The Simple Walk

I have just realized that I have not sent out a post since the new year began - Happy New Year, all! Our January 1st dawned (12:05 a.m.) with a phone call that a dear friend and saint of God, Eddy Grant, was called home to be with his Lord at 11:15 p.m.  What a way to start the new year for Eddy -to be present with the Lord! We will miss him, but we'll be together again someday. He and my dad, along with so many other of their friends, are together with the Lord right now. It is a joy to think about.

This morning I read the account of Martha approaching the Lord Jesus as He neared Bethany. The statement, "Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died," was followed up with, "But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." That faith that Martha was showing really spoke to my heart.

What is it about living in America today that has taken our faith away? Where is the simplicity of walking step by step with Jesus and expecting Him to answer prayer, sustain us in trials and take away the sin in our lives as we yield it up to Him? Don't get me wrong, I know MANY, many Christians who live this way. Why not all believers? When the Bible says that we can hide God's Word in our heart, that I might not sin against Him, why don't we? Bible memorization used to be the first thing I would work on when I opened the Word in the morning. I try not to make 'resolutions' in the new year, but if there is one RESOLVE I have this year, it is to spend time daily in memorizing God's Word and asking Him to use it throughout the day, to remind me and sustain the morning 'renewal of mind' that took place that day.

One other thing that led up to these thoughts was a statement my Mom made the other day. I can't quote her, but she was relaying the fact that she had been grumbling and complaining to the Lord about some situation in her life. At the lunch table she said something like, "the Lord does not want me to grumble and complain". He truly does NOT want us to do this. Why can't we just take, "do all things without murmuring and disputing..." as God's Word on that subject. I am thankful for a mother who does!

As I mused on these things, I am again thankful for living in a little cabin in the woods, somewhat away from the hustle and bustle of 'life'. Right now the water and our kitchen drain are both frozen, but no matter (and I do mean, really, "no matter". Here is where taking God's Word literally meets "life"), because the Lord is right here with us in our warm little house and His Spirit sustains our hearts.

Praise the Lord (and only by His grace) that we can truly say:

"Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife." Prov. 17:1

I love the Lord so much and pray that I will love Him more, hiding His Word in my heart more in 2013 "...that I might not sin against God."

I am so glad that you ventured up our snowy road to Darling Hill this morning!!

Never Grumbling or Turning Back

Being a 'New Testament Christian', I absolutely love the teachings of Paul and the other New Testament writers, through the epistles, etc. The Lord keeps bringing me back to the life of Jesus Christ though, in my daily time with Him. Jesus Christ was the ultimate example of living His life ONLY to please His Father. I hear people daily, weekly, who speak of Paul the Apostle. He was used greatly by God to teach the NT truths for our growth. There was no person who walked on earth, however, who could teach them as well as our Lord Jesus Christ.  In today's text from John 6 He told his disciples (many more than the 12) that a person must 'eat of His flesh and drink of his blood' before he could dwell in Jesus, or Jesus dwell in him. Verse 60 says that many of the disciples "murmured (v. 61)" and said that "this is a hard saying, who can hear it?" Jesus knew of their grumbling and asked if His words offended them. He never apologized for offenses, simply went on to give the truth. He knew that many of them did not believe (v. 64). At that time many of the "disciples" went away and walked no more with Him. Of the twelve, He asked, "Will ye also go away?" Simon Peter answered for them all, "to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life". Jesus (and now, we) knew that there was one who would still betray Him though.

I say all of this while I ask myself, "what truths am I grumbling about?" I read a quote which said, 

'In every setting which we are put, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered, but we have to 'put on the new man'. God holds us responsible every time we refuse to convert ourselves (turn ourselves about), our reason for refusing is willful obstinacy." 

The words "willful obstinacy" are 'hard saying(s)' and fully show the very real teachings of Jesus Christ, as He NEVER failed to give His will over to the Father! Humans will fail, Jesus never does! The life of the Lord Jesus Christ portrays the perfect picture of what a born again believer's life should look like.

The most important thing that the Lord is reminding me about is that of my WILL. Am I being willfully obstinate in even one area of life? Putting on the new man is something we decide to do every day, often many times per day. If there is one New Testament teaching that God reveals to me and I refused to 'come up to it' (by prayer and obedience, relying on God's power), that is the beginning of backsliding. Calling it what it is, backsliding, is the first step. By seeing Jesus' complete resolve to do only His Father's will, it has helped me to stop 'glossing over' sin. He never made excuses for it.

One last quote, this from Oswald Chambers: 

"There are whole tracts of our lives which have not yet been brought into subjection...Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God." 

What a blessing if each step is taken, moving forward, never willfully sliding back! It is a privilege to be called by God to such a life as this; a life that can be conformed to the image of His Son! So much to meditate upon this Lord's Day. I'm looking forward to seeing what our Pastor preaches on and what Truths God opens up to my heart today.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Pure, Undefiled and True

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:27

I do not question my salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, but I often question how it is being "worked out" in my life. I am to work out my own salvation, but the Word also says..."for it is Christ who worketh in you..." He is the one who gives the grace and who does the actual 'work', to make me like Jesus Christ.

A few days ago I mentioned that I wonder sometimes whether I just ask God for things and then sit like a lump before Him, waiting for His answers and blessings. The passage in James certainly teaches just the opposite of this. "Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (1:22)

As a new believer I remember being more conscious not to let anything into my life that would influence me back into worldliness or defile the new life of Christ in me. Reading this passage afresh today, I am reminded that if I drift through this Christian life - gaining head knowledge ('knowledge puffeth up') without DOing and obeying, by God's grace, everything that God directs my heart to through the precious Word, will lead to a life of deception. To be a deceived Christian is probably worse than not being a Christian at all, except that we will be saved, 'yet as by fire', in the end.

I remember our pastor in South Carolina saying, "how long should you dig into a particular passage, praying for victory over a particular sin? until you're DOING it on a regular basis!" What wonderful advice.

"But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." James 1:25

These meditations brought this to mind: Those of us who are Christians know that if we simply 'talk the talk' we will deceive ourselves into thinking that we're walking the walk, when we may actually appear to the world as 'glorified unbeliever'. It does matter what the world sees, but it matters most what the Lord thinks of us. 

His Word ministered to me this morning and has given me much to meditate upon today. I thank you for stopping by the Hill and hope your day is a blessing.

Have you been in my Garden?

 It is 4:15 in the morning and I just got my hubby off to work. He called yesterday and left a message on our answering machine, "Guess what, I don't have to start work at 6:00 tomorrow morning...I start at 5:00!" We're just praising the Lord for a good job that has plenty of business!! He came home a bit early from prayer meeting and got right into bed by 8:00 and we're 'no worse for the wear'. Since I don't start work for another four hours, I thought I'd take this quiet time and write to you.

Eddy has been a dear friend of our family, church member and good neighbor to us for many years. Due to health issues, at 97, he is now living with his daughters in a nearby state.

The following account came to me because of a recent card Syd made and sent to Eddy. We've told the story a few times, but I'd never written it down, so will try to relay it here.

Eddy was an avid gardener. He raised and shared many vegetables throughout his lifetime. His favorite squash being the 'crook neck' variety. He also had a large potato patch located up the road on an old piece of his property that borders ours on Darling Hill. Syd often joked with Eddy that he was going to sneak over there one night and plant one corn kernel, so Eddy would have one stalk of corn among his potatoes!

When Syd was working at one particular job, sales at a furniture store, they were changing over some of their accessories. Among the fake plants that they were throwing away was a very large, silk banana plant in a large basket/pot. Syd just couldn't pass it up. He put it in the back of his truck and that evening, 'planted' it in Eddy's garden. Eddy came to church on Sunday, walked right up to Syd and said, "Have you been in my garden?" They got a good chuckle out of it!

A year or so later, as was Eddy's habit, he planted his favorite squashes, and like a good farmer, waited for the precious fruit. When the fruit came, he approached Syd at church one Sunday morning, "Hey, have you been in my garden?" Syd responded with, "No, Eddy, why would you think I'd been in your garden?" Eddy's reply was, "I planted my squash, and got these", showing Syd a handful of zucchini. Eddy does not like zucchini. They both laughed, while Syd assured him that he had not made the switch! The following day or so Eddy said that the packaging  and seeds had been switched before he even got them. They've joked about that story for some years now. The church ladies took Eddy's zucchini and made him lots of bread and cakes from it. He likes it that way!

My brother, Dennis, usually a very  mild-mannered man -not known for practical jokes, came over to us on the hill one day. He was carrying a handful of rocks, all of which looked very much like potatoes. Dennis is a stone wall builder and has many opportunities to look over rocks. He said, "I thought of planting these over in Eddy's garden (he'd heard the stories), what do you think?" Syd, of course thought this a wonderful idea. Dennis left them with him. A couple of them were just too gray in color, so Syd rubbed brown shoe polish on them. When it was nearly time for Eddy to dig potatoes, Syd "planted" them together near the end of one of the rows. We fully expected to see all of those either at the bottom or at the top of our yearly bucket of potatoes that he always gave us. Nope, they weren't in there! Finally, Syd's curiosity could hold out  no longer, "Eddy, didn't you find anything strange in one of the rows of potatoes?" he asked him. "Yup" was the answer. "What did you think of them? and were did they go?" "I just threw them in my little rock pile there", Eddy said.

THAT one backfired!!

I had shared in a post many months ago that we had a volunteer pumpkin plant in our compost, at the top of our driveway this year. You'll remember, it produced a lovely pumpkin. Originally thinking it was a squash plant, we were looking for squashes. Syd parted the leaves one day and, behold, a large round pumpkin. We were happy and Syd thought immediately of Eddy! We sent a box of things up to him last week. Syd printed off the following picture onto card stock and made a card which did read, "Have you been in my garden?"

There are many stories to tell of Eddy, I'm sure. On the day we started clearing our land, at least nine years ago, Ed was in his late eighties. He was the first to show up, chainsaw in hand. He stopped only for lunch then went right back to cutting trees until suppertime. Here is a photo of him on that day. Five men from our church cleared ALOT of land that day! Thank you!!

When we started building the house, some months later, Eddy would show up almost on a daily basis, to lend a hand in any way he could. He is a blessed servant of God. We love him very much. I don't know if he had a garden this year, but maybe he will next year and we can sneak up there with a little something to add to it!

Eddy, with us (and Coco) on his summer 2012 visit home

Eddy and the Zorns, helping Syd with flooring

Brad, Dad, Eddy, Dallas and Syd, putting up the walls. I think our friend Denny, is there in the corner too

often Eddy just came up to hang out and have some coffee

Wrestling? or Lazy?

I was so blessed in listening to a message, via WMUU.com, this morning. It was written by C.H.Spurgeon in 1858, entitled A New Heart. What an age we live in, when we can go to a website and retrieve these blessed messages from writings of old! One thing I have taken from the Word this morning is the amazing fact that God gave fallen man a 'second chance'; man, made in God's image...while the fallen angels were left to eventually be sent to the lake of fire. The message was so full that I couldn't begin to share all that was contained therein. One thing is for sure, when God gives us a new heart, He does not build up the old flesh. He gives us new life, as we were so completely in ruin from sin that we had to be totally made anew! We serve such a perfect, all-knowing God, don't we?

The Scripture that God was leading me through earlier on, this morning was from Ephesians 6:13-18. "Take unto you the whole armor of God...praying always...watching thereunto..."  We wrestle against principalities and powers all around us! Am I wrestling, or just sitting back and taking in truths, lazily floating through my days? Am I wrestling; discovering within my heart what God is telling me to do, and obediently doing it? "Work(ing) out (my) own salvation with fear and trembling"? I was reminded this day not to just sit lazily before the Lord, bringing my petitions to Him, and waiting for Him to drop blessings in my lap.

These little reminders make for huge meditations throughout the day. I hope that you have much to meditate upon from God's Word today. Thanks so much for stopping by the hill. I'm sorry that I have not been more vigilant in posting lately. I wish for days to be home more often, but that is not what the Lord has for us at this time.  Take care, friends.

There's An Individual In the Way

I just finished reading from God's Word and was not going to post this morning, but the Lord impressed me with such a wonderful comparison, that I thought I'd share it with you. Of course, I may not be able to put it into words but will try. The thought between 'individuality' and 'personality' was the basis. The Scripture was 

Matthew 16:24, "Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man  will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." 

I also read a statement in a devotional by Chambers, which said, "Individuality is the husk of the personal life." I remember VERY well being an 'individual' as a teenager and dealing with that individuality as a young believer. Still at times it rears up in defiance at me and at the Lord! The comparison came when I read 

John 17:22 "That they may be one, even as we are one." 

I had a personality deep down inside me, something that had been forming since the day that I was conceived in the womb. Having come to know Jesus Christ at the age of 16, this personality had already built up a tough husk of individuality, through choices and rebellions that I had made and allowed. Even as a new believer I hesitated to let Christ take that crusty husk away! When Jesus came in He wanted my personality to be conformed to His person; that I may be one with Him and with the Father. What a blessing! 

I think of this fiddlehead fern, breaking through the earth. Before it's beautiful green color appeared and before it could be used up to its potential and purpose for growing, it had to break through the ugly brown husk under which it had been 'protected' from the elements under the earth.

After hearing of the tragic events of  yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers are with these families who lost such young children. I could not help but think of the shooter though; the act of him truly "losing his life" in the Lord Jesus Christ would have prevented him from being so caught up in his own individuality that he would take precious lives into his own hands and end them so viciously. Every day we hear of happenings that would never have occurred if the individuals had given their hearts, their 'persons' over to  the salvation of Christ. 

I am just thankful to know Him and to know that He would even WANT me to be "one" with Him!

Aren't you?

I hope that you all have a sunny Winter day, and thanks for coming to the chilly Hill this morning.

Early Morning Rambles

The temperatures are in the teens this morning but it feels much colder. My car sat at the post office yesterday, covered in snow. It was just chilly enough for it not to melt off most all day. People came in asking, "where had YOUR car been?" as there was no snow down in town. This will not be the case soon, as our little village is notorious for having snow when others do not. It is hard to believe that we are 1/3 way through December already!

I could hear the frigid temperature under the dog's feet this morning when they went out at 4:45. The still-clinging snow was crunching under their steps. It was not long before they returned to the door, perhaps not so much from the cold - but that they were ready to eat!  Then just before I leave for work, they watch me get a little "treat" prepared in their doggie bone (though, Ruger will go with me today and tomorrow). Knowing they're getting that before I head out keeps them near the house and not following their noses, off to the neighbor's compost pile. Lately they have even been getting a little mouthful of food before we head up to bed at night; it was suggested to us because Ruger was having trouble with acids in his stomach, causing him to throw up in the middle of the night. Since we started with the handful of food before bed, we haven't had one episode. ANYWAY, they seem to think now that every time they come back through the door, it's time to eat! I wonder who's fault that is...hmm.

In their positions, ready to eat; NO, those are not bibs (:

The same chill is creeping over our floor. I am happy to have a couple mornings, mid week, to spend more time curled up in the blanket to read from the Word and pray. The woodstove is doing its work and we are SO thankful for the free hardwood that comes from Syd's workplace. It's clean, hot-burning scrap wood. My hubby even left me the full pot of coffee today (it's a tiny pot), as the coffee is "all" (my Grammy, from Pennsylvania Dutch country would leave off the "gone") so that I could enjoy two cups this morning, while he got his at the Mini-mart on the way to work. What a sweetie! He knew that this Wednesday morning, away from the post office, would not be complete without that second cup of coffee. Have I ever mentioned how thoughtful he is?

"Meeting with new friends" is another bonus of going to work with Cyndy
Here, a little fawn that he met last Spring

The verdict is still out as to whether I love this new "position" at work. I did my first stamp order yesterday (I've done them before, but it was over 8 years ago when I did an "OIC" detail in a nearby town). It's a joy to have two days "off", mid-week. Though I do work at my little bookkeeping job, I can start later and am only there until about 1:00 p.m. on those days. This is the place where Ruger can come along and enjoy the woods and fields, able to bark to his heart's content. Little Sturm is safer in his kennel at home, as he doesn't pay heed to boundaries nearly as well.

Yes, a lazy morning

This is truly a rambling post! I have not posted in almost a week and I guess, just felt like thanking the Lord for a lazy morning. It is now 6:30 and I still don't have to be rushing off to dress or fix my hair.

The computer seems to be cold also. I haven't been able to get the pictures to show up where I want them, on the page!

  

I Corinthians 15:10 "But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."

I am thankful for this testimony of Paul and was reminded that we Christians should not be in the habit of exclaiming how incompetent we are. God has made us saints, completely able to work for Him, by the grace of God which is in us. Paul admitted that he was not worthy to be called an apostle because he had persecuted the Church of God but he went on to exclaim, "by the grace of God, I am what I am"! How true, it is only by the grace of God that we can be saved and used of Him. That He would even think upon us and send His Son to shed His blood and die on the cross for humans, who did not love Him, is hard to imagine. But since He has saved me, I ought not to slander Him with my impertinence; but declare that He has made me a saint and I'll be fully willing to be used in any way He sees fit. This was a blessed morning with the Lord and I'm glad you stopped by to read a rambling post.

Take care.