In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Fresh.”
The challenge is to find something FRESH today. I thought about bringing out pictures of this year’s fresh fallen snow; But honestly snow is not making me feel very fresh these days, just tired; So I decided to go with a fresh spring motif
Keukenhof Gardens, Lisse , The Netherlands
Fresh GreenOh! I am longing for these days!
Snailmail? Email? …… Kneemail!
God hears and answers. Cry out to Him!
My wife and I recently had a disagreement with the United State Post Office. We live on a cul-de-sac, which is extremely difficult for the local public works department to plow during the winter. We’ve never had this problem before, but with all the snow that we’ve this year, the plow trucks ran out of places to put the snow. So once the piles got as high as they could make them, they had to start extending the mountain into the cul-de-sac itself. This resulted in the mountain of snow extending almost to our walkway. It so high, we couldn’t even see our neighbor’s house from the road. Despite the Postal Service’s unofficial motto that states, Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, it seems that, in our postal district, this doesn’t apply to mailboxes like mine. Our box was shoveled out, but…
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In Other Words: Frailities and Imperfections
This week Patricia has challenged us to write a piece from the following quote
“All have their frailties and whoever looks for a friend
without imperfections will never find what he seeks.”
Cyrus the Great
My story is below but you can find how Patricia’s other contributors met the challenge by going to
click on the little blue froggy.
Pavel’s Problem
by JE Lillie
We aren’t as young as we used to be. Her mother and father are gone seventeen and fifteen years now. My own folks were left behind in their graves in Poland so long ago their existence is like a dream. But as it is with most good dreams I still miss them.
Papa used to tell me, “Pavel you can do anything you set your mind to, you and God together.”
How I wish that were so. Like most good lies that one has bits of truth scattered inside it. Like Rosemary baked into bread there’s just enough of the stuff to create a taste, a longing. But it always leaves you wanting more and never quite able to find it.
Her mother and father always said I was not good for her. Maybe it’s so. After so many years neither of us have been able to be all for the other one. Her life before showed her great things and she has never quite been able to come down to the humility of who I am. Still that part of her always pushed me to be better. Until now.
I am so tired. I think the fight is almost gone out of me. I find myself wishing I had more strength for her sake. But this might be one of those things that God and I cannot do together even if I set my mind to it. I suppose it’s not because He couldn’t give me the strength but I think He might have something else in mind. I am finding it’s not just what I set my mind to that’s important here.
I wish I could go back to that day I first met her. She was on that swing. The air was full of the scent of roses and willow. The world was light and I didn’t know the lie for what it was. I am going to miss this life because of what I found in her.
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Frailties and imperfections…
Take a stab at writing a story from this quote.
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Share Your World 2015 Week#11
GREAT GUGGAMUGGA! This week’s sharing questions 1 and 3 are really hard! You can find how other people responded at
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/03/16/share-your-world-2015-week-11/
Here are the questions and my answers
List 2 things you have to be happy about?
2 things I have to be happy about? Is it like I am forced to be happy about these things even though I really don’t want to be? Is the reason I have to be happy about them because everyone else is happy about them and I don’t want to be the odd man out? Or is the reason I have to be happy about them because I can’t do anything to change them. so being happy is just a way of moving on and not getting stuck in bitterness? Or is my forced happiness because what has happened is really a good thing but it makes me sad?
I’m sorry what was the question?
Do you prefer ketchup or mustard or mayonnaise?
Deep breath of relief that question 1 is answered (or not)! Mayo all the way. I am not a big ketchup fan
If you were to paint a picture of your childhood, what colors would you use?
I had to stop and think what the picture would actually look like for this one. Is it a moment in time? Or is it a collage of events all smashed together on one canvas? I think it has to be a collage. The center is a brown wooden cross surrounded by smatterings of red and white. In the upper left hand corner is a portrait of a much younger me standing at a brown podium in a white polyester suit with one blue button, one orange button and one red button giving a Memorial Day Speech in fifth grade. The upper right hand corner is dark maybe pen and ink and shows me being bullied in gym class. The lower left hand has two scenes blended together One half is a room with brown pine paneling the other is stark white rustic camp walls. I am seated with my family in both pictures enjoying dinner. The lower right hand corner is me standing in the middle of a choir in a pink sanctuary singing.
Do you prefer a bath or shower?
Another deep sigh of relief. Question 3 took a lot of thinking muscle. I like a shower. However when I travel I always take a really hot bath and if the place I am staying has one a hot tub!
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I am so grateful that I got to preach twice last week. The titles of the messages I shared were: Whose Vision Are You and Complete Worship. This week I have the opportunity to bring communion out to our local Visiting Nurses Dayhab and on Saturday we have C.cada!
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Pastor Wrinkles: Complete Worship Pt. 5
Today we are concluding our conversation about complete worship. If you have missed any piece of the discussion you can go back to
https://josephelonlillie.com/2015/03/17/pastor-wrinkles-complete-worship-pt-4/
and work your way back through the links.
Today we leave off the public and private expression of worship in order to discuss the worshipper’s heart. In order for worship to be complete…
The act of publicly worshipping and privately worshipping must come out of a singular heart towards God. Lifting our hands, singing, shouting and dancing are indeed all forms of worship but if they are not done out of heart of worship to God they are nothing more than dead religion.
Matt Redman wrote these words about the danger of worship devoid of “the heart”,
When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longin’ just to bring
Something that’s of worth
That will bless your heart
I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the ways things appear
You’re looking into my heart
I’m comin’ back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You
It’s all about You, Jesus
I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it
When it’s all about You
It’s all about You, Jesus
Matt Redman – Heart Of Worship Lyrics | MetroLyrics
At the beginning of our time together I said “The Bible teaches us that the nature of worship is two-fold but that the heart of worship is singular.”
I want us all to capture the heart of worship. That is a heart that has eyes only for Jesus. It is a heart that let’s go of every other care for the job, for the family, or for the bank account. It is the heart that knows Jesus will take care of all those things if we just make Him a priority. The heart of worship is the heart that believes Jesus when He says,
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ?
28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Ma. 6:25-34
Maybe you have lost your ability to worship God because you have begun to worry about your life, your family, your provision, your health. Maybe your worry about those things has dampened your ability to worship privately or together with other Christians. Please all me to call you back to the heart of worship this morning. Allow me to ask you, with Jesus, to seek first the kingdom of God, to focus on the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Doing that involves three steps:
FIRST: Admit the thing that is taking your focus away from Jesus.
SECOND: Repent and decide that you are going to focus on Jesus and not that thing.
THIRD: Practice focusing on and worshipping Jesus with the song below. Make some noise. Let Jesus consume your attention for the entire song!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MEYWmUYD5E&t=10
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In Other Words: Attention Is Generosity
I am running far far far! behind this week in my writing. Two sermons put me a bit behind, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to write this story. Meet up with Patricia’s other words contributors at
This week we are being asked to write a story based off of the quote,
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
Simone Weil
Here is my story
Pay Me Some Mind
by JE Lillie
Mother hated him. She said he was beneath my station, dumb as a box of hair and ugly as a fencepost.
Papa affectionately called him “the leech.”
He was none of those things. Maybe Pavel wasn’t Robert Redford. Maybe he didn’t have a degree from Harvard. But he was a hard worker and he had a heart of gold. More important, he chose me.
I suppose I should not have expected Mother and Papa to understand. They were good people just busy…always busy. Mother had her charities, Papa had his work and clubs. I had my nannies, a new one every two years like clockwork to make sure I never got too attached. I don’t think Mother ever really chose Papa and maybe Papa never chose Mother. I always felt like neither of them chose me.
I suppose it’s not a wonder, then, that my parents and I grew to value different things. I suppose it is a wonder I grew to value anything at all. But somewhere between nannies four and five I realized I desperately wanted someone who would stay by my side and never leave.
I still remember the day we first met. He was working in the garden alongside his father who had been hired by our groundskeeper to pull the weeds. I was on the rope swing under the weeping willow. He clipped two yellow roses from my mother’s garden and brought them to me. Mother had never let me touch her roses. It was scandalous and more generous than he could ever know. I was his from that moment.
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Pastor Wrinkles: Complete Worship Pt. 4
We have been discussing the nature of the discipline of worship over the last few days. If you have missed any of the discussion you can find it here and in the other links connected in that piece.
We have already mentioned that…
Those who say they can go and worship God alone in the forest show their ignorance of what true worship is because true worship must at some point involve the community. Further though, those who come to public worship and who do not sing or shout or speak or raise their hands also show that they do not understand what worship is about. Yet those who come to public worship are still only doing half the act of worship. Praising God in the sanctuary is part of worship but it is not all of worship.
The second half of Psalm 150:1 says “praise Him in His mighty heavens.”
Worship ends up in the sanctuary, but that is not where it starts. The people who go out in the woods to privately worship God but who refuse to join themselves to a church do have it half right .They are just refusing to participate in complete worship.On the other hand people who come to the sanctuary every week and worship with in a church body, but who never spend any private time in praising God also fail to completely worship.In fact, you can have a daily devotional and go to church weekly and still not have a vibrant complete worship life. Let me ask you is praise and worship a part of your private prayer life? Or is private prayer for you just a recitation of a prayer list?
Do you spend time during the week thanking God for His work in your life? Do you spend time singing love songs to God at home like you do in church? Do you put on the Christian station at home and dance before Jesus? Do you lift your hands in praise to Him at home like you do in church? If not try it. Praise will revolutionize and empower your prayer life.
What does your private worship life look like?
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Pastor Wrinkles: Complete Worship Pt. 3
We have been discussing the discipline of worship as a method of deeper connection to God. If you missed either of the previous conversation you can find them at
Here are our thoughts for the day:
The Bible teaches us that the nature of worship is two-fold but that the heart of worship is singular.
Worship can be expressed through music but it is not just music. It is about the heart changed in private and expressed publicly.
Some people say worship is everything we do, and I suppose in one sense that is true.
Romans 12:1, 2 does say, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship or service rendered unto God.”
The word used for worship in verse two is the word “latreia” and it is usually translated as “sacred service.”
The worship we are speaking of here is the discipline of worship. It is the word “proskuneo”- and it means to kneel or prostrate to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication
Worship is a very specific discipline and for it to be complete in our lives it must express itself in two ways out of one particular attitude. Psalm 150 talks to us about the ways we need to express worship.
First, worship must be public. Psalm 150 1 calls us tp ” Praise God in the sanctuary.”
In other words, half of worship is something you do with other people. It is a community activity. You can no more completely worship alone than you can play basketball alone. Further, worship is like a sport in that It is not enough to show up at the game. You aren’t worshipping if you come to church and watch any more than you can say you have played basketball by going to a game and watching from the bleachers. You must participate in the worship.
To participate you must:
Halal (from which we get the word hallelujah. It means to boast loudly about something.
Now, there is a place for quiet introspective worship, but at some point if you are going to praise God you are going to have to make some noise. Some of us have trouble getting into the presence of God simply because we won’t make any noise. We are so dignified in our manner of worship we’ve starched the presence of God right out of our lives. If you want access you are going to have to
“sound the trumpet,”
“play the harp and lyre,”
“shake the tambourine and dance”
You’ve got to pluck a string or toot a flute or crash a cymbal or at least sing the songs!! Or thank Him audibly for something!
Psalm 150 says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Are you breathing? Then you ought to be making some noise for Jesus.
You say, “I’m too shy Pastor J.”
Then you need a healing.
You say, ” It’s not dignified.”
You are right. It’s not. Praise is not dignified. It’s humbling. Worship involves putting aside your pride and it is admitting you are desperate for God, and frankly sometimes the act of doing that is downright indecorous.
Those who say they can go and worship God alone in the forest show their ignorance of what true worship is because true worship involves public community worship. Those who come to public worship and who do not sing, or shout, or speak, or raise their hands also show that they do not understand what worship is about.
So what does worship look like to you?
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Pastor Wrinkles: Complete Worship Pt. 2
We are currently in a series considering ways to connect with and deepen our relationship with God. Last week you will remember Pastor Risto spoke to us about how we have access to God through the blood of Jesus. This week we are talking about connecting to God through the act of worship.
C.S. Lewis said, “It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men.”
King David wrote in Psalm 100, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”
Christian this morning I am here to tell you if you want to come into the presence of God you will do it through the avenue of praise and worship.
I think many have come to understand worship and praise in a very limited sense. I think many of us have a wrong or at least a limited definition of praise and worship.
Temi Peters, Author of Instruments of Praise & Acts of Worship said- “Worship is not about having a fantastic voice.”
AND
“God is not looking for incredibly high notes, intricate riffs or award-winning ad-libbing. God is looking at the heart.”
AND
“Vocals do not make a worshipper.”
IF WORSHIP GETS US THROUGH THE GATES INTO THE COURTS… INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD THEN AS CHRISTIANS WE NEED TO HAVE A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IT IS SO THAT WE CAN DO IT!
SO LET ME ASK YOU WHAT DO YOU THINK WORSHIP IS?
