Tag: rest

It Is Enough

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, WaterLeave a comment

IMG_2585 rock on shore lake green ch

My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device or creed;
I trust the ever-living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.

Enough for me that Jesus saves,
This ends my fear and doubt;
A sinful soul I come to Him,
He’ll never cast me out.

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.

(Eliza E. Hewitt)

I love to explore the breadth, height, width, and depth of God’s love. I love to read and discuss deep theological ideas, to go beyond the basics of the faith as advised in Hebrews, to experience various expressions of worship, to listen to stories of divine healing and miraculous adventures in the Holy Spirit and of the heartaches and victories of those carrying the message of salvation around the world. There are some crazy adventures out there. God is amazing.

But all of these things are an exhausting distraction if we have not found our rest in Him. In seasons of stress and grief we realize the necessity of returning to a place of rest; we search for our center.

I find it interesting that so many profound truths found in great old hymns were written by women who held no office in any institutional church. They didn’t need to. Like many of Jesus’ female friends and disciples their credentials were established by their relationship with Christ and they expressed that in ways that didn’t involve a pulpit. Eliza Hewitt found that resting place that some with greater recognition have missed – Christ-centered Christianity.

Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again – for me. Christ in me, the hope of glory. That’s all I need to know to enter His rest.

It is enough.

Haven

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Water9 Comments

kelowna harbour IMG_0493

 

It’s so easy for us to turn the things God designed for pleasure into a task. As soon as someone says to me, “You have to…” it begins to feel like a burden, a chore.  I think we’ve done that to prayer – and especially corporate prayer – as well. Instead of thinking that we are privileged to spend time in the presence of the ultimate lover of our souls who brings us together in relationship with Him and with each other, we talk about scheduling meetings and getting down to the work of prayer. We bring our agendas and have our lists that must be covered in well-worded presentations. Okay, time to drop the pleasantries and get down to work.

Even our times of worship can turn into hurried rituals of sound checks, singing songs, or genuflecting, or waving incense or flags, or lighting candles, or shuffling the two square foot pew-side hokey-pokey, whatever, trying to think of ways to get God in the mood to respond to us (or manipulate our own emotions to be in the mood to worship and pray. It’s hard to tell sometimes.) Why does it sometimes feel like one more thing to check off the to-do list before we can get on with the program?

What if the Lord just wants to sit on a deck chair beside us and be welcomed into our conversation? What if Father, Son and Holy Spirit want to welcome us to sit with them and be part of their conversation? What if entering his rest is realizing that he is not hurried or anxious or stressed like we are? What if worship is enjoying him in that place of rest?

What does it mean to enter his rest together?

So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. (Hebrews 4:9, 10 NLT)

Singing Waters

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Water4 Comments

dutch harbour ts creek upper ch IMG_2975

Let the rivers clap their hands in glee!
Let the hills sing out their songs of joy before the Lord
(Psalm 98)

I suppose it’s what we are accustomed to. I do feel sympathy for the people who move here from hot countries and who need to don layers of warm clothing, even in the summer. I have lived in a cold place most of my life, and my body is not happy with heat. My husband loves to bask in the hot sun. Me? I look for relief. You can always put more clothes on, but there is a limit to how many you can take off.

This has been an unusually hot summer, with temperatures in the 32-39 C degree range for weeks (in the 90’s F). Since heat waves usually do not last more than a week or so in this part of the world, few people have air conditioning. This week I was able to sit in the forest beside a beautiful stream as it tumbled its way down the mountainside to join Kootenay Lake. The water was cold, and a refreshing breeze calmed my over-cooked soul.

I rested in the coolness of the forest and joined the waters in a song of joy before the Lord.

You are good, Lord.

dh ts creek black rock IMG_2995

He will quiet you with His love

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Photography4 Comments
Plum Blossoms
Plum Blossoms

The Lord your God in your midst,

The Mighty One, will save;

He will rejoice over you with gladness,

He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over you with singing.

(Zephaniah 3:17)

Rendezvous

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Trees and forests6 Comments
Come Aside
 Come Aside

 The apostles then rendezvoused with Jesus and reported on all that they had done and taught. Jesus said, “Come off by yourselves; let’s take a break and get a little rest.” (Mark 6:30)

The past four months have been a powerful, but exhausting time of learning more about how the love and wonder-working power of Jesus is greater than fear, but now I am hearing His advice to take a break, so I’m going off the grid for a while.

We continue to see answers to prayer in so many areas. God is simply amazing.

We’ll chat more when I get back.

There is more to come…

Rest

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Man made, Photography2 Comments
Rest
Rest

There still exists, therefore, a full and complete rest for the people of God.

And he who experiences his real rest is resting from his own work as fully as God from his.

 

Let us then be eager to know this rest for ourselves,

and let us beware that no one misses it through falling into the same kind of unbelief as those we have mentioned.

For the Word that God speaks is alive and active;

it cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword:

it strikes through to the place where soul and spirit meet,

to the innermost intimacies of a man’s being:

it exposes the very thoughts and motives of a man’s heart.

No creature has any cover from the sight of God;

everything lies naked and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Seeing that we have a great High Priest who has entered the inmost Heaven,

Jesus the Son of God,

let us hold firmly to our faith.

For we have no superhuman High Priest to whom our weaknesses are unintelligible

—he himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned.

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence,

that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need.

(Hebrews 4:13 – 17)

It’s Who you know

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Photo: hollyhocks

Christ Jesus said:

You pore over the scriptures for you imagine that you will find eternal life in them. And all the time they give their testimony to me! But you are not willing to come to me to have real life! (John 5:39)

While you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and there is nothing that I need’, you have no eyes to see that you are wretched, pitiable, poverty-stricken, blind and naked. My advice to you is to buy from me that gold which is purified in the furnace so that you may be rich, and white garments to wear so that you may hide the shame of your nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes to make you see. All those whom I love I correct and discipline. Therefore, shake off your complacency and repent.

See, I stand knocking at the door. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will go into his house, and dine with him, and he with me. (Revelations 3:17-20)

He restores my soul

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Uncategorized20 Comments

Beside the creek in the cool of the evening

I have joy.

For many years I could not say that. The best I could do was say, “I’ll be happy when…

when this course is over,

when I have a driver’s license,

when I am married,

when this baby is born,

when tax season is over,

when the swelling goes down,

when I get my Dad settled in his new home,

when the bills are paid,

when the house is clean and organized,

when my kids are doing well,

when their bills are paid…”

There was always a reason to postpone enjoying the moment, something that still needed improvement, some potential disappointment that needed guarding against.

I used to think that when I managed to finish everything on the job list I could reward myself with feeling a little joy.

I rarely finished the to-do list -and never finished the worry list. That list I took to bed with me.

Jesus said his burden was light.

Mine wasn’t.

I lumbered from burn-out to burn-out and laboured under thick layers of guilt.

In a dream, the Lord showed me a heavy suitcase. It was full of things that needed prayer. He said sometimes I needed to set it down. It would wear me out if I carried it all the time. Sometimes I needed to leave it with him, walk away and enjoy the scenery.

In a way, that is why I took up photography and painting. They make me pay attention and become more aware of beauty. The evening  light does not wait until the paperwork is done and the hedge is clipped and all the hungry people in the world are fed and all the sick are healed.

Sometimes on this journey we need to leave the heavy stuff and the “whys” in his care and sit by the stream in the cool of the evening and allow our souls to be restored. Right here, mid-crisis, in the hidden grottos of the valley, with all of the threats and fears and opposition looking on like jealous, ravenous beasts, God prepares a place of rest and safety and refreshing for us.

I am learning (slowly) to set the suitcase down, step into the joyful freshness of God’s presence and allow him to restore my soul -in that infinitely tiny and infinitely spacious moment called “now.” That’s where the battle is won.

Thank you, Lord. You are good.