This is the day that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Tag: photography
Teach Us to Number Our Days
Teach us to number our days
so that we may truly live and achieve wisdom.
(Psalm 90:12 The Voice version)
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Winds of Change
Real change threatens the familiar and messes up our landmarks, but we can’t grasp the future until we let go of the past. The abundant kindness of Jesus Christ teaches us the joy of surrendering the good in the interest of the best.
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Rise again
The Roses in Winter
My daughter had this conversation with her three-year old recently.
“Mom, we don’t know what it feels like to be dead. That’s because we have never been dead before so we don’t know how it feels, and then if you are dead you can’t tell anyone because you are dead….. but maybe we could ask the flowers because they die every winter so they know how it feels…. too bad they don’t have mouths, or they would probably tell us.”
Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
(Colossians 1:8)
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The Source
Columbia Lake in Southeast British Columbia , source of the Columbia River
I pray that God,
the source of hope,
will fill you completely with joy and peace
because you trust in him.
Then you will overflow with confident hope
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
(Romans 15:13)
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The Risk
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.
Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” ~CS Lewis
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Peace Like a River
I kept dreaming about waterfalls. All night. Tumultuous white water splashing over boulders. Surges of deep sweeping forces drawn over precipices.
Now you need to understand that for years I had a phobia for waterfalls. Strange, I know, when there are so many other options available for things to be irrationally afraid of –spiders, heights, speaking in front of crowds, public toilets, goats, turning left…
In the dark years I had many nightmares about waterfalls and about falling in and being pulled over the edge. I knew even then that waterfalls represented feeling out of control emotionally. In real life I avoided them.
I met a woman who had fallen over Athabaska Falls as a child and survived. She told me how she decided to face a life-long fear of the falls and revisit them. After considerable therapy, she stood trembling near the edge. Just then a child came running by and tripped right in front of her. She lunged forward and grabbed his leg as he was about to go over the edge. What are the odds? (It was actually a very healing experience for her.)
As I regained health the phobia lessened to the point where I could go to a waterfall and take photos –usually from the bottom, but eventually from the top. So the dreams about waterfalls surprised me.
In the dream I asked, “What is this?”
The answer came back, “Peace like a river.”
I woke up.
“Oh no, no, no. Peace like a river is a calm blue sky river with no ripples but the ones stirred by my paddle,” I said.
As I asked the Lord about these images I felt Him say in my spirit, “Peace is not conditional on external circumstance. There is as much of My peace available in white water rapids as in a lazy meandering river. A waterfall is still a river. A giant cascade is still peace like a river.
Could it be there is as much peace available in the midst of emotional upheaval as there is in emotional calm? Jesus was not afraid to express emotion. He experienced righteous indignation to the point of turning tables, anguish to the point of sweating blood, and elation to the point of glowing –yet He was always the Prince of Peace. He could sleep in a boat in the midst of a wild storm because He knew who He was.
I believe now that it is possible to experience peace even in the midst of whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. When Jesus Christ lives in us, and we in Him, He shows us who we really are and how to live in the Peace that passes understanding.
God is good.
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Walk with Me
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant [sealed promise].
(Psalm 25: 10 & 14)
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How High
And may you have the power to understand,
as all God’s people should,
how wide,
how long,
how high,
and how deep his love is.
May you experience the love of Christ,
though it is too great to understand fully.
Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power
that comes from God.
(Ephesians 3:18, 19)
Charis: Subject to Change 