Seventeen?

October 18th

 Tales from the Pumpkin Patch...

What a precocious little fellow you were.  Now that you are a man, we expect great things from you.  Keep trying to pick up the pieces, please.  

Just a mention of my personal devotions! Pray my strength in the Lord.

 Job 1:5  

And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

My Dearest “son of my Vows”,

what a bright and resourceful young man you have become.   I feel that I can share more with you now because you have struggled some in this COVID time.  I feel so much in common with you, although I am eldest child in my family and you the youngest.   So much struggle has made you very sensitive and careful as a communicator and as a peacelover in the family.  I love to watch you carefully tread through the minefield of personalities that it is your providence to endure.

This morning, it was the providence of God for me to begin the book of Job.  I really think this is my least favorite book in the bible and yet perhaps the most endearing to me.  I put on the seatbelts of my mind, every time that I get to this reading.  I prayed to God to give me strength in the form of a very deep sigh! and I pressed on.  

Lord,  this is Christmas season and you know how this book will carry me through seasons of memories that are difficult for me to get up from.  Yes I was this impertinent to the Lord, all the while knowing that He can carry me if I fall from this Christmas meditation.   “You need this right now”. I felt that His silence and comfort confirmed this and I pressed on.   Of course I can choose to wriggle free from this providence and go on to a happier book.  A less personal book, etc.

We were in the book of Job as a family in devotions, when Baby Benjamin passed away.   It always carries me right back to the last day that I held him in my lap and cradled his tiny head in my hands adoringly.

I considered rushing through the book seeing that it is 42 chapters long I thought perhaps if I read 6 books a day I can get through it in 7 days instead of dragging this all through the Christmas season.  I knew in my heart that this wasn’t going to edify my soul to rush through this difficult and blessed expression of God’s heart to me.  So I am trudging through it and I intend to drink every lesson from God as He holds my hand and walks me through the many years of Job’s life and the many years of my life where there are questions and lets me see His sovereignty, even here on earth, before I face Him in the true judgment.   I trust Him to settle my soul.  I will be 59 this year and I trust that God will renew my strength in this reading as He has so many times before.  

I ask for your prayers and hope that you will grow to know and love the Lord and see Him working in your life in His wonderful and sometimes scary ways!  Love, Mom

What a mighty leap you take!

 You don't run, as I watched you on the courts this past Saturday.  You bound from one place to another. It is no wonder you get so tired so fast.  You leap in the air, as though you could get from one place to another in one leap.  

I hadn't noticed that before about you.  I would practice small step running and then go back to the leap. The speed is great and the effort is awesome, but you might need to conserve some of your energy for the long haul.  I think that is necessary for you; not just because you get tired, but for a life lesson.  Sometimes we must leap into things, but more often it takes more than one step to get from one place to the other.

Just a Thought!

choosing to remember Jesus' self control

2 Kings 1:13 

And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.

Jesus met with Elijah in the mountain.  Could it be that Jesus was discussing with him the parts of his soul that were engaged when he called fire down from heaven on those troops?  Was fear a motivating factor?  Were there things that Elijah still could have learned from John the Baptist’s response in impending doom?  Jesus was truly the greatest example of not calling down fire from heaven, with all authority under heaven.  He went the final mile of the journey with no animosity against the entire earth.  Because He could see that He was saving souls and not destroying.

the Birth of Life in the Death of Christ!

Revelation 7:17  

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

The Earth Our Gift?

God said it was GOOD.

Spending all of it’s resources upon our own lusts, seems to have been our continual race, from the very beginning.

1. Man’s disobedience, a. Eve wanted a promotion to God.  b. Adam wanted to promote her.  c.The demotion of the race to below Satan. d. Jesus ready stands to save us.
2. Now Jesus changes our self centered interests into other centered interests, Namely not destroying the planet, in our tirades like Cain killed his brother.
3. Cain really thought it was the purpose of God for him to get away with that and built a religion around his covering of his sin, while in actuality Abel’s blood was crying out and every martyr’s blood cries to God. In the self serving religious acceptance of murderous and planet killing piety lives to shake his and her impious fist in the face of the merciful blessings of God’s good gift of the earth and the relationships that we have in it.
4. No, Eve didn’t receive her promotion to God status that she intended through eating and disobeying as the Serpent had promised.
5. He proved a liar.
6. Instead of tracing their steps back to the relationship that was lost, we march through the wilderness of self promotion and consumption, instead of repentance and restoration.

God shows us the way back to Himself.  Salvation of our souls and Joy to the world in true piety and commitment to our relationships.  Stop killing your brother by dumping those polutants in the water.  Stop blaming your wife for your lack of leadership in the grand scheme of your physical footprint upon the earth.  These are the ways that we today blow up our parts of the earth.  Lets try taking the part of the serpent and tempting ourselves to promote God to His own right place in authority over us.

“While rocks and hills and plains will also repeat the SOUNDING JOY!”