A birthday blessing -- faith!

Thank you, Amber! You blessed me so much with your special card... and I love the faith remembrance! I now have one on my office desk and at home, thanks to you! :-)

And, a very special thank you to each one of you who made the huge surprise party a success. You could have knocked me over w. a feather! You pulled it off... and Joyce with the veggie cake! Oh my goodness: who would've thunk it? And the cake w. my picture on it... a work of art! I never would have imagined such works of art, and each card and gift were simply perfect. THANK YOU, all!

I love you all, and bless you! :-)

The goodness of the Lord in the land of the living

O tarry and await the Lord’s pleasure

Psalm 27 selection

You speak in my heart and say, ‘Seek my face.’
Your face, Lord, will I seek.
Hide not your face from me,
nor turn away your servant in displeasure.
You have been my helper;
cast me not away;
do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.
Though my father and my mother forsake me,
the Lord will sustain me.
Show me your way, O Lord;
lead me on a level path, because of my enemies.
Deliver me not into the hand of my adversaries,
for false witnesses have risen up against me,
and also those who speak malice.
What if I had not believed
that I should see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
O tarry and await the Lord’s pleasure;
be strong and he shall comfort your heart;
wait patiently for the Lord.

Selah.

The owning of wings

Be Like the Bird

Victor Hugo

Be like the bird
That, pausing in her flight,
While on boughs too slight
Feels them give way beneath her
And yet sings,
Knowing she hath wings.

Selah.

Faith at the edge of a cliff

Hope. Trust!

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? — He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. — My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

If God is for us, who can be against us? — The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? — Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. — We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

“Arise and work! The Lord be with you!”

Ps. 27:1; Isa. 40:29-31; Ps. 73:26; Rom. 8:31; Ps. 118:6; Ps. 44:5; Rom. 8:37; 1 Chron. 22:16

A song of the Rock

A song of the Rock

Deuteronomy 32:1-12

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
May my teaching drop as the rain,
my speech distill as the dew,
as the gentle rain on the grass,
and as the showers upon the meadow.
For I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
Ascribe greatness to our God!
The Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are just:
a faithful God without deceit, just and upright is He.
His degenerate children have dealt corruptly with Him;
a perverse and crooked generation.
Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people?
Is not He your father, who created you,
who made you and established you?
Remember the days of old, consider the years long past;
ask your father, and he will show you;
your elders, and they will tell you.
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when He divided the children of earth,
He fixed the bounds of the peoples
according to the number of the children of God.
For the Lord's own portion is His people,
Jacob His allotted heritage.
He sustained him in a desert land,
in the howling waste of the wilderness;
He shielded him and cared for him;
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young,
spreading out its wings, takes them,
and bears them aloft on its pinions,
So the Lord alone did guide him,
and no foreign god was with him.

Selah.

Silence: A rest in eternity to impact time

Excerpt: The Parable of the Seed Growing Silently

Because Jesus knows that he must serve his neighbor (literally, those nearest here and now) he can confidently leave to his Father the things farthest away, the great perspectives. By being obedient in his little corner of the highly provincial precincts of Nazareth and Bethlehem he allows himself to be fitted into a great mosaic whose master is God. And that's why he has time for persons; for all time is in the hands of his Father. And that too is why peace and not unrest goes out from him. For God's faithfulness already spans the world like a rainbow: he does not need to build it; he needs only to walk beneath it.

So, because Jesus knows which way the switches are set, because he knows what the outcome of growth and harvest will be, the words he speaks are not prepared, tactical propaganda speeches. The propaganda of men, even when it masquerades as a kind of evangelism and becomes an enterprise of the church, is always based on the accursed notion that success and failure, fruit and harvest are dependent upon our human activity, upon our imagination, energy, and intelligence. Therefore the church too must guard against becoming merely a busy enterprise and pastors must beware of becoming religious administrators devoid of power and dried up as far as spiritual substance is concerned.

Jesus is not a propagandist. And there is one fact which shows that he is not, and that is that for him speaking to his Father in prayer is more important than speaking to men, no matter how great the crowds that gather around him. Just when you think that now he must seize the opportunity, now surely he must strike while the masses are hot and mold them to his purpose, he "passes through the midst of them" and withdraws into the silence of communion with the Father.

Why was it that he spoke with authority, as the scribes and Pharisees did not? Because he was rhetorically gifted, because he was dynamic? No; he spoke with such power because he had first spoken with the Father, because always he came out of silence. He rested in eternity and therefore broke into time with such power. That's why he is so disturbing to time. He lived in communion with God; that's why his speech to men becomes an event of judgment and grace which none can escape.

Jesus' powerful speech derives from the power of his prayer life, and the very reason why he can afford to pray so diligently and give the best hours of the day to this communion with the Father is that he knows that while he rests in eternity it is not that nothing is happening but that in doing this he is rather giving place to God's Spirit, that then God is working and the seed is growing. Woe to the nervous activity of those of little faith! Woe to the anxiousness and busyness of those who do not pray!

Luther once said, "While I drink my little glass of Wittenberg beer the gospel runs its course." That is truly the finest and most comforting thing I have ever heard said about beer. The conversion of a man is not something that can be "produced." The new life comes into being only by letting God work. Therefore, Luther can cheerfully and trustfully step down from the pulpit; he doesn't need to go on incessantly crying, shouting, and roaring around the country. He can quietly drink his little glass of Wittenberg beer and trust in God. The Lord "gives to his beloved in sleep." In most cases today we do not sin by being undutiful and doing too little work. On the contrary, we ought to ask ourselves whether we are still capable of being idle in God's name. Take my word for it, you can really serve and worship God simply by lying flat on your back for once and getting away from this everlasting pushing and producing.

Selah.

Helmut Theilicke, "The Parable of the Seed Growing Silently," The Waiting Father: Sermons on the Parables of Jesus, translated by John W. Doberstein (Harper & Row, ©1957)

You alone

That I may love... for you alone

Give me the strength that waits upon You in silence and peace. Give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest of burdens. And possess my whole heart and soul with the simplicity of love. Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love, that I may love not for the sake of merit, not for the sake of perfection, not for the sake of virtue, not for the sake of sanctity, but for You alone.

Selah.

Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation

Sabbath as a revealer of idolatry

The four alternatives to worshiping God

What are the alternatives to worshiping God? There are four, according to the commandments. One is to worship a different God. This is given no elaboration, because it needs none: God has brought Israel out of slavery. What use would Israel have for any other god? A second is to make an idol. This is to worship something smaller than God, something God has made. It is to confuse the creation with the creator, to serve that which cannot liberate -- in other words, to return to slavery. A third is to trivialize God by forgetting that his name is holy, by using his name to advance our own purposes rather than his. If we frequently call on him when we don’t want him, we must accept that he won’t be there to answer when we really do.

The fourth is to make gods of ourselves. This is the underlying warning of the commandments concerning the sabbath and parents. Temptations to break the sabbath are understandable: we are needed, we are vital, we have made commitments and need this extra time to fulfill them, we don’t want to let people down, there is so much good that can be done. The temptation to break the sabbath is the temptation to do extra good. Why is extra good necessary? Because salvation is just out of reach and we are striving for it? Because we are surrounded by suffering and evil, and God can’t or won’t intervene, so we must? The sabbath is a great test of our faith in God. If we look to him, he will look after what he has given to us.

Selah.

David F. Wells, "God Spoke These Words," Christian Century

Action in waiting: Arise, and meet the day

Renewal: Living ready for disaster or glory

There are many things that threaten us. Even if war does not break out, millions of people lose their lives all over the world through all kinds of trials: storms, landslides, explosions, earthquakes, epidemics, all kinds of accidents. At the same time there is an enormous amount of sickness of body and soul. How much sighing there still is in hospitals, how much misery in the mental institutions. And how many are being killed, some slowly, through envy, through hatred, through maliciousness of people towards each other. Just think of all the people murdered in one year. It doesn’t even take guns; people are perishing anyway.

Every family must be prepared for something to happen suddenly that will disturb its peace. Then we have to believe and pray that the judgments may be turned away. If God keeps his word, we can stand up against anything, especially if we ourselves are already living in what is new (1 John 5:3–5). Arise and go to meet what is new. Pray for it. Beg for it. The whole world will yet be renewed through the almighty power of God.

Christoph Blumhardt, Action in Waiting

Selah.

Faith: Wonder in the now

We shall be circled over at length

We shall be circled over at length
by a remoter sky,
and flung into a starrier space
more deep, more high.

Some day the little mind of man
will crack and spin
to let the chattering years fly out,
forever in.

The sea will be more brief to us
than jewel of rain;
and what now stuns us with its might,
beauty or pain,

will be as faint as cheep of mouse
or swing of flower
under the gusty wing of heaven;
and what seems power

will drop away and pale to dust
held in the palm;
and what seems passion now will sink
to leveled calm.

Therefore be quiet with your breath,
all little men,
and hold some wonder, in the Now
for the great Then.

Selah.

Jane Tyson Clement, No One Can Stem the Tide

Tell her that her sins I cover

Comfort, comfort ye my people

Words: Johann G. Olearius, 1671; trans. Catherine Winkworth, 1863
Music: Psalm 42

Comfort, comfort ye my people,
speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
comfort those who sit in darkness,
mourning 'neath their sorrow's load;
speak ye to Jerusalem
of the peace that waits for them;
tell her that her sins I cover,
and her warfare now is over.

For the herald's voice is crying
in the desert far and near,
bidding all men to repentance,
since the kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way!
Let the valleys rise to meet him,
and the hills bow down to greet him.

Make ye straight what long was crooked,
make the rougher places plain:
let your hearts be true and humble,
as befits his holy reign,
For the glory of the Lord
now o'er the earth is shed abroad,
and all flesh shall see the token
that his word is never broken.

Alleluia!

Selah.

Thanksgiving gold: All which God doth touch and own

Teach me, my God and King

Words: George Herbert, 1633
Music: Carlisle

Teach me, my God and King,
in all things thee to see,
and what I do in anything
to do it as for thee.

A man that looks on glass,
on it may stay his eye;
or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
and then the heaven espy.

All may of thee partake;
nothing can be so mean,
which with this tincture, "for thy sake,"
will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause
makes drudgery divine:
who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
makes that and the action fine.

This is the famous stone
that turneth all to gold;
for that which God doth touch and own
cannot for less be told.

Selah.

Lord, you have loved me first

My Lord, I did not choose you

Josiah Conder (1789-1855)

My Lord, I did not choose you,
for that could never be;
my heart would still refuse you
had you not chosen me.
You took the sin that stained me,
you cleansed me, made me new;
for you, Lord, had ordained me
that I should live in you.

Unless your grace had called me
and taught my opening mind,
the world would have enthralled me,
to heavenly glories blind.
My heart knows none above you;
for you I long, I thirst,
and know that, if I love you,
Lord, you have loved me first.

Alleluia!

Selah.

A word for the day: Chased by blessings

These blessings shall overtake you

Deuteronomy 28:1-14

If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God:

• Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
• Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.
• Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-bowl.
• Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns, and in all that you undertake; he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you. The Lord will open for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. The Lord will make you the head, and not the tail; you shall be only at the top, and not at the bottom if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, by diligently observing them, and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you today, either to the right or to the left, following other gods to serve them.

Selah.

An image of divine dance

Here the language of blessing is rare and fascinating: "These blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God." The imagery is of blessings as a pursuing host, a great company of goodness that flows around us like the wind and falls upon us, overtaking us like the dawn overtakes the night, and suddenly, there is light!

The imagery is almost as if the default state of humans is to flee divine blessing: it is as if in our own selves we run away from the place of divine blessing; and yet, as we turn to obey our God, suddenly, and overwhelmingly, the blessings overtake us and fall upon us, and we are whole.

There is a divine principle here: obedience, fear of the Lord, refusal of idols... this is the path where blessings overtake us and fall like rain upon parched soil, bringing forth the harvest of righteousness!

Alleluia!

Selah.

Mission India: the message of persecution

The message of persecution is stop

From Mission India:

Today, believers in India — and around the world — daily face the threat of being arrested, rejected by family and friends, and even killed. They are told to stop preaching the name of Jesus.

In Orissa, India, the message of "stop" is ringing out. Thousands have been left homeless. Hundreds of churches and homes have been burned to the ground. The government is doing little to stop the suffering.

Christians in Orissa have lost everything — except their faith.

All they have to do is stop believing, stop reading Bible verses, stop meeting together for worship, stop teaching, stop witnessing to what Christ has done — if they stop that, they won't be killed or persecuted.

Visit Mission India and read more...

God bless you!

Note: Also stop by Hopegivers and find out how you can make a difference today.

A word for the day: God our refuge

A prayer of Moses, the man of God

Psalm 90

Lord, you have been our refuge
from one generation to another.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or the land and the earth were born,
from age to age you are God.
You turn us back to the dust and say,
'Go back, O child of earth.'
For a thousand years in your sight
are like yesterday when it is past
and like a watch in the night.
You sweep us away like a dream;
we fade away suddenly like the grass.
In the morning it is green and flourishes;
in the evening it is dried up and withered.
For we consume away in your displeasure;
we are afraid because of your wrathful indignation.
Our iniquities you have set before you,
and our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
When you are angry, all our days are gone;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
The span of our life is seventy years,
perhaps in strength even eighty;
yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow,
for they pass away quickly and we are gone.
Who regards the power of your wrath?
who rightly fears your indignation?
So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
Return, O Lord; how long will you tarry?
be gracious to your servants.
Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning;
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
Make us glad by the measure of the days
that you afflicted us
and the years in which we suffered adversity.
Show your servants your works
and your splendor to their children.
May the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us;
prosper the work of our hands;
prosper our handiwork.

Alleluia!

Selah.

God is working out His purpose

God is working His purpose out

Words: Arthur Campbell Aigner, 1894
Tune: Purpose

God is working His purpose out
as year succeeds to year:
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

From utmost east to utmost west,
wherever foot hath trod,
by the mouth of many messengers
goes forth the voice of God;
give ear to me, ye continents,
ye isles, give ear to me,
that earth may filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

What can we do to work God's work,
to prosper and increase
the brotherhood of all mankind--
the reign of the Prince of Peace?
What can we do to hasten the time--
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

March we forth in the strength of God,
with the banner of Christ unfurled,
that the light of the glorious gospel of truth
may shine throughout the world:
fight we the fight with sorrow and sin
to set their captives free,
that earth may filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

All we can do is nothing worth
unless God blessed the deed;
vainly we hope for the harvest-tide
till God gives life to the seed;
yet nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

Selah.

A word for the day: As the deer, so my soul

As the deer longs for the water-brooks...

Psalm 42

As the deer longs for the water-brooks,

so longs my soul for you, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;

when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

My tears have been my food day and night,

while all day long they say to me,

'Where now is your God?'

I pour out my soul when I think on these things:

how I went with the multitude

and led them into the house of God,

With the voice of praise and thanksgiving,

among those who keep holy-day.

Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?

and why are you so disquieted within me?

Put your trust in God;

for I will yet give thanks to him,

who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

My soul is heavy within me;

therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,

and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.

One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts;

all your rapids and floods have gone over me.

The Lord grants his loving-kindness in the daytime;

in the night season his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

I will say to the God of my strength,

'Why have you forgotten me?

and why do I go so heavily

while the enemy oppresses me?'

While my bones are being broken,

my enemies mock me to my face;

All day long they mock me

say to me, 'Where now is your God?'

Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?

and why are you so disquieted within me?

Put your trust in God;

for I will yet give thanks to him,

who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Selah.

Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace

Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace

Words: William Henry Burleigh, 1868
Music: Song 22

Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace;
without thy guiding hand we go astray,
and doubts appall, and sorrows still increase;
lead us through Christ, the true and living Way.

Lead us, O Father, in the paths of truth;
unhelped by thee, in error's maze we grope,
while passion strains, and folly dims our youth,
and age comes on, uncheered by faith and hope.

Lead us, O Father, in the paths of right;
blindly we stumble when we walk alone,
involved in shadows of a darksome night;
only with thee we journey safely on.

Lead us, O Father, to thy heavenly rest,
however rough and steep the pathway be;
through joy or sorrow, as thou deemest best,
until our lives are perfected in thee.

Selah.

The fairest flowers: the noblest psalms

The fairest Alpine flowers bloom in the wildest and most rugged mountain passes -- the noblest psalms were the outcome of the profoundest agony of soul. And souls which love God will find reasons for bounding, leaping joy. Not simply to endure God's will, nor only to choose it; but to rejoice in it with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Selah.

Note: A quote shared by George Hosier. Thanks, George!