Tag: faith in the Lord

A Bridge Still has Value

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Recently a friend challenged me on my reading of a popular devotional by Sarah Young, Jesus Calling (2004, Thomas Nelson Inc.)  Since I have referenced at least two of her daily devotions in this blog, I thought I should discuss the book here.  Here is my reply:

Jesus Calling

I re-read the Introduction to Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling plus a few devotionals, listened to Warren Smith’s presentation last year on You Tube about the book (July 24, 2013), and checked out Hank Haanagraf’s remarks from one of his Bible Answer Man broadcasts (November 16, 2012).  I see valid criticisms.  Sarah Young fails to put a clear focus on the sovereignty of God separate from us; by speaking in the first person she blurs the line.  Missing is mention of a clear path to salvation (and the gifts of eternal life in addition to true peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control) that comes only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  She tends to bring God along with her instead of placing God as head of the body of Christ; this is often the sign of a carnal Christian or new believer.  The book also uses metaphors and popular analogies that are not necessarily Biblical to bring the reader into the perspective of how God might view our daily lives.  Her focus on these types of experiences can be problematic for many reasons including misleading a person who tends to be led by emotion instead of the immutable truth of the Word of God.  And lastly, the book does nothing to point a seeker to the Bible, a healthy well-balanced Christian church, fellowship with other believers, or educate him or her on the basic tenants of Christian faith.
If Jesus Calling were a Bible commentary, it would fail.  If Jesus Calling was intended as a tool for evangelism, it would fail.  If Jesus Calling was designed to be used by apologists to defend the faith, they would lose the debate.  While she quotes relevant verses with each devotional, her applications might not be universal to everyone (and Warren Smith knocks down many of them).  Perhaps she could be more accurate.  Perhaps she was taking a little extra literary license to illustrate the softer themes of life represented with verses that are more easily understood?
I am sad that a warm and friendly book that greases the seeker’s heart with a beginning understanding of the nature of God cannot also be more direct about essentials of the Christian faith too.  Perhaps a Max Lucado book would do better?  He uses poetry and prose with loving imagery to reach the broken hearted as well.  Maybe at some level both authors are similar?  You could say that their feel-good books distract a person from delving into the Bible yet they could also give another person a place to go when the Bible is just too intimidating.  A scholarly book (i.e. the Bible or a commentary) and a scathing review by a New Age fear-monger such as Warren Smith, will not comfort the heart of a person in crisis!
Sarah Young’s book could use some other improvements.  I don’t know why her testimony in the beginning does not include a salvation story per se.  Does this mean that she is not saved?  We just don’t know.  Again it is often literary license that an author uses more general terms of faith so as not to scare off wounded seekers that really need Him!  Jesus Calling may still be useful as an introduction to a more personal God for a lost soul who may have been hurt by religion or a skewed view of who He really is.  Seeing how God really does understand, cares about the details of one’s daily life, and is ever near is clear on these pages.  Reading this could help old wounds to heal.  Women often need this most.  Their minds will still need truth so the seeker should not end his or her search with Jesus Calling, however.  The book should have ended with an invitation to a closer relationship with God through His son, Jesus Christ and encourage the reader in his or her next steps as noted in my first paragraph.  It does not.
Is it New Agey?  The fact that Sarah does not go deeper into essential matters of Christian doctrine could make it look like just another feel good book about a generic God.  One might begin to pick apart themes in the devotionals and say that the God in Jesus Calling is not the God of the Bible.  And if the God in the book is not the God of the Bible then it must be about Satan or some New Age alternative that is neither one.  So the next step could be to claim that Jesus Calling is a New Age book because of this and because of its use of terms reflective of popular culture, the New Age movement.  Yes all of this could be true and indirectly move a seeker away from the One true God that he or she had hoped to find in an empty book.  Or maybe not.  I have more faith in the Lord’s plan for those who earnestly seek after Him.  He calls His own.  Her or she will find Him in a babbling brook if that is His will!
Many would criticize my own bridge to faith in Christ that was built through the 12 steps of Al Anon Adult Children of Alcoholics.  The daily devotional, One Day at a Time, is quite vanilla.  The God of the 12 Steps is generic albeit consistent with the basic tenants of a Christian faith from the Bible.  Tis sad that many stop at “recovery” and faith in a Higher Power in these meetings and never find the God of the Bible.  But the Lord had a plan for me from that feel-good experience and used those 9 years for His glory.  I would have never approached the throne of grace had I not healed from so much while sitting around the tables, held in the basement of many churches and not in the sanctuary.
I make two references to Jesus Calling in my eBook, Hope Beyond Lyme:  The First Year.  In the first I quote a nice encouragement Sarah Young gives about:  1) many of us seeing only a part or the “tip of the iceberg” when faced with confusing situations and 2) our needing to trust God for that which we cannot see or comprehend:  mysteries.  The second time I quote the book I name both Mrs. Young’s devotional along with a secular book of comedy as books with some wisdom but that both are second to the Bible.  I wonder if my friend misunderstood me:  Jesus Calling is not my second favorite book!   I read Jesus Calling over these past 2 years when I was in crisis every day and struggled to hold a heavy Bible let alone concentrate on it.  Because it comforted me I included it when writing the eBook.  I read my Bible most days anyways, of course!  The centrality of the Bible for me and for the eBook should be clear by the over twenty passages of scripture quoted and referenced.
No book is a replacement for the truth, hope, and eternal significance of the Holy Bible.  Today I am grateful to have a Bible App on my smart phone that I can easily hold in the palm of my hand in bed during trying times.  The Lord has opened my mind to more of His Word and the ability to concentrate on it too.  I am grateful for a temporary tool, a small devotional book, that the Lord used to comfort my heart until I could read His Word again.  I pray for spiritual armor to protect me and wisdom to discern any unsound doctrine that would harm my relationship to my King, my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I also pray that the millions of readers of Jesus Calling would continue to seek the Lord and find Him in the person of Jesus Christ alone.  Thank you Lord for my friend’s willingness to dialogue on this important topic.  May it all be for Your glory, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

We all have but one past

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“We all have one past, but many possible futures,” stated Canadian hockey player Guy LaFleur, in an interview at his retirement (as quoted in the February 2014 newsletter of RZIM ministries).

24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.  (The apostle Paul speaking in Acts 20:24)

Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.  Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.  (Proverbs 4:25-26)

Oh to be able to empty myself of yesterday and walk forth into tomorrow with great expectation!  To live in the moment with hope that what comes will be filled with the Lord’s tender mercies and grace is to really live freely in Christ.  And to know that the struggles of the day will work itself into a beautiful tapestry of my eternal life that has already begun, well, that’s really head-y man!

When I was researching yet another new dietary approach to the illness I endure, I realized how many times I have done this work before.  Over and over again I have sat here at our computer and continued to research solutions to the treatment failures in the past.  I admit that the new ideas don’t always come from the Lord, however.  Who else would come up with a way to make turnips to fit a Candida, mold-free, and low oxalate diet?  (Chuckle.)  I believe it is the Lord who inspires the best of what comes from me through the Holy Spirit and then provides just enough energy to get me there.  For example, I had an unexpected, Divine appointment with a friend who happened to be in the lobby of our doctor’s office on Friday.  She needed prayer badly!  The Lord in his mercy used me to step out in faith and pray with her right then and there.  The fellowship moved each of us.  The moment would have been missed if the Lord had orchestrated the events for me to leave the building just a few minutes earlier or later . . .

But really, until I started writing this I always thought that deep down inside I was someone who carried the events of my sordid childhood on my sleeve.  My utility to this world was somehow limited because of my past.  I thought that the facts that I came from a broken home, witnessed and experienced abuse, grew up lacking basic provisions at times, and didn’t find Jesus Christ until I had spiraled out of control as a young adult limited who I would eventually become someday.   Even if my outward appearance showed a measure of success, the inner woundedness kept me from enjoying it.  For example, I have had to remember to smile:  the joy just isn’t there a lot of the time to beam out from within me.  This should have changed when I found Jesus and entered into a personal, saving relationship with Him.  He redeemed my sin and began to fill the emptiness in my heart reserved only for Him.  Why wasn’t it enough?

I’m not sure I have the answer to that just yet.  I do know that sometimes we are our own worst enemies, eh?  We get in the way of what the Lord has planned for our lives, the opportunities he places before us and noticing the lovely little niceties he sprinkles around us to show us His love.  His love is always around us.  It’s my opportunity to let more of it dwell within me and let my eyes find it around me too.  And when that happens, more of Him flows through me to others, to my work, to my walk in this life with Him.   I can see that it is happening despite my weakness; I just haven’t recognized it enough.  I’m worried about appearing humble and making sure I “keep the gate closed” on the sordid remnants of my past.  Maybe I don’t need another few years of psychotherapy to figure it all out.  I just need to wait on Him.  He is leading me more than I realize!  And if that means anything to you, well let’s give God the glory!  Like Patsy Clairmont says in her book of the same title, God Uses Cracked Pots (1991) like me.

We all have one past.  Healing the hurts from our past requires grieving, reflection, restoration, and the passing of time.  But carrying it around and letting those wounds drag down the current day that has enough challenges of its own is a mistake.  Cut the ties to the past and live mindfully in the present.  Don’t deny who you are or your unique story.  Tell it to others who need to hear . . . talk about it with your heavenly Father who has sustained you to grow you into the man or woman you are today.  The possibilities of an amazing future awaits, adventures big and tiny, and we don’t want to miss them do we?

Say, I saw a gathering of robins (that signal the first sign of Spring in the Midwest) playing in a couple of feet of snow the other day when I was coming home from that doctor appointment.  I was exhausted as I turned the corner in my truck and some yucky stuff happened later that evening.  All of these events were in the mix of the activities of my day.  The bottom line is that the robins are back!  That is just sweet enough to warm my heart and the tips of my fingers in my fingertip less gloves as I type into the wee hours of the morning (until it’s time to take my final saliva sample for a lab test at the correct time interval, that is!).

Talk about cracked pots . . .  JJ

Crazy Food Combinations

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Gluten free oatmeal with beef gelatin for added protein?stop messin with my head

Sautéed celery, carrots, and turkey patties with salt and marjoram?

Baked and herbed chicken thighs?

Almond butter on iceberg lettuce wrapped around a slice of leftover turkey/beef meatloaf?

Almond/coconut milk smoothie with celery, carrot, avocado, and Celtic sea salt?

Yes!  Things sure can get weird when you’re on 3 diets at once:  1)  mold-free due to mold illness, 2) Candida/low sugar and starch due to a systemic infection, and 3) low sulphur due to probable methylation issues.  And you thought trying to lose a couple of pounds for your New Year’s Resolution was challenging?  That’s kid’s stuff  in my kitchen!  At least number 3 is only for 10 days before I add back cruciferous vegetables to see if they have contributed to the noxious symptoms of the past 2 years.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll figure out how to make pancakes out of squash and coconut flour after all!

In the meantime, note the incredible power of food.  I have a true Foodie friend who was able to help her sister recover from a deadly kidney disease in record time by painstakingly altering her sister’s eating plan.  The Nephrologist was astounded at the improvements in her lab results.  Yes, food is fuel and should require more of our time and attention if we desire better performance from our bodies or health.  While I do wish that my adherence to a mold-free and Candida diet for the past year would have made more of a difference, I know that I would be FAR WORSE if I had been more lax.  I am grateful for the supernatural strength of the Lord to help me shop for, prepare, and tolerate these special foods when I have felt very sick.

Somehow I am not be surprised that the Lord cares for all of these details of my life.

Matthew 6:26  (NIV)

26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

The food of the earth was created for our nourishment and enjoyment from the very beginning.

Genesis 1  (NIV)

11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
He has provided so much for us so I am challenged to be a good steward of that which He has provided.  I certainly can make it through the inconvenience and “missing out” of the sweeter and juicier foods for a time if it will help me get well.  I don’t need to know how long this will last; I am just grateful that there are new approaches to try and I only have to go to my local grocery store to find them!
So if you are facing some new dietary challenges this year, take heart!  You are not alone.  The changes you are making might just change your life in more ways than you imagined.  Besides, the smell of almond slices roasting in a little organic olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt is, well, heavenly!  Try it on a salad or topping a casserole in place of cheese and see whatcha think.  ;J

My Story in Brief

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Here’s a brief overview of my wacky journey to date, written for another blogger.  I’m hanging tough as this time of illness continues, leaning on the Lord and witnessing His grace in my life every day.  I have so much for which to be grateful!  You too?  :J

First Name: Julie
Age:  53
Gender:  Female
Where do you live?  Fort Wayne, Indiana

When/Where do you suspect that you contracted Lyme?  My doctor suggested it as a possibility in January of 2012.  He’s a family practice physician and chiropractor.

When did you first begin to feel ill or start to notice strange symptoms?   I have had fibromyalgia since 1992 in addition to some thyroid and female/hormonal issues.  Regardless, I was the fittest I had ever been in my life when I became extremely ill with viral hepatitis in October of 2011, after kayaking in a local reservoir.  When was unable to recover as time passed, my LLMD suggested underlying Lyme and that I read about mold illness too.

What were they?  The worst symptoms included:  ongoing nausea, increased muscle pain and headaches, decreased activity tolerance, worsened ringing in my ears, back pain, lightheadedness, extreme fatigue, fractionated sleep, and genital, stomach,  and dental pain.

How many doctors did you see before reaching an accurate diagnosis?  If you start from the fibromyalgia diagnosis in 1992, the number would be around 60 including chiropractors and a naturopathic physician.  If you start with October of 2011, it would be 2:  the emergency room NP and my LLMD.

Were you misdiagnosed with anything prior to being diagnosed with Lyme? If so, what?   It’s unclear if the myriad of health issues over the past two decades are related to Lyme Disease or not.  I started treating for Lyme (first with antibiotics then a Rife machine; supplements too) after confirmation of the diagnosis from biomeridian or electro-dermal testing in January of 2012.  A year later we discovered that we had mold in our home and remediated our entire home.  I had a significant history of mold exposure in a work setting about 6 years earlier and a genetic disposition that favored mold illness more than Lyme disease.  Another year later and currently, a systemic yeast infection (level 3 of 4 levels) has taken center stage in my course of treatment.  The treatment of Candida has been as difficult as that for Lyme or mold!

What are the main symptoms that you experience currently?   Virtually every day I feel like I have the flu, experience muscle and joint pain, endure headaches/neck headaches, and battle weakness and fatigue.  The other symptoms noted above persist as well.

The WORST SYMPTOM by far is that of seizure-like episodes!  The first episode happened one month after the onset of viral hepatitis.  Then I had no episodes until I began treating for Lyme disease with the Rife machine and after the initial trial course of 5 weeks of antibiotics.  Seizure attack episodes thus began around April of 2012 and have gradually worsened since then:  generally up to 4 hours per day!  If I did not have a personal relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ, I would not be able to endure this personal hell. 

What does your treatment regimen look like?   I can no longer tolerate virtually all of the supplements or compounded medications for Lyme or mold illness without the seizure attacks escalating into convulsions!  I have maintained an increasingly and very strict Candida and mold-free diet for the past year.  Treatment focuses on Candida (rotating anti-fungal meds. & supplements as tolerated); I am no longer able to tolerate the compounded medications of Dr. Shoemaker’s protocol for Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (www.survivingmold.com)


How much do your symptoms prevent you from living a normal life?  My life is severely restricted to chemical/fragrance-and-mold-free environments and settings void of loud music and bright lights.  I have not attended our church in about 8 months as it is a water-damaged building.  Physical deconditioning restricts former activities including kayaking, bicycling, walking and gardening.  I am grateful for the occasional exceptions and was able to maintain some raised bed gardens this past year.  Yeah God!  Travelling is particularly difficult and severely exacerbates seizure attack episodes no matter what precautions we try!  After 30 years as an occupational therapist, including adapting my career with various events of my life, I have not been able to work in 2 years.  I miss working!

What do you like to do in your free time and how is this different than before you were sick?   As tolerated, I blog in the middle of the night at:  http://www.justjuliewrites.com on topics incorporating my faith in God and hoping to encourage others with my story of recovery from chronic illness.  I am grateful to have published an eBook this past October entitled:  Hope Beyond Lyme:  The First Year   In August of 2012, I started making macramé hemp jewelry to keep myself sane; today I am grateful to offer jewelry from two missionary organizations helping families at risk.  A donation will be made to Ianna House (a residence for persons with Lyme Disease) for all Lyme disease awareness items purchased at:  Trinity Jewelry by Design.


What do you want people to know about Lyme?   Examine carefully and journal your symptoms (response to treatment, etc.), do online research especially at http://www.ilads.org including vector-borne co-infections, join online Lyme forums, do  IGenex testing (www.igenex.com), find an experienced Lyme AND mold literate physician (s), and consider several treatment options as you begin this long journey to healing.

What are you most thankful to have gained, or what important lessons have you learned, from your experience with Lyme?   I don’t know how anyone can recover from this difficult illness without two things:  1) the love, care, and support of other people in your life and 2) faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ who loves you, sees your suffering, grieves with you, and will carry you through the ups and downs of this difficult journey.  He is our true source of hope!  When struggling with hours of seizures at night, He meets me there every time and comforts my weary heart, my weary soul, my weary frame.  Sharing my faith with you is my reassurance that this experience won’t be wasted!  I welcome your thoughts and would love to meet you, Gentle Reader, through my blog (www.justjuliewrites.com) or on Facebook at:  Hope Beyond Lyme.  Take care, Julie

Lost in Space

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Lost in SpaceToday was a better day.  I almost don’t know what to do with myself!  I slept a total of 13 hours:  slowly moving through the motions of self care then made my way to the kitchen.  Five hours later I emerged having made dinner, homemade granola, no-bake cookies, bone broth, and roasted parsnips.  What the heck happened?

Who knows?  Maybe I don’t need to know.  I still had some rough moments this morning with feelings of sickness on and off.  But this is the first evening in many weeks when I have not had a major seizure attack episode for 1-3 hours before midnight.  Thank you Lord!

Tomorrow will be filled with appointments outside our home and we’ll see how that goes.  I kinda think that reducing my stress level was the right thing to do today, letting my energy level dictate what I would do rather than my calendar.  So as I go to bed I am massively humbled and a little lost.  Gee.  A better day happened to me!

Tee hee!  Goodnight all.  JJ