The Water of Life

 

     These beautiful pink hydrangea flowers have brought me much joy during their short life.  For a month, they stood straight and tall with these lush blossoms proclaiming the glory of God.  Even their crisp bright green leaves are pretty!

     As the weather turned warmer and the flowers began fading, one day the leaves hung limp and the flower head lay to the side.  They looked pitiful!  I realized that they were in dire need of life-giving water and so I filled the watering can and gave the plant a nice, long drink.

     Within hours, the faded blossom heads had righted themselves and once again stood up tall - and even looked brighter.  The limp leaves perked up too and seemed to rejoice at their renewal.  It was an amazing transformation.

     Nature offers so many spiritual messages and this one is no exception.  I'm reminded of Psalm 63:1, where David says, "O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water." 

      We all need water to live and without it, we grow weak and limp like my poor flower.  The prophet Isaiah wrote, "Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation," 12:3.

       Water is life.  Jesus offers us just such water.  He says to us, "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life," John 4:14.

     God tells us in Isaiah 44:3, "For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring."

      This verse compares life-giving water with the life-giving Holy Spirit in a way that we can see how vital each are to a healthy life.  Without God's Holy Spirit working in and through us, we will be weak and limp - we will be sad.  We need to drink in the Word of God each day so that we will be spiritually hydrated.  We all want our lives to be as beautiful before the Lord as the wonderful blue and lavender hydrangeas in the picture above.  We need to stay close to the One who gives us strength, purpose and peace.  

       Let's stay fresh in our walk with the Lord each day - inspired by these crisp green leaves and radiant pink flower as it stands upright before its Creator.

       Let's say, with David, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.  He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake..." Psalm 23:1-3.

The Genealogy of Jesus

 

   As I studied the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:1-17 and in Luke 3:23-38, I tried to understand what the differences in ancestery might mean.  From Adam to David, the ancestors are, of course, the same, but after that we see a list of different names.  As I thought about it, I wondered if God might be showing us that our legal lineage is more important than our physical lineage?

    

    When we look at Jesus' legal lineage through his step-father Joseph, we see a long list of kings that came after David.  This added to Jesus' right to be King.  Not only that, but the gospel of Matthew is considered to be the book that proclaims Jesus as King, the Lion of Judah.

    Then, we have the list of ancestors in Luke, which is the line of Mary, the mother of Jesus and therefore His physical line.  There are no kings after David, just ordinary men, yet even so, King David as ancestor in Mary's line also gives Jesus the right to the throne of His "father David."  Also relevant is that the gospel of Luke is considered the story of Jesus as a Man.

    It's mind-boggling to realize that God had Mary and Joseph's family trees worked out even before He created the first person Adam!  Through each generation, God knew and controlled the gene pool being handed down until He revealed His choice of Mary to be the physical vessel to be the link between humankind and Heaven.

    It's a mystery, a wonder, a miracle and an act of the most amazing grace!

    At first, I thought surely Jesus' lineage through Mary whose physical gene pool He shared was the more important.  But then, I began thinking of the importance of a legal lineage.  When a person is adopted into a family, that person becomes a legal part of that family, sharing in the inheritance and all the aspects of what it means to be part of that family - as if he were born into that family.

    I began to think of the spiritual aspects of a physical versus legal lineage.  Physically, we are descended from Adam - a natural man - which means we were born a sinful human (not Jesus, of course, who was perfect).  But then, when we were born again as a Believer in Jesus Christ, we became a child of God, adopted into His family.  We are legally a child of God through the price that Jesus paid to cleanse us from our sin.  

    "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," John 1:12-13.

     And so, for us, our legal lineage is by far the more important.  As far as the importance of the physical versus legal lineage of Jesus, I shall leave that up to Almighty God to determine.  I'm just so thankful that He came, that He loved us enough to die for us, that He rose again, and will soon come back to bring us to Himself.  And so shall we ever be - with the Lord.

    

Time

     I'm fascinated by the concept of Time.  From the moment of our conception until we draw our last breath, we are bound by Time.  Our very heartbeat is measured by Time.  A normal heartbeat is 60 to 100 beats per minute, known as "bpm."

    We have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24-hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 56 weeks in a year.  Our lives revolve around a ticking clock.  

     The antique clock pictured above is literally a ticking clock (I purchased it from an uncle in NC many decades ago).  The pendulum on this clock swings back and forth to mark each second of time.  The swing movement causes a definite "ticking" sound that is a constant reminder that time is passing.

    Sit in a quiet room with such a clock and the constant tick-tock quickly becomes very noticeable.  However, after you've lived with such a clock for a while, you no longer hear the ticking sound as it becomes a background noise your brain dismisses.

     

     Although our every heartbeat is bound by Time, such a concept is so deeply engrained into our very existence that we dismiss the sound and walk through life with little thought to the passing of Time.  I was struck by this thought when I recently heard the song, What are We Waiting For? by King and Country, and the line:  "Why are we wasting all the time like someone's making more?"

    I thought, "Wow!"  We all waste time -- time that is then quickly in the past and no longer usable for us; it's gone, never to be available again.  No one is making more time for us.  That's why the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time..." 5:15-16.

    When God created the world, He also created Time.  God has always lived outside the boundary of Time.  Before the earth was created, there was no such thing as Time, and once the earth is re-formed by God for His kingdom in the future, Time will once again cease to exist and Forever will begin for us.  Our finite, Time-bound minds cannot comprehend such a life.  But, that's okay.  God is the One in control of all that stuff and we can trust Him to bring it all to a satisfactory completion.  One of the things you can count on is that God always has a plan and a purpose for everything.

    So, what should our attitude toward Time be?  We need to ask God to, "teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom," Psalm 90:12.  And the way we can do that is to follow the words of Jesus:  "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you," Matthew 6:33.

    When we seek God's Time management in our lives, we will have time enough and when our Time on earth is up, we can say with Jesus, "I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work which You have given Me to do," John 17:4.

    I love the Latin phrase, carpe diem - seize the day!

    

Beauty and Heaven

    A carpet of pink cherry blossoms spread across my daughter Sara's deck and transformed it into a magically beautiful scene that brings a smile to my face each time I see it!  Only God could scatter the blossoms from that tree in such a delightful pattern.  Two days before Sara took that picture, I'd been visiting her and found a small area of pink blossoms on the deck.  I thought they were so pretty, I took a picture of my feet on that spot:

     Even though I was so happy to find this little area of fallen blossoms, it was quite small in comparison to the amazing show God created two days later.  

     This reminds me of the glimpses of beauty God offers to us on this sinful earth.  While evil prevails on so much of the earth, there are still bright spots of beauty and goodness.  There are still spots where we can stand on dainty pink cherry blossoms and delight in their beauty.  We can gaze up at an amazing deep blue spread out above our heads on some days and then see gigantic banks of clouds on other days.  We can watch brilliant colors of sunsets and marvel that there are never two that God paints the same.  We can be amazed at the delicate beauty of so many colorful flowers in the garden.

     And it's not only the beauties of the earth around us, but glimpses of God working in our lives, and in hearts and lives around us that bring delight and amazement.  It's as if God is giving us appetizers of what is in store for us in Heaven some day.  He is whetting our appetite for our future life by giving us glimpses of beauty and wonder that are so marvelous we can hardly contain the joy they bring.

       God is so good and loving -- praise ye the Lord!

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

nor have entered into the heart of man

the things which God has prepared for those

who love Him," 1 Corinthians 2:9

Jesus said, "In My Father's house are many

mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and

prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive

you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also,"

John 14;2-3

Games, Rules and Life

    My 13-year old grandson Declan and I enjoy playing a game called Qwixx together.  The game involves throwing four colored dice and two white dice and requires skill in choosing which number combinations to use during your turn.  Whoever has the highest points when the game ends - wins.

     A few weeks ago, I was excited to get my highest score and win the game.  I must confess, however, that Declan was helpful to me as we played.  His mind is so quick and sharp that when I roll dice for my play, he tells me what my play options are before I've even had time to register the numbers on the die.  It's quite impressive!  I'm also pleased that he has such a kind spirit that he likes to be helpful.  Although he enjoys winning, kindness and helpfulness to others overrides competiveness in him -- and that thrills me!  Note: I do still make my own decisions as to which numbers to use and where (:

     There are rules to the game of Qwixx -- as there are in every game.  The creator of those games make the rules and expect players to follow those rules.  Indeed, if you're ever in a tournament for a game, the rules must be strictly followed.  However, when you play the game with friends, and if the players choose to change or tweek a rule or two, what's the harm?  

      There is a rule in Qwixx that requires the loss of five points if you're unable to use any of the numbers on your dice during your turn.  Declan and I don't like that rule, so we disregard it and enjoy the game more that way.

       And yes, I have a spiritual point to this little story.  If we looked at life as a game, then the Creator of that game would be the One to make the rules and the players must follow the rules to play the game properly.  

        God created life and every living thing.  He also made the rules for how this life should be lived to the fullest and in the right way.  If we consider life as a game, we need to know that the stakes are life and death high and the rules must be followed to win.

        The thing is, we cannot win this game without help -- it's beyond our capabilities.  No one is that good -- we all fall short.  The good news is that there is One who will make us a winner if we choose Him as our Champion.

         In fact, choosing Him is the only way to win.  We're told in the important book that tells us all about life and the rules for right living, the Holy Bible:  "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me," John 14:6. 

         People change and tweak the rules of life constantly, but there is one rule that is unchangeable -- there is only one way to win in life and that is through the One who gave His own life for you and me.  He paid the price for our shortfall (our sin) and He is the supreme Winner Who offers life eternal for everyone who will accept His offer. 

         I'd say that is an offer too good to refuse!  And the amazing thing is that this gift is totally free!  Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."   

         Don't risk losing it all by refusinig to accept this gift!  It's a win-win.  Not only do you have a guaranteed spot in Heaven some day, but you also have a much better life while you're still on the earth.  Accepting Jesus as Savior means you have access to peace and joy that you never imagined; power through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and hope that makes every day brighter.  

           Choose to win!

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory

 through our Lord Jesus Christ," 

1 Corinthians 15:57

          

        

 

The Odor of Mendacity

 

THE ODOR OF MENDACITY

    The judge in a recent court trial wrote a decision which included the phrase, "the odor of mendacity," referring to the apparent lies told by the defendant in the trial.  The definition of mendacity is "untruthfulness; lying."

    I believe the judge in the case in question was trying to dress up his pronouncement of lies by using big words to cover the stink of the word "liar."  Some lies stink to high Heaven, while others have been doused by the cheap perfume of partial truths and fancy words until we're not quite sure why the statement has an off-smell to it.  It's the lies that are packaged in pretty paper that confuse and even convince people that they are truth.  How many times in life have we fallen for a well-spoken lie, mistaking it for truth?

    In the picture above, I'm playing out a part and here's what it's saying:  I've just become aware that I'm being followed by a big scary monster with sharp teeth and a vicious bite.  This horrible creature with glowing eyes wants to devour me and if I'm not careful, he might succeed.  But, notice, although I'm rightfully wary of this creature - and he does give me the shivers -- I'm not panicking.  I've seen this ugly mug before; he's been chasing after me since my earliest memories.  He's not usually so blatant in his attacks, preferring to approach me in softer disguises  -- sometimes even appearing as an angel of light, if you can believe it!

     So, what was it about this particular day that caught my attention and when I turned quickly I caught him in his true form?  Hmmm....I think it was a particularly nasty smell - oh, I know -- it was the odor of mendacity that wafted toward me.  I remember Jesus speaking about the devil in John 8:44, saying, "He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it."

       Knowledge is power and since I know that I've a demon at my heels waiting to pounce and I know the One Who can handle him, I say the "magic" words, "Jesus, help me!" and the creature disappears.  "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world," 1 John 4:4.  Knowing that the Spirit of Almighty God dwells within me and that He's greater and more powerful than all the demons and their wicked master, I can walk through this world without fear because "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind," 2 Timothy 1:7.

     

      "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name...And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen," Matthew 6:9 & 13.

Note two Bible verses:  "For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if hs ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works," 2 Corinthians 11:14-15.

    "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him," Revelation 12:9.

The Joy of Reading

 

THE JOY OF READING

 

I'm calling this "Throw-back Thursday," because this is a post from Thursday, August 30, 2018.  I was re-reading some of my posts and couldn't resist re-posting this sweet ode to Reading with my darling grandkids - and encouragement to get out there and "READ!"

 I have loved to read ever since the summer I was 12 years old and discovered the mobile library that visited once a week down the street from our house.  A whole new world of adventure opened up to me and I've never stopped reveling in the wonder of the written word.

And so, I'm thrilled when I see my grandchildren into books.  Marisa and Landon avidly read their library books while they enjoy a nice cuppa tea.  Noelle peeks over the shoulder of her sturdy friends to see what they are reading, as she repeats her stock photo word, "Cheese!"

 

 

This photo with my dearly-departed mother and grandson Storm when he was just a little guy is very precious to me.  She was reading him a book about an Angel and he was leaning in, not wanting to miss a word of the story.  It reminds me how wonderful it is when generations pass on the love of reading to the generations to follow.

 One famous author wrote: “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” ―W. Somerset Maugham, Books and You.

 I've always said, you will never get bored in life if you enjoy reading. So - I hope you are caught up in a lovely adventure on the pages of a wonderful book for at least an hour each day (: