The Logging Season

 Matthew 7 (ESV) “Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

It’s time to start my logging season,

and there is certainly a reason.

There is a log than needs removing

if I can ever start improving.

Looking round the log I’ve found

becomes a harder job each time 

I try to fix another’s sin –

 the speck of sawdust digging in.

Instead I find there, close to home

no speck – a log instead – MY OWN!

If I focus on the speck 

and not see you,

I need to think that picture through.

‘cause when I check that speck I see

it’s judgement that’s controlling me.

……

Jesus said that I’m not good

or smart,

or just,

or kind

when I check your specks and not see mine.

And Jesus says that I must trust

His 

judgement to be always just.

He Cares

 Dear ones, 

We’ve heard so many requests for prayer recently, from hurting, broken people.  Sometimes it feels as if there is no reason to praise God.  But the Bible makes it clear that there truly is a reason to praise the God who IS and will always BE.  This little poem speaks of pain and praise.  I pray that it will comfort and encourage you, that you may be assured that the mighty, caring, perfect God loves you dearly.

Sing praise from a heart that is broken.

Sing praise as we honor God's name.

Sing with your voice and your mind and your soul.

Sing praise to our God in your pain.

As tears stain your pillow, rejoice in His care.

When pain lives in your body, clouding your sight,

and worries abound and your sleep doesn’t come,

sing praise to the God of the night.

The earth cries in anguish, bearing sin’s dire strain.

Since the rebellion of man, darkness falls like the rain.

When thorns tear through tendons and weeds become strong,

when earth becomes hardened, and toil causes pain,

when love becomes selfish and right becomes wrong,

God still promises

A new day will dawn, and the old world will fade.

With trumpets of joy, the King will come in.

The thorns will be kind and the trees will bring shade.

God’s sun will shine through, and God’s kingdom will win.

Glory to God in the heavens!

Glory and power and might!

Glory to Him who designed all creation.

Glory to the Jesus – the Light.

Sing praise to the Father Almighty!

Sing praise to the Son, who defeated sin’s power.

Sing praise when we hear Him, the Spirit of life.

Sing praise in each restless hour.

Rest!  He Cares.

Happy New Year

 

 

A new year has come!  It's 2024!
Things to help me remember:  2+0+2=4,  
even numbers help me to calculate ages, and printing 2024 is prettier than 2023.    

Remember when a “New Year” was pictured as a little child with a banner across his middle?  It was a picture of new beginnings, fresh and clean.  I think I will try to picture 2024 that way – at least for a little while.

So little new year, 

I’ll try to care for your days gently.
I’ll try to greet your minutes well.
I’ll value all the good you bring me,
and words of hope and joy I’ll tell. 

Because I know each year is given from
my Father’s powerful hand.
Because with every new day’s dawning
I see His glory in the land.

 So, I’ll smile at wind and weather.
I’ll rest and sleep 
when black the night.

And when the morning ends my slumber
I’ll greet
"The Everlasting Light.” 

Thank you, Father, for another year of life. 
I pray that my ways, in these days, will be pleasing to You. 

Diane

 

Silent Night?

 

Silent Night!
Holy Night! 

Does this song speak to you?
Or is the commotion in your world pulling you along
on its frantic, ear-splitting rush to nowhere? 

Are your mind and your heart
seeking, needing, desiring peace?

Rest now and experience Christmas.

Bathe in the mystery around us.
Pause and consider the reason,
and breathe in the scent of the season.
Then kneel as the sacred surrounds us. 

That night - that sacred night 
was

Set apart for us to know
that the promised one had come.
Creation’s long awaited Son
has stepped from heaven’s brilliant light
to the darkness here below. 

A baby cries, a woman sighs,
and soon the world would realize
the meaning of this “Silent, Holy night.”

Peace has come to still your heart -
God's peace within your soul.
 
This long awaited peace has come 
to make God's children whole.

Angels We Have Heard

We love Christmas carols, but sometimes we just sing them without thinking about what they’re really saying.   Here is the first line of a Christmas carol that began as a French song.  It was paraphrased in 1862 by an Englishman, James Chadwick.               

"Angels we have heard on high
sweetly singing o'er the plains

and the mountains in reply

echoing their joyous strains…”

Have you ever heard an angel sing?

If we listen to those words – they sound soft and gentle, don’t they?  I’m sure that the writer saw the encounter with the shepherds that way, and that’s nice, but --- sweetly singing?  I’m not so sure that is what came to the ears of the shepherds.  

I’m afraid that my mind doesn’t go there either.  Sweet?  God’s “heavenly host,” His army, announcing the birth of the King of the Universe?  I would be more inclined to believe it sounded like thunder, or a huge brass band than a sweet gentle harp.

The shepherds were frightened by the angel, and the “glory” that surrounded him, as he told them the good news of great joy.  Don’t you think that they were every bit as terrified when the angel was joined by a multitude (a huge number) of “the heavenly host” that filled the sky?

All this to say, though we know that many times God speaks to us in a gentle, quiet voice, there are times when the majesty and power of His words and His works are anything but gentle.  Afterall, He is God Almighty, and the announcement of the event that would change the course of eternity for all of mankind was surely not given in a quiet whisper.  

I suppose this idea touched my heart because so much of the time we Christians don’t look at the power of God, His majesty and might, but only His love and compassion.  I’m so glad that He is filled with power, majesty, might, and love and compassion, aren’t you?  I want to trust my powerful and majestic God who continues to treat me with gentle love, encouragement, and compassion.

Have a beautiful, power-filled Christmas season.

Love, Diane

The Plan

 

It was promised.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

though you are little 

among the thousands of Judah,

yet out of you shall come forth to Me

the One to be Ruler in Israel,

whose goings forth are from of old,

from everlasting.” Micah 5:2 (NKJV)

Where do you think that a king should be born?

In a fine golden palace on a warm summer morn,

with the servants all hurrying and royalty worrying,

and the citizens waiting to hear of his birth?

Or, I wonder 

where do you think that God’s Son would be born,

in the home of the lightning, the lair of the storm?

Would God’s thunder and glory
shout from the mountains?

Would the four winds proclaim this good news to the earth?

God’s Son was born in Bethlehem – a little town.  He was born far from home.  He was born in a dirty stable.  

It was promised.
It was planned.

Why that plan? 

Neither of these pictures seem to have been part of God's  plan.  Maybe because He wanted us to realize that we are all His children, each one of us, not just the mighty, the rich and the royal.  We are His children, the lowly, the poor, the old and the unborn.  

I believe God wanted us to know that our hometowns are never too remote, our homes are never too small.  The money in our bank accounts or the reflection in our mirror will never have any bearing on two facts.  

We are children of The King, 
and He loves us so much that He
would give His life to save us.

Bethlehem seemed insignificant, but it wasn’t.  We may feel insignificant, but we aren’t. It was promised.  Jesus, our Savior was promised.  Eternal life is promised for those who believe.  

And for sure, God keeps His promises.

God bless you today in so many ways.

Joseph

 

Matt 1:18 – 25 (ESV) Now the birth of Jesus Christ  took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.  But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
    and they shall call his name Immanuel.” (which means, God with us).

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

------

How many people would take on a challenge as difficult as the one Joseph had?  How many excuses could a person think up for not obeying the commands in that dream?  I believe that God picked this man out to be the earthly father to His Son.  He knew what kind of man Joseph was. 

Some time ago I wrote a poem wondering how Joseph would feel about this task.  This is not something I found in the Scriptures.  It’s just my imagination – but I wonder? 

The baby’s hands curl ‘round his fingers.
He looks in wonder at the sight of those bruised and broken,
rough and calloused, human fingers, held so tight. 

Baby hands reach out for comfort from this man so full of love -
the earthly father of our Savior
commissioned by his God above. 

Would this man’s hands be worthy vessels
to touch and lead the little lad?
Would he find respect and honor
from the one who’d call him dad? 

Baby hands curl ‘round his fingers
as they curl around his heart.
Joseph trembled, filled with questions,
still he vowed to do his part. 

Strong arms raised the precious bundle,
lifting Him toward the skies.
Humbly talking with the Father
Joseph prayed with tear filled eyes. 

With all his heart and soul he pleaded

for the strength and wisdom needed
to fulfill the task, God given,
caring for the Son of heaven. 

Joseph prayed – this was his prayer,
“God help me always to remember
just whose Son is in my care.”