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Lilies from Heaven

Advent Season and Waiting

12/2/2020

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Advent Season began on Sunday. This is my favorite time of the year with all the beauty and stillness that come with it. It is time to sit and be still, to think, to ponder, to wonder, and to reach for hope.

Advent means coming. The birth of Jesus is coming. We are waiting for this event that brings hope, light, and goodness into this world. 

The boys and I are taking out the Advent Candle holder in the evenings. I read Scripture to them and we pray together. after supper We are also reading one of the many Christmas storybooks that I have collected over the years. I have three little Christmas sacks that I hide them in, and the boys take turns picking one to read. 

Yesterday was the first day that they were actually quite calm for the Advent readings. They answered questions and prayed. I had a moment where I thought "Wow" and was absolutely delighted that no one was insulting anyone. It was a joy!

And just in case you were wondering, we do have favorite storybooks that we read over and over again. I will share three of them here.
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Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree is a delightful story of the tip of the Christmas tree being cut off in order for it to fit in Mr. Willowby's front room. The top of the tree travels to another part of the house, out of the house, and around the the neighborhood as all kinds of animals find it, are delighted with it, and then end up trimming it a little bit more in order to make it fit perfectly into whatever space they are dealing with.

This storybook is written as a long poem with rather delightful language. I enjoyed each and every rhyme. 

Yes, this was made into a TV movie back in 1995. Check it out on Youtube! 


Another favorite is The Tale of Three Trees. Each tree has a dream of what it wants to become. Three trees on a mountain dream of what they wanted to become when they grew up. One wants to be a treasure chest, another an ocean-going boat, and the third a signpost to God. None of the trees become exactly as their dream, but they do become something better than their original dream. It's beautiful and poetic.

I do love the fact this was a story that is told and retold. It is beautiful when something that has filled the hearts and minds of more than a generation is put into print in order to preserve the tradition. 
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The last book I will mention is Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd Jones. Yes, this is the same person that wrote The Jesus Storybook Bible. This one features creation. Each and every animals is excited about the coming birth of Jesus. They seem to sense the magnificence of the event that is about to take place. Of course, the story culminates in the stable where all the animals gather around to see the baby who was born in a manger.
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Another Advent tradition I have is the reading of great poetry. I enjoy this because it is one way to be still and just savor the moment. We all need these moments where nothing is happening, all is quiet, and just sit with ourselves.

There are too many good poets to mention here, so I will save it until next year! 
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On Lent, Legacy, Lessons and Christ

4/1/2019

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​I have been reading through the gospels about the crucifixion as I prepare Sunday School sermons leading up to Easter. Yesterday and today, I spent quite a bit of time reading through the chapters in the gospels leading up to the point where Christ died.


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I admit, it is incredibly hard to get through the story. I continually see an innocent man wrongly accused, political maneuvering, and tragic circumstances.

I love the change in the story as it moves from an innocent death to a realization that this death, this sacrifice, really is the Son of God giving up his life for others. 

As it turns upside down, love and grace win. Jesus is the beautiful sacrifice. His legacy is love, eternal life, good triumphing over evil, love winning over legalism.

And it got me thinking about legacy. What do I want my legacy to be?

I hope and pray my legacy to those around me will be a life that brings others into their own God-given grace. I hope that the power of grace that lives in me will encourage and help others to live out their own stories of grace and compassion. My story leads into other stories of how God changes lives and how those lives change others.

I believe that part of my legacy is in the words that I write so, here are some words to think about that I hope will encourage loved ones.

Live in Jesus. Walk your road with Him. Dance to music, cry with Him, learn from Him, be with him. Tell others about him.

Every day, every year that I know Him, He gets better. He gets better because I know more surely for who he is.

Jesus satisfies. His way brings peace and His love brings healing. Never allow circumstances to overshadow this reality. 

Celebrate life, every day, as often as you can. 

He has planted sunrises and had the sun set to remind you and I that He is there at the beginning of the day and at the end. 

When your burdens are heavy, He has your back and your front.

Don't waste time in the guilt of never being good enough. He is good enough, and your nearness to Him makes you good too. 

Give grace to everyone you meet. Bitterness kills the mind and soul. 

Don't take on the anger and guilt of others. Just wait patiently for darkness to pass. 

Remember that I am praying for you, believing in you, thanking God for you. The story of our lives together will be told forever throughout eternity.

Show others the love and grace of Jesus, and then, when hearts are open, tell them about how they may know Him. 

Teach your children and other children about Him every day and live with integrity in front of them because you are the first Bible they will ever read. You and I can pass on His messages and righteousness from one generation to another. 

Whatever you do, do it for God's glory. Create music, write books, cook meals, plant flowers, build websites. Do whatever God has gifted you to do. Use all that you have for his glory.

Like Paul, at the end, I want to say that I have fought the good fight and finished the course set out for me. It is a privilege to be able to walk hand in hand with Him everyday and to be a part of His Kingdom.

Dark tests do come, but remember they are temporary. He left us His peace, and He reminded us to take courage. 

Take courage. Hold fast. This trial will pass soon enough, and you will have an amazing story to tell.

Think of the feasting that is to come in heaven. Hold on to that in all trials. In the end, there is a party, a great feast, a beautiful rousing of other believers telling their stories of how HE changed it all. We will break the bread, drink the wine, celebrate His presence. 

​Believe and celebrate.



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A Prayer About Kindness

8/23/2016

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But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2: 4–7)

Gracious Father, reading these words from Paul is like standing under Niagara Falls with my mouth wide open. I’m capable of taking in only a tiny portion of the mighty waterfall of all this gospel goodness. You inundate us with your great love, multiplied blessings, and incomparable grace. It’s actually fun to repent since repentance opens the floodgate to more of your mercies.

But today, what really arrests my attention the most is the image of being raised from the dead and seated in Christ so that throughout eternity you might demonstrate your kindness to us in Jesus. That absolutely fries the circuit board of my imagination, throws fuel on the fire of my longings, and reveals the paucity of my faith.

Father, the revelation of your kindness touches something very deep inside of me in this season of life. Maybe it’s because of how little kindness I see in the world today. Maybe it’s because of how much I long to be a genuinely kind man. Maybe it’s because it contradicts so many wrong images I’ve had of you so much of my life. By the power of the gospel, continue to rid my heart of all the false notions I’ve entertained about you. ​

There is no other God who would raise up dead sinners for an eternity of lavishing on them more and more of his kindness. I’m left speechless, breathless, and ever so grateful. I pray in Jesus’ glorious name. Amen.
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Calm and Bright

12/5/2013

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The first week of Advent has been a flurry of activity.  Students are handing in assignments, last minute homework checks, christmas ornaments on the tree, stories being shared with the children, and very little reflection on HIM.

Flurries, busyness, activities, meals, and only a little of HIM.

Isn't that how it goes?  The season is planned, cookies are baked, prayers are said, meals are shared, and yet we seem to reflect only a little on the baby in the manger.

Advent is this season of waiting.  We are always waiting for Christ but the ache is more apparent in this season.

And then I heard "Silent Night".  For the first time, I was struck by the lines, "All is calm, All is bright."  These words do not seem in sync with one another at all.  They contrast, but it isn't jarring.  Together they evoke a longing and a curiosity.  

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Whisper them together now, under your breath.  Really.  No one is listening.  "Calm and bright.  Calm and bright."  What do you feel?

Calm.  I feel peace.  Peace in His Presence.  Bright.  I feel light and lightness.  Together.  Calm and bright.  I feel peace, hope, and welcome.  I am expectant.  Another moment of immanence and transcendence.  

The calming peace of Christ lies in his nearness.  He has come.  He is here. He is close by. 

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The brightness of hope is, in baby form, not too much too overwhelm.  His transcendence is a flame that could incinerate and stupefy the merest man or woman - but in the Christ child it is a bright gleam of hope that I am not afraid to be near.  Because "all is calm, all is bright," I can sleep in the heavenly peace of Christ.

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful..." John 14:27 NASB

During this season of joyful waiting, longing for the birth of Christ and the world's rebirth, I am struck by the beauty of it all.  The waiting and the longing, this spiritual homing device that has been placed in our hearts by God to lead us back to Him.  

As Psyche realizes in Till We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis), "It almost hurt me...like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty comes from...The longing for home."

Advent ache is real.  All is calm.  All is bright.  All is beautiful. As. We. Wait. For. Him.


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On Beauty

7/8/2013

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It's been a while since I posted.  One of the reasons is that I can feel the Lord prompting me to write on beauty.  Not just physical beauty but internal beauty.  It's a huge topic, and this has been a challenge. To reflect on beauty and what it means from a Christian perspective, is to be faced with ugliness and sin.  I have been struggling with my own ugliness, my sin.

On beauty.  God doesn't leave us in our darkness, our failure, our ruins, our ugliness.  Confessions of needing Him as Lord and Savior changes us to something else.  Our darkness becomes light and we become a part of that light.  Our failures become something that is used for His success.  Our ruins become glorious as we call on Him.  Our ugliness becomes something beautiful.  

Physically beautiful people, beautiful things these are candy for the eyes.  These people and things have their place and they bring momentary pleasure.  Christ's beauty is not a momentary pleasure.

Christ's beauty is to face our own ugliness, our sin, and redeem it.  As we face our ugliness, Christ faces us with other uglies.  Injustice is all around us.  As we learn to face the ugliness of injustice, we learn to see as Christ sees.  We must look more deeply at something that by the world's standards is ugly and slowly discover that it is gem.  We see beauty as we learn service to others.  Beauty is found in the giving to others.

Christ teaches us sacrificial love.  He sacrificed himself for us. What defines beauty?  The nails on the cross defines beauty.  The broken ways of Christ define beauty.  

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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

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Mary and the Garden

5/2/2013

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Dear woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?" She thought he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him."            
- John 20:15
This verse is a passage that generates a lot of sermons and discussions around Easter.  Mary, distraught with grief over Christ’s death, is unable to recognize Him.  She sees Him, but doesn't recognize Him fully. 

First, she recognizes him as a servant.  Perhaps he was simply dressed, in a white tunic, scanty, old and worn.  The cloth may have been colored from the sweat of his body, tight fitting, short, as if it is a hand’s breath below the knee, looking thread-bare. He probably looked like a servant. There is something miraculous here to think about.  He had done the greatest labor and the hardest work there is.  

Secondly, she recognized him as the gardener.  He was the one who takes care of the garden, caring for fragile, new life in spring.  He digs and sweats, turning soil over and over.  He waters at the proper time.  He continues in his work, eventually making sweet streams to run, and fine plenteous fruit to grow.

 He was a servant in the garden on that day Mary saw him.  He was also a gardener.  By his labor—his passion, death, descent into Hades, resurrection and ascension—Christ reveals himself as the Master Gardener who gardens our humanity and returns us to health and newness of life.

“Mary!” Jesus said.  She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).                       
-John 20:16                 

Christ was recognized as a servant and a gardener, and then he revealed himself to Mary.  Christ is the ultimate servant.  He placed himself on a cross as a living sacrifice to all who would call on his name.  His life, death, resurrection, and ascension show his unbounding love for a lost humanity, transplanting us to a new garden where health and new life is embraced.  He is the Master Gardener.
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