Where is my Heart?

"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23

For weeks now, God has been bringing this verse to my heart almost daily and reminding me that how I deal with every "issue" of life is established my the heart. Is my heart given over to God in every detail, in every issue? When I hear a word of exhortation and bristle against it, I have asked myself, "where is my heart in that subject? am I willing to change it for Jesus Christ's glory?" The answer must be nothing less than, "yes", or I am not where God wants me to be. The Christian's life is ever growing and being changed by the Lord, maturing and being made more like Him. He doesn't expect it all to happen in an instant, it takes a lifetime, but He does expect my heart to be totally yielded to Him, moment by  moment as He does the molding. These were precious thoughts to me this early morning as I spent time in God's Word.

This photo has nothing to do with the post, just a funny picture that Syd took when Mom was here the other night.
Cat lovers, please don't take it wrong ( :

Syd took it to say how much he loves his mother in law! Posted it on his Facebook page.

A Vessel for Faith

I entered the house last night to the smell of wood smoke. What a great scent! Syd had gotten the stove hooked up in our new little room off the living room. Today he told me over the phone that he got paid for a job he finished for the couple up the road, went and purchased insulation and is doing the ceiling today! I know, that sounds a little backward, but last night's fire was just a trial one, not a heating one. We are so blessed to have a tiny cabin in the woods, snug and warm. I'm looking forward to Winter this year, though I have had "reports" that it's going to be a hard one. Whatever the Lord sends will be best.

There was more rain falling this morning. The last good rains produced pretty measureable water in the well, but still not deep enough to pump. The Lord will bring that in His time too. We have had to haul it for several years before and it never killed me. I'm so happy though, that we didn't throw away our pump shower.

This morning, reading from the book of Matthew (6:7) I read, "When ye pray..." The Lord taught His disciples to address God with, "Our Father", and He made it clear that they were to pray. Without prayer I would be empty and not able to 'know' my Lord properly. We know someone by spending time really speaking to them, and they back to us. This morning while talking to God I realized that I am simply an empty vessel. I thought of a rain gauge. The gauge was empty last evening, but the Lord sent the rain in the night and this morning, to fill it up. Though the well was getting dry and not truly serviceable, the Lord is filling it up so that it will be useable again.  I thank our dear, Heavenly Father for the way He keeps us so close and that His everlasting arms are there to catch us if we fall! I read a blog post of a godly woman today. It was all about how God is increasing our faith and just waits for us to come along with Him. He is always so faithful. Aren't you glad?

Of This One Thing We Are Sure...

We are in the midst of a beautiful stretch of Autumn days. Darling Hill is slightly too high in elevation to get hit with the first frosts, but this morning, just down on Mud Lane, there were the white fields. The first frost of the season.

Our Lord's Day was a blessing, with good fellowship and good Bible teaching. I was saddened to know that someone had misunderstood one of the recent blogposts and surely want to set it all straight. The post was entitled Knowledge Too Wonderful and was about the amazing, almost impossible to understand, concept of Jesus Christ being fully God and fully man. I believe that I "think out loud" too often when I write on the blog. Our Lord is so DEEP and I try to dig down, perhaps too much at times, to even begin to grasp the understanding.

The misunderstanding was that I may have been questioning that Jesus Christ could SIN. NEVER, NEVER, have I thought that Jesus could sin. Even as a young, baby Christian I knew that Jesus could never have sinned, as He is GOD in the flesh. I think that this is the section where the misunderstanding may have come. I will paste it here. I think that it was poor word choices (in red) that led someone to think I may have suggested such a heretical thing as Jesus being able to sin:
"Can you even begin to understand what it meant for Jesus Christ to be both God AND Man?  I find that the more I think on it, the less I understand it...but yet, the more I BELIEVE and recognize it! In reading the gospels, we see Jesus spending entire nights in prayer to His Father. He and His Father were ONE, yet the Man, Christ, spent long periods in prayer; resisting temptation perhaps, committing His thoughts and ministry to God, pouring out His cares concerning the onslaughts of wicked people around Him. These are all speculation of course. All I know is that He shared with His disciples that they should, "watch, that ye enter not into temptation." Jesus Christ certainly was the single-best example of going to God in prayer!"

Just one other section to quote:

"The children and I shared these thoughts; that Jesus could NOT have sinned because He was God; that Jesus was tempted in all the same points as we were, without sinning; and I shared that Jesus, as a Man, also CHOSE not to sin against His holy Father.  How do you ever conclude such thoughts and really get them settled in the heart? We decided that we just won't fully understand the God/man until we get to Heaven."

I am sorry for choosing to use the word "resisting". I can't begin to understand what it meant when the Bible says that Jesus was "tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin". Of course He could not have sinned, He was GOD! I also can't know why God made Jesus a man/God person, or how that was even possible. I do certainly know though, that as a man, Jesus also chose not to sin.

These are truly "musings" on these deep thoughts of God. PLEASE never think of this blog as a teaching-tool. I am certainly no Bible teacher. The blogposts are simply "musings on the Hill" and I would never want to pass any of it on as "teachings". As I read fellow-bloggers posts I promise not to take any of your writings as anything more than you sharing your heart with fellow-readers.

Being able to share things of the heart, even with people whom I do not know, just being able to write them down, helps to bring thoughts together for me. I suppose some would think of them as "fair speeches" or flowery words, but God has made words very special to me and I love writing things out; to be read again someday. I hope that if any of them can be even a small blessing to anyone, that they will be just that, a blessing. I would not want you to take any of it as "gospel". Only the Word of God can be taken in that way.

Thank you for reading and "listening" and for knowing (hopefully, now) that the last thing I would want to convey is that our holy Lord Jesus Christ could ever sin.

Our Father Sees in Secret

Life on Darling Hill has taken on the morning chills. Many tomatoes are still hanging on the vines, as we truly have had not more than one night of frost warning yet. We still are in hopes that the Lord's sun is going to ripen the last several clusters of them!  A few days ago I was getting up at the top of the driveway and noticed a huge squash vine. The blossoms were full and nice but I knew that this dear volunteer (this is where we throw our old stuff from the garden) had little hope of making us any mature squashes. Yesterday, while on the phone with Syd, he informed me that we had a beautiful pumpkin!

In my haste, I had only looked at the surface; had even misidentified the plant! Syd took the time to step down over the bank and part the leaves, searching for even one little yellow, summer squash, when he was met with a pumpkin almost the size of a basketball! He said that it actually startled him.

In my hasty judgement I thought of the Scripture verse concerning a vine with no fruit, that it is "therefore good for nothing". Once the hidden fruit was revealed though, this reminded me of two section of verses from the Bible. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart."I Samuel 6:17 and some verses from a text the Lord has been bringing me back to for many weeks now, "But when thou doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; That thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee  openly. And ...when thou prayest, enter into thine closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Matthew 6:3-6.

Sometimes "fruit" is not obvious to the passive observer. Even as regular, Bible-instructed Christians, we do not always see the fruit that lies within another believer. This may be because we are looking for a person who "turns the world upside down", as Paul and some of the early believers did. Often there is true fruit laying deep down in the heart of a Christian; fruit borne of spending much time with the Lord in prayer, getting to know His heart. These may be quiet, behind-the-scenes people whom the Lord uses so greatly in His service. The fruit might be hidden beneath the leaves, but it is there, doing its work. This morning I read a verse from John 7:24, "Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgement."

The Lord used this "volunteer" pumpkin vine to help bring together in my heart, some teachings on judging others and to be careful not to look only for colorful, outward fruit, which the Lord does openly display in some of His servant's lives. Either way, the Lord will reward openly those who know Him as Savior and honestly walk with Him in truth. What a loving God we serve; One who wants to have close, intimate fellowship with His children.

Thank you for visiting the hill today. We hope you'll come up to see the colors that will be developing in the next few weeks!

Drying and Preparing

As I drove down Mud Lane the other day, what a picture the fields were with their rows of hay, piled neatly and evenly. The John Deere was working its way around the perimeter of the field. The air was perfect for drying hay.

This week was a busy one and the Lord is teaching me things about Himself (and myself) which I needed to learn. I am thankful that He is sufficient for all things. He is the one who brings conviction and forgiveness. I am so glad that, despite my sinful ways, He is there ready to forgive and to lovingly continue the work of grace. What a privilege, to be so intimately related to the Creator of the universe! As I viewed the neat rows of hay piled through the field it reminded me of how the Lord makes all things straight and keeps them in order if we will only let Him. He is "drying us" and preparing us to be useful in His service.

The colors are just starting to show in the trees. Here and there will be a splash of yellow and orange. This time of year is my very favorite, as the air begins to be crisp and mornings downright chilly. Our heater came on for the first time the other day. As I descended the stairs and heard it running I jumped down the last step and ran over to turn it down! It's just too early for the furnace! We will be covering the tomatoes before you know it.

Syd, Mom, Sarah and I headed over the hill to our local World's Fair last week. We saw so many people who we knew, talked and laughed a lot, walked a lot...and ATE a lot (though not nearly what I used to eat). An added bonus, we met up with our very dear friends, the Richardsons. Each year we see the same displays, walk through the same historic barns, eat the same foods, but the tradition of the fair is something I look forward to throughout the entire summer. As a child I used to be so happy that we were fortunate enough to live this close to THE WORLD'S FAIR! Mom even entered two items in Floral Hall this year.

Her saw, painted with the skyline view from her Darling Hill porch

Quilling Owl. Quilling is a method of twirling small pieces of paper on a small tool. These she fashioned on velvet to make a lovely owl in a little shadow-box frame

 My two small paintings and pen and ink brought a blue and two reds. Syd did not enter anything this year. We ran over one more time on Sunday evening, when we had to pick our items up. As the booths began to come down we made our way to the Barbecue tent, where we enjoyed just one more pulled pork sandwich.

I have been playing around with our tiny camera, trying various settings to see if we can start to get some CLEAR photos, to no avail. The three above were taken with it. Thankfully our computer does a great job at making them look like watercolor photos, which I like. Here are a couple:

A few photos of Autumns past:

a tiny Autumn tree, all decorated for the season!

Uncle Frank's cabin

Last night we spent time with Sarah and Mom, had dinner here and then just sat back and enjoyed coffee and a slideshow of friends and family photos on the computer. The rain is still pattering on the roof. A welcome sound, as we pray that the Lord will replenish the shallow well for us, as well as for others who have no water at this time.

Coco is with us again this week. They love having company

Knowledge too Wonderful!

Can you even begin to understand what it meant for Jesus Christ to be both God AND Man?  I find that the more I think on it, the less I understand it...but yet, the more I BELIEVE and recognize it! In reading the gospels, we see Jesus spending entire nights in prayer to His Father. He and His Father were ONE, yet the Man, Christ, spent long periods in prayer; resisting temptation perhaps, committing His thoughts and ministry to God, pouring out His cares concerning the onslaughts of wicked people around Him. These are all speculation of course. All I know is that He shared with His disciples that they should, "watch, that ye enter not into temptation." Jesus Christ certainly was the single-best example of going to God in prayer!

During our Sunday School class this week I was teaching on personal discipleship.When we opened to Hebrews 5:8 and 9 we read, "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made PERFECT, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." I cannot really understand what it meant for Jesus to learn ANYTHING, say nothing of "obedience". He WAS obedience! We all stopped and were quiet for a bit while I tried to know what the Lord would want me to say in explanation of that verse. We concluded that, though Jesus was totally God and totally man, we don't fully understand it because we are ONLY 'man'. The children and I shared thesethoughts; that Jesus could NOT have sinned because He was God; that Jesus was tempted in all the same points as we were, without sinning; and I shared that Jesus, as a Man, also CHOSE not to sin against His holy Father.  How do you ever conclude such thoughts and really get them settled in the heart? We decided that we just won't fully understand the God/man until we get to Heaven.

But one thing I do know; He understands me...
"Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me"..."Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it."! I am so glad that God understands everything about me and "my thought afar off". (these verses from Psalm 139). We take all of our life getting to know even a little about ourselves. I am glad that God reveals our "self" to us little by little; hopefully as we are yielding to Him, so that He can change and mold us to be more like Jesus Christ. Sometimes the more we know, the less we know. Thankfully it is the Lord who is doing the work and He won't stop until the day of Jesus Christ!

Just some "wonder"ful thoughts for the day. Thank you so much for stopping by Darling Hill. I'm sorry that the posts have been fewer and farther between. I pray that Autumn-life slows down a bit, but until it does, God is moving us along and we're thankful for His provision and watch-care through each day.

Looking forward to Autumn walks along Darling Hill Road with Mom again soon!

Blessed Rain

"Today is a beautiful day for ducks", as they say...It is also a beautiful day for filling the streams and wells!

Praise the Lord for the wonderful rain. When I would awake in the night it sounded glorious to hear blessed rain falling on the roof. So far it has rained all morning, but looks like it is brightening up out there now. I would not mind another full day or two of gentle drizzle.

In thinking about rain I tried to find some photos that would keep me in the rainy day mode. I find that I just don't take many pictures on wet days!  

This lovely little duck was in brother, Dennis' pond last year. The pond is dried up right now.

Not a happy day to remember in the Northeast, Tropical Storm Irene.
It makes for a good rainy-day picture though

It's truly "a great day for ducks"!

"For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good; and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matthew 5:45

I thank the Lord for His faithfulness to His children and for His kindness, even toward His enemies. The greatest demonstration of God's love toward all of mankind was sending the Son, Jesus Christ, to shed His blood upon Calvary's cross, thus opening the way to reconciliation with the Father.  "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Praise the Lord that, in whatever situation we find ourselves, God is always there. He was there first! Jesus suffered in all points, like we have (yet without sin!). Nothing comes as a surprise to our Heavenly Father and He has control of all things. God never does anything wrong. There is nothing in which we can "charge God with folly".

As I meditated on these thoughts earlier today, I realized that I have absolutely NOTHING to complain about. Complaining, for a child of God, is a form of charging God with folly. It is my "little way" (which is not 'little') of saying that He has made a mistake in this, or that, area. Praise the Lord that 'He remembers that we are dust'. The psalmist does speak of "pouring out my complaint" to God through prayer. I am glad that we can come before a personal God, with 'open face' and am thankful that He understands us, totally. I never want to make excuses for sin though.

The world says, "into every life a little rain must fall", as though these rainstorms are only trials. Knowing the Lord as Savior means that we can look at rainstorms as a great blessing!

I hope that you readers in the West and mid-West are getting some of these raindrops too. I do remember to pray for you who have been without water for so long. Take care and thanks so much for stopping by Darling Hill today!