10/30/11 Bethesda Word of Life Christian Center---April 28, 2011 was flooded and under 4-5 feet of water for 25 days. Today's service was a coming together, a celebration of rejoicing in a new building.
"Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I've ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing...Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away."Carol goes on to say................
This particular book of his, The Rest of God, Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath, is also a very special reading experience. When I first read it, I thought of you. He concludes each chapter with a liturgy section. He describes liturgy as "a kind of choreography, a choreography for our dance with things unseen, things ancient and things anticipated, things above and things below." He goes on to say that the liturgy sections are meant to 'try to coax you onto the dance floor...even finding yourself, like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, floating above the hard, cold floor of your workaday life, your feet barely touching." So, you see why it made me think of you. And his liturgy sections are not exactly what I would call liturgy, but application- questions- challenges to approach the next bit of time differently, getting onto the dance floor!
Now, with your retirement, hopefully you can put this on your reading list. It's about true rest of the soul, not just retirement from a job. It draws the dancing parallel that flows through your own writing. And he includes playing with our children (and grands) in the wonderful plan of restoring/refreshing our souls. Of course!!!!Don't you love it!! I did. Carol should be blogging personal book reviews! I just had to share it with my readers, most of whom are just that---READERS!
But I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?"
So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Ooh-oh ooh-oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone
For continuous melody along with the words, click on the song title below.Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
You can probably hear me belting out on the last verse because it is the one that sadly reflects my fickle heart. But God…….O His grace. How grateful I am.
10/21/11 No words were listed. “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” (Nehemiah 2:4) It’s been noted by scholars as the shortest prayer ever sent to heaven.
We all know such short spontaneous prayers.
Peter prayed, “Lord save me,” when he began sinking as he was walking on the water toward Jesus. Interestingly enough, Peter only began sinking when he took his eyes off of the Lord and looked at his windy circumstances. (Matthew 14:30-32)
“Help me, Lord.”
Praying it scripturally only adds a few words. “Let Thy hand be ready to help me.” (Psalm 119:173) In the psalms we read of many brief accounts of cries unto the Lord. Cried---just another verb for prayed. Poor (afflicted) man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles. (Psalm 34:6)
Edges of His Ways, 10/17 entry summed up such short Bible verses. Those “short” Bible verse prayers are what we want on those days when we are tired or hard-pressed…….. Like the touch of the electric light switch---just a touch and the power comes flowing from the powerhouse---the power that turns to light. (Carmichael, p. 192-193)
10/20/11 Brief 2. using few words; concise; succinct: (Dictionary.com) Edges of His Ways, uses the phrase “little prayers.” (Carmichael, p.192) Friend Margie H. calls them breath prayers. Spontaneous prayers. Hardly prayers at all in the “formal” sense.
Prayers evoked by a mere thought and a touch as the woman in Matthew 9:21 who reached to touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak. “for she was saying to her self, If I only touch His garment, I shall get well.”
Wordless prayers. “Breathe's,” metaphorical lyrics for that close communication with the Lord ….”This is the air I breathe, This is the air I breathe, Your holy presence living in me….” (Michael W. Smith) In such close communion that the Lord knows your prayerful thoughts.
I call them necessary. Lately mine have been, “Lord, forgive me.”
10/17/11 There’s nothing quite like seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Lately my grandsons have offered me opportunities to see God’s creation in a whole new light---from their perspective. Even allowing one of my grandboys to take pictures with my camera today offered great insight into what they see. Sometimes we could all use a new way of seeing thin
gs. If you don’t have young children of your own, join a friend or a relative on an outing with theirs. Or, volunteer in your church nursery. It will refresh your heart---even if you’re as old and as easily fatigued as I am.
Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see— how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him. (The Message, Psalm 34:8)
Meditate on this verse and then allow a child in your life to show you God’s wonderful world from his/her perspective. Allow this viewpoint to bless your heart anew.
My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare. (Psalm 25:15) David’s snare In this psalm is probably different from yours. Is your snare boredom in God’s blessings of creation? Do you need to see life afresh and be thankful?
Guess which pumpkin, photographer, Owen chose?
