Gold By Moonlight

"Hammer this truth out on the anvil of experience--this truth that the loving thoughts of God direct and perfect all that concerneth us' it will bear to be beaten out to the uttermost.  The pledged word of God to man is no puffball to break at a touch and scatter into dust.  It is iron.  It is gold, that most malleable of all metals.  It is more golden than gold.  It abideth imperishable forever.  If we wait till we have clear enough vision to see the expected end before we stay our mind upon Him who is our Strength, we shall miss an opportunity that will never come again: we shall never know the blessing of the unoffended.  Now is the time to say, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise," even though as we say the words there is no sense of exaltation.  "It is possible to gather gold, where it may be had, with moonlight," by which I understand something less helpful than daylight would be in the searching and finding of gold.  By moonlight, then, let us gather our gold."


And what manner of person wrote these words? "It is twenty-one years this year since I could sit up, and for nineteen years it has been this one position in bed; but isn't it wonderful that He enables us to triumph, and to rejoice in Him?"  Amy Carmichael began a home for girls destined to be abandoned or sold to temples in India for their ritual worships.  It is easy to imagine she would be needed on her feet, hugging these little ones, walking actively about and managing the affairs of the busy home.  Our Almighty Father had different thoughts concerning her, and in this she learned to praise Him.  This past weekend we saw a wonderful film about the modern-day Dohnavur Fellowship she began so long ago: it still thrives and throngs with happy and safe Indian children, in a beautiful setting amongst the mountains, and her influence is still strongly felt.  The girls she took in as newborns are now ancient women, but they remember her love and her mothering of them with ageless gratitude.


And who wrote the quote about gathering gold by moonlight?  The faithful Scottish minister Samuel Rutherford, in 1637, "out of much trouble of mind."  


As surely as the sun rose this morning, we serve the same loving Father as they, who can transform every anxiety and sorrow of our hearts into finest gold. 

--view opposite Samuel Rutherford's church ruins

--Ruins of Samuel Rutherford's church, Anwoth, Scotland

He Is! Risen

O, Happy thought - we join with all the saints from all the ages, the immortal refrain:


HE IS RISEN!
--HE IS RISEN INDEED!


May we share the immeasurable love He has lavished on us, children of the Most High God!!

Our Intercessor's Gifts

Guest post from our daughter, so fitting for this day between the remembrance of the horror of Good Friday and the unbounded joy of Resurrection Sunday...

That minute white dot there in the middle---is us---our whole world, the air we breath the ground we walk on, the wisdom we claim, the love we say we have, the truth we say we speak, the hate and selfishness and pride we're so good at-----that little speck is us. And He laid Himself down for that speck, for the little ants crawling, around on it, sinning around on it, falling away on it--us. The grandeur of that love screams out to us of this "God who takes delight in that which He does not need but nevertheless desires." 

taken by Voyager 1 from 4 billion miles away before it left the solar system

"Only God can love in absolute freedom, desiring the other without needing the other." 

That's why "He loves even those who do not return His love, and He loved us eternally even while we were enemies". 

"God's goodness is evident in creation and providence, of course, but the clearest evidence of the complete consistency between God's goodness and His sovereignty, justice, wrath, and righteousness is Christ's cross. There we behold the face of the God-Man who cries out, "It is finished." There, with unparalleled clarity, we see how far God is willing to go in order to uphold all of His attributes in the simplicity (God's attributes are identical with His being) of His being."

~~~~~~~~~

For Him, there was a beginning of the misery but no end.

Every day was as an old beginning, never new, never ending. Day after day there was no time, like an athlete pressing on in a race, straining, hurting, running, pressing, foregoing looking up in the pain of running, but hopeful—yet this was different. In this place there was no hope. All the pain and strain and exhaustion were there, but there was nothing to run for—the prize had already been won. This prize of all the ungodly—it was merited before the race began. The prize was ease in this first life; the right to do and live and love and deride and curse and hurt and sin as one chose. That was the reward. The earning was destined to take eternity.

This perfect Son, having lived the perfect life, now endured the judgment due for a flagrant life. All this, this world, this eternal life, He bore for us, when He yielded up His Spirit--the Son of God entered this realm of sweat and no hope, pain and no comfort, bleakness and no sunshine, claws, but no birds, and He existed eternity in this state. He took the rejection of His Father, His Light went out.

The Father saw Him and said “No”. That small, piercing, gut-wrenching word. He said no to His Son because His Son had given His holiness to us, and He stood before His Father in my sins. He was black and the Father turned away. For me.

He was cosmic, infinite, eternal, glorious, holy, perfect. I am human, mortal, weak, small, horrid, dirty, sin-loving, pride-clinging. And He descended into hell for me. Three days, thirty six hours—in human time. In God-time, it was the entire span of time. It was all of eternity.

And then the Father raised him from the dead, brought Him up out of hell. Where did He go from there? Did He celebrate and fly through the sky and fling off all the uncomfortable, itchy humanness, and soar with the eagles and teach the stars to dance? He sat down at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us now. He is there when we bring our requests. He makes sure they go through. And the Spirit intercedes for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.

And we don’t pray because we don’t have time? What an extravagant gift we are we letting fall into dilapidation!?


(quotes from Michael Horton's "The Christian Faith", pgs 265,6)

Weaving Wild Imaginations

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  II Cor. 4:6

Commanding the light to shine out of darkness was a cosmic creative act.  It is the birthing of an illumination, the arriving of color, the “showing” part of the telling of a story.  When light comes, all the texture, pattern, reality, of those things which inhabit our world come alive once again.  Shadowy night dreams and thoughts, which are not real, flee silently before the magnificent power of light which renders darkness suddenly void and empty of meaning.   True meaning is in the reality of day.  Daylight is when we wake up, begin to live.  Christ-knowledge gives us our daylight, our beginning-to-live aliveness.  And it is the dawn that gives us light enough to see – but it is the breaking of the Sun into our landscape which burnishes all gold-flashing brilliance into the shadows and glowing warmth through our cold hearts.  It is the breaking of the Son into our story, our Christ the alchemist that works all things for good and truest gold, who slashes through all shades of grey in our lurking souls. “Then sings my soul, my Saviour, God, to Thee, How great Thou art!”

The Story above all stories is that of Jesus, Son of God, coming to earth, walking among us, dying for us, and conquering our sin and misery and death through His rising from a borrowed grave, and ascending back to heaven, His work here complete, His work there continuing as He prepares Home for us.

Remembering this by means of a Christian Seder meal together is a profound form of fellowship.  Remembering the shadows of this our story through the Israelites’ bondage in Egypt and then freedom, allows this story to write the truths deep in our hearts of what it means to travail in sorrow and despair, only to be miraculously freed and brought to wholeness by a King whose thoughts are turned to us, whose intentions are to take us into His reality, and yes, His Home, permanently adopted.

--children searching for hidden pieces of leavened bread to remove from the house

"the removal of leaven carries with it deeper significance in Passover than simply its connection with the exodus. Its removal, and the symbolic removal at the beginning of the Seder, signifies the attitude of penitence, the willingness to remove any corrupting influence in one’s life and submit to God in obedience."  

--a girl enters with flowers, signifying the coming of a new season

"Passover is a Springtime festival, the season of rebirth, renewal, and new life. The days are filled with more light than darkness. The earth is becoming green with new life."  

"This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. All who are hungry come and eat. All who are needy come and celebrate Passover with us."  

"I will now hide a portion of the Matzah which we will use as the Afikomen, the dessert of our meal. It is a symbol of the redemption for which we all long and which we know will come, but yet which we do not yet see. All children must cover your eyes while I hide it."  

--the sweet haroseth got a thumbs-up from the younger members, who weren't so sure about the moror (horseradish) and bitter herbs in salt water.

"Twice during the Seder two elements representing a mixture of positive and negative experiences or emotions are incorporated...  The first is here where we will eat vegetables or herbs with salt water and later when we will eat the sweet charoset with bitter moror.  The contrasting elements serve to remind us that life is often a confusing mixture of joy and sorrow, of bitter endings and sweet new beginnings.  It is not our goal to eliminate the negative experiences and pretend that life is all sweetness and happiness.  That is a futile task and finally dishonest.  Rather our goal is to rejoice in the fact that God works in all the circumstances of life, just as he heard the cries of slaves and brought deliverance."  

*Seder quotes were taken from:
 "A Passover Seder for Christians" by Dennis Bratcher

A Loving, Worshiping Countenance

As we think of our Lord Jesus going through His last week, meeting at every turn unkind faces and frowning looks and hearing hurting words, I think most of us will be reminded of his longing for something very different...A loving, worshiping countenance, a voice that says only love words - that refreshes His heart.   --Amy Carmichael


"So the King will greatly desire your beauty; because He is your Lord, worship Him." Ps. 45:11
"Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." Ps. 95:6
"Give unto the Lord the glory due His Name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Ps. 29:2

Treasure of Family Identity

Adventuring together as a family continues to be our favorite form of entertainment.  What a wild, wonderful world is out there to explore!  What amusing personalities exist in people and in animals!  Laughing together as a family has got to be the very best medicine never bottled and sold. Now that our children are teenagers, we are intimate friends as we walk together the often rocky and steep paths of our callings here, and seek to encourage one another.  For now, for a fleeting time, those paths are intertwined in our family.  Our joy is to see them emerging into their own persons, gifted and interesting in individual ways.  Joyful, selfless life together is learned in the refining crucible of family life.


Forming a rich family identity around colorful adventures, common jokes, books read aloud, movie quotes, hundreds of conversations and thousands of laughter-provoked shared experiences, forges a special kind of heart allegiance to a shared vision that is not forced, cumbersome nor lightly valued, and not easily swayed.  And it makes for pretty entertaining car rides and dinner tables.  


From a recent adventure to an island:


Why, might I legitimately ask as a concerned wife and mother, is it necessary to walk out on a tree overhanging a hundred-foot drop?  No, you cannot tell from the picture, but a slip would mean certain disaster. Apparently that makes it meaningful and worthwhile, and especially amusing when wife and mother walks up, blanches, and turns around so she doesn't have to watch.  They even put the dog on a leash so she wouldn't fall off the cliff and die.

Photography is getting to be a significant pastime for them...pretty exciting to see some eagles! 

Yes, it is spring, despite the frostbitten ears while beachwalking

there is rather a genetic weakness for colorful rocks and weather-tossed driftwood

she has an unfailing eye for the absurd...

All in a glorious morning adventure, before rushing back to apply ourselves to mountains of work at home.  Somehow, all of us with elevated spirits and more energy to capture success.

Nautilus Journeys

I fancy I am on a journey into the heart of a cosmic chambered nautilus of believing God.  From one room to the next I feel as if surely I have found the center, surely I have learned my lessons this time; but I keep traveling through more and yet another, hoping by grace I have been made complete, only to realize a fresh, most unexpected turn.  At times it grows so very dark and then I find for fear I have closed my eyes and wander, and have but to open them and realize that the veiled opalescent light shining through my walled-in place is the shining of the Spirit-- is in fact a more sure reality than what I see when my eyes are closed to the promises, to the Word of God to me.

I was quite convicted at a point in an article written by Andree Seu in World: “Whenever we speak out words of unbelief, putting ourselves in agreement with the devil, we hand Him our authority and put ourselves under his.”  Ouch!  And she writes in her blog this morning about Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me):

"Have I ever told you about the time I was whining on the phone to a friend and he listened a while and then said, “Andrée, you got a Bible handy?” “Sure,” I said. “Turn to Philippians 4:13,” he said. “You got some Wite-Out?” “Yes,” I said, a little uncomfortable. “Well, why don’t you white it out then; you’re not using it anyway.”

"Ouch. That incident was my first eye-opener that the Word of God must be actually practiced and not just constantly quoted. Jesus said, “Take care then how you hear” (Luke 8:18), meaning that it is a very serious business to keep hearing Scripture and never living it in a daily walk…

"The very speaking out the Word of God in a public manner invites God to manifest Himself powerfully into our situation. Your declaration of His Word is an entry point for God to be wonderful… This isn’t manipulation; it’s aligning yourself with His will…The Word of God includes its application. The words “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” long to be activated and fly off the page into your reality when you claim them for yourself and your situation…”

Add that to what I read yesterday in Mary Winslow’s Heaven Opened about belief, and our words of belief  to one another:

"How very soon we shall realize what we are now called to believe; and in proportion to our belief will be our joy and comfort.  God be praised for what we do know—but oh, let us encourage each other, while on the road to glory, to follow on to know more and more of the power of Christ’s resurrection, who is watching over us with an ever-watchful eye.  Oh, to know that He loves us, that His love never changes, that He is causing all things to work together for our best interests, and in due time will come and receive us unto Himself, and that when we see Him we shall be like Him! 

"Unbelief, cruel unbelief, destroys more than half our comforts while on our short passage to glory.  A little while and we shall be put into possession of our glorious inheritance, and all our poor, short-lived trials, crosses, and disappointments are so many rich blessings in disguise to prepare us for it…then let us take fresh courage and look up…"

I think I see another doorway up ahead...

Entrance to Fingal's Cave, Staffa Island; Mendelssohn wrote his Hebrides Overture after visiting here.