This photo was included on Stephen Weber's Daily Encouragement web site today. What a great idea! Very noteworthy! Getting strung out waiting for the mailman? Just play a tune. The photographer is Doris High. Check out her web site here.
The following devotional appears on David Jeremiah's Turning Point web site today:
"He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." - Matthew 5:45
In Matthew 5:45, Jesus spoke of God's fairness and graciousness. Every morning the sun gives another day's life to all humanity, whether evil or good. Refreshing showers fall on the lawns of committed Christians and of their pagan neighbors. While some blessings are reserved only for the children of God, others are common to the entire world.
In the same way, some burdens are borne by believers, such as persecution or sorrow over lost souls. But other burdens are shared by all humanity, and being a Christian doesn't make us immune from trials. Even seasoned Christians need to remember this, or else we'll find ourselves thinking, "Why is God treating me so badly? If He loves me so, why am I in such painful straits? Why don't other people have these problems I'm facing?"
Sorrow is universal; but for the believer, it is redemptive because God turns it to good. Dr. F. B. Meyer wrote, "In suffering and sorrow God touches the minor chords, develops the passive virtues, and opens to view the treasures of darkness, the constellations of promise, the rainbow of hope, the silver light of the covenant."
Trust Him today and rejoice in His mercies whether it's sunny or raining.
In the meantime let us believe that God's love and wisdom are doing the very best for us.- F.B. Meyer
The last hour of sleep is often my best time of the night. After a fitful sleep I awoke with a song in my heart. Quickly I typed out the lyrics on the computer before the events of the day could wipe my hard-drive (brain) clear. I was refreshed and encouraged as I sang the tune over and over in my head.
It's late Saturday evening and time to scribble some thoughts from the Pilgrim down on my blog. These are rambling musings with no connection to each other except for the fact that they all originate in my tired and weary brain.
My friend Susan posted these WARNING signs on her blog, Susan's Blog, recently. Something to think about for sure.
Here's an article from the web site of a new-found friend of mine, Ann Voskamp. Her blog, Holy Experience, is a wealth of good information and is well-written and thought-provoking. Check it out here.They say a mother wears an apron and a myriad of hats. I say she wears a collar too. A collar which can never be removed. A collar which cannot be observed by the material world: a clerical collar. For she is a priest in her home, before a congregation of children.
True, she snaps wet sheets onto the line, mashes heaping bowls of steaming potatoes, kneels to scrub the grime that rings the toilet; she cares for a home. And yes, little bodies wiggle up in her lap for tales of Peter Rabbit, press close to study the topography of Israel, follow her lead through the wildflowers to the woods; she cares for minds.
But she never fails to know the essence of who she is: “But you are… a royal priesthood…that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9-10). While a mother continually changes her hats throughout the hours of the day, her collar remains: she is a priest proclaiming Christ’s glories. She cares for souls.
The Cross rent the veil; the priest now lives openly in the Presence of the Holies of Holies, leading little ones to the altar to worship too. The banqueting table is spread; the priest invites these young persons to come and feast on Him Who is sustenance. There is no intermediary, there is no spoon feeding. She is a priest, serving not only God in this domestic, hallowed place but inviting her children to come and do likewise. As Martin Luther wrote, “all we Christians are priests… as priests we are worthy to appear before God to pray for others and to teach one another divine things.”
Holy Habits
So a mother consciously chooses to live out her priesthood as a believer, so that her children might be taught ‘divine things.’ As the Old Testament priest’s days carefully stepped to the beat of His expressed laws, so the New Testament everyday priest thoughtfully orders her days to the divine rhythms of Father’s heart. While the Old Testament High Priest wore the apron-like ephod, the New Testament ministering mother wears apron and holy habits. Holy habits of communing with God, reading and memorizing His Word, prayer, fasting, service, worship. Holy habits of putting on the garment of Christ (Gal 3:27 NEB).
The domestic priest cannot forcibly dress her children in holy habits, for these are not outward mantles of routines and checklists, but the interior attire of the heart. One can only clothe one’s own soul. What is a mother to do? She can faithfully adorn herself with her own ardor for Christ, her own daily, holy habits stirring the desires of her children, all the while thoughtfully laying out threads for young souls to take up in their own life’s tapestry. She prays and fasts and sings hymns and serves and loves and meditates on Scripture before her children. Then she creates space, stillness and opportunity for her children to also enter in. She lives so that each child feeds not on her devotionals, prayers or worship, but from his or her own. She kneels beside her child and helps him gather his own spiritual food with his own hands, rather than simply eating from hers.
“Lazy people take food in their hand but don’t even lift it to their mouth” (Proverbs 26:15). I wonder: do (my) children sit in Christian homes (like ours) with cupped hands, waiting for someone to take food to their mouths, for a priest to spiritually spoon-feed them? (Do Christian parents attend Sunday morning services, then meander home with hands full of food…but spend the next seven days not even lifting food to their mouth?) Bibles on shelves, hymnals on table, prayer journals in baskets. Food is plentiful. Yet there must be purposeful effort to take it up in hand. The familial priest’s holy habits show how one daily lift’s food to mouth.
Relationship
Yet it is not solely a mother’s life or holy habits that will make her a model for her children. For children to model a believing priest taking up food rather than emulating bewildered, malnourished peers, they need to be close----spiritually, emotionally, and physically close. A mothering priest’s words and routines are critical but insufficient. Unconditional love, support, connection are the necessary, compelling magnets that draw a child close. Close attachment stokes a desire within a young person to be like mama, to take up holy habits too. Modeling, in short, is a function of relationship and heart strings. The mothering priest focuses, above all, not on parenting skills or behaviors, but on relationship—first with God and then with her children. Without an intimate, emotionally-supportive relationship with mother, young people are less likely to take up the holy habits modeled in a home. Why purpose to be like someone from whom he or she is emotionally distant? Thus, in a mother’s daily service before God, relationships—horizontally and vertically—are the paramount priority. “Have time for a walk down through the woods this evening?” “ Can I give you a back rub while you tell me about your day?” “Let’s make popcorn and play a board game together tonight."
Relationship is the essence of our daily reality. Our relationship with God, nourished by holy habits, is the essence of our spiritual (and eternal) reality. Our relationship and connection with our children, nourished by attachment and time invested, is the essence of our mothering reality…and our modeling. Priesthood, mothering, holy habits: they orbit around relationship, the essence of all reality in the universe.
Feast
So a mother adorns herself with apron, priestly collar, and holy habits. And there, daily handing out bowls for the Feast, her apron strings ties love knots to young ones gathered around. (Bowls and feasts are nothing without love.) “So, daughter, let’s lay out on the hammock tonight and talk to God under all the stars He knows by name.” “Son, would you like to lead our worship tonight?" "Might you pray for us tonight, dear?” “Anyone have any ideas of what might we do to serve that family at the corner?”
Care to have the next generation of kingdom priests know how to feast themselves with both hands, from their own bowl, wearing their own holy habits? Put on your own collar, take up your own habits, eat from your own bowl.
And love them to His Love Feast.
The hymnwriter William Cowper wrote "God Moves In a Mysterious Way" and many people since he penned those words have borrowed the phrase when trying to explain how God works.Sarah's repeated attempts to engage neighbor Lorraine make it clear, however, that Sarah's return has triggered memories of a horrible accident years earlier. Neither, it seems, has fully dealt with the incident. Sarah's unassuaged guilt has left her believing she somehow deserves her recent troubles, while Lorraine's misplaced anger has affected her relationship with her husband and two teenage sons.
On paper, writer Jill Blotevogel's script is standard TV melodrama, but Tamblyn's deeply expressive performance, along with that of Tony-winner Ehle, creates believably heart-wrenching emotions. "The Russell Girl" proves Tamblyn can carry a film. Ehle, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Meryl Streep, is as good onscreen as onstage.
Supporting perfs are well done and key to the overall story, especially the father figures eloquently portrayed by DeKay and Henry Czerny. Paul Wesley as Evan, Sarah's old flame, is a little too good to be true but is a charismatic match to Tamblyn's Sarah. Mastrantonio is not well served in the role of Sarah's mom, whose misguided optimism and cheerleading is the opposite of what Sarah actually needs.
Bleckner's deliberate pace, paired with Charles Minsky's lingering camera shots, make for a thoughtful and beautifully filmed piece. The musical score is equally affecting. Film is exasperating at times only because it so accurately depicts the common inability to express one's true emotions.
Perhaps the book that most shaped my life as a young man was By Searching by Isobel Kuhn. She sensed the call of God to take the gospel to the Lisu people in China. The first chapter is entitled On To The Misty Flats and begins with a poem by John Oxenham. I've recalled this poem many times over the years and thought of it again this morning. Here it is for your perusal:
The Misty Flats
To every many there openeth
A way, and ways, and a way.
And the high soul climbs the high way,
And the low soul gropes the low,
And in between on the misty flats
The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth
A high way and a low -
And every man decideth the way his soul shall go.
- John Oxenham
High Road, Low Road or the Misty Flats?
What road will you choose to travel today? May your pilgrimage be filled with divine surprises as the God of Heaven reveals Himself to you today!
"The sovereign God is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights." - Habakkuk 3:19 (NIV)
Tonight we had our twice-monthly chapel service called MONDAY WE HAVE FISH with the Peterborough Petes. What a night! We didn't even get to the questions on the handout I had prepared. The guys, led by captain John Armstrong (pictured) had more serious issues that they wanted to discuss.
Recently I conducted the Memorial Service for my dear friend Watson Atkinson. He went to be with the Lord following a massive heart attack suffered while visiting in the Philippines. Watson was buried over there but his memorial service was held here at our (and their) home church, Auburn Bible Chapel.
Recently I've been dropping by to visit The Thirsty Theologian and I end up spending a lot of time there. Time well spent I must add.
Two months ago I was invited to join a local Christian writers group called the Writer's Crucible. I had known of this group for quite some time and was honoured to be asked to become a member.
More on this quote from Ann Voskamp later. I needed to post while it was on my mind:
I took the following info off the Yale University Athletics web site after Bud Fisher did a number on Yale tonight.
Zach Bogosian, sophomore defenceman with the Peterborough Petes, isn't the only Bogosian being recognized recently. Zach has been ranked 3rd overall by NHL Scouting in advance of the upcoming NHL draft in June. His older brother Aaron is a freshman at St. Lawrence University and was name ECAC Rookie of the Week last week.
Thanks for your prayers, dear friends, as I continue to recover from this latest bout with cellulitis. I'm gradually feeling better.
Well, friends, the Pilgrim is battling another bout with cellulitis. For the 4th time in the last 2 years I've succumbed to this infectious condition. It's in my head again. Literally that is. Not figuratively.
The following post from Maced With Grace was passed along to me by my friend Claire over at Pilot Mom. It's a great challenge. Try it!
"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south." Psalm 107:1-3
In the aftermath of Christmas gift-giving the following quote from Ann Voskamp over at Holy Experience rings loud and clear:
