No, the tree is not upside-down, as I thought. Ben said that it is the ground cover at the base of the tree. And not in my yard. You think I could actually have lushness like this? No, this is our neighbor's amazing garden, as are most of the blog pictures.

What a still place this is. If only my heart would look like this. If only I could listen when God speaks like the Psalmist encourages me to do. Psalm 62: For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

Quietness is possible, if difficult, in our rat-racing lives. God calls us to stillness. He calls us to listen. If prayer is going to be a true relationship with our Maker and Savior, then not only ought I to speak my requests that God will surely hear, but I need to hear God speak into my life.

How do I do that? Stillness before Him: sitting with my Bible open on my lap, really listening to what He is saying. Humility before Him: not assuming that my words of concern and need are more important than His words of comfort and teaching. Desire: wanting, really wanting, to see His glory and know His ways.

And, as we behold, really see, His glory in His Word and world, we become more like Him "from one degree of glory to another." Oh, let us sit before Him until we see it. "For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Glory!

Here's something cool I discovered this morning while reading Nancy Guthrie's Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament. Take a look at all of these verses on God's glory.

Exodus 34:29--When Moses came down from Mount Sinai . . . He did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.

Matthew 17:2--And he [Jesus] was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun . . . .

Revelation 1:16-- . . . and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

This is God's glory. When Christ peels the veil of his humanity back (Nancy's words, not mine), his true self is revealed, and we behold God's glory in the face of Christ. And that brings us to this amazing verse in 2 Corinthians 4: For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Literally, in His face. Isn't that praiseworthy?

And I'll finish with this from a few verses earlier: And we all, with unveiled face [only through Christ is it taken away re: verse 3:14], beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image [!!] from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Because of what Christ did at the cross for you and me, we will one day share His glory in all its fullness, and twinklings of it begin now. Today. Behold the glory of God, and be transformed.

There was a time on the mountain when Moses asked God to show him His glory, to which God replied that He would make His goodness pass before him and proclaim His name to Moses. Revelation of God. God revealing Himself to man.

Now, what might you think that would look/sound/feel like? A mighty rushing wind? Booming thunder and lightning? The "blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet" that Hebrews talks about when it refers to Mount Sinai encounters with God?

Here is God's revelation to Moses: "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty . . . ". (Exodus 34:6-7) This, this is what God wanted Moses to know about Him. Of all things! And certainly in his years with God, Moses had seen this side of God's nature, the compassionate God who brought His people out of Egypt, providing for their every need as well as punishing the unrepentent among them. This is how God chooses to identify Himself to Moses, when Moses desires to know more of Him.

Nancy Guthrie in her devotional, Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, says this about God's revelation: "So how does the goodness of God forgive as well as punish? In Christ. God does not--in fact he cannot--overlook sin. God will punish every sin in one of two ways--either personally in our own experience in hell, or substitutionally in Christ's experience on the Cross. The goodness of God is not that he ignores sin. The goodness of God is that he doesn't demand our blood to pay for our sin. Instead, he gives his own."

God can be merciful and gracious, forgiving our sins, why? Because, and only because, of Christ.

"He was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace,
and with his stripes we are healed."

Do you know what Gethsemane means literally? Place of crushing, or so Michael Card tells us, because it was a place where olives were crushed for their oil. Interesting that the crushing of our Savior began here in the garden.

This is the place where he cried out to God, His Father, to let the cup of His wrath pass from him. Three times he begged God to remove the cup from him. Three times he agonized about what obedience was going to mean for him. And three times: "Not my will, but Thine, be done," just as he taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer.

Michael Card: Obedience is perfected not in doing something you want to do but in doing the last thing in the world you want to do. And the book of Hebrews: Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. This is why God through Isaiah calls Jesus a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and it began that night in a garden when he willingly and willfully submitted to the will of his Father.

Truly he was crushed. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:9-10)

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

Aah! Doesn't it feel good to see all that lovely green--summer? I posted this picture today to help you remember that this is what spring and summer look like. It is coming. God even told Noah, "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease." And God keeps His promises. Whew.

Let's talk about another sort of glory today. In Exodus 28, when God is instructing Moses about the high priest and his role, He says this: "And you shall make holy garments for Aaron you brother, for glory and for beauty."

God's glory was going to be shown through His servants who interceded for the sinful Israelites. And while Aaron and his sons were sinners who themselves needed intercession, yet while they were ritually clean and dressed in the holy garments, they represented God as priests. So their clothes needed to be glorious and beautiful.

Now think with me about Jesus, our final high priest, and His garments as He interceded for us on the cross. No garments. None needed. He was Himself glory and beauty. "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high", the writer of Hebrews tells us. He is enough.

As we celebrate His redemption of us this weekend, let's remember and live the truth that He is enough. And He has crowned us with His steadfast love and faithfulness. Amen and amen.

Saturday conference

Okay, so I meant today. I have too much to do tomorrow, so here are the rest of the pictures now. Lucky you. I hope you see yourself in here somewhere, because I hope you were there. It was a great conference!

Thank you, BASIC, for providing the excellent music!

Thanks to Kreative Katering for the delectable lunch!

The decorating committee did such a lovely job making us feel cherished, didn't they?

And nobody makes aprons quite like Lisa Hilgendorf! Thank you to the beautiful waitstaff for their loving service.

Women's Conference

Welcome to the Women's Conference 2011! Our speaker was Sue Lutz from Drescher, PA, who spoke on standing steadfast in God's grace. We had almost eighty women: New Hopers and friends, Jacobs Wellers and friends, and even friends from Minnesota.

A great time was had by all!

Amazing desserts Friday night

from the Jacobs Well ladies--thank you!

More tomorrow--stay tuned.

If you are not satisfied in God, what does satisfy you? What is the good that you long for that God has withheld? What little (or big) thing niggles in your heart so much that you could say in your worst moments: Give me _______ or I die! like Rachel did when she was barren? What would make your life perfect?

For me, it can be something as simple as chocolate or as complicated as a happy marriage and godly children. But while these things are very good, do they supercede God, who alone gives all good gifts? And what courses of action do I take to obtain those things that God has clearly withheld from me? Oh, please remember Sarah, who couldn't wait for the child God had promised and, in giving her servant to Abraham to be the mother of the child, created untold misery for herself, her family, and the entire world to this day. Give me that son you promised, or I die!

Psalm 57 says this: I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me. Let us wait on God for His good purposes in our lives. Let us say with the Psalmist: Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great!

Here's a response question for you: What sorts of things have you longed for apart from God?

Manifold Witness

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

In wisdom have you made them all,

the earth is full of your creatures.

Here is the sea, great and wide,

which teems with creatures innumerable,

living things both small and great.

Psalm 104

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19

God's works are a manifold witness to His glory. They point us to an amazing Creator, and they reveal Him to us. We do well to study them in order to study the One who created them.

But you and I both know that creation is not His only manifestation of Himself to us. If it were, I doubt that we'd ever get it. Praise Him that He added to the revelation with His Word: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; . . . more to be desired are [His words] than gold, even much fine gold.

But our God went further even than that. He sent the Word to us, so we could see the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. This is a Creator, Father God who wants us to know Him! And He pulled out all the stops so that could happen.

And yet we continue to eat from trees that promise "good food", are "delightful to the eyes, and desirable to make us wise". God has shown us in any number of ways that He is all of the above and more. Oh Lord, give us a hunger for more of You. My puny little heart, three sizes too small, needs Your help to love You.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)

Revelation

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Oh Lord my God, you are very great!

You are clothed with splendor and majesty,

covering yourself with light as with a garment,

stretching out the heavens like a tent.

He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;

he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind;

he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.

(Psalm 104)

And it goes on and on, detailing the God who has revealed Himself to us in creation and in His Word. How blessed we are to have access to this revelation, that He wants us to know Him!

But how badly do we want to know our God and Savior? Wouldn't we mostly like to be content with "making mud pies in a slum because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea", in C. S. Lewis' words? We can't imagine what is meant. We simply must try to imagine what God meant when He revealed His glory to us, and enabled us through His Son to see it. Try to imagine entering heaven having wasted so much time playing with our mud pies when we could have been bathing at the sea with the Lord.

From your lofty abode you water the mountains;

the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

The question is: are we satisfied in Him? Or are we always looking for the next fun/good/pretty/entertaining thing to come along? Personally, I am afraid to answer that, after spending a good portion of an hour playing computer games today.

Let us look long and hard at the created world, the world that God spoke into being, the world that is there to reveal His greatness and glory and love for us. And let us be satisfied.

Clinging

Take a look with me at Psalm 63 for a moment. Here we have a picture of faith, hearing what God says and believing it. And hanging on to it.

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.(Psalm 63:1-8 ESV)

When life if hard, as it often is, I can be, I will be satisfied in God, and I will praise Him with joyful lips. Not because I am strong and smart and able, but because He is. Notice that my soul clings, but His strong right hand upholds me. Picture that: my weak and willy-nilly soul clinging, while His strong arm hangs on to me. It is He who does the work. I merely cling. No wonder I am satisfied in Him.

This night, as you wrestle with the hard things of life, remember Him upon your bed. Meditate on Him. Be joyful in the shadow of His wings. Oh praise God for those warm, welcoming, powerful wings!

Here's a picture to provoke some thoughts. Thoughts like: what is that? what is he doing? where is he? or she? And all I can come up with is that it's a monarch caterpillar climbing a stick in a jar. But since we haven't collected caterpillars since Ben was practically a baby, I have no idea why we even have this picture.

The reason I used it is this: Caterpillars are like promises--given the right conditions, they become something beautiful and amazing.

Now here's a response question for all of you: What promises of God have you found amazing in your own life?

Please use your name when responding so we can get to know one another better.

Here's a question for you: How do we know that God keeps His promises? You can look at this lovely picture while you come up with an answer to that one. Pretty, isn't it? And soon that's what it will look like outside. Honestly. Because God does keep His promises.

Now how do we know that? Because of Jesus. Almost from the earth-shattering moment when Eve decided to not believe God's word about that fruit tree, God has been promising over and over and over that one of Eve's offspring would destroy the work of that serpent and the serpent himself.

And then He came. Galatians says this: But when the fullnes of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem [i.e. rescue!] those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

So here is the great exchange, the greatest swap the world has ever known. God poured His full wrath against us out on Jesus, forsaking Him utterly, so we would never be forsaken. And now we wear Jesus' robes of righteousness. What an exchange.

Oh yes, God keeps His promises. If ever there were a promise for Him not to keep, it would have been this one. So if He gave His own Son for us, certainly when He promises His steadfast love and faithfulness to us, like He does in Psalm 103, He will surely give it. What an amazing God we serve.

Pure Joy

I have been memorizing Habakkuk 3:17-19 lately, and I discovered something this week about it. It begins with the "what-ifs" of life, like fig trees not blossoming and herds not in stalls. For me that would be house burning down and husband losing job. Or maybe the supper burning and me losing my slippers. What would it be for you?

But in the midst of what-iffing, Habakkuk commits to (multiple choice): 1) resignation, an Eeyore response, 2) contentment, a Winnie response, or 3) rejoicing, a Tigger response. Think carefully now.

And the winner is: rejoicing! Just listen to this--Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Why? God the Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. Is this not amazing?

When all is lost, and hope is gone, and the sheep have all been eaten, I will find joy in God. Because God has done profound things for me, even if He hasn't kept my stalls full. He has given salvation! He has been my strength! He can be trusted with my future. Remember that Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him", and "I know that my Redeemer lives!" What God has done for me (just look at Psalm 103 again, if you're forgotten) far outweighs what might happen to me in this life. I can rejoice in God, my awesome Savior.