First Breakfast this morning: Great are the works of the Lord, They are pondered by all who delight in them. (Psalm 111:2) A great time in the word.
2nd Breakfast: 3 eggs, 3 bacon, 2 toast loaded with peanut butter and strawberry jam.
One will last a few hours of sustenance. The other will last an eternity. One is a short time enjoyment while the other takes it’s time to penetrate and change one’s very being. One is paid for out of labor wages while the other was paid for by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Now I’m gushing a bit but that’s ok. The previous verse which is Psalm 111:1 says “I will extol the Lord”. The word “Extol” means to praise enthusiastically, rapturous, Sing the praises of, gush, eulogize, rhapsodize, rave about and the list goes on
Have you ever tried to take a picture inside with the outside showing? Normally there is glare, too much light and a flash is needed unless it’s dark outside. I actually set up the camera in the living room on a tripod and waited until the light density was similar inside to the outside. A 70 degree difference from inside to outside as it was a snowstorm just ending outside.
It’s February and very nice out… temperature wise.
In september the temperature made it’s way down into the 30’s and it was cold. October made it a little colder. November temperature went down into the teens. December made it down to zero and into a few degrees below zero. this January we found 20 below zero a few times and the beginning of February in the minus 30 below zero range (some saw minus 40’s but you get the picture). What was cold in September is now t-shirt weather. January weather seems warm from February’s view.
Our Spruce tree seems cold as the sun sets. We love our views from the inside
We live and adjust to relativities in so many areas of our lives, not just the weather.
We live and adjust daily without even thinking about it. I have 6 pairs of outdoor boots and combinations of 12 layers of different types of outer and layered coats and jackets. I can stay warm in minus 30 with a wind chill of -60 degrees. A few days ago, I was outside unloading my ice fishing equipment, and I thought “It’s warm out here”; I looked at the outdoor thermometer, and it read -32 degrees. The wind had died down, and it felt warm outside. I called dad mid-January to let him know it was minus 20 degrees. He said, “wow it’s warm there, it’s -42 here”. I just gave my oldest Kentucky daughter a text telling her “it is 40 degrees colder here…must be nice”. She texted back “and I thought 21 degrees was really cold”
Even though it feels warm, it would still be a disaster to stick one’s tongue on the car door handle. There are some things that are not relative. You will still lose part of your tongue if stuck on freezing metal. I have a winter camping story in freezing weather with tin cups for another time. A bad diet seems ok until later in life. Smoking seemed ok for our health a long time ago. We can come up with an endless list of how we live life as relative. Maybe it actually kind of works; until it doesn’t.
A relationship with God is not relative. Sin is not relative. God’s love is not relative. What God says is not open to interpretation anytime or anywhere into eternity. God invites us to step inside and get to know Him. Jesus’ life, death in our place and resurrection made it possible. His Spirit cleans us up inside and never leaves us
I’m getting ready for tomorrow. Another snowstorm coming. Warm weather as it will stay above -10 tonight. Maybe. Tomorrow morning I will also continue getting ready for another tomorrow (someday my tomorrow will be in eternity) as I read a passage from God’s word, pray, reflect and allow God’s Spirit to set my tone for the day. I have a personal relationship with my creator God; it’s real and I am changed. I trust the changes in me are not like the weather outside. Temporary. Relative. To be more like Jesus is reality. Truth. Inside.
I stepped outside and took a 10 second time exposure. Long enough to get cold in my sleepwear.
I watched the moon set before the sun would light the morning. I pondered and identified with the Psalmist.
“You, God are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water. ” Psalm 63: 1
I thought of the all the sailors who have been adrift in life boats after losing their vessel in storm or war; often muttering “water water everywhere but not a drop to drink.”
I think often of the happiest people I have ever seen in a third world country and they have nothing.
I think of the change of one’s whole being when they finally understand how much Jesus loves them; enough to die for them. It’s like coming home from vacation and all your plants look dead and they spring to life with water. Only we get “Living Water.”
I ponder how this passion for God in our dry and thirsty land affects my speech, word choices and topics of conversation today and through the week. Will I use alternate swear words? slang? Will I confront or come alongside when differences arise? will I wash the dishes when my wife looks tired even though I have had an 11 hour work day? Will I say a kind word to a harried cashier? Will I live intentionally? Generously?
It’s now daylight. Will I live as a child of light? A delightful sunday morning. I read on. “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you“ Psalm 63: 4-5 (even if I don’t know the song?)
I’m trying to decide if I really want to pick some of these Norway Spruce cones, heat them in the oven so they open up and allow me to harvest the seeds. Then I will plant them in starter boxes and transplant them around my place. The female cones have about 200+ seeds per cone. I’m sure there are over 50 cones per tree so you see where this simple undertaking could lead. The cones are 25 feet up the tree but I have an old rickety ladder that might reach one rung at a time. Yearly goals are like this I guess. Do I really want to do this? Is my ladder good enough? Some of my many 2019 questions.
So many seeds, so little time. Maybe enough resources? However, these young (as trees go) 35 foot trees each came from one good seed planted in good soil and grew. Seems worth the risk.
SO… fellow bloggers, speakers and readers: May 2019 be a year where your words are as the cones of the Norway Spruce in my front yard. Housing thousands of precious seeds capable of growing a huge forest. reachable one solid rung at a time as you climb your ladder to the harvest. Whatever your goals may be there is a ladder to climb.
So reach for those cones and take care of those seeds. Plant them in soil you have prepared in us….those you connect with.
To many this would be sacrilege. but to those who have realised they just escaped hell, sacred.
I came a stranger, a visitor and casual observer. I left immersed in wonder.
The place was packed. The air as electric with excitement as a tied championship game in final seconds. Yelling, clapping and (very) loud cheering sounds from young and old alike. God winning. Testimony and story from several teens, twenties and some elderly as they declared hardships and victories before being dunked in an icy water filled cattle tank. Tears and much shaking of heads as memories of who they were “before Christ”. Gods power was evident, powerful, overflowing and permeating. All were participants in this sacred gathering.
Thirty-five quick stories and baptisms before moving on to thirty-two child dedications. The electricity was still there. Clapping, yelling and various carrying on continued as parents gave their kids to God and pleaded with the people to help them raise their kids to Love God. Not a dry eye in the place as a mom gave her child to God. “Before Christ”, Strung out on drugs at life’s bottom she had given away her young child for adoption. Now in her new life in Christ, she was now giving her child to God. A child she may never see again on earth. She desperately wanted to at least see her child in heaven someday.
[Side notes: extremely organized, the youth band was great but their drummer is an alien with six arms I think. How could over 70 events happen with people talking and take only 2 hours? Wow, they didn’t come for the cake afterwards! I still feel compelled to pray once in awhile for the barren mom with purple and pink hair. So this is where my grandkids are being raised…wow]
There was nothing ordinary about this afternoon church service. God wasn’t just “talked about”, God permeated the room and the people with his presence. A sacred excitement. We were there with His Spirit. I could picture Jesus in the eyes of the little kids standing on chairs clapping with glee. The year was 2018. I shall not forget this sacred moment.
Ask God for a sacred moment in your life and church (and by faith carry ear plugs)
Gary
PS: a bit of irony on the backstory. This meeting was held in a nice church building given to this ministry. Seems the church grew old and disbanded from lack of people and funds. This ministry grew out of that church a few years back but was attracting young people that made the church people uncomfortable. Now that ministry is a come-as-you-are church and the old church building given to them is just big enough for the youth ministry. God wins.
6-9 people will sleep in this house each night. The Motorcycle will transport up to 4 people at one time. My world is different from this.
I fell asleep praying and pondering deeply on Psalm 23:3 last night. I awoke praying and pondering the depths of God’s work of restoration when I let him. I think somehow I prayed and pondered in my sleep…is that possible? I’m quite sure His remake is quite different and beyond what I have in mind. Like the picture above we might be asking for a bigger bike when our house needs a rebuild.
A brand new house in Guatemala
On this day of thanksgiving (our american set aside holiday to mostly over-eat), May we say “The Lord is my Shepherd” and allow his remake process to be happening in our lives.
Our team built a new house for a family. Great as it was for them, it’s only a house. Oh the undiscoverable depths God wants to build restoring our soul.
Now that’s something to be thankful for. My personal challenge: Give someone else a reason to be thankful today.
Luke 19:37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Isaiah 55:12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Habakkuk 2:11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.
Words are often cheap, thrown around casually as if in endless supply. Words often power and leverage others with only thought of a desired result. Words change another’s world. Words leave tracks. The ripples of words change the world in so many lives in their wake. Words flowing from a pure spring are clean and refreshing. Words with even a trace of dirt taint the taste for more.
I have been thinking of a word worth a thousand pictures to turn about the common phrase. I have often thought of this one word and a thousand pictures that go with major times of growth and change in my life.
Yes
The word is yes. A word that begets yes after yes. Yes is commitment direction, direction of duty, character development direction and a thousand times thousand pictures splayed through a life of continuous yes. Yes is unusually contrary to the most common two year old response. No is a reaction word. Yes is intentional.
Think about a life of “YES” to God, a continuous “YES” to your Spouse, “YES” to your neighbor and yes the pictures are rolling in. We have stories to tell. Great stories that will be told in eternity.
Think about “Yes” to our self only. You see much different pictures. I always picture our friends George and his wife. She put his suitcase on the front porch when he came home from work and said “Choose between me and cocaine. If you choose me we flush all your drugs and you carry your suitcase inside and stay. If you choose Cocaine, take the suitcase and go.” George took the suitcase and ran. This “YES” to cocaine has been the saddest thousand pictures for me personally.
Please say a continuous “YES” to Jesus. The pictures and stories in eternity will be better than any epic movie made by man.
How do we learn? Teaching a grand daughter to fish. Picture by my Daughter Tracy Demarse
We are born with a brain in the physical sense. I am told that most of us only use a few percentage points of our brains capacity through out our lives. Huh! Funny word “capacity” . I picture a livestock water tank (from growing up on the farm) that can hold 200 gallons of water and most of us put in 10 gallons our whole life.
Reality check here. The brain is actually closer to being a water balloon with growing expansion room as we grow. Yes, it matters what you put into it! “But wait, there’s more” (to quote the overused commercials). Way more!
What if the brain grew more capacity as it was used? what if capacity (and it does) grows exponentially in the areas used? What if we were created in the image (and we are) and likeness (how much do you know about His likeness?) of God? That part of us that can have a close relationship with our creator and be-becoming like Him in proportion.
Here is my story…and a spiritual illustration.
Trying to get a grand son interested….this is going to take some work
When I was 11 years old a saw blade came off a machine and cut both my arms to the bone, cutting off the main nerves to the rest of the arms, hands and fingers. As I tried to function somehow a doctor told my mother I needed to either play the piano or learn to type; and do it a lot. I now had Hope to be able to use my fingers past being clothespins on the end of my hands. I chose piano. It was slow. Very slow. Somehow I began to use my fingers. After years of playing (even with a degree of proficiency) I began to wonder why I could feel the keys when I played. I could play songs in the dark and actually feel the keys. Hmmm. This is not possible…or is it? What happened?
A few years ago I read an article from a retired neurosurgeon that explained what happened. The brain can actually begin to fill in the blanks (it’s the nerves that tell the brain what is being felt and in essence we experience feeling through the brain. This is why a blind person can use their hands to feel your face and say with confidence “I can see you” and they really can! This is why, when I play the piano, I actually have a touch on the keys and do not just pound away (although pounding was a huge part of learning for me). I can feel the keys and yet get a wood sliver under my fingernail and not feel it until I see it…then the brain kicks in and then says “yep , sorry, this should be hurting….oh, sorry wrong finger. Sometimes my brain still gets the fingers mixed up.
Don’t miss the applications here. I have realized that knowing God and having a personal relationship with Him is way more than knowing about God. It’s like knowing about pianos. The hours spent on the piano for me are way beyond what most people would need to be able to play the piano extremely well.
We come to God, in a sense (pun intended), with our spiritual nerves cut off. The best we can do if we used 100% of our capacity falls extremely short of Gods requirement of perfection.
Our baby brain does not start out leaning toward anything but ourselves. fast forward into adulthood and we have no more capacity to play the piano proficiently or have a deep relationship with God without a “start” in our lives. With the piano the start was easy. Sit down and start banging away right? No I needed someone to at least start me in the right direction, Sit down on the bench, open a beginner’s book, point the way, keep pointing the way and then practice for hours on end every week for years. I started to “feel” the piano keys some time in my 20’s. The progression was extremely slow. Even now, if I quit playing for awhile my feeling of the keys deteriorates rapidly.
I believe a relationship with God is the same way. Our “Start” is when we realize we cannot even know God except through Jesus Christ, your most important relationship (Please see how this is explained in detail here).
Final thought and why I wrote this blog: Knowing Gods heart deeply takes time. Knowing God can be in the next few minutes. Knowing God and His Heart can begin right out of the gate. Knowing God deeply takes a lot of time spent with God. No short-cuts on in-depth relationships of any kind. I am still a beginner but alone time is essential.
Every morning I get up and put my book (not the piano book) in front of me and read my Bible. I ask God for understanding, guidance and honestly have a staff meeting with God. Side Note: God seems to like “obedience” quite a bit. We talk and listen to one another. It’s taken years for this time to not be so one sided. My “feeling” capacity for God and for others has changed me to be more like Jesus. I may be quite slow to love God, others and possibly even my enemies but hey my nerves were cut off as were yours. I suspect that is why there are so many “One Another” commandments in the Bible, sigh, that’s another discussion.
I was restless on this chilly, damp and blustery May day. The kind of day to read a good book by the fire casting it’s heat to thaw the chilled bones. I had been watching the deer mosey around the fenced apple trees and the little song birds getting blown off the feeder by wind gusts. No singing today as they seem to look for spots of refuge from the wind and flapping foliage.
I stood with my camera ready as I had spotted a bright red Scarlet Tanager. A tunnel through the flapping leaves suddenly appeared as my little red bird found a sanctuary on a stout oak limb situated just right, behind the tree trunk and out of the wind. The unruffled bird put up with me and even posed a bit. I felt as if we shared some peace in the chaos until little tweetie said, “that’s it, I’m done” and off he flew to wherever birds go after a fine photoshoot.
Much has been said about having Peace in the midst of Chaos. Songs written and Poems published but so many times the experience eludes us.
Jesus told his disciples they would encounter chaos (my words) but he promised “My Peace I leave with you” John 14:27. Jesus calmed the storm when the disciples thought they might die. Mark 4:39. Again: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.
Watching this little bird find a brief sanctuary in the chaos made me realize that I spend too much time looking for ways and places to escape the various levels of chaos life seems to daily throw my way. I have also found peace in the storms of life when my walk with Jesus is close. He draws me closer and says “I’m here, experience my peace”. When my trust level with God is high he seems to smile and raise the bar higher. “Trust Me”. Seems cruel on God’s part to give no explanation or relief sometimes.
My Prayer most of my life has been “I need you Jesus”
My wife and I have experienced our share of loss and extremely hard times as well as a great life with adventure and good times. Our trust bar with God has been raised beyond sight. There becomes an unexplainable depth to the sanctuary we find in walking daily with Jesus. Unexplained chaos becomes unexplainable depth.
My hope is that others may see a tunnel through the chaos to where we are sitting and see what they would like to have. Peace inside becoming peace on the outside. I will not look at the Scarlet Tanager the same way again.
Gods Ways are...Different 