Hope for Life and the Scent of Water

“For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. 8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; 9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. Job 14:7-9

This morning, in the prayer meeting I was in, this verse was read. I’ve recently started to try to sprout some things hydroponically that I would have normally thought of as dead, done, or incapable of new life. I put an onion, rather mushy, in a cup of water and overnight it sprouted roots so long it took me aback. I did that with shriveled garlic bulbs, and now celery. I transplanted some motherwort yesterday and it drooped hopelessly until I watered it well. There is an important lesson here.

Think about the life that God has put in every living thing. We all need water to survive. We all like watching the sea, we like sitting next to water, we like to drink cold glasses of water on a cold day. Roots of plants gravitate toward water. In these verses from Job it speaks of a tree that is cut down and yet when it catches the scent of water it starts to bud. The scent of water. Not even water itself, but the mere smell of it gives hope.

I keep thinking about the onion though, it had been picked from a field somewhere in America, traveled in a truck or plane, sat at the store, then sat in my storage drawer til it probably almost lost hope, and then I put it in water and it showed its life springing from up from its depths. It’s continuing to put forth green onion shoots-- I don’t know how it makes them, but at night when I trim the shoots, by the next day, they grow back. Profound. Disturbingly, wonderfully profound: the strength of life.

I think I resonate with this because I can identify with the onion. Sometimes it seems like walking across a dry desert with no water in sight, and feeling like any hope of water is gone, but then encountering, first, the scent of Water from heaven, and then the Water of Life itself and suddenly coming back to life and feeling whole again. How powerful an experience! Animals in the desert know the scent of water, they know how to find their way to its life-giving place. We, too, have instincts for God. Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). The prophet Isaiah also says, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1). In the Book of Revelation a River of Life flows through the city of God.

There are things that cannot be quenched in our souls until we drink of that water.
And how shall we drink? How is this not just some kind of religious phrase that sounds good but doesn’t connect with reality? Jesus addresses this when the pharisee, Nicodemus comes to him at night to discuss spiritual things (John 3:3-13). Jesus tells him he must be born of water and the Spirit and Nick doesnt get it. He says, “What? Go into my mother’s womb again?” Jesus, he had to be shaking his head, “You are a spiritual leader in Israel and you don’t understand this?” 

We drink of that heavenly water through relationship with Jesus Christ. When we call out to Him, to quench our thirst, something in us is enlivened. Our spirit comes to life, like an onion responding to water, and we smell the scent of water, then drink of it. It is a spiritual process. I can’t explain how it happens just like I can’t explain how plants grow using just water. But the difference between drinking and not drinking is life and death. You know that. So go take a drink. And if you don’t know how, tell God about your thirst and let Him lead you to water. It will be then up to you to drink of it.

Is it I, Lord?

We are approaching the end of Passover and Matthew’s gospel gives us the chilling account of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. Judas had been out and about making preparations to betray Jesus but he sits down with all the other disciples at the Passover supper. Jesus is aware of what is happening, and I can’t imagine how painful this is to Him.

The text says, “As they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me” (Matt. 26:21). The disciples are extremely shocked and sad, after all, it's not something you want to hear after living day and night with Jesus for three years. It’s not something you bring up during the middle of a holy meal, yet Jesus did just that. He did it in the middle of His community, because its not just His betrayal, it is the community’s betrayal. He is aware of who the betrayer is, aware of all that will happen later that evening, and yet here He sits in the middle of His family, of which one is the betrayer.

I think Jesus did this prophetic act so that later when the disciples thought of it, they would know that Jesus knew and that His death did not come by chance, but was something that Jesus knew He was headed for and destined for. There is something disconcerting about following a leader who doesn’t see it coming. There is something incredibly inspiring about following a leader who does see it coming and stands up into His destiny despite what it costs.

Jesus does nothing to try and talk Judas out of it, but he does say that it would have been better for HIs betrayer not to have been born. I can only imagine the face of Judas going white then going red with increased blood pressure as he realizes that Jesus knows. I can only imagine. I can’t imagine.

Jesus extends the question to all the disciples and it hangs in the air like a heavy cloud darkening the atmosphere of the celebration of the Lord’s saving act to His people so long ago. But here is my point. As He looks at each of His disciples, they one by one ask, “Lord, is it I?” Each of them had the heart to find out if it was they themselves that would betray Him.

I’m sure their hearts were not completely pure and like a searchlight, this announcement by the Lord would bring up any times when they doubted that Jesus was who He said He was or anytime they had been pushed past their ability to understand and had thought to leave Him. I’m sure they quickly began to wager a guess as to who it was as they pushed aside any sense of their own guilt. Yet in that moment, suspended in some sort of eternal moment of decision, they had the courage to ask “Is it I?”

What a penetrating question that struck deep into their hearts, separating soul and spirit. For whatever reason, even Judas asks this of Him. Perhaps it was to cover his guilt, to appear surprised, even to test Jesus, perhaps all those things. His question springs as a cover for guilt and not as a genuine inquiry.

It is a time to allow the Lord to ask us tough questions. He asks these questions so the deepest things in our hearts can rise to the surface to be helped. He did this from start to finish in His ministry and He was doing it there and then--but He is also doing it here and now. His questions are never because He doesn’t know the answer but because He does know the answer all too well and we do not. Our hearts are expert at hiding the truth, the real reason, the actual cause. Jesus!

Let us let You search our hearts, dear Lord! Look deep, ask us the hard questions, reveal, uncover, expose so that You might make us true and straight as an arrow shot from the quiver of God. Let every pretense, every hiding place, be searched. We needn’t be afraid to admit we need help. So, Lord, Help us! Make us “pure and holy, tried and true.” Please.

Leadership Lessons from Return of the Jedi

I'm going to post a few notes each day about what I learned about leadership from Return of the Jedi. *Spoiler Alert*

 The first one is this: Good leaders, even if they have fallen out of the saddle, and retreated to sort things out, are willing to get back up on their horse and lead when the time is ready.

 The older Luke Skywalker is found hidden away, far from the madd'ing crowd, on an island far from society. Ironically, in real life, the site where they filmed Skywalker's hermitage is Skellig Michael, one of the earliest monastic locations in Ireland. You had to be brave to live there but you went there to get away from the world and focus on God. It was for extreme seekers. You had to know how to dig deep to make it there. Luke Skywalker had long retreated from the public eye. He's tried to forget that he's gifted. He's tormented by his failure. When Rey comes and starts to feel the Force, she stares at him boldly and says, "but I couldn't feel you in it, you've cut yourself off from it, haven't you!?"

Luke knows that being on the razor edge of fighting for good puts you up close to bad, and that you can lose your balance. But he has cut himself off from the Source of his life. He is trying, like the prophet Jonah, to run from his call and bury his gift. Good leaders deal with the mess of sorting this out in their own lives. Sometimes it takes time. Working through the process of failure is what makes them good at leading when they get back up! Good leaders acknowledge that spiritual battle has real dangers and work through it. It makes them more aware of their need for God. Good leaders don't go forward in their own power, they know when to retreat, but they also know when its time to rise back up.

Sometimes they need help, a mentor like Yoda, or a reason to do it, like the young Jedi warrior Rey showing up on his proverbial stone doorstep asking for help. Rey knows she has a gift, but she needs "someone to show me my place in all this." We all need that methinks. We don't care that you've failed, we want you to use what you have to help us because if we have come asking for help we recognize that you still know more than we do--even when you have failed. If your heart is right, you get past the failure, learn from it and become a better warrior, even a mentor. If it's not, you die on the island alone and let the world fall into the hands of the enemy.

Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.

--George Whitefield

Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...

"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone, 
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say."
--"JRR Tolkien--The Fellowship of the Ring"

Never Laugh at Live Dragons.....

"Never laugh at live dragons"--Bilbo Baggins, "The Hobbit" 

photo taken at Bishop's Castle, Rye, Colorado

The Stability of Trees....Learning to Live in the Place You are Planted!

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. I feel as if this tree knows everything I ever think of when I sit here. When I come back to it, I never have to remind it of anything; I begin just where I left off.”  --Willa Cather --"O Pioneers"

Spring Brings With It Hope

Spring brings with it hope, 

an opening of the heart to kinder Rays, 

and thus uncurl and unfold in beauteous ways,

our souls to warm and greener days of May....

photo taken in Ambleside, UK

                            Depart from the highway, and transplant thyself in some enclosed ground,

   for it is hard for a tree that stands by the wayside to keep its fruit until it be ripe. ---John Chrysostom

It's a nice time of year to retreat and allow the Lord to fill us back up....far

from the 'madding crowd...

lovely snow falling from pines....Easthampton, MA 

Wearing Out the Saints of the Most High

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. Daniel 7:25


The prophet Daniel writes these words as he sees future events unfolding to him in  a vision scarier
than a horror movie. He is greatly agitated because this is not a movie, but a warning and a preview
of what will happen in the latter days. Daniel sees the Antichrist rising, and he sees these two things:
that the Antichrist will "speak great words against the Most High" and "shall wear out the saints of the most  High."  These words are written for our benefit and we need to take heed to what it is they
are warning us about.

The enemy of our souls has many techniques that he uses against the saints of God.  In this verse
it says that he shall "wear out" the saints of the most High.  Life can be a long journey. We start
out well, but the question is, will we finish well? It is question we all must prepare to answer with a
resounding "yes!"   It is the strategy of the devil, even now, to wear us out, bit by bit, without our
noticing how drained we have gotten. And from the looks of it, he is winning a lot of ground. Jesus tells us, in the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25), that five were very foolish and did not labor to prepare for the long period of darkness that came while they were waiting for the bridegroom. The darkness was longer than they expected and took more preparation then they realized

In this parable Jesus places both the responsibility of preparation and the blame of  not preparing, on the virgins themselves. So in this it is important to see that while the devil is our enemy, we are the ones who decide what will happen to us.

The Antichrist (and the apostle John has told us that many antichrists are already in the world at work) will wear out or wear down the saints.  Have you ever been so tired that you could make no
effort? Have you ever been so discouraged that you could not get up? God gives to His servants
all that they need to accomplish His will. But that impartation can be whittled away. How does this happen? In several ways! In the first part of verse 25 it says that the Antichrist will speak "great words against the most High."

Even now many words are spoken against the most high and we feel the affects of them.  People live in godless ways and speak of godless things. In Ezekiel 13, God speaks against false prophets who speak in such a way that the righteous are made sad and discouraged:  "Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life " (Ezekiel 13:7) . Here it is not even the heathen that are speaking with  ungodliness but false prophets who say they are from God! Let the reader ponder this!

To hear things that grieve the heart of God, and to see things that grieve the heart of God wears
upon the souls of the godly.  This exposure to evil is not going away and is promised to increase as we near the day of the Lord's victorious return,  so we must learn to guard our hearts with the truth that God will soon blow away the wicked and His kingdom of goodness will be an everlasting one. The problem and effects of evil will be with us until the Lord's coming but we must see past the temporal and encourage our hearts in the eternal.

A second way that we are worn down is to spend our time and resources on that which does not
satisfy.   God asks, "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live (Isaiah 55: 2 &3). 

God admonishes us to incline our ears to listen to Him and to delight ourselves in rich food!
I am sure that He does not mean cheesecake! We must feed upon the rich food of the Word,
upon meat and not milk. Milk is not meant to sustain an adult whether spiritually or naturally.
If we are only nibbling at empty tidbits and the words of men, rather than learning to eat for 
ourselves from the grand buffet of God's meaty word, than we will soon be weak and thus, will
 be worn out. Satan seeks to rob us by putting spiritual junk food in front of us. Thinking we are full we soon fall flat because we have no nutrients. 

Another way that we get worn out is to do more than God has asked us to. Jesus said,   
 “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (John 5:19).
So often we think that "more" is more valuable spiritually. So often we do not ask God if He
wants us to do something, we just do it thinking it is a good idea. So often we buy into the world's idea of what a full life is: to be busy is to be someone important and to be living life with gusto.
This will soon wear us down to a thread. Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing and 
showing Him to do.  And so often we are lured into busyness by the will of others and made to
feel bad if we do not pipe to their musical cacophony.  So let us be careful.

There, also, are seasons in life when things swing out of control and we are thrown into situations that will wear us down and there is nothing we can do about it--but that should not be ALL  of our life.  God allows certain of these ordained seasons to see if we will draw on His strength. During these times we draw upon the wells of  deep water in our spirits -- hours and days of time we have spent with God in quiet and confidence during quieter days and from the Holy Spirit who ministers grace in due season.  It is that stockpile that carries us through.

These seasons are times of testing and times when we learn more fully to not trust in our own strength but in the merciful strength that God has planted within us for such a season.  Later, when the trial is over, there is time when God gives us a chance to rest and we must take it and see its value as equally important to our busiest God-ordained movement. Our strength needs constant replenishing. If we let our strength run dry we will be like the foolish virgins whose lamp goes out just when it is most needed. This is  the plan of the enemy and  a most important consideration for all of us in these days.

Walking with God

To walk with God requires more grace and maturity of thought and habit than to fly or run.
Young Christians are apt to get impatient with the quietness and seeming slowness of riper
Christians. ...To go slow with God is one of the greatest arts in the deeper life of the Christian,
and one that it takes a long time to learn unless it is taught the soul by the Holy Spirit"

--George D. Watson, God's Eagles,

photo taken at Storrowton Village, West Springfield, MA
 

God is not Dead Nor Does He Sleep

 

As we approach Christmas, I have tried to write down my thoughts...

 

We've had a rough year, haven't we? One that could cause our hearts to sink

or make us cry our eyes out. Evil, with its tedious slash-and-burn methods,

is out there. But what I know this year is that I have been all the more drawn

toward bedrock belief in the goodness of God. I somehow do not feel at all

discouraged but evermore sure that God's love is stronger than

all that is tirelessly arrayed against it. He can carry us through

anything.

 

We only have to see, with the eyes of our heart, who our good God is--full of

Light and Life, His nail pierced Hands dripping with compassion and love. Evil's victories are short lived. We have been tricked into thinking that bad is stronger than good because it uses a hacker's force to accomplish its goals. God's ways are subtle, gentle, awe-inspiring and unexpected. The results of evil we see daily with our natural eyes, but may we learn to see how present the love and goodness of God is with the eyes of our hearts. Love and Goodness, God Himself, working through His people, is all around us. And if we dare to join His ranks, we shall see Him all the more.

 

2000 years ago a small package of God arrived on earth's doorstep. It was

such a small package. Wrapped in a bits of swaddling cloth. God made the announcement of His Son's coming not to the rich and famous, but to shepherds and star gazers, both of whom had time to look for the hidden and subtle, and the vast and deep.

 

The little package, from His very first moment a divine Pilgrim, at home only

in the Father's love, and in the arms of sweet mother Mary. His little Head never rested on pillowy satins, and His first night wasn't even inside the hotel, but out in the way back with the animal servants.

 

Goodness is always a threat and so, even after that, He could not find a place to rest--Foxes have dens and sparrows have nests but the Son of God never had a lasting place to lay His Head. He came unto those who were called to be His own but His own received Him not. He, who is our Eternal Home, was cast out to be received only by those who could see His Beautiful Goodness. Even those who simply looked like Him were murdered--little children killed by Herod hoping to extinguish Jesus among them, holy innocents caught up in the battle. To this day those who look like Him are murdered but their true eternal life is not taken, nor can it be.

 

Our year has been like that, hasn't it? Holy Innocents have again been slain. Yet, I believe more firmly in God's goodness and in the power of Goodness than I ever have for I see it coming to life in those around me who have given themselves to Goodness --God acting through His Own in acts of light, small and large, seen and unseen. God's goodness seen in kind smiles, in small gestures, in young teachers throwing themselves in front of bullets to protect their children, in one small hand reaching out to hold another's

in the night.

 

What can we do when darkness is all around? We can simply choose goodness.

 

 

Love and goodness are something to give one's life to, for they are what God is. God, with love and goodness, made the world and by that love and goodness the world will one Day once again be made a safe and glorious dwelling place--have no doubt about that! Love and goodness are quiet yet exceedingly powerful.

 

Good overcomes evil by what it is-- it vanquishes darkness by simply being light. There is no clash of two brute forces in this battle because this war is not waged that way. Love is another kind of force entirely, and does things in its own amazing way. Vengeance belongs only to the Lord, who will end our battle with evil with a proper show of the majestic force of Love at the End of Days. All that is God's--goodness alone is His Little Flock's wisest choice. Darkness knows its time is limited so it will do all that it knows to do, within its darkened self, to accomplish its purposes.

 

Jesus said, "the eye is the lamp of the body, and if your lamp is dark, how great a darkness that is" (Matthew 6:22-23). In JRR Tolkien's, The Hobbit, the shriveled Gollum lives in that darkness and eats of the dark forces of greed, jealousy, and lust for power. The light in his lamp has gone out, as it will for everyone who partakes of darkness. Conversely, the simple, everyday hobbit from Bag End may feel that he is no match for that which lays in the darkness.

 

 

Yet, what we must realize is that everyday hobbits, you and I, are on a great adventure toward God--and we can and will be victorious by God's goodness! Let us march into His triumphant goodness and toward Light so pure that darkness has no chance. We are small, just like the small package that came to earth so many years ago, but we are God's small package if we so choose to be!

 

How clearly do I see this today! How clearly do I see that it all begins simply with our choice and the direction we point ourselves in. God takes it from there! In our selves we have no goodness or strength or courage but when we allow the Small Package of Christ, (who is eternally without measure) to enter our lives He brings with it all the goodness of God packed into something the size of a mustard seed and it begins to explode within us--into a Package whose height and depth and length we will never fully exhaust or explore! A great journey indeed begins!

 

 

Dear ones, during this timely Christmas,

trust in the goodness of God...but do more than that--give yourself over to it.

 

This great old hymn, I heard the Bells on Christmas Day, speaks of a great and present truth:

 

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play;
In music sweet their tones repeat,
“There’s peace on earth, good will to men.” 

 

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th’ unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

 

But in despair I bowed my head,

There is no peace on earth I said,

for hate is strong and mocks the song

of peace on earth, good will to men.

 

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“GOD IS NOT DEAD NOR DOES HE SLEEP"

For Christ is here; His Spirit near
Brings peace on earth, good will to men.”

 

When men repent and turn from sin
The Prince of Peace then enters in,
And grace imparts within their hearts
His peace on earth, good will to men. 

 

O souls amid earth’s busy strife,
The Word of God is light and life;
Oh, hear His voice, make Him your choice,
Hail peace on earth, good will to men.

 

Then happy, singing on your way,
Your world will change from night to day;
Your heart will feel the message real,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Merry Christmas, good friends,

Rose-Marie

the hymn was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
during a time of great loss during the Civil War, there
are many variations to the lyrics. 

Putting Away That Which Hinders

"Comrades in this solemn fight- this awful conflict with awful powers- let us settle it as something that cannot be shaken: We are here to live holy, loving, lowly lives. We cannot do this unless we walk very, very close to the Lord Jesus. Anything that would hinder us from the closest walk that is possible to us till we see Him face to face is not for us. We need to be sensitive to the first approach of the hindering thing. For the sake of the souls that may be stumbled if we turn even ever so little aside, for the sake of our Master's glory- dearer surely to us than all else- let us ask Him to show us whether in anywise we have been showing crooked patterns." - Amy Carmichael

(trees in a massive windstorm, Feeding Hills, MA)

If you want the fire of God, you must become the fuel of God

                      If you want the fire of God, you must become the fuel of God.
                                                                                          --Tom Tenney

photo taken in Cambridge, UK


 

 

Refresh and Gladden My Spirit, O God!

O God! Refresh and gladden my spirit. Purify my heart. Illumine my powers.I lay all my affairs in Thy hand. Thou art my Guide and my Refuge. O God! Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself. I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord.

 

Babylon is Fallen

this is sung in the Sacred Harp style....in the first  part they are singing the tune by
means of phonetically written notes.  Then....

BABYLON IS FALLEN (2)

Hail the day so long expected,
Hail the year of full release.
Zion's walls are now erected,
And her watchmen publish peace.
Through our Shiloh's wide dominion,
Hear the trumpet loudly roar,
Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

Babylon is fallen, fallen, fallen
Babylon is fallen, to rise no more.

All her merchants stand with wonder,
What is this that comes to pass:
Murm'ring like the distant thunder,
Crying, "Oh alas, alas."
Swell the sound, ye kings and nobles,
Priest and people, rich and poor;
Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

Blow the trumpet in Mount Zion,
Christ shall come a second time;
Ruling with a rod of iron
All who now as foes combine.
Babel's garments we've rejected,
And our fellowship is o'er,
Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

From Sacred Harp
Tune: W. E. Chute, 1878

Drink, Dear Saint, of the Sweetness of God

      "But the believing soul longs and faints for God; she rests sweetly in the contemplation of Him. She glories in the reproach of the Cross, until the glory of His face shall be revealed. Like the Bride, the dove of Christ, that is covered with silver wings (Ps. 68.13), white with innocence and purity, she reposes in the thought of Thine abundant kindness, Lord Jesus; and above all she longs for that day when in the joyful splendor of Thy saints, gleaming with the radiance of the Beatific Vision, her feathers shall be like gold, resplendent with the joy of Thy countenance." --Bernard of Clairvaux on the Love of God






photo taken in Catskill, NY 

Perhaps they are not stars...

"Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy." --Eskimo proverb

photo taken at Smith College, Northampton, MA

The Perfect Gift

Sometimes the perfect gift is a cheery smile...

 I thank God for the way He made you, distinct, special and 
     unique.  You were not made from a common mold.                                                                          - Erwin W. Lutzer    

it's snowing today, and my friends, the birds,

come closer....here is Mrs. Cardinal, eating

her favorite sunflower seeds.  She sings a happy

little songs when she finds them. 

Yea, the Sparrow hath found her house....

It's snowing here and this little one came to breakfast on my windowsill.
I'm thinking that it gives me great joy to provide food on a wintry day
to my little bird friends, I'm sure God enjoys providing for us in the same way.

"Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God." Psalm 84:3