What Kind Of Blog Is This Anyway?

   Sometimes I wonder what is driving this blog. Is it the Scripture passage that I read, or is it the photography that I want to incorporate? Does it work together? Let's see.

   Last Thursday, I had a few minutes to kill before picking Mayre up, so I drove down to the Pier area with my camera in hand, just to look around. When I parked and looked there was this bench that seemed to be calling my name.

   Sitting down and looking around, I noticed this dead flower, intact, and sitting atop its stalk.

   As I thought about the flower, I noticed the comparison between it and the resurrection fern that had come to life on the live oak tree after a recent rain. That vibrant green coloring had been the same texture and color of the flower just a few days before that rainy bath.

   Looking further around the tree for more examples of the fern, I snapped this shot, but did not realize until I put it on the computer last night, that it was not fern at all but a new oak leaf sprouting out of the trunk. Neat!

   All of this was taking place in a radius of about 15 feet from my bench, but until I sat down and looked, I had not noticed. Good Stuff!

   Looming over all of this scene was my friendly light.

   There seems to be a message there also.

   Are there gems of life all around me, pictures that can be applied to my life, or life in general?

   Does this verse from Psalms 107 have any correlation?

"Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

   Can it work?

 

Safe in the Scenery?

   Sometimes I wake in the morning and sit down in the quiet to pray, read and meditate I find my mind focusing on things in my life. Situations that I woke up with that seem to call out for my attention, become the focal point for my prayer, and I look for guidance for that or those.

   When I sensed my mind going that way this morning, I prayed that God might give me some word from the Scripture reading that, while they might truly be the guidance I needed in those specific areas, would also be what God wanted me to see in these few minutes.

   The first Word from Psalm 69:

"Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,
O Lord God of hosts;
let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,
O God of Israel."

   These verses have long been a silent mantra for me. I have lived by them for years, because I have not wanted to be the reason for someone else being turned away from God, or put off from following Christ because of something in my life. There are too many admonitions to not being a stumbling block, but there is a draw back.

   There seems to be an easy way to keep from being this rock in the path and that would be to not do or say anything that might be taken the wrong way. In fact, it might be not to do anything at all. Just play it safe and melt into the landscape.

   Then there are the words of Jesus as recorded in Mark 8:

"For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

   There is a time to speak up and a time to act. Not saying anything, or doing anything, can be the very things warned against in the Psalm passage. I can be ashamed of Jesus and not say a word. I can bring dishonor to His Name, by not performing that act that He leads me into. I can be that detriment to another by just sitting and being silent.

   So, I breathe out another prayer, that I will not violate either Scripture, but, with God's guidance, will speak His words and act in accordance to His leading, not just be content to be safely a part of the scenery, no matter how pretty.

 

 

Music....Memories

   There was this verse from Psalm 100 in my reading this morning:

"Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!"

   If my memory serves me correctly, I remember this as one of my early memory verses from Sunday School way back in my early years (and that is "way" back). Every time I read it or hear it read, it takes me back. I can't help but think that God gives us memory to help us connect with those things in the past that He wants us to relate to.

   And the verse speaks of music, and music is one of those "memory sticks" that take us back.

   Just yesterday, our music worship leader at church posted on his Facebook page a query about a lady who had attended one of our Sunday morning services. She had heard a song that reminded her of a special Walk to Emmaus, one that brought back memories of a life changing time God had given her on her own Walk, 9 years before. In her email she had thanked the church for taking her back to that meaningful time. A sweet and powerful memory for her.

   I can relate to that. Familiar hymns and praise songs take me back to sweet times also. Music that resonates in the soul and that has the ability to stir hearts in worship.

   I can still remember the music leader in our Chattanooga church leading us in what was fondly called, this church's national anthem, Amazing Grace. With the congregation singing the first verse, the ladies the second, the swelling organ on the third and all the people, with gusto, singing the last, it was powerful and never failed to elicit goose bumps. It still does as I hear it in my mind.

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found.
'Twas blind, but now I see."

   Such music becomes so powerful in the singing, that it causes a lump in the throat, and, with that, an inability to get the words out of my mouth, simply because of how God has used that in my life. I just have to stand and mouth the words. My heart is too full to make any noise at all.

   Music, for me, like:

"Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and ture
With thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You"

and:

"How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure"

and from "way" back:

"Jesus loves me this I know 
For the Bible tells me so 
Little ones to him belong 
They are weak but he is strong" 

   My morning becomes one of worship even as I think about them again.

   Thank You, God....for memory

What Blessings Would I List?

   For several years now, my wife and I have supported a child in Kenya through the Compassion program. His name is Peter and he lives in Nairobi, the capital city.

   Yesterday, we got a letter from him. Correspondence from the kids is a big part of the program. I'm sure it keeps the donor interested in, not only the individual child, but also the mission in general, to hear from one's sponsored child is a reminder not to forget to send that monthly support.

   In his letter, Peter mentioned three things that he received at Christmas this past December. Looking at the things he listed, I wondered what any of my grandkids would have mentioned from their gifts, especially at 10 years of age.

  He says that he received a shirt and trousers from the Compassion center.

   He also says that his family received water filters , so now he can filter the water from the river and be able to drink it.

   I am sure that many other children his age, living in that same city, would be overjoyed to have received those same gifts. So many of them do not have Compassion sponsors, or families that can afford these gifts, and they get by with much less.

   All of this just reminds me of all the clothes hanging in my closet and tucked away in dresser drawers. It reminds me of the clean water that can be used straight from the faucet in the kitchen. Those things that I take for granted every day, he can't.

   Then a verse comes to mind: (Luke 12:48 NASB)

   " From everyone who has been given much, much will be required;"

   Then I think of how much good that small check each month means, and how little it costs me.

   My ratio of blessings in and blessings out is out of whack.

 

Because He Loves You

   Because He Loves You....this simple, yet complex, phrase surfaced in my mind this morning and refused to go away.

   It has been a morning of an early breakfast meeting, then a trip home to a quiet condo, to sit down and read and think and pray. That sounds like a recipe for a meaningful time, but, even though the setting was good, the mind refused to cooperate.

   My mind was in motion, wandering from one thing to another. It just would not be still. I read from one site, then another, and then yet another one, searching for that word from God that would be mine for this day.

   When I closed my eyes to think or to pray, sleep tended to creep in and destroy what little concentration I had. What did God want to tell me today. I had given Him the time and made a place for listening, but there did not seem to be any response on His side. It was not as though He was beholden to me to come and give me something, I knew that, but I still wanted to hear.

   As I wondered at my inability to "get with the program", those words above broke through, but what did they mean in this context?

   I tend to forget that, in the various struggles of life, God still wants me to know that He loves me.

   A simple song:

Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.

   Struggling is a part of life. Big or small they come, but just perhaps there is meaning in them, too. God can use them to remind me of what is important and encourage me to trust Him, not just in my time of weakness, but because of it.

   A simple message, I think not.

   Finally, the light comes.....

Wisely and Well

   Some verses from Psalm 90 this morning: (from The Message)

"We live for seventy years or so
    (with luck we might make it to eighty),"

"Oh! Teach us to live well!
    Teach us to live wisely and well!"

"And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
    confirming the work that we do.
    Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!"

   When I put these all together, my prayer is for guidance in the days that I might have left. Of course, none of us can know of the times that are allotted for us to be here, but especially, as I get up into the late 70s, I know I have much less time than I have ever had before. It is easy to look from the perspective of a man in his 20s and see the possibility of many years ahead, but not from where I stand.

   As I stand in the early morning dawn, I have to wonder how many sunrises do I have left.

   What are the things that I need to be about? Who is out there that I need to befriend or help in some way? How do I juggle the calls on my time to be the husband, father, friend, helper that God would affirm? How do I live "wisely and well"?

   We all want to hear "Well done, good and faithful servant" when we step across the threshold of death into a new life, but how do I get there?

   Sitting here, it is easy to ponder these questions and read those verses that sum up what I want to be like, but then comes the nitty gritty of the day, and the decisions as to how to spend my time are all around me. Then what? Will I remember the verses as well as I remember the sunrise?

   God, I ask that You guide me in "wisely and well" so that any work that I do be worthy of Your affirmation.

   Let me so live.....

God Singing, Over What?

   The other day my wife gave me a present. She called it an early birthday or father's day present, but whatever it was meant to be, it gave some meaning to my early morning time today.

   This was a book of birds and their various songs. It came with a CD of the actual sounds of a variety of winged creatures. While listening to it, and looking at the way those sounds were phonetically translated onto the written page, I thought, there is no way I could ever learn to distinguish them from each other, putting the right sound with its singer.

   As I walked this morning, some time before dawn, that is what I heard. Birds singing as the day was still new and unspoiled. Different songs coming from various places in the darkness, and I thought, "I really would like to know which ones are doing what". The air was full of God-created sound. Several times I had to stop and listen, to see if I could pick up all the variations of these songs of joy in my world.

   I had read several passages before I ventured out in the dark, but I could not see how these related to what I was experiencing. A refrain kept going through my mind, "He sings over me". From a song I had heard? I could not place it.

   As I googled this, all of the first hits led me to a verse in Zephaniah 3: (NIV)

"The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”
   As I kept reading what others said about this verse, I came across this comment to a blog post:

"The thought of God actually singing over me is so amazing and uplifting! When I take walks, I listen to the birds singing and know that they are the voice of God in song over me. Wow!"

   That seemed to fit what I had felt, but how did it apply to my life? What was in my life that was worth God singing over? Too many are my failings and sins.

   When I struggled to hear Him in His Word this morning, He gave me the songs in the trees. Maybe, just maybe, it was because I stopped to listen.

   And be grateful.

   Thanks