Thursday, November 22, 2012

Study Break

Sometimes the routine breaks of tea, cookies, and netflix just doesn't cut the cake. Such was the implosion of content and pressure last night at around 10:30pm. The result: this music video. P.S. Happy Thanksgiving :)



Party At My House from david and keri lippman on Vimeo.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Prayers of Intention


Over the course of the next 4 weeks, we are assigned to read/pray through the "Prayers of Intention" as shown below. We are to do it Monday through Friday, right when we wake up before we even get out of bed. We are only to spend about 3 minutes each morning on it. At the end of the 4 weeks we are to write up a 2 page reflection on what the time was like. Though sometimes we can be resistant to structured prayer, let's prayer for the Spirit to be active, moving, and work in our hearts as we dialogue with God. Don't be afraid of what may come up...bring your whole heart to Him. He isn't afraid of anything. Even if you are mad at God or don't even know Him, He delights in you & wants you exactly where you are at. 

Join with us in your first 3 minutes of your day!

Ways to Pray without Ceasing 1 Thess. 5:17
Dr. John Coe
To protect the heart from moralism and the flesh
                                                                           To protect the heart from under-effort and the flesh
                                                                      To open to the filling of the Spirit in all things and no longer be alone

1. Prayer of Presenting Oneself as a Sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2): the spiritual discipline of presenting oneself to God as a living sacrifice, open to Him and His will in all things.

          Prayer of Intention: "Lord, I am here, I present myself to you. Here I am."

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Hovel

A song that often gets stuck in my head is this song below. I'm actually not sure what Dave named it, but he COMPLETELY surprised me by writing/playing this song for me at our Wedding. I often search on iTunes to listen to it, thinking it's by Shane & Shane, and then remember my wonderful husband wrote it. One of these days we are going to audio record us singing it together. I hope you enjoy it! :)


Hovel from david and keri lippman on Vimeo.

Lyrics:
Verse 1
Let us rest here among the tender roots of time
We will listen as the Lord intertwines eternal rhyme
And our home will never be this broken world it's lonely cities
But our hovel here among the weak and broken hearts, yea.
(repeat)

Chorus
Jesus, your heart is a portion for
Jesus, your love is the reason for
Jesus, you have spoken for
our brokenness, our selfishness
our loneliness, in loving confidence
We are yours.

Verse 2
*We will trade our lives in for the love of our Father
And He will overcome, and He'll overcome our darkness
Until our little candle, the reminder of His light
Comes inside, comes inside, comes inside (3x)

Chorus
Jesus, your heart is a portion for
Jesus, your love is the reason for
Jesus, you have spoken for
our brokenness, our selfishness
our loneliness, in loving confidence
We are yours.

We are yours. (3x)
Our lives are yours.

This I vow, in the hovel of His heart
This I bow, oh God, remove, impart
We are yours.

*He changed this line to: "We will rest here in the arms of our Father"

Friday, November 2, 2012

Rest


"And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation."
Genesis 2:2-3

Dave and I both value taking time to rest. This can look different each day, but little moments of resting our hearts, resting our minds, or resting our bodies remind us of our dependency on our Creator. The posture of rest leads to moments of surrender. Whether it be time, schedule, relationships, expectations, pleasing others, family, tasks, or projects, etc., moments of rest help put our lives in perspective.

"And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD."
Isaiah 11:2



By no means do we do all of these every day, but each day does consist of one of the following in hopes to habituate daily rest. Here are some ways we practice rest:

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Week 8- Does "Work" Work for Spiritual Growth?

It is a rude awakening when the personal work one puts into life does not output what one expects. Often one assumes that concepts like 'karma' or 'the golden rule' or even Biblical ideas like 'sow/reap', means that if one follows the natural progression observed in life, that life will give or produce or result in something similar to what one has put into it. 

And this is true to some extent, the world has been made in such Wisdom that we can observe patterns of life, and make general conclusions about its results. (i.e. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Beggars can't be choosers, A friend in need is a friend indeed etc.) Yet we all know, that sometimes absence doesn't make the heart fonder, and sometimes beggars are choosers, and sometimes needy friends aren't friends at all...these are not rules, they are common observations by common sense to guide common life.  This is God's gift to all humanity to grow with or without Him--it is the possibility of autonomous, non-relational growth (common grace).

The frustration happens when we take sow/reap structure into our relationship with Him. Humans take the proverbial structure and its expectations into their relationship with God. To oversimplify this issue, we expect to work for God and when we do, we expect God to produce what He said!

Seems logical enough...