Tag-Archive for » Jesus «

04
Jun
The Secret to Having God Hang Out at Your House
Susan Gaddis

Does your house seem like the kind of place where God hangs out? Do you want your kids to have God encounters? Would you like to experience more of his presence?

Setting an atmosphere for God to walk among us in our homes requires that we wear the mantle of a servant. Since most of us already feel we do the chores of a servant, wearing the mantle shouldn’t be too big of an adjustment. It’s the heart attitude that separates a servant from a slave.

It was Jesus who stated that the greatest among us would be the servants, and that we would find Him hanging out with those who serve. Washing feet was the job of a servant, yet Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and asked that we do the same (John 13:12-17).

When we work in the yard, clean the house, or set a nice dinner table, we are creating a physical atmosphere of comfort for our families, and welcome for our guests. When we do so with the heart of a servant, a spiritual atmosphere is created for the presence of God to move among us.

Chore lists are important tools in teaching your kids responsibility, but do you also talk with your kids about a right heart attitude in doing those chores? A servant’s heart isn’t something you can dictate—it must be cultivated through relationship, prayer, and the Spirit Holy. If you want God to encounter your kids at home—even in the midst of their chores—you have to first set the spiritual atmosphere by serving your family with a right heart.

What are you doing to set an atmosphere for God to hang out at your house? Do you model a servant’s heart for your family?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

4 Comments
Category: Daily chores, Personal growth  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
23
Apr
Warning: Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone Takes Guts
Susan Gaddis

Getting out of my comfort zone to make Jesus real to others takes guts. I like my zone of comfort and I am not easily moved from a place of security, safety, and bonbons. I had a hard time letting go of my blankie as a kid, too.

Teresa of Avila knew that the only way to make Jesus famous was to be Jesus to those who had no concept of love in human form. She wrote “Christ’s Body” as a way to remind us that we have to be Jesus with skin on.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours;
Yours are the only hands with which He can do his work,
Yours are the only feet with which He can go about the world,
Yours are the only eyes through which His compassion can shine forth upon a troubled world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
    –Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

 

This weekend a group of women and I are headed up to San Francisco to share a small portion of God’s justice and love with “ladies of the night.” We’ll be working with the San Francisco Youth With A Mission base focusing on Because Justice Matters. This is our first all-women’s mission trip and I hope to see more of them launched from Father’s House in the coming days.

How’s your level of comfort? Mine is being challenged.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

2 Comments
Category: Mission  Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
05
Apr
Why Flawed People Have It Right
Susan Gaddis

My flaws and bloopers would score high on a weekly sitcom. Like others, my personality lacks many positive traits, yet my defects are what attract the grace of God to my life.

God is not condemning you for your bloopers—he is using your flaws to jump-start his workings of grace in your life. Grace is God’s avenue for transferring all his perfection, power, authority, favor, and forgiveness to you.

This grace was brought to planet earth through Jesus Christ and contains the power to transform and teach you all you need to know to live a godly life (see John 1:17 and Titus 2:11-12).

God’s grace is not earned through any action on your part. It is a gift freely given to flawed folks like you and me. In fact, you can’t even feel the transformation as it happens—but the results are amazing! The parts of you that you are blind to, or unable to fix, change as you live out your days simply because God has infused you with his grace.

“Grace does not demand perfection or provide a measurement for it. It brings perfection—the perfection of the Blood of The Lamb. It invites us to relax in His forgiveness and to assimilate His nature rather than to attempt to perform for others.

Grace releases us from a performance oriented portrayal of perfection, giving us instead, His acceptance as we are. It is a heart thing! The results may be seen by those around us, but in grace we do not see the change as an accomplishment because we are too focused on Him to see ourselves.” –Pastor Dave Fritsch in Dimensions of Grace

The outtakes on your life may advertise your humanity, but they also attract God’s grace. Can you relax in your flaws and know that grace has already made you perfect?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

3 Comments
Category: Brain overhaul, Personal growth, The Backward Kingdom  Tags: , , , , , , ,
29
Mar
Real Is Real, Whether Seen or Unseen
Susan Gaddis

In a busy week of preparing for Easter Sunday service, coloring eggs, and getting my house and yard ready for the traditional family gathering after church, I find it helpful to remember what is real—whether seen or unseen.

In his book, Abba’s Child, Brennan Manning tells the story of a newspaper reporter approaching G.K. Chesterton on a London street corner.

“Sir, I understand that you recently became a Christian. May I ask you one question?”

“Certainly,” replied Chesterton.

“If the risen Christ suddenly appeared at this very moment and stood behind you, what would you do?”

Chesterton looked the reporter squarely in the eye and said, “He is.”

Chesterton knew that Christ was alive and walking with him. He believed it to such a degree that he would not have changed his stride if Jesus suddenly materialized. Real is real, whether seen or unseen.

What is your reality this week?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

One Comment
Category: Daily, Lent  Tags: , , , , , ,
12
Mar
I’m Not In the Mood to Go to Church
Susan Gaddis

worship_handsSome Sundays I’m just not in the mood to go to church. The excuse of worshipping God on a coastal beach sounds so spiritual—much better than, “I don’t want to go to church today.”

The mindset that keeps me trudging through the doors of Father’s House regardless of my mood is my knowledge that church isn’t about me. Church is about the One who left the comfort of his home to hang out with people like me—common, self-centered, sometimes irritating humans.

Church is about ordinary people gathering together to worship the One who left “the glories of heaven” to bring the party to us. In fact, that is just what the word “church” means—the “called out ones”—the ones who gather in groups to worship the One who has called us out of our homes and into his.

So to be the church, in the real sense of the word, I have to go to where the people gather who are headed to his house. It doesn’t matter if we differ on the style in which we worship. It does matter that we worship together—as a group—setting aside our discomfort to focus on the One who really matters.

Going to church means I have to get out of bed, put myself in gear, get my body out the door and into the car, and drive to the gathering place where I will meet other people who have all gone through the same process to get to the gathering place to worship the One called Jesus.

Guess I’d better get ready. It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’.

Do you attend church regularly? Why or why not? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

15 Comments
Category: worship  Tags: , , , , , , ,
10
Feb
Wanted: Wounded Storyteller
Susan Gaddis

224994_window-frame_iiI loved staying at Grandma Bessie’s house. She had the best bedtime stories. Tales of raising two children during the Great Depression, running a day care in her home, and baking pastries for the local restaurants were all told as we sat in her big bed and listened to the night trains go through old San Luis Obispo.

One of my favorite stories concerned my grandfather, a gentle husband and faithful train engineer who romanced the committed spinster, Bessie. Andrew was seventeen years older then Grandma, but he stood out as the love of her life. The story always ended with his death three months before my father entered the world.

That is how I best remember my grandma—through her stories. It was only recently I realized her narratives were actually stories of personal hardship and deep wounds. Though in the telling they were no longer wounds, but stories of how Jesus had walked with her through the dark times of her life.

Hidden behind the adventure of gleaning summer fruit for the ingredients of winter pies sat the heaviness of a hard working, single mom. Grandma identified herself to me by her wounds—tragedies transformed into stories of Jesus, a gospel if you will, written on the heart of an old woman.

God uses two methods for transforming us into the image of Christ. First, there is his own life growing within us. Secondly, he uses the pain, suffering, and trauma of earthly life to kill anything that doesn’t smell holy in us. If handled wisely, the second makes room for the first.

We all know people who are identified by their unhealed wounds. They call themselves victims. Then there are those identified by their healed wounds. They look like Jesus. Grandma Bessie looked like Jesus to me.

Being known by our wounds is just another characteristic of the Backwards Kingdom. In referring to John 20:19-20, Henri Nouwen said, “It is of great spiritual importance that Jesus made himself known to his disciples by showing them his wounds.”

To whom are you showing your wounds?  Are your scars telling a story or a gospel? Will you grow into a wounded storyteller reciting your stories to your grandchildren curled up under a blanket on a cold winter night, or will you just grow old?

Please share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

3 Comments
Category: Personal growth, The Backward Kingdom  Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
27
Jan
Please Pass the DNA
Susan Gaddis
Adelaide Ayers
Adelaide Ayers

I have six little grandchildren in my life who carry my DNA. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing enough to pass the baton of faith on to these little people. Good grandmas do things like that.

Shouldn’t I be teaching the Bible and praying with them when they come to visit? How will they acquire the DNA of God unless I cram spiritual truths into their heads and cookies into their mouths?

Usually about that time of feeling like the Grandma from Failureland, I’m caught up short by the Spirit Holy and reminded that it is I who need to accept the baton from their little hands. This is just one more principle of the Backward Kingdom that I am learning.

Jesus told us that unless we become like little children we cannot inherit the kingdom of God—we won’t have the DNA of God infused within. We seem to know the important things of the Kingdom when we are small, but such wisdom seeps out of us as we grow big enough to carry the cares of the world.

Here are three things I’ve observed about little children, but don’t see in adults:

Children don’t worry. I worry. My husband worries. My grandkids don’t worry.

Children dance everywhere they go. I walk or stumble along life’s highways and byways. Children dance across the floor, on top of the couch, under the table, up and down on Grandma’s bed, and into the kitchen where they ask for something to eat since they only ate 15 minutes ago and have used up all their calories dancing.

Children are directly honest with God.  I avoid certain conversations with God. My grandchildren don’t seem to have that problem. One morning while cooking breakfast, my daughter Kati heard her three year old, Adelaide, strongly say, “Jesus!” She heard her again, “Jesus!” Turning around, Kati saw Adelaide looking at the ceiling as she announced a third time, “Jesus! You need to get down here right now! I need to talk to you!”

Maybe Jesus isn’t the only one Adelaide needs to talk to. Perhaps she can teach me to dance again. Anyone care to join us?

In Him Together, Susan Gaddis

9 Comments
Category: Personal growth, The Backward Kingdom  Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
14
Dec
Guess Who’s Coming For Christmas
Susan Gaddis
  • 947913_tombstones_2House decorated—check!
  • Christmas Eve dinner reservations made at Novos—check!
  • Menu planned for Christmas day—check!
  • Gifts bought and wrapped—workin’ on it.
  • Waiting for Christ . . . say what?

Whoops! The holidays showed up and our hectic lives just became more chaotic. 

Things haven’t changed much over the centuries. The first Christmas saw folks traveling, crowding the local motels, and reuniting with family. A nationwide census stressed everyone. In the midst of the chaos, a stable served as an emergency birthing room. Most people didn’t have a clue that the Messiah had arrived; many didn’t even know he was coming.

Advent calls us aside to wait and watch for Christ—joyously, quietly, and with purpose. That means finding a few minutes here and there throughout each day to focus on the reality of God becoming a man. Prophets foretold God’s advent into humanity. In fact, Jesus referred to the Old Testament prophecies as a way of explaining his identity and his intentions (see Luke 24:13-32).

I’ve listed some of those Old Testament prophecies and their New Testament fulfillment below—just in case you need a quick reference. Pondering these ancient words informs my waiting and expectancy for the One Who is Christmas. Consider adding a little of the Holy to your daily by reading and discussing a prophecy each night this week with your family during dinner.

  1. His birthplace: Micha 5:2 (Luke 2:4,6,7)
  2. His birth: Isaiah 7:14 (Matthew 1:18,22,23)
  3. His childhood in Egypt: Hosea 11:1 (Matthew 2:14,15)
  4. His betrayal: Zechariah 11:12, 13 (Matthew 26:14:16)
  5. His death: Psalm 22 (Matthew 27)
  6. His resurrection: 16:9-10 (Acts 2:31)
  7. The purpose for His death and resurrection: Isaiah 53:4-6 (2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Peter 2:24)

What do you find in your reading of these prophecies that binds you to the Christ of Christmas?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis 

2 Comments
Category: Advent  Tags: , , , , , ,
09
Dec
The Advent Conspiracy Strikes Again
Susan Gaddis

The Advent Conspiracy is out to change your holiday season!

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Category: Advent, My village  Tags: , , , , ,