From: Bobby G. Bodenhamer To: Di Kistler
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 11:10:06 AM
Subject: New Article
Di,
Well, now, I didn’t know you had a Catholic background. That gives you a unique perspective on the evangelical movement. Do you agree? Bob
From: Di Kistler
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 12:48 PM
To: Bobby G. Bodenhamer
Subject: Re: New Article
Indeed ... although Rob thinks I have a pretty limited evangelical frame of reference having been blessed to get plugged into Woodland right from the beginning of my protestant-ism.
I both appreciate my Catholic roots and have felt a little deceived by them but God works it all together for good. The only two churches I've ever really belonged to are Guardian Angels Catholic Church from about birth to 35 and then after rebirth 12/15/95 I found Woodland Hills Church which was meeting at the highschool just up from my house...so after teetering back and forth between churches, trying not to disappoint my mom and dad too abruptly, I joined Woodland Hills early in 1997 and have been there ever since.
It was cool actually, I had been attending Woodland and loving Pastor Boyd's teaching, but it was one weekend where I was debating whether to go to Guardian Angels or Woodland ... Woodland won out, and at first to my dismay Greg wasn't preaching but this other pastor was. Well....the Lord taught me that day it's about HIM and not Pastor Boyd or Pastor Jass. Pastor Jass preached about "being a piece of the puzzle" and that "you are here today because God has called you" and that sealed the deal for me : )
Blessed to be in Him!
The above was a recent e-xchange with good friend and Christian NLP author
Dr. Bobby Bodenhamer, another of the heaven on earth teachers God has so blessed me with. He has had an incredible impact on my Christian walk second only to author-pastor-friend Dr. Gregory Boyd. I'm telling you, I've hit the cosmic jackpot more than once in my life! Along with my beloved husband Rob and our equally cherished friends and pastors Kevin Callaghan, and Mike Davis, these are among God's most humble and gifted teachers, generous lovers of people, incredible men following hard after God who have, by example, been leaders worth following on a path to becoming more Christlike. And while ultimately none of this is really about them, they'd be the first to point you to Jesus, and my response is nothing less than meta amen knowing that when they see Him face to face, they will hear, well done, good and faithful one. Enter my Father's house.... and see the many lives you have touched. Well done. I am one eternally grateful soul that can truly and respectfully say you matter to Him and are mighty dangerous for good!
16 comments:
it was great to receive this piece of the puzzle in your story, di. i also love the way you care for and love the teachers in your life. you have such a giving heart!
Di,
Teachers are blessings worth of double honor. And you have been a blessing to me through your information and humility and your willingness to share yourself. You did hit the cosmic jackpot. I need to start playing that lottery. :)
ps: i picked up brian mclaren's "a generous orthodoxy" tonight at borders. it was the least expensive of the books on the rack, since it was in paperback. i sat down to read the introduction and was hooked. i love his creative use of footnotes. and the use of a "chapter 0." i think i'm really going to love what he has to say. i appreciate already his perspective that none of us has it completely right, and we would do well to extend generous grace to one another as pilgrims along the road.
nathan, you've totally hit it too...all the overflow is just the nature of God's economy. sharing burdens, joys, sorrows, learning from and teaching one another in humility is just so divine to get to be a part of.
christianne, i loved chapter 0 too. despite all the warnings we pressed on through - how clever of the author to make one feel so triumphant and i cannot wait to get back to it. however, a little hidden treasure has just yesterday made its way from my table top to my hands. after returning from colorado last march i felt impressed to order hinds' feet on high places....intending to read it back then, being reminded of it repeatedly ever since only to have let nearly a year pass before finally beginning to discover the depth of beauty therein. i am only on page 34...but it has a weightiness to it that has made it a divine imperative of the heart to soak it in now in its entirety...
i did skip forward and read a couple pages about much afraid becoming grace and glory...and gathering stones along the way. i read that and closed the book having received all i need to know that there is a jewel in here for me to discover and that whole heart thing....this is touching there.
i suspect many of you have already read this book...fighting the urge to not feel gypped and praising God for it now for such a time as this.
Di, I went through all of the materials you sent me last night. Really enjoyed them. Thanks so much for sharing. You are a complete and utter blessing to me!
di, wow! with christianne, i agree that it's great to be let in on this piece of your story. i've been hooked on mclaren ever since i first picked up "a new kind of christian". "a generous orthodoxy" has been on my amazon.com wishlist ... um, well ... for a very long time. perhaps it's time to move it from the wishlist to the shopping cart. ;o) ... and maybe some books by gregory boyd too!!
working all together to good ... pointing us to Jesus, not to any single teacher or preacher. yes, yes. so easy to lose sight of this sometimes [didn't paul himself address such a debacle?].
thanks for sharing some of your jackpot winnings!! :o)
nathan, my pleasure to share the blessings that just keep multiplying like loaves and fishes
kirsten, ah yes paul definitely deserves mention on any all time favorite teachers list and apollos watered a good crop as well
one plants one waters and God creates the growth ~ amen
bobby bodenhamer said...
“To God be the glory.” I sure cannot take any glory. I am just humbled that the Lord has used me to touch your life. I have to admit that I had no idea that I was making such an impact on your life. We never know, do we? I assure you that Bob has experienced a great affirmation for always walking as humble as he can before the Lord knowing that he has no idea as to how and as to whom he is touching.
I thank you.
Bob
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 8:04 AM
To: Bobby G. Bodenhamer
Subject: Re: Thank You
Bob, may I include your response as a follow-up comment to the original blog post?
Di,
I would be honored for you to utilize anything that I write to you or have written.
I read Kirsten’s post to her priest. That was and is a great testimony.
It sounds like she didn't make the decision hastily but went through a lot of prayer and no doubt agony in making it.
That is to be both appreciated and honored.
You are doing a great work with that blog. I just praise the Lord for the internet.
It has opened the world up to us for ministry.
Hey, I spent the morning speaking to a group of ladies who are working on their GED...
We had a grand time. All were Christians so it was great seeing them give their bitter roots to Jesus as well as to “go up” and spend some time with their Savior.
Thank you Lord.
Keep up the fantastic work.
Bob
to God be the GLORY!!!!
Di, somehow I've missed this blog until just now, when I saw your comment over at Kaari's place. I've caught up with a little of your story, loved it, and wanted to say Hi! I'm sure I'll be around.
Hi Di!
Wow! I really appreciate the nice things you said about Bob, Kevin and myself.
That was really encouraging and a blessing!
I think you have inspired me to start blogging!
Loe ya in the Lord
MIke Davis
Di,
I LOVE this picture! How beautiful! Something for the website perhaps? Anyway, I am from a Catholic background, too and you said it well. Appreciating, but feeling, oh I can't remember the word you used, but it was perfect. And I agree, the men that I know that you spoke of are incredible men living for the kingdom. They are great role models for the other Christian men in the world, trying to figure out how to follow God and be a man in this society...that includes your husband, btw! ;)
Your butterfly reminds me of a lady that i know who made these, i don't know what you would call them, they weren't paintings, they were kinda like stain glass things, when you hold them up to the light you could see through them. They were all butterflys. She made a bunch of them for different people in the church.
This is going to sound weird, maybe,( but sometimes you just have to go on faith with certain things) All of these butterflys somehow had prophetic meanings to the people she made them for.
There was a particular day in a prayer meeting that she handed everyone a butterfly and they went around the whole rooom commenting one by one on their butterfly. I just kept being shocked at what these people were saying about those butterflys, and all the explainations were stuff that this lady had no prior knowledge of.
I am being a blog hog (i borrowed that from you) forgive me, i am arriving to a point. So she hands this one person this butterfly and when he held it to the light it looked just like a man hanging on a cross.
I knew that person, and i knew why that image was there. This lady did not even notice that picture in that butterfly until someone pointed it out to her, so this was not intentional.
Everytime i think of your blog.....becoming inside out, i think of transformation now i see the image of transformation the butterfly....i see a cross in that butterfly.
God has dealt with me a lot lately about the cross, as in being nailed to it. True life can only come out of death. I am crying for the grace to die so He can live.
God speaks to me in pictures sometimes and a few years ago i drew a picture of myself laying on an altar bound with ropes with flames of fire coming up from the altar.
Butterflys are beautiful but they remind me of burning altars, crosses, and death.
Di, i layed down my cross, i came up off of that altar because the flames got too hot, perhaps god will grant me mercy and i will pick up death once more. I think of Isaac and i burn and i cry, and some part of me dies because i know where God desires me to be.
Your butterfly inspired all of that. Sorry once again for the blog hog comment.
Di
I just read here that you have been reading probably my most favorite book ever written, (that is outside of the book of martyrs) That book is awesome. I read it a long time ago that book holds a lot of memories for me.
poet, all looks like burning altars and crosses and death on good friday but easter morning is coming
a butterfly reminds me of new life
there are caterpillar and chrysalis and cocoon stages but eventually we emerge completely different. New Life in Christ.
The one butterfly given that man that when held up to the light revealed a cross reminds me of an image I got once of having arms spread out to the sides in worship where our body resembles a cross and standing in front of the cross where Jesus hung then a light pierces through and He is risen and that light touches these arms spread out reflecting that truth from death to life from resurrection to ascension and we hare in that victory, praise God!
We all have our maps and meanings and associations and I appreciate you sharing that prophetic memory. Butterflys used to bug me. Now the re-present something entirely different.
When we lose our life we find it. What a beautiful truth!
My favorite book ever written is now Hinds' Feet On High Places too. I don't have to explain why to you do I. Been there done that and will go there and do it again!
love to you.
So now Hinds feet has become your favorite book? That is awesome. Oh and it is very true that butterflys represent new life. I don't think i would have the strength to face good Friday if i didn't trust that Easter Sunday is on its way. that is a very good thought. Sometimes i go over a cliff in some morbid state of mind until someone throws a rope.
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