Domestic Newsflash Number Forty!

Our egg man down the road blessed us with four neighborly buckets of the wormiest and woodiest apples I have ever peeled and canned. It was a sweet gesture; he told me stories of pig farming during hard Kentucky winters while we picked.

Creativity is in the hot air. Projects in the making are everywhere in the house- an unfinished camera dolley, lego ships, drying sunflower seeds, and, of course, a new movie!

Corn ears are full-grown in the browning farmer’s fields, and cows were moved from the pine tree pasture. Usually, our woods have exploded with wildflower finery by now, but I returned home from a flower search almost empty. Maybe queen anne’s lace, black-eyed susan’s, goldenrods, daisies, and others have been intimidated this year by the gorgeous sunflower newcomers.

All around us is bursting with life- everywhere, and all day long. Never is the sky shy of weather, never the air empty of sound and wind, never are the woods bare of bugs and leaves and growing trees, never is the ground without the smell of dirt and earth.

This morning I wrote in a journal that our spiritual lives are never without need for vibrant life. Never is prayer void of passion, never scripture without taste, never is righteousness without radiance!
There is not a dull moment beside God the Creator Who speaks light and life and luminous joy.

Isaiah 58 A True Fast

Proclaim Israel’s sins. Though it rejects righteousness, it seems as a nation that loves God. They ask, Why does the Lord take no notice of our fasts?
The Lord answers, Because your heart does not fast for me; your fasting has become a religious deed that allows impure motives to interfere. And you forsook my ordinances.
This is the fast He has chosen: to loose the restraints of wickedness, to undo heavy religious burdens, to free the oppressed, to break every yoke, to feed the hungry souls, to accept the outcasts, to cover the naked, to keep your brother.
These are the blessings He has chosen for such a fast: light and happiness will break forth on you as morning, your health and wholeness shall spring forth speedily, your righteousness shall prosper, the splendor of the Lord will gather you for a purpose.
The Lord will hear you when you call if you take away the yoke from your midst and stop pointing fingers and speaking vanity.
And if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted, then your light will rise in obscurity and your darkness as light as the noon sunshine.
And the Lord will continually guide you, satisfying you in spiritual drought, making you abundant, water you like a healthy garden, make you like a spring of water that never dries!
They that shall be of you will build the waste places. You will raise again the foundations of many generations. You will be known as ‘the repairer of the breach’ and ‘the restorer of paths to dwell in.’
If you honor the Sabbath and honor the Lord by going His way and not your own way, finding His pleasure and not your own pleasure, speaking His words and not your own words, then you will find delight in Him.
He will cause you to see the land from high windows and feed you will the heritage of Jacob: the portion of His estate that is your’s- Jesus’s love.

God's Miracle

We want a sign from the Lord. We want Him to prove Himself to unbelievers and show His power.
After Jesus suffered torture from the Roman soldiers, He was mocked by the Jews about His precious and holy identity.
The people wanted Jesus to prove His words and give them a sign for His prophecy. If He was the Son of God, why didn’t He come down from the cross and save Himself?
But the Lord has a better plan- He will sometimes forgo answering with a sign and create a miracle instead.
Jesus was a miracle rising from death, appearing on Earth, and visibly ascending to the right hand of God as He said He would.
Do not be impatient or adulterous with God. ‘Wait on the Lord, and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.’ Psalm 27

Domestic Newsflash

The Lord makes such beautiful things! This summer I’ve watched seeds under the ground grow into giant sunflowers.

There is a historical background to every lovely image: when the plants were a tender four feet, they were run over by a speeding four-wheeler- reducing the healthy thirteen to a standing one and propped up two.

I didn’t think they would last; being mistaken blessed me. The three patriarchs flowered with fiery yellow petals. They lasted under the sun, and bowed their heads in old age when the fire died and the yellow dried.

Today I harvested my sunflowers. When I brushed a thick covering off their faces, I found a full crop of juicy black seeds.

When I feel useless, downbeat or discouraged, I will remember that the Lord makes beautiful things underneath any thick covering of meaningless earthliness. He will brush it away, dried and dead, to reveal our radiant and fruitful hearts.

LOVE

It was LOVE, not supernatural personality, that gave Jesus the strength to climb on His cross.
It was for LOVE, not doctrine, that the disciples proclaimed the gospel.
It was LOVE, not shame, that made the prostitutes follow Jesus.
It is for LOVE, not conviction, that the persecuted suffer unto death.
It is for His LOVE that we desire Him.

Jesus, the Son of LOVE, gave the perfect expression of LOVE that turned the eyes of the nations.
And those that LOVE Him obey Him- doing His work in His LOVE that lives in us.

Commandment 1. LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength.
Commandment 2. LOVE your neighbor as yourself. That means laying down your life and rights for
your brothers' sake.
Commission: Go into all the nations preaching the gospel- showing God's LOVE.

Ephesians 4:10-16

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Paraphrase:
Jesus ascended to heaven to fulfill all things.

Jesus gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

The job of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers is to
perfect the saints for the work of ministry, and to edify the body of Christ.

The goal of perfecting and edification is a perfect, mature person who has
reached his full stature in the fulness of Christ by the unity of faith and
knowledge of Him.

Then that person will not be disillusioned by differing theology or deceived
by manipulated Scripture.

That person by speaking the truth in love will grow up in Christ.

Every member of Christ can increase His body and edify it in love by supplying
to it according to his full measure.

Introducing the New Face of Domestic Newsflash

I am reading a book about writing, and I decided to practice based on the chapter 'Writing about Traveling,' so here it goes......

There was something about my visit to Maine that tugged deeper in my memory than just the fact I had been there before. Like drinking lavender tea takes me miraculously back to my childhood, it makes me wonder what subconsciously connects the past and present by clinging details.

Looking through a box of math worksheets, grammar papers, and works of art ranging from my kindergarten keepsakes to my high school records after I graduated, I found a stack of papers labeled ‘Penmanship,’ and bound by strong rubber bands. Each sheet was an imaginary letter to my mom expressing the cares of raising a family- the return addresses: always Maine.

I learned  on my seven-day vacation that four planes land daily at the Bar Harbor airport. The nine passengers on the Bar Harbor bound flight quickly dispersed when it landed, leaving my mom and me on the porch bench waiting to ride the free bus circuit into town. After twenty minutes, the 1 Campground Shuttle arrived with one passenger who offered us cherries and asked us if we knew more than she did about the bus schedule. Five minutes down the road, the driver stopped in a quiet parking lot, announced he would be back soon, and walked away.

I soon learned that all of Maine is relaxed; the influx of tourists from rv’s, cruise ships, and land rovers are met with zealous sociableness.

Warm skies finally brighten the rugged coast, making even the cold Atlantic ocean look inviting to bare toes and brave swimmers. The one-way Loop Road is strung with parked cars and hikers taking pictures. Bicycles are ridden on carriage roads that have been forbidden to automobiles since Rockfeller donated his road project to Acadia National Park in the 1940’s. Bar Harbor is busy.

Behind the counters in shops crowded with souvenirs- some homely and some of exquisite artistry- is the artisan, or his brother or sister, selected to satisfy the imaginations of visitors wanting from them a relic of the romantic culture that shadows Maine’s history.

There was a story I heard from a bus driver that I liked.

At one point of Loop Road, a small, forested mountain runs steeply to a red and white seaside villa built in 1912 by Professor Rudolph Brunnow, a widower, before his fiancée would leave England to be his bride.
At last the professor purchased a first-class passage for his bride on the most reliable and luxurious ship of the time- the fatal Titanic. The woman never arrived at America.
Precipice Trail, a strenuous climb to the summit, was in construction years afterward when the professor fell to his death. It overlooks a broad view of sky and water.

The bus driver told us that an Englishwoman two or three years ago adamantly claimed to be the granddaughter of Professor Brunnow and his bride. Being first-class, the Englishwoman explained, the young bride watched the great ship sink from the seat of a lifeboat. The bride suffered for days in the drifting lifeboat before it was found and she was restored to English soil where she swore to never leave again.

The professor moved to England, the granddaughter continued. He returned to Maine to visit, but died while finishing a trail up the mountain.

People leaned forward in their seats to hear the end of the driver’s story as the bus passed above the villa. It was just what we wanted- a connection to the history all around us.