Recently Kyrie got some music that we used to listen to as a family when we were kids. The singers, Harvest, made up a contemporary Christian group from the late seventies to early nineties. It has been so wonderful to hear those dear songs again and, more importantly, to actually understand the words! Before, I listened to them as a kid and sang along with some of the words, but now they actually mean something to me in my relationship with Christ Jesus.
This morning as I was working alone in the kitchen Kyrie had put on the music and I was struck by the words to their song "It's Alright Now".
"I remember the times I felt Your hand upon me, Lord
I thought that I would never rise again
For Your Spirit had broken the pride in my heart
I knew that I needed to make a new start
I wanted to feel Your love and know You cared
So I fell upon my knees and prayed, "Forgive me, Lord.
For livin' my life without You everyday."
Then I felt like somethin' within me had died.
When I raised my head I saw a new light.
I heard what sounded like a voice from heaven say.
Chorus.
It's alright now. It's alright now.
There's nothin' to fear from Me, my friend.
I'm saying it's alright now."
There is more to the song, but hearing those words again, touched my heart and I started to cry. How tenderly the Lord has led me. No human relationship can compare to that between the Lord and His people.
Perhaps you are one who has felt you "needed to make a new start", too. Through Jesus Christ we can. It's not "turning over a new leaf" or trying to do better. It's realizing our helplessness and admitting to the Lord that, without Him, we are guilty and worthy of punishment. Jesus Christ, God's Perfect, Sinless Son, came to this earth and took the punishment for the sins of mankind. Although it seems hard to fathom that one would do this for us who are so undeserving, He did. He died on a horrible Roman cross, was forsaken by God, and felt His wrath, all because of love for us! The exciting news is that, unlike any other, He raised Himself back to life again! Then He went back to Heaven to His Father. And there He is now, alive and willing to forgive and receive anyone who will come to Him for forgiveness and adoption. When He forgives a person, He gives a radically new, wonderful hope unlike any other. Life may not be perfect following Him; in fact, it may be downright difficult, but knowing He is always near makes life worth living. And then, like the songwriters, you can say personally that in your heart you hear His voice saying to you, "It's alright now."
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Friday, June 24, 2016
Five Minute Friday: Rest
After many weeks of inactivity, I rejoin my FMF fellow-writers for some words on Rest....
Start:
My body is weary, my eyes are heavy. I've gotten in bed too late two nights in a row and it's my own fault.
But I was just having too much fun with my dear friends and cousins during our back-to-back sleepover parties as we try to get in as much visiting as possible before they have to return to their home.
Yes, my physical self is weary and it makes my heart problems worse, too.
No, I don't have a medical condition you should be concerned about. I just have some of the woes and problems brought on from living in a sin-tainted world.
I'm weary with a nine-month long inner struggle over a particular matter, an emotional roller coaster that has had me laughing and crying repeatedly. I've been pained over it and blessed by it and have no idea what my part is to do with it now!
I keep turning to friends or family members talking about it, foolishly hoping that, by voicing my thoughts and frustrations, something will budge, click, pop into place! etc.
Ridiculousness!
All this time, maybe all my Heavenly Father has been trying to teach me is to rest in Him and wait patiently for Him to work something more amazing than I can imagine!
You see, I was reading in Isaiah the other day and it didn't dawn on me until today how that I have been exactly like the people who were given the message, but not listening to the words. It struck me: Have I been biting the hand that has been feeding me? or have I, as I ought, been kissing the hand that is beating me?
Friends, the Lord corrects and instructs in the best and most loving way.
It is not always fun. Sometimes it's painful; but, when He "spanks" His children, it is so we will turn to Him and love and trust Him more.
LORD, help me to learn more fully to rest in Thee about the matters my heart struggles over tonight.
End.
"For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 9.13).
Start:
My body is weary, my eyes are heavy. I've gotten in bed too late two nights in a row and it's my own fault.
But I was just having too much fun with my dear friends and cousins during our back-to-back sleepover parties as we try to get in as much visiting as possible before they have to return to their home.
Yes, my physical self is weary and it makes my heart problems worse, too.
No, I don't have a medical condition you should be concerned about. I just have some of the woes and problems brought on from living in a sin-tainted world.
I'm weary with a nine-month long inner struggle over a particular matter, an emotional roller coaster that has had me laughing and crying repeatedly. I've been pained over it and blessed by it and have no idea what my part is to do with it now!
I keep turning to friends or family members talking about it, foolishly hoping that, by voicing my thoughts and frustrations, something will budge, click, pop into place! etc.
Ridiculousness!
All this time, maybe all my Heavenly Father has been trying to teach me is to rest in Him and wait patiently for Him to work something more amazing than I can imagine!
You see, I was reading in Isaiah the other day and it didn't dawn on me until today how that I have been exactly like the people who were given the message, but not listening to the words. It struck me: Have I been biting the hand that has been feeding me? or have I, as I ought, been kissing the hand that is beating me?
Friends, the Lord corrects and instructs in the best and most loving way.
It is not always fun. Sometimes it's painful; but, when He "spanks" His children, it is so we will turn to Him and love and trust Him more.
LORD, help me to learn more fully to rest in Thee about the matters my heart struggles over tonight.
End.
"For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 9.13).
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Do You Want to be a Cat?
"Do you want to be a cat?"
"Do I want to be a cat?" I repeated, making sure I had heard correctly.
"Mmhmm." The seriousness in the olive green eyes of my five year old friend told me that I had. It wasn't the first time during babysitting that day that I had encountered the delightfulness of the child's "adult ideas"-free mind. At other points, I had just had to laugh, wishing I could be recording the words and thoughts to share with someone later, (how many times I wished Kyrie was there for me to share a look and a laugh with!) but this was different. Olive was serious and I needed to give this answer more than a chuckle.
"Well...." I thought for a moment. Olive's three year old sister now looked up from the coloring book she was working on. "No," I said slowly. "I don't think so. 'Cause if I was a cat, I would miss out on knowing alot of the wonderful people I know."
The answer was good enough for Perky who went back to coloring. Olive was fine with it, too, it seemed, for she continued candidly, "My brother says I act like a cat..." We talked for a few more minutes on that subject before moving on, but the idea got me to thinking.
I am so thankful that I am not a cat, that I am a human being, that I know that my Creator God planned for me to be a female person and nothing else. How many dear friends He has given me to enjoy! How many opportunities I have gotten to have because I can work, and think, and go, and interact! A cat, or any other animal, has a seriously limited life. They, of course, are made for man's enjoyment and benefit, but they don’t get to know some of the most enjoyable parts of my life. I appreciate the fact that our cats have (to some degree) been good at catching rodents. I enjoyed our dog that ran around, lay on the grass, barked at squirrels, or laughed his great, big, tongue-lolling grin at us. He didn't provide any huge contribution to our family, but he was fun to have around. I even liked our Beta fish which did nothing more than swim back and forth in their glass domains and eat and dazzle me with their gorgeous colors and designs. But to be a person—specifically a person who has purpose based on a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the world!—is to know joy and peace, work and rest, pleasure and even the benefits of sorrow (since sorrow is to drive a person back to reliance on Christ). It is to have gain and loss, to meet strangers and become friends, to take advantage of family relationships in order to grow in love for each other despite quirks and personalities and talents. It is to know the highest privilege of the human life: peace with God through realizing one’s sinfulness and Christ’s righteousness, one’s right to punishment and God’s gift of forgiveness through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus.
Olive sparked more than she can imagine by her innocent, child-like question and I am grateful. To my Savior and Lord: I thank You for causing Olive to ask this. It is wonderful to know You, my Father! To all my friends and loved ones who mean so much to me because I am a feeling, thinking human, I have to say: I am so thankful for you--and I am so thankful that I am not a cat!
"Do I want to be a cat?" I repeated, making sure I had heard correctly.
"Mmhmm." The seriousness in the olive green eyes of my five year old friend told me that I had. It wasn't the first time during babysitting that day that I had encountered the delightfulness of the child's "adult ideas"-free mind. At other points, I had just had to laugh, wishing I could be recording the words and thoughts to share with someone later, (how many times I wished Kyrie was there for me to share a look and a laugh with!) but this was different. Olive was serious and I needed to give this answer more than a chuckle.
"Well...." I thought for a moment. Olive's three year old sister now looked up from the coloring book she was working on. "No," I said slowly. "I don't think so. 'Cause if I was a cat, I would miss out on knowing alot of the wonderful people I know."
The answer was good enough for Perky who went back to coloring. Olive was fine with it, too, it seemed, for she continued candidly, "My brother says I act like a cat..." We talked for a few more minutes on that subject before moving on, but the idea got me to thinking.
I am so thankful that I am not a cat, that I am a human being, that I know that my Creator God planned for me to be a female person and nothing else. How many dear friends He has given me to enjoy! How many opportunities I have gotten to have because I can work, and think, and go, and interact! A cat, or any other animal, has a seriously limited life. They, of course, are made for man's enjoyment and benefit, but they don’t get to know some of the most enjoyable parts of my life. I appreciate the fact that our cats have (to some degree) been good at catching rodents. I enjoyed our dog that ran around, lay on the grass, barked at squirrels, or laughed his great, big, tongue-lolling grin at us. He didn't provide any huge contribution to our family, but he was fun to have around. I even liked our Beta fish which did nothing more than swim back and forth in their glass domains and eat and dazzle me with their gorgeous colors and designs. But to be a person—specifically a person who has purpose based on a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the world!—is to know joy and peace, work and rest, pleasure and even the benefits of sorrow (since sorrow is to drive a person back to reliance on Christ). It is to have gain and loss, to meet strangers and become friends, to take advantage of family relationships in order to grow in love for each other despite quirks and personalities and talents. It is to know the highest privilege of the human life: peace with God through realizing one’s sinfulness and Christ’s righteousness, one’s right to punishment and God’s gift of forgiveness through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus.
Olive sparked more than she can imagine by her innocent, child-like question and I am grateful. To my Savior and Lord: I thank You for causing Olive to ask this. It is wonderful to know You, my Father! To all my friends and loved ones who mean so much to me because I am a feeling, thinking human, I have to say: I am so thankful for you--and I am so thankful that I am not a cat!
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Open Letters to Lydia and Wynneth
Dear Lydia,
I woke up this morning with your "honey sticks" and hot tea on my mind. How hospitable you were to the lot of us on Sunday mornings who would file into your home, drink your hot beverages, and discuss the Word of God! I thought of those tall, Styrofoam cups of hot water steeping one of your gourmet tea bags and your generosity in letting us make ourselves at home in your kitchen, picking out a slender, plastic envelope of tantalizingly-diverse-colored honeys to empty into the hot liquid.
How well your kettle worked! Often I would sit holding my cup, glancing at it between comments around the circle, and watch the steam rise for almost half the class time, only to down the sufficiently-cooled drink as quickly as possible at class's end so as not to be late to church.
You mean so much to me. All those mornings spent pouring over the Scriptures as a class, all those weekdays learning from your skilled hands & knowledgeable words as you imparted to me the ability to play guitar, all those moments holding your babies or playing with them.
How I love you! How I miss you!
Today especially. As we moved in the next dear family it finally felt... final. They are here to fill the spot you and Bro. Nick left. They are the ones the Lord has brought us as He wisely and lovingly unfolded the next phase of His plan for you, moving you back to your familiar state, your familiar friends, your familiar family.
But, (may I say it?) I take a tearful joy in the fact that we had seemed to become your familiar place. We were your friends in place of those you had moved from. We became family when flesh and blood were so many miles away from you.
How I love you, my sister! My eyes are moist with the missing.
Yes, a new, wonderful family has arrived, but not to replace you. No, instead they come to be used by the Lord to lead us into a deeper relationship with Him, to teach us things we couldn't have learned from you, to grow and stretch us in ways in which you were not meant coach us. And His plan, (as hard as it is sometimes in living your absence), is delightful to me! For He devises with wisdom and I rest in Him with peace knowing that His plan for you is good, His plan for this church, this new family, and even me is good. He is our dear, loving Father and oh! how wonderful to know He keeps you (there where you are) & me (here where I am).
How I love you, my precious sister! Missing will one day be consumed (delightfully so!) in Heaven when we all get to be together with our Savior forever!
Dear Wynneth,
Hello, my new, dear friend! Your move today was filled with answers to prayers! Just having you in the neighborhood means our Gracious Lord did not overlook our plea for a youth pastor and his wife! How sweet our Savior is!
Added to that, His protection on the road as you were stalled at a wreck (I am so grateful that you were not part of it!), and His holding back the rain as your belongings were trekked inside your new residence. More blessings come to mind as I think, with humble thankfulness, that you and Bro. Herald were willing to accept the position that included such a small house.
How it blesses my heart to see your relationship with each other! Even though you were dog-tired, you both exhibited such a cheerfulness and respect & love for each other that blessed my heart!
Your five children delight me, even though I have only met three of them. I look forward, the Lord willing, to becoming very fine friends with them!
How sweet to hold little Ike, to look down into
his handsome, olive-skinned face, to relish his deep-brown eyes. He is a gift from our Father and I my heart bursts to see the love that our He has in placing outcasts into love-inspired families.
You've moved away from things dear and familiar, from places, from family, from friends. I hope that we can be to you new friends (not replacements), and additional family members to add to your "clan".
Your heart blesses mine. I appreciated hearing about your quiet time with the Lord, your sweet, childlike prayers as your petitioned our Father about keeping Ike should you & Bro. Herald come to fill our youth pastor & family position. I loved hearing that your oldest three have come to put their trust in Jesus Christ Who died on the cross and rose again so that sinners like me could be made right with Himself!
You are dear and I already love you! You come to fill a gap. I do not want to place expectations on you that you function, speak, act, etc., like our dear former youth pastor's wife. You are unique and precious and, with the Lord's help, I will grow to learn you and work with you and build you up and learn from you.
I am so thankful that the Lord saw fit to bring you to us and I have been praying that we would be mutual blessings the one to the other.
I bless His Name that He takes such great care of us as He sees right to take our other family for special service elsewhere and to bring you here for the special service He has for you in this place. I know that all things work together for His great purpose and I am super-excited to see what He will do in the days ahead!
Love to you both,
~"Trissy"
I woke up this morning with your "honey sticks" and hot tea on my mind. How hospitable you were to the lot of us on Sunday mornings who would file into your home, drink your hot beverages, and discuss the Word of God! I thought of those tall, Styrofoam cups of hot water steeping one of your gourmet tea bags and your generosity in letting us make ourselves at home in your kitchen, picking out a slender, plastic envelope of tantalizingly-diverse-colored honeys to empty into the hot liquid.
How well your kettle worked! Often I would sit holding my cup, glancing at it between comments around the circle, and watch the steam rise for almost half the class time, only to down the sufficiently-cooled drink as quickly as possible at class's end so as not to be late to church.
You mean so much to me. All those mornings spent pouring over the Scriptures as a class, all those weekdays learning from your skilled hands & knowledgeable words as you imparted to me the ability to play guitar, all those moments holding your babies or playing with them.
How I love you! How I miss you!
Today especially. As we moved in the next dear family it finally felt... final. They are here to fill the spot you and Bro. Nick left. They are the ones the Lord has brought us as He wisely and lovingly unfolded the next phase of His plan for you, moving you back to your familiar state, your familiar friends, your familiar family.
But, (may I say it?) I take a tearful joy in the fact that we had seemed to become your familiar place. We were your friends in place of those you had moved from. We became family when flesh and blood were so many miles away from you.
How I love you, my sister! My eyes are moist with the missing.
Yes, a new, wonderful family has arrived, but not to replace you. No, instead they come to be used by the Lord to lead us into a deeper relationship with Him, to teach us things we couldn't have learned from you, to grow and stretch us in ways in which you were not meant coach us. And His plan, (as hard as it is sometimes in living your absence), is delightful to me! For He devises with wisdom and I rest in Him with peace knowing that His plan for you is good, His plan for this church, this new family, and even me is good. He is our dear, loving Father and oh! how wonderful to know He keeps you (there where you are) & me (here where I am).
How I love you, my precious sister! Missing will one day be consumed (delightfully so!) in Heaven when we all get to be together with our Savior forever!
Dear Wynneth,
Hello, my new, dear friend! Your move today was filled with answers to prayers! Just having you in the neighborhood means our Gracious Lord did not overlook our plea for a youth pastor and his wife! How sweet our Savior is!
Added to that, His protection on the road as you were stalled at a wreck (I am so grateful that you were not part of it!), and His holding back the rain as your belongings were trekked inside your new residence. More blessings come to mind as I think, with humble thankfulness, that you and Bro. Herald were willing to accept the position that included such a small house.
How it blesses my heart to see your relationship with each other! Even though you were dog-tired, you both exhibited such a cheerfulness and respect & love for each other that blessed my heart!
Your five children delight me, even though I have only met three of them. I look forward, the Lord willing, to becoming very fine friends with them!
How sweet to hold little Ike, to look down into
his handsome, olive-skinned face, to relish his deep-brown eyes. He is a gift from our Father and I my heart bursts to see the love that our He has in placing outcasts into love-inspired families.
You've moved away from things dear and familiar, from places, from family, from friends. I hope that we can be to you new friends (not replacements), and additional family members to add to your "clan".
Your heart blesses mine. I appreciated hearing about your quiet time with the Lord, your sweet, childlike prayers as your petitioned our Father about keeping Ike should you & Bro. Herald come to fill our youth pastor & family position. I loved hearing that your oldest three have come to put their trust in Jesus Christ Who died on the cross and rose again so that sinners like me could be made right with Himself!
You are dear and I already love you! You come to fill a gap. I do not want to place expectations on you that you function, speak, act, etc., like our dear former youth pastor's wife. You are unique and precious and, with the Lord's help, I will grow to learn you and work with you and build you up and learn from you.
I am so thankful that the Lord saw fit to bring you to us and I have been praying that we would be mutual blessings the one to the other.
I bless His Name that He takes such great care of us as He sees right to take our other family for special service elsewhere and to bring you here for the special service He has for you in this place. I know that all things work together for His great purpose and I am super-excited to see what He will do in the days ahead!
Love to you both,
~"Trissy"
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