lauren reavely

the numbing whispers

2012-02-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

Over the course of the past few decades, the sway of the media and entertainment sector has slowly gained a tighter and tighter grip on our minds. Our minds that once analyzed and discussed and drew conclusions based on the lens through which we chose to see things. But today, the lens is being chosen. The words are being put in our mouths. The conclusions being impressed on our minds.

It's not statistics and cultural trends that I'm talking about. It is, more specifically, the Christian mind I am concerned for. It's you and me. Certainly we are willing to question and refute an argument brought up in conversation. But what about the digital conversations we engage in everyday? Each hour spent watching faces on screens, filling our ears with drum beats, scrolling through cyberspace pages has turned into a one-way conversation. We may criticize the soundtrack, the artist's voice, or the acting, but in the meantime, a particle of thought and influence has latched onto our brains, without even asking permission.

We enjoy the fact that we don't have to think anymore. In fact, that's often precisely why we go to movies or music. We feel like it'll give us a break from thinking. But in reality, we have given an open invitation to our minds to the companies lucky enough to have wrapped their lenses and lies in such an intriguing and beguiling form. Their messages are largely uncontested and are allowed to weasel their way into our thinking.

Don't think I'm anti-entertainment. I just hope to start better filtering what makes its way past my eyes and ears. We like to hold to the argument that what you watch and listen to doesn't significantly impact you, but personally I can't ignore the media's obvious imprints on me and continue to claim it leaves no mark. No, it doesn't change my beliefs; it can't rock my Foundation. But then, that would be too obvious. No, it does a much more subtle work than that. It's greatest power is in its ability to desensitize me. Desensitize me to language that displeases God. Desensitize me to attitudes that displease God. Desensitize me to relationships that displease God. Entertainment has so successfully numbed our minds and hushed our disdain for the sexual immorality so forbidden in the Bible. We entertain ourselves with things which break God's heart. And we barely cringe anymore.

This is why I fear the numbing whispers of entertainment.

the full Christmas story

2011-12-26T02:07:00.000-08:00

shepherds. span of stars. frightening-bright angels. messy manger. guiding star. gifts for the King.

we think we know the story, the oh-so-famous Christmas story. we could probably quote Luke 2 from memory. but if we can neatly fold and wrap the Christmas story into these few verses, then what's the significance of the angels saying, "fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." what's so good about this news of a crying baby wrapped in meager baby clothes?

if that's all the Christmas story is...

no, the Christmas story starts on page one of the Bible when God, the star-speaking, always-perfection, grace-giving, self-existent One, stretched out this earth and stretched out His arms to make man out of dust. man to love Him. man to worship Him. man to walk with Him. man to display His grace to. man to fill with joy.

but give us one page and mankind was already rebelling against this beautiful plan, thinking we could do it better on our own. and there in the cataclysmic destruction of the once-peaceful relationship between God and man, we hear whispers of Christmas. one day...one day, one of Eve's descendants would crush this lie-breathing serpent that instigated this whole mess. "he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heal." (genesis 3:15) and with that, as the world and the human race began to degrade and rot in hopelessness, the joy-filled promise of Jesus was whispered.

and so throughout the Bible, page after page, we hear some subtle, some blaring reminders of this promise. as to Abram, when God promised him, "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (genesis 12:3) as to the Israelites when freed from their physical slavery in Egypt, reminded of the future Deliverer who would rescue their enslaved souls. as to Moses and God's people when faced with their utter inability to keep even the commands numbered ten. as to the prophets who time after time reminded the Israelites that God still loved them. that God was still pursuing them. that God was still going to send a Rescuer, a Satan-crusher. one day...

this hopeless world needed good news of great joy. they were slaves to sin and failures at meeting God's standards.

it was to this world, having waited for thousands of years, hundreds of generations, since that dark day in the garden, He finally came. after a stretch of 400 years of a hushed heaven, no reminders, no promises, no prophecies, the time was right.

God humbled Himself, veiled His deity and rights to glory, to come as a weak and wailing baby. this is a mystery beyond comprehension, the greatest in humanity. no formula or theorem can seek to prove or explain it. God with us.

and while generations would have been hopeless without the promise of Christmas, we find that we ourselves would be just as lost. for our condition of sin and separation from God is the same. our inability to keep God's law is the same. try as we might, we never are quite good enough. thus, that starry Christmas night is good news of great joy for all people--us! Someone came to crush Satan for us, to deliver us from our slavery, to be perfect for us, to short-circuit God's impending wrath, to restore us back to the relationship with God meant for us in the beginning, to please God for us. this is good news indeed!

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" (luke 2:14)

reasons to memorize scripture

2011-11-27T13:17:00.001-08:00

“To really know it. Books read once have a small impact. The more times you read it the more you know it. Committing to memory allows for the deepest knowledge.

To give it maximum opportunity to impact my life.

‘All Scripture is…profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.’

To be able to meditate upon it.

‘Blessed is the man who…mediates on His law day and night.’

To keep from sinning.

‘How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word.’

To help me in times of trouble.

To change me.

‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.’

To interrupt wrong thinking.

To have it when I and if I don’t have a Bible.

To be ready and able to share it with others—children, non-Christians, people who are suffering.

To make me wise.

To be like the tortoise, run the race slow and steady, to win.

To increase my faith, because I become familiar with God’s promises and character.

To boost my spiritual walk with God. Memorizing helps me meditate and do it.

To increase my time with the Word. This way it’s with me all the time.

To cause me to really think about scripture, to slow me down.

To encourage me.

‘why so downcast, O my soul? put your hope in God!’

To fight temptation the way Jesus did.

To rehearse the gospel to myself.

To be obedient.

'whatever is right…think about such things.’

To know the will of God.

To fuel my prayers, so that I can pray according to will of God.

To exercise my brain.”

- marcia reavely

a righteous sinner

2011-11-14T15:22:00.001-08:00

earth fades behind me. the King has returned. this time to judge. i step forward to receive my long awaited verdict, what will He see?

the whole universe is silent and watching as He seems to play back the most intentionally-well-hidden moments of my life. yes, i’ve fallen short. must He continue to count the times? each word. each thought. each action. they’re all laid bare.

a coveter.
a white-lie justifier.
a hater.
a sin sugar-coater.
a hypocrite.
a self-enamored idol-lover.
a praise-seeker.
a commandment-breaker.
a vain mirror-gazer.
a server of self.
a great sinner.

were the King to send to the scales the morals of my soul, i would stand no chance, for this list is just the beginning.

were He to look past the white-washed face that everyone saw, to smell the stench of this tomb, surely trying to convince myself that i’m “good enough” would be for naught.

that’s when i hear it.

i hear His name.

Jesus.

oh the comfort of that sweet name at an hour like this!

“she’s mine.”

at that word, all the lists that confirmed my guilt, the endless stretches of my offenses against God, the weighty remembrances of my debt were blurred with a crimson red and vanished.

i stagger to my knees as i behold the only word left before me, marveling like never before at the gospel i claimed to cherish all those years.

righteous.

“blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” rom. 4:8

one hundred days later

2011-10-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

it was july and i was in that hard week of transition back to "real life." home from a week of travel, friends, lessons, memories, and wondering how to discover the same contentment and wonder on my oregon soil. to delight in God's goodness in the entertaining is no challenge. but what about today's mess? how do i find evidences of God's grace in this place of dish-filled sinks and lonely hours?

and yet, i was so sure that there was a way. if Jesus' joy is mine, shouldn't that mean something for this day? shouldn't that be stronger than this pull on my heart to wallow in self-pity and nostalgia? i want joy. not surging and sinking happiness. joy that lasts for one hundred days and thousands. joy amid the discouraging setbacks, the garden weeding, the fresh-baked pies.

"The holy grail of joy is not in some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be--unbelievably--possible!" one thousand gifts, ann voskamp

i wanted this joy! and so i set out. set out, rather impulsively, on a hundred day journey of simply writing down these seemingly heavy-masked graces in my life.

and one hundred days later, i can say that it really is all true.

God really is here! He really is good. and glorious. not only in sanctuaries and on mountain tops, but right here. and as if His grace wasn't obvious enough in the good news of free redemption, He's poured it into every crook of our lives. these everyday gifts are not masking His grace, they're revealing it. they're not mundane restraints that keep us from experiencing the heights of the supernatural, they are the evidences of the supernatural. and what joy comes from praising the great Giver for the gifts of this moment, this day, this place!

people ask if i'm going to turn it into #200daysofgratitude. but i think it's time for the hashtags to end, for the lifestyle to continue. the heart saturated with thankfulness. the habit of seeing. naming. praising. and who knows, maybe they'll show up in a tweet or blog post here and there.

so put this blog and time-sucking machine away and take a moment to praise. what gifts has God graced your day with? feel the nipping autumn breeze, the fireside heat. see the contrasting hues of leaves. hear the siblings giggling, mother chiding, birds whistling. and worship this grace-displaying God.

The Flowers of Fall

2011-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

Albert Camus

37 lists of grace

2011-08-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

it's been a long time since i've known what to write...

the lessons are still being learned but the thought of attempting to confine them to words has been too intimidating.

i've come to the point though where i can't help but say something. the thoughts aren't revolutionary, but they overwhelm me.

grace.

a word that's slowly revolutionizing my life.

i'm in the middle of 100 days of gratitude. day 37 to be exact. my conclusion after the first couple weeks was that this was turning out to just be a waste of time. yeah, it's nice to reflect on my day with a smile, but is God doing something in my heart through this or is this just another of my ridiculous ideas?

the days count on and i keep recording. recording the random happenings of the day that make my heart swell with gratitude. recording evidences of grace in my life.

i decide to read back through and as i read day after day i see a theme woven throughout. a theme of grace. a theme ringing not of great gifts but of a great Giver.

so this is what Paul meant when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:31:

"so whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

this glory-giving, this is what i was made to do. God deserves it and i am happiest when i am doing just that, pointing to Him. when i see these small gifts as gifts of grace from a gracious God and delight in this God, i am worshiping. so this list-making, grace-recording can be an act of worship?

grace.

why would He show me grace? He disowned His own Son because He wanted wretched me to know Him and be accepted and loved by Him.

"Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer..."

and on top of that immeasurable act of grace, He now delights in showing me more? why these golden treetops, shooting stars, laughter of friends, forts built with little sisters? couldn't He have rescued me from my deserved hell and that been adequate? yes, that would have been glorious enough. but oh, grace upon grace that's been given...

"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (rom. 8:32)

so what shall i say? only may He be glorified because He chose to save a sin-slave like me and flood me with grace. no, i can't stop praising Him over water boiling, aching ears, long talks with mom, car windows down, little-girl pigtails...

and grace.

little ranch on the prairie

2011-08-10T22:56:00.000-07:00

am i still watching?

2011-07-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

Reading in John of the Jews scorning Jesus, ignoring this Messiah, denying His deity. For hundreds and thousands of years, they'd been waiting for a Deliverer. They had read the promises of this coming King countless times, committed them to memory. Why were they so complacent in their religion? comfortable with their routine practices and missing the One they'd been anticipating? Had they stopped looking and hoping? Had they given up the waiting and the expectation for God to send His Chosen One?

And I'm reminded of other people who are waiting for something. the same Someone, in fact. For hundreds of years we've been waiting. Have I become complacent and comfortable in my lifestyle and my notion of church, that I've forgotten to look and watch and anticipate this Messiah who's coming again? Granted, He'll be coming in a more obvious manner. I'm not worried about missing it. I'm worried about whether or not I care to be ready anymore or not. Am I longing? excited? hopeful? that my Jesus, my Savior will come soon?

"'Surely I am coming soon.'

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!"(rev. 22:20)

Keep watching and be ready.

100 days of gratitude

2011-07-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

I plow my way through another day. not a good day. not a bad day. rather there are few emotions.

It's a saddening feeling to realize you lived 24 of your precious hours and can't remember one grace from God that you gave thanks for. I'm not talking about the legalistic lengthy list God wants to see by your bedside at the end of the day as if He was some generous donor that needs a formal thank you note. I'm talking about a heart that is characteristic of gratitude because of God's grace expressed everyday in the stubbed toes and the 3-year-old smiles.

Thankfulness because I never have to face God's wrath.

"Life's blessings, however small, always appear exceedingly precious when viewed against the backdrop of the wrath I deserve." (gospel primer)

Thankfulness because all I know is God's rich grace to me.

"When I look at any circumstance that God apportions me, I am first grateful for the wrath I am not receiving in that moment. Second, I am grateful for the blessings that are given to me instead of His wrath." (gospel primer)

Thankfulness because He's said to "count it all joy."

Thankfulness because the gospel is just as true today as it was yesterday and God is in the process of working it into my life.

"Thanksgiving--giving thanks in everything--prepares the way that God might show us His fullest salvation in Christ." (one thousand gifts)

I pray for a heart full of thankfulness and I want to spend the next 100 days seeking God to do that work in my heart and building a discipline of looking, soaking in, noticing, and praising. I'll be posting seemingly ordinary daily occurrences on twitter. They won't be profound. They won't be fancy. But it'll be a form of accountability and a way of sharing of God's goodness.

(Feel free to join in this excursion. You can use hashtags #100daysofgratitude and #day1, #day2, etc. Follow me on twitter.)

1 dress. 100 days. for orphans.

2011-06-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

It's amazing that God can use us, His children, to touch lives and change the world. This He's doing through a sweet friend, Elaini Garfield, who decided that, starting May 1st, she was going to wear one simple black dress 100 different ways for 100 days. The purpose? To raise $50,000 to open several new homes for orphans in India through Warm Blankets.

She's almost half-way through the 100 days. Check out her website. View her outfits. And give.

little cousins

2011-05-28T23:10:00.000-07:00

learning to let go

2011-05-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

A sweet memory. A fun week. Long nights of laughter. and I'm lost in the past, drowning in sentimentality. I try to enjoy the moment while I'm in it, but that moment seems to fly by as fast as ever. dragging me with it.

Last.
such a short word, yet it makes my heart cringe.
I dread lasts. even to the point where I dread the moments and memories for fear of saying goodbyes and watching another last fade away.

Joy.

another word so small. yet so hard to hold onto. so hard to choose.

but once rooted deep down, it pervades the goodbyes, the laughter, the tears, the lasts.

Joy,

knowing that God didn't mean for these pains. this isn't how it was supposed to be.

Joy,

knowing one Day there will be no more goodbyes. no more endings.

Joy,

knowing there is One who never leaves me, who I never have to say goodbye to, who satisfies more than trite pleasures.

Yes, I have great reason to be filled with joy.

"That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet."

Emily Dickinson

I know that my Redeemer lives

2011-04-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

I know that my Redeemer lives;

What comfort this sweet sentence gives!

He lives, He lives, who once was dead;

He lives, my ever living Head.

He lives, all glory to His Name!

He lives, my Jesus, still the same.

Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,

I know that my Redeemer lives!

"I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.

And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;

I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another.

How my heart yearns within me!"

Job 19:25-27

a child's wonder

2011-04-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

my solid rock

2011-04-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

on Christ the solid rock I stand. all other ground is sinking sand.

all other ground is sinking sand.

when darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace.

in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

on Christ the solid rock I stand. all other ground is sinking sand.

all other ground is sinking sand.

"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock."

Isaiah 26:3-4

"O for grace to trust Him more!"

2011-04-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

Do you believe that mountains can move? I mean, really. Do you believe that if I pray for a mountain to move, it really could just up and move?

You see, I believe that because the Bible says it's true. But if I were to measure my belief based on what my prayers look like, it wouldn't appear that I really do. In fact, I spend most of my prayers praising Him for His power and then asking Him to move a mole hill.

I love in the hymn "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus" when it says:

"Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him!

How I've proved Him o'er and o'er!"

But have I proved Him? I mean, not that He needs to prove Himself. But is my life really a display of Jesus moving and Jesus working and Jesus saving and Jesus changing and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus? Do I ask big things of God--big things that make it obvious when He accomplishes them that He was the only Mover of that mountain and as a result gets all the glory?

Do I actually doubt that the Uncreated One who carved the mountains, named the galaxies, designed the human eye, and makes every cell do its job--do I seriously doubt that He could really accomplish these seemingly impossible feats? Am I so quick to spend time in prayer praising Him for His infinite power and jealous love and yet so quick to shy away from any prayer that I can't foresee an answer to?

And I hear the voices of men from generations past who prayed to the same God and were heard.

"Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and presence with them."

Hudson Taylor

"God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible--What a pity that we plan only things we can do by ourselves."

A.W. Tozer

"God has great things in store for His people; they ought to have large expectations."

Charles Spurgeon

"Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends."

George Muller

Yes, Lord, You have the power to move mountains or empty oceans or accomplish whatever it is that You want to accomplish. And You have the power to change my heart. yes, even to change me. "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!"

"Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!

O for grace to trust Him more!"

Tell me a story

2011-04-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

"Tell me a joke, granddad," I'd ask.

And he would. He would tell me jokes about the difference between a duck and how many eggs a chicken could lay in a day. But mostly he'd tell me math jokes. And he'd give me that smirk of his as I sat there puzzled for a while.

"Tell me a story, granddad. A story of when you were a boy."

And he would. He'd tell me stories of everyone who had ever lived in any of the houses in Wibaux County, Montana. He'd tell me of where he grew up and the adventures he'd had as a boy. But mostly he'd tell me about the horses and the country music that he'd always loved.

And now I still learn from him as I walk through his old decaying house that he spent so many winters cooped up in.

It tells me stories of age and life and memories. And it all seems to plead with me to invest in something more substantial. to live for something more eternal than the flower beds and the dusted shelves and the smiles and the blue skies.

So once again, I look ahead to the Home awaiting me. Oh that my life would be spent preparing me to arrive there!

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Phil. 3:20

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

How will I spend my todays?

2011-03-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

“Two little lines I heard one day, Traveling along life’s busy way;

Bringing conviction to my heart, And from my mind would not depart;