Monthly Archives: February 2009

My God is my Oath

My God is my Oath

Update on Beth…
The doctors were able to remove a large portion of the tumor growing on one of Beth’s vertebra. Follow up radiation treatment will begin after she’s had a brief period of recovery. She is in a tremendous amount of pain and had a very restless night of sleep. Thank you, my blogging friends, for being the body of Christ to her and her family in the past 24 hours. They remain in need of our prayerful petitions. Let’s also remember our friend, Joy, as she has received word of her father’s similar diagnosis only yesterday. I know that she would appreciate a note of encouragement. Our God is our Oath. Shalom.
Beth & grandson

This is a day of need.

In my life, in yours, and in the lives of those we love.

We are a needy people, and without the cross of Christ to guide us through our wanton estate, all hope is lost. Period.

I just received one of the most sacred pleas for help I’ve ever read. My friend has emailed me from the confines of her hospital room, and she is afraid. She’s facing an immediate and necessary surgery this afternoon because of a cancerous tumor that has wrapped itself around the top of her spine. She’s been battling cancer for six years now; I’ve not known her beyond her cancer years. She landed in my lap when we landed here as her parsonage family.

The first Sunday we met, she had on her pink, and I remember her telling me to “sit down” on the couch outside the fellowship hall so that she could get to know me better. I immediately resonated with her “take charge, no nonsense” kind of personality. We’re a bit like-minded in that way.

Since that time, Beth has walked with me through ten Bible studies and been my friend despite my many foibles along the way. She is genuine, raw and real, and as authentic as they come. You never have to guess where you stand with Beth, and I like that. She lives out loud, and she lavishly loves the life that she lives.

And friends, she wants some more of this life to live.

Hers has not been an easy road. Some of her journey mirrors mine. Still and yet, her faith continually roots her … returns and restores her to the only God who perfectly loves her. I have quietly watched her walk her cancer. We’ve buried two of our Bible study friends in the five years we’ve been doing life together for similar reasons. It’s not an easy walk and one that I am sure is more difficult for her to step than me.

She lives with her disease. I don’t, at least not physically. But she has graciously given me a window into the life of her suffering, and I consider it a privilege to be a carrier of her pain. Thank God for the embrace of another’s pain. Without it, we become removed … cold and distant and separated from the call of Jesus Christ to be his body to the broken.

Beth is broken today. I bet that there are some of you who feel the same; if not you, then someone you love. Thus, our Father asks of us—those of us who are able bodied and spirit-filled willing—

What will you do with the pain?

I tell you what I did and will continue to do throughout the day and in the weeks to come. I bring it before the throne room of heaven and pray believing that my God is able to supply all of my needs … all of Beth’s needs … according to his riches in glory.

Not his leftovers. Not his cast-offs. Second-rate doesn’t fit with our King. There’s nothing random or haphazard about his approach to our lives. Rather our Father longs for his riches to be our portion. Riches from his storeroom of goodness that are ready and willing to explode upon the scenes of our lives simply because we believe that our God is eager to do so and because we are wise enough to ask.

Why sit on our “hopes” today? Why not speak them to the One who is able to deliver?

This is the day of need. Not tomorrow. Not next week, or even next year. Today is the only day we’ve been given. All other days will take care of themselves accordingly.

And today, my friend needs my prayers. I imagine that she would be blessed to receive a few of yours too. You don’t know her, but I do and that is enough to warrant our pause before the King. I know that your list is already a mile long. But if you wouldn’t mind, could you simply speak her name to Jesus today?

Beth. She whose name means “my God is my oath.” May the faith of her name be the faith of her heart this day. May it be yours also. If our God is anything (and I happen to think that He IS everything), he is the God of promise … of covenant … of oath.

Let’s take him at his Word in this moment.

As always,

post signature

Brotherly Love

Brotherly Love

“Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.’” (Nehemiah 4:13-14).


Some things are worth fighting for. Some people, all the more. Just ask my son.

While driving the carpool Friday afternoon, I listened to my eight year old explain to his sister and her friend his strategy for playground defense should the need ever arise. It went something like this:

“If they won’t leave you alone on the playground, here’s what you do. First, you could tell the teacher. Or, you could just ignore them. Or, you could walk away. Or, if that doesn’t work…

you could just find me.”

He was very serious, and I was humored. At least in part. My other part was internally screaming my motherly “hoorahs” for a son who loves his sister, so much so, that he is willing to protect her from the wild and wooly of a playground taunt.

I never knew the protection of an older sibling’s love, so when I witness it between my own children, I am drawn to the magic of their deep bonding. And while they occasionally rival their passions and their wills with all the red and fury of Pamplona’s running of the bulls, their love for one another always exceeds their momentary sparring.

As it should be.

Family love roots deep, and if those with whom we share our homes cannot be trusted to love us, and, therefore, protect us whenever the taunts of the playground mock their insistence, we are left to our solitary efforts at defense. And as defense goes, two is always better than one, especially when one of the two is bigger, stronger, and solely motivated by the sacred trust of family bloodlines.

The prophet Nehemiah understood the value of familial love. He exposed its depth by instructing the Israelites to work in families while repairing the walls of their beloved homeland. He understood that corporate focus would yield greater results than individual determination. The taunts of their playground were very real and very likely to make good on their threats. Single determination wouldn’t be enough to build the second half of Jerusalem’s walls. It would take the family—God’s family—working on behalf of one another and on behalf of a cause deemed worthy of the potential peril involved.

That cause?

The kingdom of God.

“‘Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.’”

Not … fight hard because if you don’t you and your family will die.

Not … fight because you have no other options.

But rather, fight because you’ve got a God worth fighting for—a great and awesome God who is worthy of your walls and your best efforts at protection.

When the Israelites forged ahead in their rebuilding with a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other, they did so knowing that they were fighting for something rather than against something. They were fighting for the preservation of God’s kingdom and for their families’ rightful place therein.

When the playground warfare surfaced, there was no telling the teacher, or ignoring the taunts of their enemies. There was no option of simply walking away from the threats. For walls to be built there must be laborers willing to put their hands and their hearts to the task. Thus, the option remaining for their playground defense (according to an eight year old and according to the prophet Nehemiah) was to find a bigger brother … a bigger sister … a bigger family that was completely and holy motivated by the sacred trust of family bloodlines.

By a love that roots for the life-giving truth that there is a great and awesome God worth preserving and that he is the only worthy gain of our hearts in the end.

Walls will come and go, friends. But God? Well, he remains. And if we’re not willing to fight for the truth of who he IS so that our brothers and sisters, our children and our parents, our neighbors and our friends might live and walk in that truth, then we are forsaking the sacred trust of our family bloodlines.

When we are no longer willing to put our lives on the line for the sake of our families’ salvation, then we have limited the grace of the cross which was never ours to limit. We are tied to Immanuel’s veins. They bled long and wide and high and deep so that you and I could find our rightful place in the kingdom that is now, that is to come, and that is solely within our Savior’s right to give.

When the truth of Calvary becomes the welcome taunt of the playground, telling the teacher (thus abdicating the responsibility to someone else), ignoring the threats, or walking away seeds very little toward kingdom gain. But walking the parameters of the playground with familial love as your anchor?

Well, this is when walls find their framing, families find their strength, and the enemy finds its eventual retreat.

Indeed, some things are worth fighting for. Some people too. One God, all the more. And in case you’re still not convinced, just find my son. He’s got a few things to say in the matter and the faith to back it up. Thus I pray…

Keep us to our walk of faith, Father, both at home and on the playground. Let us not fear the taunts of the enemy, but let us stand firm in the truth of your love for us. You are building us into your everlasting kingdom, where the stones of our brothers and sisters come alongside to build a beautiful witness of your promise and grace. Let us not forsake our voices and our hands in the process. Keep us to our mortar and to your sword until the wall is finished and our family … your family … is safe within its shelter. Amen.

Copyright © February 2009 – Elaine Olsen

post signature

PS: Our Spring study on “Esther” launches this evening. I covet your prayers, especially for the eight new additions to our group–that God would grip the soles of their feet and turn them inside out and on fire for the truth of who HE IS! Shalom.

Running our Sacred Intersections

Running our Sacred Intersections

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12-24).

A sacred intersection.

There’s been one this week.

Between your brokenness and mine.

And while I didn’t plan on it, I’m not surprised by it. Why? Because brokenness yields brokenness. Whatever we’re speaking about, teaching about, walking and talking about, we do so hoping that someone else will resonate with our words. Otherwise, that’s all they will ever be. Words … void of purpose and with the hopeless float of nothingness. But when our words are spoken from a pure place—a place that harbors and collects the truest truths of our journeys—then they breathe with a clarity that strikes a chord in others who are walking a similar path.

That’s what I was after when I shared with you the prompting that had been swirling around my heart for the past couple of weeks. As I approached my blogging anniversary, I had a thought that, perhaps, God was calling me to share the story of my “letting go” of my childhood home, my prodigal years, and my father’s reaching love therein.

There was very little planning that went into my re-telling of that event. I just grabbed Billy and the flip ultra and told him that we needed to do a little video message. No notes. No polish, just shootin’ from the hip and the heart. It’s the way that I do most things, especially when it comes to my many words.

How could I have known at the time that my words … my prayer … would come back upon me in full measure and in surprising and unexpected ways? I couldn’t have known; thus, I didn’t expect. Yet within a few hours of verbalizing my heart, my “inbox” was flooded, not only with your comments, but with more personal pleas for notice … for prayer.

It matters not the details of those requests nor the places, both far and wide, from which they came. God simply allowed them their landing in my lap, and I am undone with the prospect of what it all means. Let me unpack that a bit.

Pain is a powerful tool for reaching other people. When others know that you’ve walked pain through to the other side of healing, they become more willing to talk about their own journey of sorrow. Pain speaks a language all its own, and when you’ve become proficient with its “speak” because you’ve fully worn the consequences of its truth, you become a conduit for receiving the pain of others.

It’s a gift of sorts. Both to them and to you. When God allows the witness of your brokenness to intersect with the lives of others who are currently trying to fight their way out of the rubble, both parties receive the gift of God’s magnificent grace. You are allowed to use your pain for God’s greater purposes, and, subsequently, they are allowed the vision of a greater purpose for their pain.

I think this is what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he penned the following truth:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).

Thus, a sacred intersection.

Thus, your brokenness and my healing co-mingling on the road of life this week, all the while hearing my Father’s voice ringing in my heart with a question that directly relates back to the prayer that I prayed with you on Tuesday. Hear now a portion of the unscripted request of my heart as recorded on the video…

“Father in heaven I thank you for this glorious day of celebration that brings my life into the lives of your daughters and your sons, Lord. I pray, Father, that the words of my mouth, not only this mouth but the words of my pen would reflect you all the days of my life … that something in my life could be found pleasing to you and that you would run with it God.”

He’s running with it, friends. Apparently, he’s found something pleasing—something purified solely through the atoning work of his cross—and he’s decided to run with it. His question back to me?

“Will you run with it, elaine? I’ve given you this intersection between your brokenness and the brokenness of others. Will you run with it? Will you be the evidence of things unseen? Will you stand as my witness with your words and your prayers and your follow-through while others choose their silence over involvement? Will you contain my witness within the comfortable parameters of the righteous or will you allow me a voice via yours to those who have yet to be clothed with my majesty from on high? Will you run with it, elaine, or will your words float hopeless and void of purpose? This is your sacred intersection, elaine. Will you run with me and see it through?”

How would you answer? What do you do when the brokenness of your past catches up with you in order to be the blessing for someone else’s pain in the present?

I tell you what I am doing and will continue to do. I receive it, all the while believing that our intersection is part of God’s great design for both of our lives. I take its gracious landing onto my lap and hold it with all the care of heaven. I run with it, all the way to my Father’s feet and place it before him as an offering. I intercede for your healing. Your wholeness. Your turning toward home and finding the truth of who you are meant to be in Jesus Christ.

Will you do the same, friends? Run with your Father and see things through to the end? Your brokenness doesn’t necessarily breathe like mine. God has tailor-made an avenue of ministry for you because of it. Thank God for it; don’t minimize its worth in your life. Find your healing through Jesus Christ and then allow him his further hand in the matter. He has taken hold of you for a specific and everlasting purpose—a purpose that directly links you with the lives of others who are walking in similar stride.

We need not fear the exposure of our bad, our shattered and our defiled. God doesn’t condemn us because of our brokenness. God heals us so that we can bring his healing to others through our restoration. There is no shame at the cross of Jesus Christ. There is only freedom in the truth of its witness.

{image removed on 7-18-2017 at 10:58 PM}

A sacred intersection for all mankind. Between God’s brokenness and ours. A powerful pain that continues to reach … to teach … to take hold and to transform all of that which is shattered into a conduit of lasting and final significance.

Run with it, friends. Run with Him … all the way home to receive the prize for which God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus. Together, we can do this thing. I count it a joy to intersect my life with yours for our Father’s great and mighty purposes.

In the name of the Father who planned us, the Son who saved us, and the Holy Spirit who keeps us as such, Amen.

Copyright © February 2009 – Elaine Olsen

post signature

PS: The winners of Watermark’s “A Grateful People” are: #15 Laura and #79 Beth E.

Thanks to everyone for playing along this week and for your wonderful support of peace for the journey. I look forward to sharing another year’s worth of words with you; perhaps this will be the year in which many of us could gather together and have that cup of coffee, diet coke, or latte. Now that would be something, wouldn’t it?! I’m asking God for this specific happening. Shalom.

A Year’s Worth of Peace…

Please note daily updates below for the rest of the week…

I can hardly believe that a year’s worth of my living has been chronicled (at least in part) upon the pages of this canvas that I call “peace for the journey.” It’s been a good season of salt and light via your words and encouragement of me. Thank you from the depths of my heart.

I will leave this post up all week and add a prompt for your comments each day. Please note: comments will accumulate throughout the week, thus enhancing your opportunity for a win. Simply answer the prompt, and your name will be entered into the giveway. I will use random.org to select the winners.

Again, it is my privilege and my joy to serve you in blogland. Feel free to contact me anytime via my e-mail link in the sidebar. If you can think of any ways that I can do it better, please let me know. I look forward to continuing the walk with you in the days to come. As always,

post signature

Friday giveaway and update and lingering thoughts…

1. The winners for Sarah Young’s “Jesus Calling” are #38 Lori and #64 Edie. Congrats girls. Please email me your snail mail.

2. Our final giveaway for Watermark’s A Grateful People will be announced on Saturday morning. Still time to add a final comment to this post, which brings me to my final thought…

3. Write whatever you want! Maybe tell us what’s going on over at your blog. I’m exhausted. I’m now officially over myself and all my “blah, blah blahing” on the video and will get back to the pen in short order. Seriously, this has been an extremely busy week for me; my head is spinning in wild and wooly directions all at once, and I can barely catch my breath at times. Thanks for playing along, even if you aren’t winning some of my favorite things. I would trade them all (except for the Bible) to simply have the occasion to sit and chat with you for awhile … face to face! Have a peaceful weekend full of rest and Jesus, and if that doesn’t seem possible, seek Jesus (whatever that looks like for you) and the rest will come. Shalom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thursday giveaway and update: the winners for the Holman Bible Dictionary are #46 Melinda and #18 Shane. Congratulations ladies. I know you will enjoy the treasure and the teaching from this book. Please snail mail me your addresses. Today’s prompt for Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling (announced on Friday morning…sorry for the earlier oops) is as follows:

What is the one thing you know to be most true about our God as it pertains to your most recent season of living?

I look forward to reading your thoughts. God bless you in your Thursday. Shalom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday giveaway and update: OK…a few things I’ve learned in the past 24 hours:

  • I’m a hand talker.
  • I’m a hair toucher (thanks for counting Joy).
  • My flip ultra does a great job picking up crunching leaf noises.
  • Our operating budget at “peace for the journey” is zero; thus, you get what you get friends.
  • Last but certainly not least, I’ve got some of the best bloggie friends in the world. You have graced me with your words of support and encouragement, and I am blown away by your friendship.

Now…onto the winners of the NIV Study Bible. Congrats to KelliGirl (#22) and Kristen (#24) selected by randominteger as the winners. Girls, please snail mail me your addresses, even if you think I have it. If you don’t need the Bible and would rather someone else receive it, please let me know.

To win a copy of the Holman Bible Dictionary (#2 on the list of elaine’s favorite things), please finish the following prompt with your thoughts in the comment section:

“The day that Jesus interrupted my life with the truth of who he is … ”

Winners will be posted on Thursday morning. Remember, comments accumulate throughout the week. Shalom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday giveaway: Please leave your comments below to win the NIV Study Bible. I will announce the winners on Wednesday morning. If you’ve never commented before, but would like to enter, simply click on the word “comment,” leave your thoughts, and sign in as an “anonymous” contributor. Shalom.

A Worthy Knowing

*Please note update below post…
“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

For all of the ways that we could spend our words this week, what is more worthy than spending them on the truth of Jesus Christ? For all of the things that we could share with the world, whether at home, at work, at play, or on the cyber canvas that you call your own, what is more important than the boast of Jesus Christ?

We will think of them … ways to spend our words and our time accordingly. Some necessary. Some less than. But when this time next week rolls around, we will have recorded a solid seven days’ worth of lip service to our life’s walk. And for all of the ways that our lives will require the investment of our words over the next week, none is more important than the ones that we will invest on behalf of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

None.

Yes, there will be those necessary occasions that ask for less—occasions that don’t call for the Jesus talk. But all of them, every last one of them, require the heart of a Jesus walk. When our “necessary” doesn’t require our words, we still write a story. Their witness speaks even when our words remain silent.

The Apostle Paul resolved to know nothing except the message of Jesus Christ. He was a learned man, schooled and versed in the pharisaical way of doing life. Still and yet, no amount of book learning could prepare him for the task that he was ordained to do. It would take something far greater, far grander and more spectacular to shape his heart for the kingdom mantle he would be asked to wear.

It would take an illumination from the heavenlies—a moment of brilliant awakening where the shattering truth of the “Word made flesh” would shatter the lie believed to the contrary.

Paul received his moment of brilliance, leaving him blinded by the revelation of just enough great and quite enough grand and over the top spectacular to forever alter his destiny. No longer would he rely on his formal training or his former understanding for doing life. Instead, his formal and his former would concede their pride to the new and humbled way of a crucified life.

The lifestyle that once earned Paul’s persecution and ardent disdain would now become the life that he would embody. And while we may not fully grasp the revelatory depth of Paul’s brilliant moment in the sun with the Son, if we know Jesus Christ as Lord, then we, too, have been called to a new and humbled way of living.

It’s a living that shifts our focus from me to Thee. At least it should. And if it hasn’t, if for some reason you’re still thinking that your me is bigger than your Thee, then may I suggest to you that a humbled walk under the brilliant light of God’s Son might serve you well this week? Not so that you can feel more guilty and more discouraged about your life as a Christian, but rather because it is time for the truth of Jesus Christ to take its rightful place in your heart and, consequently, in the way that you do life.

The way that you walk life. The way that you speak life and move through the paces of your day so that when you come to a week’s end, you do so being spent on behalf of something that matters rather than something that doesn’t.

Jesus Christ is that something. Everything else is just extra. Not necessarily bad, just extra. I don’t know about you, but I want my extra to be built upon something solid and real and lasting. Otherwise, when the extra fades, there’s nothing but empty. And friends, I’ve spent a whole lot of my life doing empty—investing my many words and my many doings in a way that literally says a whole lot more about me than him.

Time to grow up and to put the language of my childish ways behind me. Time to realize that my words are not my own. They were bought with a price, and therefore should be spoken according to the blood that was exacted for the freedom of their saying.

Thus, like the Apostle Paul, I resolve to know nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified. He is the knowing that has shattered my world with just enough great and quite enough grand and over the top spectacular so as to forever alter my destiny. He is the foundation that I want beneath my extra so that when the world comes knocking this week my responses are anchored in the truth of who he is rather than in the lie of thinking that I am anything apart from him.

Without Jesus, my words ring hollow. My life lives empty. My light burns dim. My time spends wasted. My story reads vacant. With him?

Words come to life. Lives live full and lights burn with the intensity of heaven’s illumination. Time spends wells and our stories become the stuff of lasting and kingdom significance. And that, my friends, is the worthy ending of a well lived week. May we each one, walk toward such a sacred conclusion with every step that we take and with every moment that is ours to write. Thus, I pray…

Help me keep focus, Lord, on the stuff that matters. Fill my heart and my mind with the foundational truth of your gospel, and keep me humbled with the witness of your crucified life. Forgive me for thinking that I am more, thus assigning you your less. I must become less, and you must become more. Be the anchor that holds my extra. Be the fire that burns my pride to ashes, and be the Spirit that blows them accordingly … in line with your will and for your fame alone. You are worthy of my words, Lord. Sanctify them toward your mighty and perfect end. Amen.

Copyright © February 2009 – Elaine Olsen

post signature

Friends, please be sure and join me all week! There will be some give aways incorporated into daily posts beginning tomorrow. Shalom.

error: Content is protected !!