Palm Sunday Ponderings

So we gathered with other believers today, on the first day of the week, at our little country church; one that still has a dirt parking lot, gets the majority of its heat from burning wood, has an average attendance of hardly more than 50 people.  We are a jumbled mix of people and personalities: retirees, farmers, bankers, computer programmers, school teachers.....some attend sporadically, others are there with their families every week like clockwork..... some are the third generation of their families to attend here, others only came because they were in town to visit a friend.  Some people come only for Sunday School, some only for the main service.

We gathered today, on the first day of the week.  A motley crew to be sure--but what brought us together?  There are so many differences, so many opinions and personalities.... And why to this little out of the way church in the country?

It is not a gathering of intellectual philosophers, nor a band of bawdy revelers.  We are just "plain, ordinary folks."  We don't have "star power", filling the pews by the winsome ways of a nationally know figure; we don't cater to the entertainment crowd--those only looking for a good time; we don't have a souped up 'worship' band to liven the place up and bring in the crowds with adrenaline pumping rhythms; the attendance has actually dwindled over the last few years.

Are we the perfect bunch that just has everything figured out?  Far from it!  Do we, simply tow the "center line" because we fear extremes finding apathy preferable to risk?  I pray not!  Is it societal and peer pressures that cause us to congregate for this weekly assembly?  I long for a nation that is Godly enough for this to even enter into the equation!

So why do we come?

Simply put, we come because God called us.

"And those he [God] predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." (Romans 8:30)

We come because he called.  It is a call that is open to all, but only those who choose to respond will gain what is promised.

"[The righteous], who through faith conquered...and gained what was promised." (Heb 11:33)

We must order our lives through faith, it is faith that must be at the core of our existence, and it is faith that must be the driving force of our actions.

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (Heb 11:1)

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this it not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." (Eph 2:8-9)

But we see that faith cannot be uninformed--we must know the reason for the hope that is with in us. (1 Peter 3:15) Faith in faith itself is not a saving faith. Nor will faith in a lie prove to be salvific--if one believes a lie that does not make it true--even for that individual.

We gather together, on the first day of the week, because we have been called by God, because we have faith in our hearts, because Christ has conquered.

We affirm that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures." (1 Cor 15:3-4)  

This is what is necessary for salvation--to avoid the terrible and eternal punishment of a Jealous God--but more to receive the life everlasting, the gift of the Spirit, and to know the power of a transcendent and omnipotent God at work in our lives.

"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." (Ro 10:9-10) 

What is more "As Scripture says, 'Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.'" (Ro 10:11)

This is why we few--imperfect and blighted by sin--come to the little church in the country with a dirt lot and wood for heat: We are called according to his purpose.  He who calls has the right and the authority to do so.

We "know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, an his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be the head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." (Eph 1:18-23)

Christ who calls us together, on this first day of the week, is our head; he is our Lord.  He is over all and it is through him that we have strength.

As we look forward this week to Good Friday, when on that black day in History; that day when "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us" (2 Cor 5:21a),we remember the rest of the story....

We remember that the wrath of an infinitely holy and righteous God had to be satisfied, so at infinite cost God sacrificed his only son: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (Jn 3:16-17) "So that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor 5:21b)

And though this could not be accomplished without the death of Christ, we must not stop there!  Indeed though the death and burial of Christ were necessary to vindicate the Mercy of God and to clear him of any accusation of injustice the Resurrection of Christ is required to vindicate the Son (Paraphrase of Paul Washer in The Power and Message of the Gospel)

It is the Resurrection that is the cornerstone of our faith, the lynch pin of our beliefs and the cause for our gathering...on the first day of the week.

And so we come. And we rejoice.

To God alone be the glory!

Matthew

A Few More Days of Winter

Well rest assured here in Michigan it is still winter no matter what the calender says about Spring arriving tomorrow!  This morning we awoke to the wind whipping snow though the air in impressive displays.  Some of the birds are wondering what they ever came north for this early:

 Even the winter regulars were sitting with their backs to the wind and hanging on tight during the gusts!

 The sheep which were out enjoying the sunshine on Sunday when I took the photo below, were pretty much keeping to their barn today--and they still have a 4+ inch thick coat on.

With the wind still whipping up 'snow devils' outside and those icy pellets stinging through the air, we inside have much to be thankful for!

We rejoice in knowing the Creator, who has provided a nice warm house for us (perhaps we wouldn't even have needed quite that much wood on the fire....80 + degrees is plenty warm...) and who provides for even the animals right down to the sparrows.  If He notices when a small part of His creation like a little bird suffers, how much more must He care for us?

As we look forward to Easter and another celebration of His life, death and redeeming work for us on the cross, but more His resurrection! how can we fail to be impacted?  How can we see His suffering and not feel unworthy of such love?  How can we hear of His mercy and grace and be unmoved?  How can we feel His forgiveness and not aspire to do worthy service in His Name?

Standing amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene,

Matthew

Spring?

Our days are getting longer, the sun is shining more and the snow is slowly melting....

Our walk is underwater....

The winter birds are taking flight in the face of new competition at the feeders....

And we even spied this fellow the other day.....

A Red-wing black bird--a sure sign that Spring is around the corner

But is Spring really coming?  We have been enjoying the sunny days and warmer daytime temperatures, but it is still Michigan and so we know not to get too excited yet--there is probably at least one more winter storm in the offing for us.  

Like in the Christian life, we know that someday all things will be made new, but in the meantime we must continue lean on Christ and pray for spring-like renewing to come through His Spirit and refresh again our hearts and minds.  Continuing to lay aside the mud and slop of life that so easily entangles, and taking care not to slip on the icy spots of sin and doubt, in order to run with perseverance the race that is set for us to run!  Trusting that when the storms of life assail and we face fear and change and every worldly assault, Christ will ever be our guide and take us to His place of rest and peace--for He has Promised, and He is Faithful.

As Spring steadily approaches with the promise of new life and fresh beauty, I pray that you and I will bear with new fruit the signs of being a new creation in Christ; and that the beauty and grace of His character might shine through us to the praise of His glory.

Praising God for His continual and all sufficient grace, until the time of His glorious appearing and then forever,

Matthew

February Flying By

It is interesting how in this life time exists yet is hard to grasp or understand the passing of it.  For example, it seems like it was just days ago that Christmas was here, and yet it at the same time it seems an eon ago!  Perhaps that is just another clue to show the essence of the eternal spirit within all mankind--creatures, (in the sense that man was created by God) creatures passing through the sphere and influence of time and space but designed for something greater--eternity with their Creator!

And as we live out our days here under the sun, we should focus all our skill, thought and energy to glorifying God; and working through His processes of sanctification strive to become better vessels for His use and more effective ambassadors for Christ.  Our Aim and Goal must be to gain for Christ greater glory or all our efforts are in vain.  It is the eternal that is of consequence.

As the Scripture enjoins us-- "whatever you do, do all for the Glory of God!"

How have you been living in accordance with the calling you have received?  What has God been doing in your life that you can praise Him for?  He truly delights to delight His children, and it is our privilege to return praise to Him for his glorious works in our lives!

We have had much to be thankful for this past month, with various events in which we have clearly seen the hand of God--over and over we have given Him praise for His sovereignty when circumstances and events were and are out of our control.  Through the hope we have in Christ and with the knowledge of His promises we can find (at least a little!) Joy in the midst of trials and Peace in the midst of heartache!

At the beginning of the month Jonathan had the opportunity to travel to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, and while driving down after picking up a couple of friends in Illinois experienced a disabling vehicle failure! (timing belt shredded).  But by the grace of God they were able to have another car brought from southern IL and continued on their way without loss of good spirits and a cheerful outlook.  Having lost about 7.5 hours while in Missouri, getting towed to a repair shop and waiting for the next car, they continued driving on into Texas a couple of hours past midnight before stopping for a couple hours rest at a hotel.  But while they were stopped in that town they discovered that the truck of the the car had popped open and they had lost a suitcase!  Once again however they were able to praise God that it was a bag with only clothes and not expensive camera equipment!  After safely arriving (finally!) at San Antonio and parking in a budget lot one of the car windows was broken out an someone stole another bag of clothes from the back seat.... Thankfully the insurance covered the damage.

It was a trip that they won't soon forget!  Even through the trials and testings they had a great time and were edified by the speakers at the festival and came back with a stronger friendship.

Meanwhile the van was stranded in Missouri and Jonathan would be stuck at Illinois on his return north.  So we at home made plans to pick him up and tried to figure out how to retrieve the van.  God directed us to a Christian shipping company which was able to make the arrangements necessary to have the van transported back to Michigan for about the same cost as we could have driven a truck down to bring it back on a trailer.

So now we are praising God for safe return of the boy, the van and even some more snow!

February has a reputation in Michigan of being snowy and sunny....this year we are not getting a lot of either, but are thankful for the special beauty when the two combine!

One day in particular was especially pretty this month: it started out a bit cold (a few degrees below zero) which produces gorgeous hoarfrost and a frozen fog...

Later on when the sun was shining in full force you might have thought it was summer by the shadows!

The icicles were dripping merrily:

 And the snow provided a backdrop for one of my favorite photos:

At some point we did get quite a few inches of snow...I can't actually remember if all this snow stuff happened in the same week or what but wanted to put the pictures up anyway :-)

Another celebration we had was of another year of Mom's life and the goodness of God to her!  Jonathan was still in Texas on her Birthday so we waited on grilling the porterhouse steak and fried up some ham steaks instead :-)

The rest of the meal was also delicious: fried/steamed sweet potatoes with onions and Parmesan cheese, steamed broccoli, and fried mushrooms!

With homemade (and Dadmade :-) carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for desert!

The queen for a day coming to dinner with her faithful knightly escort:

A few presents and then naps all around :-)  

On the "to do" list, now that we have the van back, one of my next projects is to pull the heads off and see what damage has been done to the valves etc...

Another project has been a pickup truck makeover; from this:

Edit: Found this picture which is a bit better :-)

For this purpose please ignore my buddy's first deer and notice the topper...
this was the only 'before' picture that I could find of the truck....

To this:

While we were considering driving down to pick up the van from Missouri I got on a bit of a trailer craze, and "happened to find" (God's doing again) a gooseneck trailer project for a good deal...it even came with the hitch!

Its even one of those nice ones that fold flat!

 So now I have another fun project to work on.  I've built another trailer from a camper frame in the past and learned a lot from that so I think that I can turn this into a pretty nice little gooseneck.   I've been kinda wanting one for awhile to increase my hauling capacity without needing to upgrade the pickup--even with 1 ton and overload springs, a half-ton pickup can only do so much.  With the gooseneck to put the tongue weight closer to the truck axles it will spread the load more, even putting some weight on the front axle of the truck, allowing me to (hopefully) at least double or triple my hauling capacity over my previous single axle bumper type trailer even though this one is only a couple of feet longer.

And speaking of projects, Mom finished the quilt she was making for Jonathan while he was away in Texas! Here's a couple of quick pictures:

A very tired guy, but very happy! You can see the quilt Mom made me hanging in the background

This pattern is called 'King David's Crown'

And lastly for a quick animal update: 

 If you look closely you will see our flock of "free range" wild turkeys in the back ground :-)  At times there are upwards of 50 birds that hang out in the neighboring fields gleaning what they can.

And now to Him who is able to even more than we ask or think, to Him be all power glory and majesty now and forever. Amen.

Grace and Peace be y'all's in abundance,

Matthew

Winter's Back Folks!

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming:

 Issued by The National Weather Service

Grand Rapids, MI

Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 9:11 AM EST

LAKE EFFECT SNOW ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 PM EST FRIDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND RAPIDS HAS ISSUED A LAKE EFFECT SNOW ADVISORY... WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 PM EST FRIDAY.

HAZARDOUS WEATHER...

* POTENTIAL FOR 2 TO 5 INCHES OF TOTAL SNOW THROUGH 1 PM FRIDAY.

* WEST WINDS GUSTING TO 30 MPH WILL CREATE AREAS OF BLOWING SNOW.

* WIND CHILL TEMPERATURES AS COLD AS 10 BELOW ZERO TONIGHT AND FRIDAY NIGHT.

Back to Winter -- Yeah!!

The Second Thaw

We know to expect it--the sloppy, sometimes dangerously icy, roads; the MUD, the rain and the fog....  But usually we only get it once per January!  This year we've had two January thaws: one in the first third of the month and now this one that started Sunday night.

We are thankful for the moisture, however it takes considerably more work to be thankful for the recurring freeze thaw cycles!  Most of us Michaganders would infinitely prefer to just keep the freeze part until it's ready to be permanently thawed.  Then there are those of us who would prefer that the temperatures stayed well above freezing all year; and again there are those of me who would prefer that from the middle of November until first of March the temperature averaged 5 or 10 degrees and came with 2 feet of snow! :-)  (I can hear it now--"Go North, young man, go NORTH!)  Although after the last couple of years with disappointing snowfall totals and much warmer than average temperatures, I've mentioned several times that we might just as well move South--then we'd at least miss half of the mud, and not be out much for cold and snow.   Someday I'm going to make it to northern Minnesota, or North Dakota or something to experience what real cold and snow are so I can share it with those complaining about 25 degrees :-)

The other night it did get cold enough for us to have some unusual Northern Lights!  We typically have northern lights every night (the city of Charlotte is a just a couple of miles to the Northeast!), but this was a little different.  The lights from the industrial complex were putting on a real show:

We're not sure what caused this...it only lasted for maybe a couple of hours.  Perhaps the right combination of ice crystals in the atmosphere, or something like that?

Anyway it was a good night for picture taking because we got some nice shots of the house too!  So if you happened to come to PotterVilla this winter here's what you'd have seen: 

A few nights later we got a couple of interesting pictures of the moon....

How could a person look at the beauty of creation, or the people around them and not see the hand of God? As Paul said in the book of Romans: "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." (emphasis mine)

For my part, as the song says: "I'm so glad, I'm a part of the family of God!"

There's another old hymn too part of which goes like this:

Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?

It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;

It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,

And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

--Worship The King; Robert Grant

Part of God's care for us lately has been in the stockpiling of wood for next year. Grandpa's farm has had the blight of the emerald ash borer for a couple of years and he is up to his ears in dead and dying ash trees. Back last week I was able to take three days and devote that time to getting the wood from Grampa's low ground while it was still frozen and solid. In that time we were able to cut and haul three loads of wood home (totaling about 9 1/2 face cords) and one load of logs to a friend with a sawmill. When things work that well and smoothly, I can feel God smiling on us! Now the big blocks are stacked up waiting to be split and re-stacked to dry a little before providing us with lovely heat next winter.

One day we started figuring how many times we had to handle the wood before it eventually made it to the ash pile out back...I think we got up to 15 or 16 before we quit--it was almost too discouraging to keep going! And of course some individual pieces would be handled more than that when you count in the ones that bounce out the other side of the trailer when thrown in and so on. The cost of "free" heat!

Have y'all ever heard the one about the fellow that was trying to figure out how much burning wood actually cost him? Well he started out with the chain saw, added in the cost of a pickup truck and trailer, a new back window for the pickup (the wood is supposed to stay in the back, not ride in the front seat, but some pieces seem to have a mind of their own!), gas to get to the woods and gas for the chain saw, new boots and 5 stitches in his left foot, the second new window, the repair bill for the chimney after the bottle rocket cleaning method went awry, the four sets of new trailer lights (broken from backing in to wood blocks or brush), yet another new back window....and he just about gave up cutting wood and went back to buying propane. But he just couldn't do it--because you see burning wood is free!

Until next time,

Matthew

A Snowy Day--Perfect for Afghan Pictures!

We awoke this morning to a beautiful sight--light, powdery snow covering everything in a delightful puffy coat!  

I think that winter is finally here: the weather is calling for snow and temps not higher than 25 degrees for the next week.  I love it!  

The snow is still falling and adding to the three or four inches we have already :-)  

Over at the "farm," the animals are glad for the respite from the vicious wind that has been blowing the past several days--it's still breezy today but not the 25 mph plus that we've had.

So what's a better occupation for a cold winter day than cozying up with your favorite hot drink (hot chocolate with Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream anyone?) and looking at pictures of a cozy afghan?

This an afghan pattern that Mom has made a couple of times for a special friend or two over the last few years.  We're finally getting the pictures up of one of the completed blankets :-)

 The pattern is called "The Tree of Life"

 Below each tree panel is a 'flower garden':

 This shows the blanket before the edge was attached:

 With the edge sewn on:

 And the edge its' self!  It is a very pretty bit of work on it's own and might work well for a lot of things.  (or so Mom tells me....I haven't made it past the straight knitting part, let alone pearling, so don't know much about the subject :)

So until next time we pray that your wood pile will be well filled, your hot cocoa close to hand and a nice afghan never too far out of reach!

Matthew