Friday 13 September 2013

Courage in the Ordinary Tish Harrison Warren

Everydayness is my problem. It’s easy to think about what you would do in wartime, or if a hurricane blows through, or if you spent a month in Paris, or if your guy wins the election, or if you won the lottery or bought that thing you really wanted. It’s a lot more difficult to figure out how you’re going to get through today without despair. —Rod Dreher 
I was nearly 22 years old and had just returned to my college town from a part of Africa that had missed the last three centuries. As I walked to church in my weathered, worn-in Chaco’s, I bumped into our new associate pastor and introduced myself. He smiled warmly and said, “Oh, you. I’ve heard about you. You’re the radical who wants to give your life away for Jesus.” It was meant as a compliment and I took it as one, but it also felt like a lot of pressure because, in a new way, I was torturously uncertain about what being a radical and living for Jesus was supposed to mean for me. Here I was, back in America, needing a job and health insurance, toying with dating this law student intellectual (who wasn’t all that radical), and unsure about how to be faithful to Jesus in an ordinary life. I’m not sure I even knew if that was possible. 
 
 
I am from the Shane Claiborne generation and my story is that of many young evangelicals. I grew up relatively wealthy in a relatively wealthy evangelical church. Jesus captured my heart and my imagination when I was a kid. I was the girl wearing WWJD bracelets and praying with her friends before theater rehearsal. It did not take long before I began asking questions about how the gospel impacted racial reconciliation and poverty. I began to yearn for something more than a comfortable Christianity focused on saving souls and being generally respectable Republican Texans. 
 
I entered college restless with questions and spent my twenties reading Marx and St. Francis, being discipled in the work of Rich Mullins, Ron Sider, and Tony Campolo, learning about New Monasticism (though it wasn’t named that yet), and falling in love with Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day. My senior year of college, I invited everyone at our big student evangelical gathering to join me in protesting the School of the Americas.
 
I spent a little while in two different intentional Christian communities, hanging out with homeless teenagers, and going to a church called “Scum of the Earth” (really). I gave away a bunch of clothes, went barefoot, and wanted to be among the “least of these.” At a gathering of Christian communities, I slept in a cornfield and spent a week using composting toilets, learning to make my own cleaning supplies, and discussing Christian anarchy while listening to mewithoutyou. I went to Christian Community Development Association conferences, headed up a tutoring program for impoverished, immigrant children, and interned at some churches trying to bridge the gap between wealthier evangelicals and the poor. I was certainly not as radical as many Christian radicals — a lot of folks are doing more good than I could ever hope to and, besides, I’ve never had dreadlocks — but I did have some “ordinary radical” street cred. 
 
Now, I’m a thirty-something with two kids living a more or less ordinary life. And what I’m slowly realizing is that, for me, being in the house all day with a baby and a two-year-old is a lot more scary and a lot harder than being in a war-torn African village. What I need courage for is the ordinary, the daily every-dayness of life. Caring for a homeless kid is a lot more thrilling to me than listening well to the people in my home. Giving away clothes and seeking out edgy Christian communities requires less of me than being kind to my husband on an average Wednesday morning or calling my mother back when I don’t feel like it. 
 
Soon after college, one of my best friends who is brilliant and brave and godly had a nervous breakdown. He was passionate about the poor and wanted to change at least a little bit of the world. He was trained as an educator and intentionally went to one of the poorest, most crime-ridden schools in our state and worked every day trying to make a difference in the lives of students who had been failed by nearly everyone and everything — from their parents to the educational system. After his “episode,” he had to go back to his hometown and live a small, ordinary life as he recovered, working as a waiter living in an upper-middle class neighborhood. When he’d landed back home, weary and discouraged, we talked about what had gone wrong. We had gone to a top college where people achieved big things. They wrote books and started non-profits. We were told again and again that we’d be world-changers. We were part of a young, Christian movement that encouraged us to live bold, meaningful lives of discipleship, which baptized this world-changing impetus as the way to really follow after Jesus. We were challenged to impact and serve the world in radical ways, but we never learned how to be an average person living an average life in a beautiful way. 
 
A prominent New Monasticism community house had a sign on the wall that famously read “Everyone wants a revolution. No one wants to do the dishes.” My life is really rich in dirty dishes (and diapers) these days and really short in revolutions. I go to a church full of older people who live pretty normal, middle-class lives in nice, middle-class houses. But I have really come to appreciate this community, to see their lifetimes of sturdy faithfulness to Jesus, their commitment to prayer, and the tangible, beautiful generosity that they show those around them in unnoticed, unimpressive, unmarketable, unrevolutionary ways. And each week, we average sinners and boring saints gather around ordinary bread and wine and Christ himself is there with us. 
 
And here is the embarrassing truth: I still believe in and long for a revolution. I still think I can make a difference beyond just my front door. I still want to live radically for Jesus and be part of him changing the world. I still think mediocrity is dull, and I still fret about settling. 
 
But I’ve come to the point where I’m not sure anymore just what God counts as radical. And I suspect that for me, getting up and doing the dishes when I’m short on sleep and patience is far more costly and necessitates more of a revolution in my heart than some of the more outwardly risky ways I’ve lived in the past. And so this is what I need now: the courage to face an ordinary day — an afternoon with a colicky baby where I’m probably going to snap at my two-year old and get annoyed with my noisy neighbor — without despair, the bravery it takes to believe that a small life is still a meaningful life, and the grace to know that even when I’ve done nothing that is powerful or bold or even interesting that the Lord notices me and is fond of me and that that is enough. 
 
I’ve read a lot of really good discussions lately about the recent emphasis on "radical" Christianity (see one at an InterVarsity blog and one at Christianity Today). This Radical Christian movement is responsible for a lot of good, and I’m grateful that I’ve been irrevocably shaped by it for some fifteen years. When we fearfully cling to the status quo and the comfortable, we must be challenged by the call of a life-altering, comfort-afflicting Jesus. But for those of us — and there are a lot of us — who are drawn to an edgy, sizzling spirituality, we need to embrace radical ordinariness and to be grounded in the challenge of the stable mundaneness of the well-lived Christian life. 
 
In our wedding ceremony, my pastor warned my husband that every so often, I would bound into the room, anxiety etched on my face, certain we’d settled for mediocrity because we weren’t “giving our lives away” living in outer Mongolia. We laughed. All my radical friends laughed. And he was right. We’ve had that conversation many, many times. But I’m starting to learn that, whether in Mongolia or Tennessee, the kind of “giving my life away” that counts starts with how I get up on a gray Tuesday morning. It never sells books. It won’t be remembered. But it’s what makes a life. And who knows? Maybe, at the end of days, a hurried prayer for an enemy, a passing kindness to a neighbor, or budget planning on a boring Thursday will be the revolution stories of God making all things new. 

Tish Harrison Warren

Tish Harrison Warren is on Graduate & Faculty Ministry staff with InterVarsity at Vanderbilt University.  This spring, she and her husband are returning to Austin, Texas (where she grew up) to plant a Graduate & Faculty Ministry chapter at the University of Texas. She is a transitional deacon in the Anglican Church in North America. She and her husband live in East Nashville with their two year old and five week old daughters, Raine and Flannery Day. 

Choices: Choose Well




Some weeks ago  I had an interview for a new job in Liverpool,  I had prayed about it and asked friends at Church to pray about it, and I expected to be offered the job  when I wasn’t offered it the job I was disappointed but the company with whom I had the interview with, offered me an interview for another job , again I prayed about and asked friends to pray about it,  and while I waited to hear if I had been successful. When I was told I had been un-successful. I wasn’t disappointed because I had already accepted a job offer from my previous employer.

While waiting for news about my interview, I felt that I needed to contact my ex-employer,  who surprisingly offered me a job for a Customer Service Agent starting on the 1st of October on a 6 month fixed term contract,  I accepted the offer, and am starting once more to work in Liverpool, The hours are Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm.

I had phoned the agency who get the interviews in  Liverpool to see was there any feedback on my interviews,  they told me they would let me know, Then on Wednesday the agency who get me the interviews phoned me to say that the company who had the two interviews had reconsidered my application and interviews and would like to offer me the job I had the first interview for the Call Centre Agent

I’m part of The Healing Rooms team at  my Church, and some dear friends of mine who are responsible for leading the Healing Rooms had prayed for me that I would have the right job,  on the following Sunday  I was talking to an older friend at Church, and he said what would happen if I was offered two jobs,  I laughed because I didn’t except to be offered two jobs.

Once I had been offered the 2nd job,  I know I had a choice to make:-

1.       Job A with my ex-employer is only for a 6 Month Fixed Term Contract, Full Time and pays £14,300 a year,  it’s Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm.

2.      Job B with the company who had re-considered my application  is Full Time and Permanent and pays £15,300 a year, however it’s 5 days out of 7 days and is 8am – 8pm.

I rang my friend and church leader , Geoff Grice to ask for his advice, and he helped me consider my opinions,   He asked me a great question  If  I was married with a wife and children, which job would I choose,  currently I’m single with no children, when I considered my opinions based on Geoff’s question I would have automatically gone for  Job B,   but I had a re-think about it  since then and I know I would go for Job A,  why  do you ask?

Job A although it pays £1,000 a year less, has more socialable hours,  I believe if I was a husband and a father rather than earning a £1,000 extra a year,  it’s better to give my wife and children quality time and develop family relationships and be committed to being a husband and a dad,  which means building covenant family relationships.

In our lives we all choices to make,  sometimes it’s easier to make choices such shall I go to Tesco or Asda to do my weekly Grocery Shop,  and these decisions do not have a long term effect,  sometimes we have to make decisions that have a long term effect and can effect others,  when I knew for sure that God was leading me here to Southport,  I was expected all the details to be in place, all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed, it wasn’t.  I came up on the train, with no money, no job and nowhere to live, within 2 days, I had sorted out a flat , was on jobseekers allowance and was looking for a job.

When we make decisions, if you like me you like everything to be a simple choice,  I prayed and asked the Lord which job shall I take ?,  and the Lord told me that He trusted me enough to make the decision for myself, and there wasn’t a right or wrong decision this time. 

Sometimes we freeze, and try to think ahead  and wonder if the decisions we make are beneficial and other times we ask friends to pray for us, hoping they would make the decision for us or help us clarify our thought patterns,  I asked several friends to pray for me this week, and all the advice I’ve had has been different, and it’s easy to become confused because friends a,c,f, and h say one thing and friends b, d, e and I say something else,  however at the end of the day there is only one person who can make the decision and that’s ourself!

I had an interesting update on Facebook earlier this week, some dear friends are starting a " new expression of church" here in Southport and I love my friends dearly,  it's easy to consider because my friends have been an inspiration to me that I consider a) joining this " new expression " of church, b) to be part of this " new expression " of church and remain part of my current church, none of the meeting times clash and after prayerful consideration there was no choice to make,  I will remain committed to my church family because God has both called me and planted me in my home church,  it's easy to go with the flow and think it doesn't matter if I jump or partially jump ship and join this " new expression" of church but it's more important to remain plugged in where I am because I'm home and I'm in covenant with my church family, I'm sure others will join this " new expression" of church and I believe God will prosper them, but for me I'm home, and although the grass may seem greener on the other side it's not necessarily greener!

Choose Life

Deuteronomy 30 :15-20 New American Standard Bible

15 “See, (S)I have set before you today life and [t]prosperity, and death and [u]adversity; 16 in that I command you today (T)to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you (U)may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 17 But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that (V)you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter [v]and possess it. 19 (W)I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, (X)the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your [w]descendants, 20 (Y)by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and (Z)by holding fast to Him; (AA)for [x]this is your life and the length of your days, [y]that you may live in (AB)the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

How to Stay Above the Perilous Line Between Marriage and Divorce, from AllPRODAD



12:00PM EDT 9/12/2013     ALLPRODAD.COM STAFF

Strong marriage

On very rare and special occasions, we will see a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary. So many things have to fall into place for a couple to make it that long together that it can nearly be considered a miracle only God could have bestowed.

Not only does the couple have to fight off all the sharp, poison-tipped arrows of life, but just the simple fragile nature of the human body makes it very hard for both to make it that far. It is pretty safe to say that, on their wedding day, most couples visualize being that pair that grows old so gracefully together.

Statistics say the odds are stacked against them, but it is a victory that can be won. It requires great passion from both in the marriage, and it demands a steadfast resolve to be the exception and not the rule.

Here are eight key ingredients to creating a strong, robust marriage that can go the distance:

1.  Time management. Every quality recipe starts with a base and, in a strong marriage, time is the base—the solid foundation that will not crack under the pressures from outside. Time must be managed in the proper way to achieve success at whatever our prime objective is, and that is especially true in our marital relationships. We must be present and actively participating. Why is the phrase “We just drifted apart” so often heard? Time not well-spent.

2.  Communication—talk to her. Communication is everything to a woman. It is the spark to all things in the relationship for her, including the romantic part. Love without communication will not sustain. There are many ways to do this, so that does not mean if you are a man of few words, you can’t still have your own unique forms of communication. However, words had better be present, because if your wife feels isolated and alone in the marriage, soon you will too.

3. Full respect. A man that respects his wife doesn’t belittle or demean her. Many marriages include one partner that is a bully in the union, and it goes both ways. If happiness as well as longevity are the goal, then healthy respect for the feelings and opinions of your spouse is essential.

4.  Take ownership and responsibility. A fully grown man carries the burden of responsibility for his family. No matter the financial circumstances or personality traits, in the end it is the husband that is the head of the household. Along with the title comes the great responsibility required of it. A great many men like the title but hate the actual duty. Responsibility can’t be delegated. Blame can’t be assigned elsewhere, and childish attempts to point fingers only lead to destruction. A man leads his family with a generous and kind spirit, and he has the heart of a warrior to protect it. The buck stops with you in all cases.

5. Compassion and sympathy. Arthur H. Stainback says, “The value of compassion cannot be overemphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be borne by an individual than to know no one cares or understands.” Your bride needs your deepest compassion and sympathy along your journey together. She will follow you to the ends of the earth if you give her this.

6. True romance. To be a romantic husband means far more than anything that goes on behind closed doors. Intimacy, friendship and a pure bond between you both of deep respect for the other person is what creates true romance. Physical meets mental in a perfect union of exactly the type of love that will make it to 50 years. If you have these connections, they will sustain you through the hard times—the years when your children prohibit much physical intimacy, the days when you feel beat up by the world but know there is always one person who has your back. This is what is meant by two becoming one.

7. Self-sacrifice. Being second is not an easy thing to do. It takes humility, lack of envy in your heart and, most importantly, a desire to lead with only the bigger picture in mind. It doesn’t mean you neglect your own needs to the point that you vanish, but it does mean placing the needs of your wife and family above your own—because they actually are your own. There are many examples that could be listed for this, but use your imagination to fit your own circumstances. A smile put on the face of a loved one is a million times more valuable than anything of a temporary or material nature. It is the difference between fool’s gold and the real thing.

8.  Healthy lifestyle. Obviously if you are going to make it to a 50th anniversary, it’s going to require using these strategies. But it will also mean that you both share good health into your later years. Put away the bad habits. Cut out the senseless anger and stress. Eat well and exercise. Peer deep into the future and think about what you want to see in it. Anything you come up with will need you to be healthy.


All Pro Dad is Family First’s innovative and unique program for every father. Their aim is to interlock the hearts of the fathers with their children and, as a byproduct, the hearts of the children with their dads. At AllProDad.com, dads in any stage of fatherhood can find helpful resources to aid in their parenting. Resources include daily emails, blogs, Top 10 lists, articles, printable tools, videos and eBooks. From AllProDad.com, fathers can join the highly engaged All Pro Dad social media communities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Thursday 12 September 2013

How to Destroy Your Marriage Before It Begins

How to Destroy Your Marriage Before It Begins

Discerning Jezebel’s False Prophetic Puppets

Discerning Jezebel’s False Prophetic Puppets

Keith Olbermann, Craig James, and the Shocking Example of Double Standards

Keith Olbermann, Craig James, and the Shocking Example of Double Standards

Haunting photographs of a Washington ghost-town which was once a bustling railroad village before the jobs left and the residents followed, Daily Mail


  • Lester, Washington's last living resident died in in 2002 at the age of 99
  • The town was once a fuel stop for trains but lost its usefulness when they stopped using coal
The town of Lester in central Washington State was once a service stop for trains running from Seattle to Minneapolis on the Great Northern railway line, but it is now a ghost town.
The last surviving resident of the town, which was founded in the 1892 in the picturesque Cascade Mountains, a woman by the name of Gertrude Murphy, died in 2002 at the age of 99.
Now, the town stands as a testament to the changing face of America in the post industrial age.
Scroll down for video
Ghost town: Lester, Washington is one of the few true ghost towns in the state. Founded in 1892, it had all but disappeared back into nature by the 2000s
Ghost town: Lester, Washington is one of the few true ghost towns in the state. Founded in 1892, it had all but disappeared back into nature by the 2000s
The way it was: An guard house in Lester is one of the few remaining buildings in the ghost town.The town along the picturesque Green River in central Washington, Lester once provided coal to steam trains
The way it was: An guard house in Lester is one of the few remaining buildings in the ghost town.The town along the picturesque Green River in central Washington, Lester once provided coal to steam trains
Haunting: Pictured is the inside of one of the two remaining houses in Lester. The ghost town saw its last resident die in 2002
Haunting: Pictured is the inside of one of the two remaining houses in Lester. The ghost town saw its last resident die in 2002
Just two houses remain standing in the town, which began its decline when trains in the region switched from steam to diesel.
Lester was no longer needed as a 'helper station' for refueling trains with coal. 
By the 1980s, the city of Tacoma, Washington passed legislation aimed at dissolving the town of Lester, which stood in Tacoma's watershed.
Breathtaking: The remnants of a warehouse decay ever further in Lester, an old railroad town situated in Cascade range in Central Washington
Breathtaking: The remnants of a warehouse decay ever further in Lester, an old railroad town situated in Cascade range in Central Washington
Preserved: Inside one of Lester's two standing houses, an empty kitchen gathers dust and dirt but retains its bright red trim
Preserved: Inside one of Lester's two standing houses, an empty kitchen gathers dust and dirt but retains its bright red trim
Reclaimed: An old telegraph pole rots away like much of Lester. Few buildings remain in the town, and the ones that still stand are surrounded by such overgrowth
Reclaimed: An old telegraph pole rots away like much of Lester. Few buildings remain in the town, and the ones that still stand are surrounded by such overgrowth
Lonely: A lone chair sits in a shower stall in the back of a guard house in Lester. No one has lived in the town, much less sat in a chair there, since 2002
Lonely: A lone chair sits in a shower stall in the back of a guard house in Lester. No one has lived in the town, much less sat in a chair there, since 2002
The residents were asked to leave and the town was nearly abandoned. 
That is, except for Gertrude Murphy.
 
Murphy, a school teacher who once taught the children of Lester, refused to sell off her property and stayed in her home until it burned.
After that, she moved into a cabin outside the town.
Washington ghost-town of Lester was a bustling village
Train town: Lester was founded as the railroad industry began to boom in the Northwest. Trains went silent in the town for decades and have only recently begin passing through once again
Train town: Lester was founded as the railroad industry began to boom in the Northwest. Trains went silent in the town for decades and have only recently begin passing through once again
No more: Lester's last resident Gertrude Murphy died in 2002 at the age of 99. She'd tried and failed to preserve her town as an historical site
No more: Lester's last resident Gertrude Murphy died in 2002 at the age of 99. She'd tried and failed to preserve her town as an historical site
An inside view of an abandoned warehouse. Lester once served as a helper town for the Northwest railroad. Trains would stop in the town and refuel
An inside view of an abandoned warehouse. Lester once served as a helper town for the Northwest railroad. Trains would stop in the town and refuel
This angle shows the only two houses left in Lester. Gertrude Murphy's house burned down in the years before her death, forcing her to stay in a cabin just outside the town, but she refused to ever leave for good
This angle shows the only two houses left in Lester. Gertrude Murphy's house burned down in the years before her death, forcing her to stay in a cabin just outside the town, but she refused to ever leave for good
Murphy tried and failed to turn her town's remaining buildings into historical relics. She died at 99 in October of 2002.
With all its residents gone, what was left of Lester when Murphy died has decayed ever further.
Only two houses remain in the town, which has now been fenced off from automobile traffic, according to the 
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
While trains have begun chugging through once again, the only way to actually reach the town is on foot. 
The odd traveler now happens by now and again to catch a glimpse of one of America's few true ghost towns before it inevitably vanishes.
Forgotten: An abandoned Chevrolet melts into the dense forests of the Cascades. Soon, there will be nothing left of Lester but memories and even those will fade
Forgotten: An abandoned Chevrolet melts into the dense forests of the Cascades. Soon, there will be nothing left of Lester but memories and even those will fade
Pictured is the attic in the guard house. Lester's only road has been shut down and the town fenced off. It is now only accessible on foot
Pictured is the attic in the guard house. Lester's only road has been shut down and the town fenced off. It is now only accessible on foot
Inaccessible: Dust and scattered trash covers the kitchen of a guard house in Lester. The town is completely silent save for the occasional passing train now and no longer accessible by car or even bike
Inaccessible: Dust and scattered trash covers the kitchen of a guard house in Lester. The town is completely silent save for the occasional passing train now and no longer accessible by car or even bike


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2418419/Washington-State-ghost-town-haunting-photos-bustling-railroad-village-frozen-time.html#ixzz2egOKB3Lk
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Jesus Christ, The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever

I had the privilege to be raised in a Christian Home and had the input of my parents and grandparents into my life, they were ...