Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

  • Home
  • About
  • DISCLOSURES
    • Amazon Affiliate
    • Book Reviews
  • Published
  • Contact
  • Blog
    • Commit Poetry
    • Dared

beth moore and why i can’t not blog

March 26, 2013 By Sandra Heska King

blog

 

We’re done with this book, and I’m glad. Though I’m also glad I read it.

I think.

It was hard and uncomfortable. It’s made me question my faith and my following.

Basically, I understand Platt to say that if I’m not making disciples, I “may not actually be a Christian, for these features are the fruit of followers of Christ.” ~p. 209

He quotes Dawson Trotman, “How many persons do you know by name today who were won to Christ by you and are now living for Him?” ~p. 201-202

Ummm… none. At least that I know of.

My circumstances and financial situation don’t allow me to realize my childhood missions dreams–to travel to far countries to love people and touch them and ask them if they know Jesus. I have a hard enough time just getting out of the house.

But Platt does say this:

We e-mail, Facebook, tweet, and text with people who are going to spend eternity in either heaven or hell . . . Just as you and I have no guarantee that we will live through the day, the people around us are not guaranteed tomorrow either. So let’s be intentional about sewing threads of the gospel into the fabric of our conversations every day . . .”  ~p. 187

And. That. Is. Why. I. Blog.

And ‘book and tweet.

Thank you, David, for reminding me. Because I’d gotten confused about even that after reading this post.

Tami Heim and Toni Birdsong affirm this in @stickyJesus: How to Live Out Your Faith Online–that the mission field is right at my fingertips. That social media and blogging can be super efficient ways to share the gospel story. They remind me that I’m a digital scribe, a social media missionary. That I’ve been born for such a time as this.

You stand here as a Christ follower in a definitive moment in time; you are an ordinary person called to usher a holy Kingdom into an increasingly fragmented world . . . He now calls you to log on and upload what’s critical to today’s conversations. ~@stickyJesus, p. 10

I can take a blog break, but I can’t brake from my blog. At least in this season.

This week I got an email from someone “across the ocean” who wanted to share some of my writing with others in her country. If I can believe my stats, my words have been read this month in 47 countries plus every state in the United States.

Can I touch more this way than face-to-face and skin-to-skin? Or even in a published book?

(That’s not to say I don’t want to publish a book, you who have ears to hear and ways to make it happen.)

Maybe I’m just a “seed planter?”

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. ~1 Corinthians 3:5-9

Platt goes on to say:

In the great commission, Jesus tells all of his disciples to go, baptize, and teach people to obey everything he has commanded them. This kind of teaching doesn’t require a special gifting or a specific setting. This kind of teaching happens all over the place–in homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, on car rides, in meetings, and over meals–in the context of where we live, work, and play every day. ~p. 192

And in airports?

Here is where Beth Moore enters the picture. I stumbled on this video today and thought, That’s it! That’s what following Him is all about. That’s what dying and living is in our every-ordinary-go-about-our-work day. 

Note to self: Carry a brush.

Today we finish our discussion of David Platt’s book, Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live. Follow this link over to The High Calling as Marcus Goodyear sums it all up from his perspective and others add their comments.

Still blogging,

Sandy

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: book studies, stories and reflections

Comments

  1. michelle ortega says

    March 27, 2013 at 6:59 am

    Good morning and AMEN! Thank you for sharing your literary journey through Platt’s book, your insights and that video. I love that what we need to do is Be Still and Listen for His Lead! Hairbrush, blog, hug,…it’s always Him at work in us and through us for sure. And if God called you to put a brake on your blog I would surely understand, but until He does, I will gladly continue to be blessed by your words and your community!

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 8:27 am

      Listen, hear, and follow. I’m not sure I would have even offered to brush someone’s hair if I didn’t have a brush. Now I might have run down to Brookstone to see if they had one before I asked and missed the opportunity.

      I’m so blessed by your faithful presence here, Michelle. xo

  2. Patricia @ Pollywog Creek says

    March 27, 2013 at 7:15 am

    I’ve had the same conversation with myself about blogging. I’m just learning {again} that I need to limit what conversations I enter into, because it’s so easy to be misunderstood. Just look at how Platt is misunderstood to be arrogant, unloving, and fundamentalist, when in reality his love for Christ and the salvation of souls is so huge that he cares not for himself. I’m also learning that it’s better for my soul if I also limit what I read online, because much of it only grieves me. I realized once that my readership is equal to that of the number of people most pastors reach on Sunday morning, and that was a wake-up call. It’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly. It is, as you’ve said here, an opportunity to do my part to be a disciple and make disciples. May God keep us faithful to our callings where ever He places us and may Christ alone be glorified in our lives.

    I love you, Sandy. You are a gift.

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 8:20 am

      I’m sure it grieves Platt to know that some folks are seeing him as you describe, because I believe he’s very passionate for Christ and obviously has a gift for evangelism. He’s also still young, and it may be that age might soften future writing–or not.

      Yes, I found this book hard, but I also think it’s good for us to be challenged in our faith or else we tend to become too comfortable with it. I know this last month has been hard but good for me–even in my old age.

      There are billions of people across the world spending billions of minutes online. More are online than are in church. And as long as we’re powered up before we’re powered up, T and T say, “We live in one of the most exciting windows for sharing the gospel since the Gutenberg press was invented in 1440, making Bibles accessible to the masses.”

      Love you more.

  3. Sheila Seiler Lagrand says

    March 27, 2013 at 7:52 am

    (Oh, my! Monday flew by me and I didn’t head over to read Marcus’ wrap. I’ll do that next.)

    I have told, and tell myself, the same thing. One plants the seed, one waters, another harvests, yes? Seed planters, we’ll be, then.

    Though I think we’re to keep an eye out for withered-looking seedlings and ripened heads of grain, too.

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 8:23 am

      Ha! And we’ll watch out for those long-haired guys, too, cuz you never know what might happen when you pick up a brush.

      • Sheila Seiler Lagrand says

        March 27, 2013 at 9:12 am

        Never.

        xoxo

  4. Brandee Shafer says

    March 27, 2013 at 8:22 am

    I love this, Sandy, and have been having some thoughts along these lines. I was just thinking about the man from whom Jesus cast demons (into pigs). That man wanted to go with Jesus, but Jesus instructed him to go tell others what Jesus had done for him. I write down things I want my children to know, and at the top of my list is simply this: what Jesus has done for me. I hope I’m touching others along the way. It is an opportunity. Thank you so much for this post.

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 8:59 pm

      I like how you see, Brandee. You’re leaving a legacy, and I know your telling is touching.

      Have you read @stickyJesus?

  5. Dea says

    March 27, 2013 at 11:11 am

    I haven’t read David’s new book, but I read Radical and found it compelling. God put a thought into my head one morning as I was meditating on making disciples. I must say it stunned me–“You will make disciples when you become one.” What conviction fell on me to think that I wasn’t really taking God seriously, not receiving his revelation as a revelation to me. Is that not what makes some squirm at David’s radical message? I first heard the Hair Brush story the first time I facilitated a Beth Moore study. Never forgot it.

    I am going through a process of loss right now and I think often of your journey with your mom. Can I thank you again for sharing it? You presence here on the www is a blessing that’s impact will only known on the other side of the divide.

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 8:56 pm

      Yes, it’s hard when someone starts waving that flashlight around. Makes me want to cringe back into the shadows.

      Praying for you as you walk this walk–with you grandmother, right? I’m so glad we don’t grieve as those with no hope. That hope holds us on the journey.

      Love to you, friend.

  6. Jen Ferguson says

    March 27, 2013 at 1:23 pm

    That article made me think about my own purpose for blogging, too. And I came to the realization that I blog because I can’t not. I can’t not build community. I can’t not be authentic. I can’t not write my heart.

    And because I believe in a God who does not waste anything, I know that my time and my heart will not be wasted, either.

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 8:24 pm

      It’s good to be made to think, right? He is using you, Jen, in a beautiful way. And His word never comes back void.

  7. Kristin says

    March 27, 2013 at 4:21 pm

    Loved this! I’ve read David Platt and I’ve seen Beth Moore’s airport story many times. There have been times I thought I would quit facebook, but I keep hearing that still small voice saying to share, and what bigger media to share HIM than through FB. BUT, I also believe we are meant to share in person, skin to skin. This used to SO intimidate me, but I stepped out of that comfort zone shaking like a leaf and it has been SUCH a blessing! I still shake at times, but it is so worth it to share our Lord with others.
    Keep blogging please! You have much to say and say it all so beautifully:)

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 8:22 pm

      Thank you, Kristin. My skin-to-skin time these days seems to be mostly with the grandgirls. But, oh yes… then there was Haiti. And there will be Haiti 🙂

      And I can’t believe I’d never heard Beth’s story. I don’t know where I’ve been.

  8. Kd sullivan says

    March 27, 2013 at 5:08 pm

    …isn’t funny? because that is why I’m not blogging! Because God has me busy doing things elsewhere…and it hurt like your moving to Florida and having to experience palms rather than pines. But His grace is here as well, in the midst of the unfamiliar, the now I never saw coming…I have to bow my knee to His plan for my disciple making/disciple becoming experience….yes, even if it means that I. Can. Not. Blog.

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 8:20 pm

      It has a lot to do with the season. You are doing good, good work, Kim. And I miss you. But I know you are touching skin-to-skin and heart-to-heart, and you are following Him in the becoming and in the making.

  9. Marcus Goodyear says

    March 27, 2013 at 8:24 pm

    Well, I’m certainly glad you haven’t stopped blogging. I don’t think blogging is going away any time soon, though it is no longer the only way to be social online.

    I have found that I struggle to maintain more than one site. So I devote most of my time to The High Calling these days, and that is fine. I still keep my own blog and post there occasionally.

    One thing struck me here, though. You quote Platt saying that making disciples is the fruit of followers of Christ. I’m not sure about that, actually. I would say the fruits of the Spirit are the fruits of followers of Christ–love, joy, peace, patience, etc. How we interact with others is more important than our agenda for our interactions.

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 11:13 pm

      I’m loving the chances to write for THC and BibleDude, and I think that’s part of what Laura was pointing to in her post–increasing reach through higher profile places. So I guess I’m following some of her advice, but it doesn’t really feel like it since I post teases here. 🙂

      I’m guessing Platt is talking more of a soul harvest when he talks about fruit in this context. But I’m also thinking that as our spiritual fruit matures, we’ll be better sowers and reapers.

      Thanks for coming by, Marcus! Is it time to meet up at LL again? It must be time. I’m so ready.

  10. Lynn Mosher says

    March 27, 2013 at 9:23 pm

    Don’t you love that video? I can’t remember when I first saw; it’s been a long time. I’m glad you posted it. Love seeing it again. Beautiful! As is your post. Easter blessings to you, sweetie!

    • Sandra says

      March 27, 2013 at 11:15 pm

      I’ve watched this video several times (and made my husband watch it), and I can so see it. And I’m pretty sure now the day will come when God’s going to present something similar to me just because I’ve watched it. 😉 I hope I’m as obedient as Beth.

      Blessings to you, too, beautiful Lynn.

  11. Janis Cox says

    March 28, 2013 at 10:32 pm

    Sandra,
    Thanks so much for sharing the video of Beth Moore. It really shows that when we are in tune with God amazing things can happen.
    Discouragement comes from Satan – don’t listen to him.
    Encouragement comes from God – listen to Him.
    I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts.
    Blessings,
    Janis
    Let us mutually encourage one another.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Meet Sandra

I’m Sandra, a camera-toting, recovering doer who’s learning to be. still. Read more…

Get updates from the stillness by email

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Archives

Categories

Instagram Inspiration

sandraheskaking

“This spark of life that wavest wings of gold” “This spark of life that wavest wings of gold” ~ Thomas Wentworth Higginson in “Ode to a Butterfly”
🦋
We pulled all the milkweed because it just could not support all the caterpillars. They were eating it bare and most of them died because they ran out of food. This one butterfly found this one lone volunteer.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright futur "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." ~ E.B. White (as quoted on today's page in my Franklin Planner)
"May you experience each day as a sacred gift wove "May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder." ~ John O'Donohue in "For Presence" from To Bless the Space Between Us
🌴
Tri-colored heron stalking breakfast in my backyard.
“. . neighbor’s tree hangs heavy with mangoes “. .  neighbor’s tree hangs heavy with mangoes. They are moving in a week. They say a family from Belarus bought the house. I hope they don’t care much for mangoes.”
**
“Beautiful Sweet Things” at https://sandraheskaking.substack.com/
"People do not grow old. When they cease to grow t "People do not grow old. When they cease to grow they become old.” ~ Emerson

It's been a while since I've written anything on my blog. Like 3 years. But I just wrote my first post on Substack. Come see?

https://sandraheskaking.substack.com/p/ten-years-ten-things
Spent a couple hours this morning with friends fro Spent a couple hours this morning with friends from @spanishriverchurch picking up beach trash. Little bits of colored and clear plastic, big bits of plastic, bottle caps, broken glass, strings, ropes, straws, socks, fast food containers, paper, cigarette holders and filters—and a couple unmentionables. Took extra care around the turtle nests. Last count was about 70 pounds, but there were also some bigger things like an abandoned chair and a plastic tent. And a big piece of burlap or something with a fishing lure and giant hook attached. D found a Macy’s gift card that he almost tossed in his bucket. But we brought it home to check the balance—$24.60! We should be able to turn that into something useful for someone. 😊
H Already dead, I am living my afterlife here in t H
Already dead, I am
living my afterlife
here
in the form of a human.
~ Xueyan from Time Peels All to Original White

Thanks to @tspoetry for introducing me to this beautiful collection via an Every Day Poems selection.
The cats attacked the window all night. The dog wo The cats attacked the window all night. The dog woofed all night. This morning we discovered the would-be burglar imprisoned between the screen and the glass on our bedroom slider. 

When I stepped out to release it (no bail), I was surprised by this brief bit of backyard beauty.
For most of us, knowledge of our world comes large For most of us, knowledge of our world comes largely through sight, yet we look about with such unseeing eyes that we are partially blind. One way to open your eyes to unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself, "What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?" ~ Rachel Carson in The Sense of Wonder
#prayformsu #spartanstrong #spartannurse #michigan #prayformsu #spartanstrong #spartannurse #michiganstateuniversity
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faith Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. ~ Psalm 136:1
A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana in the background until I downloaded the photos. That, I believe, is the one that got caught in one of the openings in the neighbor's chain link fence. We tried in several (safe) ways to dislodge it without luck and could think of no other option but to leave it. Somehow it apparently dislodged itself. We also believe this is the pair that was getting into another neighbor's garden. We haven't seen either one since the last cold snap, so we are wondering if they survived. 
🌱
Thinking some may have tumbled from their perches last night. Pretty sure it will be raining iguanas tonight since we are under a frost advisory. It's cold. And windy.
Just sing... sing a song... Singing our way into Just sing... sing a song... 

Singing our way into the weekend.
"We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramse "We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramsey in Rembrandt is in the Wind
Now you see me... now you don't. Now you see me... now you don't.
"I started looking and listening. I realized that "I started looking and listening. I realized that work, like life, is shot through with poetry. It was everywhere. I was so taken with what I discovered that I wrote a book about it." @gyoung9751 
🌱
Whether you work in an office, a retail store, a restaurant, or at home... Whether you work on roads or on power lines, or on high buildings...Whether you collect trash or preach sermons, or care for your kiddos. Whether you do art, or weave words, or take photos of a common gallinule AKA moorhen AKA swamp chicken--it's all shot through with poetry.
🌱
So pay attention. Find a poem.
🌱
Read more at https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2023/01/10/its-poetry-at-work-day-2023/
Rising… Rising…
Everyone needs a little balance in life. And maybe Everyone needs a little balance in life. And maybe a beauty routine. And breakfast. Especially breakfast. I wonder if it consists of a few fire ants. I hope so. (Well, not mine. I'm having oatmeal with chia seeds. What are you having this morning?)
🌱
P.S. Happy Friday!
"Though your destination is not yet clear You can "Though your destination is not yet clear You can trust the promise of this opening; Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning That is at one with your life's desire." ~John O'Donohue 
🌿
A blessing for a new beginning in a new year. I'm sure he wrote it especially for me. At least I'm claiming it. Maybe it will speak to you, too.
🌿
Also, I'd really like this skirt --> 
🌿
Read the whole poem--> -->
🌿
Well, bummer... The whole page didn't print. Read it in the comments below.
"What precocity, a bird half the size Of an Anjou "What precocity, a bird half the size
Of an Anjou pear." ~ Stephen Kuusisto in "The Mockingbird on Central" (Find it in The Poets Guide to the Birds edited by Judith Kitchen and Ted Kooser)
🌱
"The morning pages are the primary tool of creative recovery." ~ Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way. 
🌱
I've been in a long creative drought, so I started morning pages--again. This time I've got a bit of an accountability group through @refineretreat's Refinery--which I finally also joined this year. I'll turn 74 this month. I'm not ready to grow old while I age--though everything does seem to take longer while time goes by faster.
🌱
#aweandwonder #tsaweandwonder
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Get the Mug

Embrace the life you have t s poetry mug

Privacy Policy

Full privacy policy is available HERE.

I Read Light

TSP-Red button

bibledude-net



Sponsor a Child

Join the Compassion Blogger Network

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2023 Sandra Heska King · Site by The Willingham Enterprise, LLC on the Genesis Framework by StudioPress · Log in