Monthly Archives: October 2011

i have a dream…

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“People Gathering” by Bevan Tjampitjimpa 

My dream church is one with no pews, where everyone, yes…everyone, is in a circular pattern.  No front of the room, no back of the room, no stage or platform.  All chairs, pillows, mats, etc. are brought along and taken away again. Sitting or standing, kneeling…all good. No hymnals, bring your own bible. No agenda, no announcements of events coming up, no sunday school. Open the door at a certain time for prayer and worship and just let it flow for awhile. And that’s it. After a few hours and everyone has gone, close the doors.
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This is an excerpt from someone’s blog post:
The church did not use “pews” for over 1,000 year after the church was born. In the original vintage church, they met in homes, so the feeling was family, community looking at one another, interacting with one another. The first formal building the church met in weekly was in the post-300 AD time period and modeled after the Roman Basilica (law court) and in these buildings people stood the whole time. There were no seats at all. So even standing, meant interacting and the freedom to walk around and not be locked into one place. In the 13th Century, there were backless benches made of stone placed against walls. They are first were placed in a semi-circle around the meeting room and then eventually fixed to the floor.

In the 14th century the “pews” as we know them were introduced, but were not popularized into church architecture until the 15th century. Wood benches with backs replaced stone seats. Remember, at this time period, the Reformation was happening where the pulpit was introduced as the focal point of church architecture – so the pews then became the places where people took seats to focus on the pulpit and the sermon which was shaped into a certain more formal format at the time of Reformation. It was so people of the Reformation and what was happening could sit and listen to a preacher. They didn’t have Bibles on their own, they didn’t read for the most part, so in response to what was going on culturally in the early Reformation period they made rows of seats to sit and listen to someone preach.

You can find the whole post here.

mere christianity . by c.s.Lewis

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If you are a believer in Christ, or even if you don’t believe in God at all, there is no reason to expect a believer to be this perfectly kind and understanding person that does and says everything that Christ would say or do.  
Even though the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit, he is still a sinful human, the same, in that way, as everyone.

God’s power works within and through weakness and brokenness. God’s Holy Spirit makes quiet changes within the heart and mind, like the changing of a season that happens slowly and is eventually noticed. Yes, we are still broken, but sometimes we see God’s light shining through that brokenness.

To believe, is to realize my need for Jesus as well as His Love for me.

He is always waiting for the heart that turns to Him.
And that person will receive God’s Love in relationship with the living Spirit of God and His gift of grace and mercy, all of this, through the Son of God.

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wednesday post for the reading of “mere christianity”. by csLewis
photograph “Light in the brokenness” ~ nance

seasons

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In Oregon, we had a very late and cool summer. And now, summer is walking out the back door with her long trails of warm breezes flowing behind her. Autumn has one wet and muddy foot in the front door, and is bringing with her the scent of earthy decay and ripe apples.
Summer’s warmth was very late in arriving this year. And the whole season was unusually cool. It leaves my husband and i wondering if any of the vineyards will have good fruit this year. We have had a couple of rains, but, the fruit needs about three more weeks to ripen. It is pretty difficult (close to impossible) to make excellent wine from unripened grapes.
The thing with the rains in this part of Oregon, is that they get seriously down to business. None of this rain one day, clear for a week. It starts to rain some time in October, and for the most part it continues to rain until a little let up in April or May. It gets cloudy and grey, which makes us all very needy for a day of sun here and there.  Growing up in southern Illinois was a different story with those beautiful fall days and cold yet sunny winters.
Back to the grapes. If the rain spout really turns on before the grapes are ripe, they will rot. Not good.  No one wants a vineyard full of rotting wine grapes.  But, we shall see, as only time will tell.
A couple of nights ago, Peter made a dish of insalata caprese. He had some beautiful tomatoes from our friend, another winemaker and a fantastic gardener, Dick Ferraro.  Peter bought some basil and mozzarella at the farmer’s market. Those three ingredients, along with salt and a good olive oil is all it takes, but, Peter also likes to add an excessively good balsamic vinegar that is all thick and sweet. It was so pretty that i had to get a photograph of it. An image of the last of summer on a plate. We also have a tiny bit of summer, in a few peaches, sitting on our kitchen counter being eyed every day for the exact time of juicy sweetness.

One on one

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I don’t like to label groups of people. Even though i know that it must be done to some extent, the people in most groups do not all think completely alike, no matter how they are represented. People vary greatly under the same label.
There is also the fact that anyone who speaks of a group and makes a name or label for them can say anything they want about said group, and it may or may not be true. Be careful to weigh what you hear. 
A person can generalize about another person until a closer look is taken. And no one can know a whole group, unless you know each and every person’s heart.
Plus, each person doesn’t even know their own heart completely, so how could anyone else?
What i am saying is that God is the only one that knows a person’s heart. So no matter what a group or a person seems to be, we can not even pretend to know the whole truth.  
We don’t know…and so we might want to allow our heart to remain sensitive when we think or speak about others. For there is one judge, and it is He who knows each person’s heart.
Allow your heart to remain sensitive to the leading of Holy Spirit and God’s word.
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My photograph, is of plums. A bit blurred, but i like it that way. All the plums are indeed plums, but, even if you can’t see it in this photo, they are all different, unique in some way. I want to remember that people are all people and yet they are each unique, special, and to be Loved.