what He does and is who He is by the grace of the Holy Spirit alone. I don’t put my trust in him, but as my brother in Christ I have come to trust that he is the kind who will usually have a timely word and a simple yet profound insight that will compliment and encourage the work that Christ is doing in me.

The beautiful thing about what happened in my quiet time that morning was that Max spoke a fitting word, that convicted me (through the Holy Spirit of course). When I looked at Leviticus with a spirit of “oh great, better get out my shovel and pick axe, hard work ahead”, he revealed a whole different perspective and facet to this book. To look at it through different eyes. To picture the soil that Christ has cleared, rather then get buried in the fields of stones.

Please always feel free to approach me and hold me accountable and sharpen me. I am happy to completely unfold my heart and get personal and gritty about what I believe and what I am trying to express and actually, I am EXCITED when someone cares enough to respond and dig in and start peeling back the layers. I will never take offense at something like this, and appreciate the opportunity to truly FELLOWSHIP.