Free or Just Plain Scared?

This tree is growing crazy.  As I was looking at it, I kept looking for a break of some sort or whether it had been blown down by wind, but it hadn't.  If you will follow the line of the tree, it starts to curve to the right, and then continues to grow along the ground...One trunk, no break.   I've been thinking about this tree for a week and praying as to what God wanted me to learn from it, and this doesn't happen much, but He gave me two lessons.

1) Be Free to be You...most trees are made and have a natural growth pattern to grow upward, stand tall, and reach toward the sky.  This tree is growing just as God intended.  It may look different, but it was still created by God and has purpose.  The same applies to each of our lives.  We have to be free to grow in the way God intended us to grow, even if we don't look like "everyone else".  

2)  Close to the ground is not always God's best...Looking at the tree also reminded me of lives that "play it safe" by staying close to the ground.  Growing tall takes us further from the safety of the ground.  It makes us vulnerable, and situations and circumstances don't seem as controlled the higher we get.  On this tree, we would probably feel safer to walk and play on it, because the possibility of getting hurt is less.  Climbing a taller tree definitely brings more risk of getting hurt, but the excitement and the view once you get to the top is worth it.

Tangled?

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us"  (Hebrews 12:1)


I have new glasses (ughh).  I've never had them before, and "some" people say that it's just a sign of age, but I'm choosing to be thankful that God has given me great sight for 44 years.  I have found that in getting used to my new glasses, my depth perception needs adjusting, so I have been tripping over things that I didn't know were there, and things that I knew were there but I thought I could navigate around.


Taking a picture of these "vines" as I would call them, reminded me of Hebrews 12:1 and how just like adjusting with my new glasses, sin seems to have a way of creeping up, tripping up, and entangling.  Many times, it just slithers in like a soundless snake, and before I know it, it has a death grip on me.


Awareness...God's Best...guarding against complacency...sticking close to the One who hacks away the vines of sin before they settle in, calcify, and choke out
the Work of God in me, so that I can finish that race set before me.

In His Hands

"The skies lay low where You are

On the earth You rest Your feet

Yet the hands that cradle the stars

Are the hands that bled for me"

(Aftermath-Hillsong)

(notice the Hands in the picture)

Ruler Over ALL

"You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up

You still them.

The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;

You founded the world and all that is in it."

(Psalm 89:9,11-120)

Jesus...the calmer of our storms

Glory!

"His Glory covered the heavens

and His praise filled the earth

His splendor was like the sunrise;

rays flashed from His hand, 

where His power was hidden."

(Habakkuk 3:3-4)

Holding My World

And this is Your world, You made it
And all of creation is breathing because You sustain it
Jesus, by Your powerful word, You spoke out the earth and the heavens

So I will not worry or fret
My God is the God who will never forget
All of His goodness and all of His promises
He's holding my world in His hands

And these are your days, You give them
All for your fame and all for Your glorious kingdom
Jesus, You have ordained all things to dwell in Your purpose

So I will not worry or fret
My God is the God who will never forget
All of His goodness and all of His promises
He's holding my world in His hands

And I am Your child, Beloved
And all of my days my future is laid in Your promise
Jesus, to the end of the age, I am not alone of forgotten

So I will not worry or fret
My God is the God who will never forget
All of His goodness and all of His promises
He's holding my world

So I will not worry or fret
My God is the God who will never forget
All of His goodness and all of His promises
He's holding my world in His hands

Christian lyrics - HOLDING MY WORLD LYRICS - KRISTIAN STANFILL 

I Have All I Need

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

 ¹ The Lord is my shepherd;

     I have all that I need.

 ² He lets me rest in green meadows;

      he leads me beside peaceful streams.

    ³ He renews my strength.

   He guides me along right paths,

      bringing honor to his name.

 ⁴ Even when I walk

      through the darkest valley,^[a]

   I will not be afraid,

      for you are close beside me.

   Your rod and your staff

      protect and comfort me.

Notice the sheep...except for the one looking at the camera, all have their heads down.  They trust the Shepherd.  They are not looking around for danger saying, "Hey, do you see that?  Something's coming to harm us!  Watch out!  What was that sound?"  They trust the Shepherd.  They trust the Shepherd.

Jesus is our Shepherd.  He is watching.  Our job is just to remain with Him, in the close proximity of His Love and care, and let Him be our Shepherd.  He's trained, He's capable, He's loving, He wants the absolute best for us.  Remain...Remain...Remain

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love."  (John 15:9)

Hide me Lord!

"Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings"  (Psalm 17:8)


Those who are in Christ Jesus will always be like the female cardinal.  At first glance, you can not see her, because she is camouflaged by the tree.  Her enemy can not see her because she is protected.  The enemy's eye is drawn to her mate.

Jesus is the male cardinal.  His bright red covering marked with the reminder of His blood shed for each of us that call on His Name ("all who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved". Acts 2:21)  


The enemy has to go through the King to get to the bride...every time...Hide me Lord!!

Awesome Creator!!

 ⁵ This is what God the LORD says— 

the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, 

   who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, 

   who gives breath to its people, 

   and life to those who walk on it  (Isaiah 42:5)

"And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Matt. 10:30)

Okay, can I just say that things like this don't just evolve?!  A single snowflake on a scarf (got pic from Meredith Andrews tweet) is evidence that things just don't happen...they are created, and all things are created to give God Glory!  From the mountains, to the sea, to the newborn baby's cry and how it miraculously grows from a microscopic egg united with a sperm and then somehow survives in a mother for 9 months...the Divine Creator weaving and molding His Creation to give Him Praise!  

Down, but Not Defeated

The sight of swarming buzzards overhead makes me look for something wounded, weak, or dead below.  As I watched this scene as I drove home the other day, God reminded me of this fallen world where we are temporarily making our home.  Just as quickly as God will come to the aid of those who are hurting, fallen, or seemingly "dead", the buzzards (satan) will come in to try to devour the same.  

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph 6:12)

But for those of us who are "in Christ Jesus", nothing that the evil one could ever do can ever devour us.  Satan was declawed and defanged at the cross.  All he can do to us now is gum us to death.  Glory!!!

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."  (Phil 3:14)

Drawing You Back

I've had an injury since my last post that has basically kept me from exercising, both outside and inside, for almost 3 months.  I'm realizing that in order to see God in nature, you actually have to be in it, feeding off of it so that it can nourish your soul.

When I leave my feeders empty for several days in a row, the birds go elsewhere to find food.  I feel like there are times in my life when I feel empty, and void, and like the birds, because there's no food in the feeder, I search out other possibilities to fill me.  Because I miss my birds, I will go out today and fill their feeders again.  Maybe, possibly, that's what God does with us at times.  He allows the feeder to go empty for a season, allows us to go and eat in places that we've deemed "satisfying", in order to show us that our true "fill" only comes from Him.  And just like Jesus does, when we've come to the end of ourselves, He will fill the feeder back up to draw us back home.

"come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands."  (Deut. 14:29)