The Significance of the Colors Used To Make Worship Flags

 


This post is to serve as a guide to the biblical significance of various colors used in flag ministry as it relates to Praise and Worship.

Different color combination can also have different meanings.

• Yellow: Faith and glory of God, anointing
• Orange: Fire of God, deliverance, warrior, passionate praise
• Fuchsia: Joy, right relationship, communion
• Scarlet: Fine linen for the tabernacle, Cleansing, Royalty
• Red: Blood of Jesus, love of Christ, blood of the lamb, atonement, redemption, salvation
• Wine: New birth, multiply, overflow, mercy, filled with plenty, new wine
• Purple: Royalty, kingship, majesty, mediator, wealth, authority
• Blue/Sapphire: Law, commandments, Heaven, God revealed, grace, Priesthood , water of the Word and authority, prayer, river of God, over-comer, Living water, Holy Spirit, divine revelation
• Turquoise/Jasper/Aqua: River of God, sanctification, healing, life-giving flow of the Holy Spirit, the New Jerusalem
• Green: Praise, life,  health, growth, prosperity, restoration, new beginning, fruitfulness, flourishing
• Gold: Eternal Deity, the Godhead, foundation, sanctified, alter, beauty, precious, holiness, glory, purified out of the refining fire, tested, majesty, righteousness, divine light
• Silver: The Word of God, redemption, refined, purity, divinity, righteousness, salvation
• White: The Bride of Christ, Revelation, purity, Holy Spirit, blessedness, holiness, righteousness, light, joy, angels, saints, peace, completion, conquest, triumph, victory, surrender, harvest
• Brown: End of a season, Pride/filthy rags, weary, faint, People
• Black/Onyx: Darkness, evil, sin, affliction, humiliation, calamity, death, famine, mourning, reconciling Mediator, authority, obedience unto death

Joining Different Colors

Combing various colors will add new meaning to your worship flags.

• Tabernacle - Scarlet, Purple and Blue: These are the colors used in the tabernacle where God dwelled with the Israelites in the desert (Exodus 28:8; 36:8; 39:1)

• Bride of Christ – Gold, Silver and White: We are purified when Jesus redeemed us to become holy as He is holy (Malachi 3:3; Deuteronomy 22:29; Ephesians 4:24)

• Fire – Yellow, Orange and Red: As we stand in faith the glory of God is revealed no enemy can penetrate His protection or overcome His deliverance (Romans 4:20; Psalm 97:3; Joshua 2:18-21)

• Faith – Yellow, Green and Blue: Faith in God’s ways given to us by the Holy Spirit brings life to us now and for eternity (Romans 4:20; Hebrews 10:15-16; 1 John 2:25)

• Healing water – Blue and Aqua: Life, cleansing, healing (Psalm 1:1-3; Revelation 22:1)

• Covenant/Promise – Rainbow colors: Promises of God (Genesis 9:13)

• Grace – Purple and pink: We are adopted into royalty when we are birthed into God’s Kingdom. This is only done by His grace He provides everything we need. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

• Mercy – Purple and red: Jesus is our mediator and redeemer, He clothed us in salvation and gives us a robe of righteousness (Titus 3:4-7; Isaiah 61:10)

• Praise – Fuchsia, purple and aqua: We have joy in the wealth of the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 33:9; Hebrews 2:10-12; 13:15)

• Worship – Purple, blue, and wine: Longing, seeking to be in God’s presence because of who He is. (Matthew 2:2; John 9:31)

• Majesty – Purple and blue: Dignity, priestly, power, authority, ruler, King or high official (1 Chronicles 29:24-25; 2 Chronicles 2:14; 3:14; Jeremiah 10:9; Ester 8:15; Ezekiel 27:7)

• Repentance – Black, Red and White: All can be redeemed by Jesus through repentance, because all of us fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23 – 24

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Article courtesy of Creations Anew

The Reality Of Faith

 

 Many people think faith is acting like something is so when it really isn't so, and if we do that long enough, then it will become so. But that's not it at all. Faith is real.

 

Hebrews 11:1 says,

 

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

 

Faith is substance. This is saying that faith is real. It is the evidence of things not seen. Notice it didn't say "things that don't exist." They do exist. They just aren't seen.

 

Even in the natural world, we've come to realize that there are things that do exist that we can't see. We can't see television signals, but they do exist. In fact, wherever you are right now, there are television signals right there with you. If you say "No there aren't" just because you can't see or hear them, that doesn't mean they don't exist. It just means you aren't very smart. They do exist, they are just unseen. They are unseen realities.

 

A television set can make unseen signals visible. When we see the images is not when they became real. They were already there. A television set doesn't generate images. The set just receives the signal and converts it into sights and sounds that we can perceive. But the television signals were already there, before we tuned them in.

 

Probably every person reading this letter has watched television when suddenly the picture went blank. What did you do? I bet you didn't call the television station and complain about them stopping their broadcast. The first thing you did was check and see if everything was working on your television set. Was the electricity on? Was it plugged in? Did a tube go out or did some circuit melt? You checked your receiver to see what was wrong with it. You trust that the station broadcasts 24/7. You don't question that until you eliminate all the possible problems with your set.

 

Likewise, God is real and does exist. He just can't be seen. He is broadcasting all His power and blessings 24/7. It's never God's transmitter that is broken. It's always our receiver that is the problem. If we ask God for something and we don't see it manifest instantly, most people question why God hasn't answered that prayer yet. They assume that because they haven't seen or heard anything, nothing has happened. That's all wrong. We need to have more faith in God than we have in a television station.

 

There is a very good illustration of this truth in 2 Kings 6. Elisha, the prophet of God, was revealing the Syrian's battle plans to the king of Israel. Every time the king of Syria tried to ambush the king of Israel, Elisha would warn the king of Israel, and he would ambush the Syrian's ambush. This happened so often that the king of Syria finally asked his servants to reveal who the traitor was. He knew that the king of Israel could not be maneuvering like he was without inside information.

 

When one of the king of Syria's servants said that Elisha, the prophet of God, was revealing the words that the king of Syria said in his bed chamber to the king of Israel, the king of Syria sent his armies to capture Elisha.

 

Second Kings 6:15 says,

 

"And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?"

 

When Elisha's servant saw the Syrian troops, he panicked. He knew why they were there. They had discovered Elisha was the one telling the king of Syria's battle plans to the king of Israel. They were in big trouble. Look at the response of Elisha to this situation in 2 Kings 6:16: "And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.".

 

People who don't believe anything exists beyond their five senses would say Elisha was lying. He was confessing something was so when it really wasn't so, hoping that it would become so. But that's not the way it was at all. Elisha spoke the truth. There were more with him than was with the Syrian army. It's just that Elisha's forces were in the unseen reality.

 

The key to understanding this is to recognize there is another realm of reality beyond this physical world. Those who are limited to only their five senses will always struggle with this. They think Elisha was lying, and indeed, he would have been lying if all that exists is this physical world. You could count the Syrian troops by the thousands, and there was only Elisha and his servant. But Elisha wasn't lying because there was another world of reality. If you looked at the whole picture, the physical and spiritual world, then Elisha was right on. In the spiritual realm, there were many more horses and chariots of fire around Elisha than there were Syrian troops.

 

According to 2 Kings 6:17,

 

"Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And he LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."

 

Gehazi's physical eyes were already wide open. God was opening his spiritual eyes. He was able to see with his heart into the spiritual world. And when the spiritual world was taken into consideration, then Elisha's statement was perfectly true.

 

Those who see faith as an attempt to make something real which isn't real will always struggle with those who see faith as simply making what is spiritually true a physical truth. Those who limit truth to only the physical realm would have called Elisha one of those "name it, claim it," "blab it, grab it" cultists. But in saying such things, they condemn themselves. They show they only consider what they can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel to be reality. They are what the Bible calls "carnal."

 

When Gehazi's eyes were opened, the Syrians didn't disappear. They were still there. The physical truth was still true, but there was a greater spiritual truth that emerged. True faith doesn't deny physical truth; it just refuses to let physical truth dominate spiritual truth. True faith subdues physical truth to the reality of spiritual truth.

 

Because Elisha believed in the realities of the spiritual world, he raised his hand and smote all the Syrians with blindness. Then he led the whole Syrian army captive to the king of Israel. Praise the Lord! That's not bad for an old prophet whom carnal people would say was all by himself.

 

Elisha was not just speaking some wishful statement, hoping that it would become a reality. He knew what was real in the spiritual world, and he controlled his emotions and actions accordingly. There is no indication that Elisha saw the horses and chariots of fire around him. He didn't need to. He believed it. Those who operate in true faith don't need to see with their physical eyes. Their faith is evidence enough.

 

There was a woman at a campmeeting who had a huge goiter on her neck. She went forward for prayer and knew that she knew she was healed. So, she got up in front of the audience and gave a testimony of her goiter being healed. However, the goiter was still visible. But the people praised God, thinking that the healing would manifest itself shortly.

 

The next year at the same campmeeting, the woman got up again and praised the Lord for her healing, but there still wasn't any visible proof. This concerned a lot of people, but they didn't say anything. Then the next year, the same thing happened. This was too much for most of the people, and it caused the leaders of the meeting to approach this woman and tell her she couldn't testify of this healing again until the goiter was gone.

 

The woman told the Lord that she knew He had healed her, and she didn't have to see visible results to believe it. But for the sake of the unbelievers, she asked the Lord to physically remove the growth. It disappeared and the woman showed them what she already knew was true. You can get that strong in faith. Your faith is substance and all the evidence you need. Faith is real.

 

I've experienced this in my own life. When my youngest son, Peter, died on March 4, 2001, my wife and I spoke our faith and said, "The first report is not the last report." We spoke resurrection life back into Peter's body, and then we headed into town. It was one hour and fifteen minutes from the time we got the call until we got to where Peter was. During that time, I was operating in faith. I remembered prophecies that had not yet come to pass in Peter's life, and therefore, I knew it wasn't time for Peter to die. I rejoiced by faith, seeing Peter alive and well.

 

My oldest son, Joshua, met me at the door and said, "Dad, five or ten minutes after I called you, Peter just sat up." Thank You, Jesus! This is the point: I didn't rejoice more once I saw Peter raised from the dead than I did while I was still driving. During the drive, I knew Peter was alive, and I was rejoicing with all my might. It was actually anticlimactic when I saw in the physical what I had already seen in the spiritual. Don't get me wrong; I was blessed and I rejoiced to see my son raised up after being dead for five hours. But the physical reality wasn't more real to me than the spiritual reality of faith.

 

This is the way I live. I know it's not "normal," but I'm not getting "normal" results either. I've been believing big, and there have been big results from that believing. When we moved into our new offices, and when we see the warehouse finished, that was, and will be, anticlimactic. I'm seeing all these things in the spirit now. When they manifest physically, others will be impressed, but I'm impressed now.

 

I'm not believing for something that isn't real to become real. I've seen into the spiritual realm by faith, and I'm simply making what I've seen in the spiritual world manifest in the physical world. All of the things I'm seeing with my physical eyes now, I have already seen in my heart. I saw it on the inside before I saw it on the outside. This is a wonderful way to live. This is the normal Christian life. This is walking by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). 

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Courtesy of Andrew Wommack : http://www.awmi.net/extra/article/reality_faith

Just Because He Breathes: Learning to Truly Love Our Gay Son

On the night of Nov. 20, 2001, a conversation held over Instant Messenger changed our lives forever. Our 12-year-old son messaged me in my office from the computer in his bedroom.

Ryan says: can i tell u something

Mom says: Yes I am listening

Ryan says: well i don't know how to say this really but, well......, i can't keep lying to you about myself. I have been hiding this for too long and i sorta have to tell u now. By now u probably have an idea of what i am about to say.
Ryan says: I am gay
Ryan says: i can't believe i just told you

Mom says: Are you joking?

Ryan says: no
Ryan says: i thought you would understand because of uncle don

Mom says: of course I would
Mom says: but what makes you think you are?

Ryan says: i know i am
Ryan says: i don't like hannah
Ryan says: it's just a cover-up

Mom says: but that doesn't make you gay...

Ryan says: i know
Ryan says: but u don't understand
Ryan says: i am gay

Mom says: tell me more

Ryan says: it's just the way i am and it's something i know
Ryan says: u r not a lesbian and u know that. it is the same thing

Mom says: what do you mean?

Ryan says: i am just gay
Ryan says: i am that

Mom says: I love you no matter what

Ryan says: i am white not black
Ryan says: i know
Ryan says: i am a boy not a girl
Ryan says: i am attracted to boys not girls
Ryan says: u know that about yourself and i know this

Mom says: what about what God thinks about acting on these desires?

Ryan says: i know

Mom says: thank you for telling me

Ryan says: and i am very confused about that right now

Mom says: I love you more for being honest

Ryan says: i know
Ryan says: thanx

We were completely shocked. Not that we didn't know and love gay people; my only brother had come out to us several years before, and we adored him. But Ryan? He was unafraid of anything, tough as nails and all boy. We had not seen this coming, and the emotion that overwhelmed us, kept us awake at night and, sadly, influenced all our reactions over the next six years was fear.

We said all the things that we thought loving Christian parents who believed the Bible, the Word of God, should say:

We love you. We will always love you. And this is hard. Really hard. But we know what God says about this, so you are going to have to make some really difficult choices.

We love you. We couldn't love you more. But there are other men who have faced this same struggle, and God has worked in them to change their desires. We'll get you their books; you can listen to their testimonies. And we will trust God with this.

We love you. We are so glad you are our son. But you are young, and your sexual orientation is still developing. The feelings you've had for other guys don't make you gay. So please don't tell anyone that you are gay. You don't know who you are yet. Your identity is not that you are gay; it is that you are a child of God.

We love you. Nothing will change that. But if you are going to follow Jesus, holiness is your only option. You are going to have to choose to follow Jesus, no matter what. And since you know what the Bible says, and since you want to follow God, embracing your sexuality is not an option.

We thought we understood the magnitude of the sacrifice that we -- and God -- were asking for. And this sacrifice, we knew, would lead to an abundant life, perfect peace and eternal rewards. Ryan had always felt intensely drawn to spiritual things; He desired to please God above all else. So, for the first six years, he tried to choose Jesus. Like so many others before him, he pleaded with God to help him be attracted to girls. He memorized Scripture, met with his youth pastor weekly, enthusiastically participated in all the church youth group events and Bible Studies and got baptized. He read all the books that claimed to know where his gay feelings came from, dove into counseling to further discover the whys of his unwanted attraction to other guys, worked through painful conflict resolution with my husband and me and built strong friendships with other guys -- straight guys -- just like the reparative therapy experts advised. He even came out to his entire youth group, giving his testimony of how God had rescued him from the traps of the enemy, and sharing, by memory, verse after verse that God had used to draw Ryan to Him.

But nothing changed. God didn't answer his prayer, or ours, though we were all believing with faith that the God of the Universe, the God for whom nothing is impossible, could easily make Ryan straight. But He did not.

Though our hearts may have been good (we truly thought what we were doing was loving), we did not even give Ryan a chance to wrestle with God, to figure out what he believed God was telling him through scripture about his sexuality. We had believed firmly in giving each of our four children the space to question Christianity, to decide for themselves if they wanted to follow Jesus, to truly own their own faith. But we were too afraid to give Ryan that room when it came to his sexuality, for fear that he'd make the wrong choice.

Basically, we told our son that he had to choose between Jesus and his sexuality. We forced him to make a choice between God and being a sexual person. Choosing God, practically, meant living a lifetime condemned to being alone. He would never have the chance to fall in love, have his first kiss, hold hands, share intimacy and companionship or experience romance.

And so, just before his 18th birthday, Ryan, depressed, suicidal, disillusioned and convinced that he would never be able to be loved by God, made a new choice. He decided to throw out his Bible and his faith at the same time and try searching for what he desperately wanted -- peace -- another way. And the way he chose to try first was drugs.

We had unintentionally taught Ryan to hate his sexuality. And since sexuality cannot be separated from the self, we had taught Ryan to hate himself. So as he began to use drugs, he did so with a recklessness and a lack of caution for his own safety that was alarming to everyone who knew him.

Suddenly our fear of Ryan someday having a boyfriend (a possibility that honestly terrified me) seemed trivial in contrast to our fear of Ryan's death, especially in light of his recent rejection of Christianity and his mounting anger at God.

Ryan started with weed and beer, but in six short months was using cocaine, crack and heroin. He was hooked from the beginning, and his self-loathing and rage at God only fueled his addiction. Shortly thereafter, we lost contact with him. For the next year and a half, we didn't know where he was or even if he was dead or alive. And during that horrific time, God had our full attention. We stopped praying for Ryan to become straight. We started praying for him to know that God loved him. We stopped praying for him to never have a boyfriend. We started praying that someday we might actually get to know his boyfriend. We even stopped praying for him to come home to us; we only wanted him to come home to God.

By the time our son called us, after 18 long months of silence, God had completely changed our perspective. Because Ryan had done some pretty terrible things while using drugs, the first thing he asked me was this:

Do you think you can ever forgive me? (I told him of course, he was already forgiven. He had always been forgiven.)

Do you think you could ever love me again? (I told him that we had never stopped loving him, not for one second. We loved him then more than we had ever loved him.)

Do you think you could ever love me with a boyfriend? (Crying, I told him that we could love him with 15 boyfriends. We just wanted him back in our lives. We just wanted to have a relationship with him again... and with his boyfriend.)

And a new journey was begun, one of healing, restoration, open communication and grace. Lots of grace. And God was present every step of the way, leading and guiding us, gently reminding us simply to love our son and leave the rest up to Him.

Over the next 10 months, we learned to truly love our son. Period. No buts. No conditions. Just because he breathes. We learned to love whomever our son loved. And it was easy. What I had been so afraid of became a blessing. The journey wasn't without mistakes, but we had grace for each other, and the language of apology and forgiveness became a natural part of our relationship. As our son pursued recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, we pursued him. God taught us how to love him, to rejoice over him, to be proud of the man he was becoming. We were all healing, and most importantly, Ryan began to think that if we could forgive him and love him, then maybe God could, too.

And then Ryan made the classic mistake of a recovering addict: He got back together with his old friends, his using friends. And one evening that was supposed to simply be a night at the movies turned out to be the first time he had shot up in 10 months -- and the last time. Ryan died on July 16, 2009. And we lost the ability to love our gay son, because we no longer had a gay son. What we had wished for, prayed for, hoped for -- that we would not have a gay son -- came true. But not at all in the way we had envisioned.

Now, when I think back on the fear that governed all my reactions during those first six years after Ryan told us he was gay, I cringe as I realize how foolish I was. I was afraid of all the wrong things. And I grieve, not only for my oldest son, whom I will miss every day for the rest of my life, but for the mistakes I made. I grieve for what could have been, had we been walking by faith instead of by fear. Now, whenever Rob and I join our gay friends for an evening, I think about how much I would love to be visiting with Ryan and his partner over dinner. But instead, we visit Ryan's gravestone. We celebrate anniversaries: the would-have-been birthdays and the unforgettable day of his death. We wear orange, his color. We hoard memories: pictures, clothing he wore, handwritten notes, lists of things he loved, tokens of his passions, recollections of the funny songs he invented, his Curious George and baseball blankey, anything, really, that reminds us of our beautiful boy, for that is all we have left, and there will be no new memories. We rejoice in our adult children, and in our growing family as they marry, but we ache for the one of our "gang of four" who is missing. We mark life by the days B.C. (before coma) and A.D. (after death), because we are different people now; our life was irrevocably changed in a million ways by his death. We treasure friendships with others who "get it" because they, too, have lost a child.

We weep. We seek Heaven for grace and mercy and redemption as we try not to get better but to be better. And we pray that God can somehow use our story to help other parents learn to truly love their children. Just because they breathe.

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Story copied from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-robertson/just-because-he-breathes-learning-to-truly-love-our-gay-son_b_3478971.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Talking to the Lord - Talk and Listen, Not Dominate the Conversation

When communicating with the Lord you don't have to be on your knees, just walk around your house or wherever you are and have a conversation with God. Eyes wide open, it doesn't matter. The IMPORTANT thing is that you communicating with Him, you are being close to Him. And while you are having that conversation, make sure to LISTEN.  There are a lot of people who like to talk and not listen (I know a few).  They dominate the conversation.

The Earth Is The Lord's!

The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. (Psalm 24:1, NASB)

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. (Psalm 19:1, NLT)

As believers in Jesus Christ, we can sometimes forget how big God is. When life gets hard - and it does in a myriad of ways, we wonder if things will ever get better. And if we hurt bad enough we even wonder where God is in all of this, or even question our faith; "Why do I trust God?" "What is it all for?" The Psalmist in Psalm 73 had a very similar concern. I've been there - have you? Somebody might be reading this with a heavy heart, but I've brought you some good news!

Today's passage says the very earth belongs to God. Everything, and everybody in the earth belong to Him. There is nothing He does not see, there is nothing He cannot do. We don't have to look far to see wickedness in the world, but God's glory is still in the earth. All you have to do is look up. Psalm 19 presents a breathtaking picture of God's artwork in the earth; don't miss that. If you allow yourself to see it God is showing Himself every day in a perfectly blue sky, the wind moving through the trees, how the lightening lights up the sky, in how birds fly through the air, such a number of stars in the night that we can't even count them. Psalm 147 says He calls all the stars by name. Who wouldn't believe a God like that? God puts Himself on display on a daily basis all around us; we just have to open our eyes and our hearts to see it. That new job belongs to Him. Every bank, every mortgage company, every dollar running through Wall Street belongs to Him! Be encouraged to understand the very earth and everything in it belongs to Him, and His glory fills the earth. Whatever it is your heart so longs for, ask God to show you His glory. 

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Article courtesy of http://www.experiencingworship.com/articles/studies/2013-6-The-Earth-Is-The-Lord-s.html

Losing Control and Learning to Trust: My Unexpected Diagnosis

This is a very personal column. In December of last year, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. There were no symptoms or problems, just some results from a routine blood test that needed to be checked out. I remember being on a conference call when I saw the doctor was phoning with the results of a biopsy, but continued on with the other call assuming I could return it later to hear that there were no problems. There were problems, he told me, and I would need to see a surgeon.

Surprise was not the right word -- not even shock. The news felt incredulous to me. I was about to launch a new book tour early in 2013 and everything seemed to be in control. And Sojourners was involved in intense advocacy work around immigration reform, gun violence, and the budget/sequester battles. There had to be a mistake, or surely some convenient treatment that would suffice. Certainly, I would work this all out privately, and stay on schedule for everything else. But then the conversations started, as did meetings, further testing, time-consuming activities, discussions of medical options -- and a deepening anxiety began to grow over the next several weeks.

The book tour for On God's Side, both U.S. and U.K., had to be postponed and reset without saying why. I kept the health news and discussions in a small and close circle of family, friends, and senior staff. And I did my best to go on as if this wasn't happening. But it was.

A quick surgery at the end of the year didn't work out for a number of frustrating reasons, discussions about medical options continued, and my care shifted to the research center at NIH, the National Institutes of Health. There, I took part in a new program using resolution MRI to guide surgical decisions -- still a research effort, and not currently in use elsewhere. Such opportunities are available to anyone in the general public, and people can find out about the work going on at NIH and across the nation at its website. The NIH strives to innovate constantly in all areas of medicine, and their constant hope is that participation in such programs can provide both direct benefits to the individual, and an opportunity for their physician researchers to learn more about how to improve diagnosis and treatment for others in the future. (And, of course, this critical work is being severely cut in the sequester.)

The NIH staff's extraordinary knowledge of this cancer and all cancers, which is prolonging and saving lives, was immediately evident, as was the wonderful care they were showing to me. After more and much deeper testing with their extraordinary methodologies and new technologies, a plan was reached and a date for surgery was set for last Wednesday, June 5.

About one week ago, I had major surgery for prostate cancer. It all went very well; the cancer was contained and removed with no signs of further spreading, pending more pathology reports. This significant surgical procedure, the recovery in a hospital room, and then coming home from such a major impact on my body were all new experiences for me. I went back to the hospital this week for follow-up procedures and check-ups. Everything seems to be fine. The surgery "couldn't have gone better," the doctors say, and I seem to be recovering well, too. They keep telling me to go slow and take my time, which is a very good reminder for me.

It's not only good physical advice for healthy recovery but also spiritual counsel for those of us who sometimes tell time by how much we hope we are changing the world.

This was certainly more "major" surgery than I was acknowledging and admitting to myself. I was stunned by the news in December, and wanted to keep it private -- partly to avoid answering too many public questions on it, but also likely because of some self-denial about it all. I really didn't want to let it affect my book tour, but of course it did in significant ways. During this whole process, I'm learning more and more lessons about losing control and learning to trust instead.

I was in very good hands with my surgeon, and I feel our work is in good hands with all of my colleagues at Sojourners, as I take a few weeks now to rest and recover. It's never just about a leader here at Sojourners because we have such a remarkable team; and it's never just about the team because we have such an extraordinary mission; but it's never even just about our mission because we have a God who will always find ways to bring love and justice into the world with and without us, and sometimes despite our best efforts and human attempts to keep "control."

I spoke with a few close friends before going in for my cancer surgery, a day full of anxiety for someone who had never faced a major health issue before. My old and dear friend, Wes Granberg-Michaelson, contrasted our need for control with the "Prayer of Abandonment" by Charles De Foucauld. So I went back to that classic prayer, and found it the right one to take into surgery for someone who had been totally preoccupied with the absolute craziness of an 18-city book and media tour and was now facing a very personal health crisis.

"I abandon myself into your hands;


do with me what you will.

Whatever you may do, I thank you:

I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me,

And in all your creatures --

I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul:

I offer it to you with all the love of

my heart,

for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,

and with boundless confidence,

for you are my Father."
It was a perfect prayer for surgery and recovery, and I hope one I remember before my next book tour! A week after surgery, my wonderful colleague at the publisher Brazos/Baker, BJ Heyboer, wrote me what a member of her discernment committee for the Episcopal priesthood had said to her: "Control is an illusion, an illusion that we all pursue. But the sooner you see it as the illusion it is, the better off you -- and your ministry -- will be."

My friend Richard Rohr, who also had a bout with cancer, told me that "these things change our relationship to God." He writes these days about how the "fallings" and "failings" in the second half of life, which are completely beyond our control, can lead us to deeper places than the first half of life can ever go.

And after agonizing repeatedly about how the changes in timing, preparations, focus, and unexpected events significantly altered what I expected this book tour to be, I encountered these words from Soren Kierkegaard, "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward."

I am trying to live into that with this book now too, trusting God to use it and take it to the places and people it needs to go. The "tour" was certainly affected by this cancer, more than I wanted to acknowledge or admit. But I believe in the message of the book even more than when I wrote it on sabbatical last year, and the signs of the times suggest that a renewed understanding of "the common good" is absolutely central to a better future for us all. These more relaxed summer weeks for me now will give me time for physical recovery, spiritual reflection, and perhaps some creative space to think about how I might be useful to what God wants to do with this common good message in the days ahead.

Sitting in that hospital room, even in times of pain or anxiety, I was thinking about the billions of people around the world who don't have all these health care resources available to them as we do, and don't even have the chance or option to fight for their lives. That must become a fundamental issue of love and justice for us; and I hope this experience will make it all more personal for me.

My pastor, Jeff Haggray, suggested I not be so private about all this, and that it might be time to offer some personal reflections on this whole process which might be helpful to other people. So I decided to write this.

But life goes on, and I am still coaching my son's Little League baseball team through the play-offs (but in a chair and behind the dug-out fence, at doctor's orders not to risk dodging line drives while coaching at third base!) Our Tigers won their semi-final game last night and we are now in the Championship Game on Saturday! My time with these 10 year olds is my best therapy for recovery.

I would appreciate your prayers for all of us who are wrestling this summer with issues of physical health and spiritual transformation.

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Article written by Jim Wallis for the HuffingtonPost

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/losing-control-and-learni_b_3436506.html?utm_hp_ref=religion 

We Must Give Our Best To God - Lesson 7

As we worship God, we give Him ourselves. Romans 12:1 says, "I beseech you therefore, brethern, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service." Under the Old Testament some of the Jews were not offering their best and were condemned for it. In Malachi 1:8 we read, "And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?" Is it not just as evil today when we do not give God our best?

Under the New Testament we do not offer animal sacrifices as the Jews did under the Old Testament; but we give Him our lives in service to Him as a living sacrifice. In doing this we must give Him our all. Anything we do for God must be our very best. Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind." All our heart, soul, and mind, or in other words, our total being must be in our worship.

How do we show our love to God? Our Lord says in John 14:21, "He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me." We show our love to God when we keep His commandments. We do not show our love to God if we only keep the commandments we want to keep or if we add some of our own commandments.

In Matthew 28:18, before Christ ascended into heaven, He was giving His apostles some last minute instructions concerning those they would baptize. Jesus said, "Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." Everything the Lord has commanded us is to be observed. We are to do all that God says and in the way He says to do it. Jesus says in Luke 6:46, "But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

In worship we must do all God has commanded and we must do nothing He has not authorized. Our worship must be from the heart with all reverence and sincerity. We must give Him our very best. Then and only then will we be worshipping God "in spirit and in truth". The purpose and holiness of true worship to God is a precious privilege available only to those who are obedient to the will of God.
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Lesson found at http://www.bible.ca/interactive/worship-7-give-best.htm

Our God Is An Awesome God!!!

Acceptable And Unacceptable Worship - Lesson 5

God has shown, in the Bible, His approval with those who follow His will and His displeasure and wrath with those who refuse to worship Him the way He has directed. An example of acceptable and unacceptable worship in the Old Testament is that of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel both worshiped God. Abel did as God directed, but Cain tried to worship God the way he saw fit. We read in Genesis 4:3-5, "And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering."

Why did the Lord have respect for Abel's offering and why did He reject Cain's offering? Hebrews 11:4 tells us, "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." Notice Abel offered his sacrifice "by faith" but Cain did not. Romans 10:17 says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." So faith comes by the word of God. Abel offered his sacrifice by faith or according to the word of God. If we worship God by faith, we worship as the word of God directs.

Abel offered the firstborn of his flock "by faith" and it was accepted because his worship was according to the instructions of God. But Cain chose to ignore God's instructions and sacrificed an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Cain chose to sacrifice to God the way he saw fit. Cain did not offer his sacrifice according to God's instructions, so God rejected his sacrifice and worship, since it was not "by faith".

From this example we see our worship must be "by faith", that is "by the word of God." We read in Romans 14:23, "For whatever is not from faith is sin." If our worship is not "by faith", that is it is not "by the word of God", then it "is sin". It will also be rejected just like Cain's. It is a very serious matter if God rejects our worship. If He does we are going to be lost. 

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Courtesy of http://www.bible.ca/