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Archive for December, 2022

Thank You for

Posted in Delights, General, God Thoughts, Poem, Thanksgiving, Worship, tagged , on December 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The radio preacher reminded me that thanksgiving is not just a privilege but a command. As 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I reflected on how much and how well that I thank God. Though I sometimes do more and frequently when singing hymns, I too often reduce my thanksgiving down to a quick prayer before a meal along the lines of “Thank You for this food and for this day.” In itself there is nothing wrong with the phrase, but it is trivial when repeated. Given all that God has given me, it is a wholly incomplete thought. So, I began to write a poem. As a few verses came, I then realized that it would be hard to say that this poem was ever really at an end. His gifts and goodness are infinite, and I could never thank Him for all that He is and all that He has done. That’s OK. I can start and continue and perhaps I have covered a few categories.

Thank You for this food and for this day
For all provisions along the way
Thank You for Your presence all the time
For Your wondrous attributes sublime

Thank You for this recent year gone by
For blessings, for trials that make us sigh
Thank You, too, for many times of rest
For faith, strength, and refuge in each test

Thank You for true fellowship in church
For prayers and good help when in a lurch
Thank You for the Word preached unashamed
For witnesses of fame and unnamed

Thank You for purpose and work to do
For times to say and live what is true
Thank You for Your Word to contemplate
For times to retreat and recreate

Thank You for those to love and be loved
For people to reach who are unloved
Thank You for the Gospel that saved me
For the blood of Christ that set me free

Thank You for beauty in all You’ve made
For Your glory that will never fade
Thank You for this world’s wondrous design
For Your knowledge and power divine

Thank You for heaven we will enjoy
For no more sin our peace to destroy
Thank You for eternity with You
For no more sorrow and all things new

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Beyond Christmas

Posted in Birthday, Faith, General, God Thoughts, Person of Jesus, Poem, Remembering, Work of Jesus, tagged , , , , on December 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Perhaps it is a funny name for a poem before Christmas, but I do not mean chronologically beyond Christmas but rather conceptually beyond Christmas. The baby in the manger is a good historical reality and symbol for the humility of the divine Son of God, but it is only the beginning and by no means to the focus of His coming. As a lady reflected to me the other day, “We should always connect Christmas to Easter.”* For that matter I would add, we should connect First Advent to Second (judgment and heaven), and to Passover (the Cross), and to Resurrection. It is important and essential that we know and believe Jesus is fully God and fully man, as the Christmas story conveys, and why that is important in God’s salvation plan.

It has been quite some time since I have written a poem for Christmas. If you want to read my last ones, click on “Advent Colors” and “Tabernacled Among Us“, and then click on “The Fullness of the Empty” for a short commentary that explains much of what is intended to be conveyed in the following poem.

Just a little note to say
That we remember the day
Christ came to Earth as a man
To fulfill God’s saving plan

In the manger there He lay
All for us our sins to pay
Lived a life utterly pure
By His death made us secure

Exalted divinity
In fragile humanity
Perfect substitute we trust
By faith we can and we must

As man could die in our place
As God rescue Adam’s race
The little babe of Bethlehem
Came here sin and death to stem

The first noel angels sang
From David a Savior sprang
Peace and joy to Earth He’ll bring
With hope the ransomed will sing

Gold a present for the King
He has come, let the bells ring
Speaks of glory of divine
Never tarnish, always shine

Frankincense, means for the Priest
To please God well for us least
Our sins are gone, we rejoice
Loudly give our praise voice

Myrrh encases the Savior
Who died for our behavior
Symbol of a true wonder
Death could not hold Him under

Unto us a Son given
With death and hell has striven
Next time He will rule outright
With one word put foes to flight

Merry Christmas and a new year of knowing God better and following Him more closely.

*I am quoting, but I no longer use that term. I prefer Resurrection Day and I regularly use the term First Advent.

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Random Little Blessings

Posted in Blessing, General, Photo, Random thoughts, tagged , on December 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »

I haven’t much to say here other than click on “Little Blessings in the Day” to see pictures and read a little of what has happened in the last week.

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A little hike to smaller falls

Posted in Consequences, Hike, Nature, Outdoors, Photo, tagged , , , on December 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Exercising and staying in shape is such a relentless, daily task. I don’t mean tedious, though if you don’t enjoy it or sufficiently appreciate the results, it can be. I mean that any let up in the pursuit of staying in shape is met with more likelihood of not staying thus. And I am not even talking about the psychological difficulties, though the tendency to give up or give in is ongoing. I refer instead to the accelerated decline in fitness with each occurrence of inconsistency. I am finding, as I may have been able to guess, that age is a factor trending towards an accelerated acceleration of decline, a real Jerk (1) if you ask me.

Now, I am not the giving up kind, so, I am always thankful for an opportunity to get up, dust off my behind, and jump into the saddle again. After three weeks of minimal exercise because of responsibilities and poor health, I went for a little hike with my middle son. It would have been longer, but neither of us had the stomach for a creek crossing in cold weather. The woods were quiet, the stream bubbling, and the conversation good. See my few pictures at Diminutive Falls.

  1. Physics term, look it up

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Forte

Posted in History, Implications, Music, Random thoughts, Semantics, tagged , , , on December 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

My friend emphasized the word “Forte” as he described the good properties of the product. The product was Garlic Forte to be exact. Now to you or me that may seem obvious, but it must not have been to him, because when I said, “That must be loud”, by which I meant intense, he didn’t catch my drift. I explained that forte means “loud” in music, like the opposite of piano. He replied, “I never knew that.” No big deal, because it is a trivia fact if you have not been trained in music. But it set me to thinking about the real meaning of the word, its origin in music and elsewhere.

The Fortepiano was invented by an Italian chap named Cristofori in 1698. (1) I knew from my own piano training as a boy that the pianoforte, or piano as it became to be known, was so named because it struck the keys with a hammer so that it could be played loud (forte) or soft (piano) whereas its precursor, the harpsichord, plucks the strings at a more or less constant volume.

But why would an herbal product be called “Forte”? The word more generally means “strong”. And to say, for example, that “Talking is his forte”, is frequently said as “Talking is his strong suit.” So, Garlic Forte is strong or concentrated or effective or odiferous garlic. Well, I guess you could soften things down a bit and use Garlic Piano, but someone might note that you are playing a Musical Joke. (2)

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortepiano
  2. K.522 by Mozart

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Efficacious Security

Posted in Faith, General, Grace, Poem, Reflection, Work of Jesus, tagged , , , on December 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »

I have most of my life struggled with a sense that maybe God doesn’t care. I know from Scripture, experience with answers to prayer, blessings, and encouragements from numerous people over years of time that He does care, but still, though less now, there is this occasional nagging question in my heart as to whether He cares. I no longer believe that it is a lack of faith, because it is by faith that I quickly dismiss it by replacing it with truth.

You see, I have long known that God is able. Both my study of Scripture and experience of His grace confirm that. Sometimes I am tempted by the thought that He is not willing. Recently, I was again thinking about these things because I am reading “The Glory of Christ” by John Owen wherein he speaks of Christ being willing and able to help us. The word that came to my mind was efficacy. Suddenly it seemed to me that efficacy is the connecting bridge between willing and able. Efficacy, “the ability to produce a desired or intended result”, connects intent and ability. God accomplishes what He intends. He would not accomplish it if He did not intend to do so. When He intends to do so, it is accomplished to the extent that He speaks something into existence which was not. He did so in creation; He does so in salvation.

Also, I have long been amazed by a transcendent God who cares about an insignificant human like me. Only, based on His free sovereign grace, I am not insignificant.

Most efficacious He
Who speaks a thing and it comes to be
With a thought or His hand
It hastens to move or firmly stand

In Him power resides
Infinite, sovereign, above all rides
Yet with kindness and truth
He defends, provides, renews our youth

A picture of His grace
Power condescends for Adam’s race
Willingly was humbled
In flesh and death for us who stumbled

Willing and able He
With the greatest of all need are we
The efficacy is real
How thankful we for this hope and seal

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Sixer Seven

Posted in General, Hike, Nature, Outdoors, Photo, tagged , , , on December 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

I missed out on the Mt. Collins/Clingmans Dome hike, which is OK because I did the hike from Newfound Gap to Clingmans in the winter of ’82 with a foot and a half of snow. I spent the night at Mt. Collins Shelter. I spent the next night under a rock overhang because the drifts prevented me from making it to Spence Field Shelter. But I digress. This hike with my daughter and son-in-law last Saturday was for the purpose of going to Mt. Kephart, a 6217′ knob just off of the main ridge toward Mt. LeConte. We added in a few other notable views, The Jumpoff, the highest single drop in the Smokey Mountains N.P., and Charley’s Bunion, a bare rock with an expansive view, for a total of 9 1/4 miles of hiking. For the pictures of this seventh six thousand foot peak that my daughter has hiked to, click on Mt. Kephart.

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g,p,s

Posted in Dependence, General, Guidance, Random thoughts, tagged , , , on December 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »

This article is tied very closely to a previous gps entry.

gps, Gracious Providential Serendipity, is good, but we should not live life in expectation of its provision all of the time. God is the source of all that we need, but we are to be diligently involved in acquiring what He provides. When it comes to the knowledge that I need for living and succeeding at what God has called me to, I need His gracious providential guidance. I see that it comes in two forms, gracious providential preparation and gps. The preparation may be events, enjoyable or difficult, that I had no part in bring about, but I need to make full use of opportunities to research and study and review and question and memorize and use knowledge available to me. God provides the mind, time, circumstances, and knowledge. I need to engage all of them. When all of that does not yield the knowledge that I need for some occasions, then I need gps.

In summary it seems to me, g (guidance) from God has these two corollaries, p (preparation) and s (serendipity). At least that is the way I am thinking about it now: g, p, s. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15, KJV), certainly with God’s Word but also in all endeavors for your King.

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Overflows from the Heart

"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart…" Matthew 15:18

CreatorWorship

Pointing to the One who made, saved, and sustains