Tag: change

Streams of Hope

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Water, Winter1 Comment

Ice on creek IMG_6270

With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands,

and encourage those who have weak knees.

Say to those with fearful hearts,

“Be strong, and do not fear,

for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.

He is coming to save you.”

And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind

and unplug the ears of the deaf.

The lame will leap like a deer,

and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!

Springs will gush forth in the wilderness,

and streams will water the wasteland.

The parched ground will become a pool,

and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.

Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish

where desert jackals once lived.

 

And a great road will go through that once deserted land.

It will be named the Highway of Holiness.

(Isaiah 35:3-8)

Behold Thou Art Fair

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Photography10 Comments

gardenia

Behold thou art fair, my love.

Behold thou art fair.

(Song of Solomon 1:15)

When I look in a mirror I see the toll the years have taken. Like the woman in the Song of Solomon I have spent seasons toiling in the sun, and when I was young the only sun screen we had was baby oil and mother’s cautions to wear a hat. My cousins inherited glorious red hair; I just got the red head’s complexion, and spent many a summer’s night nursing a sunburn with a cold wet cloth. When I look in a mirror I don’t see fair.

I watched a professional photographer edit photos a while ago. I had seen her enhance lighting and subdue blushes on blushing brides before.

“People want to remember their wedding,” she said. “They don’t want to remember the giant zit that showed up on the end of their nose that morning. The zit was temporary. The love is permanent. The zit is not who they are. The zit goes,” and with one click it vanished.

This particular day she was processing a photo for her fiance’s professional biography. I watched from a distance to see if she would go photoshop crazy to idealize this man. She didn’t. She has much better equipment than I have, including a huge computer screen that will reveal the tiniest detail. She kept enlarging the photo until his eyes shone from one side of her screen to the other. Then she just stopped and stared.

“Look,” she said after a while.

“What do you see?” I asked.

“I see me,” she smiled.

I looked more closely and realized that bright spot was not a highlight. It was her own perfect image reflected in his eyes. She was concentrating on him when she took the photo, but the whole time all he saw was her, and in his eyes she was beautiful. She was the light in his eyes.

When we look at ourselves we see our flaws. We see the stupid zits in our character that may have vanished twenty years ago, but remain in our memory as freshly as if they were were still there. But when we look closely into the eyes of the Lover of our souls, the one who gave everything to show how much He loves us, the one who has promised to never leave us and who is incapable of lying or breaking a promise, we see ourselves as He sees us.

And He says, “Behold thou art fair, my love. Behold thou art fair.”

The Sunshine of Forgiveness

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Mountains, Sky, Trees and forests, Water4 Comments

 

Harbour Sun

We tend to drag up our old sins, we tend to live under a vague sense of guilt…we are not nearly as vigorous in appropriating God’s forgiveness as He is in extending it. Consequently, instead of living in the sunshine of God’s forgiveness through Christ, we tend to live under an overcast sky of guilt most of the time.     -Jerry Bridges    

 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. (Colossians 1:11-14)


Pressing On

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, WinterLeave a comment

 higher ground

I’m pressing on the upward way,

New heights I’m gaining every day;

Still praying as I’m onward bound,

“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

 

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,

By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,

A higher plane than I have found;

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay

Where doubts arise and fears dismay;

Though some may dwell where those abound,

My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

I want to live above the world,

Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;

For faith has caught the joyful sound,

The song of saints on higher ground.

I want to scale the utmost height

And catch a gleam of glory bright;

But still I’ll pray till heaven I’ve found,

“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,

By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,

A higher plane than I have found;

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

-Johnson Oatman

Like an Ever-flowing Stream

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Water5 Comments

Flow

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

(Amos 5:23-24)

To worship is “to attribute worth”. To worship is to honour.

Many of us have received birthday or Christmas gifts from people who sacrificed to give presents they really wanted themselves. I didn’t have the heart to tell my mom, after she worked a lot of overtime and sacrificed to buy a high school graduation gown for me, that I didn’t like the one she chose. She had never had such a luxury herself, and she wanted to give me something special, but it was her taste, not mine.

I felt horrible for being a wretched ungrateful daughter so I never said anything. It wasn’t until years later that I could admit to myself that the real pain of the event was that although she sacrificed and went to a lot of trouble to buy me a prom dress, it never occurred to her that my desires and tastes might be different than hers. She was too busy working to actually sit down and talk to me. I realized I had some forgiving to do, and now I can bless my mom for doing her best in difficult circumstances.

I had a dream that a group of people who did church together in a building decided to put on a concert to the glory of God. Even though they were not trained singers they decided to learn Vivaldi’s Gloria. When the time came for the performance they crowded into the foyer (or narthex) of the church building and the pastor began to lead the orchestra and choir. We were all singing along when we realized the pipe organ in the sanctuary was not in time. The pastor opened the door and signaled to a man on the platform, who was conducting an empty room, except for the organist. The pastor showed the conductor what he thought the tempo should be by waving his baton, then shut the door.

Then a young woman got up to sing Domine Deus, “Lord God, King of Heaven, Father God omnipotent.” She sang from the heart and she sang beautifully, but the pastor/leader didn’t like her tempo either and stopped her and made her do it much more slowly. She looked bewildered, lost the flow of the song and kept running out of breath.

When the concert was done the pastor opened the door and asked the conductor if he liked the performance, saying it had been for him. The conductor just looked sad. The pastor closed the door and everyone congratulated themselves on how hard they had worked. Then they served refreshments.

To me the dream was about my own tendency to want to do something great for God -something requiring sacrifice and effort- without entering into the holy place (sanctuary) or paying attention to the conductor (Holy Spirit). It reminded me I had also done the equivalent of scraping and scrimping to buy an expensive prom dress without asking the wearer if that is what she wanted. In the dream it involved the effort of putting on a musical production without asking God (the Master Conductor) if that is what He wanted.

Music is important to me, obviously. The Lord speaks to me through music and I “anah” (respond) by singing back to Him. The problem is not about music styles or quality of performance. The problem is that when our efforts at praise and worship are based on what we like, they are not responses to His voice. They are assumptions that He will like what we like -and that results in creating a god in our own image.

The greatest honour we can pay to our friends and family is to really listen to them, and act on the desires they express to us.

The greatest honour and worship we can offer to the Lover of our souls is to enter the sanctuary, the holy set-apart place in our hearts, and listen, really listen to the desires of His heart — then act on the things He has shared with us, like the need for justice, righteousness, goodness, and love. That, I believe, is the essence of worship.

tos creek water ch

 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

And I will ask the Father,

and he will give you another Helper,

to be with you forever, 

even the Spirit of truth,

whom the world cannot receive,

because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him,

for he dwells with you and will be in you.

(John 14:15-17)

 

And then it dawned on me…

On By Charis PsalloIn Fields, Photography, Sky, UncategorizedLeave a comment

winter sunset Pighin Road IMG_6401

I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart,

I will enter His courts with praise.

I will say, “This is the day that the Lord has made!”

I will rejoice, for He has made me glad.

For the Joy Set Before Him

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, Photography, Uncategorized, Winter6 Comments

blue field white mountains IMG_6368

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

– Hannah More

Note to self: And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:2,3)