Weekend Words

From Beside the Still Waters...

Troubling the Master - Read Luke 7:1-10; 8:41-56

"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." - 1 Peter 5:7

When the centurion sent some Jewish elders to ask Jesus to come to his house and heal his servant, Jesus responded by starting to go in that direction.  As Jesus approached the centurion's residence, He was met by friends of the centurion who had been sent to tell Him not to trouble Himself by coming all the way.  The humble centurion, full of faith, believed that Jesus could do the healing without being present.  And Jesus honored his request.

Jairus came to Jesus himself and begged Him to come and heal his only daughter.  As Jesus went, He was delayed by a woman with another need for healing.  Death overtook Jairus's daughter in the meantime, and someone told Jairus to not trouble the Master any further.  But Jesus went anyway and restored the daughter to life.

Is Jesus inconvenienced or bothered by responding to our requests?  While in His earthly body, He likely became weary from exerting Himself for the good of so many people.  But He never turned anyone away.  Now He is in Heaven with His resurrected body which knows no limitations.  He is not troubled by our requests, whether great or small.  We can "come boldly" before Christ to "obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).  If we are among those who "labor and are heavy laden," we can come to Him and find rest (Matthew 11:28).  When we're spiritually thirsty, we can respond to His invitation that we come to him and drink (John 7:37).

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" (Isaiah 40:28).

- Dennis Martin - Unionville, MO

From Behold the Lilies...

"But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper." - 2 Kings 5:11

Poor disillusioned Naaman.  Even though he was a mighty man of valor and the captain of Syria's army, he had a few lessons to learn.  He needed to learn that great things sometimes happen in ordinary ways, and not always dramatically or instantaneously.

God provides opportunities for us to learn similar lessons.  If He would take away the pain immediately when I ask Him to, I would not learn all the lessons that can be learnt only through pain.  That is why the Lord does not always provide an instant, glorious deliverance from a problem, a perplexity, or even a temptation that I long to be delivered from.  If the Lord would instantly provide a way out of every unpleasant circumstance, I would not learn to trust Him to see me through.  If the Lord would immediately hand me everything I ask for, I would not learn contentment.  If He would provide instant victory in every trial, I would not learn to wait on Him.  If He would always give me on-the-spot answers, I would become proud and arrogant.  If I never felt the weight of burdens, I could not help others bear their burdens.

Naaman needed to learn that the answer to his problem lay in his obedience, not in his prestige.  We also need to realize that.  In addition, we need to realize that at times we need to go through a learning process more than we need an instant answer.

On the home front...

An enforced slow down last week due to a bad reaction to a pre procedure preparation I had to drink, has seen me convalescing the last few days.  Unfortunately, I got so sick from the pre diet/fasting, that I had to cancel the actual procedure!!

Just about back to speed today, but as it's raining, and I can't do much outside, I have the opportunity to get a home post on.

A few weeks ago, Marnie, Denver and I did a walk on part of the Redwater Creek Track.  We hope to get back to do the whole walk before winter sets in...

 

The garden continues to produce.  I picked the last of the apples this week.  Have frozen many containers of stewed apples, but kept some for eating.  The blackberries continue to produce for the freezer and jam making, and the tomatoes are ripening...

And digging potatoes as needed...

Still making my Irish soda bread...

But for this procedure I was to have, I had to be on a low fibre diet for the week before, so made the bread using a variety of flours, but omitting the seeds, etc.  Then for the three days before, I was to go on to white bread only (yuk!), so made the Soda bread recipe using only white flour.  It wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be, but I'm definitely not a convert :) ...

white on left, low fibre on right, and jars of blackberry jam behind

Today I made Cornflake cookies.  Haven't made them for years, because I don't usually eat cornflakes, but they, or rice bubbles, where the only option for this diet...

one way to use up inedible cornflakes :))

Here's the recipe...

I only used 1/2 a cup of sugar, and a mix of sultanas and white choc chips

I've had a bit of crochet time while I recovered, and got a baby blanket for charity finished...

and I'm half way through this amazing book

Have started another baby blanket, this time in wool...

I usually like to add some cream or white when I make baby blankets, but I didn't have any, so...

This morning I picked up these two 'cakes' of Caron yarn (200gms in each) for $4 each at the op shop...

they will make some nice scarves for charity

"When we focus on people and life instead of material possessions and mere wants, there's not much room for emotional hand-wringing.  Instead, there's more space to weigh what we value in our lives and to acknowledge what really counts." 

- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Have a blessed week! 

xx

Weekend Words

From Beside the Still Waters...

How Is Your Walk With God - Read: Ephesians 5: 1-21

"I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." - Psalm 116:9

To walk takes effort, especially as we get older.  Some years ago on our visits to India, we worked with a pastor who had contact with people across the mountains.  The only way to get there was by walking.  It took a lot of energy to walk up that high mountain and meet the souls on the other side and share the gospel message.  In our Christian life, it also takes much energy to walk with God.

The Bible has many verses about walking.  Ephesians 5:2 says, "Walk in love."  How is our relationship with our brethren and sisters?  Do our interactions please God?  Galatians 5:16 tells us, "Walk in the Spirit."  Do we allow that still small voice to guide us, or do we take our own way?  Ephesians 5:15 says, "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise."  Circumspectly means 'carefully."  So are we walking in a careful or a thoughtless manner?

As God reveals new truth to us, we must be willing to walk in that light.  There are many people walking in darkness, not knowing where they are going.  We are walking either toward Heaven or toward the place prepared for the devil and his angels.  We have only one life to live, so let us purpose to walk hand in hand with our God.  He has promised to lead us step by step.  It will not always be easy - there are mountains to climb - but it will be worth all the effort.  "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

Cleason Martin -Mine Centre, ON

"Furthermore then we beseech you ... as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more." - 1 Thessalonians 4:1

 From Behold the Lilies...

"The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever; the Lord shall rejoice in his works." - Psalm 104: 31

A wonderful way to begin a new day is to look around you and notice God's glory.  Fix your eyes on the lush, rustling leaves.  Tune your ears to hear the merry birds, the chirping frogs, or other little rejoicing creatures. Breathe deeply of the expansive atmosphere surrounding you.  Are not all of these something glorious from God?  Each new day that He gives you should be for serving and praising Him.  When we take our eyes off ourselves and focus on God, our spirits are lifted.  No matter how gloomy the day may seem, there is always some place where we can see God's glory shining through if we look for it.

Dusty, dingy windows do not let in as much light as sparkling, clean windows do.  The brightness of our day will depend on the way we look at our surroundings.  Are you looking for God's glory, or are you focusing on self?  The glory of God is all around you.  Take time to praise the Lord for the good things He gives to you.

I am so glad that our Father in heaven,  Tells of His love in the book he has given;

Wonderful things in the Bible I see;  This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.

Though I forget Him and wander away,  Still He doth love me wherever I stray;

Back to His dear loving arms do I flee,  When I remember that Jesus loves me.

Oh, if there's only one song I can sing,  When in His beauty I see the great King,

This shall my song in eternity be,  "Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me!"

I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me,

I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves even me.

Weekend Words

From Beside the Still Waters...

The Lord Is Our Keeper - Read Psalm 121, John 17:1-15

"The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand." - Psalm 121:5

In today's key verse, the word keeper is translated from a Hebrew word that means "to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc." (Strong's).  As small children we feel secure within our parents' reach.  We considered ourselves especially safe when we were in their arms.  We were dear to them, and therefore protecting us was a high priority to them.

Now, as children of our heavenly Father, we can claim Him as our Keeper.  He has much greater power to protect us than our earthly parents had.  And He does so not only physically but also spiritually!

But then we might ask, Where was God's keeping power when Christ His Son was nailed to a cross to die?  And where was God's protection when Stephen and many others gave their lives for their faith in this keeping God?  Well, we are convinced that He could have kept them from dying as martyrs, just as He is able to keep us from accidents and death.  But often God's purposes are known only to Him.  In the past there were times when observers found salvation after they witnessed saints bravely facing torture and death.  The same happens today when Christians patiently endure tragedies.

God's spiritual keeping power was very much in place as Christians in the past prayed for their persecutors and then committed their spirits to God as life was fleeing!  Remember that the Scripture says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).  Satan does not care about his clients' welfare physically nor spiritually.  He is seeking their destruction to seal their fate.  Why would we not want to be God's child and have Him as our Keeper? 

Dennis Martin - Unionville, MO

"[Christians] are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation," - 1 Peter 1:3

From Behold the Lilies...

"... knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." - 1 Peter 5:9

Snow was falling from the sky and covering the ground with a beautiful blanket.  Many of the flakes did not fall directly to the ground but were driven to and fro and up and down before they finally reached their destination.  As I gazed over the landscape with its even cover of snow, I could have thought each flake had gracefully fallen from the sky and landed directly below its starting point.  But since I had watched the flakes coming down, I knew this was not the case.

On my way from earth to heaven, I experience trials that remind me of a snowflake's journey to earth.  Many times I am buffeted and tossed by the winds of adversity.  I am driven this way and that, and I almost despair.  But I take courage from seeing others persisting in their race as they encounter all kinds of pressures.  I also think of those in the past who persisted and reached their destination.  Remembering them also spurs me on in the course.  I may be blown hither and yon, but with perseverance I can inspire others along the way and arrive safely at my destination.

How sweet my Saviour, to repose  On Thy almighty power!

To feel Thy strength upholding me,  Through every trying hour!

It is thy will that I should cast  My every care on Thee;

To Thee refer each rising grief,  Each new perplexity;

That I should trust thy loving care,  And look to Thee alone,

To calm each troubled thought to rest,  In prayer before Thy throne.

"Casting all...your care upon Him...

For He careth, He careth for you."

We sang this song at church last Sunday and I found this version on YouTube.  The first couple of lines are a bit quiet, but it improves :)  

Feel free to sing along...

 

And if you have a few minutes, there is a very good discourse HERE, at the Bruderhof website on Peacemaking in Wartime: A Response to the War in Ukraine.

Weekend Words

 

From Beside the Still Waters...

Fully Surrendered - Read Matthew 6:19-34

Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? - Psalm 78:19

Long ago I was part of a church in eastern Ontario.  One year the church decided to send a minister and several families to start a work at Mine Centre in northern Ontario.  There was no Gospel witness in that area.  It was an isolated community with a little store, a school, and a few Indian reservations close by.  I was thirty-five years old then and was operating a diary farm.  My wife and I had six children, the oldest being twelve years old.  We had some good helpers for the farm, but God had other plans.

I was ordained to the ministry for that work.  With my wife I remember singing, "Fully surrendered, Lord divine."  It was not easy to call the auctioneer and sell out, but that was God's call for us.  When we reached the new community, we thought of the question in today's key verse: "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?"  We found the answer to be 'yes'.  We learned by experience that Jesus' words about God's care, as mentioned in today's Bible reading, are really true.

Now we have been in this area for about forty-seven years.  I am eighty-one years old, and God has never let us down.  He will always make a way as we fully surrender ourselves to Him.  We had a motto in our kitchen that said, "The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you."  Not all of us are called to relocate to a new community, but we all need to be fully surrendered to God and be where He wants us to be.  As we endeavor to keep Him first in our life, we can claim His promise: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5)

Cleason Martin - Mine Centre, ON

From A Year's Journey with God...

Beauty from Darkness

Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God - Isaiah 50:10

William Cowper suffered recurring bouts of depression, but it was during one of the worst, when he was in an asylum for the insane, that he first met the risen Lord Jesus and gave his life to Him.  No wonder he later wrote, 'God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform!'  He lived in the Buckinghamshire village of Olney, where he became a close friend of John Newton, a clergyman who had been the captain of a slave-trade ship until his conversion.  They both shared a passion for God and together they wrote some of our best-loved hymns.

William's father prevented him from marrying the love of his life, and his illness must have made life desperately hard, but amazingly he wrote: 'help me to resign life, health, and comfort to Thy will and make Thy pleasure mine.'  Perhaps it was Cowper's different attitude to God that made it possible for such beautiful hymns to spring out of his suffering?  Here are some extracts from my favorite:

O for a closer walk with God...

Where is the blessedness I knew,  When first I saw the Lord?

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!  How sweet their memory still!

But they have left an aching void  The world can never fill.

I hate the sins that made Thee mourn  And drove Thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,  Whate'er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from Thy throne,  and worship only Thee.

William Cowper (1731-1800)

From Behold the Lilies...

That I may know him, and the power of  his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. - Philippians 3:10-11

How can I expect to know Him if I do not have an interest in Him?  And how can I have an interest in Him if I spend little time thinking about Him and even less time reading about Him?  I cannot expect to know the power of His resurrection if I have not died to myself, and I cannot know the fellowship of His sufferings if I do not suffer.  If I cry out in indignation over the least hurt, I will likely not recognize the suffering that will bring me into fellowship with Him. 

If I refuse to learn to know Jesus, to die to self, or to suffer, I cannot expect a spiritual resurrection.  I can only expect to remain spiritually dead.

I must recognize that when deprivations, persecutions, and hindrances come my way, I can use them as opportunities.  It is impossible to conform to His death if the flesh never has to die.  Knowing Him and the power of His resurrection makes it worth dying to my flesh.  Knowing the fellowship of His sufferings is knowing true fellowship with Him.  Suffering and dying for Him, whether physically or to the flesh, will prepare us for eternal fellowship with Him.

All photos from the book: Aurora - an American experience in quilt, community and craft by Jane Kirkpatrick, which I am now reading :)