Saturday, July 20, 2019

One of These Babies Died Today





~~~~~~~

One of these babies died today.

We were having coffee this morning and heard one of the newly born fawns in our area crying out in desperation.  We dashed to the front window and across our yard runs the screaming baby followed by a large coyote.

My husband ran out yelling in his deepest and most threatening voice but by then they were dashing off into the woods.  By the time he could slip on some shoes the screaming had stopped.  We knew that could only mean one thing.  The fawn was no longer suffering.  

It broke our hearts.  It’s the reality of nature.

Then Steve began to talk about the anger that rises when something weak and helpless is victimized.  This is the wrath that God feels when his sheep, His precious ones, are torn apart by wolves.  How critical it is for the shepherds of a church to fiercely protect their flock.  But often we see shepherds ripping these “little ones” to shreds, feeding upon them.  It’s sickening.  And especially for my husband, it infuriates him.  And I happen to believe, with all my heart, there is a time and a place where that is a proper response; a righteous response.

Acts 20:28-29
Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock

Monday, December 9, 2013

THE MUSIC OF SALVATION - On how my guitar is like God's blessed gift of salvation.





          It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen and I knew if I could get my hands on it, I wouldn’t stop practicing until I could play it well.  My lucky big brother had gotten a new guitar for his 16th birthday and I wanted it – bad.  But of course, it was new and exciting to him too so he disappeared into his bedroom and played it for hours.  Sometimes I watched him and it didn’t seem that hard; push the strings down at one end and strum them on the other.  How tough could that be?

          Life went on and my brother got busy living the life of a popular high school age boy with friends and sports and cars – but his guitar stayed home – with ME.  With his permission, I could use it if I tuned it and put it back away when I was done.  And play it I did.

          When you’re learning to play the guitar it sounds absolutely horrible. It takes time for your fingertips to toughen up and until they do, it’s quite painful.  You have to develop strength in your hands to compress the strings so they ring clearly.  Until then they just produce a dull thud.

          From my brother’s birthday in September that year I played whenever I got the chance.  I played my fingertips off – literally.  I played until my fingers bled and then played more.

          When Christmas morning came that year, we all went out to see what Santa had left for us and I can remember like it was yesterday.  There was a beautiful black guitar case behind the tree with a bow and MY name on it!  I could hardly breathe as I opened it and inside was the most beautiful full size guitar I’d ever seen.  You could just have thrown away any other gifts that year because all I wanted to do was go to my room and play. I kissed my mom and dad profusely and at the first opportunity I found a place to bond with my new beauty.

          I played for anybody that asked.  I played and sang.  I wrote songs; funny songs, happy songs, sad songs, love songs.  Every emotion I felt, I expressed in my music.  And let’s face it; an 11 year-old’s musical pallet is not too sophisticated.  But it was all me.
 

          I was thinking today that the gift of salvation is a bit like that guitar.  The instrument called Salvation is in itself beautiful and it is given by God to us as a free gift.  The potential to enjoy it fully is all there but it must be pulled out of its case and carefully, systematically practiced.  It takes time, knowledge about how it’s supposed to be played, and joyful discipline as something crude and rough at the beginning slowly develops into what the instrument was designed to sound like.

          I have a friend who is a piano teacher and she says, “It’s not ‘Practice makes perfect.’ It’s “Perfect practice makes perfect.’”

          As we grow in love for and knowledge of our blessed Redeemer and we move forward in following His ways more truly each day, we begin to produce the lovely music God intended when he gave us the gift.  Often the process is painful and trying but the music is growing sweeter and more beautiful than we ever could have imagined!  Until one day, when the music that we sought to practice perfectly in our lives will indeed BE perfectly played with all the saints and angels in eternity!

 

          And what a day of rejoicing that will be!!

 


Sunday, August 18, 2013

PASSAGES - What comprises so much of our lives.


The older I get the more clear it becomes to me. 

 
Life is a series of passages – transitions from one era to the next. 

 
Some are anticipated with excitement and joy.  Others are a dark shadow on the horizon that we face with dread.  Most are something of a mix between the two.

 
Today I saw a picture of a friend embracing her son in front of the car that would take him away to college and away from the life they’ve shared together so joyfully for 18 years.  The very thing we raise our children to do – FLY.  And it’s so painful to Let. Them. Go.  But we know as moms that it’s not about me and my needs.  It’s about graciously navigating this new passage.



 
At our daughter’s wedding, I will always cherish watching my husband dance with his precious daughter, both of them sobbing with the understanding that it will never be like it was.  But this embarking upon the new life brought us our beloved son-in-law and three incredible grandchildren. 

 
Passages.

 
Birth.  Illness.  Graduations.  Marriage.  Parenting.  Departures.  Careers.  Aging.  Dying.

 
So Many Passages.

 
And God’s pathway through them all is not easy but is SO simple.  Fix Your Eyes on Jesus!

 



Because that one last passage; the one in which we are ushered into eternity, will bring to full fruition every dream, hope and joy we’ve longed for!

 
1 Peter 1:8-9

Though you have not seen HIM, you love HIM; and even though you do not see HIM now, you believe in HIM and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,  for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

ODE TO A HOUSEWIFE - A silly song of encouragement to mommies

When I was having our two kids in 1979 and 1980, it seemed like so few women had the opportunity to be home with their kids.  I appreciated that opportunity so much!  It was sort of lonely sometimes.  I wrote this as an encouragement to them.

Copy & Paste the following link into your search box:

https://vimeo.com/145313986

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Maddy on the Piano

 

Maddy playing the piano in her bedroom for Papa and I.  Pretty darn good if I do say so myself!! Click  on this link:    "https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=4190626337178"

Monday, March 18, 2013

NIKKI THE STUBBORN DOG - and a lesson she taught me.


 

      She was thin as a rail and as pitiful as could be.  She was a blue-tick hound that nobody wanted.  A guy that worked with my husband found her wandering in the mountains.  He guesstimated her to be about a year old.  When my husband saw the picture of her it broke his compassionate heart and he immediately responded by claiming her as our family dog and naming her Nikki.

   We got her home and her shortcomings became immediately apparent.  Because she’d gone without regular feedings she was voracious at her food bowl.  She jammed her face into the food and tossed it back into her throat with violent thrusts of her head.  She didn’t even bother chewing.  Her dog bowl was empty in a matter of seconds.  This behavior never altered for the 15 plus years we had her.

     She was every bit the hound-dog hunter, even in our back yard in the city.  She would lie patiently on the lawn as still as could be and waited for birds to land.  She silently watched as the birds pulled worms or seeds out of the grass and when they got close enough, she pounced.  More often than not, she got her bird and proudly hauled it into the house through her doggie-door.  Her hunting instincts were amazing.

     When we went camping, if she got off a leash or rope, she trailed off into the woods with her nose to the ground tracking whatever creature had left the scent.  I can’t even remember all the small critters she stalked and killed.

     Now you can’t really blame a dog for manifesting the very behaviors they were bred to perform, so all of this, while somewhat irritating, was not the main problem we had with Nikki.

     No, the biggest defect with this dog was her detachment from us.  We think that because she hadn’t really experienced human contact for the first year of her life, she really had no use for us.  She would do whatever tricks we trained her to do in order to get her precious food but other than that rarely came to sit by us or even acknowledge us until the last 5 years of her life.

     It’s wasn’t really a problem for us to have a dog that didn’t absolutely “adore” us.  The problem came that whenever we called her to come or when we gave her an order.  She didn’t even acknowledge any commands.  “Come,” “Sit,” “Roll-Over,” “Down.”  I swear if that dog could speak she would have been telling us to go fly a kite.

     One day we thought it would be fun to drive out to the desert and let her run free for a while to get some exercise.  We got out to the open wilderness, opened up the back of the truck and off she went.  We laughed at her ears flopping behind her and tail wagging as she went crazy with the freedom there.  Then her nose caught a scent and off she went tracking something with steely determination.  What focus!  What single-minded attention in following her own nose.  We marveled at how the happy dog became all business so instantly. 

     And then we noticed something else.  She was wandering - very far from us.  My husband called her, “Nikki.”  No response.  Maybe she couldn’t hear.  He whistled loudly and called her.  “Nikki!”  Nothing.  Now we could only see the tail over the top of the brush.  “Nikki Come!!”  He whistled and clapped his hands a few times.  We were both yelling, clapping, whistling and she was just getting smaller and smaller on the horizon.  He hollered to me, “Get in the truck!  We’ve gotta go get her!  Dumb Dog!!”

     I hopped in and off we went bumping and honking across the desert, tracking this stupid dog who was tracking some stupid animal.

   Anyway, we managed to track her down and get her into the truck but decided she couldn’t be trusted with freedom and needed to be on leash if we went out on adventures ever again.

     Because Nikki had never properly bonded to us, she felt no urgency to listen to our voices.   She had no sense of loyalty or appreciation for the ones who gave her a nice life.  In fact she really could have cared less what we were saying unless it was, “Time to feed the dog.”  Then she was right there to do our bidding.  Her hearing was just fine.  It was her LISTENING that was the problem.

 

     I have a listening problem and probably you do too.  It’s not that I can’t hear what God wants me to do, I just don’t listen to Him sometimes.  It’s that I hear it and keep doing what I want to do.  I hear Him say, “Give so-and-so a call to see how she’s doing.”  And I tell myself, “Let me just  finish what I’m doing and if I remember...”  And I never seem to have time later.   I may be having a conversation with my husband and I hear the Spirit say, “Finish listening and don’t speak words that will discourage him.” And then I say whatever I darn-well please, injuring my husband and our marriage.  I get a call from a believer asking me if I can help out with such and such at church.  Then I hear the Lord say, “Focus in on the few things I want you to do well.”  So I say to my friend who’s calling, “Sure I’ll do it since there’s nobody else to do it.”  And then I neglect the things I KNOW the Lord wants me to do.

     If I stay busy enough, I don’t have to listen when the Spirit speaks.  I can do what I want, when I want.  I’ll be so busy “serving” that people will think I’m awesome.  But I will have NO peace because I’m quenching and grieving the Spirit at every turn in my day-to-day life.  I become like Nikki.  I’ll do the tricks that are necessary to get what I want from God but I can continue along, defiant to God’s voice.  And you know the longer you refuse to listen, the farther you get from His voice; just like Nikki in the desert.  If you get far enough away, you don’t have to hear it anymore.

 

     So what’s the solution? 

 

1.     Be bonded to your Father in Heaven.  James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

2.     Listen when the Holy Spirit prompts you.  Jesus said in John 16:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

3.     Don’t quench the Spirit by refusing His direction in your daily life.  1 Thes. 5:19 Do not quench the Holy Spirit.

4.     Abide in Christ’s love.   John 15 says Abide in Me, and I in you.  And further down in the passage He explains, If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love…

5.     When you blow it (and you will) acknowledge and confess it to God and anyone you’ve sinned against.  Without confession, you will NEVER grow in hearing God’s direction in your life.  Psalms 51

  Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You.

6.     Moment by moment set your mind on things above.  Col. 3:1-3  If then you have been raised up with Christ keep on seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth.  For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

I HEAR HIS VOICE...

Tonight, I lay in bed and through the open window I begin to hear that magical sound that always thrills my soul.  The breeze is blowing through the tops of the pine trees and as millions of pine needles brush one against the other they make a whispering sound and emit a piny fragrance.  I inhale deeply and savor it. 

It is sweet and comforting.

And as the breeze turns into a wind it grows louder.  It's almost as if the mountains themselves are hissing along with the trees.  Now the tallest pines and oaks begin to creak as the tree-tops start to sway and bend.  I know that in the morning the weakest of the branches will have been naturally pruned and snapped off by the force and will lie on the ground.

It is powerful and exhilarating.

And now the sky begins to sprinkle down it's icy, life-giving bounty.  First rain and then hail and finally gentle flakes of soft downy snow.

It is magnificently beautiful.

And every nuance, every fragrance, every gentle or even alarming sound of this storm only leads me to ONE PLACE!
GOD!  His voice, His gentleness, His power, His grace!!

MY FATHER ABBA!

We filmed this video in the area around our home.  It is NOT professional but it demonstrates the bounty of God in His creation.  I set it to the song "The Voice of God" by 4 Him.  CLICK HERE