The musings of an old woman,a wife, a mother of two sons, a lover of dogs and all God's creatures, a reader of books, a child of the King.
A pilgrim with many rivers yet to cross, on a journey home to Him.
“I have
fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
It is my desire, to
be able to proclaim these words, with truth and vigor, when I reach the end of
my days.
In 2014, I will, God willing, reach my fifty fourth
birthday. An old woman according to the young folks, who in polls proclaimed 54
as the age one becomes an “old person”.
I have been running
the Christian race now for 25 years. I have not always ran well, there have
been many times when I simply slept by the side of the track, and those awful
times when I found a room somewhere and dwelt there awhile, forgetting the race
entirely and being caught up in worldly cares.
There have been
moments when I ran sure and strong, moments when I stumbled, moments when I
crawled, my chest heaving for air, moments when others carried me, moments when
I paused to carry others. As I stand here, on the brink of a new year, I
realize that I am closer now to the finish line than I am to the start of the
race. Examining myself, I can truly say, that this realization brings no fear;
in fact it fills my heart with hope and strengthens my soul.
It is my heart’s
desire to finish well, to run with grace, to run for Him. I care not what
people remember of me when I am gone, other than this one thing; that they
would be able with truth to say, “She loved her Lord, and more often than not
we could see Him in her”. Not everyone could say that should God take me home
today, and sadly there would be some who might say “I did not know she was a
Christian”!, oh God forbid I allow such a thing to be!
So I will make no
resolutions this year. Instead I will write out the desire of my heart for the
year 2014, and I will make it the year of beginnings. I will begin this year to
plan my own funeral, with the goal in mind of making certain the life
celebrated on that day will bring glory to Him. I will run the race this year
with the desire and hope…………..
To make the days count,
To pause for prayer,
To pause for reflection,
To greet each soul as if I may not see them again,
To depart from each soul as if this is the final good bye,
To forgive easy,
To love hard,
To trust in His grace,
To fall on His mercy,
To hold onto hope,
To live eyes wide open,
To embrace it all, even if it hurts,
To speak truth, always in love,
To be a source of comfort,
To be a source of encouragement,
To build and not tear down,
To believe in miracles,
To remember His promises,
To feast on His word,
To prepare always, as best I can for the day that I step
into His presence.
Oh Lord, strengthen heart for the race, strengthen lungs, strengthen
bones, grant courage, grant peace, grant joy, grant endurance. More of You
Lord, less of me, may self die daily in 2014, so that Your light can shine
forth from my soul. May each day be lived as if it were the day that would end
with me kneeling at Your feet in glory.
Lord come strong in 2014, come strong into our hearts and
lives, and come strong into the hearts and lives of the people we love.
In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth. On the 5th day God created the
creatures of the water and the birds of the air. On the 6th day he created
the animals……and man.
He was pleased with
His creation, and He called it all good.
He created man in His own image and gave them dominion over
all the earth, over the creatures of the sea, the birds of the air and over
every animal that lived upon the earth.
Dominion. That word we so often believe is to dominate
something, to stand over it as it cowers beneath us. We do that well, but that
is not what the Lord intended. He gave us authority, ruler-ship, stewardship,
over the earth and all His creation. We created in His image should therefore
exercise this authority as He would. We as a species fail utterly in so doing.
Instead we crush the earth, we crush the creatures, we abuse our authority and wreak
havoc and suffering upon our fellow man and upon God’s creation.
We read in God’s word
the story of Balaam and of the donkey he rode upon. God was opposed to the
thing that Balaam was about to do. The Angel of the Lord, a pre-incarnate
representation of Christ, stood in the path to block Balaam’s way. But he was
blind to this and when the little donkey he was riding upon stopped, Balaam became
angry and beat her. Three times she refused to pass the path blocked by God,
and three times he beat her without mercy. God in His compassion opened the
mouth of the donkey and she spoke to Balaam saying “What have
I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” And then God
opened Balaam’s eyes and he beheld that which the donkey had seen all along,
the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with sword in hand, and Balaam bowed
face down upon the ground and the Angel of the Lord said to Balaam, ““Why have
you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you
because your path is a reckless one before me.The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had
not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have
spared it.”
God defends the little donkey.
Later on, in the New Testament, we read of the
account of our Lord as he rides into Jerusalem upon the back of a donkey. We
are told that this donkey was young and had never been ridden. Those of us who
have had dealings with equines can tell you one thing true. One does not go and
take hold of a young equine that has never had a person sit upon him, and take
him and ride him in a parade. It just does not work out well for you, or for
the equine, or for the folks standing along the parade route waving and
shouting. But that is exactly what our Lord does. He sits down on this young
donkey, who has never before carried a person and he ride’s into Jerusalem with
throngs of people waving palm branches and casting them down upon the ground in
front of the donkey and screaming Hosanna at the top of their lungs. And the
donkey carries our Lord with grace and dignity……..the word does not speak on
this, but it is obvious that the donkey knows exactly whom he carries.
The
Bible does not say a lot about animals, but it does not need to. God stated
that creation was good, it pleased Him, He stated that we were created in His
image, to be like Him and that we were to care for creation. Really nothing
more needs to be said. But there are a couple of things in the scriptures that
shed more light on this subject.
Proverbs says “Whoever is righteous has regard for
the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” And “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is
treading out the grain.”
Yet cruelty towards God’s creatures abounds. Both
willful cruelty and ignorant cruelty exist in abundance.
We read
in Romans of how the creation groans for deliverance, groans and cries out to
God for deliverance.
In Genesis we read of how the blood of Abel,
cried out to God from the ground. The first murder and the blood cried out, can
you even imagine the cry that rises up to heaven each day now? We murder each
other, and we crush the creation. These things ought not to be.
Each of us, who are called by Him, should look
upon others, and upon the creatures of this world, as important to God. We
should interact with the creatures of this world with love and with mercy. We
should endeavor to care for the creation as people who are made in His image. Animals raised and slaughtered for food should be well cared for, and slaughtered as humanely as possible, giving thanks to the Lord for His provision. Animals slain for food in the hunt should be done so under the laws that protect their numbers and as quickly and humanely as possible, again with thanks for the provision provided.
Greed fuels cruelty. The desire to process more and more to fill the consumer who in most cases thinks nothing at all about where the food he or she is consuming comes from. As you fry up your hamburger tonight, thank God for the cow that died to provide it.
Christians should be about alleviating suffering, both in our fellow man and our fellow creatures. Just this past couple of months have brought to light some of the most grievous cruelty against helpless animals that I have ever witnessed in all my years. Dogs brutally sexually assaulted, dogs dragged behind vehicles until their toes and flesh were ripped off, suffering grievous wounds, dogs with their heads caved in by a shovel, walking about with terrible wounds, these but a handful of the thousands of stories out there untold. If you have no compassion for a helpless animal, how can you have compassion for your fellow man? Do not think for one moment that God looks down upon the wanton cruelty displayed across this world and thinks nothing.
No
matter what we do, the creation will continue to cry out, continue to groan and
wait for deliverance, but as children of God, we should be about lessening the
suffering, of our fellow man and our fellow creatures until such time as the
Lord makes all things right again.
I have been thinking this
week about that first Christmas, so long ago.
The people had been
awaiting their Messiah for a very long time. It had been 400 years since God
had spoken to His people.
On that first Christmas
there must have been a great deal of stress. Imagine Joseph, all stressed out
because he had to travel to Bethlehem with his very pregnant wife for the
purposes of registering for a census. Having the government demand such a thing
alone is enough to have someone all stressed out. Add to that the long journey,
the fear of bandits, the fear of Mary delivering her child somewhere along the
way, and then once they arrive, and they breathe a small breath of
relief......more fear and stress, there is no room, no room anywhere, and
frantically Joseph seeks somewhere, someplace for them to stay.
He finds a stable.
I think it might be
fairly safe to assume that since Bethlehem was packed to the gills, the stable
was pretty packed too. Oxen and donkeys most likely, as horses were not that
common for the average person back then. The staff at the inn was probably
stretched pretty thin, so the stable would be the last place to receive any
attention. I imagine it smelled fairly ripe.
It is probably also safe
to assume that the crowds of people, the innkeeper, the staff and pretty much
everyone were living in a state of stress. There was a lot to do, the people
visiting would be nervous, they traveled far, because their government demanded
it, there would be uncertainty, there would be stress over money, people
spending more than they could really afford, there would be people who had
spent all and were now wondering how they were going to eat and of course the
people who lived there would be thinking up every kind of scheme possible to
make some cash off of all these people pouring in.
Into this mess of
humanity, into a stinking stable, filled with livestock, came the Lord of everything.
He who created all
things, steps into the clay He created, clothes Himself with flesh, steps away
from majesty and glory, into abject mire and misery.
He comes not as a strong
and mighty man, He comes not as a giant, He comes as a tiny helpless baby. He
comes from the womb of a virgin girl. The first breath these lungs of flesh
take in, filled with the reek of animal waste.
God became flesh. God
became a man, fully God, fully man. He breathed, he hungered, he felt pain…….He
was as you and as I. God did that! Why in the world would the eternal, majestic
and holy God of all creation want to stoop down to our level?
The Bible tells us that God so loved us that
He gave His only Son. He loved me and you enough to leave glory and walk in
filth, to live amongst broken and sinful people, to die upon the most devious
instrument of torture known to man, to endure the sins of the world, my sins
and your sins, heaped upon His perfect soul.
If He loved enough to do that, do you think He
does not care for us now? Do you think He does not see our suffering, our
sorrows, do you think He cares not for the things you endure here?
Think about it……..the Lord of glory, the One
who created all things, the One who created you, stepped out of glory into all
our stinking mess, to redeem us! That’s how much we mean to Him.
So no matter what is going on around you, no
matter the sorrows your heart is carrying today, I say that if your heart
belongs to Him, rejoice, rejoice, and rejoice. Cause everything is going to be
okay…..in fact it’s gonna be more than okay.
My
heart melts at the love of Jesus,
my brother, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh,
married to me, dead for me, risen for me;
He is mine and I am His,
given to me as well as for me;
I am never so much mine as when I am His,
or so much lost to myself until lost in Him;
then I find my true self.
But my love is frost and cold, ice and snow;
Let His love warm me,
lighten my burden,
be my heaven;
May it be more revealed to me in all its influences
that my love to Him may be more fervent
and glowing;
Let the mighty tide of His everlasting love
cover the rocks of my sin and care;
Then let my spirit float above those things
which had else wrecked my life.
Make me fruitful by living to that love,
my character becoming more beautiful every day.
If traces of Christ’s love-artistry be upon me,
may He work on with His divine brush
until the complete image be obtained
and I be made a perfect copy of Him,
my Master.
May your Christmas be blessed. Hope has come, Peace has come, Joy has come, and
Love has come. CHRIST HAS COME!
"It came without ribbons! It came
without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!"... Then the Grinch thought of something
he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe
Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!" ~Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”
“I
will honor Christmas in my
heart, and try to keep it all the year. ~Charles Dickens”
“Fail not to call to mind, in the course
of the twenty-fifth of this month, that the Divinest Heart that ever walked the
earth was born on that day; and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of
it; for mirth is also of Heaven's making. ~Leigh Hunt”
Have you ever wept
uncertain if your tears are tears of sorrow or tears of joy?
I awoke this morning,
this Christmas Eve, and listened to a song.
“I know You came to rescue me
This baby boy would grow to be
A man and one day die for me and you
My sins would drive the nails in You?
That rugged cross was my cross, too?
Still every breath You drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah”
The tears were rolling down my cheeks. As I listened, I prayed, I prayed for just
one day lived for His glory, just one day where there was no hint of me in
anything that I do, in anything that I say. Just one day Lord.
For I have walked
with Him for 25 years, since that day when He called me out of darkness and
into His light, and yet when I sit and reflect upon it, in all my efforts
across the years, I do not recall a time
when I ever had one full day, lived only unto Him.
There have been good
days, and there have been days which I thought were good days, only to find I
was living them unto self, or unto some religious motive. There have been the awful days, when not a
single thought of my Lord crossed my mind and there have been the joyful days,
lived in His presence for the most part……..but in honesty, not one full day
only for Him, not one full day lived for Him, where every moment was spent in
gratitude, where every choice was placed before Him first, where every hurt was
forgiven as He would forgive, where every opportunity to extend His grace was acted
on to His glory…..NOT ONE DAY!
What a sobering
thought. Praise God for His grace, which
rains down on us, without which we are unable no matter how much we wish it, no
matter how much we want it, we are unable to give Him anything, we are unable
to live for Him as He demands, unable to
be the saints we so desperately wish to be.
And that’s okay, that’s
how it is supposed to be. Only one man ever walked out a perfect life lived in
perfect union with God, only one man ever did 100 percent of what was
required, only one man ever put every single choice he made before God first
and always chose the path that pleased Him. Only one man, the God man, Jesus
Christ, Yeshua, Messiah, Prince of Peace,
King of Kings, Lord of Lords, that little babe born long ago, who grew to
manhood, who preached good news, who
took my place, died in my stead, satisfied God’s wrath and rose from the dead.
He did it, so that I could be clothed in His righteousness.
So we keep striving,
keep walking, tears of joy and tears of sorrow, broken, but rejoicing, broken
but singing…..Hallelujah!
Just before work this
morning, I stopped by to visit my daughter in law. The song I had heard earlier
was in my heart but I did not have it to listen to, so I listened to the
original. As I sat and brushed dirt from her headstone, listening to the words
to the original Hallelujah, once again the tears began to fall. Sorrow mingled
with joy.
It’s the eve of His birth, the One who is Hope, who is
Peace, who is Joy, who is Love…….even so come Lord Jesus, come.
“And even though, It all
went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of song
With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah”
“It’s gonna be okay, more
than okay”………..I believe it, I believe it with all my heart, so today, this
Christmas Eve, I will sing Hallelujah, there will be the moments when it is as
good as it can get, when my heart is one with His, when the hallelujah coming
from my soul is like the worship of the angels……..and there will be those
moments when it is broken, cold, when the sound is only faintly heard and the
soul weeps.
It’s not about religion. Religion gives you a set of rules,
so you can compare. You compare yourself to the rules and you think you are
doing pretty well. You compare yourself to others who are so obviously breaking
all the rules….and you think you are doing real good. You lift your voice to
the heavens shouting “Lord I am so glad I am not like _____”. And in your quest to meet the obligations of
your religion you miss all the grace moments, you miss all the opportunities He
gives to you, to allow you to love as He loved, to allow you to preach as He
preached, to allow you to be His hands, His feet, His voice. Lord Jesus stamp
out religion in my heart and replace it with You.
May our prayer ever
be the prayer of the tax collector.
No, it’s not about
religion. It’s about relationship.
Relationship with Him.
“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went
up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The
Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not
like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get. ‘But the tax collector,
standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his
breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner! ‘I tell you, this man went
down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
May He find room in
your heart this Christmas.
A Hallelujah Christmas
“I've heard about this baby boy
Who's come to earth to bring us joy
And I just want to sing this song to you
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
With every breath I'm singing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
A couple came to Bethlehem
Expecting child, they searched the inn
To find a place for You were coming soon
There was no room for them to stay
So in a manger filled with hay
God's only Son was born, oh Hallelujah
Hallelujah
The shepherds left their flocks by night
To see this baby wrapped in light
A host of angels led them all to You
It was just as the angels said
You'll find Him in a manger bed
Immanuel and Savior, Hallelujah
Hallelujah
A star shown bright up in the east
To Bethlehem, the wisemen three
Came many miles and journeyed long for You
And to the place at which You were
Their frankincense and gold and myrrh
They gave to You and cried out Hallelujah
Hallelujah
I know You came to rescue me
This baby boy would grow to be
A man and one day die for me and you
My sins would drive the nails in You
That rugged cross was my cross, too
Still every breath You drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah”
Hallelujah
originally by Leonard Cohen
"Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
We are in the middle of Advent, the time of preparation for Christmas. The time of anticipation. We remember the line of people, back to the beginning, as they waited for the promised Messiah, we remember and we wait, we wait for that glorious morning, that Christmas morning where we celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ, where we remember that day where God took on the flesh of man, and came down to this dirty messed up world, to walk out His perfect life and die His sacrificial death that conquers sin, and rise again from the dead to conquer death.
Christmas can be a hard time, even for the most balanced and blessed of folks. We all have those Norman Rockwell paintings in our heads, those ideas of the perfect Christmas and we labor hard at bringing about such a holiday in our own homes, and more often than not our plans are thwarted. Imperfect people, ourselves, our families, our situations, all come against our plans and we feel like failures. We or someone, or something, has ruined Christmas.
I propose a different approach this year. I propose that instead of setting our eyes on that perfect Norman Rockwell Christmas, let us instead set our eyes on seeing why Jesus came...did He come that we might have our homes decorated perfectly, that we might rise on Christmas morning in our perfect Christmas pajamas, that we might gather around our perfect Christmas trees and open our perfect presents, all while our children and family members and pets behave in the most perfect Christmas manner? Did He come that the Christmas goose might be perfectly baked and the Christmas table set in the most spectacular Christmas manner, did He come that we might have carolers outside our door on Christmas Eve while a perfect gentle snow falls?...Did He come for these reasons listed?
Or did He come for these?
He came to conquer death, it does not have to be the end of things anymore. We miss those who have gone from us, but we hold fast to the knowledge that we will see them again.
He came for the downtrodden. He came for the lost, the broken, the sick, the messed up, He came to destroy death and sin, to give us light and hope, to enable us to rise above the conditions we face here on this earth and live above them. He came to bring peace and goodwill. He came to set us free.
Our house will be no Norman Rockwell painting this year, but it will be a place of hope, we will rise on Christmas morning, bruised but hopeful, for the Christ child was born, some 2000 years ago, in a tiny Bethlehem stable, and He grew to be a man, a perfect man, He healed the sick, set free the captives and lived approximately 33 years, keeping the law of God perfectly, and on the real black Friday, He carried an instrument of torture to a hilltop above Jerusalem, whereby he allowed a lost and broken people to nail him to that rough wood, after having beaten him and abused him, and lift Him up for all to see......Jesus..the King of the Jews....and after a time, He gave up His life, with a victorious cry of "It is Finished", and the veil that separated the holy of holies, the place where none but the high priest was allowed to go, the place where God dwelt, was torn from top to bottom, and we were allowed the right to enter in.
And that my friends is Christmas, hope for a broken people, deliverance from sin and death and disease and war and hate and ugliness.
It Ain't no Norman Rockwell painting......it is far more beautiful, far more complex, far more wondrous.
So if things aren't perfect this Christmas, instead of allowing that fact to make you think yourself a failure, or to depress you into thinking your Christmas is not as it should be, look to Jesus, look to the end not the now. The promised One has come, and He accomplished all that He set out to accomplish.
Jesus Christ, the only Reason for the season.....I hope you know Him, I pray You come to know Him.
