Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Bless the Lord

I wrote this as I sat out in the woods today. Since I was encouraged to share it, I will post it here.

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My life is a series of times I forget and times I remember how important nature really is. The time I forget most often is winter. Everything is one color and it's gosh-darn cold here in Michigan.

I'm sitting right now with my feet hanging over the creek in the woods back of our house. They are just a small woods, but still beautiful. The sun is beginning to go down, though not to set, and all the light is golden. The snow is new and thick. It sparkles silver under the sun. Shadows, long and grey, give an effect like it is a dream.

The creek is slow, as it always is. The bottom brown and muddy. Snow-capped rocks and small boulders sprinkle themselves along it and as it runs it twists and turns around the banks.

At times, the snow slopes down to meet the water, and at others it falls straight like a cliff. Where they meet, the water runs along an icy border it has made for itself, as silver as the sparkles in the snow.

As sunlight ripples and reflects off the water it dances on the banks--the only sign of life here in the woods today. Not a breath is seen but my own, and the only sound is the occasional creaking of branches overhead.

Mr. Moon peeks in from between bare branches, too anxious to wait his turn in the sky. There are no clouds above, but in the creek a few float along--ice formed clouds of snow fallen from the banks.

And now I leave. I am frozen as well. Bless the Lord and Praise Him for His works are Marvelous--I know that full well.

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Be blessed.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

How Do You Spell Strength?

"How do you spell strength?"

"S - T - R - E - N - G - T - H"


Immediately my mind caught those words. It was as though something told my heart I would need them. It replayed in my head throughout the day. "How do you spell strength?"

Strength. It isn't a chain of letters spelling a word. It's more than that. And it's something to think about. 

strength

 noun \ˈstreŋ(k)th, ˈstren(t)th\
: the quality or state of being physically strong
: the ability to resist being moved or broken by a force
    --the power to resist attack; impregnability
    --the power to resist strain or stress; durability
: the quality that allows someone to deal with problems in a determined and effective way
: the ability to maintain a moral or intellectual position firmly

In the Bible, strength is always something attributed to God, not man, though man can receive it from God.

The Lord is my strength and my song. (Ex. 15:2a)

He guards the steps[a] of His faithful ones,
but the wicked perish in darkness,
for a man does not prevail by his own strength. (1 Sam. 2:9)

I love You, Lord, my strength. (Ps. 18:1)

The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. (Ps. 28:7a)


God is our refuge and strength,
a helper who is always found
in times of trouble. (Ps. 46:1)


But those who trust in the Lord
will renew their strength. (Is. 40:31a)


So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts. (Zech. 4:6)

I've been needing this a lot recently. To put it simply, yesterday may well have been one of the hardest days of my life. I needed strength--not physical strength, but God's strength. The strength to know what was right and to stick with it. The strength to be unmoved in my belief even when life seemed to crash down around me. The strength to keep moving even when it looks like the only way I could get where I was going was ripped out from beneath me. 

"How do you spell strength?"

You spell it hope. You spell it faith. You spell it look out around you because God's got this--even though you don't, and never could. You spell it keep on moving, because God's plan is bigger than this mess. And you spell it Jesus. He was hated, too. 

Yeah, that's right. "How do you spell strength?"

"J - E - S - U - S"