Month: February 2011

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Bless the Lord

Psalm 26:12
“My foot stands on level ground; in the great assembly I will bless the LORD.”

Today I am meditating on Psalms 26, 103, and 134 ~ specifically on the idea of blessing the Lord.

I think a lot of the times people go to church expecting to be blessed. And, often, we are! That is God’s grace. Hallelujah! But the primary blessing is to be towards the Lord.
What a good reminder!
Bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord!

Psalm 103:1-5,20-22
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Bless the LORD, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word!
Bless the LORD, all His hosts, His ministers, who do His will!
Bless the LORD, all His works, in all places of His dominion.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!”

So whether or not you feel particularly blessed, remember to bless the Lord! This is our duty as well as our joy, as His beloved children and precious forgiven saints. And, as Psalm 134 shows us, the Lord does bless us: we bless Him, He blesses us, and it’s this beautiful cycle of giving & receiving! Amen.

Psalm 134
“Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD,
who stand by night in the house of the LORD!
Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the LORD!

May the LORD bless you from Zion,
He who made heaven and earth!”

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Sweetest

At a special restaurant overlooking a river & waterfalls, enjoying a fantastic four course meal with my sweetest boys.

This is how Gabriel feels about going to a fancy restaurant with Daddy & Mommy! (or at least how he feels about his own special dish of ice cream…)

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Endure for Joy

Isn’t it interesting that people always use Jesus Christ as the example when they want to tell you to be joyful in all things? Someone may even say, “Jesus endured the cross with joy” ~ and I have to stop them short, because, I’m sorry but no, that’s not what Scripture says. It says that He endured it for the joy that was set before Him. That doesn’t mean He was currently enjoying the cross. It doesn’t mean that His endurance and joy overlapped, actually. Christ asked the Father three times to take the cup away from Him, because it was not easy, it was not fun, it was not happy (and if suffering isn’t easy for the Perfect Man, who could even begin to pretend to think that suffering could be even remotely so for any of us sinners?). It means that He endured because He knew that joy would be at the end of the tether. It wasn’t yet a reality, but it would be. After endurance, when His cross had been fully endured, there would be joy.

from Hebrews 2:2
“…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…”

What is endurance anyway?
What does it mean to endure?
–verb (used with object)
1. to hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding; undergo.
2. to bear without resistance or with patience tolerate.
3. to admit of; allow; bear.

–verb (used without object)
4. to continue to exist; last.
5. to support adverse force or influence of any kind; suffer without yielding; suffer patiently.

That is what Christ did.
It’s what we are praying to do, too.
We pray that we will endure, and that God will bring joy after the enduring is complete. Once He has helped us to endure the cross that is set before us, we trust Him to bring joy.
We don’t know what the remainder of our earthly years will hold. How much joy, how much happiness, how much fulfillment. But we are confident of the joy set before us in Heaven, just like Christ was. We are confident in the Resurrection. We are confident that our covenant children will be reunited with us, even as we are united with Christ by death and resurrection.There will be joy!!!
I don’t know when.
I don’t know how.
It isn’t yet; I do know that.
But one way or another, eventually, once we have endured our crosses ordained by the Father… there will be great joy.
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Go Forward

I wanted to share something from Streams In The Desert that really challenged & encouraged my heart yesterday. Especially on my particular journey, with particular struggles of walking by faith (which I know we each struggle with in our own ways on our own paths, ordained by God). When so many people try to give us advice on what to do or what not to do; where to walk, when to walk, how to walk… but it is only us that know what God is telling us to do as we seek His face and ask for His wisdom, surrounded by wise counselors of His who are faithful in Him.

It can be so scary to walk by faith ~ wanting to wait to move forward to see what the end result might be. But that isn’t always how He designed things to work. Most often, God asks us to do something when we simply can’t see ahead at all. Frequently, He asks us to do something when we don’t even know what will happen or how it will work out. It’s pretty scary, actually, this whole business of walking by faith and not by sight.

Well, anyway, I hope this encourages you all, as it did me.

Go Forward

“As soon as the soles of the feet of the priests…shall rest in the waters…the waters shall be cut off” (Joshua 3:13).

The people were not to wait in their camps until the way was opened, they were to walk by faith. They were to break camp, pack up their goods, form in line to march, and move down to the very banks before the river would be opened. If they had come down to the edge of the river and then had stopped for the stream to divide before they stepped into it, they would have waited in vain. They must take one step into the water before the river would be cut off. We must learn to take God at His Word, and go straight on in duty, although we see no way in which we can go forward. The reason we are so often balked by difficulties is that we expect to see them removed before we try to pass through them.

If we would move straight on in faith, the path would be opened for us. We stand still, waiting for the obstacle to be removed, when we ought to go forward as if there were no obstacles.
~Evening Thoughts~

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Complaining

I’ve been thinking a lot about complaining this week. It was brought up from the pulpit, and then the subject has been thrown around a bit in various capacities throughout the week. I’ve searched Scripture for references of complaining, and searched blogs of pastors I respect for their thoughts on the subject. I haven’t come up with a really well thought out essay on complaining at all… but I do have some random thoughts about it.

Job, David, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk are complainers. But Job was the most righteous man who lived, and David was a man after God’s own heart, and Jeremiah & Habakkuk sought the Lord with much determination and were trumpets of His voice.
Here are some Scriptures and themes that reference complaining that I have been meditating on this week:

  • In Job 6, my Bible’s headline says “my complaint is just.”
  • Job 7:11, “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.”
  • Job 10:1, “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.”
  • Psalm 55:2, “Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan…”
  • Psalm 55:17, “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and He hears my voice.”
  • Psalm 64:1, “Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint…”
  • Psalm 102:1 [A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD.] “Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to You!”
  • Psalm 142:2, “I pour out my complaint before Him; I tell my trouble before Him.”
  • Jeremiah 12:1, “Righteous are you, O LORD, when I complain to You; yet I would plead my case before You…”
  • Habakkuk chapter 1 has two large complaints to the Lord.

What do these things show us? I think the greatest thing it is showing me is that complaining to the Lord is acceptable, and He hears our cries even when they contain complaints. Other verses in Scripture condemn complaining, when we are complaining to others, specifically about superficial things & circumstances.

Douglas Wilson says (in this wonderful sermon), There is a vast difference between complaining about God, which is terrible, and complaining to God, which He welcomes.

I think that is a truly excellent distinction!

Again, Mr. Wilson says (in this exhortation), You may bring your objective complaints with you; indeed He requires it. But you do so in order to cast all your anxieties on Him, the One who cares for you.

This shows the reason behind a just complaint: to cast it on the Lord.

So I am learning that the phrase “complaining is a sin” is not exactly Truth.
Grumbling, murmuring, whining ~ that type of complaining is sinful, because it does not embrace the sovereign goodness of God.

So what is a just complaint? What does it look like to complain to the Lord and complain righteously before Him? And what do we do with verses like Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without grumbling or complaining”? I am assuming that things can all go back to root words and definitions: the Hebrew and Greek words for complaining in various parts of Scripture may actually mean various things, that our modern translators have all lumped together as simply “complaining.” I’d love to research root variants in this subject. (In all my free time… hah!)

I’m [hopefully] learning, and am prayerfully seeking the Lord’s wisdom on this ~ because I think it’s something that is very elusive. Practical application in real life looks like not complaining about the weather, my reflection in the mirror, how tired I am, how sick I may feel, how difficult my job is… But bringing complaints to the Lord about frustrations with sin, death, and things He is doing in my life in order to cast my cares on Him and seek His comfort, beg for His deliverance, and ask for His mercy to be poured out is, as quite the contrast, beautiful.

As it so happens, I am currently bringing complaints to the Lord, seeking His comfort, begging for His deliverance, and asking for Him to pour out mercy ~ and casting my cares on Him is increasingly encouraging as I plod onward in life and in sanctification.

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Aging of a Room

As Gabriel is growing up, so is his room.
This last week we said goodbye to the nursery (possibly forever, although I pray we’ll get an excuse for a nursery again one day). It was really hard for me, but our little boy loves his new room. He has always loved his room, and I am thankful that he continues to love it as it ages with him.

Here’s a little photo timeline of how his room has aged and changed.

It started with paint and a little furniture (Jan 2008).

Then after a while it needed more furniture, made by Grandpapa (May 2008).

In recent months, it has included changing the way some of the furniture is used (2010).

And now it includes a new coat of paint, the loss of an area rug, replacing furniture, and all kinds of new textiles (Feb 2011).

I am working on two more decorative pillows, and one more piece of artwork for the wall. But his “new room” is pretty much complete. It’s so bittersweet. I love his excitement over it, and I know that eventually I will get past the pain of it.

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I Got Tagged

I don’t usually do these…. but…. I was tagged & don’t feel like posting what I have been struggling with (challenged with & encouraged by…) at the moment. So here it is. My tag, courtesy of Holly. 🙂

Rule #1: the tagged person must write their answers on their blog and replace any question they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.
Rule #2: tag 4 people to do this quiz; they cannot refuse (ok, so nothing bad will happen if you don’t participate but I would love to see your answers). The tag-ee must state who tagged them.

1. If you have pets, do you see them as merely animals or are they members of your family?
Our Dilly-dog is a family member (to a certain degree).

2. If you could have a dream come true, what would it be?
I think everyone knows my answer to this: be able to have children.

3. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Hah! Pay lots of taxes, probably. Build our new house exactly the way we’d love it. Afford medical treatments (or adoption, if the Lord called us to that) for a few babies. Buy this great little brick schoolhouse in our future hometown and start a homeschool coop there. Save save save (because my husband & I are both compulsive savers).

4. What helps to pull you out of a bad mood?
Music, tea, Yankee candles, chatting with someone I love, being silly with my Gabriel, a neck rub from my husby, praying.

5. What is your bedtime routine, with your kid(s) if you have any?
Around 8 we wind things down, go potty one last time, brush teeth, get in jammies, sit on the couch as a family to “read & sing” (read Scripture, read a prayer from the Valley Of Vision, singing from Cantus Christi, and pray as a family), then one of us (usually Mommy, occasionally Daddy) rocks with Gabriel in his room and reads a few books (his current favorite is Blueberries For Sal – he can recite the entire thing), sings a couple songs, prays with him & for him, gives him a blessing (Numbers 6:24-26), tucks him in, and says goodnight. This is usually finished before 9.

6. If you are currently in a relationship, how did you meet your significant other?
Sovereign Grace Singles online. Whee! The Lord does some magnificent things sometimes. 🙂

7. What kind of books do you read?
I always have a few practical Christian books going at once, and very occasionally read some fiction. I used to love L.M. Montgomery the most, and Dorothy Sayers, and lots more. Right now I am reading Streams In The Desert (my daily devotional), Prayers Of An Excellent Wife (as a springboard to hold me accountable to pray specifically for my husband, and also for our son), When I Don’t Desire God (for the ladies’ study at church),  One Thousand Gifts, Place Of Healing, and Brave New Family. Yep, I have a bunch going at once. 😉

8. How do you see yourself in 10 years?
Through impossible glasses.

9. What’s your fear?
I am striving to fear the Lord and nothing beyond Him.
This is, of course, an incredible work in progress.
But as such, I don’t want to delve into my other fears.

10. Would you give up all junk food for the rest of your life for the opportunity to see outer space?
I don’t really like junk food (unless french fries count!), but I also don’t have a real desire to see outer space. So I guess not.

11. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
Literally, the first thing? Take meds.

12. If you could change one thing about your significant other, what would it be?
The only thing that has ever disappointed me about him was that when I first heard his voice on the phone he didn’t have an accent ~ he lived in North Carolina and had just spent a year studying in Scotland, thus the disappointment ~ so I would give him an accent. 😀
I honestly wouldn’t change a thing. He isn’t perfect, but he is perfectly designed for me.

13. If you could pick a new name for yourself, what would it be?
I would love to have been named after my grandmas. Carily would do it. But I like my name, so I wouldn’t, even if I could.

14. If you had to choose where you would live would you rather live in the east coast or the west coast?
I wouldn’t want to live in either coast! I don’t like swimming in oceans!
But, I’m a west coast girl forever.

15. If you had to give up one thing for the next 6 months, what would it be?
Caffeine. Oh wait, been off of that for 2 years already…

16. What is the thing you enjoy about blogging the most?
Being able to witness and share my heart with people; being vulnerable and honest even when going through the dark valleys of life, and sharing Christ through that experience.

17. Do you prefer salty or sweet foods?
Usually salty.

18. What items are in your purse right now?
Wallet, cell phone, lip gloss, hand lotion, antibacterial wipes, keys, and a packet of tylenol.

19. If you had to choose between vacationing at the beach or in the mountains where would you go?
Mountains.

20. What do you watch on television?
We don’t have television, but we stream things online. Bones is our current favorite.

Tagging:
Nobody particular 🙂 If you want to be tagged, consider yourself tagged!