GUEST BLOGGER: Karen Guzman

Karen Guzman Greenwood

When God comes alongside us with comfort or an answer we seek, we thank Him. We are grateful, sometimes beyond words, that He has heard and answered, that he has made his presence known. He is near. There is nothing better, and so we give thanks.

Then we move on.

Have you ever noticed that? Too quickly, too eagerly, we move on. A sort of spiritual amnesia sets in as we look ahead to the next obstacle, the next worry. That prayer of gratitude too quickly becomes, “Thanks, Lord, and what can you do for me next?”

 Some very dear Christian friends gifted my husband and me with author Sarah Young’s daily devotional book “Jesus Calling” this past Christmas. The pages overflow with wisdom and insights into God’s nature. They often bring us to a stop. They still us. Everything else falls away, the worries and anxieties, the to-do list, as His voice cuts through the din, straight to the heart and mind. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it reallydoes.

 In one entry, Young weighs in on the power of gratitude—in our lives and, more importantly, in our relationship with God. In her book, Young draws on Scripture to create passages designed to mimic the voice of Jesus talking. It’s a bold technique and a very effective one. In her gratitude passage, she writes:

 “It is impossible to praise or thank me too much. As it is written, I inhabit the praises of MY people. Sometimes your adoration is a spontaneous overflow of Joy, in response to radiant beauty of rich blessings. At other times your praise is more disciplined and measured—an act of your will. I dwell equally in both types of praise. Thankfulness, also, is a royal road to draw near Me. A thankful heart has plenty of room for Me.”

 I’ve been thinking more about praise, about thanksgiving, lately. Our relationship with Christ is, like all relationships, a two-way street. But it’s not a quid pro quo—you do this for me, and I do that for you. He has already done all the heavy lifting. Gratitude is born in the heart when we realize the enormity of His love. It sometimes comes via the sudden revelation that He has heard, that He is listening to us.

 How do we thank almighty God for hearing us and for letting us know that He has? There aren’t enough words. There aren’t enough deeds. But there can be the glimmer of a heart transformed, reaching out in love and humility and deepest gratitude to Him.

 I want to linger in these moments a little longer and carry them with me.

GUEST BLOGGER: Karen Guzman Greenwood

Years ago, I read a short story titled “Talking to Charlie.” I can’t remember the author’s name or where it was published, but I’ve never forgotten the story. It centers on a newly divorced man who has taken a leave from his job in the tech field to grieve his divorce.

As he considers the choices and mistakes he’s made and the strange new place he finds himself in, the man reminds himself that, amidst all the upheaval in his life, the “one I should be talking to is Charlie.” Charlie is his boss at the tech company and is key to helping the man keep, at least, his career on track.

This “Charlie” takes on an almost mythic, all-powerful quality in the story. In my reading, I understood Charlie to be a stand-in, a metaphor, for God.

I had eye surgery in May. An unexpected and frightening condition popped up, and the experts recommended a surgery which would entail a long recovery. To say I was scared is an understatement. Signing the lengthy liability release form, a catalogue of any- and everything that could go wrong, didn’t help. Like anyone, I reached out and shared my concerns with those I trust—family members, church friends, colleagues. A lot of very good people have been praying for me, and they have helped so much.

Along the way, I also recalled the Charlie story, and I realized that while my friends and family have been critical, “the one I really should be talking to is Jesus.”

I had been talking to Him in prayer, but somehow, I saw anew that He is the singular most important one I need to turn to and lean on. First. Other people are a blessing and a gift, but Jesus is in it in a way that only He can be. Bringing my situation to Him and remembering that His sufficient grace is enough was what I needed most. And I was so grateful to be reminded. I am still in recovery, and it’s not easy, but I know the one I need talk to.

GUEST BLOGGER: Shirley Andersen

In Vermont is a very high mountain, Mt. Washington. At the bottom of the mountain is lush green and dense foliage. As you drive up the mountain you pass mountain streams, small waterfalls, and spectacular views of the valley. The higher you get, you see rocks of various shapes, colors, and sizes. Then above the timberline, the air is clear and the view is indescribably beautiful. However, nothing grows up there. For all it’s peace and beauty, it is barren and fruitless. 

Fay Angus in her book, “How To Do Everything Right” she says: “If we lived only on the mountaintops of life, our souls would be barren. It is in the deep and low places, often the places hidden from everyone but God; it is in the valley of our sorrows and our griefs that we cultivate...understanding, compassion, courage, sensitivity, sympathy, and kindness.” 

The mountaintop may be quiet and peaceful and a restful place to be but growth takes place in the valleys. There is an old song, “God on the Mountain”. Here are a few of the words to the song:  

           Life is easy, when you’re up on the mountain

           And you’ve got peace of mind, like you’ve never known

           But things change, when you’re down in the valley

           Don’t lose faith, for you’re never alone

           We talk of faith way upon the mountain

           But talk comes easy when life’s at its best

           Now it’s down in the valley, of trials and temptations

           That’s where your faith is really put to the test

           For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley

           When things go wrong, he’ll make them right

           And the God of the good times, is still God in the bad times

           The God of the day, is still God in the night

As you read I Corinthians 12:12-26, we members of our local church are all part of the church body of believers who when one member hurts, we all feel that pain with them and when they rejoice, we all rejoice. I’ve read about the giant redwoods in the Sequoia National Forest and how they reach so high above our heads that we can barely see the tops. The giant sequoia is one of the oldest and largest living things on the earth. The tree grows straight and tall next to another reaching heights of 300 ft. in spite of their shallow roots. They have stood for years and years and years withstanding earthquakes, rainstorms, and fierce winds. The reason the trees are able to survive such stress is they grow in groves, entwining their shallow roots with each other to make themselves sturdy and strong. One tree alone could never survive; neither could one person. I Corinthians 1:10. 

I love my church family more than just about anything and I gain so much strength from them. At the end of the day, I’m grateful my blessings are bigger and better than the trials and temptations I go through in the valleys. 

GUEST BLOGGER: RICHARD NASON

“Some of you may remember me from when I previously attended Fellowship Church. I was called away to another area due to family responsibilities so I had to find a new church home sadly but my journey in Christ has not wavered and in fact has grown immensely. I still keep in contact with Rich Pancoast who I consider a very dear and trusted friend. Now allow me to expound upon my journey in these last few years.”

Faith like that of Abraham. Not an easy ask! When I began my journey as a follower of Jesus I thought why can I not have that same kind of faith? Little did I realize that you really should be careful of what you ask for as you just might get it. This last decade has been the absolute worst of my life, from losing my late wife of 25 years, to having a daughter become addicted, to a son telling me he is transgender, to losing my house, to getting Covid, to having my catalytic converter on my car stolen, to experiencing a devastating broken engagement and relationship, etc etc etc. (insert at least 4 other life affecting events here). So it has been the absolute worst 10 years I have ever experienced and yet spiritually, it has been the absolute best 10 years of my life. God has been there through each of these events and has helped me develop my faith deeper and stronger than I ever thought possible. It is in those desert times when we truly have a chance to either crumble and blame God or to look to Him and develop that deeper intimacy. I chose the later!

I have experience many blessings from these trials that I never thought possible, from seeing finances restored, to a daughter coming to Christ, to engaging in a missions trip to becoming a prayer warrior in my current church. God's hand has been there always helping me to move forward. I have attended events and retreats that help me continue on this journey as I still feel I am not where I want to be in my closeness to Him. This faith like that of Abraham requires effort on my part. Jesus has to be first in my life over everything and anything else. (Lots of "little g" gods that we tend to prioritize over our walk with Jesus) That being said, I just returned from one such retreat which really required deep introspection into my thoughts, my priorities and my attitudes. A tremendous amount of prayer, care and love was extended during that time and I came out with some new perspectives on how to allow Jesus my whole heart. I will ask, if you are not ready for that type of devotion, then why not? We can only allow Jesus to pour into us what we pour into Him. We are all like pitchers of water. If we allow a little bit of water into that pitcher then we can only drink a little and then it is gone and your thirst will not be quenched. The more you fill that pitcher the more you can partake and the more your thirst is satisfied. Now consider that Jesus is that unending supply of life-giving and thirst-satisfying water. I want to be filled and satisfied by Him.

I have embraced poetry during these last few years based on the fact that David was a poet and though I may never have the words or experiences he did, I believe this is a gift my Lord has granted to me and so I will enclose a poem from my last encounter with the Father. Some have told me it is my way of journaling and I would have to agree. It is real and raw and vulnerable but I am finding that this is what Jesus asks of us and though this has not been easy, it has been so very necessary to draw closer to my Father. Let me end by not saying "I hope you enjoy" as this is more about how I really felt experiencing this time of introspection and not about pleasing anyone else but Him. It is always about pleasing Him!!!!

Encounter

Father I lay bare my soul for you to see

All of the dark sin that is inherent in me

I am walking this path to draw you ever closer

Leaving my heart and mind open to exposure

My heart and soul ripped open spilling tears

Exposing all the pain and anguish and fears

Emotions and feelings raw and no longer hiding

Trying to fix what is broken inside me

I never expected this encounter to be so hard

To break open the wounds from which I am scarred

Peer deep into those hurtful memories and habits

Prying open all the hidden cracks and crevices they inhabit

Mind and heart must be broken in order to be made anew

Like resetting a broken bone before the healing ensues

A painful process that may tear you apart

Yet one that is necessary to form a Godly heart

In this time of introspection I uncovered those pieces

That held me back from giving you my all, Jesus

The issues that I thought I had under control

Were the very same issues that kept me from becoming whole

Jesus, In order to become closer to you I need to upend

This facade of having it together, I can no longer pretend

I want to embrace all the love you care to give

In harmony with you is where I need to live

Be careful of what you ask for, you just might receive

Renewing means abandoning the self and in Him alone believe

This goes against the grain and will not be easy to perform

Yet so integral to building a life with Jesus, a life reformed

So I surrender to you Jesus, I surrender my will

Bind those scars and habits, your forgiving love instill

Take what is left in me and remake it with your desire

Burn away the barriers left inside and for You, set me on fire

I love the holidays but I am more aware than ever of all that come along with them.

As I have the privilege of doing life with so many who I have met here at Fellowship, I also have an ear to what people have to deal with come each holiday season. So many of you reading this have had such difficult losses - spouses, parents, even children. I cannot fathom what it feels like for some of you. I think of those who have dealt with divorce or family that has moved away. For many, this is a new holiday with a new set of people or maybe sadly, no one to share it with.

We need only to see your Thanksgiving pictures through the years to see who was with you and who is now with you. I know ours looks very different through the years - from losing my parents, to getting married, to having children.

Today and this holiday season, I’m praying for you - those of you that feel that loneliness, sadness and even helplessness. If you’d like me to pray for you more specifically, you can leave a request HERE. I’m praying for you be intentional in being with people (it’s why having a church family is so important). I pray you feel God more than you ever have before. I pray that you understand that having Him really is everything.

I see so many who do not have Christ but have everything else and they seem even more down - an even more sense of hopelessness they can’t explain.

Don’t surrender to the sadness. Yes, it’s certainly ok to grieve but…..Be with people. Be even more with God. Know He is holding you and if you give Him the opportunity and allow Him, He will get you through. Not just going through the motions, celebrating the reason for this season - our Savior, our everything, our Jesus.

What a gift we have in Him!

Thank you to Peter Keast of the Amazing Grace Food Pantry for these kind words:

To our friends at Fellowship Church,

A funny and true story from my past.  A few years back on a Wednesday, the one remaining clean dress shirt in my closet had a mark on it from an iron. I wore it anyway because the rest were in the laundry and my suit jacket just covered the mark.  I walk my dogs before work, and the calmer of my two rather large dogs decided that morning that a deer crossing the road would be fun to chase.  She pulled free and ran off.  I let her go. I worked at a car dealership, and on that particular day I had driven a customer’s car home to see if I could replicate a problem so we could fix it.  After drying off a wet Labrador who had just finished chasing a deer through the neighborhood, I got into the car, turned the key, and nothing.  No noise, no click, nothing.  I got a charger out of my garage, hooked up the car, and in about 15 minutes, it started.  I left for work.

I was already 30 minutes late, so I decided to stop and treat myself to a $3 cup of coffee at Dunkin Donuts.  Why is it that when you are in a hurry, the rest of the world isn’t?  It was nearly 9:30 AM when I pulled into the drive through.  There should not have been a line at that hour.  There was a line, and for what seemed like a long time, it did not move.  I was getting more and more agitated. Then a little voice in my head said, “Buy the person behind you a coffee this morning. You’ll feel better.”

“Hogwash!  I want my coffee and I want this morning to be over,” I said aloud.

The voice persisted.  “Buy the person in the car behind you a coffee this morning.  You’ll feel better.”

“Please… go… away.” I said aloud.  By then, I was sure that anyone within earshot knew that I was a proper nut job.  I moved one car-length further forward.  Then I looked in the mirror.  The car behind me was an old Dodge Neon, one of the least proud accomplishments of the Chrysler Corporation.  It didn’t appear to be running well. The driver looked stressed, apparently as late for work as I was.  I wondered if, unlike mine, her job might be in jeopardy.  At 9:45, I finally got to the window to pick up my coffee.

“Excuse me,” I asked. “How much is the bill for the car behind me?”

“$4.65” the window attendant said.

“Put it on my tab, would you?” I asked.

“I can’t do that, sir,” the attendant said.

Now I was getting angry all over again.  “And why would that be?” I asked firmly.

“Because you have no bill sir.  The person in line in front of you paid it.  Would you still like to cover the $4.65?”

There are so many different lessons I was taught that day.  By some measure a successful businessperson back then, I was well caught up in performance reports, market share and financial statement analysis. Small things also easily annoyed me; my dog having a bit of fun chasing a deer, my 10 year old daughter, unbeknownst to me trying to iron a dress shirt for me, and even discovering why the customer’s car would not start.  There was good in all of that which I was not prepared to see.  It took being stuck in a drive through with absolutely no way to escape to get my attention. Even then, I resisted.

I left a $50 bill with the drive-through attendant that day, the only bill I had, instructing them not to allow anyone to pay until it was gone. I still do that sometimes.  It is fun to think about what others are thinking when they drive up. The little voice was right.  I did feel instantly better, and I think everyone in the line behind me felt a little better too.  Maybe they spread some kindness as a result.  Personally, I had to stop being so self-centered.

Each one of you who donated to Fellowship’s most recent food drive, one in which just over 1600 pounds of food was collected, should think about the family that took home some Prego Spaghetti sauce, some pasta, some peanut butter, some mac n cheese and other meal ingredients that you bought for them last week. They are sitting down to a meal that you have provided, saying Grace, asking God to bless you for nourishing their family.

Don’t get so caught up in life that you don’t take full measure of the good you are doing.  I have the good fortune of seeing the faces of the children, parents and grandparents that you help through life with your generosity.  Like the coffee attendant in the window, I get to see the happiness, the surprise and the gratitude.  Thank you for listening to your own, quiet voice, and know that all of the recipients of your kindness are grateful for you. You are making a difference.

We all have our beliefs on the actual power of prayer. Many of us use it like crossing our fingers. We state a request to God followed by a question mark, even stating if it’s your will – (which let’s face it, if it’s not, it’s not happening). Some of us only go to God in desperation (the atheist in a foxhole analogy). Some of you go to Him daily with more certainty, more of the “you claim it, and it’s happening’ prayer. I’ve used all three. 

Today, I have my biggest prayer request to date.

My beautiful wife Vicki is going in for surgery as she was just diagnosed with breast cancer. This hit me hard, a real punch in the gut. I don’t know how often I tell Vicki that anything can happen on a dime, but this time it really did. Being part of a prayer team, being in ministry, I’ve prayed a lot of prayers on the behalf of others and I’ve seen God do absolutely amazing things – I mean AMAZING! But it sure feels different when it’s this close to home. There is a natural line of questioning we get into:

How will God use this?

How hard will this get?

What conclusion works best for His glory?

What is our role in this? 

What is His will here?

This past year Vicki and I on separate occasions prayed for God to ‘break us’. The meaning behind it was this ‘cookie cutter Christianity’ we were seeing and even living out unintentionally in our own lives sometimes. These past several years, we’ve seen Christians hurting Christians, Christians behaving like love wasn’t an essential of our faith and honestly many of us Christians living a bit too comfortably. We didn’t like it and we needed God to make us a bit uncomfortable and motivate us to walk closer with Him. 

Careful what you pray for.

But if I’m honest, I’d pray it again. God has never more real to us and has never shown Himself more clear. He has shown it to us in the many loving people around us and their willingness to help with anything we need. He has given us far more peace that I expected. He has reassured us in countless ways. We all need to be broken a bit as it helps us to lean better on the only One who can truly repair us. 

As difficult as this is to say, no matter what, I’m all in and I thank Him in advance of what He has in store for our family.

That being said I’m still going to utilize the incredible loved ones in my life (all you reading this) and ask each of you to say a prayer right now for Vicki. God loves when His people talk to Him and God responds! 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. 

GUEST BLOGGER: Shirley Andersen

“O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my Downsitting and mine uprising, thou understand my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. “ Psalms 139:1~4

It’s very common to judge ourselves by others opinion of us. Everyone does it from time to time, especially if we don’t have confidence in ourselves. Our youth get caught up in this maybe more than adults do. However, there are some very vain adults out there that what other adults say means whatever their worth is. I was thinking about -

“Who God says we are.”

I’m afraid to say that part of the time I don’t want God to know every word I might say, as verse 4 says. I also have taken other people’s opinion of me and let it bother me. Recently I have come to grips with “What do I think about my appearance but even more,

“What does God think ?”

Some of the people that always have an opinion about others; are the ones I don’t care to listen to. My family and really good friends and my doctors are all I listen to. Choose your own mirrors, make a list of those people whose eyes reflect the real you. Whose opinion do you cherish and trust ? Who will be honest with you but also considerare ? You need to find out…

“Who God says we are”

Don’t forget the one who knows you better than anyone else. The one who made you. Spend time with God in prayer, Meditation and scripture reading, look into His eyes and get a true picture of yourself. Be honest or ask your best friend to be honest with you. So many people, female mostly, will listen to anyone instead of the people that really know you. Be very honest with God and he will reveal what he wants you to know, then your Bible study will accomplish what It was meant to.

“Red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in his sight, Jesus loves all the children of the world.”