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Cabin Fever?

Hey, even blog writers get cabin fever!

It is time to come out of hibernation!

Have you been holed away all winter because of the cold?  Looking to join a small group and get connected?   Come join us Tuesday nights at 7 at  the Yellow Box for some great small groups!  We even start out with a large group gathering with a teaching or testimony!  Coffee, snacks, and childcare available!

It is never too late to join us!  Come on out!

New Groups Launch January 6th!

Its official!  Its time for a new season at Celebrate the Journey.  Click here or on Current Small Group Offerings tab for the list.

You can also view a PDF of the flyer by clicking here.

Visit the CCC website for up-to-date info and even videos!

Fall is a slow fade

from a teaching by Sharie November 18, 2008

I love autumn. It is my favorite season of all. I love autumn because it is when baseball begins the playoffs. Oh, the Cubs are heart breakers every year. However it is the beginning of Football season. Go Bears! I love fall foods like Caramel apples, there’s a candy shopin Joliet called Dan’s Candies. They have the best Caramel Apples. They’re are only available from Sept 1st through Oct 31st. Oh, they are so worth the trip. The caramel is real buttery and the apples are crisp Mmmmm…. can you almost taste them with me?  Oh and then there’s Halloween.  I love trick or treating with the kids and then picking through the good stuff when we get home. I’m a fan of the chocolate stuff so I rummage through the candy quickly and create my own little stash. Am I the only one who does that?

 

 Who doesn’t love the weather? I love the dry sunny days, cool nights. Oh and the change of the leaves when they fade from plain ‘ol green to vibrant orange, red & yellow. And this year we had a little bit of Indian summer with 70° temperatures. But then the temperatures begin to drop the wind picks up and then the leaves begin to fall. Which gives autumn its nickname ‘fall’?  And just like the weather has different seasons so does our spirit and our relationship with God.

 

We are continuing our series of Greeting the Seasons of Life. Diane talked about the season of summer. And how we can get caught up in the ‘captivity of activity’ and we can neglect our relationship with God. Even thought the weather patterns of the seasons come and go according to the calendar. The season of your spirit can get stuck in the same season all year long. We can live perpetually in summer all year round if we do not learn to recognize where we are and begin to make some adjustments,  because the season that always follows summer is fall. And when we experience a season of fall in our lives, it doesn’t just happen over night.

 

I didn’t just wake up one morning and the weather went from 90 and sunny to 45 and grey. Well maybe if you live in the mid-west it does. But you know what I mean. The leaves don’t just shoot off the trees overnight right? The days slowly get longer the temperatures get cooler the leaves begin to fade then the wind picks up and the leaves begin to fall and then the trees are bare. No more leaves, no more fruit. Skeletons of trees are left. When we experience a fall in our lives it doesn’t just happen over night. There are choices along the way that lead to a slow fade away from God’s best for our lives and toward something that strips away all that is good and leaves us broken and usually others hurt in the process.

 

There’s a story in the bible about a man named David. Not just any man though, this was King David. You know the David of David and Goliath, David. Yes, that David.

 

Fromthe book of 2 Samuel Chapter 11:1 it reads: “The following spring, the time of year when kings go to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite Army to destroy the Ammonites. In the process they laid siege to the city of Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem.”

Let’s stop right there for a second. David should have left to go war, but he didn’t. He chose to stay home. This was his first mistake. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be. This can be one of the first steps towards that slow fade to a fall – not being where you are suppose to be. Maybe it’s going to the bar instead of coming home after work. Or maybe its staying late at work and talking to people you should not be talking to. It could be your looking at the football scores at work, and, instead of clicking on the spreadsheet you should be working on, you click somewhere else. Maybe your fall started back in Jr. High when you started skipping school. Or it could be saying you are going shopping but instead you go to your ‘friends’ house.  Being where you are not supposed to be. It’s the start of that slow fade.

 

Let’s continue reading about David. In verse 2: “Late one afternoon David got out of bed after taking a nap and went for a stroll on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.”

 

Ok, mistake number 2. He should have looked away as soon as he realized there was a woman exposed. Did your slow fade begin when you looked at something you should have turned away from?  Let’s finish reading what happened.

 

“He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, ‘She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah’ Then David sent for her; and when she came to the palace he slept with her.”

 

And as the story goes Bathsheba gets pregnant and then this leads David to committing sin after sin trying to cover up what he had done till it eventually leads to him arranging to have Bathsheba’s husband killed.

 

Isn’t that how it goes with us too when we begin to fall, we try to cover our tracks which leads to deceitfulness and greater sin. I know this story is talking about adultery here but the slippery slope to a fall is the same regardless of the cause. Drugs, alcohol, addiction, adultery  there is a slow fade to the fall. I know people in recovery and they talk about how a relapse doesn’t occur when you take a drink, or decide to use. The relapse began weeks or months before when they stop doing the work of recovery and instead end up being in places they shouldn’t be looking at things they shouldn’t be looking at.

 

Regardless of how you experienced a fall your response to the your fall needs to be the same. Repent and turn toward God. Repent simply means to turn and go back to where you belong. Back to God. In 2 Samuel 12:13 David cries out, “ ‘I have sinned against you Lord.’ He repented and turned back to where he belonged with God.”

 

I know we are all in different places in our spiritual journey. I know that the fall was what brought most of us here to Celebrate the Journey. Have you made that choice to turn towards God? Have you invited him in on your journey?

 

However our work is not done there. Just because we are a bare tree withering in the wind doesn’t mean we will begin to bare fruit just because we turn toward God. But this is the best start, and there is still work to be done.

 

In the book of Luke Jesus tells his followers a parable or a story of a Barren Fig Tree.

He tells this story to illustrate how to begin baring fruit again after a season of fruitlessness. And this applies to all of us who have experienced a bad time or fruitlessness in our life.

 

Jesus describes a tree that is barren and it hasn’t produced any fruit and the owner of the tree wanted to cut it down. But the gardener (who is Jesus) says no. Give me one more chance to I’ll give it special attention. I’ll dig around its roots and fertilize it and let’s see if it produces fruit.

 

That’s what we need to do. We need to let Jesus come into our lives. We need to let him dig around our roots. I know for some of us that can be very scary. I mean who knows what could be dug up. But that’s what Jesus is saying, he’s saying this is a necessary part of healing. We need to let him dig around our roots and let him shine his light of truth on our stuff. Let His grace & His forgiveness cover us. And just like fertilizer adds nutrients to the soil so does God’s grace and forgiveness. That’s what we are doing in our small groups here at Celebrate the Journey. As we begin to allow God to work in our lives and we share in group and allow the group to minister to us we are preparing our spirit to produce fruit again.

 

A little side note here because I don’t want some people to think this process doesn’t pertain to them because they themselves didn’t experience a fall. However it’s possible you are dealing with the fallout of someone else’s fall. I know for me my great season of fruitlessness in my life occurred after the death of my husband to cancer which had nothing to do with any choice I had made. But I had begun this slow fade away from God and through Celebrate the Journey I found my way back to Him. And I discovered I had some work to do. And as I allowed God to dig around my roots I heard God saying well, while we’re down here…… lets deal with this other stuff too. I am not going to lie to you. This is not fun work. But it was necessary work to be the person God created you to be.

 

I reada book over the summer called ‘Blink’, by Malcolm Gladwell. And the main idea of the book is based on a number of research projects that resulted in discovering that most people make choices unconsciously and in a blink. Some good, some bad but for the most part unconsciously without thinking, in a blink. So, for most of us our decisions and choices that we make come from a compulsive unconscious level; unless we slow down and actually try to understand why we are making the choices that we are and then begin to make a different choice.

That’s why we need to take the time and do the work of digging around our roots so we can uncover our brokenness and sinfulness and let the light of truth and grace shine on it. And through this process we become truly healed and we are no longer held captive by our sins. We no longer are responding compulsively to this world out of our brokenness but we are empowered to respond as the child of God we are created to be.

 

The end of this parable of the Fig tree it is open ended. It says, then we will see if it produces fruit. So that means we have to respond and then we have to wait.

 

It’s a slow fade when we fall. It is a series of choices along the way usually in a blink of on eye that lead us away from God and toward destruction.

 

 Be aware of the season that you are in and make adjustments to get back on track. And if you have experienced a fall… Repent.  Come back to God. Come back to where you belong and then begin to do the work so you don’t find yourself falling again.

Black Wednesday

contributed by Helper of Mankind, a Celebrate the Journey attender

 

November 26, 2008
 
Black Wednesday
I had never heard of Black Wednesday until I dated the father of my youngest son.  DUIs are disgraceful in my family, so we stay home and sip a gallon of wine out of a perpetually-half-full juice glass.  As I think of this Black Wednesday, I think of rejection.  The money that would pay for my son’s test will be spent (plus several hundred dollars more) celebrating this pagan holiday, and I weep.  I really prefer to sob at this point, but that might wake the baby, and he couldn’t sleep last night.  Sobbing isn’t fair to him. 
“Then Jehoahaz sought the LORD’s favor, and the LORD listened to him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel.  The LORD provided a deliverer for Israel, and they escaped from the power of Aram.  So the Israelites lived in their own homes as they had before.  But they did not turn away from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit; they continued in them.  Also, the Asherah pole remained standing in Samaria.”—2 Kings 13: 4-6.
I think of Black Wednesday, with the bar being the modern-day Asherah pole, and how we spit in the face of God.  I wonder how many people tonight are going to go out not knowing it’s their last night.  I wonder how many people going out tonight recently cried out to the Lord for a family member, yet refuse to turn away from their sins.  I think of Jesus, rejected, yet always inviting.  Y rejected parenting yesterday.  Y has rejected parenting on several occasions (and on a daily basis), yet God always calls me to invite Y into relationship with his son.  As I think of Y and how he rejects his son, I can’t help but think of God, and the rejection of Jesus.  Think of how many times God invites us into relationship with His Son.  I think of the many times God calls and I don’t answer, acting like I can’t or don’t hear Him.  Any act of disobedience is a return to a personal Asherah pole, even if it’s just to sleep, or eat, or bathe.  Last night the Lord called me onto my back porch.  I almost didn’t listen.  God had painted a picture for me, and I almost missed it.  It was cold, I was tired, and I didn’t want to go outside.  Yet in my obedience, He blessed me.  The steam from the vent on my neighbor’s roof was his gift to me.  He lit it in such a way that it became a pool of lavender luminescent water.  And that water was defying gravity.  It was amazing, breath-taking.  I almost traded a gravity-defying miracle for an Asherah pole of rest.
“And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.”—1 John 2: 28.
Today is Someone’s last day on Earth, last dance around the Asherah pole.  Someone has no medical illness.  Tonight, Someone is dancing around an Asherah pole, slamming into Jesus, face-to-face.  Someone is falling prostrate and crying, “Lord, forgive me, my Lord.”  Tonight Someone is hearing plainly, “I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7: 21-23).
 
 
–Helper of Mankind

The day I gave away a new car… okay, not quite

contributed by a Celebrate the Journey attender

Jesus, I heard about you in church again today.  I heard about Heaven.  I heard about Hell.  Those places are real.  They really exist.  Just like you really exist.  Your arms are open for me, and trust me, I needed to know that.

They asked us if we would go to a place where we get to do everything we want, but without Jesus.  I thought for a second, it was a bit tempting, but no.  I always dreamed that Heaven was a place where we get to be reunited with loved ones.  Like my mom, my grandparents, my dear friends, and even my old dogs.  (Even though some say its blasphemous to think dogs have souls… but I won’t go there.)  See, for me, life is all about the people that I do it with.  Life is meaningless to me without them.

Recently I was going through some old jewelry of my mom’s, looking to help with the giant gaping hole that is my checkbook.  I forgot about this ring, the ruby and diamond ring mounted on… platinum!!!  I read the marking again, yes, this thing is like worth that of a new car. Here is the answer to all of, okay, some of my problems.  When I was showing my aunt the rings, she said that one was the one she had asked if we had back when Mom died.  She told me the story of when my mom and her bought it at an estate sale, and how she picked it out for herself and wore it all of the time, any chance she got.

I took that new car ring and handed it to her.  “Take it,” I said, “I want you to have it.” 

Why did I just give away that ring when I really needed the money?  Because to her that ring was worth more than any amount of money.  To her, that ring was precious memories of her dear sister that is no longer here on Earth.  To her, her heart sang and tears welled up thinking of her when she saw that ring.  To me, it was just a means to an end.  Money will come and go, but memories are priceless.

Jesus, when I get to Heaven, I know that I will have those memories.  The memory of that special lunch with my aunt, the memory of my mom smiling at me, the memory of my dear friends that I never got to say goodbye to.  I will have those memories, but I will have better than that.  I will live them.  I will be with my mom, my aunt, my family, all those I know that love you Lord!  We will be in our new bodies, free from pain, hurt, and tears.

I could have everything in the world, be able to do whatever I want, but it would mean nothing if I didn’t have LOVE.  God is love, my family is love, my friends are love.  Jesus is love.  And love after all is what I am so desperate for.

1 Corinthians 13

Love

 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

It’s in the Waiting

contributed by “Helper of Mankind” a Celebrate the Journey attender

I’m a warrior by nature.  I love battle.  I love scouting out the enemy.  I’m a lover of action.  I even love the moments building up to when I’m about to go toe-to-toe, against all odds, at an appointed time.  I plan my actions, my words, counter-words, I strategize.  It’s a beautiful thing.  Even if I lose a round, I always leave a mark on my opponent, and I’m much more prepared for the next encounter.  Think Motorhead’s “The Game.”  I was ready today. 

Then the baby had a fever and it was off to the pediatricians office instead, do discuss bowel movements and feeding patterns.  So not what I had on the agenda for today.  So I tend to my baby, which I love, and decide to accept God’s decision that I have to wait again.  Wait to be restored, and just love the baby for the rest of the day.  He took what I had declared a day of battle and placed His declaration of love on it instead.  I’m okay with that.  I’m okay with his divine decision.  I’m not okay with me.

Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, “It is because of Saul and hisbloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.”–2 Samuel 21:1

Now, that puts waiting in perspective.  Continuing to read 2 Samuel 21, I saw David make a promise without knowing what the terms were, I saw David make an amends, and I saw the land of David restored.

Maybe my waiting has to do with an amends.  Do I need to make an amends? Does someone need to make an amends to me?  I have no idea, though I’m more than sure the Lord will reveal the answer.  But it’s God’s plan, not just for me, but for those around me.  I think about my “Saul.”  I think about my “David.”  I was scheduled to meet with my David today, but I was revved up like I was meeting with Saul.  I wanted blood, I was the Gibeonites.  Now, I want peace. I realize that my “Saul”" and my “David” are not the enemy.  My Saul destroyed my land because I was that person’s David, and was self-viewed as a Gibeonite.

Furthermore, if I continued with my mindset, I could turn into my David’s Saul.  I could choose to let my David suffer for no reason other than my David is in the position to.  I could choose to continue the chain of emotional disorientation.  Or, I can make an amends.  I can choose to apologize to my David for the inconvenience of having the task of restoring what was broken by the hands of another.

 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. –Matthew 5:23-24

I guarantee that someone I have never met has suffered for sins I’ve committed, amends I’ve never made.  I know I’ve suffered in relationships for the brokenness left in the wake of another, but the cycle of animosity can only be broken in the here and now.  I can choose today to reach back to mend what I’ve broken in the past, and if I forgive the brokenness of others in my today, then there is a chance for peace.  If I forgive because they know not what they do, they know not the full ramifications of their choices to my life, then there is a chance for love.  If I take this day that the Lord has made and use it to heal the ones I have hurt and the ones that have been hurt by othes, there is a chanc3e for change.  If I do these things, then I have the anti-venom for sin, the cure for a fallen world.  If I do these things in the name of Jesus, I am restored.

When is a leader no longer a leader?

contributed by “Helper of Mankind” a Celebrate the Journey attender

No, I didn’t vote.  I prayed and let God vote for me.  I prayed for Him to put in office the one that would further the Kingdom of God.  I trust Him to make the best decision for all of humanity, not just for the country, and not just for these next four years.  Leadership has an impact that has a longer reach than we as humans can claim to grasp.  Bush was blamed for what Clinton left behind for Bush to work with.  Leaders rarely achieve a position that hasn’t already been filled by someone before them, rarely get a “clean slate.” 

Ministry isn’t like sin.  It isn’t washed clean by a prayer.  Ministry is closer in nature to the sinner.  It’s born, it stumbles, it grows, it consumes, it commits sins, it can become infected.  And if it doesn’t get refined, it dies.  I don’t know politics and I’m not familiar with ministry, but I know leaders.  I know them intimately.  I think about Bush as he leaves office soon an wonder how many people ever compliment him.  I don’t believe Bush is all bad, despite current opinion, otherwise he would not have gotten a second term.  I have never heard though, “wow, that Bush was awesome today!”  Not once in eight years.  Makes me wonder why people lead.

Within churches I’ve gotten to hear members and visitors say how leaders just don’t lead right.  I want to ask “when was that last time you had a stranger come up to you and vomit out every sin at you? And want you to pray, encourage, help, lead, and guide so that if Susie Stranger and Nick Newcomer don’t like the consequences, they can tell everyone how YOU ruined their lives?”

“Anyone who receives instruction in the word mustshare all good things with his instructor.” (Galatians 6:6 emphasis mine)

People forget that leaders are appointed by God.  Not by votes.  Christians are just as guilty.  Imagine if a rule was passed that for every one complaint, three compliments had to be given.  I’m being called to a Praise Campaign.  I enjoy letting those who have pushed forward with me that I’m on top of the mountain, or was, or will be again soon.  If Christians would take the time to tell leaders the good that Christ, the Church, The Body, or a particular ministry is doing in them and for them…. Imagine how leaders would be refreshed by that.  Maybe instead of asking leaders for scripture verses of comfort, imagine giving leaders scripture verses of encouragement. 

Do you know why leaders know the Bible so well?  Do you know why leaders know verses of encouragement?  Do you know why leaders tell you to seek the Word of God?  It’s actually because they need it.  More than most do.  Leaders are people just like you, called by God, trying to obey, trying to carry through this world so they can lead souls to the Cross.  They have families and they have friends.  They have death and sickness.  They love, they hurt, they cry.  Leaders don’t just sit in a box in the basement of a church, waiting to be taken out for a Christianity prop on Sunday mornings.  Yet we forget that.  We forget that leaders have moments of “I don’t understand what you’re doing here God, but I will obey  I don’t know why you picked me to lead.  It hurts, it feels like death, but your will not mine.”

When is a leader not a leader?  When the leader is at home, praying, crying, and asking God why the position was given to him in the first place.  A leader is one man, wondering if he can ever make a difference to those around him.  Send that leader a praise report today.

Our lives are the only Bible some people ever read

from an unknown source… forwarded e-mail. contributed by Steve

Several years ago, a preacher from out-of-state accepted a call to a church in a new city; new to him, at least.

Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, “You’d better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it.’”

Then he thought, “Oh, forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount?  Anyway, the bus company gets plenty in fares; they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from God and keep quiet.”

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change.”

The driver, with a smile, replied, “Aren’t you the new preacher in town? I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I’ll see you at church on Sunday.”

When the preacher stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and thought, “Oh God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter.”

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.

This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians and will put us to the test! Always remember you carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself “Christian” or “Christ-follower.”

Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny; maybe even somebody else’s.

Introduction to Helper of Mankind

contributed by an annoymous Celebrate the Journey attender to be known as “Helper of Mankind”

     “A rose by any other name smells just as sweet.”  “What’s in a name?”  Well, a lot.  I can’t imagine casting out demons in the name of Frank Zappa, Bob Newhart, or Orlando Cruz, can you?  There is a song that states “nothing has the power to save like your name.” And when asked, “whome shall I say sent me?” his answer was “I AM.” Apparantly the Lord believes that names are important, otherwise he wouldn’t have declared that John’s name should be “John” or that Jesus’ name should be “Jesus” or that Jacob should be called “Israel.”  If one looks at the Bible carefully, it can’t help but be noticed that the Lord decides what ever person’s name should be.  Benjamin’s name wasn’t even originally “Benjamin,” nor was Abraham originally “Abraham,” nor was Sarah originally “Sarah.”  My point?  I like anonymity.  Big fan.  But I’ve been called to write.

     Conflicted.

I’d love to write, but I’m vain and prefer the shadows.  If I write from the shadows, then my vanity won’t get in the way of my Christianity, and if I write in the darkness (think Nicodemus) then that leaves me free to question without condemnation.  To do this, I need anonymity, but I also need a name.  Initially my first initial came to mind, but the Lord didn’t declare my name to be an initial, so my name is “Helper of Mankind.”  That was the Lord’s declaration for me the day the paperwork was filled out for my birth certificate.  Not “Savior of Mankind,” not “Redeemer of Mankind,” but “Helper.”  I can do that.  I can help.  Not in any measurable way, but in the way that says “you are loved by a God that lived before you, who has been beside you, and who can guide you to a place that quenches every ache of the soul.”  How will I accomplish this?  I won’t, but He will.  Don’t pay attention to the narrator of this story.  Pay attention to the Author.