Day 15: Precious stone

Picture

Song:  Dave Bryant (1978)

Jesus, take me as I am, I can come no other way,

Take me deeper into You, Make my flesh life melt away. 

Make me like a precious stone, crystal clear and finely honed. 

Light of Jesus shining through, giving glory back to You.

Thought

I am using a song today that has been on my mind for the last couple of days.  I love this song and the concept of being a sparling jewel.

Think of a diamond and how it is formed.   It starts off as a lump of coal buried deep in the the dirt of the earth.  Under extreme heat or pressure, it slowly crystallises until if forms the diamond.  Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man.  But if you put a diamond in the hands of an amateur jeweller, he can turn it into worthless stone by chipping off the wrong bits or striking it in the wrong place and shattering the stone. But, if you hand this raw diamond to an expert jeweler, he will cut and polish it with extreme skill and care.  And the end product will be a diamond that shines with amazing brilliance and sparkle. He will find the most beautiful diamond within that raw stone and cut many facets to add to it's brilliance.

The words of the song ask us to be prepared for God to gently cut and polish us.  

If you take a lump of coal and carefully cut and polish it, shaping it like a diamond, you will still only have a prettily cut lump of dirty, black coal.  

We may have to suffer great pressures and heat of life to become the rough diamond that God can then take to cut and polish.  He can produce the diamond that will sparkle with His light and truly reflect His beauty.  And the more facets the diamond has the greater the sparkle.  Be prepared to shine in every facet of your life.

God knows our limits and He will not allow us to be tested or tempted beyond what we can endure. Sometimes it feels like He has taken us way beyond what we can handle; yet if we focus on Him, lean on Him and trust Him absolutely, He will strengthen us.
To Him we are more precious than the most beautiful diamonds, and He wants to bring out the greatest beauty in us.

Prayer

Lord God, please help me be the diamond you want me to be.  Let me work with you to shave off the rough edges and polish up the true beauty within.  Lord shine through me.  Let all facets of my life reflect Your glory.

Day 14: Bear the fruits of the Spirit

The Picture:

The Verse: Genesis 1: 11 ‑ 12
Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed‑bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
The Thought
I have a little apple tree in my garden that I planted when Joseph was born.  It has delicious apples called sunshine or sunrise - I forget which - but for a little tree it produces an impressive crop.
But it requires a lot of care - pruning, feeding, defending from little boys who pluck the fruit before it is ripe, keeping off slugs and snails which are prolific in my garden and have found a way to get into the tree, wasps etc.
This is our like our faith.  We all have the opportunity to produce God's wonderful fruits, but we need to feed our faith, fight off the external factors which can destroy the fruit and trust God to care for us and keep us pruned.
And we aren't expected to just produce one crop - like the apple tree has a new crop every year, we produce new and sometimes different fruits at different times of our life.  
So when you see the spring blossoms, stop and look within yourself to see what blossoms God has blooming within you and look forward to and be open to the fruit's of the Holy Spirit that you will bear
The Prayer
Spirit of God, set us alive with the blossoms to bear your fruit.  Let us flourish and grow under your care and trust in You.  

Day 13: And the trees will clap their hands

The Picture

The Verse Isaiah 55:12

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."

The Thought 

The book of Isaiah is so rich in promises and prophecies.  The Saviour is promised to us.  I read this verse as an outpouring of the elation Isaiah felt at the promises of Jesus.

When I became a Christian, I can remember the zinging feeling of joy!  And if the hills and mountains had sung or the trees clapped – I wouldn’t have been too surprised.  Although I grew up in a Christian household, I didn’t become a Christian until I was about 12.  We were on our confirmation camp up in the Cedarburg mountains and were camping in the pine forest.  I can remember the hissing and singing noise the needles made as the wind passed through them.  Indeed the trees clapped their hands!  My dad (as always!) was at the camp and I can remember his joy when I made that commitment.  How much greater must God’s joy be when we turn to Him as our Lord?

My dad gave me a bible after that weekend and I wrote the date of  my conversion.  When I found that Bible recently, I was thrilled to find that my Joseph was born on the same date (some 26 years later though).  I hope that I am around when he makes his commitment to God.  

When I am out walking in the mountains or moors, the song from this verse often comes to mind.  And I am filled with the joy of God!  I hope that I sing it all day today! 

The Prayer
Father God, thank you for the joy we can find in You.  Thanks you that the very earth breaks into song at the thought of you.  Help me maintain that joy even when times are tricky, that I might always have a song in my heart to worship You.

Day 12: The Moon and Stars

The Picture

The Verse:  Nehemiah 9:6         

You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

The Thought

Last night the moon was the closest to the earth that it has been for 20 years.  The picture above was taken last year because it was too cloudy last night.  But the moon is beautiful and seeing a huge full moonrise is always a special moment.  In Cape Town it is very popular to climb to the top of Lion's Head and watch the sun set in the west and minutes later the full moon rise in the east.  It is a breathtaking experience.  You are given such an overwhelming sense of  day and night, light and darkness.

http://leecasalena.com/fullmoonhike.swf   (This is a 360 application, you can pan up and down and all around!)

The full moon gives light to a dark night and can help you when you travel over difficult terrain.  Equally God guides us and gives us light in dark times.  We need to use His light to follow the paths of our life, even when things seem dark.  Don't let doubts and worries turn into the clouds that can block out the light, but  trust in Him.

The Prayer

Thank you for your guiding light, Lord.  Help us trust that you will always be the light for our paths, both in good times and when things seem dark and difficult.  Don't let us cloud your guidance with our human worries and fretting.

Day 11: Don't Litter!

The Picture

The Verse Numbers 35:33-34

You shall not pollute the land in which you live.... You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the Israelites."

The Thought

I am so aware of how we are destroying our world.  My heart aches every time I walk past litter in the beautiful countryside, or see the sunshine hazy through the smog.  If you look at the worlds "beauty spots" they are slowly being ruined with buildings, roads and litter.  We all strive to find unspoilt areas to holiday to, and then proceed to destroy them.
I have been trying to use my car less, although I must confess that I struggle with this in winter.  David cycles to work every day and I want to walk or run to mine more than I do.  With the ever increasing price of fuel, this may be made a bit easier though! 
Last lent I tried to follow a daily challenge which involved incorporating an element of "greenness" into your life each day - taking a light bulb out of a multi-bulb light fitting, walking to the shop, avoiding boiling full kettles for 1 cup of tea.  You know the sort of thing.  I have managed to continue with some of them, but it is so easy to slip back into bad habits.  Especially with the driving (note the guilt).  Now that the weather is warmer, I can hopefully start walking around more.
We seem to have so little regard for God's creation.  With the current radiation crisis in Japan, the Gulf oil spill from BP, I find man's intervention on earth so disturbing.  We are always trying to make our lives easier and somehow the earth seems to pay the price. 
My heart breaks every time I go past a little furry pile of road-kill.  We are so determined to race through life in our cars, regardless of the decimation of nature we leave behind.
How God's heart must ache as he watches us destroy his beautiful world.  
Pay attention to the impact you make.  It is the best you can do.

The Prayer

Oh Lord, I am sorry for the way we use and abuse what You have given us.  Make me aware of the way I am wasting resources and destroying life with my actions.  I want the world to be the beauty spot You created.

Day 10: The Rainbow Promise

The Picture

The Verse: Genesis 9:8‑10, 12‑13, 16‑17

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you‑‑the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you‑‑every living creature on earth  And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.... Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."

The Thought

I love rainbows.  Again, they always make me think of my dad.  We used to live near the sea and there was a tidal lagoon at the bottom of our road.  One year we had some flooding and the water rose a couple of meters.  The houses at the end of the road were flooded.  We lived higher up the hill so weren’t really at risk, but I was convinced we were all about to be washed away – and we didn’t have an ark!

Dad sat with me and talked about the story of Noah’s Ark and comforted me in his best Daddy fashion.  A rainbow didn’t magically appear in the sky as he spoke, but it may as well of. 

I am transported back to that day every time I see one. 

This was the gist of our conversation:  God’s beautiful rainbows appear after storms, just when things are looking grey and dark.  If it is a sunny day you won’t get a rainbow.  It has to be a dreary and rainy day to fully appreciate the rainbow.  The sun shines through the clouds and onto the rain, so you need the storm to see the beauty of the sunshine and the rainbow.  Otherwise you just take all the sunshine for granted.  They are a sign of God’s promise that He will guide us through any storm, through any troubles.

When you are feeling battered and bruised by life and are filled with doubt, think about the rainbow and remember it is coming.  It is only a prayer away….

The Prayer

I thank you for the beautiful rainbows you send us during stormy times Lord.  When we are focusing on the greyness and dreariness of the time, You shine through in yoiur splendour and fill the sky with colour and beauty.  Help us focus on You and to look for your rainbows in our lives.

Day 9: Worry is Illogical

The Picture
photo: Dave Troughton

The Verse  Matthew 6:26

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

The Thought

When we worry about daily things we are actually slandering God's character. When we worry, it suggests that God is more interested in creatures than in His children. He provides for them and we must trust that He will provide for us too.  Birds are kept alive by food provided by nature, such as worms and insects. They have to spend a lot of time hunting and searching for the food, but it is there to be found. Jesus encourages us to look at them and to think about these facts. Worry misses the point of life because it is illogical.

 Jesus says, 'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' (Matthew 6:34)

God has given us our lives in days and we should take life a day at a time. If we wish to live a long and fruitful life, we should respect and live by the biological clock he has built inside us.

Many have recognized the senselessness of worry at least with their minds.  We reason something like this:  There are only two things you can worry over—things you have control over, and things you don’t have control over.  It makes no sense to worry about things you have control over because if you have control over them then you can do something about them and there is no sense in worrying about them.  It makes no sense to worry about what you don’t have control over, because if you don’t have control over them there’s no use worrying about it. 

We know worry doesn't do any good.  We know this because we know most of the things we worried about didn't happen. 
It doesn't mean you can sit back on your laurels and hope for the best.  The birds hunt for their food and build their nests.  They just don't fret about it.

Can you think of one good thing worry adds to your life?  Worry is senseless.

The Prayer
Dear God, I would love to not worry about things.  Teach me to live each day as a unit and to celebrate in the small things that make our days interesting.   Help us not to worry needlessly but to trust in you.  It is so easy to get wound up by irrelevant things until they affect our lives in so many ways.  Help us leave these concerns at the foot of your cross.