Month: November 2021

All the world is God’s own field,

Fruit unto His praise to yield;

Wheat and tares together sown,

Unto joy or sorrow grown;

First the blade, and then the ear,

Then the full corn shall appear:

Lord of harvest, grant that we

Wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come,

And shall take His harvest home;

From His field shall in that day

All offenses purge away;

Give His angels charge at last

In the fire the tares to cast;

But the fruitful ears to store

In His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come,

Bring Thy final harvest home;

Gather Thou Thy people in,

Free from sorrow, free from sin,

There, forever purified,

In Thy garner to abide;

Come, with all Thine angels come,

Raise the glorious harvest home.

Henry Alford, 1844.

This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving songs. I’ve been humming it over the past couple of days and it does have a catchy tune. But I recently took a little time to actually look at the words. Things written in the 19th Century sometimes are a little hard to decipher at first, but the more I read this, the more I began to understand what the song really means. I guess I always knew it wasn’t about food although I associated it with food Sunday. This song has nothing to do with food and everything to do with salvation!

May we offer our thanksgiving of praise to the Lord of the Harvest for supplying our needs, our wants, for making us fruitful, for purging our sin, for gathering us. May we raise the song of harvest home to the world.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I don’t know about you all, but I feel like I’ve been on a quest for the perfect vacuum my entire adult life.   I now have three.  Our house has central vac, it’s awesome for hardwoods, tiles and linoleums, but it’s not so good on carpets.  Then I have this Dirt Devil, aptly named, that is very good for carpets and scatter rugs, but not good on hardwoods or linoleums.  Then I have this little stick vacuum that’s good for spot cleaning dog hair when I don’t want to pull out one of the others.  I often think of the prairie days when they had dirt floors, used a straw broom to sweep them clean and called it a day.  It makes my three vacuums look excessive.

Anyway, I was vacuuming last Saturday and noticed something I’d not before.  You know when you have indoor and outdoor animals you just have dirt and lots of it.  You also know that, for some reason, you can’t seem to get it cleaned up on the first swipe or two.  So, I usually go through with the central vac and pick up the big stuff.  Then, I go through and do the rugs with the Dirt Devil.  Then, I repeat that exercise a few more times.  For some reason when vacuuming, you can go over a spot, and turn around and there’s a dog hair tumbleweed tumbling from under the couch that you just vacuumed under.  Where does it come from?

On cleaning day, if I’m feeling super energetic, I drag both vacuums to the second floor and do the same exercise, which is a rarity. True to form, last Saturday I ran out of steam on the first floor so I thought, I’ll just run my little stick up the stairs and in the middle of the floors on the second floor.  You know, a lick and a promise.

Here’s what I noticed that I hadn’t before – my stick vacuum has a headlight on it!  Who knew they made vacuums with headlights? I had never noticed it until I was vacuuming the stairs – you know, all those nooks, crannies and crevices that dog hair, cobwebs, barn dirt tuck into?  I thought, dang, this is so cool!  Then I thought yuck that’s just gross!  With my other vacs I just assumed I was getting all the dirt up, even if I had to take a good many swipes.  But,  with the light on my stick I could clearly see the spots I was missing and the dirt that got left behind. I could only see the dirt because of the light.  It doesn’t mean the dirt wasn’t there, it means that the light revealed it. 

When I think of light, my mind goes to Jesus.  As I’m vacuuming those gross stairs and thanking goodness for the light on my stick, my heart suddenly says, thank goodness for the Light – thank goodness for Jesus!  I thought about all of those nooks, crannies, crevices and cracks in my heart that have all kinds of dirt stuck in them – sins, fears, anxieties, unforgiveness, busyness, lack of focus, not just the surface dirt that is out in the open that all can see, but all those little things that seep into the cracks of our hearts that we just can’t see without the Light.  How do we begin to clean up that dirt that is revealed by the Light?

Submit yourselves then to God…

James 4:7

Are we ready to listen to God?  Are we open to his instruction?  Are we open to obey? Are we willing to submit our lives to the King of Kings?  Are we willing to say, Lord, I am Yours?

Come close to God, and God will come close to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

James 4:8

Next time you’re cleaning around your house, think about cleaning around your heart.  If your vacuum doesn’t have a light, shine a flashlight where you’ve just vacuumed and see how much dirt you missed in the cracks of your heart.  Ask the Lord to reveal the dirt in your heart that needs to be sucked up and swept away.  We cannot do the heart cleaning on our own, we must have the Light.  When we submit ourselves to the Lord, when we bow down, only then will He lift us up.

Find me here at Your feet again
Everything I am
Reaching out I surrender
Come sweep me up in Your love again
And my soul will dance
On the wings of forever

My heart beating
My soul breathing
I found my life
When I laid it down
Upward falling
Spirit soaring
I touch the sky
When my knees hit the ground.

Hillsong United

I love looking around at nature and the effects of the season changes on my senses.  Seasons seem to change so slow-quick.  The sun has changed its rise position from north of east to south of east and it sets the same west.  Because of our latitudinal position, the prevailing west winds usher in those cooler temperatures and try as he may, the sun cannot significantly encourage that temperature up to those we’ve recently enjoyed.  There’s a big contrast in the seasons in our neck of the woods.

So the worst-best and I were walking up the road last weekend.  It was beautiful.  It was chilly (I had my overalls on) but the sun was shining so bright on the mountain.  The sunshine warmed the coolness.  So while the worst-best stops for a sniff and to try to eat something that makes you not want to kiss her, I look across the field and notice the frost.  Frost, dew drops that freeze when they land on a cooler surface, like the ground, or a fence, or your windshield.  These glistening, beautiful little ice crystals really look like snowflakes to me.  Simply, frozen dew.  Anyway, as I was looking out across the field I noticed something.  Where the sun shone the frost was melted and the grass was stretching tall.  The parts of the field shielded from the sun were still frozen and brittle and crunchy to the foot.  Do you see that?

The contrast in one field was striking to me – the grass in the sun and the grass in the shade.  Warm and cold.  Melted and frozen.  Pliable and hard.  Tall and beaten.  Life and lifeless.  Light and shade.  Having the two extremes side-by-side required me to look at both at the same time.  I could see the light and I could see the dark.  It challenged me to think, honestly, where do I want to be – sun or frost, light or shade?  And, I had to ask myself, am I where I want to be?  Where am I standing right now?  I challenge you as well, sun or frost, light or shade?  Where are you standing right now?

I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. John 12:46

There are decisions to be made.  Are we standing in the warmth of His light or frosted in the shade?  Are we standing in the shadows or are we standing in the Light?  It really is a matter of heart.  Do we want hearts radiating the Son or hearts that radiate the cold, brittle, frozen?    Have we placed our trust in Him?  If so, we will be walking in the Son.  If we’re feeling frosted, crunchy to the touch, we may need to rethink where we’re standing.

While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” John 12:35-36

The big question is — Are we standing in the Light?  Today, let’s evaluate where we’re standing – not where we should be standing we all know that answer, but where we actually are standing.  Our words and our actions should give us a good clue as to where we stand – Son or frost.  Look at the field.  Are you standing in the middle or in the shade, out of reach of the Light? 

I’m out walking in the dawn’s early light.  Sun peeping.  Silent.  Cool.  Refreshing.  Observing the work of the Master Artist puts a little spring in my step, a lilt in my tilt, a be in my bop.  I walk with the worst-best dog ever, feeling whole.  The sense that all is right with the world is palpable.  I offer praises to my Maker for the glory of the moment.  I smile.  It’s simply a glorious day!

When I start thinking about my day, reality sets in.  The song stops.  The birds stop singing.  The storm clouds roll in.  The mind reels.  I think of the busyness of the day ahead.  I think of the diagnosis of a friend.  I think of the relationship hurts of another.  I think of the addictions of another.  I think of the loss of a loved one of another.  I think…I think…I think…  As I think, I pray.  As I pray, I look beyond to the scape that only minutes ago made me feel on top of the world.  Have you ever experienced that? Mountain to valley in a minute? Rising to submerged in a second?  Underwhelmed to overwhelmed in a heartbeat?  I wonder to myself, how did I get from glorious to downright gloomy in a millisecond?  I simply lost my mind – no kidding, I completely lost perspective and perspective comes from the mind.

I look out across the field and the landscape has totally changed.  So, I continue to walk, my prayers changing from praise to pleading.  Then I hear this still small voice (now you really think I’ve lost my mind) say “Nothing that happens today will change the fact that today is a glorious day.”  I understand.  In my lost mind I go to all the buts and His voice responds.  But…it’s still a glorious day.  But…it doesn’t change that this is a glorious day.  But…it will still be a glorious day.  Over and over again.  No matter what happens today…it doesn’t change the fact that today is a glorious day.

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.  Now glory be to God our Father forever and ever.  Amen.  Philippians 4:19-20

Glorious – full of glory – adoring praise or worshipful thanksgiving – absolute gratification.

Rejoice evermore.

Pray without ceasing.

In every thing give thanks:  for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Sun going down, I was again walking the worst-best dog in the same spot as this morning.  I look across the fields and at the sky.  I observe again the work of the Master artist.  The clouds show the Earth’s rotation.  Thinking back on the things of the day, even the things that made me briefly lose my mind, the hard things, the scary things, I can thank Him for showing me that “It was simply a glorious day.”  Thank you, Lord.