Near to the Altar

How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young--
a place near your altar,
O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

they are ever praising you.

Psalm 84:1-4

The birdhouse is at our back fence, was made by my father-in-law, and now is serving as winter shelter for many sparrows. My husband made and added the plexiglass cross. I used to think of the many English sparrows around our home and feeders as little pests, worthless compared to the other prettier and less common birds. But I have grown very fond of them and like to think of them as symbols for who we are in God's eyes - mostly very common, ordinary created beings, but deeply loved and appreciated by God, our Creator.

"Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland."

Isaiah 43:18-19

Happy New Year!

May the Lord bless you with a new beginning as you cross

from the old to the new.

Frost lingering in the shadows of the bridge as Sterling State Park, Monroe, Michigan.

Dec. 30, 2008

The Path

Jesus, you are the path.

I think it's time to get out my lawnmower...

John 14:5-7 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

Boundaries

The Lord frequently uses my dogs to teach me about obedience.
One thing I think about when I walk them is this verse:

"LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me." Psalm 16:5-7

Strider, the shepherd mix, loves to go for walks. He isn’t very well trained - on a short leash he’s always pulling ahead of me. But on a long leash we have a great understanding. He knows commands for around, over here, this way, stop, wait, come, here. And most of them he learned on his own, then I noticed and reinforced them. The best part is that he loves the walk so much for it’s own sake that he doesn’t much care where we go as long as we are moving forward. I don’t let him off the leash because he’s not very well trained and I want him to stay safe. But he is content on his long leash and willing to live within the boundaries I set for him. He rarely tries to insist on his own direction. If I say ‘this way’ he just changes direction and keeps on moving. I walk Lucy, too. She’s a different story completely...maybe one for another day...
The more I work with the 2 dogs the more I realize that a well trained dog is a work of beauty reflecting the love, trust, and dedication between the dog and the master. My dogs are not well-trained - more like half-trained, if there is such a thing. I take responsibility for that: I don’t always know the best way to train them and am not diligent to keep it up like I should.

Through this the Lord tells me that total obedience to Him is the best way - to be so in love with Him and so totally trusting Him that I am always willing to listen to and obey His commands realizing that they are always in my best interest. Like Strider, I don’t always listen. Left to go my own way I would get into lots of trouble. My desire is to be at least as good as my dog - willing to stay on the long leash and go in whatever direction my Master desires, knowing that it will be good, that his boundaries for me have fallen in pleasant places. I don't need to find my own direction. I just need to listen for his directions and go with him.
Now if I can just learn to heel!! Or be like the German Shepherd I saw recently on TV...he was so well trained that he was always looking at his trainer watching for that next command, instantly ready to comply! And out of love and trust, not fear: He was obviously very happily partnered with his ‘person’.
Woof!!

Lessons in Lint

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

I’m Cleaning House
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit it: I am not a good housekeeper. Never have been. Maybe I will be someday.
I sometimes let myself get critical of others and say way too much about them to others. That is not godly: It is sin. It’s been an ongoing problem and I know it. And yet I have not been diligent in stopping it. I also realize it is not just a matter of stopping the words, but of allowing the Holy Spirit to change my heart.
LK 6:44-46 ‘ The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. "Why do you call me, `Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"’
So today I have been repenting and asking the Holy Spirit to do whatever it takes to change my heart so that I can be loving, not critical towards others. He told me to start cleaning my house.
Hmmmp!!
So I started in the laundry room. It’s small but nicely filthy. I knew there was some dirt there. That turned out to be a real understatement but it parallels what the Lord is showing me about my heart.
Here are some of the things I learned:
1. The more I look the more I’ll see, and some of it is going to be very unpleasant. But it’s okay because I can know that it will be clean soon. Sometimes I think "I’m a pretty good person, I’m only a little sinful (dirty...) - Others are much worse." (that critical spirit again!) But the Lord is saying that I am going to see a much dirtier heart than I realize right now. But it’s okay because He already knew and He’s going to clean it up since I’m willing.
2. Don’t do surface cleaning first. If the top is dirty, what’s under it is worse. Then the surface will need cleaned again - twice the work, twice the time. This mirrors what I have been trying to do by just stopping the ugly words that come out of my mouth without letting the Holy Spirit clean the heart first.
3. It’s hard to reach some areas or clean them to be spotless again. But for the heart cleaning, if I am open to it and willing to do my part the Holy Spirit will make the rest spotless and pure.
4. Some areas I can’t even see, but same as above - if I am willing the Holy Spirit will clean up even what I can’t see. (Psalms 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.)
5. I don’t have to bare my sins to the whole world, but sometimes I might need some help cleaning up, maybe my husband or a trusted friend. That’s okay, too.

6. As I look deeper and clean more I’ll find that He’s saving me even physically in some areas. I didn’t even plan to unhook the outside hose to the dryer, but it fell off, and there was a very large, hard clump of lint in there that was filled with all the little things too heavy to go up the hose - lint stopped by nails, screws, coins, nuts and bolts. The hose was halfway blocked. If it had closed up I suspect it could have caused a fire. Thank you, Lord, for showing me that in time!!

7. And, last but not least - sometimes cleaning up the crud yields riches in unexpected ways. Look what I found stuck to the floor in all the accumulated lint and dirt! God promises riches to his children who desire to live righteous and clean lives.

The laundry room - all finished and nicely cleaned!!

Fishers of Men

Matthew 4:18-20 'As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. '
This photo is from my backyard pond. I was photographing the fish and noticed the reflection of the cross my husband, Bob, put on the big birdhouse - a gift to him handmade by his father. It seemed a fitting image for this verse. My favorite part of the verse is that 'at once they left their nets and followed him'.
Lord Jesus, I should be so obedient to your every word!

His Eye is on the Sparrow (and others)

Mark 10:28 - 31 "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

My favorite find of the winter walks so far: some bluebirds mixed in with sparrows and juncos. I know a few stay for our Michigan winters, but I've never seen one in winter before.

Some local sparrows hidden in the grasses - lunch on a chilly day. Horned Larks on a gravel path at Munson Park, Monroe. They would fly up into the wind with every blustery gust on this bitterly cold, snowy day.
A few brave souls (about 6 teens or adults, no young children, thank God!). The temperatures were sub-zero with a strong wind chill. A lonely Mourning Dove who didn't fly even when we were very close with the 2 dogs. Hope he wasn't staying there because he was injured!
And a Pied-Billed Grebe at Raisin River, Monroe. The only odd-ball duck amongst a horde of Mallards and Canada Geese. And me with the 2 dogs, Lucy (on the left) a border collie/chow mix, and Strider a Shepherd mix. They love the cold weather - and I don't mind it either as long as I'm dressed warmly.

These photos were taken over several days. I didn't walk on the worst day - just hung my head and camera out the window quickly!

Thank you, Lord, for watching over us all!