Amy Boucher Pye

Author: Amy Boucher Pye

  • Some speaking this Spring

    I’m excited to have some opportunities this Spring for speaking; it’s an experience I liken to strapping on roller skates – scary at first, but exhilarating as I take off, the wind whipping through my hair. Might you be able to join me, or share the info with others?

     

    Adventures in Prayer: 29 March in Coventry

    Adventures in Prayer - PosterCorrection – not the 31st, like I said earlier! Sorry!

    One of the active members of the Woman Alive Book Club is hosting this day of us adventuring in prayer together. We’ll engage with various ways of praying, not only discussing them but putting them into practice, including:

    • Lectio divina (praying with the Bible),
    • practicing the presence of God,
    • praying at the cross, and
    • listening prayer.

    Prayer becomes an adventure when God shows up – which he promises to do!

     

    Beloved: Rooting Our Identity as Women of God

    5-9 May, at El Palmeral near Alicante in Spain

    DSCN8150A retreat for women, exploring our identity in Christ. What does it mean to be God’s beloved? How can we shed the false names of the “old self” that we may have adopted – worthless, controlling, fearful, worrier – and embrace the new name that God wants to bestow on us? He calls us chosen, precious, loving, gentle, wanted… but do we believe him?

    In our time together we’ll be exploring the spiritual practices that will help us live as the new creation that the Apostle Paul speaks of. As we learn to forgive ourselves and others, and to hear God, we can move into freedom and release.

    This retreat house in Spain is not to be missed. It’s a combination of a retreat and a holiday – warming sunshine, amazing food and conversation, a pool to lounge by… combined with God’s sweet presence as we meet together in the mornings. I’ve blogged about El Palmeral here.

    Restore your Confidence: A day conference for women

    14 May in at CRE Sandown in Esher

     Woman Alive and BRF will host the fourth annual women’s day at CRE, at which I’ve had the privilege of speaking previously. It’s a wonderfully encouraging day with a great roster of speakers:

    Jennifer Rees Larcombe, who runs the charity Beauty From Ashes, from The House of Prayer, will explore what might rob us of our confidence in God: unanswered prayer, disappointment with ourselves, misunderstanding the character of God… and how we can restore our confidence and relationship with him.

    Writer, speaker, editor and vicar’s wife Amy Boucher Pye tackles restoring our confidence in the Church. If it is the body of Christ, why does it sometimes seem to ooze with disease? How should we handle disagreements and can our wounds be healed?

    Bex Lewis from the Centre for Christian Communication in a Digitial Age looks at restoring our confidence in the truths we believe. How can we live out and share the good news in a society that seems to move further and further away from Christian principles?

    Catherine Butcher, writer, editor and currently heading the communications for HOPE will unpack the promise of heaven and explain how we can be heavenly ambassadors, spreading hope and giving those around us a taste of heaven.

    PLUS, Ali Herbert will be our host for the day and Sue Mills returns to lead the worship times.

     

    It’s free, but you need to register soon, as the 300 places were claimed about six weeks before last year’s event.

     

  • Devotional of the week: Slaves to righteousness

    But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness… But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:17–20, 22)

    Photo credit: Eagle by HooLengSiong on Flikr
    Photo credit: Eagle by HooLengSiong on Flikr

    The theme of leaving behind the old self and embracing the new shines through the letters of the apostle Paul. Of course this follows from his dramatic conversion. For one moment he was persecuting Christians to the point of death while the next he was rendered blind as Jesus revealed himself to him, changing his life (and the world) forever.

    But as we see in today’s passage, the new life doesn’t happen automatically. One’s will needs to be involved and committed. Paul employs the example of slavery, showing how we need to offer ourselves – our minds, hearts, emotions, actions – to right living before God. This then produces purity, holiness, and eternal life.

    I recently heard an illustration that warns against our temptation to entertain sin. An eagle sees a fresh carcass floating on some ice, but moving toward a waterfall. The ice provides the eagle a place to land and from which to pick at the carcass. As the waterfall approaches, the eagle sneaks in just a few more bites. But when it tries to lift off, it finds its claws are frozen into the ice and falls to its death.

    No, I’m not suggesting we are heading for that waterfall! For as Paul says, because we have become slaves to God, we will have eternal life. But the eagle can be a vivid cautionary tale against living out of the old self.

    For reflection: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

  • Devotional of the week: Born again

    “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:4–8).

    Photo credit: Waiting for the Word, found on flikr
    Photo credit: Waiting for the Word, found on flikr

     

    An older friend of mine speaks freely of being “born again” to those whom she meets – shop assistants, taxi drivers, professional contacts. Part of me cringes as she employs this language, for the term has fallen out of fashion. It’s even become tainted, bringing up images of over-zealous fundamentalist Christians shouting, “Ye must be born again”!

    But I shouldn’t be embarrassed, for the source of the words is Jesus. When Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was on the Jewish ruling council, conversed with Jesus, he seems to be taking Jesus literally and not understanding the role of the Spirit in birthing a new person. We might not be able to see the Spirit physically, as perhaps Nicodemus was trying to do, but we will witness its evidence in our lives and in the lives of others – as with the wind blowing through the trees.

    John doesn’t tell us here if Nicodemus was born of the Spirit (later we learn that he joined Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus’ body so we can guess that his earlier encounter brought life). Instead John moves on to some of the most famous verses in the Bible, about God so loving the world that he gave his one and only Son (John 3:16)… Our new birth comes from the transforming work of God through Jesus on the cross, that we might escape condemnation and enter the light.

    Prayer: Heavenly Father, we don’t fully understand how your Spirit works in our lives. Reveal to us your transforming nature, that we might know and believe.

  • Interview with Sheila Walsh – Seeing the face of God through the window of our brokenness

    In honor of Sheila Walsh’s new book releasing this week, The Storm Inside, here’s an interview previously published in Woman Alive with this speaker and writer who powerfully communicates the truths of the Bible in a grace-filled way.

    Sheila WalshYou’re a Scot who has lived in the States for something like 25 years. Do you ever get homesick for Scotland? If so, do you reach for any favorite Scottish authors?

    I do miss Scotland. I miss Marks and Spencer’s Christmas cake and good chocolate but most of all I miss my family so I try and get home as often as I can. I also miss London as I spent so many years there. I love the poems of Robert Burns and the writings of Thomas Hardy.

     

    My young daughter adores Gigi [the main character in Sheila’s books and videos for young girls]. Recently she said that these were her favorite books, and as someone who works in publishing, I have stacks and stacks of books for her to choose from. I’m also slightly embarrassed to admit that CutiePyeGirl is a blonde who usually doesn’t go for brunettes – she prefers Cinderella to Snow White, and so on. But [brown-haired] Gigi speaks to her. How did you come up with the idea of Gigi – and Will? What’s behind the stories?

    One morning when my son, Christian was five and I was dropping him off at kindergarten I watched a dad with his daughter. She was not what we think of as the traditional Disney Princess. She had bruises on her knees and her hair looked a little wild but her daddy took her face in his hands and told her she was beautiful and she believed him. I lost my dad when I was five and never saw myself as anything but awkward and clumsy. After watching that dad with his daughter I drove straight to Starbucks and wrote the first Gigi story on napkins. I want every little girl to know that she is precious and treasured by God.

     

    What’s behind your book God Loves Broken People?

    I have spent so much of my life trying to “fix” myself, to make myself more acceptable to God. It seems to me now that it’s when we realize that we can’t fix ourselves, that we are broken and lost without Christ that we begin to understand the heart of the gospel. I passionately believe that it is through the window of our brokenness that we see the face of God.

     

    Tell us about how you engage with your favorite commentaries when you’re writing or teaching about the Bible.

    One of my favourite things in the world to do is to take a passage of scripture and dig deep. I use Logos software on my computer, which gives me access to a whole theological library. I can choose a passage and read what my 5 favourite commentaries say then do a word study to unpack a word in Hebrew or Greek. The more I dive into God’s Word the more there is to know. It’s as C. S. Lewis wrote, “It’s as if we are children splashing around in a puddle when God has said, come swim in the ocean.”

     

    Escape with any novels in the bath?

    That’s a funny thought to me! I love having a bath at night but that’s when I love to be quiet and reflect on the day with the Lord. Every morning when I get up I always say, “Good morning Lord, I don’t know where you are going today but wherever you’re going, I’m coming with you.” At the end of the day I love to reflect on that.

     

    As a dog-lover do you enjoy books about dogs? Prefer the real thing instead?

    I think I have read everything James Herriot has written! One of my favorite books is the story of “Greyfriars Bobby” a little dog who refused to leave his master’s grave. My dog Belle is just like that. Wherever I am, there she is.

     

    Have you ever thrown a book across the room in disgust?

    I never knew that was an option! I’m pretty careful about what I read but will now by looking for opportunities to do just that :).

     

    Sheila Walsh is a powerful Bible teacher and best-selling author from Scotland with over 4 million books sold. Currently completing her Masters in Theology, Sheila lives in Texas with her husband, Barry, her son, Christian, and her two little dogs, Belle and Tink.

     

  • Praying about the weather – yes or no?

    Rain. More rain. Here in the UK we’ve just had the wettest January since records started in 1910, and as I sit, I watch it rain even more. Communities are sodden in Somerset; in Devon, the tide has washed away the rail track.

    Our water stores are full. The drought of two years ago, with its hosepipe bans (hosepipe – as an American I find that word delightful and quirky) and fears of wildfires, seems a long time ago. As I took the train from London to Oxford last week I saw swollen rivers and sitting water. We’ve been drenched.

    After the rain - Holy Island Causeway
    After the rain – Holy Island Causeway

    Even the tabloid newspaper, The Sun, has called for a prayer campaign to stop the rain, saying: “Lord, we’ve had enough.” They published a prayer to the patron saint of weather, St Medard, by Revd Sue Evans, Vicar of St Medard, Little Bytham, Linconshire:

    Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the gift of water, and in many parts of the world we know people suffer and die for lack of rain.

    But dear Lord – we’ve had enough. We ask you please that the rain may stop soon. We pray for all those people and animals suffering from floods.

    As St Medard needed protection from the rain, so now do many people from our land.

    For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

    Do you pray about the weather? Inspired by Agnes Sanford, a pioneer of the healing-prayer ministry, I do. When I edited Leanne Payne’s wonderful spiritual autobiography, Heaven’s Calling, I learned more about Agnes, for Leanne knew her well.

    Stirred to pray for the healing of the earth, Agnes moved from New England to California, to live on the San Andreas Fault and pray for its healing. She reveled in nature, marveling at a the genetic makeup of a seashell or speaking lovingly to a rattlesnake that lived in her back garden, but respected her boundaries. When once Leanne visited Agnes and they were praying in the garden, she remembered the rattlesnake story and said, “I am definitely not where you are in regards to your snake.” But Agnes put her at her ease, and they weren’t troubled by the rattlesnake – or the forest fire that was below them (about which Agnes prayed for rain, like Elijah, and it came!). These stories are all in Heaven’s Calling, page 252–57, which I highly recommend.

    I’m aware this might be outside your comfort zone! But if God is the Creator, and he made us to communicate with him, why wouldn’t he want us to pray for the healing of his earth?

    What do you think?

  • Stuff – how much do we need?

    Her headstone is black and unassuming, not what I expected. In life she prized beauty; on my editing trips she’d treat me to haircuts, pedicures, and fabulous new clothes. Her homes exuded warmth and style – and a bit of glitz. But now her space is just a small plot, next to her husband, in-laws, and son.

    I know she’s not confined to earth, for she’s dancing in her Father’s mansions, loving Beauty in his fullest form. But as I looked at her grave, I thought about her gorgeous possessions (which I hasten to add, she shared so generously with me and many), now dispersed or sold.

    DSCN2549We all get reduced to a grave or an urn in the end, so how much stuff do we need? We buy stuff; we pack it; we move it from one room to the next; we give it away; we disregard it; we treasure it. We can spend much of our energy worrying about our stuff or arranging for it to be cleaned, fixed, or disposed.

    I ponder Jesus’ admonition not to store up treasures on earth, where moths and rust will destroy and thieves will break in and steal, but to store up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19–21). I think about how through giving and relentless evangelism my beautiful author stored up more treasures in heaven than on earth, which is mind-boggling considering her financial worth. I look at my stuff: my purchases while in the States, schlepped back in bulging suitcases; my favorite books and clothes, some dog-eared and worn; the photos and heirlooms I would grab in a fire. And I ask myself, where am I storing up my treasures?

    How much stuff do you need?

  • Devotional of the week: A new heart and a new spirit

    “It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone… I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:22, 25–27)

    DSCN2550

    We might think that the Holy Spirit is absent in the Old Testament, but he is alive – if sometimes hidden. Here God says that he will give the Holy Spirit to his people, to live and move amongst them and to lead them to holiness.

    In Ezekiel’s words we see turning from the old self to the new as a process of conversion. First is an outward cleansing (purification); second is a heart transplant (renovation); third is a filling with the Holy Spirit and the right living that results (sanctification). Of course people will have different experiences of coming to faith in the triune God, but these steps reveal the total level of transformation it entails. God changes our hearts and our spirits, which in the Hebrew understanding meant not just our emotions but also our wills.

    And why does God go to these lengths to restore his fallen people? For his glory, for his name was being profaned as they lived outside of the Promised Land. As the neighboring nations witness God saving his people, they will realize his power and grace.

    A heart of stone is a cold, lifeless, often bitter thing. The Lord would remove any pebbles or rocks that lodge in our hearts, that his Spirit might flow through us. Heart surgery is painful, but as God unclogs our arteries and cleans out any built-up muck, we reap physical, emotional, and spiritual rewards.

     

    For reflection: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

  • Interview with Sheridan Voysey

    Another in my series of interviews with authors, as published originally in Woman Alive. Here′s another ex-pat living in the UK, but from a different colony than the one I originate from…

    103.2 Open House Finale 2010Your latest book recounts a year of resurrection. Tell us about the writing process; how was it? Surprises? Joys? Challenges?

    Apart from the sheer surprise of the project itself (writing a memoir on recovering from broken dreams was never in my plans), there were three main emotional responses. One was sadness. Resurrection Year tells the story of my wife Merryn and me starting again after our dream of starting a family ended. Writing that story required me to read through ten years worth of personal journals, reliving all those experiences of raised and dashed hopes. Most of that story is told in the first chapter, and few who’ve read it have done so with dry eyes.

    But I also experienced a sense of grace in writing this book that I’ve never felt before. Writing is never easy, especially if you’re attempting to write richly, with metaphor, simile and symbol. But I had a sense of ‘flow’ writing Resurrection Year. The metaphors came, paragraphs flowed, and very little of the original manuscript was jettisoned in the editing process.

    Thirdly, there was a sense of expectation. Resurrection Year was written in real time, during our first year here in the UK. How was the book going to end? I really didn’t know. The answer came literally within days of that chronological year ending.

     

    You and your wife faced the question of suffering and a good God particularly when at L’Abri. Which book(s) helped you most in this quest?

    During the toughest moments of our infertility journey Merryn described God as like ‘an old friend who no longer returns my calls’. Our stay at Swiss L’Abri gave her time to work out whether He is, in fact, good. One of the books that was most helpful in this was Greg Boyd’s Is God to Blame?—not because we agreed with it, but because it provoked so many questions about God’s control of the world, forcing us to think. Another helpful book was Philip Yancey’s Disappointment with God. I should add, though, that some of the books that held the most theological promise were sometimes the least accessible to read. Theologians can sometimes end up talking only amongst themselves.

     

    Resurrection-Year-3D-Main-124x170Adrian and Bridget Plass play a key role in the birthing of Resurrection Year. Which book of his has made the biggest impact on you?

    I can thank Adrian for both the phrase ‘Resurrection Year’ and the book’s creation. He gave me the phrase while talking off-air after an interview on my radio show. He suggested the book while staying with him and Bridget one weekend. Merryn and I owe a lot to this beautiful couple. I’ve enjoyed all of Adrian’s books, but special mention goes to The Horizontal Epistles of Andromeda Veal and Looking Good, Being Bad—both full of wisdom and whimsy.

     

    You’ve interviewed thousands of authors in your role of radio presenter in Australia. Can you relay to us a scintillating or funny or moving story from one of them?

    That question is always difficult to answer as there have been so many memorable moments, many of which are getting a second airing through my podcast. I’ll never forget author Bryce Courtenay singing the song he sang as his son died in his arms, or singer Gloria Gaynor recounting how she had fame and success but no meaning until she came to faith, or the actor Brian Deacon who played Jesus in The Jesus Film telling me why he didn’t believe. (It was a strange experience evangelising ‘Jesus’ on the air.) Some of the most memorable stories have come from my listeners—like ‘Samara’ who called in one night and said, ‘I don’t know why I’m telling you this as I’ve never told anyone this before. But I’m working as a prostitute, and this life is eating me up. I need a new life, and I need to find God again.’

     

    How has living in Oxford enriched your reading of Lewis and the other Inklings?

    Anyone who comes to Oxford should visit Lewis’s old home The Kilns, sit at his desk upstairs where he wrote his classics, and at the table in the living room downstairs with the view of the forest that likely inspired Narnia’s landscape. And anyone who’s experienced a broken dream should read The Great Divorce one Christmas Day afternoon and have God speak to them through it… like I did.

     

    Sheridan Voysey is a writer, speaker and broadcaster on faith and spirituality. He is the author of five books, including his memoir Resurrection Year: Turning Broken Dreams into New Beginnings.

  • Living intentionally – or trying to

    Recently I read a suicide note.

    Having seen plenty of movies, I was expecting drama or at least a nice piece of paper. But this was just a torn scrap with a few words jotted down. He was matter-of-fact in his note to my friend, saying that his girls needed money, as did his ex-wife; that he couldn’t take it anymore; that his neighbor had a key. Desperation and depression, fueled by a chemical imbalance after years of drug abuse, resulted in his final act of an overdose.

    Except that my friend received his letter in the afternoon, not the evening, as she was off from work for medical reasons. They went to his flat, broke down the door, and found him drugged but living. She wondered if he’d be angry to be found alive. He wasn’t; in fact, he later thanked her for caring – a first for him. He said he had written to her because he didn’t want his body to be found after a week, covered in flies.

    This was the same friend who a couple of months earlier had been told by an acquaintance, a doctor, to “get that mark on your face checked out.” He was the second medical friend who noticed it, which propelled her into actually making an appointment with her GP instead of delaying or brushing off the advice. She found out that she had pre-cancerous cells and underwent treatment. A few weeks later, she heard that this young doctor had died on a hiking adventure after falling into a ravine. His potentially life-saving advice to her turned out to be one of his final acts of service on this earth.

    Life in all its fullness. A painting by Leo Boucher. Reproduced by permission.
    Life in all its fullness. A painting by Leo Boucher. Reproduced by permission.

    Two men I’ve never met, and yet they made a profound impact on me. Why? Because I can easily get caught up in projects or tasks, and thus startling stories such as these remind me to value what really is important. For instance, some mornings I wake up early. Sometimes I can fall back to sleep, but usually I admit to myself that I won’t be able to, so I give in and get up. Recently on one such morning, I went into my study to do some writing. But PyelotBoy also woke early and joined me, eager just to sit and spend some time together. I battled internally but stayed with him on the couch, reminding myself to enjoy these sweet moments together.

    I wish I could say that morning was a grand success of communion with one whom I love, but throughout our half-hour together I kept thinking of the tasks I could and should be accomplishing. But although I didn’t succeed in shutting down the distracting thoughts that time, at least I stayed rooted to the couch, sitting with my son and chatting together. I didn’t shoo him away or give him some early iPad time to compensate for me wanting to get on with my next thing. Small victories, yes, but worth celebrating.

    Life. It’s worth living. Who is sitting on your couch today whom you can be present to and enjoy?

  • Devotional of the week: Discordant music

    “My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice” (Ezekiel 33:31–32).

    I'm sure this organ could make some clanging noises - or beautiful music. Taken in a church in Gloucestershire; wish I could remember which one!
    I’m sure this organ could make some clanging noises – or beautiful music. Photo taken in a church in Gloucestershire; wish I could remember which one!

    The prophet Ezekiel wrote after the fall of Jerusalem, when the Jewish people were exiled to Babylon. The unthinkable happened and no longer could they worship in the temple or live in their familiar city. In their anguish they must have wondered if the Lord had abandoned them. But they also allowed their pain to seep into a growing distance from God. They became complacent and removed from the cares of the Lord.

    The Lord tells Ezekiel that his prophecies are not penetrating the facades of his people; the words only waft above them as beautiful but meaningless music. For greedy hearts hide under their proclamations of love. Their spiritual state sounds similar to that of the church at Sardis, to whom Jesus wrote through the apostle John: “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up!” (Revelation 3:1–2). Or indeed to the church at Laodicea, whom he called lukewarm (Revelation 3:16).

    Sloughing off the old self and living out of the new entails our whole lives. In the birthing process, the baby bird grows stronger and more sure of itself as it pecks through its shell. So too will our souls gain weight and wisdom as we dedicate our everything to the Lord – our thoughts, words, and actions. Whatever stage of life we’re in, whether we’re in the process of breaking through the shell or soaring through the air with fully developed wings, may we lean on God as our source of everlasting strength and hope.

    Prayer: Lord Jesus, like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, we struggle to stay awake. Stir us, we pray, that we might not become smug spiritually or unconcerned for the world around us.