Tag: The Living Word

Authentic Faith, Jesus, The Love of God, Writing the Truth in Love

God’s Love Present in Our World

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“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.” (I John 4:7)

As a publisher, I seek books that demonstrate the love of God … stories ever fresh, personal and creative … stories of a love that has power to change lives and change history. Many Cladach books tell of lives changed by this love.

  • In Come, Stay, Celebrate! we read of John and Judith Galblum Pex loving people in Israel—all kinds of people—into the kingdom of God and his Son.

  • In On Kitten Creek, we read how God came into the midst of a people devoted to him in a place consecrated to him, and he worked in unexpected ways to make his love tangible.

  • In Journeys to Mother Love we read how love and forgiveness can overcome and heal the wounds and conflicts in mother-child relationships.

  • In Everywhere I Look, we read how everyday experiences and observations reveal the pervasiveness of God’s love to everyday people.

  • In All We Like Sheep, we read how God used flocks of sheep to teach two shepherdesses about his shepherd-heart of love.

  • In Remembering Softly, we read poetic expressions of moments when God’s love seeped, rushed, jolted, flashed, and poured into a searching heart.

  • In Creation of Calm, we read how God’s love transformed pain and loss into beautiful art that brings calm to others caught in life’s storms.

  • In Hostage In Taipei, we read a true, extreme account of God’s love working through believers literally caught in the crossfire, eventually overcoming violence and hate.

  • In Face to Face, we read of Love personified who, unlike everyone else, looked at a woman broken and spiritually oppressed, saw her heart, and released her with his words of love.

Photo credit: Canstock Photo/ © paktaotik
Authentic Faith, Devotional, God and Creation, Jesus, Lent / Easter, Nature Writings, Offering HOPE, Poetry, The Love of God, Thinking Christianly

Eternal Snows and A Sacrifice of Love

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Soon after we moved from California to Colorado, we had a blizzard during Easter week—a new experience for me. Pure white snow covered the ground when I wanted spring color to dot the landscape. But during that holy week, the pervasive, gleaming whiteness began taking on significance and speaking to my heart. The words of a familiar, Irish poem came to my mind:

“I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.”
                       ~Joseph Plunkett

As the storm passed and sun shone, the gleaming snow cover became for me a constant reminder of the body of Jesus—his very life—laid down, poured out, for us. As the ground, the trees, even the houses received the crystalline snow driven by the wind, so by faith we can receive Christ’s pure sacrifice, applied to our hearts by the grace of God. This complete, loving, redeeming sacrifice then covers our sins, bringing forgiveness, reconciliation, and the hope of eternal life.

The effects of this “eternal snow” go even farther, however. Today the snow on our yard, trees, and garden has melted and watered the greening grass and the perennials that are waking up for spring. Similarly, the gracious provision of Jesus not only covers us, but seeps into our beings, giving newness of life to our hearts and minds, nourishing our souls, imparting the very character of the One who poured out his life for us.

Now I view the occasional snow during Easter week as a gift from God. Sometimes visual images and metaphors reach into our hearts more effectively than words of reason. Sometimes they help the words of truth get from our minds to our hearts. How thankful I am for these true words:

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (I John 4:10)

“I lay down my life…” (John 10:14)

~Catherine Lawton

Authentic Faith, Cladach Authors, Following Jesus, Nature Writings, New Releases

Me? Like a Sheep?

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Lamb-2

I hear someone saying, “Lambs are cute and woolly, and all that. But aren’t sheep ‘dumb’ and helpless creatures? I’m not sure I want to be like a sheep.”

In answer, I’ll offer a few snippets of Bible verses:

“I am the Good Shepherd.”

“My sheep hear my voice.”

“Follow me.”

“Like sheep without a shepherd”

“Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

“The Lord is my shepherd.”

“He leads me beside still waters.”

“He makes me lie down in green pastures.”

“His rod and staff comfort me.”

“We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray.”

“I lay down my life for the sheep.”

“Oh. Well. When He puts it that way … I’ll follow Him like a sheep if that’s what it takes to hear His voice, know His goodness, enjoy those green pastures and still waters, live the life He made possible by laying down His own. … But, what does that mean in real life? for me? How does this sheep thing work?”

I’m glad you asked. God the Father gave us this picture of His sheep in His pastures. He even sent His Son to be the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. But He knew it would be hard for us to fathom such love and all the nuances of such a lamb-like life of trust. So He provided human under-shepherds. And He provided some earthy, mucking-in-the-barn and traipsing-in-the-pastures, shepherds of flocks. These people know sheep. They can tell us a lot about those creatures that God says we are like.

“I’ll bet those shepherds could tell some stories! From what the Bible says, sheep can get into a lot of trouble.”

In fact, I have two friends who are shepherds of sheep. Their names are Marilyn and Millie, two women who have raised thousands of lambs and tended flocks on their farms in Colorado. They have given names to many of their lambs and gotten to know their individual sheep quirks and personalities. They’ve nursed sick sheep, bottle-fed orphan lambs, called flocks in from the pasture, protected them from marauding dogs and hungry coyotes. They’ve laughed at sheep antics and cried over their losses and vulnerabilities.

“I’d like to meet those shepherdesses and visit the sheep farm, but I don’t suppose I ever will.”

But you can! Vicariously. Just read Marilyn and Millie’s book of sheep stories. They’ll even help you better understand how to follow the Good Shepherd “like a sheep of His pasture.”

“Great! Where can I get their book?”

Right here:

http://amzn.com/0989101436

And you can find out more here:

http://cladach.com/all-we-like-sheep/

Remember, keep listening for the Shepherd’s voice. You can trust Him implicitly!

Christian Art, Jesus, Lent / Easter

Holding Out Jesus

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Chapel in Brittany

The Chapel we visited in Brittany

Years ago my husband, our son, and I were traveling through several regions of France. We spent one night in a farmhouse on the edge of a misty, green village in Brittany. We had walked through grand cathedrals in large cities. But here our host gave us a private tour of a small, rustic chapel.

A diminutive, sweatered Breton woman took us into the dimly-lit chapel. Our son spoke French, and so through him we could communicate with our guide. She explained in detail the colorful stained-glass windows made, in centuries past, by artisans from Italy, Spain, and Germany. Each window told a story from the Bible and church history for the country parishioners who, in olden days, often could not read the scriptures for themselves.

The historic chapel—still very much in use today—was built by Breton ship builders, our guide explained as we walked down the narrow nave. The ceiling was curved and ribbed like the hull of a ship. Traditional craftsmanship also showed in the wooden carvings—displayed above the chancel—representing the Trinity and each of the apostles.

Inside a village chapel in Brittany

Inside the village chapel we visited in Brittany

Surrounded by such reverential art, my eyes were drawn again and again to one particular piece—a wooden carving of “God the Father.” How had the artisans captured such a look of loving strength, knowing, and gladness?! The Father was depicted sitting on his throne. His arms were outstretched and holding, face out to the people, Jesus—also carved in wood, but in a smaller scale.

The devout Breton woodcarvers depicted the Father offering the supreme Gift. I could almost hear the voice from Heaven say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

Truly, God offers us his Christ to be our savior, our sacrificial lamb, our friend, our example, our victory, our hope, our way to eternal life.

We receive him. He changes us. And we begin to ask, “What should we do for others?”

The Father answers, “Show them Jesus. Through your words and actions, hold him out for the world to see.”

Who is this Jesus we are to show the world? He’s not a statue for us to display. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15, NRSV). He came as a helpless baby, lived an earthly life, and suffered death in order to give us the gift of life.

“He is the … beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:18-20, NRSV).

I pray, “Father, fill us with your love and your joy that we may hold Jesus out to the world through our faith, our words, and our actions.”

And that must be the underlying reason we publish books and hold them out to the world. To show them Jesus.

Communication, Editing Your Own Writing, Inspiration for writers, Jesus, The writing life, What Makes a Good Author?, What Makes a Good Book?

For the Love of Words and the Living Word

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If you’re a word person, as I am, then perhaps you also have “a love affair with words.” You use words, but take care not to abuse them. You like to play with words, but you also take them seriously. You cherish them, listen to them, pray over them, respect them, have faith in them, and you know when to release them.

Words are a writer’s tools, the building blocks of our stories, articles, blog posts, tweets and books. Words have power. With words we instruct, entertain, woo, influence, write and speak.

God spoke the world into being. Jesus is the Word become flesh. Spoken words matter. Written words matter. Every word matters. They matter because they enable us to see the unseen, to know the unknowable, to grasp the undreamed of.

The well-chosen correctly-used, creatively-connected, ingeniously-employed word has power. If your words fit that description, and they are prayed over, respected, understood—then these words may form a piece of writing that is Christ-infused, Christ-honoring, and Christ-giving to a person and a world that needs the living Word.