gods-love

Pondering Pauses

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Ah… Pause…

How precious to me are your thoughts, God!

My friend and I took photos of each other sitting on the bench, looking out at the water, pondering life… but honestly it was just the briefest of pauses, not even a minute each. Looking at the photos now gives us the time to ponder the moment and the lack of mayhem just then, but we quickly moved on as we were walking around the small lake with the scout campers.

We pondered just that moment that we got to sit, we could see the marvelous glory of God’s creations, sky, clouds, trees, water, creatures, sunshine, even mud (snow certainly had melted off there). We each ponder differently, but surely the instant we groaned in a sigh of relief was a prayer of praise that we made it there – the whole THERE – there as in: we got to camp, we got outside, we were alive, and ESPECIALLY with the acknowledgement of BEING BLESSED.

THANK YOU LORD FOR BLESSINGS AND FOR US KNOWING THAT YOU ARE THE ONE GIVING BLESSINGS. 

It was the briefest of sitting down and oh what perfect bench support for our backs, that’s what we chatted about on the bench, that support, we both needed it with bad backs and with sleeping on floor mats. We both needed it, the SUPPORT of life, better backs to live better, and God’s backing to live best.

… all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be…

That’s ponder worthy: God has our back. God loves us to hold us close.

Thank you Lord, for blessings known and unknown. May I ponder YOU all the days of my life. 

Amen

Psalm 139:13-18 NIV 

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand – when I awake, I am still with you.

Raisin Cakes? Hosea 3

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I ate an oatmeal raisin cookie yesterday, was so good, was left at my work kitchen counter in a bag of half a dozen. Yum. And it reminded me of the days at work that we had less and shared more, especially our time and comradery as a whole group and not a pocket here or there. This moment was late on a Friday and I was hanging signs for the festive fall “do something different” week we are planning for some old time fun, from dress up to wackiness and of course costumes on the day of 10/31… I hope we are bringing old-fashioned joy and the spark of spirit into work. I hope people participate! I try to remind folks that now “these are the good ole days” for our future. 

Clinging to “it used to be this way” should not prevent us from “let’s try this new thing”… Most of all, we long-timers must be aware of how fast thing move and how changes are inevitable – don’t cling to the world – cling to God and His Hope.

If I have the hope of rekindling the feelings of old, I can’t even imagine God’s feelings for His children of Israel, those of the time of writing in Hosea, the prophet, and of the whole of His children to return to looking towards Him, like a return of the commitment between a husband and wife, where the husband already knew before marriage (portrayed in the Hosea 1-2 scenarios) of the unfaithfulness that wife would have. This is Hosea portrayed as the Lord, on purpose for the writing and teaching, as a faithful one bringing her back for a price, forgiving and forever-ing the relationship. 

Look, the pagan worship gave raisin cakes, such an unusual tidbit to point out,  but surely God will give (and did give) the whole vineyard! God gave it and then took it back at great price. I didn’t read the scholars, I just like sitting in my mind and fingers writing with the idea of Jesus, the vine being God’s payment to buy us back from sin and death as a price unfathomable. Jesus the Vine, us the branches, God the Vinedresser trimming and making stronger – and the fruit that is fresh and alive always coming from His growth of spiritual fruit on us. 

And now is still of course the time to think about the FUTURE goodness, God-promised goodness, the goodness of His Name, the realness of His Truth, the Wholeness of realizing the Oneness with God. We should stay loyal to God in these growingly “later” days.

The children of Israel, and us too, a blessing to turn from the world and refocus upon Him, upon what we can do, how we can live. A focus to focus on Him.

A raisin cookie or raisin cake? Nothing compares to the fruitful life with the Lord.

Amen

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Hosea 3 NKJV

Israel Will Return to God

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”

So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. And I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.”

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.

Spiritual Rift needs a Lift, Hosea 1

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It’s not that I wanted to find a “connection” (disconnection) between my doctor visit and the the rift of Israel from God in divided kingdom times of the old testament, but I did. 

As I stopped myself from falling last week, I caught myself, putting full force body weight upon my left leg, felt a small but real pop. It hurt and made it initially hard to bend or squat, yet it felt increasingly better over the weekend, it didn’t slow me down too much and I did take it “easier” plus massive ibuprofen.  When engaged in conversation or thought, I didn’t notice it at all.

When I arrived at the doctors office Monday, I purposefully had not taken any morning ibuprofen so that I might gauge my status. The orthopedic doctor was excellent in diagnosis even without a scan. Hamstring pull, attachment tendon small tear, not full, and completely heal-able with physical therapy.  It was when I rolled to my stomach on the table and tried to lift my left leg up in back, like a superman pose, that it wouldn’t lift. It was very telltale for the diagnosis, I could lift my right but could not engage my left leg to behave normal. No lift. A rift. (And somewhere in this adventure there is a gift, to be determined) …

Ah, Hosea, the prophet of Israel to teach via demonstration, God chose Him to talk about that RIFT between the long bickering non-listening people of the divided kingdoms and God. Ah Hosea… In what could have been a good life, this was the time of northern and southern kingdoms Israel and Judah knowing separation by rift – after Solomon’s son’s  line fractured communities – times of separation from God by rift of not worshipping Him. Like a wandering on the map like in Moses’s time, this was fully a Spiritual wandering that included bad kings who did not lead their people in devotion to the One true God. The RIFT was real. God knew He would have to heal and how. God bless the repair.

I was totally engaged with the doctor’s diagnosis for my RIFT, and grateful he was teaching an intern so I could also learn, and I heard the small talk of “hamstring” which I already knew I at least minimally strained with a pulled muscle, soreness down the back of my leg. Not my back, not my hip, but my leg attachment to my pelvic bones. A specific moment of rift, a missing part of completeness that WILL be repaired and needs strength and stretching. I will be fine, thank God, even going back to my favorite PT people. 

Rifts are to be dealt with. That’s another reason God sent the prophets, urging repairable reconnecting to God. Spiritual rifts require repair. God kept His line through King David alive for Jesus to come out of Bethlehem in the land of Judah. They and we needed/need Him.

Now we must know even with our injuries and illnesses and strife seemingly non-repairable-on-earth that there will be healing in Heaven as gifts of reconstruction. Like God calling us His, the children of God will come together. The people will rejoice again. Jesus our Savior saver. And like my leg will raise again, the spiritual rift needs a lift.

Come Jesus come.

Amen

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Hosea 1

New King James Version

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

The Family of Hosea

When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great [spiritual adultery] harlotry By departing from the Lord.”

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to him: “Call his name Jezreel, For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him: “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, But I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, Will save them by the Lord their God, And will not save them by bow, nor by sword or battle, horses or horsemen.”

Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said: “Call his name Lo-Ammi, For you are not My people, And I will not be your God.

The Restoration of Israel

“Yet the number of the children of Israel Shall be as the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’ Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel Shall be gathered together, And appoint for themselves one head; And they shall come up out of the land, For great will be the day of Jezreel!