Avodah and Roaring Lambs

Reposting from my friend Jennifer over at Getting Down With Jesus – this is GREAT stuff to be thinking on…  how can you glorify God with your life – in whatever you do?

 

Andrea

 

I steer into the campus parking lot, see eight students with notebooks waiting in the grass for me. I glance at the clock: 3:41 p.m. I was due here a minute ago. The one student who interrupts me during class lectures, ... he lectures me now. "Why the hold-up?" he scolds, jumps to his feet before the others. He asks his question one more time, then adds: "You're late." He has a book in his hand, raises it over his head like an exclamation point. I pretend I don't hear him. I wave students into cars, instruct them to follow me to City Hall. I've been teaching my students how news reporters cover meetings. I figure the best way to learn, is to do. So today, we're covering a city council meeting. The student who scolded me takes the passenger seat ... in my car. I pull seatbelt, latch. He slips his book on the armrest between us. I turn my head, catch his eye. He smiles. "I promised you," he says, then wags a finger. "Now, ... don't forget: I need that back by the end of the semester." The book is Roaring Lambs by Bob Briner. And Bryan has written his own name in the front cover of the well-worn book, in case his absent-minded professor forgets who loaned it. *** The student told me about the book two days earlier. I was at the front of the classroom, praying -- because that is the way I start class. (I teach journalism at a Christian college.) I pray for words, for journalists, for newsmakers. That day, I also prayed this: "Father, we don't always do work that looks sacred. We live in a secular world, where we cover council meetings, fires, tornadoes. But we are called to be a holy people. And Lord, even if the work doesn't have a Jesus Label slapped on it, remind us that it is, indeed, holy. And remind us that we do our work for Your glory, not our own." I barely whisper the amen, when Bryan is speaking, finger punching the air. "Professor," he says. "I have a book you need to read." *** On the way to the Council meeting, he sets the book between us. "Thank you, Bryan. I'll be sure to return it." Good, he says. He tells me he's convinced we can do our work in the world, even if it doesn't have the Jesus Label slapped on it -- just like I'd prayed two days earlier. I nod, steer west toward City Hall. "Bryan?" I ask. "Have you heard of this word? It's spelled A-V-O-D-A-H. Avodah. It's a Hebrew words that means both work and worship. I'm just crazy about that word." "Can you imagine it?" My voice is rising now. I'm the one punching the air with my forefinger. "Our work isn't just work. It's worship, too. Covering a City Council meeting? That can be worship if we do it well, if we do it for God's glory!" He says he's never heard the word Avodah, but he nods. Because he already knows. *** Meeting adjourns. I take students home, tuck my own girls in bed, open the Roaring Lambs. Briner writes about a Christian subculture. He says we often write songs and books and stories for Christians, but sometimes exclude the world. He asks how we can really be salt for the world if we're not doing some work outside a Christian ghetto. How can we be world-changers if we're only writing our stories and our songs for people who think and believe like we do? He asserts that Christians have fled from culture-shaping arenas of art and entertainment ... and journalism. Now, to be clear, I love things with the Jesus Label on it. I favor Christian music, read mostly books on Christian living. Even my blog bears His name. But I can't get over the question on the front page of the book: "Do you have as many close friends outside the church as within?" I lean over these pages, hear them roar, and I whisper the word twice more: Avodah. Avodah. I want to live an Avodah life. I finish the last chapter. Close the book. I'll take it back to Bryan on Tuesday. And I'll thank God for the kid in the front row who was bold enough to roar. Photo: Quote plaque at Laity Lodge in Texas. RELATED ARTICLES on Avodah: "Do You Feel Broken and Fragmented?" by Ann Voskamp at The High Calling. She also writes of Avodah here, at Holy Experience. "Six Days Shalt Thou ... Worship?" by Marcus Goodyear at Good Word Editing. "Why Work is Holy" by Dave Williamson at The High Calling.

 

True Woman 2010, Day 1: A True Woman’s Picture

From my friends over at the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood – good stuff from Nancy Leigh DeMoss…

 

Andrea

 

The answers were varied, troubling and  illustrated a deep confusion within the culture over a fundamental question: What is true womanhood? Revive Our Hearts Ministries canvassed women on the streets of Fort Worth, Texas, asking that very question, in preparation for its True Woman 2010 conference that began last night in the city and continues through Saturday. It wasn't pretty. One woman defined a true women as "somebody who is strong and independent, who knows who she is and what she wants." Another woman deferred to relativism, saying the epitome of true womanhood is different for every woman. One interviewee said a true woman is a person who "has a job and is able to take care of herself" and basically doesn't need help or input from anyone else, particularly a man. Still another said a true woman "at her best displays all the best qualities of humankind." One interviewee expressed confusion over the identity and existence of God and his relationship to gender and yet another said of women, "God put us on the earth to create life. Other than that, we really have no purpose, do we?" Ouch. Finally, one younger woman came much nearer to hitting the biblical bullseye, defining true womanhood embodied by "a woman who takes care of her children and her home." On the opening night of True Woman 2010 Thursday night at the Fort Worth Convention Center, conference founder Nancy Leigh DeMoss gave a beautiful, biblical, counter-cultural definition of true womanhood in couplets, contrasting a Gospel-entranced woman with one whose priorities are rooted in the world. Her text was Titus 2:             "Our lives are supposed to be counter-cultural. The world is supposed to be able to look at us and see a massive difference, see that our lives are characterized by things like love, purity, self-control, truthfulness, submissiveness, well-ordered family relationships. We are expected to be a living demonstration of the Gospel, to make the Gospel believable…Here in Titus 2:3-5, you see how a Christian woman is to reflect or illustrate the Gospel…Let's walk through it and also consider what it might look like if a woman is not walking in a way that is grounded in the truth and is not living out the Gospel.             "In verse 1, we see that a Christian woman bases her life on sound doctrine, the truth, the Word of God. But a woman whose life is not informed or shaped by the Gospel is going to minimize the importance of doctrine, will ignore or disregard it and that woman's life is going to based on beliefs that are not true, that are not sound. "The older woman's life that is characterized by the Gospel is to model godliness and spiritual maturity. They are to be intentional about passing the baton, about investing the Gospel, the faith in the next generation, intentional about discipling and mentoring the next generation. But what if the Gospel does not inform our lives?  Older people are free to pursue their own dreams, their own pleasures, to retire, to have the easy life, to live their own way. They've paid their dues and they want to spend the rest of their lives seeing the USA or traveling or doing hobbies or taking it easy. But that is not a lifestyle that is informed by the Gospel. "Older women whose lives have been shaped by the Gospel are to be reverent in behavior. A woman whose life has not been shaped by the Gospel is going to be secular, coarse, or vulgar. Woman whose lives have been shaped by the Gospel are not slanderers,  they are to speak the truth, to speak words that build up, [not] to have loose lips and wound others with our words. "The woman whose life has been built on sound doctrine is going to have a temperate lifestyle. But the woman for whom the Gospel or sound doctrine doesn't matter is going to be self-indulgent, substance abuse, eating disorders, who live for senses, live for pleasure to medicate her emotional pain.             "A woman whose life is shaped by the Gospel will teach what is good. She will train younger women. What happens in a model where the Gospel doesn't speak into our lives? We devalue what older people have to offer.  We make them feel useless or marginalized and younger women are left adrift to fend for themselves and so many of them, sadly, don't make it, they end up shipwrecked.             "We see that for the Gospel informed woman, the younger women are to love their husbands. They are to value marriage. They are to be covenant keepers, even when it's hard, when it hurts, when it seems so difficult. But in the climate where the Gospel doesn't inform the way we live, women will resent their husbands, they will dishonor them, neglect them, leave them and this is where we have the divorce culture, disposable marriages. "The Gospel-informed woman will love her children. She will love motherhood. She will value having children according to the will and plan of God and will be intentional about shaping their lives for Christ. But in a mindset that is not informed by the Gospel, women are discouraged from having children in the first place. And when they do have them, they either abuse them or spoil them or perhaps let others raise them, they are not intentional about discipling them to be followers of Christ. "A woman whose life is informed by the Gospel will be self-controlled…This state of mind is what helps us to curb fleshly desires and it results in practicing self-control in every areas of our lives: our tongue, our habits, our sexuality, every area. But a woman who is not controlled by sound doctrine has no self-control. She's out of control in her spending habits, her use of time. She will be impetuous, impulsive, whatever she thinks, she just says it, her mind is not a saved, sound mind. "A woman's life who is controlled by the Gospel will be pure and modest vs. sexual promiscuity. She will value the home, she will have a heart for the home and her focus, her priorities will involve the home. Where the Gospel doesn't have a say, we devalue homemaking. Hospitality has become a thing of the past. Our homes are in a state of chaos. We are yanking a woman out of the home and elevating the work they do above the work they could be doing in and for their homes."

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Tomato Basil Soup

This looked really yummy – and I was hoping they'd post the recipe – they did!  Love those gals over at Girltalk!  

 

Andrea

 

So many of you asked for the Tomato Basil Soup from Janelle's 52home picture the other day, so here it is. Enjoy! La Madeline's Tomato Basil Soup 4 cups canned crushed tomatoes 12 fresh basil leaves 1 cup heavy cream 1 stick (1/4 lb) of sweet unsalted butter Salt to taste ¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper Simmer tomatoes in saucepan for 30 minutes. Puree, with the basil leaves, in small batches, in blender or food processor. Return to saucepan and add cream, butter, salt and pepper while stirring over low heat. Garnish with basil leaves and serve with your favorite bread.

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Pumpkiny Goodness

So - sometime last fall, my friend Paula blogged about these A-MAZING Pumpkin muffins... I came across the recipe recently - and decided to make them for Bible study and class tomorrow... Hope there are some left!!! YUMMY!! Click on the following link for a picture and a copy of the recipe!
Enjoy!!

My Little Schoolhouse: Pumpkiny Goodness

Why Women Love Jerks : Girls Gone Wise

Oh ladies - this is a gem of an article... have you loved a "jerk"? I know that I foolishly have... if I only I'd known these things before! This is a great list of things to consider... and my favorite line in the article might just be, "Great guys who love Jesus don't cheat on their women. PERIOD."

Read more by clicking the link below...

Why Women Love Jerks : Girls Gone Wise