Patient in the waiting…..

James 5: Patience in Suffering……

Be patient then brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged, The Judge is standing at the door! Verses 7-9

Funny to think of a little babe in a manger as judge, but He is. Our righteous judge…..sometimes it seems that so many are getting away with so much. When I watch the news I get discouraged and think, like the Israelites of old……”How long O Lord?” I don’t know how He can sit one more minute and not come down and set things right. But I am glad He is patient, not willing any to perish. I am glad He is patient with me!

Short posts continue today, I am still home visiting and doing with family, yet a few moments at Panera are treasured. It is a good thing to be part of a community where I can sit and very likely see people I have not seen in many years….there is something reassuring about that….and very early this morning I was able to pray with my Dad, who was not sleeping. He is dealing with a bad shoulder, and many worries which are always magnified at night! I was able to say a prayer with him as he came to sit by the sofa bed where I was sleeping. He came in need of prayer and I was glad I was able to return the gift of his many prayers for me over the years…….He said he had a better outlook this morning. Thank you Lord!

Once again I thank and praise Him for coming to us in our deepest needs always…..

Lord Jesus, come Yourself and dwell with us, be human as we are, and overcome what overwhelms us. Come into the midst of my evil, come close to my unfaithfulness. Share my sin, which I cannot leave. Be My brother thou Holy God. Be my brother in the kingdom of evil and suffering and death, come with me in my death, come with me in my suffering, come with me as I struggle with evil. And make me holy and pure despite my sin and death. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Thank you Lord for gathering the fractured pieces of our lives and making us whole once again…..this is what Advent is all about. Amen

Advent…..Come Lord Jesus

When once again Christmas comes and we hear the familiar carols and sing the Christmas hymns, something happens to us, and a special kind of warmth slowly encircles us. The hardest heart is softened. We recall our own childhood. We feel again how we then felt, especially if we were separated from a mother. A kind of homesickness comes over us for past times, distant places, and yes, a blessing longing for a world without violence or hardness of heart. But there is something more–a longing for the safe lodging of the everlasting Father. And that leads our thoughts to the curse of homelessness which hangs heavily over the world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, December 2nd, 1928 Advent Sunday.

I thought it fitting to choose from these selections from “Christmas Sermons” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer since I don’t have much time to post. I stumbled across this book stuck in Dad’s overflowing bookshelf and thought, “What a neat little book!” Then I looked inside. Lo and behold it had my inscription on the front flap. “To Dad, Merry Christmas, 2005….Love, Lori” I had forgotten that it was from me! And now it has some of his notations and highlights. Those are always wonderful to find. I think of the time in the future when I will open it, and he won’t be here anymore. It is a reality that I must face, sooner rather than later, since he is now 83. At that time, painful as it will be, he will be celebrating a true Christmas for all eternity, waiting for me there. I can imagine him making me a bed by the fire as he did when I was growing up, getting it ready as he did for my little niece just last night.

That is what Christmas is truly about……because of Christmas we have a future in Heaven! That is our reality if we know Christ. Because of that we can join the angels in saying:

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14

December 1st has always been a special time for me. It is somehow different than November 30th. A different feeling stirs in my soul, a place of quiet rests within, amidst all the bustle and flow of everything going on…..I always want to drag my foot to slow things down, make it last….pull the oar backwards to stop the flow of whitewater that threatens, waits around the bend.

It will be over all too soon……slow down and make it last. But after all, every day is Advent to us. What a blessing to have such an unspeakable Gift……”And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9:14,15

A quiet knock…..

Every day, a quiet voice answers our cry , gently, persuasively, “I stand at the door and knock.”

Should we tremble at these words, this voice? The Spirit that we have called for, the Spirit that saves the world, is already here, at the door, knocking, patiently waiting for us to open the door. He has been there a long time and he has not gone away. His is a very quiet voice and few hear it. The cries of the marketplace and of those who sell shoddy goods are all too loud. But the knocking goes on, despite the noise, we hear it at last. What shall we do? Who is it? Are we afraid or impatient? Perhaps we feel a little fear, lest someone undesirable is at the door, dangerous or with malignant intent. Should we open? In all this fuss, the royal visitor stands patiently, unrecognized, waiting. He knocks again, quite softly. Can you hear Him?

Detrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas Sermons, December 2nd 1928

“I stand at the door and knock.” Revelation 3:20

For the first time this year, I got swept up in Black Friday mania. I didn’t actually go out to a store, I shopped online. I don’t really know what came over me. It swept over me like a fever. I felt myself carried along a swift tide and the waters went from calm and clear to white and churning. Part of it was because I had  a deadline. I knew I was going to head out of town and I had a list, you see……I wanted to make sure everything was done, checked off. All day I went back and forth, this site, that site, this item, that item……which was the right one, which was the better buy? Finally around 5:00 PM I made the final choice.

Click……done.

It wasn’t a peaceful day, my peace went somewhere and I missed it. I went out to my prayer shed for just a moment that evening to say a prayer of thanks for the day, for God’s mercy and His unending love and patience. Every day He knocks and waits for me……..For us. I am so glad He does.

Psalm 86:15

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.Psalm 86:15

Travelin……

I will be traveling today, driving one state over to see my family in California for a week. The road will look somewhat different than this, mostly desert until we get to the farmland of San Joaquin county……I will have a laptop and plan to spend some time in Panera Bread Company blogging and sipping coffee by the fire!

So, keep checking back in okay? Until then…..

The Lord bless you, and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”‘
So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I
shall bless them.” Numbers 6:22-27



Happy Thanksgiving to all…..

Psalm 100
A psalm of thanksgiving.
 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
 Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
go into his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and praise his name.
 For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
 
I loved this photo because I have a Mom and Dad who send me leaves in the mail……..A very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving to all, from my prayer closet to yours……
 
image from photobucket

Count it all joy……

God always answers prayer, sometimes the answer is silence……

Ever been in silence that seems so deep it almost has a volume all it’s own? A snowfall comes to mind, or standing in the woods in the hush of morning, just before dawn. Ever been in the middle of some task, and God drops one of those quiet thoughts into your mind? It comes unbidden and settles softly in the space of whatever you happen to be doing. Like a gentle snowflake that lands on your palm or tongue…..we can either recieve it or brush it away. You know it, it is that still small voice of the Lord.

I got one of those yesterday. It started with a crumpled napkin. I saw it and got a flicker of a thought, lighter than a feather it came. “I should save that,” I thought, as I collected it off the table……You see, when you have suffered a loss, a grief that is total and unexpected, you tend to think like that every now and then, even years later. It carves out a place, leaves a mark, changes you forever. It says, hang onto that because they might not come through the door ever again. Save that coffee cup because it was what they were using, and you may never see their face again. Not in this life anyway…..It says, keep that because she or he loved that, it was his, it was hers….A husband, a wife, a best friend, a parent, a child.

Loss carves a hole in you that you always seek to fill. But there is only One who can….

But here is what I realized yesterday, and not for the first time: I am thankful for what I have learned from my loss, because I cherish the people in my life more. I truly do know that it may be the last time I see them, this side of  Heaven anyway…….Grief teaches you to pay attention. To learn what makes the ones you love light up. Compliment them on big and small things……see what makes the life spring into their eyes and makes them walk a bit taller. Notice when they look down or troubled. Never hesitate to do these things, you will be so glad you did.

God can make something beautiful out of all our losses, whatever they may be, and once we have made it through we can be intruments of His comfort to others. In time we can rejoice. Hold fast to His hand and let him carry you into the daylight of His grace. I rejoice today because of all God has brought me through……It is Thanksgiving in the midst of everything! Or maybe in spite of everything.

I am filled with humble gratitude when I think of all the ways He has revealed Himself to me, I just can’t help wanting to share it…….”So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6,7

Photo of japanese maple leaf from birds and blooms dot com

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

holy experience

The view from the top

The climber climbs for the joy of it, and because he believes the view from the top will be worth it. We climb too, knowing the Keeper of our steps holds our feet fast; though we slip He keeps us from falling headlong. Though the climb is strenuous and sometimes difficult He surprises us with joys unspeakable on the journey at every turn and infuses us with the hope of victory at the top where He waits…… 
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Acts 17:24-27
There will be many people at malls in the coming weeks, and rushing too and fro on the freeways, working, eating, visiting, sleeping, and all the while there is a God who waits for them to look His way. He does not need us, but He wants us!
His heart aches for knowing that those who do know Him will not speak of Him often enough, though they know the wonderful truth, the wonderful story…….Lord, make Your Word sing in our hearts and make the melody so bright, so clear, so strong that we can no longer keep it in!

Propelled by the Spirit

“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” Romans 8:9-11

Yesterday I missed prayer time. Usually I start the day with a sentence prayer as I get up, and then I pray on the way to work during commute, and then sometimes I will say short prayers throughout the day, just talking to my Father about things, or at the very least, prayers of confession after I hurl bad thoughts at unsuspecting drivers who cut me off. But yesterday, I didn’t really have a conscious prayer time.

I missed it.

I read a very touching poem that stayed with me all afternoon. You can read it here

Still in reflection after the poem, I walked down to our cafe here at work. My thoughts were on hungry children as I walked past bins of fruit that we get here free for the taking. I envisioned myself handing every last one to little outstretched hands. I saw the beans that collect the excess drips from the Starbucks coffee carafes, and thought of parents who would give anything for those beans to feed their families. I saw the squash that we use as ornaments on the counters. Then I went outside and fed our stray cat, one of several that our company has adopted because people carelessly dump them off in the parking lot, or move and leave them behind…..Even the cat food has more nutrition than what some kids get in a week. I was mulling it all over…..why do we have so much and they so little?

I got home. I felt the Spirit leading me out to my little prayer shed but I really wasn’t in sync for it. I thought, “I usually don’t pray now, this is not what I do, I am a morning prayer person. Evenings are for catching the news of the day, maybe some computer time, dinner…..but the feeling wouldn’t go away. The Spirit said, go….

I went, I lit my 6 inch Christmas tree, (yes, already) and my lamp….I prayed, and I was blessed. I am so glad I did……I am glad I listened. My flesh was saying no, but the Spirit in me was saying, yes. The Spirit is always right…..thank you Lord, again.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

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