Living on Isaac’s Altar

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Elizabeth

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

I awake each morning and climb onto Isaac’s altar.

I feel much like I imagine that Isaac felt, fearful and yet trusting.

I trust that my Father knows. I trust that He knows what will happen and I trust in His love for me.

I trust that whatever He brings me to this day He also will bring me through.

I give this body that He gave to me, give it back for whatever His purpose might be.

I am fully awake to the truth that it is only by His mercies that I am acceptable to Him. Only because of His sacrifice that I am made lawful for sacrifice. Only because of His grace that I am made holy, made pure and spotless as the ancient lamb.

This death of myself leads to resurrection of self, myself as I was created to be. I am raised to live in worship, my life as worship to Him.

I climb off Isaac’s altar and onto the mountain of Jehovah Ra’ah. The LORD will provide. Like Abraham, I trust in the Lord’s provision. I trust in His promise that I will love Him and love others, trust that He will provide what I need to obey.

My body remains my sacrifice, my life remains my worship.

By His mercies, I belong to Him and I will not take that lightly.

I often fall off my altar, but I climb back on, and at the end of each day I sleep in peace, knowing that His mercies are new each morning.

Knowing that He will help me, when I wake up, to climb onto Isaac’s altar once again.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ~ Romans 12.1

Art credits: The Sacrifice of Isaac by Adi Holzer; The Sacrifice of Abraham by Rembrandt; Abraham Sacrificing Isaac by Luca Penni; Abraham Sacrificing Isaac from the Phillip Medhurst Picture Torah

For All Who Wonder

Posted on October 20, 2017 by Elizabeth

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

Sometimes I wonder.

I wonder if it is worth it to obey Christ? He does, after all, say crazy, ridiculous things about giving yourself away and having trouble in this world and carrying a cross into the world’s darkness as He did in order to follow Him for love of Him and love of the world.

I wonder if anyone is actually listening when I pray? I have, after all, asked for many beautiful things that never came to pass, things that any sane person would want to occur, and have hurled words into the void of space, words that seemed to return home empty.

I wonder if God really does exist when much of the time the world around me and sometimes even my own heart says that He does not.

What do we do when we wonder?

Take the next step. Say the next prayer. Obey the next time. The only way to find out whether all of this is true is to try it, live it, do it.

Ask and you will be given. Seek and you will find. Draw near to Him and see if He will draw near to you. Ask for Him and see if He will come to you in ways that you alone can comprehend. Look for Him and see if you can see a light at the heart of this darkness. This is the only way to go on.

Speak your doubts out loud when your heart hears only echoing silence. “God? Do You know me even though I don’t know You?” is still a kind of prayer.

We draw near to him by following him even on clumsy and reluctant feet. ~ Frederick Buechner

Is this a turning away from faith? Not at all. It is only moments and days, and sometimes weeks and months, that come to all of us who believe. This wondering is common to us all.

Adeste fidelis. That is the only answer I know for people who want to find out whether or not this is true. Come all ye faithful, and all ye who would like to be faithful if only you could, all ye who walk in darkness and hunger for light. Have faith enough, hope enough, despair enough, foolishness enough at least to draw near to see for yourselves. ~ Frederick Buechner

Art credits: Christ Carrying the Cross by Joachim Beuckelaer; Planetary Nebula by NASA; Crowds by J. Solis

edited from the archives

Why Your Choice Matters

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Elizabeth

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

One thing is certain.

This life is full of pain.

Our world is broken and time is broken and we are broken and the result of all the brokenness is pain.

From loneliness to cancer, from dealing with tantrums to fleeing from hurricanes, we are all suffering.

Jesus didn’t try to hide this from us.

In this world you will have trouble.

He didn’t pull a bait-and-switch to convince us that following Him would make our lives rosy.

In fact, He talks a lot about carrying a cross around as we follow Him.

Some of this suffering is chosen.

Fasting. Simplicity. Solitude.

Much is unwelcomed.

Depression. Grief. Poverty.

Either way, chosen or unwelcomed, the way we choose to respond to suffering matters.

Over and over, Scripture tells us that the choices we make in this life ripple forward into the next. What we do with the ebbs and flows in our lives matter.

From interruptions to worries, from marriage to loss, every choice we make in response to our circumstances is changing us.

Changing the very essence of ourselves into something different than we are.

And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. ~ C.S. Lewis

God wants to transform us.

He wants us to look like Jesus, and this life with all of its choices and pain is the method through which we are changed.

(It is) all for our good, the finished product, God’s work of art, the Kingdom of Heaven. There is nothing outside heaven except hell. Earth is not outside heaven; it is heaven’s workshop, heaven’s womb. ~ Peter Kreeft, Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing

We are a part of God’s story, His work of art. If Earth is heaven’s workshop than our choices matter significantly. The way we choose to respond to our circumstances carries consequential weight.

If Earth is heaven’s workshop, then God uses all things that happen on this Earth to shape us, to mold the dark and dull thing that we are into something extraordinary, something full of light.

This life is full of pain.

Pain can be meaningless, sending us spiraling downward into the darkness.

Or.

Pain can be used by God for a beautiful purpose, filling us up with the light of Himself.

It is your choice.

Many of the ideas in this post come from Water from a Deep Well by Gerald L. Sittser, a book I would highly recommend. The link to this book is an Amazon affiliate link. Purchases through these links allows you to help support this blog through no added cost to you. Thank you.

Art credits: Pieta by Michaelangelo; photograph of light streaming through the trees by Kirk Sewell; all other photographs copyright Made Sacred 2017

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

I awake each morning and climb onto Isaac’s altar.

I feel much like I imagine that Isaac felt, fearful and yet trusting.

I trust that my Father knows. I trust that He knows what will happen and I trust in His love for me.

I trust that whatever He brings me to this day He also will bring me through.

I give this body that He gave to me, give it back for whatever His purpose might be.

I am fully awake to the truth that it is only by His mercies that I am acceptable to Him. Only because of His sacrifice that I am made lawful for sacrifice. Only because of His grace that I am made holy, made pure and spotless as the ancient lamb.

This death of myself leads to resurrection of self, myself as I was created to be. I am raised to live in worship, my life as worship to Him.

I climb off Isaac’s altar and onto the mountain of Jehovah Ra’ah. The LORD will provide. Like Abraham, I trust in the Lord’s provision. I trust in His promise that I will love Him and love others, trust that He will provide what I need to obey.

My body remains my sacrifice, my life remains my worship.

By His mercies, I belong to Him and I will not take that lightly.

I often fall off my altar, but I climb back on, and at the end of each day I sleep in peace, knowing that His mercies are new each morning.

Knowing that He will help me, when I wake up, to climb onto Isaac’s altar once again.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ~ Romans 12.1

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

Sometimes I wonder.

I wonder if it is worth it to obey Christ? He does, after all, say crazy, ridiculous things about giving yourself away and having trouble in this world and carrying a cross into the world’s darkness as He did in order to follow Him for love of Him and love of the world.

I wonder if anyone is actually listening when I pray? I have, after all, asked for many beautiful things that never came to pass, things that any sane person would want to occur, and have hurled words into the void of space, words that seemed to return home empty.

I wonder if God really does exist when much of the time the world around me and sometimes even my own heart says that He does not.

What do we do when we wonder?

Take the next step. Say the next prayer. Obey the next time. The only way to find out whether all of this is true is to try it, live it, do it.

Ask and you will be given. Seek and you will find. Draw near to Him and see if He will draw near to you. Ask for Him and see if He will come to you in ways that you alone can comprehend. Look for Him and see if you can see a light at the heart of this darkness. This is the only way to go on.

Speak your doubts out loud when your heart hears only echoing silence. “God? Do You know me even though I don’t know You?” is still a kind of prayer.

We draw near to him by following him even on clumsy and reluctant feet. ~ Frederick Buechner

Is this a turning away from faith? Not at all. It is only moments and days, and sometimes weeks and months, that come to all of us who believe. This wondering is common to us all.

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

One thing is certain.

This life is full of pain.

Our world is broken and time is broken and we are broken and the result of all the brokenness is pain.

From loneliness to cancer, from dealing with tantrums to fleeing from hurricanes, we are all suffering.

Jesus didn’t try to hide this from us.

In this world you will have trouble.

He didn’t pull a bait-and-switch to convince us that following Him would make our lives rosy.

In fact, He talks a lot about carrying a cross around as we follow Him.

Some of this suffering is chosen.

Fasting. Simplicity. Solitude.

Much is unwelcomed.

Depression. Grief. Poverty.

Either way, chosen or unwelcomed, the way we choose to respond to suffering matters.

Over and over, Scripture tells us that the choices we make in this life ripple forward into the next. What we do with the ebbs and flows in our lives matter.

From interruptions to worries, from marriage to loss, every choice we make in response to our circumstances is changing us.

Changing the very essence of ourselves into something different than we are.

God wants to transform us.

He wants us to look like Jesus, and this life with all of its choices and pain is the method through which we are changed.

(It is) all for our good, the finished product, God’s work of art, the Kingdom of Heaven. There is nothing outside heaven except hell. Earth is not outside heaven; it is heaven’s workshop, heaven’s womb. ~ Peter Kreeft, Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing

We are a part of God’s story, His work of art. If Earth is heaven’s workshop than our choices matter significantly. The way we choose to respond to our circumstances carries consequential weight.

If Earth is heaven’s workshop, then God uses all things that happen on this Earth to shape us, to mold the dark and dull thing that we are into something extraordinary, something full of light.

This life is full of pain.

Pain can be meaningless, sending us spiraling downward into the darkness.

Or.

Pain can be used by God for a beautiful purpose, filling us up with the light of Himself.

It is your choice.