https:/www.steveandgwensmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Memo.mp3I hope this might work. If you play the little play button above, you'll hear a short, 10 second recording that may drop you to your knees as it has me. I hope you can heart the heartbeat. It's a few seconds of a heartbeat but not just any heartbeat. It's the heartbeat of my grandchild!Thrilling.Fascinating.Holy.Fearfully and wonderfully made!Alive!
It humbles me to know that this little heartbeat is indeed a soul in formation. I think that when Gwen and I had kids years ago, we did not realize the grander story going on... that indeed---a child is really a soul--a soul in formation who would need a ton of love, a ton of guidance and a ton of care all requiring a ton of prayer. With age and life, I now know that a child--every child--is a soul in formation. Age brings wisdom and now the heartbeat that you're listening to is NOT just another kid that is in utero. It's a soul in formation--my grandchild!Baby Beloved, we are waiting on you. We are praying and pulling for you. Your Dad is a warrior for our country and he will be a warrior for your heartbeat--all the days of your life. Baby Beloved, my heart will now be fighting for your heart---all the days of my life. I love you, Baby Beloved! May your heart beat strong and may God give you an undivided heart to praise His name!We'd appreciate your prayers. Blake, our son and the father of Baby Beloved is now deployed in a hotspot which we are not allowed to disclose. But he will be deployed until May. He'll miss his wife's belly grow large with this child. He'll be engaging in keeping us safe as a member of Joint Special Forces.... so pray would you for his saftey...pray for Baby Beloved and the Mom--Katie who is the one, great with child and also great with great child!
Sabbath Keeping
"The truth is, sabbath keeping is a discipline that will mess with you, because once you move beyond just thinking about it and actually begin to practice it, the goodness of it will capture you, body, soul and spirit...during the week, your whole self will strain toward the sabbath with thoughts like "I know I can make it because the sabbath is coming." You will emerge from sabbath with renewed energy and hop thinking, I can face my life now because I have rested. The sabbath will become the centerpiece of your work, the kingpin of your spiritual rhythms. And when even an hour of it is robbed from you, you will grieve its loss. When you miss it, it will hurt."--Barton in Spiritual Rhythms.To re-read these passages is a slow wake up call from a sense of urgency that has captivated me since we are now into the full new year. I look at my schedule and sigh--then say, "How can I possibly do all of this? What was I thinking when I committed to all of these things?" Then I remember that Sabbath is God's provision for me to work hard-pour my heart out and give out to others. Because on the sabbath--it is I who will be given to.Now now the giving to me has begun. A sabbath mood is in the Inn. We are here alone. Fire in the fireplace. A sabbath walk and life giving friends coming over for dinner. We need this day because tomorrow the work begins with two couples who are flying in from different parts of the world. They are nervous, scared probably at what they've gotten themselves into in committing to come--to do a soul care intensive. So we need this sabbath to serve them well. To give to them deeply. To raise up the chalice of our own lives and say, "O God fill this fragile vessel with all you will this sabbath day!"
The Jesus Life new website and special offer of a FREE e-book!
I'm excited to announce that today, we've launched the new web page: myjesuslife.com This new website will anchor the book on the web. Effective in the launch is an offer to receive a FREE E-book of The Lazarus Life. The Jesus Life is really the sequel to The Lazarus Life! I go further in my explaination of what's gone wrong with the offer Jesus made to us about living the abundant life. While The Lazarus Life explains the process of spiritual transformation, The Jesus Life helps the reader with practical and doable ways to live the Jesus Life. I'm so very thankful to my publisher, David C Cook for offering the e-book to everyone. The offer expires March 31, 2011. So go ahead and download for free the book. You can't beat that offer!Also, on the new website you'll be able to download the first chapter of The Jesus Life. We've developed two retreats in 2012 based on the new book. One will be at Holden Beach, NC--a wonderful island escape for a spring weekend and the other weekend retreat is at our retreat, Potter's Inn at Aspen Ridge later in the year. Click the "2012 Retreats" on the side bar for all the details.There's a great message in this book! This book took me 2 1/2 years to write. I actually wrote it twice after my editor rejected the first submission. I'm so glad he did that because it forced me to go back; do the hard work and research that is now embedded in the book throughout the pages! I think you'll agree with me when you read it.But I need your help to help spread the word about the book being released. In the book, there's a study guide making it ideal for small groups, men's studies/women's studies and classes to use. I was honored to receive this endorsement from Dallas Willard:“Steve Smith cuts through the religious paraphernalia and daily clutter that obstructs our path to lives of purpose and power, and he clearly explains the simplicity of The Jesus Life in the Kingdom of God. He has deep insights into how we have come to live the way we do, in church and out. With refreshing realism and wide-ranging knowledge, he helps us identify dear illusions that bog us down and introduces us to simple steps and arrangements that enable eternal living. The directions he gives are self-validating. We have only to ‘just do it.’ The Jesus Life would be ideal for real spiritual progress in small groups in church and in community. Serious individual engagement with it will bring assurance that the life praised in our songs and scriptures can be ours.”
Dallas Willard, author of The Divine Conspiracy
I need your help! Can you spread the word? We're sending out bookmarks to all on the snail mail list of Potter's Inn which contain a memorable way to remember the 8 ways I explore. We'll send you one if you email and ask: [email protected]
In this blog, you'll be able to read excerpts, leave your ideas on the 8 ways and we'll be offering special opportunities to readers as they practice the eight ways! It's going to be excited to launch the new blog, new website and the new book to help readers everywhere know how to live the abundant life Jesus promised! The whole idea of the blog and the new website is to give us a platform of how to find each other; leave comments; offer suggestions of the progress we are making in living into The Jesus Life!
I'm excited!
Baby Beloved
Here is my grandchild! Like the Job, of old in the Old Testament, I cry out,"Oh that marvel of conception as you stirred together semen and ovum--What a miracle of skin and bone, muscle and brain! You gave me life itself and incredible love." (Job 10:10ff Message)Someone once said, "a baby is God's evidence that the world should go on!" In such of world of fear, turmoil, disaster and ruin, we might think--- what hope is there for a child to be born these days? We would not be the first to think such a thought. Can't you imagine even in the days of Jesus--under Roman rule, slavery and economic oppression people might have felt similar? I can.I believe that my grandchild will be part of God's solution to the world. Born to parents who follow Jesus, this child will hold the light within that will shed it's rays into the darkness of the waiting world. This child will be salt to a very unsavory place. This child will be a bearer of hope.That gives me hope not dread. It makes me want to live--to live even longer in my own life to nurture this life--to protect this life--to anchor this new life in love, awe and splendor. More than that, this baby in utero make me pray more than I ever have in my life. Strange, isn't it? That a fetus would make one pray more--but I am not the first to pray because of a pregnancy. Joseph did. Abraham must have and the rest. Men of old, dropped to their knees by a baby.Baby Beloved, as I call you now.I find myself thinking of you all the time.Anchored within your mother's womb andYour father like a warrior to protect you.Grow strong in that safe, dark place.Be safe within and when you arrive,We will bid you safety, peace and grace out here! Your Papa! Stephen W. SmithAll Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012.
Becoming a Grandfather to the Honey of the Hive!
We got the news through skype over the holidays. Our 1st born son and his wife are going to become parents to a baby! Translated, I am going to become a grandfather! This bundle of belovedness is going to arrive in July. It's thrilling for Gwen and me to consider this "development" and we treasure this news in our hearts and it has all set us to do a bit of pondering. Pondering is the word that the Bible uses when we learn that Mary is pregnant. She ponders. She thinks. She imagines. The ordinary routine of life is invaded with news that stops your world and shapes your outlook into the future. I simply cannot imagine Mary's pondering but I am becoming quiet familiar with my own. Here are some of my ponderings upon hearing this very good news!This baby is already the beloved of God. Formed in the mother's womb, this child already is loved by God. Isn't that simply stunning. We read, "Long before the foundations of the world were set, God had you--THIS BABY--in mind and had settled on THIS baby to become the focus of His love (Eph. 1:3, Msg).All of the days ahead for THIS baby are ordained by God--already. (Psalm 139:16)This child, my grandchild--flesh of my own flesh is already being cradled by more than fluids in the sac...but held by the very hands of the Eternal God. So, I have tried to put pen to words...put thoughts into a poem for my Beloved grandchild. Here's what I have written for my grandchild--upon hearing this news and upon further pondering and reflection: The Honey of the Hiveby Stephen W. Smith Every last part of you,all sinews, muscles and skinis now jointed in history and futureto what will unfold and begin. Already the Beloved in sacred form,though not seen, not held and not touched.Marvelous soul so sacred to be born,what love now awaits you. Flesh of my own flesh; heart so alive,With bowed knee and humble mind,We celebrate the honey of the hive!What glory now awaits us to kiss this sacred face. A part of me will now through you liveAnd I am ready for that!What I will touch is Yours to give,O Glory be for this good gift. Copyright 2012. Stephen W. SmithAll Rights Reserved.