I Thessalonians 5:18--In Everything Give Thanks

One year, before Thanksgiving, I learned the meaning of giving thanks in everything. The verse doesn't say "Give thanks for everything." It only says to "give thanks in everything." Give thanks in whatever situation you find yourself. Give thanks when the light turns green, but give thanks when it turns red, too. In favorable situations we should give thanks to God and in tragic situations we are still required to give thanks. Bad things happen. I don't feel thankful for them. I had learned that I wasn't giving thanks for the situation, but God's intent for me was that I should give thanks. Everywhere in whatever season and whatever weather. God required me to give thanks to him. My feelings are not the focus of my thankfulness, but God's sovereignty is.

I'm thankful when I realize this is not my problem and God has a better plan that I have. My girls were old enough to memorize and I required them to learn this verse. I called it "the rule." When something happened that overwhelmed me, and I couldn't express thankfulness to God, I would say, "Somebody say the rule." One of them would repeat the verse out loud. Hearing it in real time in the midst of the event would refocus my faith, and suddenly the horrible was just inconvenient. I had another child after this had become my practice. As soon as she was old enough to know her name, she was indoctrinated, and she also became a prod to my conscience and faith.

After some years, I don't remember how many, I read the passage and continued to verse 19. I was astonished that the letters vibrated on the page. It said, "Quench not the Spirit." Boy sometimes the Word really speaks to you. I re-read the passage beginning at verse 16 Rejoice evermore. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ concerning you. 19 Quench not the Spirit. I read it again. Quench means to pour water on the fire. Don't act in ways that prevent God's Spirit from being active and alive in your situation, especially when it is a bad one. When we accept the facts as they really present themselves and recognize God's power and majesty, our faith is released for God to take action. When we whine and complain, we restrict God's freedom to act on our behalf. "Quench not the Spirit" became a corollary to The Rule, 1 Thessalonians 5:18. I find it very faith-building to read this whole section often. You may find other points and phrases that spur you on to obedience and faith in your journey with Christ. Underline them or keep a journal. Memorize them. They will sustain you in hard times. Sometimes they may be a bridge to a testimony.

Christmas Rant

The parade of sappy love stories that masquerade as Christmas TV has started. I go though this every year, and repetition does not make it better. There are a few TV shows that are repeated every year that have become a tradition: A Charlie Brown Christmas,  A Christmas Story, Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Carol have become staples in our Christmas viewing experience at my house. Please notice than none of these are love stories. Some of them are humorous, and some are just rousing good stories set in a Christmas background. Some actually depend on acting! It's hard to beat Jimmy Stewart and Darren McGavin. Some of the other actors in these classic films are excellent too. Macaulay Culkin as Kevin endears himself to me every year. The crooks and the family were all funny and afforded Kevin revenge and triumph. However enjoyable these films are or funny or traditional, they don't match the meaning of the birth of a Savior so it's really hopeless to find the meaning of Christmas in a film made for commerce, even a good one.

I guess I'm not very fashion conscious. The new trends don't impress me much. Lime green and fuchsia don't strike me as Christmas colors. Getting drunk does't do much for me either.  I'm more into reading the Bible story that started it all and cooking dinner and having family to love and laugh with. I like Christmas Eve Communion and candlelight; I like hymns and fruit cake and boiled custard.(I can give you the recipe.) 

The Christmas Story reminds me of tragedy and sacrifice. Not all the elements of the first Christmas are celebrated or re-enacted. Three of my children were born Christmas week, but I didn't go to the barn to have a one of them, and we had a barn. Modern thought has romanticized the barn until it isn't even a threat to the life of the child that was born there. Now they talk about soft hay, and warmth, and safety. Hay is not soft. I had a barn and I know. Barns are smelly, dusty, unfitted for having a baby.

For Christmas this year I want to recognize the sacrifices that make this season a joy and the glories that resonate in my soul when I remember that the Baby Jesus grew up to be the Savior of the world. There is more to Christmas than tinsel and frivolity. There is glory and love never-ceasing. Read Matthew 1:18-2:23 and Luke 2:1-38.

  

Walk in the Rain

The Rain People (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We now have the reports of Hurricane Patricia and the resultant rain. I love it! TV reception is poor and continues to be interrupted by the dense cloud cover. I love the splatter and dripping from the roof and trees. It's Autumn and this is Awesome. I love the atmosphere when there is rain and clouds, dripping and puddles. I'll read Robert Frost's "My November Guest" this evening and share his appreciation of the day. I'm sure some people are almost overwhelmed by it, but I'll take them on - one at a time or en mass.

This is a day to prepare for what comes next. Rain prepares the earth for a new crop. Rain insures new growth, and flowers, and harvest. It's not time yet, but it won't come without the rain first. It might take a year, but some time to consider is included in the wait.
While we wait, we plan what to plant. We envision the layout of a garden, or orchard, or project. While we wait, we build our strength to do the work, chose our tools, buy our seed. There is a lot to do during the rainy season.

I walked over to pick up the mail in the rain. Walking in it gives a new perspective on rain. The jacket shed most of the water, but my back still felt the chill of it, and my hair dripped, and my glasses are smeared with drops. Frost was right: "My sorrow when she's here with me thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be." We won't have the frosty chill of winter here in the Valley. We'll be lucky to have a day or two of chilly wind and a report of snow in Minnesota. But we got rain. Thank you, Lord, for rain.

Vanity or Insight?

Very Meaningful (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Are all bloggers as vain and self centered as I am? When I think about it, I am truly embarrassed. I do so want to say something meaningful to the readers. I want to be insightful and clear-headed, but most of all, I want more readers. I do try to please a lot of people and appeal to many different tastes: I write a lot of blogs. They could probably all be one blog. It's all just what I think about a variety of subjects. Maybe I should condense it all into one blog. Dump it all in here and just make one post. Might be better.  Might even be more fun.

Response to "Reluctance"

English: Autumn leaves near Turkey Farm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maple and Sweet gum trees have begun to turn 
 summer is ended.
Autumn slides in on a cool breeze
hints of orange and red shine through the trees
love of fall is a yearly affliction
my soul is infected 


I am trying to learn to write unrhymed poetry, and it's not easy. I started this one as a response to Robert Frost's "Reluctance." When I reread the above lines I found an accidental rhyme. Shame on me. Unrhymed means it doesn't rhyme on purpose or otherwise. I sought to bring the same kind of insight and meaning to the thought of autumn that Frost did, but I seem not to have made it.

Maybe if I stay with the rhymes it will work better. Poetry is a cruel mistress. 

Black Holes

The supermassive black holes are all that remains of galaxies once all protons decay, but even these giants are not immortal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I watch a lot of science TV. I enjoy the conjectures of scientists who explore the most advanced thoughts about the creation of life and where a Black Hole comes from. Of course they don't know what a Black Hole is but they know it is huge, densely magnetic and powerful. Now they assert that there is a massive black hole in the center of every galaxy which provides the power for the planets to rotate. In the process, the black hole is consuming whatever comes close and sucks it into oblivion. 
It's amazing how the scientific mind can accept this concept and use these words as if they were real when there is nothing to substantiate them but a theory. They produce pictures of galaxies millions of light years away and propose that planets could have life. No data supports the theory but a picture of a speck of light on a film, but the scientists assure us that the odds are we are not alone in the universe. It's interesting to listen to the narration of the story. The pictures are arresting until I remember that the pictures are mostly artists renderings because they don't have cameras capable of making such find detail.
Don't assume that science is all lies and shadows, but when the dialogue is full of "might have" or "could have" I begin to question what did or didn't happen that we are passing off as real and genuine. Don't misunderstand. I still watch "How the Universe Works," but lately I've noticed sudden bursts of unacceptable references in the narration. The excited physicist says "Oh God, the power of it." When he gets to the end of his explanation there is God still doing his thing. All the theories and explanations cannot produce one real live thing or even explain how it was done. Science can chart the steps and analyze the chemicals, but it can

Simulated gravitational lensing (black hole going past a background galaxy). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

not make it breathe or love or reproduce. Funny how God comes back into our equations. 

The God Particle

I have been searching for topics to write about. It seems I had forgotten the nursery rhyme by Robert Louis Stephenson dedicated to this idea.
"The world is so full of a number of things
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." 
With such a plethora of ideas I should never want for a topic to explore and address. I fear the dearth of ideas is caused by my own lack of interest and not the lack of subjects. I have been considering the TV show on the Science Channel called "How the Universe Works." I have no background in physics or science except casual reading, so I really don't feel prepared to bring that kind of topic to intelligent readers.

Today on "How the Universe Works" they talked about finding the Higgs field or the Higgs particle. For the rest of us this has become known as the God Particle. It seems to mean that the Higgs particle is the property of matter that makes it possible to take energy that has no weight, or mass and convert it into matter with weight and mass. This is the how God created the world. The scientists hastened to declare this as a scientific fact without regard to God. This is my interpretation of the matter of matter and how matter came to be. God did it. He spoke it without regard to the supercollider. God said and it was. It's funny how easy it is when you just believe.