Give us this day our Daily Bread...
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But how am I supposed to show these little lambs the way when I'm just as lost as they are?
Do you ever ask God these kinds of questions? Of course you don't...no one could possibly be as demanding, irrelevant, and clued-out as I am! If, however, you've ever considered (at some really weak, treacherous moment in your life) asking God a question like this, then let me give you a hint....
He never seems to pay much notice to my lame excuses. And He always has some uncanny (sometimes even irritating, if I'm brutally honest) way of making the most ridiculous circumstances come out smelling like a rose--even when I insist on putting my pesky, sticky little fingers into the mix! Even when things are not handled at all the way I was just sure they should be handled or mayhem would definitely ensue! Even when I knew that my husband was positively, unequivocally dead wrong (which means he turned out to be right...impossible!)
Now the flip side, naturally, is when all of my best laid, perceptively thought out plans suddenly take a vertical nose-dive and become a living, moving, walking nightmare right before my very eyes. The kind of nightmare that I have no way of gracefully wrenching myself from--especially when all of my presumed grace, eloquence, long suffering, and love toward my fellow man has clearly evacuated the known mortal world. I enter into some in-body out-of-body vaporous zone where all my savage instincts take over. Not a pretty picture. And agony! all the shattered pieces that have to be scooped up and haphazardly pasted back together...somehow....some way. Help? p-p-p-please help me?
When I mentioned that I'm a train-wreck on legs, I was not joking! We're talking highly factual, easily document-able information here.
A VerseWisdom is a tree of life to those who grasp her, and he is happy who holds her fast. Lost & FoundIt 's SO encouraging for me to hear other's new beginnings and journeys (and stumblings-- ya know, misery loves company) along this Christian path we're trying to traverse. When I was doing a search for patchwork skirts, I happened onto Bee Ye Glad Threads |
A Poem"Oh, sing with me, my Precious Lord; There's music in the air - Let the Little Children ComeI also just crave the child's perspective on God--it's always so refreshing! One of our favorites was when our middle daughter (at 3yo) mentioned that Sampson had "bear" hands. Why? Because we read that Sampson killed the lion with his own "bear hands"....See? |
The Home Worship...is this even scriptural....or just not politically correct...??
The topic of the home church or home worship or non-institutional church or simple or organic church...or any of the various names or headings categorizing the growing exodus out of mainstream traditional churches has finally gained enough grassroots momentum to actually be recognized as...."something"....not quite sure what, where, why, or how....but it is "something" that's being noticed, bantered about, downplayed, marginalized, dismissed, studied, analyzed....or just laughed about.
Just as those who were the first to exit the public schools ten to twenty years ago in order to home school, in like fashion, those who are leaving churches (for in many cases very similar concerns), are catching a sort of 'religious flack' for their somewhat unexplained, many times misunderstood departure.
My husband has felt led in this 'home worship' direction for the past ten or so years, although, we have at different times participated in various churches along the road. We've felt rather bereft and alone along this journey but we're heartened to see that more and more families are searching for more spiritual meat that, in a very general sense, the established church organizations can't seem to serve up. So if this is something you might be interested in finding out more about, here are some sites and articles that I just recently stumbled onto that we look forward to perusing more ourselves.
A Christian Home
They Won't Let Me In
Restoration Ministries.org
House Church.org
Simple Church Journal
Update (4/26/10):
Interestingly, I wrote the above about 2 years ago. Since then, more and more families have been gravitating toward this idea. Actually, the 'home church' terminology doesn't exactly fit either. We prefer to say 'family worship' now. But anyhoo, I just happened upon this blog post today over on A Wise Woman Builds Her Home...and I confess I haven't been over to that blog in about 2 yrs. either. She writes about a 'Family Integrated' church...and it's very much along the lines of this home church or family worship concept. Just a new phrase. Pretty cool! Check it out and see what you think.