New stuff

1. I've been working overtime trying to expand my book into an actual business, a ministry actually. It's called Stone's Throw Ministry, because I believe, as Acts 17:27 says, we're all seeking God, but he's not far off from each of us. At any moment, we could discover an insight that changes everything in our lives!

2. Check out my new website (http:www.fromgraveltoglory.com/). On the resources page, you'll see that I'm about to launch some new products. We started taping the audiobook this week and the study guide is well on its way too. I've hired a couple of graphic designers to help me complete these new products and one of my readers is busy editing (thank you, Elizabeth!). A beautiful brochure is on the way to promote these materials to women's ministries. I'm so grateful for this help! FEEDBACK is always welcome and appreciated! If you're interested in beta-testing the new study guide, let me know! This process is happening quickly--you'd have to do a lesson every week. (Even if you can't do the whole thing, any input would definitely raise the quality of the book!)

3. Another new feature is a weekly email encouragement. If you can come up with a clever name for this short insight I'll be sending out, (something to do with stones, pebbles, gravel--perhaps?) I'll give you the only thing I have: a free copy of the book. If you already have one, you might want to use it as a gift. OR you can hold out for a free audiobook or study guide. (The audiobook is NOT a reading of the book! It's eight 30-minutes (or less) discussions on various themes in the book. It's way easier to understand than the book! The study guide will follow the audio book, and will contain additional scripture studies and spaces for personal application and introspection.) If you have ideas about how I can sign people up for the weekly email, let me know.

4. I'm working on a series of articles for Ezine Articles (.com). This site provides articles for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, etc. I'm beginning a series called Mood Swings. It's about how to swing whatever mood you have over to a good mood. The first one is on irritation (probably because I've been feeling irritated!). I'll probably run these on the blog first. They may end up as weekly email encouragement.

5. LINKS. If you have a website, would you allow me to put a link to my website there? I have a page where I can put yours. If you happen to go there on my website, you should check out Touch a Life foundation. (or just click here). A new friend of mine started this amazing ministry of rescuing children in third world countries from human trafficking after the death of her son. It's pretty amazing.

6. PRAYERS. I would appreciate your prayers on behalf of this ministry as I try to reach as many people as I can with affordable help in connecting their struggles with what God is trying to do in their lives.

THANK YOU!!!

Everlasting

Everlasting
Your Light will shine
when all else fades

why do I fear fading?
as my wick sputters and
the shadows close in
no glow of mine can illumine
the purple and indigo enveloping me

but still, I try to avoid
the death of me
gasping for air
grasping for earth
craving light,
breathing in and clutching
only liquid air, liquid earth
liquid blackness

i have faced this death before
it is only painful while I face it
and dread it
and try to prolong its inevitability

it hurts
this effort to fan the dying ember of me
into full flame
the full flame I once was

only now I remember I was never
more than a spark
you were the flame inside me

you do not, will not, compete
your blinding effervescence waits
unseen

"I will wait" you say
"that I may be gracious to you"
you wait for my death
my surrender
my willingness to crawl back
onto the altar

i will die
and Everlasting,
your light will shine in me
only when all else fades.

Humility

"When this old sanctuary is full of silence and prayer, every book Karl Barth ever will write would not be a feather in the scales against it from the point of view of profundity, and I would not believe in Barth's own authenticity if I did not also believe he would know and recognize the truth of that, and honor it, too."

John Ames
Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson


It's funny how sometimes you feel like you have certain knowledge. Then other times you wonder if anything you thought you knew is even true, or if it's such a tiny speck of truth in the whole of what can be known that there's no room for certainty, and especially pride. I like this quote from my favorite book. I'm coming to the conclusion that nothing we "know" has any relevance or value over what can be and is being lived, like silence and prayers before God, love, and taking care of orphans and widows. That is, after all, pure religion.

"With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before he High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Or ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O man, what is good,
And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Micah 6:6-8