At Home in Wyoming

A Word About Sunday

 
Ok, I know that you all are tired of deer pictures, but yesterday I made the mistake of having my son take scenery pictures for the blog, and they all came back out of focus.  His 50 million pictures of mule deer, on the other hand, came back crystal clear.  Go figure!

I remember talking to a friend once who had just returned from a trip to Jerusalem.  I asked for her impressions...and she said that what struck her the most was the reverence with which they treated the Sabbath.  Apparently the Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown, and she recounted how a holy hush fell over the city as the sun began to sink.  She said that you really got a feel that this was a day set apart to honor God, and for rest.

Contrast that with the Christian Sunday, the Lord's Day.  When I was child in Virginia, I remember very well the Sunday Blue Laws, which have since been repealed.  Each Sunday the stores were closed, bars were shut down, and if I remember right gas stations used to take turns being open, one station every so many miles, so that people could get gas in the case of emergencies.  I am thinking that most of the restaurants were closed too, but I could be wrong about that.  But what impressed me as a child was knowing that things were closed because it was a day to go to church and honor God.  I wasn't sure of all the ramifications, but I sensed that Sunday was a different day, a special day, a day set apart from the others.  A day that commerce took a back seat.  A day to slow down.  Sunday was important, different, and to treat it as such was the LAW.

Now I am certainly not a Bible scholar, or here to do some legalistic sermonette on what everyone should be doing on Sundays.  But after church yesterday I drove past Walmart, and noticed that the parking lot was just as full on Sunday as it was on Saturday.  And I enjoyed the lunch that I ate at the restaurant, and I was glad that the gas station was open so that I could go on my Sunday drive.  It was convenient, but I don't know if it was necessarily good.  Jesus talked about that in Mark 2:27-28:

"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath."

In my mind He was saying that we don't serve the sabbath, the sabbath was created to serve us.  A day set apart to honor God and rest...was made just for us.  It is good for us.  To not set that day apart is to miss out on something beneficial that God has intended for us.  He made us, He knows our needs, and He knows that we need this.

So...maybe it would behoove some of us to rethink Sunday.  To pray about it, and ask God if we have been living in a way that we miss out on something that is good for our body, mind and especially our spirit.  In our 24/7 world, it is no longer the law that we set apart a day a week to honor God.  To rest, relax, enjoy our loved ones.  We are free to shop, do the laundry, clean the house, mow the yard and scrub the toilet to our heart's desire.  We can get all of our work done so we are ready for Monday.  Our culture practically dictates this.

But...Jesus said that the sabbath was made for man.  God does not create anything by accident.  So maybe the time has come to get on our knees...and ask Him to show us how He would have us spend our Sundays.   DLB

 

 

 

How To Turn Doom and Gloom Into Hope And Victory

 
This was the view from the Green Creek Road on the North Fork last week, I was surprised to see how little snow there was on the peak.

I awoke this morning with a heavy heart, and so I reached for my Bible for some comfort...and of course I got it.  

"But Thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill.  Se'lah."   (Psalm 3:3-4)

We live in a troubled world, and life is often a painful business.  To relieve the pain we are tempted to turn to mind numbing things...alcohol, drugs, food, television, books...anything that we can find to escape (for a while) the pain.  Some of those things are not bad in and of themselves, but they can be if you are using them to hide from whatever is causing you the agony. 

Don't hide.  God wants us to find our comfort in Him.  And his comfort is not the temporary kind, He is not a fair weather friend.  So I challenge you (and challenge myself), the next time you are in need of comfort and are tempting to hide out for a while from the pain, turn to your Bible first.  Read until you find a passage that quiets your disturbed heart.  Do that, and you can face your pain head on because you find that you no longer have to carry it alone.  In Matthew 11:28 Jesus says:

"Come to Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

Don't try to hide or escape from your burdens, go to God FIRST.  Pick up that Bible, then get on your knees.  You'll find you won't have numbed your mind for a while, like you would have if you went somewhere else for comfort and escape, but you will find rest...and an inner peace knowing that God is working on solutions to what ails you. 

And with God dealing with your problem, instead of you hiding from it or avoiding it because it hurts...you will find that in His time you will see answers instead of despair.  You will have hope that leads to victory.  

 And, as Forrest Gump would say, 'that's all I have to say about that', folks! DLB

 

 

I Wonder Why Jesus Wept?

 
About 6 houses down from mine, I spied this buck getting ready to walk down the hillside.  I told him 'don't move' and ran back to get my camera.  He obliged, and graciously posed for this picture!

I am a big fan of the poetry of the late Ruth Bell Graham (the wife of Billy Graham).  I would like to share one of my favorites with you...but first I need to set the scene.  Many of you are familiar with the John Chapter 11  account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  If not, please read John 11:1-45 before you read this poem.  It deals with a possible reason of why, in verse 35, 'Jesus wept'...

 

Jesus wept.

But why?

Knowing what lay ahead

moments away...

Was it because

He had not come

when He heard

Lazarus might die?

Lazarus was dead!

Was it in sympathy

with their raw grief,

faith's impotent lack?

Or could it be

because He

had to bring him

back?

 

(Poem by Ruth Bell Graham, taken from the book "Footprints of a Pilgrim")

If you are interested in reading Ruth's poetry, or prose, I found a lot of her work available at the online bookstore of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, at billygraham.org   DLB

 

 

 

 

Do It Now!

This picture was taken about 40 miles out of Cody, on the road to Pashaka on the North Fork.

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest." (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

In other words, do it now!  While we have life, this is the time to learn, to work, to do whatever it is that God is telling you to do.  I am a procrastinator by nature, but at some point time...this side of eternity...will simply run out.  Once we enter Heaven, it will be too late to do the things that God was telling you to get done on Earth.

I don't know about you, but I have wasted away a lot of time making things easier for myself than doing what I was supposed to be doing.  I sometimes think we try to make Heaven on earth...we worry about our own comfort and security.  But Heaven comes later, folks.  Now is the time to study to 'show thyself approved'.  It is time to work, to pray, to forgive, to love when it is hard.  To serve.  To simply do what He tells us to do.

It's a new year, let's make it count for all of Eternity.

Happy New Year!    DLB

 

Keeping Christmas

Our Christmas tree this year...I found a few years ago that decorating those tall trees was not as much fun as it used to be (Who, me?  Getting older?) so I stick a short tree on top of my antique sewing machine and call it good...

Did you ever notice that during the holiday season everyone begins to use every gift and talent that they possess to celebrate the birth of Christ?  Those who bake...bake cookies, cakes, pies and nut rolls.  Those who write, often write Christmas letters.  Those who cook produce elaborate meals.  Those who decorate begin to deck the halls.  I have friends who are gifted in shopping, gift wrapping and singing...whatever the talent, they dust it off and bring it front and center at Christmas.  And don't we all benefit, doesn't it add to our joy, and our sense of celebration?

But once Christmas is over, we often pack up our talents and gifts and put them in a box along with the ornaments when we take down the tree, and don't dig them out again until next Christmas.  But I purpose that this year we ask God to help us develop any talent or gift He has given us, and use it to bring Him Glory all the year long.  If you bake, bake cookies for a shut in...if you arrange flowers, take some to a friend that is going through a hard time.  If you sing, use your gift in your local church.  If you write, write letters each month to someone that you think could use a little ray of sunshine.  Do you get my drift?  Let's really develop and use our talents in the care of others, for the glory of God.

And that, my friend, will keep Christmas in our hearts all the year long.

Merry Christmas!  DLB
 

Take Joy!

I read a quote today by Adela Rogers St. Johns that made me think about the difference between happiness and joy.  She said,    
"Joy seems to me a step beyond happiness--happiness is a sort of atmosphere you can live in sometimes when you're lucky.  Joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love."  --Adela Rogers St. Johns.

Our culture markets Christmas as a time when we are supposed to be happy.  As Christians we often get caught up in the expectation, and feel that something is amiss if we can't 'get that feeling'.  Let's face it folks, sometimes Christmas is not a happy time.  There are some that are facing Christmas alone in a nursing home, or are experiencing a recent bereavement.  Some have children in harm's way, either in the military or because of addiction.  There are those experiencing cancer, or caregivers who are simply overwhelmed.  Some are lonely, some are scared, some are unemployed.  For them, Christmas this year probably won't be a happy time...BUT Christmas can still be a time for great joy.

Happiness is an emotion, and as such it is fleeting.  But joy is made of stronger stuff...rooted in hope in a God that loves us through good times and bad, through thick and thin.  His love sustains us, this hope in a God so merciful that He sent His Son to die for our sin.  When I am happy or sad, I am paying attention to myself...my feelings, my circumstances, my emotions.  But when I take my eyes off of myself and turn and focus on God, great joy awaits and is there for the taking.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." (John 16:20)

I hope this Christmas is a happy time for you, a time of fellowship and refreshment with family and friends.  But if this is a hard Christmas for you....choose to take JOY!   DLB

 

 

 

    

One Profound Sentence

Christmas is fast approaching, and the Irma is all decked out for the season.  Our tradition is to walk there there when it snows, and belly up to the cherry wood bar in the dining room for hot chocolate.  But with the sub zero temperatures that we have been having lately, we are drinking our hot chocolate snug at home!

To be honest, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about Mary, the mother of Jesus.  When I do, it is usually at this time of year when I ponder the nativity...or at Easter, when I think of her horror at the crucifixion of her son.  But today Mary has been on my mind because of something she said in the second chapter of the book of John.  Mary was able to nail in one sentence the entire essence of the Christian walk.

Let me set the scene.  They were at a wedding in Cana, and they had no wine.  I am assuming that they ran out...regardless, there was a problem and Mary knew it.  More important, she knew what to do about it.  She went to Jesus, and told Him.

Then Mary turned to the servants, and said "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." (John 2:5)

And in that simple statement lies the secret to success in the Christian walk.  "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it."

Have you always done what He told you to do in the scripture, or in answer to prayer?  I haven't.  How needlessly complicated and painful have we made our lives because we did it our way, instead of His way?  I am paying the consequences today of the sin of thinking my way was best...and ignoring Mary's advice.  There is nothing I can do about the past, but today I am pondering Mary's statement and thinking about how my life, your life and the world would be different it only we did...what He said unto us to do.

Mary is remembered for many things, but today I am thankful that Mary pointed to Jesus, and told her servants...and us...the essence of the Christian walk.  And that, my friend, is OBEDIENCE! DLB

 

 

 

Least Said, Soonest Mended

This picture was taken at Newton Lake during Fall of last year.  I am about three weeks away from getting my camera back...I have missed taking pictures!

In the last few weeks I have been on the receiving end of an apology, and boy do I owe one to someone...so I have been thinking about the right and wrong way to say 'I'm sorry'.  I have come to the conclusion that the worst way to apologize is to use the word BUT in the apology.  

When I received the apology, the person that apologized said that she was sorry, but then proceeded to justify what she did in such a manner that by the end of it, well... what was said to me was worse than what she had originally apologized for.  I felt like I needed an apology...for the apology!  

Now it is my turn to offer an apology to someone.  I was in the wrong.  I told someone off, but good!  I said things that needed to be said, but the manner in which I said them was inexcusable.  I knew I was in the wrong the minute the words came flying out of my mouth.

I rehearsed in my mind what I intended to say to this person...that I was sorry BUT...and proceeded to rationalize what I said and why I said it.  It came to me that by doing that I was making the apology about me, when it should have been all about the person that I had wronged.  Now, I am not saying that I cannot explain at a calmer time why I had the meltdown, I am just saying that I think that when you are saying you are sincerely sorry for something, the apology should stand alone.  Period.  No ifs, ands and BUTS about it!

There is an old saying that 'the least said, the soonest mended'.  I think that when it comes to an apology, those are words to remember...better yet, put that saying into practice as a general rule, and you will have to spend a lot less time offering apologies for what has come flying out of your mouth!  DLB 

Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?

 You've read the passage many times, but I have been thinking a lot about the man with the infirmity described in John chapter 5.  He was lying by the sheep pool waiting for the angel to trouble the water so that he could be dunked into it and healed.

Jesus walked by and saw him, and knew that he had been a long time 'in that case', and asked him this curious question...

 "WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?"

Now why would He ask that?  Of course the man wanted to be made whole.  Didn't he?  At first read it seemed kind of a silly question.  But, one thing I know about Jesus, and that is that He never minced words.  EVERYTHING that he said was for a purpose, and it pierced straight to the soul.  So why did He ask that guy if he wanted to be healed, especially since He knew the answer to the question anyway.

But when I thought about it, I realized that He did not ask the man if he wanted to be made whole because He needed an answer to the question, but rather He asked it so the man would have to make a choice...did he, or did he not want to be made whole?

Lying by a sheep pool with an infirmity doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but maybe there were some advantages.  I am sure that there was some kind of fellowship with the others that were hanging around there, the Bible says in verse 3 that there was a great multitude of the impotent by the pool.  Misery loves company, and I am sure that there was some pretty riveting gossip going back and forth, and camaraderie of sorts from the regulars.  Plus, maybe he was professing that he wanted to be made well, but in reality lying by the pool may have been easier than going out and getting a job...who knows what was in this guy's heart?  

Jesus knew.  And He must have known that there was some reason that the man with the infirmity was ambivalent in regard to his healing, so He asked him if this was what he wanted.  Did he want to be made whole?  Jesus was asking him to clarify this...to choose.

I think that the reason I have been thinking about this so much is because I am a lot like the guy with the infirmity.  I don't have a physical infirmity, but I have recurring sins in my life that I have never really dealt with.  Oh...I confess them to God, and ask for His help in dealing with them, but I have never really surrendered them.  Why?  Probably because I don't want to give them up, or I enjoy them, or maybe I don't think that they are all that big compared to the sin of murder, for instance.  God doesn't see it that way at all, and I don't in my mind, but in my heart I probably do.  The saying goes that the biggest reason for sin is the middle letter 'I'.  Jesus is telling me in this passage that I am confessing with my mouth that I need deliverance from certain sins, but in my heart I am holding them close.  So He is asking me,

"WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?"

He wants me to make a choice.  Do I really want to be made whole, or do I want to go along the way I have been...thinking that I will deal with this tomorrow.  When my father-in-law was told that he had only two months left to live, he told me that I had no idea how short a lifetime really is.  Tomorrow may never come, time eventually runs out.  So again, the question...

"WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?"

It is way past time for me to deal with sin in my life.  The hour is now.  And if I don't?  The wages of sin eventually lead to death, but look again at verse 3.  The man with the infirmity was lying there with 'a great multitude of impotent folk'.  Also, in verse 7 the guy with the infirmity was described as the 'impotent man'.  I looked up the definition of impotent, and the definition is disabled, unable to perform action.  Synonyms are ineffectual, incompetent, incapable, inept.

Just as a physical infirmity can hinder you, how much more so can a sin infirmity render you ineffectual in your Christian walk.   Surrender ain't for cowards, but at some point you gotta make the choice to die to self.  Which is why Jesus asks me, and you...

"WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?"

  

Welcome Home

Opening my front door, I saw that Fall packed up and left town early.  It seems that in Cody, at least, Winter has moved back in!  I just listened to the weather forecast through the weekend, and it sounds like we had better get used to it...

I saw the strangest thing yesterday.  I was next to the old library turning on to Main Street, and I saw the tree on the corner shed its leaves...still green...all at once.  It was raining green leaves.  And I looked up and down the street and saw that all of the corner trees on Main Street were doing the same thing. 

I thought to myself 'now there is something that you don't see everyday' so I pulled over and watched.  In the space of about an hour all of those trees lost every one of their green leaves.  It is almost as if they got a taste of the cold and the snow and decided that they were out of here, packed up and left!

My husband noticed the same thing across town.  He said that it was probably because those trees are not indigenous to this country, so they couldn't stand up to an early taste of winter, which is not (sorry to say) an uncommon thing here.  I noticed that the aspen trees still have all of their leaves.  But all of the corner trees on Main Street are now completely bare.

Do you suppose that is the way that we are, when we find ourselves out of the center of the will of God for our lives?  It could be due to sin, or just plain old rebellion and wanting our way instead of God's...but when I am not where I am supposed to be with God I am just like those poor trees.  I may seem fine when life is balmy and good, but a cold blast of trouble shows me that I cannot handle life on my own.  Suddenly I see that my way is the wrong way, and God's way is ALWAYS the right way.  When I am in the center of God's will the cruel blast of cold may still come, but God gives me the strength to handle it.  I can keep my leaves!

Jeremiah 17:7-9 reads:

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

For he shall be as the tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

Just as a tree should be indigenous to its native area, we as Christians need to be indigenous to the center of the will of God for our lives.  We can stray outside of our region, and maybe seem to be ok for a while.  But I have found...and this is a lesson hard learned...that you will never flourish unless you stand where God puts you.  Sin brings pleasure for a season...but woe to you when the season is over and winter arrives! 

Thankfully, we have a God that does not despise a broken and contrite heart.  If you are a Christian, getting back to where you are supposed to be with God is as simple as only Jesus Christ can make it.  Repent, and go back to where you belong by obeying God. I have found that He is always there to welcome you home!  DLB