Talk to me, Abba.

Put away all pretense. Hear the echoes of my salvation. Come up to me and tell me everything you are afraid to. Rest here, like a child in their mother's arms. Come with me and rest. I am doing something expansive and beautiful inside of you. Let me. Do not focus on the behavior of others. Let me change you. Let me mold you into someone who benefits those you love. If you desire to see Me in those you love, ask Me. If you desire anything, ask Me. Stop trying to use techniques to speed your journey to holiness. Ask Me. Ask. I give out the fruit that you crave. I give it out to you and your children. Ask Me. I long to lavish love on you and remind you of the beauty I have given you. I long to be with you. Put away the trappings of church and employment and popularity and enjoy me as I AM. Enjoy me, Beloved. Come near.

To find out more about this weekly segment, see this post.

©stephaniecherry.com

Music: Counting Stars by Andrew Peterson

When I first started wanting to review books and music, I would search the web for other reviews and see how people went about the reviewing process. Most of what I found was boringly long, technical, and didn't make me want to read or buy anything. If you are wanting to know this kind of thing, I will ask my husband for you. As for me, I don't care. What I care about is if it told a story. Did it make me yearn to sit at the feet of God and enjoy Him? 

I must confess that I have not listened to Andrew Peterson before now. It is a shame. I loved this album. It made me want to curl up in my rocking chair on the porch, coffee in hand, and just enjoy God's creation. His mellow, folk story style made me feel at home. In fact, I think he might have a little bit of Austin, Texas flair in him. Reading about the stories behind each song was deeply stirring to my spirit. Mostly, I loved watching him talk about the making of the album in this video. His natural posture of intimacy with the Lord was very beautiful and refreshing to me.

Counting Stars comes out July 27th! Get it on iTunes. 

This album was provided by Centricity Music for review.

They Told Me Their Stories

They Told Me Their Stories is a look at the miracles that occurred at the Azusa Street mission. I was amazed by the accounts of the witnesses. The retelling was deeply encouraging to me. I yearn to see a movement of God like the one witnessed from 1906-1910 on Azusa Street in California. If you are wondering if there can be an outpouring of the supernatural in our day in our nation, read this book.


The stories of the healing that occurred there is amazing. I love how the story began. A man was having prayer meetings at his house and the crowd had grown so large that the cops told him to move it. He found a place, but had no money. God told him, a black man, to get on a train and go to a part of town that a black man would have been killed for being in at that time. He did it. Once off the train, God directed him to an apartment. He knocked on the door and saw a room full of white women. He asked simply if they were praying for revival and they said they had been praying that very night. He replied that he was the man they were praying for to lead it. Amazing.

Lament

      Lament

             by Evangeline Paterson

Weep, weep for those

Who do the work of the Lord

With a high look

And a proud heart.

Their voice is lifted up

In the streets, and their cry is heard.

The bruised reed they break

By their great strength, and the smoking flax

They trample.

Weep not for the quenched

(For their God will hear their cry

And the Lord will come to save them)

But weep, weep for the quenchers

For when the Day of the Lord

Is come, and the vales sing

And the hills clap their hands

And the light shines

Then their eyes shall be opened

On a waste place,

Smouldering,

The smoke of the flax bitter

In their nostrils,

Their feet pierced

By broken reed-stems . . .

Wood, hay, and stubble,

And no grass springing.

And all the birds flown.

Weep, weep for those

Who have made a desert

In the name of the Lord.

Talk to me, Abba.

For some time now, God has been teaching me to listen. Carefully and tenderly, He has taught me to distinguish and know His voice. I have read many books written with the authors simply listening to hear God speak to them and record what He says. I often sit with my Bible, my journal, and a stack of note cards to record anything God may have for me or anyone else. I have honestly been amazed at what has transpired in these times. He has clearly told me things before they happened and given me a window into how to pray for and encourage others in ways that human reasoning cannot explain. That is the beauty of it. God desires to speak to us. He desires to send messages through us to people in such a way that they will know that there is no other way that the message came, but the voice of God. I challenge you to listen with me. Isaiah 48:6 tells us that from now on God will tell us new things, hidden things which we did not know. He wants to reveal Himself and bathe you in intimacy. 

"You are growing up. Your days of naive worship and shallow but exciting intimacy are over. It is always difficult for a child to become an adult, to draw close to me as I AM." - Dr. Larry Crabb

Each Tuesday, I will post this segment on this blog. Other days I will post book reviews, music reviews, and random thoughts. I hope you enjoy learning to listen with me. 

Talk to me, Abba.

"You belong to me. I will fiercely protect you and guide you through every dark corridor. You are alive. You are free. Although you feel as though your wings have been clipped, it is a lie. Your wings have not been clipped. Listen to me. Your wings have not been clipped. The enemy has deluded you into the thinking that you are no longer capable of flight, but he is a liar. Don't ask me to regrow what I did not allow him to steal from you. Look, even now, and see the bold, brilliant wings I have given you. Quit sulking and prepare for flight. Do not gaze upon the lack of love from others who claim to speak in my name. Wrap yourself up in this love, my love. Love back. Heal. Forgive. Cry out. Burst forth. Do not deny me. Fly with depth and intensity...in the plenitude of my power."

Come back to listening to only My voice.

Talk to me, Abba ©stephaniecherry.com

George Müller by Basil Miller

Over a hundred years after his death, the life and faith of George Müller still ministers to me. I am constantly challenged and exhorted by his testimony. 

His father sent him to seminary hoping to secure a good job that would provide for him (and his father and mother). The irony there is that George was an unconverted sinner who was reveling in debauchery and sin sick. He converted his life upon seeing someone genuinely praying upon their knees.

After this conversion, he saw the beauty and joy of prayer and gave up his regular salary and simply prayed for his every day provisions. In his journal he states that he would pray and money and food would simply show up. It tells that God answered more than 50,000 of his simple requests for daily provision. He prayer focused to building several orphanages which housed thousands of children. He also traveled and shared his faith to 42 countries up until he was 93 years old. He stated that he read his Bible more than two hundred times in his life and that one hundred of those were on his knees. What an amazing picture of a tender yearning to hear God speak.

Simply through prayer and never through public plea, this man of God was given millions of dollars in the 1800's. His life and testimony is fascinating. May you be challenged to pray and expect God to answer you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Muller

Jesus Calling: Deluxe Edition by Sarah Young

The new leather edition of Jesus Calling is beautiful. In it, we see Sarah Young who has spent several decades as a missionary to the Japanese, open her heart to hear from God. She would sit down with a pen and a journal and wait for the Lord to speak with her. This book is the fruit of that labor. It is full of the lavish love and wisdom of of a Father poured out on His child.

Honestly, when I first saw this book, I overlooked it. I thought the title made is seem cheesy. I had no idea who Sarah Young was or anything about her. I thought this was another cutesy book on the Christian book shelves. Then, God told me to read it.

Even as the book arrived in my mail box, I could feel the Holy Spirit calling to me in it. I have been trying to cultivate a similar practice into my own prayer life. As we listen to the Lord speak to us, He reveals beautiful things and messages of depth and tenderness. Each day I read spoke volumes to me and ministered to me as a mentor of sorts. Her story of coming to Christ in the intro of the book is worth the read all on it's own.

Do you want to cultivate a more intimate relationship with the Lord? He longs to speak to you. Pick this book up and learn to listen.

This book was provided for review by Thomas Nelson Publishing Company.

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus

"In the story of the prodigal son the act of asking for inheritance while the father is still alive is shocking. It implies a wish that the Father was dead. It would have shocked Jesus' audience. No Middle Eastern father would have been expected to forgive the offense of such a son. We can see in this how shocking God's acceptance really is. We tend to think of sin as an infraction of the rules. The story Jesus tells makes it clear that our own sin is not just an infraction against a set of laws, but a terrible offense against God, our loving Father. By taking the good gifts we've been given- our time, money, talents-and running away to live life our own way, we are acting like the prodigal who turns his back on his father, sells the ancestral lands, and the squanders his inheritance. It is tantamount to wishing God were dead.

We see Jesus live out this parable and playing the part of the loving father when He dines with tax collectors and sinners. This is something no self-respecting rabbi would be expected to do."

I have been amazed at how seeing the Jewishness of Jesus could bolster my faith. I am sure you will hear from me about this book many times in the future. When we see the Bible in the context of it's Jewish origin it becomes amazingly clear. I highly recommend it.

This book was provided for review by reader Christine Fahs. Thanks Christine!

The Shore

I honestly have no idea what to write. I just feel a release and a peace sweeping over me. All I can say is that God alone is good. It has been a hard road, but God spoke the most tender thing He could over me today. "I have delighted in your obedience."

Thank you, Abba.

I don't even know where we are going and that feels like a rhapsody to me.

We had a garden wedding today.

Here are some pictures from the joyous Potato Head wedding!

©stephaniecherry.com

Read with Me

I was recently given a complimentary copy of The Voices of the True Woman Movement to share about on my blog. I am going to start talking about a chapter a week in August. I wondered if any of you lovely readers wanted to read it with me and discuss it. You have a month to get a copy and the reading each week is minimal so we can fully absorb it. Let me know if you are interested.

http://www.truewoman.com/

Church It Up

Months ago, I came across the phrase "temple broke" in Brennan Manning's The Furious Longing of God. He didn't elaborate on it, but it left me thinking about it. What does being "temple broke" mean exactly? Is it like the bear in Open Season who was so comfortable being a family pet that he didn't want to leave the garage and live in the wild he was created for? Have we been domesticated? Have we been broken like a wild animal? We have learned to live so that people think we are tame and will want to be like us. Safe. Easy. No work involved. You won't find poop on the pew here. Say the right things and do the right things. Never mind that our hearts are black. We look good. Jesus said that the Pharisees were like the white-washed tombs. They appeared to be beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men's bones.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to appear beautiful anymore. I want to be a part of something that brings deep, unadulterated pleasure to the heart of God. I want to be a part of something that isn't focused on what we look like, but longs to bless God.

What are you on pilgrimage toward?

©stephaniecherry.com

All In A Day's Work

People are always asking me how I get done what I do. I actually had no idea and so I thought about what I do each day. What is your routine like?

I am a goal oriented person. If I set a goal to read a book or finish a project, I typically work on it until I am done (often staying up way too late). That led me to break my goals up. For example, I gave myself a goal of reading 56 books a year about 2 years ago. For me not to spend hours a day reading, I open to the back of the book and see how many pages there are. I divide the pages by 7 and then I have my daily reading goal. It's usually 25-30 pages a day.

My morning starts in the middle of the night. Usually I feel God prompting me to get up around 3 a.m. to pray and I lay out on the floor next to my bed and pray as long as He is telling me to. Then I go back to bed for a while.

After I get up and feed the tiny person who lives in my house I start my official day. Every day I have a "most important" list of things I do.

1. Read my chapters for reading the Bible in a year. (I do a different translation each year)

2. Do my daily devotional journal. This year I am doing Come Away, My Beloved.

3. Read my 25-30 pages of whatever book I am reading.

4. Write in my prayer journal.

5. Do scripture memory with Laomai

Three days a week Laomai and I do homeschool. I try to schedule and plan the meals I do in advance so I don't waste time trying to figure out what I am going to cook. Two or three days a week I will spend extra time remodeling and cleaning our house. I don't do that every day so that I don't burn out.

Other than that, my main goals are to play. I also love to write cards and write in my spare time.

Make time for what you love. Really organize the things you don't so that you don't waste time on them. I love lists and day planners. I plan my week on the Friday before and I try to always leave Sunday blank to experience the benefits of the Sabbath. I really love to serve and encourage others, to paint on canvas, to garden, and to cook. I also love to do Bible study. A personal goal is to have lunch with one friend a week. That is one of my favorites. I plan out surprises for my husband and my family. It is really quite a lot of fun! Perhaps I should do a post about how I do all of this. What do you think?

What does your day look like? What do you love?

The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

Richard Stearns was called by God to make a life changing decision. In 1998 he left his position as CEO of Lenox and accepted the position of president at World Vision. This book is much more than Richard's story. It's all of our story. We see him struggle to respond to a call that he was certain he was unequipped for. From that point on, we are drawn into the gospel mandate that God has given all of us. Feed. Heal. Love.

God has been doing a work in me. Perhaps it would be better stated to say that He has been working me over. A Hole in Our Gospel was the nail in my coffin. I had learned how to do church safely and give to others safely. That giving often looked radical to others, but God has a grand picture for us to live wildly that we are desperately afraid to lay hold of. I am praying for the faith to pick that vision up and live the crazy abandoned life that God has called us to live. The countless testimonies have been seared into my mind. May this be the definitive moment for me. Read this book and embrace the full power of the gospel on your life. Don't go back to the status quo.

There is an amazing study and resources available at http://www.thegospelquest.com

Please read this book.

"Are we, like Christ, willing to respond with compassion and urgency to those who suffer? Are we willing? Do we have the kind of faith, the moral courage, the depth of love, and the strength of will to rise up off our padded pews to demonstrate the good news to the world? One way or the other, this will be our defining moment."

*This book was provided by Thomas Nelson Publishers for review.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day Miracle

Blessings Follow Obedience

On Monday 127 staff members from Carolina Creek Christian Camp will be pouring out of buses at Gomer's House. We wrote down a short bio to share with them on their bus ride there. I thought you might like to read it as well. Enjoy.

Throughout our marriage, God has given us opportunities to house different people in our small, single family home. Then five years ago, God started turning our hearts to provide a place of healing for people. At the end of 2007, God told us to sell our home. Not knowing where we were going, we put our home on the market. In April of 2008, our house sold for full price even though the exact model next door had sold for $10,000 less just a month earlier. This began our Abrahamic season where we stayed with four different friends for a nine month period. During this time, we began fervently asking the Lord where we were to be and exactly what we were to be doing. He showed us pastors that were hurting, people hurt by pastors, missionaries in need of refreshing, and we personally lost two brothers to drug addiction.

How was God going to tie all of this together?

One day we prayed and asked God for a miracle of direction. While perusing Craig’s List for something completely unrelated, we found a 3 story, 100 year old house in a town we had never heard of. God miraculously provided the down payment and we were set to begin. As we moved into the house in January of 2009, we began to see how God was going to use us to reach such a wide array of people. This glorious house is situated amongst a poor and drug ravaged neighborhood.

God graciously brought us people to completely redo all of our plumbing and much of our electrical so that we could live in the house. Volunteers have continued to stream in over the course of the last year bringing much of what we needed.

People always ask if we know that Gomer was a prostitute. Two years ago, while studying the book of Hosea, God clearly told us that this was to be the name of the respite. Hosea was one of God’s main men during his time and his wife was a drug addict and a prostitute. If this was going on in Hosea’s home, we can only imagine the need for healing in homes of ministers today.

We thought that God would finish our house before He started sending people to us. Several months after we moved in, He started sending people to stay and rest and find healing. It is a beautiful testimony of how God can use 5,500 square feet in need of desperate restoration to minister. We will also be taking in a family of five in the coming weeks.

While you work, pray for the people living in Fentress. Pray for those captive to drug and alcohol addiction to be set free. Pray that their hearts would be prepared to hear the good news and receive Christ.

We love you and we are deeply grateful for you!

Denbigh, Stephanie, and Laomai Cherry

22ONE7 Ministries

"Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” -Revelation 22:17

†Gomer's House is being restored to serve as a respite to the least, the last, and the broken.

We Think It'll Make Us Happy-It Just Makes Us Fat

Over the past few years I started wondering if we were fooling ourselves with all of the good works we do in church. This is going to sound completely offensive, but I was wondering if we were just running in circles trying to entertain middle class white people. I really began asking the Lord if we were glorifying Him or just saturating ourselves with more hording. Can you horde scripture about how God wants you to be fulfilled? It seems that most everything I hear is about us. What about the rest of the gospel?

I came across a quote recently in The Hole in Our Gospel:

"We have gone from being fishers of men to being keepers of the aquarium."

- Paul Harvey

I just sat there with the Lord and asked if He would remove anything that made keeping the aquarium alluring. Lord, I don't want to keep the aquarium.

As I read about the immense poverty world-wide, I am stunned by my own selfishness. I weep at the selfishness of the church. Does anyone notice that one in four children in third world countries is severely malnourished while more than one in four children in America is severely obese? What does this say about us? We have the most of the most and we give terribly little. Do we want to continue to entertain the modern church or do we want to begin making ready the fields for harvest? We have to quit placating and medicating ourselves so that we can be about the real work of the Father.

Life, in Spite of Me by Kristen Anderson

Life, in Spite of Me is Kristen's story of healing from a suicide attempt. It was no ordinary attempt either. She laid down on a railroad track and was run over by 33 freight cars on a speeding train. She should have naturally been sucked under the train, but she felt something holding her down. Later, she realized that force was the hand of God.

This book deeply ministered to my spirit. As I read how her struggles and battles loomed over her and God gently led her about, I was grateful to be reading it. I have my legs, but I have lost a lot of things in this life and I could identify with every word she said. Even in her struggle to learn to walk on prosthetics, God infused me with hope and courage.

The most frightening and poignant part of the story was when Kristen realized that she would have gone to hell if she had died and God saved her. She had been in church her whole life, but never accepted Jesus as her personal Saviour. Because of her discovery, God led her whole family into a relationship with Him. God can use the most overwhelming circumstances to draw others to Himself and bring glory to His name.

Buy this book.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

God is Good

I am thankful that the Lord has so tenderly led me in the past months. I am thankful for the love of people. I am grateful that people care enough about us to send us a hundred workers on Memorial Day. I am moved beyond words that God has confirmed His love is the flood of donations we have received this past week. The Lord is good. He confirms us in our obedience and our trust. He never leaves us or forsakes us. He goes through the fire and passes through the waters with us. He is good.

Radical by David Platt

"In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a "successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus."

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When I was about halfway through this book, I told my husband I didn't think I was going to be the same at the end of it. I read alot of books, but I am rarely so stirred by the words contained in it as I have been with this book. I was moved to tears many times by David's stories of getting to share the gospel globally. He had to be hidden and smuggled into many countries to share the gospel. Why are we so timid and spending all of our resources on ourselves?

.

One thing that stood out to me was the people in foreign countries who would beg him to preach the Bible to them no less than 12 hours a day. It is such a stark contrast to us. We have so much and yet we can hardly finish reading the tiny email devotionals we get each day. Our hearts are hard. We cannot share a gospel that we do not know.

.

This is a horrifying showcase of how we build obscenely priced church buildings and give so little to aid the tens of thousands that starve to death every day. We have deluded ourselves. I am forever changed. I don't want to go back to the status quo. Join me. Take the one year challenge to a radical life.

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"We are molding Jesus into our own image. He is beginning to look like us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshipping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshipping ourselves."

This book was provided for review by Waterbrook Multnomah.

stephaniecherrycom

Sixteen Cities

I was recently given the opportunity to review new music for Centricity Music. Several of our amazingly gifted friends write for Centricity and I am blessed to get to review new music for them.

I was given the opportunity to listen to the new album by Sixteen Cities this past week. They are an up and coming group out of Portland. The music was excellently produced. All of the songs posses a driving beat and gifted musicians. Winter is one song in particular ministered to me. I thought you might enjoy the lyrics and will include them in this post. The song is deeply thought provoking and a humble cry to God. Check out Sixteen Cities.

Winter by Sixteen Cities

How did I ever get this broken?

I never meant to fall this far.

I feel like I'm completely frozen.

Can I find a way,

back to where you are?

Cuz I've been searching for the sun,

but I don't know if anyone,

can tell me how to find my way home.

All the things that I've become,

are all the things I'm running from.

I don't want my heart to turn to stone.

This cold has been so bitter...

can you save me from this winter?

It came creepin’ in so slowly,

And now it’s covered up the truth.

In the name of being holy,

we got so far away from you.

Cuz I’ve been searching for the sun,

but I don't know if anyone,

can tell me how to find my way home.

All the things that I've become,

are all the things I'm running from.

I don't want my heart to turn to stone.

This cold has so bitter,

Can you save me from this winter?

Can you save me from this winter?

Can you save me from this winter?

Can you save me from this winter?

Can you save me from this winter?

Cuz’ I’ve been searching for the sun,

but I don't know if anyone,

can tell me how to find my way home.

All the things that I've become,

are all the things I'm running from.

I don't want my heart to turn to stone.

Cuz I’ve been searching for the sun,

but I don't know if anyone,

can tell me how to find my way home.

All the things that I've become,

are all the things I'm running from.

I don't want my heart to turn to stone.

This cold has been so bitter...

Can you save me from this winter?

This cold has been so bitter...

Can you save me from this winter?

©stephaniecherry.com