I Can't Believe I Walked In That

Sacred Dung: Grace to Turn Bad Things Into Good Things

John D. Duncan, Austin Brothers Publishing, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, 2015

I Can’t Believe I Walked In That!

This is John Duncan’s third book in his “Sacred” trilogy.  In the first one, Sacred Space, he shared with us how to find a) the silence we need in order to survive in this crazy world, b) the speech that we need to be able to converse with God, and c) the ear we must cultivate to hear God. In his second book, Sacred Grit, he takes us to a training ground for the Christian life if we plan to finish well.

In Sacred Dung, he is basically telling us: There are good things and there are bad things. Good things happen to good people and bad people. And more importantly, bad things also happen to bad people; and most importantly, they happen to good people, too.  But for the Christian who has been prepared in the Sacred Space, and trained and equipped with Sacred Grit – dealing with the Sacred Dung is possible, beneficial, and is exactly what God wants of us while we’re walking this earth.

To accomplish this, Duncan takes us through some teaching on Sacred Refuse, showing us the need to move away from focusing on the past and start looking to the future.  He shows us how to eradicate the darkness that has befallen us (or that we have fallen into) and start to shed light into the available crevices. He also points out that the party’s over if we cannot “dump the dung” – we may as well “Kiss life goodbye” and “Turn out the lights”. But he doesn’t just say that – he tells us where and how to start the dumping process.

When we come across dung in our lives, we must realize that it is in essence our wilderness, our desert.  We all hit one sooner or later. The author shows us how to move from loss to gain.

In the process, John Duncan helps each of us realize what many of us refuse to accept. With some wonderfully written examples, he convinces us that we cannot predict the future, neither can we control, nor force, life. Surprises happen.  Some are good but some are bad.

I’ve tried to refrain from giving away the author’s wonderful quotes, allowing readers to discover them for themselves, but I had to get this one in: “Sacred dung invites us into God’s light in the darkness, into His oasis of grace in the wilderness, and into His healing grace in the agony of the soul.”  We come out of the wilderness and away from the dung remarkably different and yes, better, people. The book is proof that no matter what, God is good – not just some of the time, but really “all the time” – even in our dung.  There, God does His best work on our lives.

In the latter part of the book, Duncan shows us how God turns hurt to healing sharing some of his own life with us, as well as the lives of others.  That alone is a great solace to any one of us.  But he takes the reader beyond that point of focus on his/her own hurt and healing. He talks about “stitches coming out” but “scars remaining”.  And for many, those scars are often hidden.  He says they’re “unseen, unknown, invisible” to others.  But we are to assume they are there and act accordingly towards others.  Here’s the way it should work – God graces us so that we can grace others.  God heals us, allowing us to use our experiences, to help others heal.

If you like great quotes, John has his own, but he also draws on some terrific and very applicable ones from the great poets and writers of history. And he also likes talking right to the reader – something that takes a little getting used to, but it works well for him.

Speaking of quotes, I just must leave you with this last one from the author near the end of Sacred Dung: “All you have to do in the dung is hold your nose and open your eyes to see God’s presence, protection, and power; to see His strength as a refuge for you by faith, under grace, and in the hope of His joy.”

If you’ve stepped in the dung, or are doing so now, this book has the potential of helping you dump it and staying out of it.  If you’ve never been there, keep living, you will be and this book can help you navigate your feet away from it when that time comes, for it will.

-- Ken B. Godevenos, Accord Resolution Services Inc., Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 15/11/25

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We All Finish, but Where & How Is The Issue

Sacred Grit: Faith To Push Through When You Feel Like Giving Up

John D. Duncan, Austin Brothers Publishing, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, 2015

This is John Duncan’s second book in his “Sacred” trilogy.  In the first one, Sacred Space, he shared with us how to find a) the silence we need in order to survive in this crazy world, b) the speech that we need to be able to converse with God, and c) the ear we must cultivate to hear God.

In Sacred Grit, he takes us to a training ground for the Christian life.  If we’re going to finish well, we must be trained to expect and overcome three things.  Like a soldier in on the front lines, we have to face and deal with “sacred fear”.  Like an athlete in the arena we have to prepare to withstand “sacred agony”.  And like a farmer in the field of life, we have to welcome “sacred sweat” if we are to bear fruit.  It is only then that the “sacred grit” we seek and so dearly need to survive the Christian life can see us through to the end, having achieved all that we were meant to accomplish.

Participants to a recent trip to Israel were told that if we were to survive the trip, most of which took place in the country’s desert, we had to train quit hard long before we even hopped on the plane to get there.  He had to overcome the fear of being in the Middle East, get in the physical condition needed to handle the heat and terrain, including the climbing of mountains and cliffs, and to bring the proper clothing because we would indeed be sweating.  We were more ready for our trip than John Wayne was for filming the movie, True Grit.  And the rewards were extraordinary – visually, socially, mentally, and above all, spiritually.  That’s what Sacred Grit does for the Christian who wants to live a victorious and meaningful life.

Like the book’s cover picture and the picture of a single poppy growing out of the rocks that I took in the Negev desert of Israel,  the Christian is capable of breaking through the hard rock challenges of life – physical, social, mental, and spiritual -- and indeed “finishing well” and “winning the race of life” for his Lord.  With “sacred grit” he/she has the potential of becoming, or doing, something beautiful for others, and even for him/herself to marvel at, through the grace of God.

Duncan helps us turn our fear into courage, our failures into successes, and our faith into one that produces fruit.  For those who think that Duncan would never understand the darkness they live in, he has this to say:  “ . . . even in darkness you have potential to do your very best work in the eyes of God, especially if you open your eyes to God’s vision.”

His first two books together show us how getting “sacred space” and embracing “sacred grit” helps us pursue holiness, please God more, and draw us closer to Christ as we learn to trust Him more.

Duncan is brutally honest with his readers. As much as he’d like to tell us that the Christian life “is as easy as sipping lemonade on the front porch”, he must tell us that it works us hard inside and out, and it works stuff out of us.  He says it wearies us on some days and pushes us to our limits on others.  Finally, it will ‘grace’ us but not before it causes us to sweat.

And I love one of his key conclusions with respect to the hard labor that’s required of us.  He says that while we are definitely not alone, for God is with us, we will often very much feel alone out there under the hot sun in the middle of the field. This isn’t your typical feel good book.  It wasn’t meant to be.  It was intended to show you why you can’t make it without resilience and how to get it.

Already I’ve been able to help a dear friend and myself with one of the author’s quotes I liked very much.  John writes, “Your greatest ministry will take place alone, away from the eyes of watchers, and only in the eyes of God who, for all practical purposes, is the One who matters anyway.” If one truly accepts that, he/she is well on their way to significance.

The way the world is going today, if there are two things we need – they’re “sacred space” to get our bearings and “sacred grit” to get to our destination. 

--   Ken B. Godevenos, Accord Resolution Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario. 15/11/21 

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The Sabbath Is Not About Us -- Exodus 20:8-10a

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God;”
 

Have you ever lost a day?  It happens to me regularly.  Life is moving so fast that I miss what day it is.  Or if I have enjoyed a statutory holiday in the middle of the week, I wake up the next morning thinking it is Monday when it’s not.  I have a dear acquaintance of mine who will be 100 years later this month; we will celebrate it with her.  She is in a nursing home and often asks her visitors “What day is this?” for to her they are all the same.  Life is like that, we forget what day it is for various reasons.

But God says, “Remember the Sabbath day.”  If we want to walk with God and in obedience to His commandments, we must not, as long as we are mentally able, forget the Sabbath.

When I was younger, and hearing various ministers preach on this topic, the key thought that was driven home to me, was “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”  We had to be careful not to do anything ‘unholy’ on the Sabbath.  As a rebellious youngster, I got fired from my summer job at a Christian family resort for actually swimming on the Sabbath.  Clearly that was a no-no back then.  But as society changed, with our ever-increasing ability to cram more things into our life (or so we thought), Christians too had to start doing many other things on the Sabbath.  We started washing our cars, mowing our lawns, and doing other garden or exterior housework.  (Up to that point, many were carrying on interior housework away from the neighbor’s eyes.)

This went on to the point where the general teaching on the main focus of this verse started to change.  Along with our ever-growing appetite for a “healthy body”, pastors started preaching about the importance of the Sabbath for our own physical well-being.  That is, our bodies needed the break (along with good nutrition, of course).  I remember hearing, “If God took a rest on the seventh day, then you surely need one.”  And many of us accepted that as Old Testament truth and ran, or should I say, ‘sat’ with that.

Many years later as I now study this portion of Scripture more carefully, I believe the emphasis that preachers put on this verse when I was a youngster was more correct.  There is nothing in this verse or the ones that follow that suggest that keeping the Sabbath is for the purpose of our physical (or even mental) rest.  Do not get me wrong; our bodies do need rest and a good rhythm in order to function best.  But that rest could come anytime, whenever it is needed, not just on the Sabbath.  The Sabbath is about God, not us.  Making it about us does not mean we’re “keeping the Sabbath” as it was intended.  Our Sabbath day must be “holy”.

God wants us to work for the purpose of our earthly sustenance for up to six days a week, but on the seventh day, He wants us to consider it totally His and we are to go out of our way to “keep it holy”.  That does not mean the other days we can participate in unholy things, but on this day, our focus should be on keeping it “holy”.

Now what does keeping something holy mean?  And more specifically, what does it mean in a 21^st century society, in 2014 and beyond?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives us five definitions for the word “holy”.  They are:

1. exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness
2. divine holy — Psalms 99:9 (Authorized Version)>
3. devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity holy temple> <holy prophets>
4. having a divine quality <holy love>  and venerated as or as if sacred <holy scripture> holy relic>
5. -- used as an intensive holy mess> holy terror when he drank — Thomas Wolfe> ; often used in combination as a mild oath <holy smoke>.

Definitions 1 and 2 above refer strictly to our God.  Definition 5 is a misuse of the word, maybe even an abuse of it.  But we would do well to heed definitions 3 and 4 (highlighted above).

As I read these definitions, we keep a day “holy” if we devote it and us entirely to our God or to the work of our God and we treat it as divine or sacred.  It is interesting that the world defines it in a way that uses the word “entirely”.  Maybe that is just to trip us Christians up, but I don’t think so.  Something cannot or should not be, part holy.  We either keep the Sabbath holy or we do not.  It is our choice.  So what does that mean for us today if we wish to obey God on this commandment?

First, let me state that here is not the place to argue about which day of the week we are to observe.  Just note that our verse only says it is the last day of seven.  Enough said on that now.  Now back to the main question of what it means for us.

It means that in all our activities on our Sabbath, we are to satisfy the relevant definitions above.  We are to have and exhibit a divine love in our actions, words, and thoughts, as if we are sacred because our God is Holy.  It also means we are devote the entire day to our God and to His work of service.  Church is in.  Family is in because God wants us to pour into our families.  Friendship and relationships are in because God wants us to cultivate those for His purposes.  But what we do at church; what we do with our families; and what we do with our friends, must have a divine or holy quality and purpose to it.

I can serve in church, worship in church, etc., but I cannot go there to gossip or show off my new clothes or automobiles or make everyone envious about the holiday I just had (something I should not do any day of the week).  I can spend time with my family building them up and developing our relationships, but I cannot partake in activities with them that do not have a divine quality to them – such as watching movies with questionable language or action or taking in a show that does not glorify God.  I can spend time with my friends, but not at a place of their choosing if that is a place that God is not being glorified.  This is His day.  Again, don’t get me wrong – I am not suggesting we can go to inappropriate movies on the other six days or visit a strip club on any day but our Sabbath.  But our Sabbath is His Holy day.  We need to keep it in that manner.

So let me ask you and in the process, ask myself, “How are we doing with respect to this commandment?”  It’s your move, but remember, it’s about Him.

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Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

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It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.