CreatorWorship

My pastor communicated the Gospel so well from the 2nd chapter of Jonah last Sunday. God was in pursuit of the prophet and caught him in a corner, the belly of a Fish. We were convicted of our tendency to run from God and exhorted to pursue Him in prayer as Jonah did. I took more notes on the sermon than I usually do; it was that substantial.

Before the sermon, we sang three hymns, as we regularly do. Pastor spoke afterward of how edifying the singing was and struggled a bit to find the word he desired for describing the value of music. He settled on an explanatory phrase, “It stands alone.” He communicated his idea quite clearly, but the struggling actually arrested my attention more so that I considered his thoughts more thoroughly. I thought that the term he sought was singularity. To rephrase his thoughts, I would say that there is a singularity to music based in its beauty and ability to emotionally compel and aid the memory that when coupled with the truth of God’s Word is of much value to the saints for encouragement and training in righteousness.

Music is a wonderful gift from God to spur the emotions and the mind. We must be careful to utilize lyrics that faithfully communicate the meaning and depth of God’s person and work along with our total need of Him. Right worship and careful living demand it.

For His children, God, in His good providence is always providing and guiding our way through this life. Sometimes we see it, recognize it, and feel it, and sometimes we don’t. Here is a little story from yesterday about recognizing it. I was traveling down the 4-lane, TN 11-E, to work in the morning at a normal, controlled speed. You dare not do otherwise with the county and state police hovering every couple of miles. I was listening to the local Christian radio station, WHCB. Periodically throughout the day they inject an encouraging Scripture or Scripture-based thought between programs. There was more to this spot than I am going to paraphrase, but here is the gist of it. ‘When you became a Christian you may have thought that life was going to be smooth sailing, but it has been far from that. It has been more like a roller coaster with the ups and downs, loops, and hairpin turns [rollercoaster and riders screams in the background]. God is there to guide you and help you. Trust Him. When life throws you a curve, He’s got it under control.’

Less than 30 seconds later my car gave a small jerk and I realized that the engine had died. I pushed in the clutch as I coasted and tried to restart the car several times to no avail. My decreasing speed meant that the other cars drove off and left me so that I could look around for a good place to bring the car to a stop and leave it while I figured out what to do. I pulled into an urgent care office (irony, right?) in Piney Flats with an extra wide driveway where I could pull over to the side out of the way, perhaps 50 feet off of the highway. I went in to inform the receptionist as to why a car sat in the driveway rather than the parking lot. She asked me what happened. When I rehearsed what I just told you about the car dying, she volunteered that it might be the alternator. It made sense. The battery did seem weak.

I called my wife who was just finishing breakfast. She quickly got dressed and drove our recently purchased “new-used” car to pick me up. Given that the car which quit had 277,000 miles on it, we had recently purchased the second car as a replacement when the older one quit. I drove her back home and drove to work, arriving about 1 minute before my first client. Having no clients in the afternoon, I came home, changed clothes and drove down to see what I might be able to figure out had happened. While on site, I called my youngest son who has experience as a mechanic. Given the lack of diagnostic tools and a second person to help me, I did only a few checks at his direction and could not figure out the problem. A little discouraged, I went home and looked up auto mechanic shops and towing services. I went up the street to find one of the shops permanently closed. The one just down the street was overwhelmed because of the closure of the first one. I called a towing service who came very quickly, and I met the tow truck at the car. He hauled it home and offloaded it in the yard. Now what? I guess I will have to try to fix it sufficiently to sell it.

God worked out every detail as if choreographed in a dance routine. I felt carried along. But it doesn’t always seem that way, does it? That does not mean that it is not so. God is in control, “caus[ing] all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) The tow bill was not cheap and the inconvenience was not fun, but the peace He gave me through the radio message was sure. His Word is always sure. It should “not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it…” (Joshua 1:8) Life is good because God is good. I want to live for Him to find peace and joy and give testimony to His goodness. That takes focus on truth and God rather than surroundings and circumstances. Focus on God’s Word helps immensely. Check out a few pictures of the event at “Stop and Go.”

I could talk about all sorts of societal ills under that title, but I have a simpler intention.
Trees may be shade tolerant or shade intolerant, acid loving or acid averse, drought resistant or waterlog intolerant, disease resistant or disease prone.

White Ash trees are rather disease prone, particularly of late with ash borers, though I have observed pink arcs in the grain of dying trees that I have cut down. Ash trees are also mildly shade intolerant so that they attempt to grow above other trees that would shade them out. This may result in them being tall and thin with very few limbs down low. I was asked to cut down just such a sickly, spindly tree today. It was about 26 inches in diameter at the base and very tall with few branches, save at the top. It is hard to wield a chainsaw and phone camera together, so I only have two pictures of the trunk on the ground. Check them out at “Taking out a dying Ash tree.”

Moments in daily life can seem random, but that is not the same as purposeless or undirected. And some days seem more random than others. I have had a few of those days lately. It reminds me how thankful I am that God holds the purpose and direction of my life, my days, and my moment. Catch a bit of my randomness at “Incidental Randomness.”