Sing Like Never Before.....

My small but mighty keyboard surprises me with its options!

After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to SING to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying, "Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever."  As they began to SING and PRAISE, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mout Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.  2 Cnronicles 20:21-22

I was SO encouraged by the devotional thought my husband and I read together 

this morning from More Precious than Silver by Joni EarecksonTada!

Our faithful piano (definitely deserves a tuning)

She concluded, "If you're fighting darkness or engaged in a spiritual conflict, if the Enemy is  poised and ready to attack, the best defense is to sing.  It's a way of resisting the Devil.  Singing is also the best offense.  Songs of praise will confuse the Enemy and send the Devil's hoards hightailing.  So pick a hymn, any hymn.  Choose a Scripture chorus.  Or make up your own melody to a favorite portion of Scripture.  Victory over the Enemy can be yours for a song."

This past week, all my siblings and mother and father were privileged to be together. 

A good part of the evening was spent around the piano...singing songs of faith.  

My heart is full.  My hope is strong.
Though concerned ("horrified" is a better word)
by the political climate and state of my beloved country,
I WILL sing like never before--whatever may pass and whatever lies before me!

"The sun comes up
It's a new day dawning
It's time to sing your song again
Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes
Bless the lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship his holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I worship your holy name"

(From 10,000 Reasons)

How Reassuring Is THIS?

The will of God will never take you,
  where the Spirit of God cannot work through you,
  where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
  where the army of God cannot protect you,
  where the hands of God cannot mold you.

The will of God will never take you,
  where the love of God cannot enfold you,
  where the mercies of God cannot sustain you,
  where the peace of God cannot calm your fears
  where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.

The will of God will never take you,
  where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
  where the Word of God cannot feed you,
  where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
  where the omnipresence of God cannot find you.

This morning, I needed some reassuring.  

Current circumstances don't support this, but I know it's true

I'm banking my LIFE on it!  On Him, actually.

(Try reading it aloud, substituting "me" for "you"!)

I'm sorry that I copied this without copying the source.

Let me know if you know its origins, please.

Some people may regard my recent "finds" at my favorite thrift stores
as small, but I consider them very real and personal tokens
of the mercy and kindness of God to me. 
Some of them will find their way into "friendship gifts"
-- tied to a jar of honey or holding some mini-muffins.

Pressed and Perplexed

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair...(2 Corinthians 4:8)

Pressed and Perplexed.  More than usual this week.  Early this morning I posted this on facebook:  

Determined (by God's grace) to live by faith and not by sight today. (2 Corinthians 5:7). I have knowledge of him in whom I have faith, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have given into his care till that day. (2 Timothy 1:12)

I had no idea God would give us a glimpse of His goodness so soon.  First, while reading our two devotional books this morning, God in His great goodness coordinated the readings to match our pressure and perplexity.  Both of them were astonishingly fitting!  We were overwhelmed.    Minutes later, I went to the post office.  The window wasn't open, but I said "hello" to the postmistress who was filling mailboxes behind the closed door.  She opened the door and handed me a package.  (She didn't have to do that!)  At home, I opened the package.  Included were the note (above)... 

 

..the clothespin bag (just the one I'd wanted and all that I thought I was getting), and ABOVE AND BEYOND what I'd "won" in Raeann's giveaway--there was a jar of detergent and clothespins! The timing of this is NOT coincidental.  God knew I needed a faith-booster.  The timing and generosity of a friend are such tangible evidences of God's love, compassion, and great faithfulness.

I continue to trust in Him for the pressures and perplexities that we are experiencing. I KNOW whom I have believed.

This weekend my husband will be preaching on Lamentations 3:22-24.  These verses say:  

22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

 The Lord IS my portion!  I WILL wait for Him!

A "Pilgrim of the Day"

Lettie Cowman (Mrs. Charles)

In the year that I graduated from high school (1966) Streams in the Desert, Volume Two was published.  Earlier, Mrs. Charles Cowman had compiled and published the first volume.  During the years of her final illness, she entrusted her personal papers, writings, and books to an associate who arranged and edited the material to produce this second volume of inspiration.  This morning, the words in the next couple of paragraphs jumped off the pages at me!

But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. (Dan. 2:28)

Whenever your adversary pours in upon you like a flood, suggesting all kinds of impossibilities and improbabilities, what are you to do and how are you to go forward? Take down the old Book; sit far into the night; read the promises and the prophecies.  Read again the heart-warming words of Daniel:  "There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets."  Your night will unveil new stars never seen by day.  On the black thunder-cloud a rainbow will appear--God's everlasting covenant--and you will find a sunrise at midnight...

What shall you do?  Act as people who have no faith, no light, no discernment?  You cannot be like the unbelievers caught in the whirlpool and sink beneath the swirling waters of doubt and despair. You are a pilgrim of the day; a pilgrim of the luminous.  Thank God for the assurance of Divine guidance, and pray that you will stand in the right relationship to all the impossibilities and improbabilities.

"Trust in the dark brings Triumph at dawn." --Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

This message was reinforced by the second devotional my husband and I read together each morning (From Faith to Faith:  A Daily Guide to Victory).  God's timing is SO amazing!

"Many Christians are walking around without hope--just like the rest of the world.  Why?  Because the only hope that any man has is faith in Jesus Christ.  And the majority of Christians don't know how to live by faith.  Instead of being filled with the Word and with faith, they've been stuffed full of religious traditions and superstition...The Bible says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...  (Hosea 4:6)"

I am a pilgrim of the day.  I am a pilgrim of the day.  I am a pilgrim of the day.  I am a pilgrim of the day.     
I am a pilgrim of the day......

Holy Curiosity

We went to a hockey game last night.  If I've ever been to one before, I've forgotten it!  So I should have been excited about the opportunity.  Mostly, it moved too fast and made too little sense for me.  I kept trying to superimpose my minimal understanding of OTHER sports (baseball, basketball and football) on it.  As far as I could figure out, hockey has nothing in common with ANY of them except that each one requires a uniform and an object that is thrown or hit.  (Oh...and referees or umpires and greasy food smell.)

Not wanting to waste the experience, I tried to apply Albert Einstein's advice:   

Never lose a holy curiosity. 

If I learned a spiritual lesson from the hockey game, it is this:

Superimposing past experience or knowledge on my present circumstances CAN be counterproductive to faith.

Not ALWAYS--because past experiences of God's faithfulness CAN provide grounds for trusting Him
in present or future experiences.  But God can't be confined to a "box" of previous experience or knowledge!
And sometimes faith means moving forward in spite of  preexisting conditions,
self-limiting thoughts, and  preconceived ideas.

Life can be as fast-moving and senseless as the hockey game was to me last night.  

But faith is being SURE of what we hope for and CERTAIN of what we do not see.

(Hebrews 11:1)
Living by faith in makes it possible to enjoy life
even when it appears to be moving too fast and/or doesn't make sense.
Faith is fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, so that we will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:2-3)

'Twas Three Days Before Christmas...

With only a couple of days to go before Christmas Eve, this is the way our kitchen and dining area looked BEFORE the floor levelers came this morning.

THIS is the scene  in the middle of the afternoon.

You can use your imagination to visualize the adjacent room  stacked full of the buffet, dining table, chairs, and contents of cupboards that had to be moved, the kitchen island, stove and refrigerator.  Last night was practice for the Christmas Eve program; this noon was the final community Advent service (I was responsible for the meal), our son & daughter-in-law are preparing to return from Ethiopia with their new daughter, and our granddaughter (another family) just got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon.

Saturday I'm hosting my dad and mother, and one of my sisters and her family for Christmas Day.  After church Sunday, our two daughters and their families will arrive and spend the night before we go to a larger, extended family gathering Monday through Wednesday noon.

Not exactly how WE'D have planned it, but all within GOD'S plan (apparently).  His ways ARE higher than ours and His thoughts than our thoughts!  I doubt that Mary realized she'd be spending the night of her delivery in a stable...I wonder if THAT was part of the memory she "treasured in her heart"?!? 

I have some learning to do before I can say I treasure THESE hectic and messy and uncertain days!

Maybe if I don't look ahead and just take it hour by hour...

 It's ALREADY working!  After a few hours, this is how it looks.
Tomorrow, the floor will be installed.

Pillows and Promises

Mark 4 (The Message)

 ^35-38Late that day he said to them, "Let's go across to the other side." They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, "Teacher, is it nothing to you that we're going down?"

 ^39-40Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!" The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?"

Jesus was resting on more than a pillow.  He went to sleep on the promise, "Let us go unto the other side." Jesus was so assured of reaching His destination, that He could sleep through the storm. The ship was not only sailing on the water but also on the promise Jesus had just given! That's why Jesus could go to sleep-- because the promise would not fail, neither would the ship!

A couple of days ago, the Autumn Cottage Diarist showed the cushions in her lovely home.  I found it interesting and decided to take these photos of the pillows in OUR living room...

Someone has said, "There are no pillows so soft as God's Promises".

"Why then are you such a coward?" come the words of Jesus to me.  "Don't you have any faith at all?"

Lord, increase my faith!
Do you have some interesting cushions in YOUR home?  Are you "resting" on a specific promise of God today?  Remember:  His promises NEVER fail!  (And neither will the "ship"!)

"I'M A PRESENT!"

We met our grandchildren at a Dairy Queen to celebrate T's birthday.  Here he is, ready to open the extravagantly wrapped present!  Note the white, upturned cup to the left.  It covers the make-shift home of his pet lady bug which he found in his Sunday School class earlier in the day!

He had plenty of help discovering what was inside his package!

After ice cream treats and great conversation, he left the D.Q. wearing and carrying his gifts.

Donning the ribbon, he declared joyfully, "I'm a present!"

Yes, you are, T!

 In the parking lot, while making the exchange of a bushel of apples from one car to the other, we had an adventure. 

Granddaughter A watches as Grandpa helps corral the stray apples.

Faith to Sight

Here is the completed Christmas tree - fired and equipped with white lights.  Not all "faith" results in "sight" so soon!  If you were with me over a week ago, you saw this tree BEFORE its firing.  Hard to believe it would look like this! 

This transformation reminds me of what I look forward to by faith. I John 3:2-3 says, "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we WILL be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure."

Don't you LOVE it?  No eye has seen, ear heard, or mind comprehended what we who have put our trust in Jesus Christ will become when we see Jesus!  And this hope, this faith motivates me toward purity of life, heart and mind.....until faith turns to sight!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

(From It Is Well With My Soul)

MORE Lemonade

There's going to be a LOT of lemonade here!  This morning was just a start!  (Click here for those details.  Those were just the little lemons).  When it rains, it pours.  And it's been pouring the rest of the day.  I sure hope the lemons don't get any bigger than they are now.  Even so...

...we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:2-5)

Ceramics. It Takes a Lot of Faith!

I returned to this interesting and busy ceramic shop this morning.  I had started a project months ago and forgotten it until a friend reminded me!

Yes!  It's open!

Under the tutelage of a kind and experienced teacher/owner (standing in the back), many novice as well as experienced painters produce decorative items to display and give away.

This is MY masterpiece!  I did one last year as a gift for a "secret sis".  It turned out so well that I decided I'd like one myself.  It takes a great deal of faith to believe that this one will end up being white with red berries...but I trust my instructor.

Teresa, the teacher/owner, said that people new to the art find it hard to believe that after firing, pieces will be come out the desired color.  This, I think, is a fine illustration of faith..  Trusting God that in spite of what we see He is at work in the life yielded to Him.  Believing that even the "firing" is part of the process!  Having faith to rely on Him to produce a result that will honor Him and result in us becoming more like His Son, Jesus Christ.

When I Am Afraid....

"When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?"

Psalm 56:3-4 

 

 

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia! (5th stanza, "For All the Saints"

Through circumstances, His Holy Word, and the words of this great song, God is saying to me today, "Keep your ear on the distant triumph song!  Have a brave heart.  Make your arms strong!" This quote has been in my sidebar for awhile, but I post it here today--a reminder for me and all who are experiencing fierce strife and/or long warfare...

When God places a burden upon you,

He places His arms underneath you.

~anonymous

Underneath ARE the everlasting arms!  I shall NOT be afraid.

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Happy Trails to You Till We Meet Again....

A huge sadness settled over me this morning as I waved good-bye to our last batch of grandkids to leave us this summer. It probably wasn't so smart to take my 30 minute walk in the cemetery after they left. And the "capper" on the sadness was posting in the Gates' Family blog and hearing Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing "Happy Trails to You Until We Meet Again"!

I'm left with the memories of smiles, energy, exuberance, and pride that come with loving these 8 grandchildren. I'm left with great concerns about their futures. I want to protect their innocence and keep them from any harm for the rest of their lives. I'd also like to live closer to them all - which is humanly impossible today.

I'd LIKE to say I trust them to God completely. In my HEAD, I know they are in His hands. In my HEART, however, I want to hold on to them.

Heavenly Father, they are Yours. And I am Yours.
I believe. Help my unbelief.

Will God Not Much More Clothe You?

Found at garage sale yesterday. No pricing. Donations went toward a church mission project.

Why do you worry about clothes?
See how the lilies of the field grow.
They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,

will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
(Jesus, Matthew 6:28-30)