The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the Sons of God. We do not know…how things would have worked if the human race had never rebelled against God and joined the enemy…. You and I are concerned with the way things work now.
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p178
This week the Daily Post has challenged photographers to bring up pictures of things that are GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN.
You can see how others interpreted the theme at:
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/gone-but-not-forgotten/
Here are my thoughts concerning the matter.
“Think about your day yesterday. Did you build your priorities around the truth of repayment at the resurrection? Or were you, like so many well-intentioned believers I know, operating on the assumption that work for God now equals compensation from God now?
If so you are seeing only the glare of the temporary where Jesus hopes you’ll see the galaxies of eternity.” Bruce Wilkinson, A Life God Rewards
Pastor Wrinkles’ wild and crazy days as a youth pastor are gone but not forgotten. Someday I may even receive a reward in Heaven for being willing to wear this costume at a youth convention in front of 1100 teenagers.
Dr. Seuss said, “Don’t be sad that it is over be glad that it happened.” For me that is true of so many things.
“And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans–and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused–and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.”
― Sigrid Undset
Nancy’s challenge to us this week is all about the word: WHITE
http://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/a-photo-a-week-challenge-white/
As soon as I saw the word my mind went immediately to….. SNOW
But honestly snow is not all bad. Isaiah the prophet speaking for God said,
“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18
“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder
This week’s black & white challenge from Cee is all about: LIGHTS
When you have finished here go to:
http://ceenphotography.com/2014/12/04/cees-black-white-photo-challenge-lights/
I wanted to take a little bit of a philosophical tac with this challenge.
‘We do not truly see light, we only see slower things lit by it, so that for us light is on the edge–the last thing we know before things become too swift for us.’
Author: C.S. Lewis
In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.
Author: Blaise Pascal
“It is now, at Advent, that I am given the chance to suspend all expectation…and instead to revel in the mystery.”
― Jerusalem Jackson Greer,
Me reclining after walking up the “Rocky” stairs at the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Anybody who has been reading Lillie-Put for any length of time knows I have just come through one of the busiest autumns I have ever clocked. Now I am in a season of rest and recuperation.
God has been speaking to me about several things I am to pursue during this season. One of the items on that list is a deeper level of faith. I spoke about this a bit in my series, “Laboring to Rest.”
As I was meditating this morning, God spoke to me about another item to be added to that list, listening.
One of the issues I am dealing with coming off of the fall harvest is a feeling of both physical and mental exhaustion. My brain feels like it has been sand-blasted and as if all the ideas in it have been turned to dust.
Of course, I realize that is just a feeling and a misconception mixed together. The truth is the ideas are still there because they were not inspired by me in the first place. Any of my really good ideas started out as God’s ideas and since He never grows weary, His ideas can’t be blasted away by my busyness. What has changed is not His ability to create through me but my ability to connect to Him so the creativity can flow. Restoring the creative connection is going to require intentional active listening.
I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.
So now I am dedicating a large chunk of my prayer time to reading the Word and just sitting quietly before God and practicing the art of what the Quakers called centering down.
How do you practice the discipline of listening to God?
“For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning – not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last.”
― Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat
Lillie-Put 