Make a Joyful Noise!

I was out of town on family business yesterday, thus no blog posting. Driving alone is a great time for thinking. I’m not one that requires something in the background making noise all the time; I’m quite content to have the time for retrospective reflection as well as thinking through how best to use my time in the upcoming holiday season.

Solo travel in your car is also a great time for exercising the rusty vocal chords singing along with the radio or CD. It’s cleansing to just belt out the songs with gusto, no concern what others may think; assuming you have the windows up. I made a round trip; I had time for both thinking and singing.

I have a quote on my screen saver that says “Worship is forgetting about what’s wrong with you and remembering what’s right about God” For me, that’s exactly what happens when I sing either praise or worship music. My world and worries melt away and the magnificence that is God becomes consuming. It’s like a shaft opens up and I can glimpse into the heavenlies. Thoughts and feelings bodily struggles bring fade as I open my heart, mind and spirit to seeking the Lord. An energy fills me where there was little to begin with. A sense of contented peace replaces earthly concerns.

An important note to make here is that I said this happens when I sing. Listening to praise and worship music is good, too, but it does not usher in the same depth of emotion and passion that using your own voice to honor and worship the Lord brings. It’s in the singing, the doing; giving yourself over to the worship that takes you to the place outside of yourself. It is in the surrender of YOU to the Lord that brings an authentic worship. Anyone can go through the motions but without the surrender of all of you; it is like a hollow shell, pretty on the outside but nothing on the inside.

Sadly, there are people in churches and choirs everywhere that practice that type of worship week after week. Some may say they don’t have a voice to sing. This is the voice God gave them; it will come as no surprise to Him and will sound sweet when used in genuine worship. Others are concerned about how they may look to those around them. Personally, I don’t care what my pew neighbors think of my singing; it’s not for or about them. I know there are people more reserved than I and this is not to disparage them, that’s just the point…it is not about them and when they let reservation dictate how they worship their Lord, they are making it more about their personal comfort level than they are about the one living God of all creation. They are worshipping to please themselves rather than making it all about pleasing God. There is no surrender of self when you place your inhibitions as boundaries around your worship. Think of King David, mighty warrior king of all Israel. David danced in his undergarments with joyful abandon and surrender as he ushered the Ark home. His wife disapproved and chastised him. God called David a man after his own heart; an important point made.

I’m not saying you should dance up the aisle of your church in your underwear…well, unless God tells you to…but I am saying that we need to make worship about God and not ourselves. Some people will go crazy watching a football game but clam up when it’s comes to praising God; their priorities are out of whack. The person standing next to you in church will not be standing next to you when you stand before God accounting for your life. Take a chance on some bondage breaking and belt out some praise and worship songs to the Lord. You might find a new spiritual freedom you didn’t know existed.

“Worship is forgetting about what’s wrong with you and remembering what’s right about God”

Child of My Child

Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the birth of my firstborn’s firstborn; child of my child, daughter of my daughter, Haylie Marie. I was blessed to be present at her birth and remember it as well as her mother’s birth. It was a day of joy and anticipation. An overwhelming emotion comes over you as you watch your child look into the face of her child for the first time. The miracle that we call life should not be taken for granted.

The magnitude of that wonderful event, as big as it was at the time, did not fully sink into my understanding until I was reading the Bible one day. I'll admit it was difficult to read about all that “begetting” going on throughout the pages of Biblical history. I would skim through quickly giving neither my attention nor the proper respect due to why it was important. To me, at the time, it was just something to get through. Then one day, early in my grandparent years, it hit me; I was a part of that begetting, had done some begetting of my own and now my children were begetting. This was my first authentic connection to the Old Testament. I felt for the first time a part of God’s Big Picture. I was a tiny piece of thread in the tapestry of eternity. Somewhere was a line from me to the man and woman God crafted and created with His own hands. I was family.

Sounds strange now to say I never felt connected to the Old Testament before that moment. In my Christian infancy I felt as if that part of the Bible was more for historical reference. All my life I believed the story of creation, Noah’s great ark adventure, Moses parting the waters and I was certain God lived in heaven. I expected to go there myself. The part of the Bible that applied to me, as far as my ignorance was concerned, was the New Testament. The rest was just a prelude of things to come. I was right and I was wrong. It was a prelude in that it came before what was written about Christ; but it was the foundation, on which the time of Christ’s life on earth was foretold; the roadmap from creation to redemption. It is very trunk of God’s family tree.

Today I will pick up my tenth grandchild, Madielynn Marie, for an overnight visit. We will watch her every move in amazement and wonder as parents and grandparents tend to do. My husband will comment about how much she looks like him and to prove it, he will refer to the picture of our son, her father, as a small boy. It is true, there is a strong family resemblance but it is the big picture of God’s family that we hope to pass on to our children and our children’s children for generations to come.

Happy Birthday, Haylie, my love. You are family and I thank God for you!

American Idol

1 John 5:21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

We are in a time when idols are alive and well. Biblical history and scripture tells of idols made from silver, gold, bronze or wood; crafted by hand yet worshipped as if real power lived within. Today, they drive expensive cars, live on the silver screen and in our homes via technology and reign on high as some sort of superior beings. Sadly, they have a sort of power that idols of old never possessed. They have the power of communication. This is far more dangerous. They reach far more people sitting on a couch during one interview on a talk show than ever heard Jesus preach in person. Sobering thought, isn’t it?

We have made demi-gods out of actors, musicians, politicians, athletes, and even people whose only claim to fame is that they have money they did not even earn, the rich and famous. We have also included some religious leaders. We elevate them above John Q. Public and watch their every move, hanging on their every word. Entire television shows and magazines are dedicated to reporting any and everything they can about these people. Since that is not often solicitous enough for the hungry smut appetites, they make up more enticing ‘news’ to report.

The dangerous thing is that we given great weight and import to the opinions of these man made idols. Generally, they are neither educated nor knowledgeable about the issues they are spouting off about more than John Q. Public but, because it is one of our idols, we hang on every word as if it were gospel and adopt it as our own because SURELY, if our idol has said it, thinks it, believes it, promotes it….it MUST be right. Oh my!

Part Two of the paragraph above is that some of these idols believe their own PR and feel they need to enlighten the rest of us. They abuse their access to exposure as a personal platform for their pet projects, political views and faith preferences. If Oprah endorses it, people line up to buy it. Willie Nelson has the voice of a toad but huge crowds will stand in the hot sun or pouring rain to see this drug fueled and law breaking performer …. paying big bucks to do so!

Idols made by American people, worshipped by American people, and in direct conflict with God’s holy word are ‘preaching’ on a regular basis. Our culture is not unique in this mentality, neither is it something new on the timeline of man; but because of technology and world wide communication, more and more people are influenced by them. Yet another case where the devil can sit back and watch man facilitate his own downfall!

The Bible very clearly admonishes us to stay away from idols and idolaters; yet we are creating idols out of people that simply chose a profession, in the case of actors, where they pretend to be what they are not; how ironic is that? Then we worship them; making idolaters of ourselves! 1 Corinthians 10:14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. Am I saying we should avoid movies and television? No. I AM saying we need to be diligent and pro-active when we see an attitude in our families where this mentality may be taking hold. We are to guard and hold ourselves, our children and other Christian believers to the standard and instructions of the Bible. This is God’s word, not merely suggestions.

If God does not hold one person above another, who are we then to create an idol from another human being?

What a Life!

It’s a chilly morning and still dark outside. I’m still sitting at the computer having spent time reading the Bible, looking up scripture and specific prayers concerning the needs of people I love that are going through a difficult time and struggle. I want to make sure I cover their specific needs in prayer.

When someone you love hurts and their life is out of whack you share their pain. Words never seem enough to calm a frantic or saddened heart. Loss comes in all shapes and sizes and is an equal opportunity heartache looking for a place to happen. Needs looms large in every life from time to time.

Then our little puppy, Pan Dulce, wakes and wants attention. First he runs around as fast as his little legs will let him, and then he comes to me hopping on his back legs, wanting my attention and in my lap. He is a long-haired Chihuahua though he still has puppy hair and is cold, shivering. I put on my robe, tying the belt tightly around me and slip that shaky little mass of energy between me and the robe. He snuggles in next to my chest like a baby kangaroo in his mother’s pouch. Soon the warmth of our bodies calms the shivering and he relaxes even more. His immediate needs are met. All is right in his world and he feels loved, comforted, and taken care of.

From time to time Pan Dulce will poke his head out of the top of the robe to see what is going on. Then, reassured, he snuggles back in. I can almost hear my husband saying, “¡Qué vida” which is Spanish for “What a life!”.

When we made the decision to bring Pan Dulce into our family, we knew we were taking on responsibility for his life and he would be dependent on us to meet his needs. Sometimes that means cleaning up his messes. We made the choice to love and protect him, regardless of circumstance, regardless of whether or not it was convenient. In return we receive his total unconditional love. He brings us joy on a daily basis.

God made that same decision about each of us. He made the choice to love and protect us. Just as Pan Dulce depends on us, we are completely dependent on God….whether we know it or not! When we realize that we can not make it on our on and allow God to be in control, it is HIS unconditional love that provides for our needs, cleans up our messes regardless of circumstance. We can climb up in the lap of the Lord and He will wrap is loving arms around us; warming us when we are cold, feeding us when we are hungry, comforting us when we feel the pain of loss.

Pan Dulce made his need for me obvious with his hopping up and down to get my attention. He wanted me, needed me and knew he could come to me. What message are you sending God today? Is it just as obvious that you want Him, need Him and know you can go to Him?

Could someone look at your life in the Lord and say, “¡Qué vida”?

A Rose By Any Other Name

Today’s title is part of a line from Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. The full line says, “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”

Today we can no longer say that. The high price of roses may get you a beautiful bouquet, squeals of delight when given as a gift and/or many brownie points from the receiver of said gift; but it will not buy the fragrant aroma of a rose from the time of Shakespeare.

Sadly, in man’s infinite wisdom (she wrote, tongue in cheek) we have taken a glorious creation of God and developed a product we consider ‘improved’. It will last longer after being cut, it can be showy on a long thorn-less stem, it can come in any color we choose, and it can come any time of year you choose. No longer bound by nature, man has altered God’s handiwork to suit his own preferences.

In doing so, we have lost the once heady aroma of a rose that was its unique fingerprint in nature. A rose no longer smells as sweet as a rose.

There are still sweet smelling roses to be found but you have to look hard to find them. You won’t find them in the cooler of a florist shop. You have to dig around and find a nursery source that may carry a variety or two among the multitude of the ‘improved’ versions. Why do you think it is so hard to find an authentic rose bush? Rose gardens once spilled their fragrant petals on pathways, trellises, up porch columns, over fences and onto anything strong enough to hold them up. Man decided this was too untidy. We needed something more manageable, something we could control more easily without all the effort of the now dubbed ‘old fashioned’ roses. We needed something we could market to the general populous as an easy to grow, accessible to buy and readily available for the top dollar holidays. We took God’s awesome rose and prostituted it right out of its aroma….but, golly; she looks pretty from a distance, doesn’t she?

Sad as this is, it is very common. Man has done the same thing in many areas, including many of our churches and faiths. If Jesus were to walk into a church today I wonder if He would even recognize what we call worship. Man has added and taken away so much of what is written in the Bible, I dare say we have gone the way of the rose in many cases. It may look like a church from a distance but does it give off the sweet aroma of knowledge of Him; that fragrant offering that is mentioned in the Bible? Have we picked the qualities we like and discarded the ones that make us feel uncomfortable? Have we changed the very color of faith to suit our particular desires? Have we taken the freedom of growth in Christ and made it neat and tidy so we can control it better?

Man made religions, like man made roses have lost their sweet smell; they do not carry the soothing aroma of Christ to man or heaven.
2 Corinthians 2:14-15 (New American Standard Bible) But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

I’ll take that messy, profuse, and sweet smelling old fashioned rose over the long stemmed any day. I’m holding tight to my old fashioned faith, too.

Lesson for Today

There is no wisdom in jumping ahead of God. His plan for us is far greater than anything we can come up with ourselves. Yet, when we function from a fleshly perspective rather than waiting on Him, we race ahead thinking we are really doing something. We could not be more wrong.

I dedicated the writing I do for this blog to the Lord. He gave me the ability to write, without that I could do nothing. I want to use the life lessons God teaches me to reach others. I’m confident that there are others out there that need to learn what ever lesson God shows me in my own life. So, I have determined to use this platform for His purposes.

Every writer wants people to read the words they labored to set in order. That is in part, why we write in the first place. I know I might be able to increase my readership if I wrote a secular blog. Sadly, there are far too many people out there that would not ever consider reading a blog labeled Christian, Devotional, or Faith. I currently have two blogs, I could make one secular and leave the other Christian based. I COULD, yes, but I won’t. I DID dedicate my efforts to the Lord and it would be total foolishness to go back on that. I believe the Lord will bring those He wants to my site and if only one person is touched and benefits from anything I write, then I will consider my efforts successful.

I try to wait on the Lord daily for what He would have me write. I rush to my computer early every morning, even while the coffee makes, in order to have His business be the first thing in my day. I read from the Bible to have His word be fresh in my mind. This morning while reading in Proverbs, I read a scripture I thought would be good for today’s writing. So I set about putting it together. I wrote a complete piece. I thought it was pretty good.

Here’s the thing, I came up with the idea; it was not the gentle nudge from the Lord I seek every morning. I knew this as I wrote it and I kept going regardless. As I finished the piece and moved into edit mode, I felt that familiar holy hand on my shoulder and the quiet voice in my spirit asking if I was ready to wait on Him now. I closed the piece and saved it in my Writing Projects folder in My Documents.

I still think it’s a good piece and one day the Lord may release me to use it. Till then, it will sit in that folder. I wish I could say that was an isolated incident and I’ve not done that before, but I can’t. More than once, I have written something the Lord has not released me to use and I’ve had to file it away. What you give to the Lord it is His; no longer yours to do with as you please. Yes, I could have mechanically moved it to my blog site anyway, there is that whole free will thing……but when you dedicate something to the Lord, there is no wisdom in taking it back when being faithful to your word is inconvenient. It was His all along anyway.

That, my Friends, is the lesson for today.

It's Alive!

We live on a hillside on the southeastern edge of the Hill Country in Texas. One word sums up our one acre yard…rocks. The dirt is shallow, porous and pretty good at growing native vegetation. No grass in my yard but if you’re looking for that sticky weed that sticks to shoelaces and socks, we’ve got ya covered! Our landscaping efforts do okay as long as we stick to the native plants and succulents. I happen to like them, so it is not all bad.

There is an area on the steeper downhill corner of our home where fill materials were boxed in with a retaining wall. It’s between 4 ½ - 5 feet deep. This would be an awesome place to grow something pretty if it had real dirt in it instead of the rocky hard packed mess it is. Thankfully, it is not readily visible. It has been the proverbial thorn in this gardener’s side!

I am determined that, one day; I will have usable dirt in which to plant something lovely in that corner. It became my mission. Can’t dig it out and start over because it is vital to the foundation of our home. No wisdom there. So, it must stay in place. Till then, it might as well be useful. I decided to make that my compost spot.

I cook with a lot fresh veggies, so I am contributing to the compost pile daily. It’s amazing to me the number of things you can compost, turning trash and waste into something good. It’s been a few years now of depositing veggie scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells and various other materials. It’s handy, out of sight and working toward a better end; all good things.

The other day I was out on the hillside deck enjoying a cup of coffee and our awesome view. I meandered to the side that looks over on the compost pile about 4 feet below. For a moment my eyes could not make sense of what they were seeing. It was as if the compost bed was alive! Movement, tiny slight movement everywhere created an optical illusion. Then my brain sorted it out and I realized the entire bed was covered in butterflies! They were making a meal stop on the smorgasbord that was my compost pile! It was beautiful. Such a God thing!

The Master Gardener takes the hard hearts of people and turns them into useful, good soil in which He can grow beauty, kindness and love. He takes the trash and gunk from our lives and works it all together for His greater purposes. I’ve witnessed that in my own life! Others benefit from this miraculous change and the cycle of seed time and harvest continues to produce in the lives of His people.

The butterflies certainly looked as if they were delighted about the food source they found. My family has reaped rewards as well. We were shocked and excited to find an abundance of cherry tomatoes vines cascading down the side of the retaining wall a couple of years ago. Not only were they beautiful but loaded with delicious tomatoes. At this moment in time, late October, we have at least six tomato plants thriving and a vine, possibly squash or cantaloupe springing up. It’s too early to tell what it is but the testimony of the fact it even exists is remarkable. We’ll just keep doing our part and see what God has in store for us.