“Let the sad eyes of the
former days
Worries in the winter blow away
One of these painful stories may find a life.
Let me say it in your ear now
If you want a life and you're out of luck
How in heaven's name will you win tonight?
A sign came through a window
Take a look, see how
I'm amazed at what you know now
What you know now.
Paralyzed from another's cup
Got to learn in the ways of the Master
Anyway the candle is still lit.
'Cause anyway you know it
And your heart says you should
When you got it, you know you'll never have to knock on wood.
A sign came through a window
Take a look, see how
I'm amazed at what you know now
What you know now
What you know now.
Have you ever wondered what's beyond?
Sundays real honesty
Declarations of dependency
Confessions of an eternal struggle here.
A sign came through a window
Take a look and see how
I'm amazed at what you know now
What you know now.
Paralyzed from another's fall
Got to learn in the ways of the Master
Anyway the candle is still lit.
'Cause anyway you know it
And your heart says you should
When you got it, you know you'll never have to knock on wood
When you got it, you know you'll never have to knock on wood
When you got it, you know you'll never have to knock on wood.
Last Saturday I was home with
nothing on my schedule. Actually, I should say that I chose to clear my
schedule so that I could have some much needed down-time. I have not had an
open Saturday in over three months. And, the next several Saturdays were
already booked.
Just to be clear, my
Saturdays have been filled with great events that included a wedding,
babysitting, travel, helping out friends with their chores, and other things
that I LOVE to do.
But, after a long week, I
canceled everything and stayed home. In my time of devotions, the words “rest”
and “wait” seemed to pop out from the scriptures that I was reading.
And so I was determined to
simply rest and wait. I looked up the words in a concordance:
Rest means: (Hebrew) “A primitive root; to push forward,
in various senses (literally or figuratively, transitively or intransitively):
- break out, come (mightily), go over, be good, be meet, be profitable, (cause
to, effect, make to, send) prosper (-ity, -ous, -ously).”
Wait means: (Hebrew) “A primitive root; to bind together
(perhaps by twisting), that is, collect; (figuratively) to expect:
- gather (together), look, patiently, tarry, wait (for, on, upon).”
As I sat and spent time
pondering the words of the scripture an overwhelming sense of calm came to my
heart. The room I was sitting in seemed to be amazingly quiet. In fact, as I
arose, I became aware of just how quiet and calm the whole house was. So I sat
and rested and waited.
As I write this I realize
just how many tasks (that I had put off like cleaning the refrigerator)I was able to get done in a relatively short
amount of time.
Eventually, when all was
completed, I started to think that I had to do something; so I reminded myself
that today, I was to simply rest and wait.
As you continue to go through
this Advent Season, slow down; there is so much more that awaits you as you
simply rest and wait
When we were kids, the area
surrounding our home was still undeveloped; in fact my parent’s home was one of
the first to be built as the area went from farmland to a suburb. Because of
it, we had large fields to play football and baseball in and woods to explore.
Across the street from our house was a pond on which we canoed in the summer
and played hockey on in the winter.
So there was plenty of space
to wander far away from home and it sometimes could be difficult for a mother
to get her kids home when it was dinner time.
Because this was way before
we all had cell phones, each mom had their own unique way of calling out; some
shouted, some screamed, some sang, and some whistled; all in an attempt to call
each of their children home.
My mom would call for us to
come home for dinner by ringing a dinner bell. It was loud and its distinct
sound could be heard no matter what direction we had gone from the house.
When each of us heard the
screaming, shouting, calling, singing or ringing, it sometimes meant that we
needed to get home because we were in trouble; they were trying to get our
attention to return immediately.
Each of us knew our mom’s
‘voice’ and learned that we needed to come when we were being called.
Did you know that even God
has His own unique way to call His children? Often times we think that His only
way to communicate to us is dramatic with lightning, thunder, fire, wind, and
explosions and so we may miss it when He calls. But one of the more unusual
ways He does it was by whistling.
Yes, I said; “whistling”!
The
Prophet Zechariah writes on behalf of God;
“I will whistle
for them and gather them, for I will redeem them; and they shall increase as
they once increased.” (Zechariah 10:8 NKJV)
I love how
Eugene Peterson translated it;
“I’ll whistle
and they’ll all come running.I’ve
set them free—oh, how they’ll flourish!
He is
whistling because He wants to gather His children to Himself!
In Isaiah,
we hear Him whistling because His
children were ‘in trouble’ and He was trying to get their attention to return
to Him immediately.
“He will lift up a banner to the
nations from afar, and will whistle to
them from the end of the earth; surely they shall come with speed, swiftly. (Isaiah 5:26 NKJV)
Do you hear God calling out
to you? If not, perhaps it is because you have limited how He can communicate
with you. Jesus said;
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they
follow Me.” (John 10:27 NKJV)
