Month: September 2023

Around our joint we tend to accumulate trash. You too? Seems like we constantly have feed bags from the barn, old dog beds of the Worst/Best, old cracked planters, kinked-up garden hoses, mud-laden outdoor rugs, even an old crib that was held together with bungie cords. In fact, we still find buried treasures in bags on our property (I’m told that’s how they used to get rid of trash in the olden days?).

Now we “repurpose” as much as we can, we consider ourselves earth-friendly people, but sometimes, we just got trash. So, a couple of times a year we load up the truck, tie it down, and travel slowly to the dump — oh wait, that’s not the “acceptable” term — we travel to waste management — we travel to the landfill (like that sounds so much better). Nowadays we people can even make a dump sound less harsh and more appealing, can’t we.

Anyway, we did just that thing last week. Loaded all our junk up and went to the dump. We went on free dump day, however, it wasn’t free for us because our junk wasn’t considered a certain kind of trash? No matter, it was still trash that needed disposed of.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the “landfill” but quite frankly, it is an engineering marvel. Whoever came up with it was pretty genius. Just think about that, someone created a way for us to get rid of all our trash. Hmmm.

When you get to the dump you drive onto a scale and you’re weighed, vehicle and trash. You are then directed where to dump your trash, based upon the contents. Smaller trucks and cars are directed about 100 yards away to throw their trash into a gigantic dumpster, easy peasy. But trash trucks, dump trucks, construction trucks, trucks with the big stuff, even trucks our size are directed to move on down the road.

After hanging a left, we started ascending a dirt road. It’s a pretty steep climb up a dirt road. I grabbed the armrest a time or two. But once you get to the top, it’s like being on top of the world. You can see as far as Maryland and Pennsylvania right from the dump in Hedgesville. The view is breathtaking…

…and so is the smell. It’s a jolt to be reminded that you’re at the dump and despite the spectacular view far off, you’re standing on trash.

After coming back to the reality of why we’re there, we start trash tossing It’s a wild kind of thing. We stand in the back of the truck and just toss our trash out onto the ground along with everyone else who’s traveled the steep hill to get rid of their trash. A gigantic front-end loader kind of thingy just keeps rolling back and forth over the trash we just threw out compacting and crushing it to smithereens. Our trash is no longer recognizable, it is obliterated, as if it never existed. We then sweep out the truck bed to make sure nothing is left behind, we get into our truck, and we descend the trash mound.

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us His ways

so that we may walk in His paths. Isaiah 2:3

When we reach the ground there’s this sign:

When you drive through the truck wash, hoses power wash the trucks to clean them and remove any yuckiness left behind and any mud from the journey.

We again drive onto the scale and we obviously weighed significantly less. We’d unloaded our burden. We had gotten rid of our trash.

Are you having some of the same thoughts I did?

I thought about my heart-trash, aka sin, the stuff I need to get rid of. I can’t even load all of it into my “truck” because I don’t yet recognize that attitude, or those words, or that tone, are actually trash.

I thought about how I let my trash build up to the point that it is sometimes overwhelming and takes a good while to toss it out.

I thought about ascending the dirt road and how it can be really messy sometimes, we’re sometimes covered in mud by the time we actually let loose our grip on our sin.

I thought about how clean we are when we descend the mountain, how we’ve been washed by the Blood of the Lamb.

I marveled at how the Most High Engineer created a way for me to get rid of the trash in my life!

I thought about how when I toss that trash, my sin, out of the bed of the truck, that it is erased, blotted out, and it is destroyed, forever, and never thought of again!

I thought about the spectacular, clear, endless view that awaits if I’m willing to get rid of the trash that is piling up and stinking up my life.

My My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!

The Holy Spirit heightened my senses at the dump. Isn’t that awesome?!?! Who’d a thought the dump could be so thought-provoking?

It’s harvest time, you all know by now, it’s my very favorite time of year. I love the sky, the smell, the sights, the colors. So, a couple of weeks ago when we were on our way to our weekly hotspot, we noticed these trees.

What do you see when you look at this tree? Of course, yummy, juicy, good ness. But think a little beyond your belly — I know, I struggle with that too! Let’s think about it a little deeper though. Take just a second and really look at that tree. Look at the apples. Look at the number of apples. Look at the color of the apples. Look at the leaves. Look at the tree structure. Look at the bounty. Imagine the smell, the crisp crunch and the sweetness.

The goal of Persisting in the Presence of God is to get us to see God in every single part of our lives. His presence is all around us, but sometimes we’re so busied-up that we don’t see Him. Hmmm. Sometimes we’re caught in the life-whirl created by the evil one whose sole goal is to keep us from seeing God.

However, if we persist in seeking and recognizing God, even in the most ordinary, mundane things — an apple tree, God will be glorified, and that’s our sole purpose for being here on this earth — to glorify God.

With that in mind, what thoughts about God do you have when you see that tree? Jot them down and reflect on them today.

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. John 1:16

So I’ve been thinking about the word “Holy.” We’ve been praising and worshiping a lot lately, and I’ve noted particularly, just how many worship songs speak to the “Holiness” of God. Well, duh, you say, but it’s not always a given that praise songs necessarily are about the character of God. Sometimes they talk more about the “I” than the “He.”

This recent opportunity for more worship has caused me to meditate on the “Holiness” of God. When I stopped to think about it, I just couldn’t put my finger on a good understanding, or definition of “Holy.” It is kind of important since God the Father and Jesus the Son say often throughout The Word – “Be holy, for I am Holy.” If God says He is it, and then calls me to be it, I’d better be checking into it.

I’m going to share some of the things I’ve learned about the Holiness of God and what that requires of me (us). For you see, in order for me to be holy, I have to understand His Holiness.

Vine’s Bible Dictionary says – Holy is defined as separation to God and Holiness is defined as the resultant state, the conduct befitting those so separated.

Think of it this way: God is Holy, He is set apart from everything that is not God. So, in order for me to be Holy, I must be set apart from everything that is not God. What is “everything that is not God?” Just that. Everything that is not good. God’s Holiness is the absolute absence of evil, wickedness — let’s just cut to the chase and call it what it is, sin. God is Holy, which means He cannot abide with or tolerate sin. And because He is Holy, He won’t. Because God is Holy, everything He does is Holy.

I love how Habakkuk 1:13 puts it: “You are perfectly just in this.” The King James Version makes it much more clear: “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.”

God is Holy — this prevents Him from looking upon evil (sin) — God and evil (sin) cannot coexist. His eyes are so pure He cannot look on injustice, iniquity, wickedness, wrongdoing, sin. He doesn’t just dislike sin, He says in Zechariah 8:17 “I hate all these things…” Yikes! Hate is an extraordinarily harsh word, and that’s the word God uses to describe His feelings toward sin.

So, God’s character is Holy and that means His actions are consistent with His character. In other words, because God is Holy, everything He does is Holy. And, wild as it may sound, that is His standard for us. Because God is Holy and we are His children, everything we do should be Holy (pure, without sin).

Hmmm…but we are sinners you say — true that! There is only One who is pure and without sin, Our Pure and Spotless Lamb, but He calls us to be like Him. But, we cannot be sinless. Again, true that! In his book The Pursuit of Holiness, Jerry Bridges talks about three types of Holiness: Positional Holiness – where we’re set apart to God at the time of conversion. Practical Holiness – daily growing more and more like Christ. Perfect/Complete Holiness – when in Heaven we will be forever free from sin. Hallelujah!

If Jesus Christ is our Savior, we are to pursue Practical Holiness, becoming more and more like Christ every day. Positional we already have and Perfect we will have in Heaven.

In pursuing Practical Holiness we must ask ourselves the questions – am I the same person doing the same things I was doing yesterday, last week, last year, five years ago? Same thoughts? Same attitudes? Same sin? Am I changed? Not, am I perfect, because I cannot be. But, am I growing daily to be more and more like Christ? What are my attitudes, what are my thoughts, what are my sins? If we don’t see continual changes in our lives, we must reexamine our relationship with God.

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14

But, if we abide with Him, abide in His Word, abide in sweet communion with Him, we will be on the journey to see God everyday in our earthly lives. If we don’t, we simply won’t.

We would see Jesus, in the early morning,
still as of old he calleth, “Follow me!”
Let us arise, all meaner service scorning;
Lord, we are thine, we give ourselves to thee.

As most of you know, I love this time of year. One of the best things about this time of year is the sky. To me, the dark seems darker, but the lighter seems lighter, all at the same time. I love looking at the sky, the clouds, and especially the stars. Even though I can’t reach them, touch them, or even fully comprehend them, there’s something about the stars that is humbling to me. Something about them puts me in my place. Something about them emphasizes to me the Magnitude of the One and the minimumtude of the me. We could all use some minimumtude at one time or another.

But as I sit in the darkness and look at the sky today, I stand amazed in His presence. Thank you God, for the reminder of Your Holy Magnitude as I gaze at the stars I can see, and all those that exist that I cannot see. Thank you Father for reminding me of Your Holy Magnitude as I gaze at my life here on earth, all those ways you’re working that I can see, and all those ways you’re working that I cannot see.

Repost – Cone Nebula – November 2022

Tony pointed out to me this week this amazing act of God. Do you see the work of His hand? Gaze at it for a minute and take it in.

What is it you ask? It’s a star making machine! Yep. The Cone Nebula is a “pillar-like cloud of cold, star-forming molecular gas and dust” according to NASA. It’s a star machine in the Heavens — it’s where stars come from! How cool is that?

Not to get into the weeds too far, this image was taken by a (VLT) a very large telescope (yes, that’s the technical name of the equipment – duh), located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The VLT is operated by the European Southern Observatory. They say this Cone Nebula is located fairly close to us, about 2,500 light-years away from earth. A light year is the distance a light travels in one year, nearly six trillion miles. So, six trillion times 2,500, who knows, you do the math. Anyway, they call that “relatively” close to our home towns. What in the world!?!? Actually, it’s out of this world…

Check out the video below from the ESO. It’s wild!

When I watch that I think of the word miracle. What is a miracle? An extraordinary event taken as a sign of the supernatural power of God. An event that requires the supernatural power of God to be accomplished. Each star made, each shining star released at the top of this nebula is a miracle. God of wonders…

As I’m star gazing that video, I find myself humming the song my 4 year old great-nephew Declan was humming this weekend, Million Little Miracles by Maverick City. Every single star produced by that Cone Nebula is a miracle. A gracious act of our Creator God. Hallelujah!

All my life, I’ve been carried by grace
Don’t ask me how ’cause I can’t explain
It’s nothing short of a miracle I’m here

I’ve got some blessings that I don’t deserve
I’ve got some scars, but that’s how you learn
It’s nothing short of a miracle I’m here

I think it over and it doesn’t add up
I know it comes from above

I’ve got miracles on miracles
A million little miracles
Miracles on miracles
Count your miracles
One, two, three, four, I can’t even count ’em all

Just like the star machine, we are miracles on miracles, we’ve got miracles on miracles, and just like the stars in the Heavens, one, two, three, four, we can’t even count ’em all. The miracles we are, the miracles we have, the miracles we see…when we stop to think about it, it is a little hard to wrap our brains around, right?

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

The Apostle Paul knew a little about miracles, didn’t he? He was a miracle. He lived a miracle. He was even given the power from God to perform miracles. But when Paul thought on God’s mysterious plan revealed, the millions upon millions upon millions of little miracles, all he could do was fall to his knees and worship the God of Miracles. Shouldn’t we do the same?