Patience

Tomorrow

That's when they will start moving the rubble away from the site of the church building.

"We have to be patient" 

That's been the refrain of the members of the congregation. And we have been, though it's been hard to see the pile of wood, stone, metal, glass, and plastic sitting there for six weeks. Finally, it looks like things will start to happen. It'll be weeks before they are done.

So we will have more of a chance to practice the spiritual gift of patience.

We hope they find our bell, our time capsule, our two safes. We look forward to having an empty lot rather than the remains of the building.

In the meantime, we are grateful: grateful to the community that surrounds, to the church that took us in, to the fire, police, and DPW, to God. No one was hurt; we remain a church. A lot to be thankful for.

For those who don't know the story, here are links to what happened.

Painting Survives Fire
The Day After

I will post updates as we move forward, with patience.

Song for Sunday: Come Ye Thankful People Come

This week's Song for Sunday is a hymn that takes as back to the original meaning of Thanksgiving, back to before the pilgrims, to the idea of giving thanks for the harvest. In England, they called it "Harvest Home." It was a civic, not a religious holiday, though many took the time to acknowledge God as provider.

We tend to focus on the pilgrim's and think of theirs as the "first" thanksgiving, but many cultures have harvest celebrations. It's even in the Bible. Our American holiday has become a reminder of  our shameful historical and current treatment of Native  Americans who, like all of us, deserve justice, consideration, and respect. And perhaps it should be. There is work to be done there.

But that also shouldn't take away from thanking and acknowledging God. Or simply being grateful that we have enough.

Let us remember.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving. 

Song for Sunday: God Help Me!

This song by Plumb is a reminder that faith and Christian life isn't all happiness and light. There are struggles, failures and difficulties. We all get sunshine, we all get rain. Faith doesn't protect us from the bad stuff. It was never meant to.


I cam across this song last week in the midst of a spiritual struggle. It helped a lot. I hope it can be of help to others.


Here's the link:

What songs help you? 

Song for Sunday: God Who Touches Earth with Beauty

We sang this hymn in church this morning. It was written by Mary Susanne Edgar as a Sunday School Hymn, but is now very suitable for adult worship. The link I am posting to involves a Children's Choir, however.


The verse that struck me was:

Like the arching of the heavens 
lift my thoughts above, 
turn my dreams to noble action: 
ministries of love.

Time to stop procrastinating on some things, I guess. 


Anyway, enjoy a moment of worship with this beautiful song and have a blessed Sunday.

Song For Sunday (a day late): Oh That Will Be Glory for Me

I had been participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and trying to revitalize this blog with a temporary theme of "Beginnings". Then a perfect storm of responsibilities, family needs and the like hit and this project took a back seat. But now I am trying to be back.

I heard this hymn for the first time yesterday at a funeral. It had been chosen by the deceased for use at her memorial service. It  touched me. It also fits where I am now, so it becomes today's Song for Sunday. May it inspire you!

Tragedy

Sometimes, when I can't find the words to say about something I seek other's words. I have done that in the wake of the Las Vegas disaster.

I first heard about the tragedy shortly after I woke up yesterday morning. I saw a post from a friend who works at concert venues in Las Vegas saying he was safe. I had to look for why he needed to tell us that.

I really can't find the words for this. I looked for prayers to use in times of tragedy and found this page: Prayers in Times of Tragedy and Disaster.  I think perhaps they couldn't formulate the words either so they went straight to the best source of all, God's word itself. The first prayer is taken straight from Psalm 46:

Prayers in Times of Trouble and Disaster 

God is our refuge
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
(from Psalm 46)

An affirmation that God is with us, holds us keeps us. Not a final answer. There were hundreds not physically safe, thousands traumatized. But God is there and we can run to Him. Like a father, he will open his arms and hold us close.

Another appropriate prayer:

A Prayer in a Time of Distress
Almighty and everlasting God, You are strength to those who suffer and comfort to those who grieve. Let the prayers of your children who are in trouble rise to you.
Hear our prayer.
We claim your promises of wholeness as we pray for those who are ill or are suffering loss and long for your healing touch.
Hear our prayer.
Make the weak strong, the sick healthy, the broken whole, and confirm those who serve them as agents of your love.
Hear our prayer.
To everyone in distress, grant mercy, grant relief, grant refreshment.
Hear our prayer.
As we begin to rebuild, we commend our neighborhoods to your care. Give us strength of purpose and concern for others, that we may create a community where your will may be done.
Hear our prayer.
God of compassion, you watch our ways, and weave out of terrible happenings wonders of goodness and grace.
Hear our prayer.
Surround those who have been shaken by tragedy with a sense of your present love,
and hold them in faith. Though they are lost in grief, may they find you and be comforted;

Through Jesus Christ who was dead, but lives and rules this world with you. Amen.


I want to do something. I want to stop this from ever happening again. I want to change things. But the solutions won't come over night. So I pray. I hope you will, too.







 I am participating on the October 2017 Ultimate Blog Challenge. A blog post every day in October. #blogboost

Nuclear Threat

If we are going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things — praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts — not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They might break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

                                                         ~C. S. Lewis, On Living in an Atomic Age (1948)

We are hearing a lot about North Korea and possible nuclear strikes. I pray they don't happen. I pray for cooler heads, saner minds, and better people to prevail all around.

But I agree with C.S. Lewis. Let's get on with our lives and not worry. Thankfully, I haven't yet heard of any equivalent to "duck and cover" drills starting up. I expect they'd be pretty useless anyway, I don't live near a targeted area, but I assume nowhere is safe and that, at any rate, a nuclear strike anywhere will have consequences everywhere.


Get outdoors, raise funds for earthquake victims, read the Bible, play a game, help your neighbors, fight forest fires, take a hike, watch a movie, study, work,  feed the hungry. Do what you are called to do today. Worrying doesn't change anything anyway. So, go an live.

Blessings on your day!

The End of the World

So it is supposed to end today. The world, that is. A rather drastic interruption to a month of  blog posts about beginnings.

Or it would be. But really, it's not happening.

Be ready. Always be ready. Because Jesus is coming.

But there is no particular indication that he is coming today. Could be today, could be tomorrow. Could be 40 years. Could be a thousand.

We don't know and Jesus said we wouldn't know. He also said not to be deceived. So I like this meme. Memes used to be for Monday's on this blog and maybe I'll get back to that. But this one is for today. Jesus does have feelings, being real and all. I suppose that false predictions of the end would bother him.

Are you ready for the end of the world? Whenever it might come?

More Beginnings

Well, today is the beginning of Fall. A new season - my favorite actually because of the colors and temperatures. For me that is all it is. A turn of the calendar, a change of season. But each new beginning, each change of season, makes me consider time and how precious it is.


I also took a step on what may be a new journey today. I sent in my resume for a job. A temporary, part-time ministry job. I don't know if I will be offered the position, but I felt God encouraging me to knock on the door. I am seeing it as part of the discernment process for my future work. With the homeschooling journey ending, I'll be starting something new this time next year. Hoping to figure out what it is. So I begin and try to trust God for the journey.

So, what's new with you?

Earth Day and Science

Today is Earth Day. 


There is also a march for science happening, as people feel that science is being threatened by the current government. Along with the big march in Washington, there have been marches in cities all over the country. People are pointing out how science as helped us and how badly needed it is. 

One quote going around is: 

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.”

                                                                          ~Neil deGrasse Tyson

My personal response to that is this statement, that I posted on Facebook:

Science helps us explore the universe and our own back yards. It gives us a systematic way to observe and test what's around us. Science really isn't true or false, it helps us discover what is true or false about the physical world. It is highly important that we have people well educated in scientific method and aware of what has been learned and discovered in the past. Science and science education need to be supported. 

Science isn't something to be "believed in." It's a process (or a set of processes) which help us to learn many things. It has it's limits. It changes over time.

Put it in the context of Earth Day. Climate change is a big issue. It would be hard to say based on scientific evidence that global warming isn't real. It would also be difficult to argue that it isn't human driven. But scientists don't claim to have found out everything about this phenomenon. They are still studying, seeking causes and remedies, refining theories. Views on the specifics change all the time and vary from scientist to scientist. Also, no scientists studies all aspects of it. Some study the greenhouse effect, others melting glaciers, others the connection to increased severe weather events.

Here's another thing. Science doesn't tell us how to behave. Scientific discoveries can show us what the consequences of certain actions will be, but it doesn't offer moral evaluation. It's not meant to do that.

Science also isn't either good evil. It is how it is used that determines that. Remember scientists  have brought us both the cure for polio and the atomic bomb. Healing and destruction.

Personally, I believe that God gave us the inquiring and curious minds that have lead to the development of science. His Word can also give guidance in how to use it, to build the Kingdom of God rather than tear people down. 

Judeo- Christian culture historically supported science and allowed it to flourish. Check out more on that here: Are Christianity and Science Compatible?  There have been many clashes between science and the church, but really theology and science, if each is rightly understood can be complementary. 

One final response to Mr. Tyson's statement: 

God is real and alive and good, whether you believe in him or not. 

And that doesn't change the fact that science is important.

This Year's Creche

Every year, I write a post about the creche Jordan puts together for our home. Since he was four years old, Jordan has set up the manger scene for us. We've had some interesting ones.

Jordan's Strange Creche
A Broken World ... Seeking Peace
Jordan's Creche for this Year 
Creche 2014 Edition
Jordan's Creche: 2015 Edition 

This year has another unusual narrative.

Mary and Joseph are in a small camp on one side of the room. They have lost the baby Jesus and are discussing how best to look for him.

Meanwhile, the manger is on the roof of the stable on the other side of the other side of the room. The donkey and the angels know where Jesus will be Christmas morning and are set to look after him, until his parents find him.









My son is definitely imaginative. This isn't the biblical Christmas narrative.


Then again, maybe what we should be doing this season is looking for the baby. Looking for Jesus.

A Very Merry Christmas 

to You and Yours!!

Song for Sunday: Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace.

The beautiful prayer of St. Francis.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.


It's a translation, so some versions are a bit different. 


On this fifteenth anniversary of a national tragedy -- an attack on the nation-- how can we promote peace? How can we be channels of God's love and mercy?


The prayer offers thoughts on this for big national situations, small personal ones, and all in between.
Let us make it our prayer.

Here's a version to help focus prayer.

Blessings on your remembrances and your prayers.

Song for Sunday: If We're Honest

I danced to this with my young cousin in church today. We choreographed it ourselves, and danced it as a worship offering --"special music."

It's today's Song for Sunday, because these lyrics caught my attention.

Bring your brokenness and I'll bring mine
'Cause love can heal what hurt divides
and mercy's waiting on the other side,
If we're honest.....if we're honest. 

They seem apropos to a few situations I'm involved in just now.


Shall we pray for each other?



What song has held a message for you recently?

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Been a while. Glad to be back to blogging!

Meme-ic Monday: Micah 6:8

So much violence. Gays are targeted, blacks are targeted, police officers are targeted. And that's just from what made the national news in one country over a short period of time.

If we think globally, it's even easier to be "daunted."

The devil wants to stir up chaos and division, to make the Church a target of hate and suspicion.

The answer to that is to follow Micah 6:8, as described in this meme, and to pray. Always to pray.


Go to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. That is what is required of us.



Be a blessing! And have a blessed day.





Micah 6:8 in context



I have learned much about doing justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with God in my years with the Christian Youth Conference at Ocean Park. It's a fabulous experience for high school teens. Two weeks in August, in southern Maine. Still slots available for 2016!

Song for Sunday: I Sing the Mighty Power of God

So early last week, especially during the full moon, a line kept coming to my mind: "The moon shines full at His command and all the stars obey." I knew it was from a hymn, but didn't recall which one or any other of the lyrics. 

Today at worship we sang Isaac Watts hymn. "I Sing the Mighty Power of God" and the line was there. So that hymn became today's Song for Sunday. It is a wonderful hymn, reminding us of God's sovereignty. 

Here's a link to an acapella version.

Have a blessed day!!

Song For Sunday: Father's Eyes

I had a hard time with deciding what song to use for today's post.

It's been a week since the horrible attack at Pulse in Orlando and I haven't written a thing about that here. Not that it hasn't been in my prayers and on my mind! It has. It's just... what do you say? There are really are no words that would give comfort. And repeating what's been said after each incident begins to sound hollow.

It's Father's Day. My father has been in Heaven since 1995 and I would like to make a fitting tribute to him. He was a man of compassion who was always willing to lend a hand.  A nod, too, to my husband, who loves our son dearly.

Then a young friend from CYC posted this on Facebook:

Happy Father's Day to the only ONE who will never leave me or forsake me!A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.” Psalms 68:5-6  

A reminder that God is Father.

Putting it altogether and mulling it over, I found myself recalling this old song. I first encountered at a high school revue, when a friend sang it.  It was a real favorite, and a prayer of mine, for a few years.


Now, I share it with you. Praying that God will let us "find the good in things, when no good can be found" and will "find the source of help when no help is around." It seems like that good and helo are far away when there is --yet another -- mass shooting.

Also, that I will have my father's eyes. And my Father's eyes. Thankfully, they aren't too much different.

Blessings, friends!

Song for Sunday: Escape

I am planning an escape room for my youth group tonight.

Also, my family is planning to watch "The Great Escape"

So, I thought a song with an escape theme would be good for Today's Song for Sunday.


This Enrique Iglesias song has lyrics that remind me that we can't escape God's love, no matter what we do or how we try to hide. I don't know if Mr. Iglesias meant it that way, in fact I am thinking not, but that's where I am at.


Hope you enjoy this link!!

 

Want to escape your routine this summer? Teens come to the Christian Youth Conference at Ocean Park this August.  It's two weeks of God, friends and fun -- on the beach. What's not to love?

Song for Sunday: America the Beautiful

A classic hymn, imbedded with prayers for the US, this song is perfect for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. In fact, we sang it in church today. 

Most schoolchildren in the US can sing the first verse, but it was the other verses that struck me today. I especially noted the first two lines of verse three: "Oh, beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life!" A fitting reminder of the servicemen and women who paid the supreme sacrifice. I also love that this song acknowledges that America isn't perfect, and reminds us we are under a higher power. 

1. 1. Oh, beautiful for spacious skies,
   For amber waves of grain,
   For purple mountain majesties
   Above the fruited plain!
   America! America!
   God shed his grace on thee,
   And crown thy good with brotherhood
   From sea to shining sea.
2. 2. Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet,
   Whose stern, impassioned stress
   A thoroughfare of freedom beat
   Across the wilderness!
   America! America!
   God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
   Confirm thy soul in self-control,
   Thy liberty in law.
3. 3. Oh, beautiful for heroes proved
   In liberating strife,
   Who more than self their country loved,
   And mercy more than life!
   America! America!
   May God thy gold refine,
   Till all success be nobleness,
   And ev'ry gain divine.
4. 4. Oh, beautiful for patriot dream
   That sees beyond the years
   Thine alabaster cities gleam,
   Undimmed by human tears!
   America! America!
   God shed his grace on thee,
   And crown thy good with brotherhood
   From sea to shining sea.
5. Text: Katherine Lee Bates, 1859-1929
   Music: Samuel A. Ward, 1848-1903
6. Public Domain.
7. Here's a link to a version by the Hillsdale College Choir.
8. 
   
9. 
   
10. On this Memorial Day, however you celebrate it, honor the fallen.

Meme-ic Monday: Creator and Creation

My first response to the images here: they break my heart. Such beautiful animals, the victims of human thoughtlessness and slobbery.

My first response to the words: How dare they accuse me of not caring for the environment?

Hold it!  Deep breath. Let’s not be defensive. After all, while you can search my blog and find ways I care about the ecological issues, I don’t have a perfect record. And when it comes right down to it, I do care more about the One who made the earth than about the earth itself. A creator is greater than a creation. From my perspective, there wouldn’t be an earth without the Creator.

But then there is this – which is more important for the Christian, arguing about who created the earth or taking care of the gift the Creator has given? Or is that even the question to ask?

We are all commanded to witness to God – his existence, his love, his sovereignty.

We are all also reminded that the earth and everything in it is the Lord’s and we are to care for it.

So maybe there is a question of call. While we are called to witness, not all of us are called to be apologists, preachers, or evangelists.

We are all called to care for the earth God has gifted us with, but not all of us are called to be environmental activists or advocates.

Then again some of us are called to each of those things, and the priority will be based on call.

Be that as it may, no Christian should be forgetting that God is creator and no Christian should be trashing the earth.

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On Monday's I react to memes. If you see one you want me to react to, send it to me. 

At CYC, we cultivate an active enjoyment and stewardship of God’s creation and a respect for the beauty of God’s world. Send your high schoolers to live and learn with us this August!  For more information, click here. 

Song for Sunday: Dancing in the Sky

I was at a wake yesterday. A young friend of mine -- who I actually hadn't seen in a few years -- had passed away. Over time, I have counted his father and aunt as my friends through our participation in the New England Baptist Youth Conference (now CYC) and we've kept in contact some by virtual means.

When "Pieces", as we new him at CYC, was dying he was on my prayer list, although at that point I didn't realize how serious things were. Years before, he had been in one of my classes at CYC and once I had driven him to a camp event and supervised him there. Apparently that made an impression on him. "He loved you," his father told me. I loved him, too, but we'd lost direct contact.

This song was played at his wake, during a brief service. I'd never heard it, but it expressed grief very well. I was taken by the lines: "What do you do in Heaven? Is there music? Is there art and invention?" for Pieces was an artist. His drawings were very lifelike and had great expression. I wish I'd known more about that when he was alive.

Pieces was also a caring and sensitive young man, and very bright. He was an organ donor and because of that six lives were saved and more people will be helped by his tissue. It was characteristic of him to think of others.

Pieces' soul is in God's hands.


I offer this Song for Sunday, written and sung by Canadian twins Dani and Lizzy, to all who are grieving. Here is the link.

What songs express grief for you?