A Christmas Eve Visitor

On Christmas Eve of 2008 I had the delight to look out my front window and see this beautiful Coopers Hawk-she was sitting on top of my bird feeder hanger! I had seen her at the feeding station in the front yard the day before: I usually chase them away when they hunt at the feeders-since that is an unfair advantage. I had also seen what I believe was this hawk hunting in the back of the house. Instead of chasing her I grabbed my camera and began to take pictures through the window-then I decided I would open the front door and get some closer shots. Much to my absolute amazement the Hawk allowed me to open the door-step out on the porch and begin to snap pictures of her. Then I began to approach closer and closer-speaking softly and snapping pictures(my coos might have sounded like a Mourning Dove-a favorite meal of the Coopers Hawk). Again to my utter amazement she let me get close enough to reach out and touch her. Why a wild Hawk would allow such a close approach by a human remains a mystery to me. This Hawk continued to hunt the back yard-but never allowed me to approach like this again.      
I really am one of those people who find the finger of God in every event of my life-so I just thanked the Lord profusely for such a Christmas treat!


The photos were taken on a Canon Powershot A590. I wish I were a better photographer because I do have the ability to be where the wild critters are at the right time. Don't forget -this is a WILD Hawk-to approach this close is unheard of. I am just going to post a couple of the better pictures.


Picture taken through the Window

 

 

From the Porch-using zoom.

                                                  Approaching very close here

 

At this point I was truly shocked!

                                       
                                            I could have reached out and touched her!

 Please click on the pictures for a better view! Always be ready for the unexpected-and have your camera handy. Have a wonderful Christmas!

When Sadness Crushes Our Soul

Well friends it's Christmas week and I generally have a meltdown every year about this time. I find myself in a gloom that I just cannot shake off. It is of course due to the fact that my son is not here and I have no grandchildren. Added to this is the fact that my husband is disabled-on strong pain meds and generally just can't help me through this time. I must say though that I am much better today than I have been in the last few days. When I stop and think about the losses in my life- It makes me wonder what people do and how people cope who have no Jesus to bring sweet hope in the middle of the pain. As I was lying in bed two nights ago, in prayer to the Lord, generally confessing my misery, the thought came to me that my refuge is the Lord. I also remembered that my best life is certainly not now-my best life is yet to come. I remembered too upon my bed  how lonely it must have been for Him to leave the glories of Heaven to come to this sin infested earth to live among us and die for our sins.



So today in the midst of my yearly meltdown-I decided to put up the Christmas tree and decorate the fireplace. I had pretty much decided that I could not bring myself to do any decorating or baking  this year-what with losing 2 sisters-in laws and a brother in law in tragic circumstances. I do however love the sparkle of the lights and the beauty of Handel's Messiah. Well anyhow -the tree is up-I have listened to Messiah and will bake cookies later in the week.

Please don't get me wrong-I do not need pity or sympathy--I just need an extra portion of God's grace, mercy, and the sense of His presence.

I would like to suggest that you never underestimate the pain -especially at this time of year-of those who have lost children or spouses. It is so hard to explain in human language the depth of the pain felt by folks who have lost loved ones to an early death-many just plaster on a smile and pretend to be okay. But since I am a very normal and ordinary person and I suffer this every year-please believe me -they are not okay. They need extra prayer-and maybe a card letting them know you are praying for and thinking of them. And please do not fear mentioning the name and remembering the life of their loved one-I am always blessed by people who tell me that they remember the son that I lost- my only child to a tragic and early death. I had a son-his name was Bill-he lived for 32 years on this earth and his father and I saw him almost everyday. I don't want anyone who knows me and knew him to forget him. I love to talk about him-even though it is painful. Even though I will see him again-the pain of just missing him-is relentless at times .

May I leave you with the first line of one of my favorite Christmas Carols-I hum and sing it daily at Christmas time:

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie
Upon thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark street shineth, the EVERLASTING LIGHT
The Hopes and Fears of all the years, are met in thee tonight.

So in my lonely longing meditations this year-I do have the sure hope that my best life is yet to come-regardless of the very wrong theory of the book "Your Best Life Now". Try convincing people like me of that lie!

As I have pondered the incarnation this week-I have been reminded in my heart that God also knows the pain of losing his sinless Son to death on the cross for our sins. Our Triune God knows pain-in a deeper way than any human ever can or will. That brings comfort to my heart--Thank you Lord God Almighty.

A Tribe Receives Its First Copies of the New Testament

I want to encourage all of you to visit Tim Challies blog today found here. Watch as a dear group of people weep with joy as they receive the complete NT in their language. Be sure to read Tim's prayer--how it resonated with my own heart. We must never take for granted  the greatest gift we can hold in our hands today--God's precious Word. I was so convicted as I watched those brothers and sisters weep for joy. May God grant us a new love for and dedication to the Bible in 2011. May we never forget that it is a privilege and not a right to have 10 or more Bibles lying around the house. May we never forget that it is an affront to God to neglect the reading and study of His Word. May we never forget the saints who gave their lives in martyrdom to give us that Word in our language! May we never forget that there are brethren that would give all they have to own just one Bible in their own native tongue.


Job 23:12
I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
ESV


Jer 15:16
Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by your name,
O Lord, God of hosts.
ESV

Brothers-Sisters-or Brother and Sister-What do You Think?

I have had the great delight to be visited by 2 young Red Tail Hawks. These were born this season and their tails have no red yet. It has been a delight to watch them in the mornings, when they have come to sit in the huge Tulip Poplar just a couple of hundred feet from the back door. They are way up there so I had to use the telephoto to get good pictures. When I take pictures this far away the pictures lose some quality because I am such an amateur--but they are lovely birds non the less. Click on the pictures and you will get a larger and better view.

The first day only one showed up-and the pictures are good I think-nice detail considering he is the same color as the tree!

The next day both of them showed up together

      This one is really cropped-but the detail is good-and it is rare to see them together in a tree at this age--at least for me.

k 

I just love being able to look out my back door and enjoy God's creation. I am so thankful for this-and I always want to share-even if the photography is sub-par.

Please click on the pictures-so as not to waste your time entirely!

An Evil Thing

I have been musing about  evil in the world for a few days now. In Theology it is called Theodicy. When I speak of evil I am speaking about more than lying or cheating or stealing or even murder. I remember hearing Ravi Zacharias telling of flying home from a trip seated next to a lady who saved babies. This lady would go into the red light district in Thailand(I could be wrong about the country). She would go into places where men would pay to rape and ravage little 1 to 2 year old baby girls. These men would get drunk on a mixture of liquor and snake venom, and inflamed with lust, they would pay to do unspeakable things to those little girls: babies who were sold by their mothers into that certain and horrible death. This dear lady would go there to rescue those babies. What those men were doing--that is what I mean by evil. Things that you and I for the most part could not even conceive of-if someone did not tell us of it; in the world there is evil and there is EVIL.

One of the hardest issues I think we ever encounter as Christians is trying to explain to the unsaved about why evil exists. It almost chokes me to say to an unbeliever that evil exists because that is the will of God. You are always feeling like you must apologize for God or something! And I must say that I have wrestled greatly with the issue -especially before God opened my eyes to his Sovereignty in all things including the existence of sin and evil . It is an issue that I take by faith--God is good-and God decreed evil. God is Holy-and God decreed evil. God cannot be touched with evil-but God decreed evil.

Since I can't explain the reason for evil nearly as well as a few of my favorite Johns--I will let them speak.

Jonathan Edwards:
"It is a proper and excellent thing for infinite glory to shine forth; and for the same reason, it is proper that the shining forth of God’s glory should be complete; that is, that all parts of his glory should shine forth, that every beauty should be proportionably effulgent, that the beholder may have a proper notion of God. It is not proper that one glory should be exceedingly manifested, and another not at all; for then the effulgence would not answer the reality. For the same reason it is not proper that one should be manifested exceedingly, and another but very little. It is highly proper that the effulgent glory of God should answer his real excellency; that the splendour should be answerable to the real and essential glory, for the same reason that it is proper and excellent for God to glorify himself at all. Thus it is necessary, that God’s awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God’s glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faint without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all. If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God’s holiness in hatred of sin, or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God’s grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness soever he bestowed, his goodness would not be so much prized and admired, and the sense of it not so great, as we have elsewhere shown. We little consider how much the sense of good is heightened by the sense of evil, both moral and natural. And as it is necessary that there should be evil, because the display of the glory of God could not but be imperfect and incomplete without it, so evil is necessary, in order to the highest happiness of the creature, and the completeness of that communication of God, for which he made the world; because the creature’s happiness consists in the knowledge of God, and sense of his love. And if the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of the creature must be proportionably imperfect; and the happiness of the creature would be imperfect upon another account also; for, as we have said, the sense of good is comparatively dull and flat, without the knowledge of evil."
This is taken from the works of Jonathan Edwards Volume 2 chapter 3. It has to be read several times to be understood -but it is worth the effort. The 2 Johns below build on Edwards-especially Piper.


John MacArthur "Why does Evil Dominate the World: here


John Piper-A quote form this message
"So the answer to the question in the title of this message, "Is God less glorious because he ordained that evil be?" is no, just the opposite. God is more glorious for having conceived and created and governed a world like this with all its evil. The effort to absolve him by denying his foreknowledge of sin or by denying his control of sin  is fatal, and a great dishonor to his word and his wisdom. Evangelicals who are seeking the glory of God, look well to the teaching of your churches and your schools. But most of all, look well to your souls.
If you would see God's glory and savor his glory and magnify his glory in this world, do not remain wavering before the sovereignty of God in the face of great evil."

We will never fully understand the mystery of evil this side of eternity but what is written above is a great help to me -and I hope it helps you too. Oh-and I promise to lighten up-Christmas is around the corner. The time of year that we celebrate the birth of the Great destroyer of all evil. Maranatha !

Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God-by John Piper

Persis made a comment about reading this book at my last post on loving God. When she mentioned it I remembered that I had ordered it for my Kindle weeks ago. So I have started to read it. One of the problems that I have is that I always have 10 or so books in the wings to read. I never get caught up with what I have before ordering what I want to read in the future if I find it on a good sale. I know I am not alone in this-most of you who read here are bookworms like me. 


I want you to know that after just a couple of pages I am STOKED! This is going to be classic and excellent Piper. I am going to quote just a few lines for you--and I hope it whets you appetite! Now this kind of thing can be very subjective--and I have only read a few pages-so I hope not to lead anyone astray. But if-like me- you like Piper-you are probably going to like this.

So here is a quote from the first chapter where he is talking about writing his book called "The Justification Of God".
Quoting Piper "Writing this most difficult book about God's sovereignty was not dispiriting; it was incendiary. This was the God I wanted more than anything to proclaim-not just explain. Yet it was the  explaining that set fire to the proclaiming. I have not forgotten that. That is the main point of this book. I haven't forgotten because it is still true. 'As I mused' says the psalmist, 'the fire burned;then I spoke with my tongue'(Ps.39:3). Musing. Brooding. Pondering. Thinking. That has been for me the pathway to seeing and savoring and singing and speaking--and staying. Year after year, this has been my work--prayer saturated , Spirit dependent thinking about what God has revealed of himself to provide fuel for passion and preaching. Thinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God. Thinking is not an end in itself. Nothing but God himself is an end in itself."

Okay, so that was all it took to hook me. Maybe I will just do a weekly book report here on the chapters. I have always loved Piper-even though a few of his books just did not click with me. It seems that this one will though.

You can find it here where Amazon has it for a 47%  discount, and only $7.99 for your Kindle!

Are You Loving God? Young Calvinist?

Meditating on this subject is a lifetime pursuit. How to love God is much more than a set of do's and don'ts. I think most of us who are believers understand that obeying God and doing His will are part and parcel of loving God. To obey God is probably the only way we can show ourselves and others that we truly do love him. Never forget, however, that keeping the rules  is not a guarantee that one loves God. Loving God has to do with the head AND with the heart. One of the reasons I like John Piper so much is that his writings deal with this subject.

 I love the Doctrines of Grace. I am a Calvinist. I love to study the Theology and the system. The study of God's Sovereignty in election has been such a freeing force in my life. Understanding the doctrine of Particular Redemption makes sense of Christ's Atonement. The study of our Triune God-the Trinity- amazes me and puts my brain into short circuit pretty quickly as I try to understand-with my finite mind!

When we look at the TV preachers that represent Christianity to the world--it makes us sick-doesn't it? It's all man centered-emotionally driven falsehood. There are very few men of God who are on TV that really represent God as He is. As far as I know John MacArthur is one of a very few that are left.

In thinking about loving God today-let me just say this. A young bunch of Calvinists is out there; and they are ready to do battle for the truth. I pray that they never forget this: Loving God involves the heart as well as the head. It is very easy to get caught up in the battle for truth--and forget WHO the truth is. God demands our hearts-as well as our heads(Mat. 22:37). The Pharisees had head knowledge-but they had no heart for God. They hated Him when He showed up on their turf-and they killed him-when they got the chance, Acts 5:30-32.


I am concerned about this because I have read some of the comments and posts around the internet from these young Calvinists. I find some of them to be mean spirited and rude. Being kind toward brethren with whom we disagree but are still brethren is VERY important. It is a good thing to want people to come to a right Theological understanding. It is arrogance to want to pound at others so that you look good and smart-and after you have won the  debate to rub a brother's nose in it(or sister's-for that matter.)

I have seen this-and it troubles me. When you leave the head out of Christianity-you get the confusion of a Joel Osteen or the idiocy of a Benny Hinn or the downright occultism of a Todd Bentley. When you leave out a  heart consumed with  love for God -you end up with a Pharisee. Men like Jonathan Edwards and John Owen and Charles Spurgeon and Martin LLoyd Jones had hearts aflame with love for God. It is my prayer that God will raise up a generation of leaders like them. We have some right now-RC Sproul-John MacArthur-Al Mohler-Mark Dever- John Piper-James White(just to name a few). What troubles me is that these men are aging and I am not seeing many in the wings to fill their shoes. Men who have the head and the heart to take the Church into the future.