Man of Sorrows...

Isaiah 53

  Who has believed what he has heard from us?

   And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,

    and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

   and no beauty that we should desire him.

 He was despised and rejected by men;

   a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

   he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 Surely he has borne our griefs

   and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

    smitten by God, and afflicted.

 But he was wounded for our transgressions;

   he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his stripes we are healed.

 All we like sheep have gone astray;

   we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

   the iniquity of us all.

 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

    yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

   and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

   so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

   and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

   stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked

    and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

   and there was no deceit in his mouth.

 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;

   he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

   he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

    make many to be accounted righteous,

    and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

   and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

   and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Buttermilk Cornmeal Pancakes..Yum!

I have been craving cornbread for weeks.   Normally, this wouldn't be a problem.   I have a delectable cornbread recipe that is easy enough to whip together and pop in the oven.  But *there* would be the problem...back in early spring, our oven died.  While we were deciding what to do about replacing it, the hot water heater also died.  Easy enough solve for the oven decision...hot water trumps being able to bake anytime, and we've managed just fine with the stovetop, microwave, crock pot, electric roaster, electric skillet, and a toaster oven provided by a friend.  (Typing that, I'm realizing how spoiled we are, oven or no oven!  Wow...such choices! :))  

I've actually done a bit of baking in the toaster oven and the electric roaster, and what I've tried so far has worked...but cornbread...at least my recipe...seemed a bit of a stretch.  So I bought some cornbread crackers (which are quite good!) at Sam's and decided I'd just have to deal.

Then last night I happened to see something about corn cakes on the Food Network while at a friend's house.    I don't even remember exactly what it was...but it caused a little bell to ring inside my head as I thought..."corn cakes!!  That would be almost like cornbread in the electric skillet!"  

So I came home and looked up a recipe for corn cakes, and we made them for lunch this afternoon.  Yummm!!  Even my non-cornbread-eaters inhaled them.  Really, really good.  And we have enough for leftovers for tomorrow's breakfast!  Yay!

Here's the recipe, from epicurious:  

Buttermilk Cornmeal Pancakes

6 large eggs

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (about) butter, melted

Preheat oven to 250°F. Beat eggs in large bowl to blend. Add buttermilk, cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat until smooth. Mix in 6 tablespoons melted butter.

Add 1/2 tablespoon melted butter to large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls into skillet, spacing apart. Cook pancakes until golden brown on bottom and some bubbles begin to break around edges, about 2 minutes. Turn pancakes over; cook until bottoms are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer pancakes to baking sheet; place in oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more melted butter by 1/2 tablespoonfuls to skillet as necessary. Serve pancakes with syrup.

(Needless to say, I didn't keep ours warm in the oven.   It worked fine, though...people were eating them as fast as I could cook them there for a bit. :))

In Other Words ~ "The Answer"

"I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer.

You are yourself the answer.

Before your face questions die away.

What other answer would suffice?"

~ C.S. Lewis 

This quote sums up what has been probably the biggest lesson God has taught me in the past few years...that there are some questions to which we will never know the answer until we see Jesus face to face...and that it is entirely possible that at that point, the questions and their answers simply won't matter anymore.  

There are some things...certain doctrines, various circumstances, aspects of God's character, and many of our trials...that we will never understand in our finite minds.  One of the wisest Bible scholars I know once said (and I am paraphrasing greatly here, as I can't remember the exact wording used) that there are some things (referring at the time to a specific doctrine) that we will never be able to completely understand...because God is God, and we are not.  His thoughts and His ways are so much higher than ours that there is no way we could possibly understand them all...and at that point, we simply have to trust.  

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
   neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
   so are my ways higher than your ways
   and my thoughts than your thoughts.

~Isaiah 55:8-9

I have so seen in the past few years the truth of the above quote, and been reminded of the words to the old Scott Wesley Brown song...

When answers aren't enough, there is Jesus

He is more than just an answer to your prayer

And your heart will find a safe and peaceful refuge

When answers aren't enough, He is there.

There are times when there simply aren't answers.  There are times when even if God gave us the answer, we wouldn't be able to understand it.  There are times when if we did understand it, it wouldn't necessarily help.  He has begun to show me in recent years that in those times, we realize what is always true...that HE is the answer.  We don't need answers...we need HIM.  We need His presence, we need to see Him more clearly and know Him more intimately.  We need to focus, not on our circumstances or on our questions, but on His face.  Then, when we have turned our eyes upon Jesus and looked full in His wonderful face, as another old song says, "the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."  ("Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus", Helen H. Lemmel)

A friend posted this song on Facebook this morning....it was one of those times when a new song (and a new-to-me artist) really grabbed my heart.  I read these words from an interview with Laura Story about this song and the things she is learning through her husband's brain tumor...

What does it look like when I spend years praying for healing for my husband that never comes? I feel like we’ve gotten to a place of having to make a choice- are we going to judge God based on our circumstances that we don’t understand? Or are we going to chose to judge our circumstances based on what we hold to be true of God? I’m learning that every morning when I wake up, to choose to trust God. And that’s what “blessings” is about. It’s just considering… MAYBE THE BLESSING IS ACTUALLY FOUND IN THE ABSENCE OF THE THING THAT I’M PRAYING FOR.

-Laura Story

I am excited to be hosting In "Other" Words today, and I also owe a huge apology to all those participating this week.  I somehow didn't get my hosting date on my calendar and completely overlooked the fact that this was my week!   My apologies to any who may have looked for this week's post earlier in the day...I'm sorry for any inconvenience that may have caused. 

I do hope that you will join us this week...just post your thoughts on the above quote on your blog, and then come back here to post your link on inlinkz.  Then be sure to visit the other participants and leave a word of encouragement in their comments!  Thank you for participating this week! 

I Heart Faces...Slice of Life...

I've been wanting to start participating in I Heart Faces weekly challenges again, and when I saw that this week's challenge was "Slice of Life", I decided this was a great week to start!  I had a terrible time deciding on my entry, though...it's hard to pick!  

I kept coming back to this one, though.  It captures so well Billy's relationship not only with Ammah Grace, but with all his girls.  I walked out of the cafe at the zoo last week to find a tired little girl curled up on her {also tired} daddy's lap and couldn't resist snapping the moment.  It ended up being one of my favorite photos of the whole trip. 

Be sure to visit I Heart Faces to see other entries in this week's "Slice of Life" challenge! 

Sunday Songs...

We sang two of my favorite hymns this morning in church: "How Firm a Foundation" and "Blessed Assurance".  Both have been favorites from childhood, but have become even more precious in the last few years. 

Our hymnal only has the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th verses of "How Firm A Foundation" as found here...I love the additional verses, though!  

How Firm a Foundation

1. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
   Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
   What more can He say than to you He hath said,
   You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
   
   
   In every condition, in sickness, in health;
   In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
   At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
   As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
   
   
   Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
   For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
   I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
   Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
   
   
   When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
   The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
   For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
   And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
   
   
   When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
   My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
   The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
   Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
   
   
   Even down to old age all My people shall prove
   My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
   And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
   Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
   
   
   The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
   I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
   That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
   I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
   ~Attributed to John Keith
   
   

I always say I really can't pick a favorite hymn.  There are too many that I love too much!  But if I were pressed and absolutely had to pick an all-time favorite, it would probably be this one.  It was my favorite when I was a little girl, and I love it even more now than I did then...

Blessed Assurance

Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Refrain

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Refrain

Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

~Fanny Crosby

And then just as a "bonus"...another song we sang this morning that I love...

Photo Credit: Stock.Xchng

Functional Universalism?

I've shared before (here and here) about some of my experiences with the topic of universalism and those who hold to universalist beliefs.   Because of some of those experiences, I've watched/read/listened to the controversy surrounding Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins, with a great deal of interest and quite a bit of sadness at the thought of people being deceived by the universalist thought that is becoming so prevalent even in the "church" today.  

Then came Sunday's message from Romans 9:1-5:

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.  

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 

To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.

 Amen. 

I think quite a few of us left with seriously bruised toes.  The thought of Paul being anguished to the point of willingness to give up his own salvation for the sake of the lost...that is a depth of love for Christ and for the lost that I can't even really fathom.  And the whole time I was listening to the sermon, and trying to take notes, I kept thinking, "Why is it that we...I...can be so disturbed by the teaching of universalism, and yet be content to stay in our...my...comfort zone and pass by people every day that we *say* we believe are going to Hell, and yet we...I...do nothing about it?"  

It's been on my mind and heart all week.   And I'm asking God to make me aware and prepared for opportunities to do something about it.  I don't want to be, as David Platt describes in this video, a functional universalist.  

David Platt is the author of the book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

 (which is, btw, one of the best books I've ever read).  He has been in India this week sharing the gospel with some of the 597 million lost people in that country.  He addresses my Sunday morning thoughts in this challenging and convicting video:

Do We Really Believe What We're Saying? from The Church at Brook Hills on Vimeo.

IOW ~ Plotting in the Darkest of our Times

“ In the darkest of our times,
God is plotting for our glory.
If we would believe this and remember it,
we would not be blind when God reveals His grace. “

~ by John Piper ~

A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God

On a recent Sunday morning, standing in the choir loft at church, I realized something that really blew me away.  Our pastor often mentions, in his prayers or even in his sermons, "those who are going through one of the storms of life right now".  A couple of weeks ago I had this shocking revelation: I no longer automatically thought "That's me" when I heard that phrase.  Not that life is easy or a bed of roses, by any means, but after 7 years of non-stop storms, including the "tsunami" 4 1/2 years ago that left unimaginable devastation in its path, I finally feel like we have reached a bit of calmer weather.   When I hear that phrase about those going through the storms of life, it is friends going through dark days that come to mind first, not our own situation.  

Even typing that scares me a bit.  I shared with a friend last night that in June of 2006, I had finally begun to feel that we had "survived" the two worst storms of our lives...Ammah Grace's premature birth/health issues/NICU stay and my dad's last illness and death.  I felt like we had truly been through the fire and had come through stronger, we had had our "major crises" and now it was time to get back to the "new normal".  Little did I know at that point that what we had been through up to then was going to seem like a walk in the park compared to what was going to hit just a few days later.   So...every time I begin to feel that we are perhaps to the "new normal" stage, I begin to feel a bit of fear about what may be just around the corner.  

What does all of that have to do with the above quote?  God gave me some promises back in those dark times when all I could think of when Bro. Kent said those words about the storms of life was, "Yes, Lord, we are there", usually with tears in my eyes.  He has taught and is teaching me some amazing, if at times painful, lessons.  One of those is that "what you see isn't always what you get".  

Last week when we were on our vacation, we went to the Zoo.  This is the same zoo I've been visiting since I was a young child, and I've seen it go through many changes over the years.   They have worked hard to make the "habitats" more aesthetically pleasing and realistic as they've had the funds to do so.   They have also added new exhibits through the years...the latest being their new "Penguin Pointe" exhibit.  We were so excited to find that Penguin Pointe would be open for our visit, as our middle daughter is a bit of a penguin fanatic. :-)  There has been much publicity statewide for the new exhibit, and the Zoo is quite proud of it.  It really was pretty cool (no pun intended :)).  

I could really tell the Zoo had been doing some "spiffing up" since our last visit (which was actually 7 years to the week earlier, when we took the three big kids one afternoon while Ammah Grace was in NICU. Time flies!)    There were even all kinds of  "decorations"...photo cutouts, plaques with wildlife quotes scattered through the park, etc.  

However, it struck me as we walked through the Zoo, that for all the updated exhibits and motivational quotes, there were also some areas that were just...well...yucky.   Areas that weren't maintained, that were junky or dirty or even...smelly.   Most of them weren't necessarily obvious, but if you looked, you could certainly see them.   Those photos don't make it onto the website, or the brochures, or the latest TV ads for Penguin Pointe. :)   If all you see is the PR, you don't get the whole picture.   All is not as it would seem to be in the glossy ads.  (And there isn't anything wrong with that...of course the Zoo wants to put its best foot forward, just as any such organization does, and it is understandable that funding issues mean that there are areas that must wait their turn for "spiffing".)

Things aren't always the way they seem in life, either.   The good news about that is that, for Christians, things are often much *better* than they seem.  The picture we are seeing is often the dingy, cluttered back side of the exhibit...rather than the amazing work God is doing that we just can't see yet.  When we are going through the "storms of life", often all that we can see is the darkness and the crashing waves.  But as John Piper says in this quote, "God is plotting for our glory".  What an exciting thought!   There is glory and good that is THERE...just not yet seen.

He promises us in Jeremiah 29-11 that He has a plan for us, a plan for good and not for evil, a plan to give us a hope and a future.   I will never understand completely the plans God has for the devastating circumstances our children have been through...as Bro. Kent has said several times in recent weeks, some of the "good" that we are promised in "all things" is part of that "eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison"  about which Paul talks in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18.   However, there are times when God does give us a glimpse of His reasons and His plans and the good that comes of our trials here on earth.  Over four years after our personal "tsunami" hit, we are finally beginning to see some of that glory and good.   He is showing us His work in our lives and the lives of our children.  He is allowing opportunities to share in the "fellowship of suffering" with those who are going through major storms right now and wondering if the waves will ever stop crashing.   He is giving us amazing glimpses of His glory.  

One thing I have learned in the past 4 1/2 years...I don't want to be blind when God reveals His grace!  I want to be watching for it, looking for it, ready to see it in all of the glory He can reveal to us as finite humans.  And I want to encourage others that no matter how dark and stormy it may seem right now, God *is* plotting for our glory, and He *will* reveal His grace if we will simply watch and wait.  

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18