Satisfied

"The essence of life is not to find the one thing that satisfies us

but to realize that nothing can ever completely satisfy us."

 

 

Don't know who said it, but oh so true if we are honest with ourselves!

 

 

 

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Though My Hair is White as Snow

Came across this years ago. Thought it might make you chuckle. Most everyone over 30 knows the tune to Jesus Loves Me. Sing or read along as you see this newer version.

 

Jesus loves me, this I know,

Though my hair is white as snow.

Though my sight is growing dim,

Still He bids me trust in Him.

 

Chorus: Yes, Jesus loves me...Yes, Jesus loves me,

Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.

 

Though my steps are oh, so slow,

With my hand in His I'll go.

On through life, let come what may,

He'll be there to lead the way.

 

Chorus

 

Though I am no longer young,

I have much with He's begun.

Let me serve Christ with a smile,

Go with Him the extra mile.

 

Chorus

 

When the nights are dark and long,

In my heart he puts a song.

Telling me in words so clear,

"Have no fear, for I am near."

 

Chorus

 

When my work on earth is done,

And life's victories have been won.

He will take me home above,

Then I'll understand His love.

 

Chorus

 

I love Jesus, does He know?

Have I ever told Him so?

Jesus loves to hear me say,

That I love Him ever day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Light Reflections 2

So yeah, light travels in straight lines. One reference said, "Light is the only type of electromagnetic radiation we can see. We are able to perceive it as a wide range of colors. If white light is shined into a triangular block of glass, called a prism, the glass refracts (BENDS) the light. In an effect called dispersion, the light is split into differing wavelengths, the band of visible colors known as the spectrum. The spectrum begins with the longest wavelength (red), and ends with the shortest wavelength, (violet). Most people see seven distinct colors, but the spectrum is really continuous changing color.

 

 

Now that alone is hard for my little mind to grasp. The spectrum is really continuously changing color with various wavelengths going on and all I see is a rainbow captured?

 

Reflections have incident ray and reflected ray and all sorts of angles and measurements that can be made. But the reflection is a reverse image. Is that part of what 1 Corinthians means about now we know in part?

 

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

From my journal: "The dining room chandelier glows in the bedroom window glass reflected off the hall mirror. They say light travels in a straight line, but the occasions when it seems to bend are wondrous."

So the light reflected in the mirror was not bending, but what about the times that are beyond coincidence when just what we need comes our way?

 

If we shine forth the light of Christ we know it comes through us but we did not create the light.

 

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

 

The comedian Patsy Clairmont titled her book God Uses Cracked Pots. So if you feel your life is full of cracks and fissures, ask God to shine through those places to His glory. You never know how what you share about your life with Christ may be used for the furtherance of the Kingdom in others! Dispersion of the Light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Christ, in the face of difficulties, in the face of life experience walking with our Savior and Lord.

 

2 Timothy 2:7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

 

 

 

 

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Light Reflections 1

I received a wonderful card for Mother's Day and I have wondered how to communicate the theme to you without sounding like a braggart. Even as I wrote that I knew that a mirror, which reflects light and images without any credit to itself, is one example of what I want to share. This young woman was thanking me for investing in her life and telling me how that investment is being shared with another generation of young Christ seekers. I was stunned with joy. As I read the card in my bedroom while looking out the window my eyes were drawn to one sunbeam on the hillside.

From my journal:

"This little sunbeam shines through the trees and lights up one place on the shadowy hillside. All around the ground in embraced in shadow, except this one spot.

"Shine on little one and watch the beauty you inspire and influence by the shining of this one little sunbeam.

"The dining room chandelier glows in the bedroom window glass reflected off the hall mirror They say light travels in a straight line, but the occasions when it seems to bend are wondrous."

As I put down my pen I heard the lyrics from this Matthew West song, "More"

Take a look at the mountains

Stretching a mile high

Take a look at the ocean

Far as your eye can see

And think of Me

Take a look at the desert

Do you feel like a grain of sand?

I am with you wherever

Where you go is where I am

And I'm always thinking of you

Take a look around you

I'm spelling it out one by one

(Chorus)

I love you more than the sun

And the stars that I taught how to shine

You are mine, and you shine for me too

I love you yesterday and today

And tomorrow, I'll say it again and again

I love you more

Just a face in the city

Just a tear on a crowded street

But you are one in a million

And you belong to Me

And I want you to know

That I'm not letting go

Even when you come undone

(Chorus)

I love you more than the sun

And the stars that I taught how to shine

You are mine, and you shine for me too

I love you yesterday and today

And tomorrow, I'll say it again and again

I love you more

I love you more

Shine for Me

Shine for Me

Shine on, shine on

Shine for Me

(Chorus)

I love you more than the sun

And the stars that I taught how to shine

You are mine, and you shine for me too

I love you yesterday and today

And tomorrow, I'll say it again and again

I love you more

(Chorus)

Than the sun

and the stars that I taught how to shine

You are mine, and you shine for me too

I love you, yesterday and today

Through the joy and the pain

I'll say it again and again

I love you more

I love you more

And I see you

And I made you

And I love you more than you can imagine

More than you can fathom

I love you more than the sun

And you shine for me

 

 

 

Will share more about shining and reflection and light another time.

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Owls and My True Love

Conference last night in our back yard. Turn up the volume to hear the meeting notes.

There were at least 3 Barred Owls in the treetops, though I never saw a one! Compare this YouTube video for sound!

When I was growing up I loved to watch Debbie Reynolds in the Tammy movies. I memorized and learned to pick out the melody on our piano for "Tammy's in Love." When I met Bob this song welled up within my soul. In about four weeks we will have known each other 43 years. Now we hear owls in our yard and the wedded bliss continues! Cottonwoods remind me of the Cookseys though there is also one in the local UDF fence line and I used to wait under one for my ride to high school!  Just fill in the name Tammy with Molly!

I hear the cottonwoods whisperin’ above

“Tammy … Tammy…

Tammy’s in love”

The ole hooty-owl

hooty-hoots to the dove

“Tammy … Tammy…

Tammy’s in love”

Does my lover feel

What I feel

When he comes near?

My heart beats so joyfully

You’d think that he could hear

Wish I knew if he knew

What I’m dreamin’ of

“Tammy … Tammy…

Tammy’s in love”

Spurgeon, Streams and Joy

When I read this first paragraph it made me laugh out loud! Hope you enjoy it, too.I was speaking recently with one who is in great distress and yet keeps discovering joy with Christ in the midst of the distress. She has the choice, as each of us have, to indulge in guilt, pity, anxiety, fear of the future, etc. This reading reminded me of the struggle we all go through to participate with the Presence of our Lord IN THE MIDST of this life.

 

I love the flowery language you wade through to get to the point!

"Why dost thou worry thyself? What use can thy fretting serve?

Thou art on board a vessel which thou couldst not steer

even if the great Captain put thee at the helm,

of which thou couldst not so much as reef a sail,

yet thou worriest as if thou wert captain and helmsman.

Oh, be quiet; God is Master!"

WE MIGHT AS WELL REST IN THE JOY OF THE LORD!

"Dost thou think that all this din and hurly-burly that is abroad

betokens that God has left His throne?

"No, man, His coursers rush furiously on and His chariot is the storm;

but there is a bit between their jaws, and He holds the reins,

and guides them as He wills! Jehovah is Master yet;

believe it; peace be unto thee! be not afraid."

He even ends the peace, you notice, with "believe it; peace be unto thee! BE NOT AFRAID."

Lord, help us to do just that.

"Oh be quiet; God is Master!" I love it!

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Alexander Maclaren

Maclaren was born in Glasgow on February 11, 1826, and died in Manchester on May 5, 1910. He had been for almost sixty-five years a minister, entirely devoted to his calling. He lived more than almost any of the great preachers of his time between his study, his pulpit, his pen.

He subdued action to thought, thought to utterance and utterance to the Gospel. His life was his ministry; his ministry was his life. In 1842 he was enrolled as a candidate for the Baptist ministry at Stepney College, London. He was tall, shy, silent and looked no older than his sixteen years. But his vocation, as he himself (a consistent Calvinist) might have said, was divinely decreed. "I cannot ever recall any hesitation as to being a minister," he said. "It just had to be."

 

I have read many quotes by Maclaren especially in the devotional Joy & Strength. His words almost always have a blessing for me. While pondering the idea of the suffering that sometimes occurs only between my ears, I cam across this one:

 

"The one misery of man is self-will, the one secret of blessedness is the conquest over our own wills. To yield them up to God is rest and peace. What disturbs us in this world is not "trouble," but our opposition to trouble. The true source of all that frets and irritates, and wears away our lives, is not in external things, but in the resistance of our wills to the will of God expressed by external things."

 

Oh Lord, that You would help us to yield our will and bend our lives in accord with Your Will. We will, with God's help.

 

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