The hook takes you back....

Ever notice how a song can take you back?
Lately I've been listening to an online praise radio station while I'm at work (I can plug in my earphones and no one knows...:)) Its called Praise on Fire Radio and I get them here. They play really awesome praise songs one after another with no commercial interruption...you should try it. Anyway...the music is mostly wonderful with very little of the Top 40 kind of thing, although in the middle of the day it can get kind of weird with music that sounds like it was written and recorded by someone sort of wandering with nothing to say.
but MOSTLY...its really really good!

ANYWAY...I sometimes hear the song "This is the air I breathe" Not the commercial version but a very "living" kind of version.

With those earphones in....

.... I am instantly transported back in time to the first time I ever heard it...ever have that happen?

Try filing mindlessly for hours with your earphones plugged in...its like being in another realm...and when this happens...that "other realm" becomes amazingly real.

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Suddenly I am standing in a large living room with about 40-50 people...yeah, I mean large, but the room is full...there are a few chairs, a love seat and one sofa but everything else has been moved out of the room and everyone is standing in a large circle. When we stop singing everyone will sit down right where they are now standing its so packed. Three fourths of the people there are under 30 (not me, but almost everyone else)..and boy can they sing! There is no music but as they raise their voices in this song, every harmony imaginable rises toward heaven...it is trapped between the walls and bodies all around and it seems to reverberate off the surroundings, penetrating your very being til you can't tell if its on the inside or outside of you.

I am standing with hands raised, in direct contact with brothers and sisters on either side of me,... and its incredible!... Since I am usually singing at the top of my voice but don't yet know this song...I am quiet....enjoying the priviledge of being washed...being poured into...being ministered to in a deep way...

and they sang it like this:

"This is the air I breathe, this is the air I breathe your Holy Presence, living in me.
This is my daily bread, this is my daily bread, your very Word, spoken IN me.

And I , I'm desperate for You, desperate for You....

She is the air You breathe, She is the air You breathe. Your holy presence, living in Her.
She is Your daily bread, She is Your daily bread, Your very Word spoken in Her.

And She, She's desperate for You, desperate for You....

And we, we're desperate for You...desperate for You

And I, I'm desperate for You...."

Times like these...the veil of flesh gets mighty thin, people....

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Then, all the sudden..my boss rings me to ask how my project is coming along.....

Pink and Blue Chairs

Pink and blue camp chairs changed my life......

I know...very strange you say, well, if you've got a minute, here's the story...or at least part of it.

Some years ago, not too long after we had departed from the traditional church world, we stumbled upon a lovely group of people who amazingly enough, all wanted the same thing we did in our Christian experience...reality in Jesus Christ.
God led us to them and that is a story for another day...but today I will tell you a bit about how we achieved the impossible...we explored and experienced real church life, just as you imagine it to be from reading the book of Acts and we did it together with this group of people.

We did it from those pink and blue chairs...

The very first corporate thing we did together was to throw out the Sunday church service...we moved the meetings to Sat. and Tues nights...then we added different kinds of meetings...song meetings..picnic meetings...brothers meetings, sisters meetings...business meetings (yuck!)
We went along like this for a while and God said it was good.
Then one day we decided that this wasn't enough...we could hear our Lord calling us onward, we couldn't really get to know Him sitting in a pew...so what could we do next to make our relationships with Him and within the body more real?
We felt we should erase the line between clergy and laity and become simply brothers and sisters....so we decided to push back all the pews and sit on the floor...except that didn't go over so well for very long with the, shall I say, grownups in the group...that's when we decided to purchase the chairs. They would be low enough to the ground to keep the playing field leveled yet comfortable and portable for the variery of meetings we were enjoying.

And so the pink and blue camp chairs came into our lives...
and God said it was good!

And boy did they change things too!

Suddenly people spoke up in meetings, those who had never done so before started songs or prayed aloud. People asked questions and answered them, they laughed outloud in meetings, some took off their shoes while others told them to put them on again. The casualness of life invaded our church and we became family.
Everywhere we went as a church, those chairs went with us. To conferences and potlucks, to campouts and bible study, to backyard barbecues and baptisms, literally everywhere.
When the pushed back pew set up was no longer cutting it we discussed moving together into a neighborhood so we could spend more time together loving our Lord in daily life...eventually some moved...some didn't...but one weekend we planned an experiment...we held an entire weekend of meetings, meals and fun in the neighborhood some had moved to...and eveyone else was to come for the weekend, to stay and eat and sleep over. It was an experiment in community. How would this lifestyle work? could it work? Would we love it? or hate it? did we need it or could we live without it? That weekend everyone came...we all piled into the few homes already available in the neighborhood, kids, bibles, casseroles and all. Then we walked between the homes for every meal, meeting and event. Everywhere we traveled during the weekend...we brought our bibles, our song books and our chairs. We set up shop wherever we happend to be and church life sprang up among us. Then we knew it...this was no longer optional, we needed this kind of church and each other, daily, to see our Lord more fully. This became our lifestyle...brothers and sisters living and loving Him together and God said it was very good.
For the next several years we grew up there in the church and in the Lord and some of the dearest saints in this world sat next to me in those pink and blue camp chairs. ..

A few years ago, and many miles down the road, with our own two chairs in tatters, I was forced to make the very difficult decision to throw them out. It was in effect the end of an era, the end of innocence perhaps, the end of so much.
And though time marches on and I no longer have the luxury of seeing saints outside my door on a daily basis...I will never regret nor forget, nor recover and I do not wish to. In this environment our lives were turned upside down and melted together in ways beyond imagining, not just for this lifetime but for all eternity.

Who would have ever thought it could all begin with pink and blue camp chairs?

More blessed to give....

Of all my Valentine memories one particular one stands out in my mind. It is the story of Christ and the Church, as told by mere mortals one Valentine morning a few years back....

The churches I have fellowshipped with are very hands on kinds of groups. We have no pastors or local leadership therefore the spiritual life, direction, and ministry of the church is determined and carried out by we, the members. It is a lot of work and responsibility but very sustaining and encouraging. We get to experience first hand, the Body of Christ being built together in visible ways. For this particular Valentines Day the sisters in our church decided that we wanted to do something special for the brothers...a church Valentine, if you will.
We decided on a Sunday brunch. We would keep our plans a secret from the brothers, decorate one of our homes and prepare food, both physical and spiritual, to feed them. Each sister was responsible to bring, not only a portion of the meal and help with decor, but each one was also to come prepared to minister to the brothers in some way...be it a song, a poem, a prayer, some portion of scripture, an encouragement...it could be anything that would bless them or speak to them... Our plan for the meeting (and this was our Sunday meeting) was that we would act and speak as the Lord and treat our brothers as the Bride of Christ. After all, the Church is not referred to as a soldier or an army but She is referred to as a woman and a bride and how often does an average brother in the church have the opportunity to experience what it feels like to be a bride? How often do they get a glimpse into the feminine characteristices of God's house that come so naturally to women?
With this in mind we prepared a beautiful meal complete with sparkling cider, chocolates, flowers, music, candles...everything a woman enjoys for romance. We also prepared to speak to them as if they were the Bride of Christ and we were the voice of their Bridegroom.
We began by putting on some sweet music and gathering together for prayer, as sisters. Our brothers were asked to wait outside as they arrived until eveyone was present.... At the appointed time, we sisters flung open the doors and welcomed them in, singing as we escorted them to their seats. The brothers were immediately overwhelmed and the looks on their faces ranged from surprise to anticipation to awe to tears. It seemed our plan was working and a wonderful meeting was in store for the brothers.
The sisters rotated in serving and sharing so that all during the meal some sisters were singing, praying, or otherwise ministering. There was no chit chat and the atmosphere became more and more charged until no one was left unshaken, brother or sister...For an hour and a half nothing was spoken other than words of love, appreciation and encouragement straight from Jesus Christ for these men who made up the backbone of our church family. May I just say that the effect was profound.... some brothers ate, some couldn't eat a bite and some broke down completely, sobbing in their plates...It was amazing and I think I can say that each of us, brothers and sisters alike, felt as if we had entered a time machine and been transported outside of this realm to a place where God actually does dwell among His people and does speak to their hearts. He was most definitly there that day.
As we drew near the end of our time together, one sister was appointed to be the final contributor...as she finished her part she instructed the brothers to close their eyes and worship their King to a taped song...and as the brothers worshipped...the sisters slipped away...like thieves in the night...out of the house... leaving the brothers alone with their Lord....

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But that's not the end ......
In an unplanned moment, the sisters in the kitchen had gathered up the leftover fruit, bread, cheese, cider and chocolates...once outside on the sidewalk we unanimously decided on a meeting of our own...almost as if we were propelled...in one accord we headed down the street to the garage turned meeting room where we often met as a church, singing and practically dancing as we went. Once inside, we flung down blankets onto the floor and laid out the goodies for a sponteanous picnic. We laughed, we sang, we worshipped and shared....all was forgotten in the awesome presence of the Lord!
What a time of communion it became...a glorious outpouring of the love of God on us, the sisterhood! I'm not sure how you feel about the Lord's Table...but let me tell you, we were at it! He was there in power and glory pouring Himself out in each of us, on each of us. It was an amazing time of encouragement and love from the Lord Himself flowing into our hearts.
Though we had attempted to share the love of God with our brothers as from the Bridegroom to His Bride, we incredibly found ourselves on the receiving end as well, in a wonderful moment of communion with our Lord and with one another..... caught up in the greatest love affair of all!

...and perhaps the lesson learned for me that day was simply this..."it is indeed, more blessed to give, than to receive."

• "He brought me to His banqueting
  table...His banner over me is
  love...."