Category: Uncategorized

There is a Fountain

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized12 Comments

This song kept playing in my head all night and woke me in the morning.
One line stood out in particular: Thy precious blood shall never lose its power, ’til all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more.

In contrast to the on-line ugliness seen this past week in attacks directed at a well-known pastor/teacher and author whose son died tragically, I have seen the beauty of thousands of people coming together to pray for a man many of them have never met. I have seen leaders from other fellowships with differing doctrines lay down their right to be right and pray together toward the same purpose. I’ve seen folks from many varieties and styles of prayer and worship of Jesus Christ respond eagerly to prayer bulletins on social media.

I have seen people offer to care for our grandchildren, clean the house, buy groceries, help with paper work and banking, give massages, fix the tires, pick people up from the airport, host out-of-town family in their homes -and more. I have heard from people who have never said more than a one sentence prayer who say they have woken in the night with an urge to pray. I have never experienced such a practical out-pouring of love, but more than that I have never seen so many people moved to overcome differences, reconcile relationships and minister not only to our family, but to each other. It amazes me. I can honestly say, “Look how they love one another!”

I paced and wept and cried out for the life of our son-in-love at that moment when teary-eyed nurses invited immediate family for a brief visit before another surgery on “John.”  We knew they did not hold out much hope for him. Strangely as I prayed and walked the halls the phrase that kept popping up, unbidden, in my mind was: “The deeds of the flesh must die.” I didn’t understand it then and I didn’t want to hear it. I realize now this trying time is not about punishment or God being angry with John.  The Lord knew he would be okay. This is about a bigger picture.

John has required many blood and platelet transfusions; he has almost needed a fountain of donated blood to keep him going. As I watched another bag dripping life into him today, and with this song still in my head, I was struck by the symbolism.

Finally John is starting to gain consciousness and even make jokes with us, although it is difficult for him to communicate. He is still surrounded by machines and a room full of skilled care-givers who watch the numbers and tend his needs. He can do nothing for himself -not even breathe- but I think the Lord is using him even in his helpless state to teach us.

It is the blood of Christ freely shed for us that gives us life. It is the light of Christ’s love that reveals corruption in the body, the underlying dis-ease of lack of love that spreads like killer bacteria and keeps the church from being what God intended. It is the kind adjudication of God that filters out lies and shows us where we need to change and be renewed. It is the sharp sword of the Word of God that is able to excise and remove necrotic tissue without damaging the healthy tissue and it is Holy Spirit who breathes new life into us.

Christ is returning for a spotless bride. He is revealing and cleansing not because he intends judgmental condemnation, but because he loves us and wants us to be well.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

(Galatians 5:13-23) 

Abba, in your church, be glorified.

Remembering the Future

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Remembering the Future

Charis Psallo's avatarCharis: Subject to Change

I was looking forward to this journey to my Father’s house on the Alberta side of the Rockies. Usually the mountain views are stunning, but instead I drove through fog for nearly four hours. I could see very little beyond the verge by the highway most of the time. Sometimes the fog would lift for a moment only to re-form and descend again. I stopped near some cabins, closed for the season, to take a break from the tension of driving in poor visibility and found a beautiful stream.  When I descended the Kootenay Parkway the clouds vanished.

 

 

 

 

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Radiant Hope

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized4 Comments

A prayer for the prayers.

Charis Psallo's avatarCharis: Subject to Change

Photos: Sunflowers on Eager Hill

May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope. Romans 15:13

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On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Christ comes juggling our tombs

Charis Psallo's avatarCharis: Subject to Change

I love this poem by Eugene Warren in The Risk of Birth edited by Luci Shaw

Christ Came Juggling

Christ came juggling from the tomb,

flipping and bouncing death’s stone pages,

tossing those narrow letters high

against the roots of dawn spread in cloud.

This Jesus, clown, came dancing

in the dust of Judea, each slapping step

a new blossom spiked with joy.

Hey! Listen — that chuckle in the dark,

that clean blast of laughter behind –

Christ comes juggling our tombs,

tossing them high and higher yet,

until they hit the sun and break open

and we fall out, dancing and juggling

our griefs like sizzling balls of light.

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I Don’t Work There Anymore

On By Charis PsalloIn Man made, Photography, Uncategorized9 Comments


vacant

 

Long ago and far away I worked in a really crazy office. The two women who ran the department were nuts -and I say that in the nicest possible way. They actually threw books at each other. Since my desk was between theirs I learned to duck when “Olga” began her wind-up. She had a good arm but her pitches were often low. Olga qualified as a United Nations translator, but when people she didn’t like required her services, she suddenly developed a thick accent and twenty word English vocabulary. She would hand me the phone and I got to pass the messages on. Yet Olga had power. She had been there forever, knew the dirt on everyone and wasn’t afraid to drag it up. She even made the company president cower.

“Lulu” was Olga’s assistant. She had the worst bouts of PMS I have ever witnessed. Most of the time she was sweet as the dickens because she was trying to get me on her side, but on those days she would barrel into the office like a category three, tossing books and papers in the air, crying and ranting about how she couldn’t possibly deal with the demands put on her, then storm out, leaving me to re-organize the disaster before Olga saw it.

I was their office clerk. This was one of my first jobs, and I needed it. I didn’t want to be a complainer. I wanted a good recommendation when I moved on — hopefully sooner than later. Finally someone who worked upstairs walked in during a screaming match between my two supervisors, felt compassion for me, and arranged for me to be “loaned” to another office.

Shortly after I moved to another department, Olga showed up in front of my desk, dropped a pile of work on it,  glowered at me and said in her usual abrupt manner, “You do this today,” then stomped out.

What can I say? Olga scared me. I still wasn’t clear on who I worked for, so I stayed late to do it on top of my other work -with tears in my eyes.

The next day my new boss said, “Don’t listen to her. You have been officially transferred. She is not your boss –in fact, you no longer have clearance to do that work. You are not qualified to listen to her. You don’t work there anymore -and I will deal with Olga myself.” She grabbed the pile of work and took it out of the room. That was the last I saw of it.

Often when I am stressed and over-tired, I forget that I have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Sometimes I forget that I don’t need to listen to the old boss.  I don’t need to do their work for them by being negative or critical. In fact, the Bible says I am not qualified to listen to that old voice.

I thought of Olga and Lulu today when I read this passage.

“I, I am he who comforts you;
who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,
of the son of man who is made like grass,
 and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
And where is the wrath of the oppressor?

He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
    he shall not die and go down to the pit,
    neither shall his bread be lacking. (Isaiah 51:12-14)

I needed the Lord to remind me today that when the voices of doom and gloom and dismal forebodings plunk their pile of time-sucking requirements in front of me, I don’t have to listen to them. In fact, God says, “Who are you that you are afraid? You’re not qualified to be afraid.”

I am not qualified to listen to those voices. I don’t work there anymore.

I have a new boss, and He is good.

Love is Louder

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized19 Comments
Fearless
Fearless

When they received bad news from the fertility specialist my son-in-law (I’ll call John, as in John the Beloved) said to his young wife, “You know, the bigger the problem the bigger the miracle God can perform -and you know He can’t resist a good miracle.” They now have three beautiful little miracles to love and cherish.

This week we petition the Lord for another miracle -that these precious children would be raised by their healthy daddy.

When we arrived for our granddaughter’s fourth birthday he was already feeling very sick with what he thought was the flu and a pulled hamstring. Twenty four hours later surgeons were desperately trying to remove “brown gunk” from necrotizing fasciitis -flesh eating disease. They left an open incision from his knee to his waist and he has been on life support since Sunday morning after his blood pressure crashed.

But the most amazing things have happened as we trust God moment by moment.

When he heard the news shortly before the main morning service started, John’s pastor walked away from the pulpit of a large church to be at the side of his friend and a family in need. He has stayed with him in ICU, with several of John’s friends all night, every night since. The waiting room is filled with friends and people walk the halls nearly twenty-four hours a day praying for our beloved John. When the doctor’s reports grew more pessimistic they prayed harder.

Requests for prayer went out over social media and we are hearing from literally thousands of people around the world that their church, or home group, or school, or personal network is praying for this young family. We have never felt so loved.

God is doing something highly unusual here. As people come to pray they are themselves being touched by the love of God, repenting (choosing to change their thinking) and encountering a love and peace that does not make sense under the circumstance. People are being healed of deep wounds. Relationships are being restored, and more and more people are following the story on the media.

I’m mostly at home caring for the children with their other grandmother, while our daughter is at the hospital 20 hours a day. I went with her one night and was totally surprised by the atmosphere of peace in John’s room and the shouts of joy in the hall as the team prayed for the numbers on his monitors to change -and they did.

On Monday our little two-year old grandson was chattering to his distracted mommy who came home long enough to cuddle them herself, before returning to the hospital. Suddenly he changed the subject and said, “We don’t have to be afraid because Jesus is with us. Jesus is with us. Mommy, we don’t have to be afraid because Jesus is with us.”

Today she and I took the children for a walk, to take a breather. I had my camera with me (It’s a habit.) The little guy ran ahead and squatted down to trace “alphabets” that someone had written on the pavement. When I got closer I could see that it said “BE FEARLESS.”

The words on the other end of the bridge said, “LOVE IS LOUDER.”

I have no idea who wrote those words, but they felt like a gift from God.

The reports up until today have been quite negative. But God…

The love of God shining through people we have never met, through friends, through family who have travelled to be with John even though he is unconscious, have shouted down those dismal reports. Today we see improvement. Today the doctor said he was dying, but now he will live.

There is something more going on here than our limited human vision can see. John is a man who is willing to lay down his life for the Jesus he loves –and the people God loves. The love surrounding him is palpable. Some people are seeing angels in the room  as they pray for him. He is the kind of man whose whole life is a message about God’s love and goodness. I know that if the Lord asked him to give his life to save the church, he would do it.

God is up to something. When his Holy Spirit surrounds his church His holiness reveals weaknesses where we have relied on the flesh and where it has become corrupt. He shows us how parts of the body of Christ have been without blood supply or functioning in the way God intended and other parts are not communicating with each other. Impurities that have failed to be removed by non-discerning “kidneys” can all be healed in the light of Jesus’ relentless love. He tells us we are in a war for unity and purity and love in the body of Christ and we have not been taking this fight nearly seriously enough. It takes a willingness to turn, to change, to seek the Lord. Without serious day and night prayer the church in this part of the world will succumb to hidden decay. We need God’s light and his love that shines and burns like a laser.

Love is louder!

Love is Louder
Love is Louder

“John” is very much loved by many, many people. If you would like to pray with us for him we are asking right now for his blood pressure to rise on it’s own so he can get off the medications that restrict circulation to his feet, for restoration and preservation of his toes, for an increased platelet count, for his kidneys to start to function and for rapid healing of a massive open wound.

But more than that we want to give thanks to a God who is good, who tells us in writing on the sidewalk that we don’t have to be afraid and who tells us that love is louder than fear.

Persevere

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized1 Comment

DSC_0026There’s something about perseverance through suffering that grants an authority which can be gained no other way.

Charis Psallo's avatar

There’s something about perseverance through suffering that grants an authority which can be gained no other way.

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Note to self

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized3 Comments

I’m re-blogging this as we watch and pray for our son-in-law who clings to life in ICU after surgery for flesh eating disease. God is working behind the scenes right now and it’s good to remember we walk by faith and not by sight, because physically things don’t look too good right now. Our job is to watch and pray, trust and obey and rest in His love.

Charis Psallo's avatarCharis: Subject to Change

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

(Jeremiah 29:11)

I often wonder if many of the people who buy lovely posters and trinkets with this scripture verse printed on them are aware of the context. Jeremiah gives this message to a people who are in the midst of the worst possible calamity they could imagine. He writes quite clearly that they face a 70 year exile. He tells them to plant gardens, build houses and seek the welfare of the people who destroyed the Judean way of life.

God’s timetable can be so different from ours. We can be assured God is at work even we can’t see what he is up to.

One of the people who read Jeremiah’s letter was Daniel. Think of it, Daniel was in service…

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On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Oh my word, I have seen those barricades erected in a flash. I can put them up pretty fast myself. Thank you for this, Ben.

Ben Nelson's avatarAnother Red Letter Day

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.” (John 4:19 NASB)

Yesterday we heard Jesus call to a place deep inside this Samaritan woman with the words “Go, call your husband, and come here.” With that request, He was able to break through her confusion about Living Water.

However, He also managed to flip the switch on her religion vocab.

You had me intrigued with this talk of living water, but now you want to talk religion, well, I am ready. Bring it on. If you want to talk about religion let’s talk about it. Who are you Jews to tell us how to worship?

Jesus’ penetrating words touched a hurt and triggered a defensive lockdown.

Rather than deal with her chronic relational issues, this daughter of Samaria brings up an age-old argument, that goes back to the great national divorce, when

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Unseasonable Joy

On By Charis PsalloIn Just folks, Photography, Uncategorized, Winter6 Comments
Thaw
Chinook

The prairies that sidle up to the Canadian Rockies feel the brunt of truck-tipping winds, forehead-slapping cold and frequent horizontal snowstorms, but they also bask in sudden rises in temperature when warm winds, called Chinooks, come shooting down the leeward slopes. While folks in other parts of the country are still pulling  their heads into their down jackets like sullen turtles, kids in western Alberta ignore their cautious mothers and fling hats and mitts onto soggy piles of snow to dance and play in the sun.

For me, it’s been a long dark winter, with sudden breaks of unseasonable joy. I know God is teaching me to rest in his finished work and to trust that He is the one who wins the victory, but sometimes, when it hurt and when  negative words swirled around me like a prairie blizzard obscuring my view, all I wanted to do was retreat my head into my poofy parka and stop feeling for a while.

The problem with blocking out pain is that we also block out joy. James wrote, “Consider it all joy, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

There are times when all I have the strength to do is turtle, to work on endurance. And then there are times when I am surprised by unseasonable joy right in the middle of my winter, when it’s okay to pop my head out again and throw my parka aside.

It’s a wild road, this life with Jesus thing, with ups and downs and sudden turns, but every step is one where He is behind me and before me, above me and below me, and best of all –within me.

God is good father. It’s not all about discipline and learning new lessons. He also likes to play, because what He has done for us is already a done deal.

Puddle-wonderful
Puddle-wonderful