Soul Care
Tethering my soul to Jesus
Psalm 23
(Matthew 16:24-26 NLT) – Jesus asked 2 Questions about the soul – here they are in reverse order.
Is anything worth more than your soul?
What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
What is the soul? -- Integration of every part of my life – my soul is how everything is connected
Doll
Watch
What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
What does it mean to lose my soul?
If my soul is how the parts of my life/being is connected/integrated
Losing my soul is the Dis-integration of my inner person/being
What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but your own soul dis-integrates?
What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but your own soul comes apart or unravels?
My soul – what is happening to it is immeasurably important
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently … Deuteronomy 4:9 ESV
2 Questions as a filter to walk through life and relationships
- What is this doing to MY soul?
- What is this doing to THEIR soul?
TABLE TALK
1. What is this doing to MY soul?
What was the first thing that came to your mind when that question was introduced?
Have you found yourself thinking about or asking that question over the weeks? If so - How has that question helped you?
2. What is this doing to THEIR soul?
What was the first thing that came to your mind when that question was introduced?
Have you found yourself thinking about or asking that question over the weeks? If so - How has that question helped you?
Last week – in order to ‘take care and keep my soul diligently’ we talked about:
- Slow-down
- Silence
- Solitude
Soul Care doesn’t just happen – If it just happened as people got older their souls should be more and increasingly integrated.
We all know older people who are and increasingly are – dis-integrated.
Almost no one sets out to trash their soul – “I’m going to do everything I can to trash my soul.”
It happens over time – it happens in little ways.
Cat Man –“Stalking Cat” man, real name, Dennis Avner - Guinness World Records holder of the "most body modifications- including work towards becoming a female cat
Sad – he didn’t set out one day to trash his soul – over time – dis-integration occurred – bit by bit by bit …
In the same way that Soul Dis-integration is a process
Soul Care is a process
Soul Care takes work
Soul Care isn’t just one dimensional
Soul Care has many facets to it
Soul – integration of my mind, my emotions, my will, my appetites, my body, my relationships …
Soul care – in one way or another – every part of me must be tended to …
Soul Care is not ‘Cookie Cutter’ – if you’ll just … I did this and …
The work of Soul Care is getting into a place where God can ‘Restore my soul.’
Open to God restoring my soul …
Getting into a place where God can …
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. (Psalms 23:1-3 NIV)
Jesus – Come to me everyone who is tired, weary and burdened and I will give you REST for you souls.
Any experience in church at all – times where someone will ask for a response of those who would like to follow Jesus.
Jesus said: Come to me …
We say: No I’ll carry my own load – I’m tired, I’m weary, I’m burdened but I’ll carry my own load
Often the wrestle is not about carrying my own load – the wrestle is about being my own boss – I want control
Wrestling as kids – Cry uncle, Cry uncle
Eugene Peterson - Message
Restoring of your soul – takes place when you “Come to him” --- Put yourself in the place where he can restore.
Spiritual transformation is a long-term endeavor. It involves both God and us. I liken it to crossing an ocean.
Some people try, day after day, to be good, to become spiritually mature. That’s like taking a rowboat across the ocean. It’s exhausting and usually unsuccessful.
Others have given up trying and throw themselves entirely on 'relying on God's grace.' They’re like drifters on a raft. They do nothing but hang on and hope God gets them there.
Neither trying nor drifting are very effective in bringing about spiritual transformation.
A better image is the sailboat, in which if it moves at all, it's a gift of the wind. We can't control the wind, but a good sailor discerns where the wind is blowing and adjusts the sails accordingly. Working with the Holy Spirit, which Jesus likened to the wind in John 3, means we have a part in discerning the winds, in knowing the direction we need to go, and in training our sails to catch the breezes that God provides. John Ortberg
Books by Virginia Harvey
Friend of Win’s
Lecture on Macramé – tying knots – weaving – wrote these books
Documentary made on her life
She also was hired by a NASA sub-contractor to invent a super-strong, braided tether for use in outer space
Tether
Problem was space debris was damaging and in some instances severing the tether
NASA – “What if we made it with multiple pieces to it?”
Then if debris cut one strand – there was still multiple strands still attached.
Tether 2
Restoring the soul – about being tethered to Jesus
What if ‘Restoring your soul’ was not just one activity – But more like the multi-strand tether made up of a number of different actions?
Prayer
Take a walk
Read the Word of God
Cup of coffee on the porch
Worship
Read inspiring books
Journal
Fast from Media
Fast from ‘work’ – Ministry books/articles, etc.
Work in the yard
Recreation
Exercise
Laugh
A hobby
Table – List things that ‘thether the soul’ of people around your table … Either you or someone you know
There is a way in which our five senses are used to shape our souls.
The five senses are the ministers of the soul. Leonardo da Vinci
Souls are shaped by many hands.
Eyes see --- Especially color
Jumping spiders --- ULTRAVIOLET AND GREEN
INSECTS - (bees) ULTRAVIOLET, BLUE, YELLOW
CRUSTACEANS (crayfish) - BLUE AND RED
CEPHALOPODS (octopi and squids) - BLUE ONLY
FISH MOST SEE JUST TWO COLORS
BIRDS FIVE TO SEVEN COLORS
Cats and dogs – see TWO COLORS BUT WEAKLY
Squirrel - BLUES AND YELLOWS
Apes, African monkeys and chimps) - SAME AS HUMANS
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (Psalms 8:3-4 NIV)
What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:19-20 NIV)
Ears hear –
Music
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. Berthold Auerbach
Words
I love you
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. (Proverbs 16:24 NASB)
Like cold water to a weary soul, So is good news from a distant land. (Proverbs 25:25 NASB)
Touch - hug, healing
Hug – All is well with the world
People were bringing children for Jesus to touch them.
Taste - Only reason is pleasure – Taste has nothing to do with appetite, minuscule part in saliva
The five (known) elements of taste perception: salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and umami – (Japanese word for savory)
Smell
Someone who smells the clothes of someone who is gone.
WAMM
What Activities Matter Most?
Sight, hearting, touch, taste, smell
Video
This is my Father’s world.
The ways in which a person’s soul is fed, healed, re-integrated – countless
Putting yourself in a position where you are open to God’s restoring work …
Hurried – Harried pace at which life is being lived is not the optimal position of being open
It is better to choose a pace where we can be open to God’s restoring work then the pace being forced on us.