Cares

'Tis the season for peonies.  Isn't this one pretty?  What wonders creation holds.  


When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.  (Psalm 94:19)  Does your heart have cares?  Does it beat?  


If you have children, you have cares.  If you dwell in a broken, aging body, you have cares.  If you live in a house, you have cares.  If you live in a tent, you really have cares.  If you drive a car, pay bills, work a job, tend a garden, you have cares.  Why?  Because we live in a post-Fall world, a world that is broken, old, and affected by sin.  


So think of your cares this hour.  What are you doing with them?  Hugging them to yourself, feeding them, strategizing over them, ignoring them, denying them?  God has a better answer to that question:  listen to His consolations, let them cheer your soul.  Watch Him at work.  Meditate on His words in Scripture.  Remember that He governs all things for His own glory and your good.  Your good!  


You are not alone!  For the Lord will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage. (v. 14) 


For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.  (Psalm 103:11)  

Recounting

My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.  With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.  (Psalm 71:15-16)


Who can recount the deeds of the Lord on their behalf?  We can't begin to number them.  Think of the rescues, the interventions, the preventions!  Think of the times the Lord has shut your mouth just in the nick of time, before you said something you would regret forever.  Think of the superb kindnesses to you in Christ Jesus!  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all!  (Romans 8:32)  


This Christ who died for us, also lived for us a life of perfect righteousness, and then handed it to us as our own, as if it had been us who had lived it!  (See 2 Corinthians 5:21)   What a Savior, what a God!  Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens.  You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? (Psalm 71:19)   Indeed!  


Tell of His righteous acts this day; begin by telling them to yourself.  Preach this astonishing gospel to yourself, and believe it.  Then pass it on.  

Sabbath rest

"I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses", or peonies as the case may be.  What a restful place.


But, truth be told, we don't need a restful place.  I mean, how many of our brothers and sisters worldwide get green places to commune with God?


What we need are restful hearts.  Resting in Him, refusing to panic, choosing to trust.


I learned this keenly of late while trying to make a decision about "what to do with the rest of my life", now that I've finished homeschooling.  While wrestling and laboring and refusing to rest because I had decisions to make, the Sabbath arrived in all its restful glory.  And while focusing on God in worship and the quietness of the day, I rested from my labors.  Matthew 11:28 is truly true: "Come to Me [Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God], all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).  God put His warm hands on my worried face and gently turned my eyes to Him.  And there was peace.


This is why we have Sabbaths.  We need them.  God delights in them.  They remind us, at least one day in seven, that apart from Him we can do nothing (see John 15:5), that He is the great Shepherd of the sheep (us wanderers!) (see Hebrews 13:20), that He can do abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine (see Ephesians 3:20).


I urge you to observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, to glorify God and to enjoy Him.  Therein lies our peace.

Little Jack

In my book, this little Jack-in-the-pulpit is the very best part of spring.  Isn't he the cutest thing?  My mother taught us to hunt for them in late spring in the woods near our house.  I have had a passion for them ever since.  And now they grow in my yard!  If you ever doubted the creativity and ingeniousness of our God, doubt no more.  


Here's something I read this morning about our amazing God:  You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! [That is David's exclamation point, not mine, although I would have put it there if he hadn't.]  I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. [There's another good place for an exclamation point.]  (Psalm 40:5)  Indeed, they are more than can be told.  But Scotty Smith brought up some of them in his prayer blog on May 11, which I pointed to last week.  It's worth repeating.  


"But nothing has changed, all you've ever done is serve your people--in creation and by your incarnation, through your life of perfect obedience and death upon the cross as our substitute; by your resurrection from the dead and ascension to the Father's right hand; by your constant advocacy and heavenly intercession.  You're always giving to us--grace upon grace upon grace."  (see thegospelcoalition/blogs/scottysmith)  


I don't believe we can meditate on these thoughts too much, for they are true.  Our God is an awesome God; He fills heaven and earth; He rescues us from His righteous wrath against us; He loves in a way that we can't even come close to understanding.  


More than can be told.  But gazing closely at the Jack-in-the-pulpit can get you started.

Jonquil, I think

I think it's a jonquil; it fact, I'm going with that, since it's such a great name and because I actually made that word in bananagrams once.  Anyway, these come up, starting last year, in the ditch beside the Fox River Trail behind our house.  I like to think of it as a little spring surprise from the Lord of Creation.  


I'm sorry I have been negligent in posting these weeks.  I'd like to get some of the teaching from Mary Beth McGreevy up here in the next few weeks for those who missed our women's conference.  


In the meantime, please read this blog from Scotty Smith of Nashville, and be blessed.  Make sure it's the May 11th one; so amazing, this God of ours.  


http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scottysmith/

The Lady Doth Protest Too Much

What a wonderful conference we had over the weekend!  As promised, the food was delicious, the music great, the door prizes abundant, and the speaker challenging.   Here are a few of the pictures Janet took.  Perhaps the joy on the faces (or the nummy treats!) will entice YOU next year?  

Our speaker, Mary Beth McGreevy, from  
Covenant Seminary in St. Louis.  And our own Carol Tomes.  

 Thank you, Lisa Hilgendorf, for the darlingest                                    aprons ever!  

Yes, that's fruit, on top of cream cheese or cool whip, on top of vanilla wafers.  Sorry if you missed them.