Preach it, baby, preach it!

        Can I just share two things that have been mighty irritating today? 
        Irritation one: crows. Big, pushy, ugly black crows that seem to arrive in swarms and are trying to take over our bird feeder.  I wouldn't mind them so much if they'd stop scaring off the other birds, but that's just it: they're big old bullies!  I bet I've opened the door and shooed them away at least twenty-five times in the past few days.  Yet they're relentless...they just keep coming back and coming back and eating and scaring and bullying.  And yours truly, for the first time in my life, wishes she had BB gun to shoot at those pesky birds. 
        Irritation two: Bingley's barking.  I don't mean barking at bark-worthy objects, but BARKING BARKING BARKING at apparently random nothings that he spots outside the window.  Now, I wouldn't mind if he'd bark at those annoying crows, and sometimes he does. But he also barks at some mysterious something or other he sees or hears outside (which no one else in our house can see or hear) while he's staring out our dining room windows or kitchen door window or den windows... And I should add that his bark typically occurs when all else is quiet in the house and then suddenly, DEFCOM 1!  WARNING WARNING!  It's an earsplitting, dead-raising BARK that always elicits a scream from his startled family. 
         In the above picture, we have combined my two annoyances--Bingley staring out the window while preparing for a rousing, 120 decibel bark, and a crow alighting on the bird feeder outside, preparing to bully the cardinals and eat all the food.  (Can I add that I don't appreciate anybody or anything messing with my beloved cardinals.)
         But all this got me to thinking.  How often is our worrying and fretting and even giving in to discouragement like those crows and that barking?   
         Because here's the thing: what good does worrying and fretting do us?  We all know the answer to that--zip, nada, nothing...save empty today of the strength and joy God meant for us to enjoy today in our ridiculous insistence on fretting about tomorrow!  And worries--like crows--come in packs, don't they?  You start off with one little concern, and the next thing you know, you've morphed that tiny fear into some looming, gigantic catastrophe. Ridiculous!..not to mention annoying, unhelpful, and fruitless.
           Same thing with discouragement.  We lose all perspective and remembrance of God's goodness and grace and faithfulness when we allow ourselves to fall into the "pitt of despond" (to quote John Bunyan).  And one little disappointment can suddenly envelop all of life, coloring everything with a grey, dark cast so that we utterly fail to be thankful for God's extravagant generosity and His relentless gifts. 
           What do we do?  Well, I know I've shared this over and over again, but we FORGET, so here it is again (for anybody out there who is a slow learner and a quick forgetter like me): PREACH TO YOURSELF!
           Yes, we've heard it, but as Paul David Tripp always says, we're spiritual amnesiacs, and thus we need to be reminded again and again of the truths we know...but forget. 
           Stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself from God's Word! 
           His Word is eternal, true, and supernaturally powerful, so that's the perfect source for our preaching.  We don't need to reinvent the wheel or come up with some super-duper inspirational speech. Nope, we simply open God's Word and start to preaching!  Write it out.  Meditate on it.  Speak it out loud. Sing it.  Pray it.  However you do it, go to the Word and preach it to your weary, overwhelmed, burdened self. 
          Martyn Lloyd-Jones expresses this perfectly:
               "Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. . . . Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you. "
          As the Psalmist in Psalm 42 declares, "Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?  Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God."  In other words, talk to your soul.  Preach to your soul.  Hit your soul with God's perfect and powerful Word! 
           Preach it, baby, preach it! 
           To God be the glory. 
       

Start making a new ending

        "No one can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."  (No idea where I read this, but I love it!)
        "You don't have to be who you first were." (I do know this one!--Jen Hatmaker)
        Finally, a good, good word from God's Word: "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." (Isa.43:18-19)
        Anybody need a tiny bit of encouragement on this sunny, then cloudy, then stormy summer Monday?  Maybe just a little nudge that it's always too soon to give up...that it's never too late to start again...and that we serve a God of Resurrection who works best in a graveyard? 
         Well, I think I did--I do--as I've struggled to get going on what I need to get going on.  As one of my mama's old needlepoint pillows used to say, "My get up and go, got up and went!" 
          Lately, it's meant simply not feeling the inspiration to write.  Not feeling like tackling those tasks that require focus and determination.  Not feeling like I've got what it takes to do what's required.  And not feeling like "the joy of the Lord is my strength." (Neh.8:10)  Instead, my strength feels paltry and small.  And I think I know why: because it's entirely too Emily-dependent rather than God-dependent.  Circumstance-dependent rather than Savior-dependent.  And that's a recipe for inertia, discouragement, and frustration. 
          So, once again, I come to the endless fountain of God's mercy and grace, His power and provision, His love and wisdom.  And once again, I ask for the priceless, blood-bought gift of His  forgiveness and the joy of a new start.  That He would do "a new thing" in me and through me.  And that He would "make  a way in the wilderness" of my weakness and "rivers in the desert" of my discouragement. 
         And He has.  He does.  He will. Not just for me, but for you, too.  For the Lord will forever be true to His Word and to His never-failing promises.  "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God." (2 Cor.1:20)
          Today, you might not be able go back and make a new beginning, but by the grace and power of God,  you can absolutely, right now, make a new ending.  He's ready to do a new thing in your heart and in your life.  Stop rehashing your sad, old failures, and start rehearsing God's supernatural promises.   Stop fixating on yourself, and start focusing on your Lord.  Stop waiting for your feelings, and start walking by your faith.   
           Because just as God has been changing the weather on this sunny, then cloudy, then stormy day, so He can change us as well.  Come to Him and ask Him to start today.  Start now.  And watch Him go to work. 
           To God be the glory.   
       
           
            

The glory of God, the goodness of God

         What a magnificent creation.  What an unimaginably more magnificent and glorious Creator. 

        We've just returned from our annual trout fishing trip in the mountains of North Carolina, and oh my, joy and wonder on every possible level.  The joy of witnessing the astounding beauty of God's handiwork all around us--soaring mountains, rushing streams, blooming rhododendron, verdant greenery everywhere, pounding waterfalls--

        All this wondrous creation is but a pale reflection of the infinitely more glorious Creator.  If He could create such abundant beauty, such astounding power, can you even begin to imagine how beautiful, how powerful, how astounding our Lord must be?! 
       I couldn't help but think of one of the liturgies, "Praise to the King of Creation" from the wonderful book,  Every Moment Holy, by Douglas McKelvey:

               "Our thoughts of You, O Lord, have been too small, too few--for seldom have we considered how specific is the exercising of Your authority, extending as it does into the myriad particulars of creation.
                  There is no quarter over which You are not King.
                  And as creation hurtles toward its liberation and redemption, the full implications of Your deep Lordship are yet to be revealed in countless facets unconsidered:
                   Christ, you are the Snow King.  You are the Maker of All Weathers.  You are the King of Sunlight and Storms, the King of Grey Skies and Rain.  You are the Rain King, the Sun King, the Hurricane King.  You are the King of Autumn  and King of Spring.
                  And our thoughts of You, O Lord, have been too small, too few...
                  You are the King of the Rabbits, and the Lord of Tall Trees.  You are the God of Youth and the God of Age.  You are the Acorn King, The River God, the Swamp King, King of Glades, King of Dells, Ruler of All Hummingbirds...
                  You are the weaver of the unseen fabrics of the world.  You are Lord of the Atoms, the Ruler of Electrons, the Lord of Gravity, and the King of Quarks.
                   Your dominion enfolds the earth and rises beyond it to the furthest extremes of the stars.  You are Lord of the Vast Empty Spaces.  You are King of the Constellations, the Black Hole King, Lord of Novas Exploding, Lord of Speeding Light, High King of Galaxies, King of Orion, King of the Moon.
                   And still, even still, our thoughts of You have been too small, too few. 
                   You are the God of Justice, the God of Wisdom, the God of Mercy, the God of Redemption.  You are the Lord of Love...
                    You were before all things, You creation all things, and in You all things are held together.  There is no corner of creation You will fail to redeem.
                   You are the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, O Jesus Christ, our King of Everything."

         Amen and amen!
         And yet this astoundingly glorious, omnipotent, shining, beautiful, perfect Lord of Lords made each of us...in His image, for His glory, by His love.  And redeemed us by His unimaginable grace. 
         We, little frail dust people that we are, are the crown of His creation and the object of His abounding love. 
         Yes, I couldn't help but praise Him for the glory of His creation...but also praise Him for the amazing goodness of His grace in giving us one another.  The people in our lives--the family and friends--oh what priceless gems each of them are!  The joy of precious family and being alive--

        The gift of a very dear son-in-law (and a beautiful trout!)--

      The peace and happiness of family dinners and praying together for God's bounty--

          Thank You, Father, thank You.  Forgive us for ever taking life's simplest, freest, and yet most wondrous gifts for granted.  Teach us, help us to see You in all Your creation, to love You deeply, and to worship You extravagantly.  For You are worthy...You are infinitely worthy.  And give us hearts overflowing with love and appreciation for those priceless souls You have so generously placed in our lives.  Might we forgive freely, encourage abundantly, guide gently, thank constantly, and see in them Your glory and goodness. 
         Might our lives be one gigantic "Thank You" and "I love You," Father.  Today and every day You choose to give us.  To God be the glory.