Terribly Interesting

  I thought it would be fun to go to the Nubian Queen with my friend Kristi last Saturday. It was quite the adventure. Let me tell you about Nubian Queen Lola. She loves Jesus. She shuts down every Sunday to feed the homeless. She runs this tiny restaurant by herself. The digs are fun. You can't quit looking around at the wild stuff everywhere. If you blink, you will drive right past it. These were tiny snippets of our evening. We arrived the same time as the evening rush...nine other people. Lola was there working alone and trying to make all of our food at once. We had a cajun tea for our wait of an hour and a half to get our food. The fun part is that there are only three tables in the whole place. You end up sitting with people you don't know. By the time you leave you feel like you know everyone in there. It was a really fun atmosphere.  I had the catfish and shrimp plate which I thought was good. Kristi had the shrimp po' boy which was not up to her Cajun standard...

It all used to seem so simple. Church when I was growing up was a place of fellowship, truth, and service. We didn't fill our walls with mountains of programs and try to entertain each other with carnivals. Our sermons were not filled with emotionalism or skewed truth. We had personal relationships with our neighbors. These relationships never existed to get more people to our small group or to our church. They existed because we had learned from each other how to love without getting something in return. It was one of the greatest feelings I have ever experienced. Giving love away for no reason is hard to find in our day and culture. We have a heart to bring it back.  What if we could create a simple environment that reminded us to act like Jesus instead of studying Him to death? What if we could create a place where we could fellowship, worship, and encourage each other to live out the love of our Father in a tangible, simple way? We want to. Do you want to join us? Starting Sun...

Do you get moved when you see older couples out for a walk, holding hands, or sharing a burger at your local burger joint? I do. I am not a sappy, emotional person, but often, I tear up. I read somewhere that we have this reaction because God has set covenant in our hearts.  I was reading a book on relationships recently. The pastor who wrote the book went around doing a survey of couples who had been married for a long time. He asked them what had helped them stay together for such a long time. He was surprised by their answer because he was expecting them to say love. Their answer, almost unanimously, was commitment. That got me to thinking about the gift of covenant. We seem to have these skewed ideas about why God gave us covenant. Sometimes we feel that He uses it to exact harsh punishment when we do things He disapproves of or perhaps keeps us out of hell. The beauty of covenant is that He signed it with His own blood. He didn't do that just to keep us out of hell or acti...

Life passes by quickly. Take hold of it while you can. Don't allow it to take hold of you. Quit looking for extravagant or more glamorous ways to serve me. Today, remember your mission field. Remember the people around you. Remember your neighbor. Remember your family. Don't concentrate on those who love you. I told you that the weak do this. What about the people who are hurtful and bring grief to your spirit? What about your persecutors, your in-laws, your alcoholic? Today, beloved, get over yourself. Quit reacting. Quit playing the game. Learn to love. Don't go try to force something fake because you should. Sit down. Ask me to change your heart. Ask Me to give you the gift I want to give them. Don't complain about their reaction. Love in the deep dark places that they are trying to keep walls around. Love. For more about this segment, see this post . ©stephaniecherry.com

Chasing Francis is a story about a pastor who got fed up with the way we commercialize church in America and went on a pilgrimage to Italy. He visited all of the places that Saint Francis of Asissi went and learned about how radical his life for Christ was. It left him utterly changed and desperate to give and serve in a way our modern church could scarcely comprehend. I have been on a pilgrimage of sorts myself and this book resonated with me. It was a steady diet of the heart of Jesus. His love, fellowship, and resolve were challenging. I have for a while wondered if evangelical Christianity at large looked like a joke to the hurting world around us. We seem so money and power hungry. I highly recommend this book if you are looking to set your heart on the things of God instead of decorating the trappings of man with Christian themes. If you are looking for the more and can't find it, dig in. I have to make a disclaimer. There are a few passages about praying to Saints a...

Have you seen this movie? I think I was the last to watch it. I wasn't sure that I could handle the intensity of it while pregnant, but I bit the bullet and watched. I can now agree with Donald Miller in the fact that this raised the bar for Christian movies. As we think our world and society is bad, we are confronted with the idea of how much worse it could be if the word of God were removed from us entirely.  The reality of it all is that we may look very much like these people, if the false image of our society was removed from us. We treat people like they treated each other in this movie. We simply have nicer cars and wave from our minivans as though we had a heart. We call hate grace and mock God. To us, we look pretty amazing. I mean, we aren't out right killing anyone.  Then we see two pictures. We see Eli who went on mission for God even though he was not perfected. He hid the word of God deep in his heart through daily reading. Eventually, we see the outworking of...

The nursery is miraculously coming along. I wish I had taken a picture of it all filled with junk. You can see what it looked like before anything had been done. In the last few weeks, it has begun coming together in a way we never thought possible in s short amount of time. A group from Houston came out for our work day and helped blow insulation in the walls. This was comical and through trial and error, quite a bit of it landed downstairs in my laundry room. This amazing crew also began the process of sheetrocking the room. This past week a pastor from Austin called and came out to help finish the drywall process. On this past Saturday, our neighbor who is a handyman showed up and asked if he could tape and float the room. Now, it has been textured. We purchased paint. Can you believe that? I didn't even have it on my to do list because I didn't think it was feasible. Now, we have the ceiling left to insulate and finish out. Following that is the floor. Then, we decorate. Ca...

I told my husband that I was going to start wearing the band on my maternity clothes on the outside in order to start a trend. We might as well wear it on the outside. Everyone sees the ridiculous line going across our stomachs under our clothes. I bought the lie about the amazing new, patent pending design. It's lame. I spend all of my time trying to hide the band or pulling my pants up. Next baby, which Denbigh is quickly planning, there will be no belly bands. No extra layer of heat in Texas. I'm not falling for it. This concludes my bitter diatribe.  I really enjoy being pregnant. In fact, it is one of my favorite things. I love the intimacy of nurturing. If the heinous nature of the belly band is all I have to complain about, I find that I am pretty blessed. Our nursery has been insulated, taped and floated, textured, and is on it's way to being drywalled. It's an amazing story that I shall tell in a future post!  ©stephaniecherry.com

I know your heart. I know the desires that are deeply laid within you. I know. Rest in that. Trust Me with this knowledge. Quit trying to control or figure things out. I know what you need before you ask. Ask anyway. You must release control. You must allow trust and faith to develop. Allow me to hold these things for you. Let go of circumstance. Be done with planning your next step. Trust My knowing. Trust. For more on this segment, see this post . ©stephaniecherry.com

Matt Litton has written a masterfully engaging work that shows each character through the eyes of faith. Having loved To Kill A Mockingbird , I was interested to see how Mr. Litton would showcase the ethics and faith of the novel. Let me tell you, if he were at my house today, I would have to say, "Well done, sir." I am impressed. This is not something that comes easily. He put the heart and words of Christ up to characters that exposed the outworking of faith or the lack there of. Every word made me think and evaluate my own beliefs. I think Francis Schaeffer said it best when he explained that things could be learned in an observatory much more readily than a classroom. This book is a divine observatory. In a world where it is rare to see the love of Christ truly walked out, we get to peer in to characters lives that deeply reflect it. I was challenged by Atticus and his deep integrity. Once when a man spit in his face trying to detract from his own guilt, Atticus simply w...

In the beginning of our desire to serve others in our home, we simply paid for everything out of our pocket. As our desire grew (as did our house), we added this to our non-profit ministry. As part of a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, we must raise all of our funding from the public. This is by far the most humbling thing we do. It is hard to ask and it is hard to receive. We know that this is what God has told us to do. We know that God wants us to focus on ministering to others in our home and to start a church in our home. We are currently working on a video to share more about what we are doing. A friend who runs a similar ministry recently told me that God has appointed people and given them money and a heart to give and I shouldn't stand in the way of their obedience. That's where we are. Humbly we are asking for God to raise people up to give and we are expectant to receive. Would you consider being one of our philanthropists? You can give as little as $10 a month and w...

Most people who would hear about what we are doing think we have lost our minds. Who restores a house when they are pregnant? Us. Thankfully, there are people who have a heart for Christ and see our vision. Those people continually flow into our home and work like they were getting paid . . . a lot. They get dirty. They get really dirty. Then they smile and eat and tell us what a good time they had. During a period of eight days, we had over 30 people swarm our home and work like mad. We now have a 2nd bath (with shower) on our first floor. There is very little left to do in order to finish it out. The nursery on the 2nd floor has been insulated and partially drywalled. The blown-in insulation was a comical, frustrating, trial and error project. A huge thank you to every one who worked on it. Just 19 more rooms to go. (insert crazy laughter). Drywall was hung, paint was removed, and lights were installed. Through all the mess and dirt, there was something beautiful. I wish you could se...

I keep running across that passage in John Chapter 5 that asks, "Do you want to be well?" I often think about this for myself, people in my family, and the culture at large. We love to complain. What would we talk about if we couldn't complain? What if we couldn't discuss our sickness or the hardships we suffer anymore? What would we hide behind? The man at the well was focused on what he did not have. I read that this morning. He lacked friends to help him and strength to carry himself. If Christ had not patiently continued revealing Himself, the man would have lacked Jesus. " I have no one to help me..." -John 5:7 "You have been on an uphill journey, and your energy is almost spent. Though you have faltered at times, you have not let go of my hand. I am pleased with your desire to stay close to Me. There is one thing, however, that displeases Me: your tendency to complain. You may talk to Me as much as you like about the difficulty of the path you ar...

The time has come for us to move on. We have sat and worked through things that have caused a lot of pain, but today, we move on. We move on together. I allow things for a reason. This journey has not only been for your sake. Open your eyes to the harvest. My heart longs to draw people to Me like I have drawn you. I want to use you to do that. We have to move on. We have to keep going over high mountains and through steep valleys. You must have great faith for the journey. Faith like this has never been required of you before. Today, it is required of you. I long to give it to you. Just tell me you want it. To see more about this segment, see this post . ©stephaniecherry.com

Many of us have the day off today due to Señor Columbus.  What can you do with your time to cultivate love?

My beloved husband gave me this cookbook for our 7 year wedding anniversary. I thought that I would get to take the year off since it was our year of jubilee. Subtly, with this gift, he insisted that I keep cooking.  I have been wanting to blog about this book since it came into my hands. It is the most well done culinary literature I have ever seen. I read half of it out loud to Denbigh. How can a cookbook make you feel closer to the Lord? It is full of perfectly placed scripture, poetry, divine recipes, and masterful food photography. You simply must get this. 5 stars. I knew when I saw it that I had to purchase a copy for a dear friend. I have been waiting to blog about it so I could give it to her for her birthday. I hope you had a lovely day, Autumn! ©stephaniecherry.com

I have a lovely view from my desk at this fifty foot tree in our backyard. I had this romantic notion of having a porch swing hanging from one of the huge branches. My husband made it a reality. It feels so southern. Come over. Bring a book. Swing til your hearts content. A word of warning, dear friends: Check the box if you buy a porch swing at Lowe's. It took us 4 calls to the company to get all of the parts we needed. From talking to them, it seemed as if this was a pretty common occurrence.  Isn't it romantic! Come swing! Support this Project. Donate to Gomer's House. ©stephaniecherry.com

On September 10th and 11th, Denbigh and I (along with our dear friends Micah and Jana Beard) were blessed to attend The Greater Cause. It was a conference put on for pastors. The speakers were Jim Dennison and Anne Graham Lotz. As Mr. Dennison was preaching out of the book of Amos (a shepherd become prophet), I clearly had an understanding of a great need we have in the church in America. He hit the nail on the head. Our pastors need to repent. We need to stop being professionals and submit our lives to the Lord. I would also say that many simply need salvation. I know, it seems such a crazy thing to say that we could have a man in the pulpit who was not a believer, but Christian culture isn't that hard to master. We can easily learn and do and say spiritual things when our hearts are black. A few years ago, I started praying this over the pastors of our churches in America. May they repent or come to saving faith so that the lost, the abused, the abandoned could look on them and ...

I have not nor will I abandon you. Remember my word. I will not forsake you. I am here even when it seems that you cannot see me or feel me. I am here, love. I was there when you were afraid and confused. I was there when you thought I didn't care about your pain or your provision. I have never left you alone. Have faith. My words says small faith grows into a tree. It must be grown. Trust me as I lead you into areas where your faith will grow strong against the forces of this world. Trust me. "The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8 For more information on this segment, see this post . ©stephaniecherry.com

Inspired by a true story, this movie is set in the midst of racial tension in 1965. Following the Watts riots, our protagonist enters a seminary to serve out his probation on a bogus charge. He comes against many obstacles and people there who need a fresh vision of who God is, much as he does. Richard Kelly, the main character, is given an amazing opportunity to find God himself and change a Christian institution for the better. He comes up against many foes within the seminary itself and finds hope with the groundskeeper. I enjoyed this movie and was inspired by Richard's story and what he did with his life. This was not a huge budget feature film, but there were still many top billed stars who carried it well. It could be a tad slow at times, but I think the plot and the integrity well made up for it. What did I glean? Pain leads us to the true Christ and His righteousness. This is something many miss in seminary. This DVD was provided for review by Thomas Nelson Publishers. ...