Category Archives: Thoughts From Scripture

Don’t forget the grace

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I first posted this two years ago, but it is still apropos:

A few years ago some stores began forbidding their employees to say “Merry Christmas” lest it offend non-Christians. That led to a backlash by Christians toward those who would take Christ out of Christmas and transform it into a generic winter holiday.

While I do agree that that forbidding employees to say “Merry Christmas” is going ridiculously too far (that was one thing I hated about working in retail sales: everything from how you answered the phone to how you dealt with customers had to follow a prescribed script, though general conversation was also encouraged) and I do believe there is a general secularization of American society away from it Biblical roots, and I grieve that, on the other hand not every person who says “Happy Holidays” is a rabid politically correct anti-Christian.

Some might not mean anything amiss by it. I’ve said or written “Happy Holidays” for years. It started when I first began signing Christmas cards “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,” got weary halfway through, and changed to “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.”

Some just might want to include the other holidays, like Hanukkah, celebrated this time of year in their well-wishing.

And even if a “Happy Holiday” wisher is a rabid politically correct anti-Christian….what kind of witness is a snarky chip-on-the-shoulder response? We need to remember to “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Colossians 4:5-6). Salt — truth — yes, but with grace.

Mary’s Dream

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(Author unknown)

I had a dream, Joseph.

I don’t understand it, not really, but I think it was about a birthday celebration for our Son. I think that was what it was all about. The people had been preparing for it for about six weeks. They had decorated the house and bought new clothes. They’d gone shopping many times and bought elaborate gifts. It was peculiar, though, because the presents weren’t for our Son. They wrapped them in beautiful paper and tied them with lovely bows and stacked them under a tree. Yes, a tree, Joseph, right in their house. They’d decorated the tree also. The branches were full of glowing balls and sparkling ornaments. There was a figure on the top of the tree. It looked like an angel might look. Oh, it was beautiful. Everyone was laughing and happy. They were all excited about the gifts. They gave the gifts to each other, Joseph, not our Son. I don’t think they even knew Him. They never mentioned His name. Doesn’t it seem odd for people to go through all that trouble to celebrate someone’s birthday if they don’t know Him? I had the strangest feeling that if our Son had gone to this celebration he would have been intruding. Everything was so beautiful, Joseph, and everyone so full of cheer, but it made me want to cry. How sad for Jesus – not to be wanted at His own birthday celebration. I’m glad it was only a dream.

How terrible, Joseph, if it had been real.

Microfiction Monday and other odds and ends

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Welcome to Microfiction Monday,
where a picture only paints 140 characters.

microfictionmonday

Susan at Stony River has begun a Microfiction Monday wherein participants write a story in 140 characters based on a particular image that Susan has chosen for the day.  Design 215’s Character Counter helps keep track of the number of characters. It’s a fun exercise. I tend to be too wordy, and this helps me pare things down to the essentials while trying to keep it interesting and creative as well.

The picture for today and my take on it:

“I’m sorry I dropped you in the puddle, li’l kitty, but you’ll be all warm and dry and fluffy soon. I wonder if I should use a dryer sheet?”

You can visit Susan’s for other stories based on this photo. It’s neat to see the different things people come up with!

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“In other news….”

Thank you for your sympathies in my post about things breaking down. 😀 The first couple of things listed there had already been taken care of, but I just included them because they were fairly recent. My husband worked on the microwave and discovered a loose wire that he was able to fix — and he thoroughly cleaned it out while he was at it. He’s sweet as well as handy. 🙂 And he told me the wireless mouse had different channels. Who knew? Probably everyone but me, but changing the channels worked. Then the downstairs DVD somehow started magically working when I pushed the “Open” button on the remote, when it hadn’t been working before, and I got a new purse which had a little side pocket for my cell phone, a feature I’d been missing. We had thought the dead car dashboard might have been a blown fuse, but unfortunately it seems to be something more complicated. I have a “distance to empty” setting on a little display above the rear-view mirror that tells me how much gas I have left, so I am doing ok without that gauge — but not knowing how fast I am going makes me nervous. And poor Jane Eyre is still stuck in the upstairs DVD, which is probably sending the poor dear into a frenzy with her history.

And the sun came out over the weekend! And it didn’t snow as forecasted for Saturday, which I was very glad of since I had much to do that day!

And Jesse’s JV basketball team won again Friday night!

So things are looking up in my little world. I know ultimately happiness depends on the heart and not the circumstances, but I do enjoy good circumstances. 😀

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Book Review: The Heirloom

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The Heirloom by Colleen L. Reece and Julie Reece-DeMarco was a gift to me from my good friend, Carol, some time within the last year. It kept getting buried in my bookshelf and I kept rediscovering it. When I saw it this time, I determined to read it, and it was the perfect time of year for it as the book begins during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season. It could be enjoyed any time of the year, though.

Gorgeously illustrated, it is the story of one man’s sacrifice and the unexpected results of it. We’re not always privileged to know what the Lord does with the things He wants us to give up to Him, but this gives an imaginative journey of the kinds of things that could happen.

I have known some dear, well-meaning souls who take issue with the word “sacrifice,” thinking that whatever we can give to the Lord is our privilege and we should joyfully lay it at His feet. Though there is truth in that aspect, the Bible is honest enough to use the word “sacrifice” in the New Testament as well as the Old.

Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. Philippians 2:17.

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16.

King David once said, “Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing” (II Samuel 24:24). A sacrifice costs something. Yet God can give us the grace to offer it joyfully, and He promises, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).

A fairly short 66 pages, this book is a pleasant read and would be a sweet gift to anyone on your list.

Notable quotes

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I’m home from church with tummy troubles today, but thought I’d share some words of others that have spoken to me.

The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit but my misery, not my riches but my need.
— Spurgeon
(Seen at Strength For Today)

It is hard to enter the kingdom of God–not because an angel is set to keep us out, not because God would surround Himself with a highly selected elite, but because the condition for admittance is renunciation of all other kingdoms.
— Elisabeth Elliot, A Lamp For My Feet

Be hard on yourself and easy on others. Carry your own cross but never lay one on the back of another.
–A.W. Tozer

Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life.
–Alexander MacLaren

If, thinking of your frailty, you hold yourselves cheap, value yourselves by the price that was paid for you.
— St. Augustine

When God permits His children to go through the furnace, He keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat. His loving heart knows how much and how long.
— Warren Wiersbe
(Saw this one on someone’s blog but neglected to note whose.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

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It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most high: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Psalm 92:1-2.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

For flowers that bloom at our feet,
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
For song of bird, and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear and see,
Father in Heaven, we thank thee!

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Microfiction Monday

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Welcome to Microfiction Monday,
where a picture only paints 140 characters.

microfictionmonday

Susan at Stony River has begun a Microfiction Monday wherein participants write a story in 140 characters based on a particular image that Susan has chosen for the day.  Design 215’s Character Counter helps keep track of the number of characters. It’s a fun exercise in creative conciseness…or concise creativity…

As the bright glory surrounding God’s throne, as the colorful, faceted arc after rain, so is God’s grace and protection surrounding His own.

For those who might not understand the references there, in Genesis 9:8-16 God established a covenant with Noah and his sons and future generations after the flood that He would never again destroy the world by a flood, and He set the rainbow as the token of His promise. Ezekiel 1:28 and Revelation 4:3 speak of a rainbow surrounding God’s throne. It wasn’t until thinking about what to write in regard to this photo that I caught the encircling — the parallel between the circle of the rainbow round His throne, the arc of the rainbow, and the encircling of His promise and protection around His people.

I guess if I have to write another paragraph explaining my thinking, that might mean I didn’t do the greatest job expressing myself with 140 characters!

If you’d like to read of another encounter I had with a rainbow, The Storm and the Rainbow was originally a blog post that was submitted and accepted as an article for Frontline Magazine.

And you can find other people’s takes on this photo at Susan‘s.

Face the Cross

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I first heard this beautiful hymn on the Wilds CD Creator, Redeemer, and King, and it literally stopped me in my tracks.

Upon the cross of Jesus my eye at times can see
The very dying form of One who suffered there for me.

Face the cross, He hangs there in your place.
See the Lamb upon the killing tree.
Stand and look into the Savior’s face
As on the cross, He dies for you and me.

Face the cross and see the dying Son.
See the Lamb upon the killing tree.
See His anguish and His tears of love.
Face the cross, He dies to set us free.

Turn not away, turn not away.
His nail-pierced hands are reaching out to you, to you.

Look upon the One without a sin,.
Spotless Lamb upon the killing tree.
Feel His pain and love from deep within,
So great a price, yet paid so willingly.

Turn not away, turn not away,
Face the cross, face the cross.

Face the One who suffers in your place,
See the Lamb, upon the killing tree.
Light of the world, now clothed in darkness grim
As on the cross, He hangs in agony.

Face the cross and turn not away, turn not away.
His nail-pierced hands are reaching out to you.

Turn not away, behold His wounded side.
Turn not away, behold the crucified.
Face the cross, He hangs there in your place.
Face the cross, and see the King of Grace.
Face the cross, face the cross.

— Words by Herb Fromach, music by David Lantz

Thoughts about…hell

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I don’t remember what train of thought led me to this destination, but I was thinking this morning about the fact that modern day Christians don’t like to talk about hell very much. It’s offensive. Yet the fear of and desire to avoid hell played a major part in my own salvation and that of many others I know. But without the love of God, I would have remained in that misery of fear: the fact that He did love me and did make a way that I could be cleansed and forgiven drew me. It is as Jude said in verses 22-23 of his letter: “And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” Some will respond more to a compassionate appeal; others will only be shaken from their complacency by fear of the fire.

I’ve heard it said that Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven. I haven’t counted up the verses to see if that is true, but it would only make sense that He would want to warn people about such an awful place. I think we do a disservice to our friends and loved ones when we avoid speaking of it.  There is a little tract titled “Hell: Suppose It’s True After All?” (full text here) which poses just that question. It is too big an issue to take a chance on. Another, titled “What To Do To Go To Hell,” opens up to a blank interior, meaning we don’t have to do anything to go there: we are already on our way and need to do something to avoid it.

Salvation isn’t just a “fire escape” from hell: it is so much more. It is by faith entering into a relationship with God as a Father, a relinquishing of our rule over our own lives to acknowledge and yield to His rule, a turning from and cleansing of sin, a beginning of learning to know Him in all the facets of His being, in all the ways He illustrates His love and relationship with us (Shepherd, Light, etc.).

Too often I want to present only the positive: His love, His care, His provision. But there is something blocking access to Him in that way: Isaiah 59:1-2: says, “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Sin is a barrier, a roadblock. The ultimate end of sin and self-will is hell. It’s not going to be a good ol’ party time with the buddies. It is awful.

But the good news is that God doesn’t want us to go there any more than we want go there ourselves. I urge you, as lovingly and kindly, and yet as urgently as I can, to consider these truths:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. John 3:16-21, NKJV.

You can read more here.