Nature

Get thee up into a high mountain…..

Or even one that is not so high, but high enough……

You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
Isaiah 40:9
There is something very good and healing about climbing a mountain, even a hill. You get a clearer perspective on things, you see things down below, sounds rise up as you climb higher, and you forget your problems for a bit, they tend to shrink while you are up there. Your eyes are on the trail. Where I live you have to watch for rattlesnakes sunning themselves on the rocks.  Believe me, my eyes were peeled yesterday. It was a gorgeous day in Arizona, the sun was shining brightly and there were many out enjoying the day and I was sure the snakes felt the same way……but there were none that I could see.
It was so what I needed. With my first step I felt lighter, with every step I felt my heart lighten, my spirits lift.
The Bible talks about going up to God’s holy mountain…..that captures my imagination because I love hiking. I grew up in California, hiking the Sierra Nevada in Yosemite.
The desert is a bit different, but the feeling I get is the same. Climbing for the joy of it, the view all along the way.
Channels of communication tend to open up……..You don’t have all the interruptions, the telephone, computer, chores, television….it’s just you and your companion and the sound of footfalls. You hear a birdcall you may not have heard before and you ask, “What was that?” In a few short moments you are reconnected with someone and something you have missed…..maybe without even realizing it. Conversation flows freely.
The time is precious and I feel I something has been redeemed……I have been redeemed.
Thank you God for reminding me again why I need to do this….
Here is Elaine on the trail……she insisted that i was trying to kill her for taking the Huff and Puff trail, yes, it is actually called that…..She thanked me later!
It was a very good day.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31
 
 
all photos taken from my iphone

And it was Very Good…….

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Genesis 1:31

I  like to think of that first day after creation, when God paused and called it very good. The Bible says He rested, but we all know that God neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4) so it wasn’t that He needed a rest. He did it for us. To show us the pattern we needed to live successfully on this earth. So today, I pause as the Trinity did on that day. I like to imagine that day and when I do, I imagine all three members of the Holy family in a circle with Adam and Eve, the animals looking on curiously from the fringe……

I imagine them dancing in the sunlight, and yes a bit of resting too, as they sat back to enjoy the fruits of their labor. That was the first Church service for Adam and Eve as they reveled in everything they saw around them. As they praised and thanked their Creators for giving them life, lavishing on them, loving them…….It was a perfect day.

So today, I pause and thank Him for all of the same. Bringing me to the end of yet another week in good health…..able to enjoy some time off and remember where all this comes from. To praise Him, to thank Him yet again. To remember that He could have created all this in a nanosecond, but instead He did it in seven days just for me and all of us. For us to remember that this day is different from all the rest……
 

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 2:1-3

photo credits: google images

Who is in the boat with you?

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Mark 4:35-41

They had already seen multitudes healed, and the command and depth of knowledge that Jesus had in the Scriptures, but was it possible that they weren’t really sure who Jesus was until He calmed that sea? Imagine being in that boat, small boat I should say, they didn’t have cruise ships back then, and being tossed by a violent storm. It must have been bad, for they feared for their lives. These were men who were used to being out in a boat. This had to be something like a Perfect Storm.

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

He wasn’t worried, he was fast asleep on a comfortable cushion no less……..He knew who He was. But when He calmed that raging sea, something clicked for the disciples. Nobody has that kind of power, that even nature itself obeys. But Jesus is the creator of everything, He created nature and everything in it, along with the Father and the Spirit. All three were present at creation.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness……” Genesis 1:26

I don’t blame the disciples for being afraid. I am always just a little uneasy in boats, I tend to get seasick. I have felt the panic, the clammy skin, the feeling you may have to head for the side of the boat…quick!

When storms rage in life, it is easy to forget who is sleeping in the boat with you. He taught the disciples a valuable lesson that day, and I don’t think they ever forgot it.

No matter what storms rage in your life today, remember He is in the boat with you. I pray calm and peaceful waters for you today, may you enjoy the view of the sunlight sparkling off the water, the warm breeze and the cry of the sea birds, the sun on your face, the lapping of the gentle waves against the side of your boat.

Let Heaven and Nature Sing…..

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth. Psalm 19:1-6
 
Many times I pray on the way to work, but this morning was different. I started out praying but as I prayed I felt like I had to lift my voice, so I did. I cried out for my family, my friends, and then I just lifted my voice in praise to the Lord…….Sometimes a quiet prayer just doesn’t get it. I had my own min-revival there in the car. I thought of all that this season means and all that God has done for me and my spirit collided with His Spirit in one voice……How many times do we raise our voices for other things, a shout-out at a sporting event, a “whoop-whoop” for everything under the sun these days. God deserves it more than anyone.
 
Our very creation does its own version of a shout-out if we open our eyes long enough to see it.
 
The animals cry and sing just for the joy of singing…….they sing their own praises to the Lord, for they know who created them!
 
Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth recieve her King,
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing!

Isaac Watts, 1719
A very Merry Christmas to all…..

God’s Blueprint

Eagles in falling snow, h.d. wallpapers

Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents.
It was loaned to you by your children.
Kenyan Proverb

“If you placed all the pieces of a watch into a shoebox and shook it for ten minutes, do you believe it would shake into a functioning watch? Of course not. What if you shook it for a year? Would a functioning watch then come out of the box? Say you were able to shake it for five billion years; would you then have a functioning watch? There is no possible way for that to happen. And if it couldn’t happen by chance to something relatively simple like a watch, it most certainly couldn’t happen by chance to our magnificently complex universe.” One Heartbeat Away, your journey into eternity by Mark Cahill

How did we get here?
What happens after we take that last breath?
What is the purpose of all this?

The Bible provides the answers and in his book, One Heartbeat Away, Mark Cahill lays it all out in a wonderfully systematic and logical way in light of what Scripture and our own universe actually tells us. Our Creator has left so many clues behind in nature itself; we have only to open our minds and hearts to see them. God has left us a blueprint to find Him in everything we see around us, and yet so many times we seek other explanations and alternatives that are grounded in theory and speculation, but not proof.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of this book…..

 “Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
and spread its wings toward the south?
 Does the eagle soar at your command
and build its nest on high?
 It dwells on a cliff and stays there at night;
a rocky crag is its stronghold.
 From there it looks for food;
its eyes detect it from afar.” GOD 
Job 39:26-29
 
Continuing the gratitude count today……..snow flakes gathered on pine branches, suns rays slanting through pines, more rain in the desert, exhilaration of the trail and the view from the top, crunch of frozen leaves underfoot, nature moments that catch your breath, jumping fish in a still lake, seeing so many bald eagles in Alaska I didn’t know where to aim the camera….. recognizing God’s footprints in everything I see, knowing that same God wants to know me…..#549-559

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Ask, seek, knock…..

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.
Corrie Ten Boom

He who hung the great lights and set all this in motion still has everything under control…….We get hung up on the hows and whys of everything, but there are some things we don’t need to know. Even if He did supply us with the specifics they would be way beyond our grasp anyway. We like to congratulate ourselves on our own intellegence, but our knowledge next to God’s is puny. We think we have everything figured out, but go outside and gaze at the harvest moon as it climbs into the sky and see if you still do……The only thing we need to know is the One who started all this. Once we know Him, the hows and whys don’t really matter anymore.

Ask……Seek…..Knock…..

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7,8

Get close to the One who breathed into you the breath of life and you will begin to live the way you were meant to all along……

Sing the song of the morning stars and be thankful this day that you are breathing air, that you get another day to live, and wake and work. Know that any problem you have can be worked out, worked through. Hope is there as long as you have breath, and there is always more than enough hope when we know the Hope-giver.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew {their} strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; {and} they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. C.S. Lewis

Rhythms of life…..

Greer, Arizona

Ah……Finally there is a chance to “feel” Fall. Crisp days and cold clear nights are something we wait for anxiously here in our part of Arizona. While most of the U.S. is dealing with their first snow storms and freezes, we are feeling like October in November. Finally I am getting in the mood for pumpkin pie and chili, and Christmas baking, and warm fires. It’s funny how even though you move away from a place, that place stays with you. I am remembering Northern California and stacking wood with my Dad and sitting on the floor cracking walnuts with my Mom, getting the worn flannel shirt out of the closet for the first time. Endless leaves in profusions of color, wet and soggy from the rain, sticking to everything they touched. Bach’s concerto number 3……which to me only and always means fall.

When I moved here I thought that maybe I would lose the rhythm of the seasons entirely. But I have been here for years, and I have noticed that a pattern of seasons all its own emerged anyway. Fall here means something a bit different than what I grew up with. It means sowing the winter rye if you have lawn, and buying flowers you can’t grow in summer…..There is a rhythm, really, to the whole universe wherever we are, we carry it with us. It’s a part of Gods grand design. There is a steadiness to dawn and dusk, summer and winter……reassurance that all will go on as it has before.

Since I started having a regular morning prayer time, I have noticed a pattern emerge within myself. It feels steady, and right…..it’s as if I am mirroring the bigger pattern that is happening all around me. It’s a way of setting things right in my own world, or rather, laying everything at God’s feet once again, my small offering of praise.


Tlaquepaque Chapel, Sedona Arizona

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Everything is a bright miracle


The footprints of God are everywhere about us. And while we can’t see Him, we can see His luminous trail like a bird that sings while hidden in a tree. As Middleton said, “The bird sings darkling.” We can’t see the bird, but we can hear her sing. God sings among His branches and sings in His universe. You and I cannot gaze upon Him, for no man can see God and  live. But we can hear Him sing His song of redemption. And we can feel the pressure of His breath upon us as we move through the world. We’ll never see things rightly till we see them as the garments of God. A.W. Tozer

Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen. Psalm 72:19

Photo credits: Google images

Slowing things down……

Our lives are frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify…..Henry David Thoreau

Where did October go? One of my favorite months of the year and it was gone before I could turn around. They have started the warmup and it is working it’s way to a fever pitch……It starts earlier and earlier each year. The advertisements pitching their stuff. Better stuff than last year, faster stuff, smarter stuff, more clever stuff, but stuff all the same. I have nothing against stuff, but it is the way they assault us with it that bothers me, and the fact that they use Christmas to do it. It makes me want to say……STOP! Even before it starts.

I am putting the breaks on right now. I will think, dream and pray about Advent and what it means. I will pretend I am in a cabin in the woods, alongside my stack of books and journal, watching multicolored leaves twirling outside the window. And hoping against hope for snow. Mentally I can do this. I will also not berate myself for being behind on Christmas baking. I will conciously make a decision to take pressure off, not put it on. I will look forward to the turkey and not get distracted by what comes after.

I will do some things for others…..Most of all I will enjoy these fleeting months, because they will never come again just this way. I will praise the Lord for all He has gotten us through this year, and know He will still be there at the beginning of the next.

I saw two shooting stars yesterday, ever seen two in one day?

I should finish “Radical” today so tomorrow or the next day I will post some concluding thoughts…..

The Wildness of God

“There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” John 1:6-9
There is an unsolicitious and ungenteel quality about the desert Christians that makes them especially attractive in our current climate of sentimentalized, “feel good” spirituality…….The desert, as a place where one expects nothing, becomes the source of the hauntingly unexpected: this unpredictability formed the robust spirituality of the desert monks.
Not surprisingly, their God was no different from their place. Theirs was not, as John Crowe Ransom once described, a “God without thunder,” having been thoroughly housebroken and made presentable to the cultural elite of the day. Their God remained mystery–feared certainly, and much loved, but never understood.  Belden C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes

Nature is wild and untamed……it mirrors something of God because we can’t control it. I think that is why we are so attracted to it. We must also realize that we need to have a bit of healthy respect for it as well. The desert I live in has been tamed, groomed to be fit for humans. We have lawns, watering systems, good roads, every convenience we could ever want. It resembles little of the barren and empty place it started out. And yet, just on the edge of where I live is a vast and lonely place where coyotes cry and desert critters thrive and survive….God has taught them how. He will speak to us in this place if we are quiet and still enough to listen. I have heard, when I get away from the freeway, the traffic, the noise that people make, when I close my eyes I can hear the voice of one crying in the wilderness carried across the desert winds…..

“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough places smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation.” Luke Chapter 3: 4-6

Continuing to count blessings today and show gratitude for all the ones who went before to show me God’s ways……Sunday school teachers who volunteered their time. People who took an interest and answered questions I had. Parents who showed me God through nature and through their lives, and through the Word. Friends who have prayed with me through the years. Countless Pastors, Pastor’s wives who have faithfully preached in season and out of season. Bible study leaders who open their homes and their hearts. The Holy Spirit, teacher of all truth. Bloggers who write what God has layed on their hearts to share. #517-526


“In God’s wildness lies the hope of the world.” John Muir

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