Lazarus going to Kansas!

We're excited to announce that the Olathea Bible Church near Kansas City is doing a church-wide study on The Lazarus Life, October 1-3, 2009. Every small group will be studing the book and using the new study guide, Living the Lazarus Life.

If your church or group is interested in using this series, please contact us!

I Witnessed a 2009 Lazarus!

This past week, we participated in a soul care intensive, a personal, guided retreat where people come to us at our retreat--Potter's Inn at Aspen Ridge. The man came as soul-sick as I have ever witnessed. Tired, Worn out and Burned out, the man shared his sad journey of loss in the field of his work; devastation in his marriage; futility in his relationship with God. As we talked, more and more infection was revealed. His wounds. His scars. His soul bruises--all resulted in a near death.
As the week progressed, his movement towards the opening of his own tomb revealed itself. By day 5, I witnessed a modern day Lazarus right in front of me. There was life. Movement. Cynicism melted into hope; despair dissolved into resolve and fear morphed into expectancy.
I was the privileged one. I was the one to witness one man being transformed. He heard the Voice of Love--not mine but His--calling him forward.

Sabbath Shiftings in My Soul

January 4...Sabbath

It's good for me to type S-A-B-B-A-T-H. Cause my heart needs to cease so... so much activity in our normally quiet house--we are empty nesters, you see and all the kids have come back home for the Holidays. But today, in the wee hours of a snowy Colorado Sabbath morning, I am ceasing with candle lit and heart humbled and reading for more of the same with no one awake just yet. Waiting. Expectant.

Yesterday morning, was like today. I got up early. Read the Scriptures and was deeply struck by four distinct "words" I heard from God--that went something like this: Dig deeper. Encourage More. Expand the Message and Give lavishly. I'm still sitting with all the implications of these four words...wondering how my life and heart and ministry will all be impacted by these
'words.'

Dig deeper. I can do that cause I know that not much happens in the shallows. Good water lies deep, below the surface where contaminates cannot invade and pollute. How my soul needs de-toxing by all the flurry of recent weeks. Work. Travel. Invasion of kids. I want pure water and for that I must dig. I MUST dig.

Encourage more. I was struck again yesterday that the word 'courage' is rooted in French for 'heart' and how much heart has been taken from people in these days of economic turmoil and IRA woes. To encourage is to speak 'into' the heart and to put there was has been stolen or lost. It has taken these four words for me to be encouraged, for I too, have been rocked by seismic like shiftings in my soul with all the peril around.

Expand The Message... I'm still pondering that one but I do honestly believe that the time has come for the message of soul care and transformation. Aren't we all sick and tired of this mess? Don't we really want change at the DNA level of our souls? Because of that, I am willing to risk and explore expansion options. I will need your help for that. Needing the help of others is another deep impression. I can't do this alone.

Give lavishly... I am humbled because our ministry received a year-end gift from a couple--both of which have lost their jobs. The man called me a few days ago to ask me to pray for them. They were at their end--and wits end at that. Concluding the conversation, he informed me that a check was already in the mail to invest their "offering". This blew me away. Rebuked me. Spoke to me and really helped me grasp my own 'word.' Despite the wavering times, fear of the unknown, I should seek to give lavishly. To that end, I have an idea that we will implement in Potter's Inn. Because of our love of books--good books, I want to encourage, thus give books to help people find Sacred Voices through wonderful books that will help so many. Stay tuned for my ideas on this one. I have another impression also about how Potter's Inn should give more in the work or orphans and the aid of widows---what the Bible calls, "pure, undefiled religion." It's just struck me that if this is what the Scriptures call 'pure and undefiled' religion then I need to be a part of that movement more!

If you care to join me in these unfolding "words" let me know.

Blessings on the Sabbath!

Advent 2008

by Stephen W. Smith

Is this feeling deep inside
the winter of advent?
The bewilderment of more
questions than epiphanies or answers?

A mother has forever lost her son.
A truly good man has lost his job.
A child will lose their sacred innocence.
Is this loss so necessary in the wait? Is this advent?

The tree loses its leaves.
A dreamer loses the dream
An old, crippled widow loses her sight.
So much loss. So long to wait.

This waiting often seems so long
as the cold captures the air
and will not let go its clinging grip.
This waiting which feels like a slow, coming death.

The star that releases its light
burns with the waiting for someone to see.
The star burns and just burns and waits
for someone out there to see the Light.

O Promised Star;
Thou who art Daybreak to my darkness,
Come quickly and flood my barren soul
with shimmers; rays of glorious light.

Waiting: A Poem on Thanksgiving Eve

Waiting

by Stephen W. Smith

on Thanksgiving Eve Morning 2008

__________________________

Sitting in the hush of darkness,

alone star in the western sky.

Silhouetted horizon awaits,

the pulling up of the thanksgiving morn.

Waiting. Yes, waiting.

for the first ray of morning's glory.

Now darkness, soon glory.

Squeezed in the in-between.

How old Lazarus must have stirred

when the light of that day first crept in.

No waiting for him.

Now, I am in his place.

That you would come for me,

stills my soul in breathless wonder.

Yet, it is still dark now.

And I am waiting, waiting, yes waiting still.

_____________________________

Copyright 2008. Stephen W. Smith

The Mirror

"even things about yourself that you most deeply want to change first must be accepted even embraced.... Until we are willing to accept the unpleasant truths of our existence, we rationalize or deny responsibility for our behavior." --David Benner in "The Gift of Being Yourself"

Few of us stop long enough to look in the mirror. Oh, we do when we take the razor to the whiskers or for women--I think they take a longer look. The mirror reveals, "things are they are." Wrinkles, frown marks, stress lines--the freckle we wish was not there and that ugly mole. Should I have it removed?

No transformation is possible without the mirror. Until we face the realities of what we will see, we will remain the same--remain in the tomb--remain with the graveclothes on! Here's what I'm finding is needed for me to take a long, disconcerting look in the mirror and view my true self.

1. Courage. Without courage to face certain realities I will live in denial. I will continue to live the lie that I don't need to stop--look at the way things are.

2. Risk. Without risk, I can believe what I want. Construct reality in the way I want it to be.

3. Solitude. Without solitude, Nouwen reminds us, "it is vi ritually impossible to live the spiritual life without solitude." Solitude allows us to face the wild animals within. The dragons and cess pools. The ugly gnats that pester us and to hear the monkeys in the banana trees who yell condemning statements towards us. "You're a failure. You're a disgrace. You are nothing and never will amount to anything." I think we stay busy and avoid solitude cause we don't want to hear what the monkeys will say. We don't want to sense the dragons. Thus busyness annihilates the heart and transformation cannot happen.

What do you think?

The Journey to Jesus

I've been thinking that the journey to Jesus sure takes a long time. It is often a long, arduous path that eventually leads to Jesus. But along the way, there are twists, curves and switch-backs that make it often seem like I'll never get there. Sometimes, things--even people--perhaps even church can get in the way of our movement. I'm thinking about that here.

The journey to Jesus can often be confused with other necessary journeys we all have to take to be human. The journey to become a man; the journey to become a good husband; the journey of becoming a gracious and loving father...all of these and more are journeys I'm currently on. I've not fully arrived at any of them. I'm still becoming. I'm still on my way. I'm still in process.

Last week, I wrote on the blog about "churchianity vs. Christianity." That journey has elicited strong responses and even a few "unsubscribes." Let me say a bit more about this. I am not an outsider when it comes to the journey to become the church. I've dedicated most of my working life to help improve the church and make church better for people. But also, I have to admit, I see church through the lens of being a boy born in the south; raised in the Southern Baptist denomination and pastoring several churches. There's so much in church I love--yet so much I struggle with. I love the idea of belonging. Belonging to a group of people on journey together is a powerful vision to remember that reminds me that I am not alone on this journey. I need companions. I also love when we are able to gather and sing; hear powerful messages that inspire and teach us and help people who are truly the "outsiders" move to the inside.

Yet, with my loves comes deep stirrings that remind me to ask deep questions; pick up rocks and look underneath and try to raise the level of thinking about life and church. I'm afraid that we have absorbed a model for our churches that may become like dinosaurs in future generations. All of my four sons--having been raised in the church are questioning it. They are not alone in their questioning. In fact their generation has hard questions to ask of the church.

If church is anything at all, we should seek to become places where our graveclothes can be talked about; unwrapped and we can be set free from them. Defining church as a place of transformation helps me understand it more; value it more and want it more for myself and others. I cannot do this journey alone. I need community. I need the hand of others to help me get free from my own grave clothes. As I journey to Jesus, my call is for companions to walk with me--all of us moving towards Jesus. I don't want church to get in the way of my journey towards Jesus. In fact, as I understand it-- I can't journey well to Jesus without some form of church in my life. Can you?