What is our good?

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,

 to them who are the called according to his purpose.

 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,

that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Rom. 8:28-29  

 

    We don't often hear the whole of this beautiful passage. All too often it's left just as a nice garantee that everythings going to be fine. At times, I've found discouragement even here, when I could not find the good that is being brought about-- that some things did not seem to be to my benefit. I think the problem lay in what I considered to be my good. We are told right here what that entails. God is using all the trials, the struggles, yes, even our failures to conform us to the image of His Son, in His love, His holiness, His purity...  "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2) This is His purpose, and He foreordained His children to that purpose. He gave us the assurance that He would work about our sanctification knowing that we of ourselves could never bring that about anymore that we can our own justification. But He will work all things to form us into the image of His Son. This is a promise, and God never fails His promises.

 

He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven,

and among the inhabitants of the earth: and

 none can stay his hand, or say unto him,

What doest thou?

Dan. 4:35

Snow: Curse or Mercy?

I've heard several people say that snow is part of the curse, and at least infer that we should not take a great delight in it. Because winter is something that was not in God's perfectly created world before the curse of sin fell upon it, snow is descendant from the evil that has corrupted that perfection.

But I love snow. I love winter. I love the frost that coats every surface with a wild order and design. I love to catch the flakes as they fall and see their intricacies, and find the different types of snowflakes. The blinding glitter across unbroken fields, the trees waking and shaking off their downy blankets, the soft drifts that provide so much fun for families to enjoy together: how can you simply, and coldly, brush it off as a worthless burden that must be viewed as something to be merely endured until the world is burned and remade into lasting peace.

Perhaps the change of climate that brought us winter did stem from the fall of this world from its wondrous state of untarnished beauty. It probably never snowed in that perfect garden. And that was good. But how merciful of God to temper even the results of so dreadful a curse with such glory. The Father did not leave us and all creation to groan alone under the weight of destruction, but He lifted it, placed it on Himself, and left His fingerprints for us to find.

A Christmas Hymn

Calm on the listening ear of night

Come heaven's melodious strains,

Where wild Judah stretches far

Her silver-mantled plains.

 

Celestial choirs from courts above

Shed sacred glories there;

And angels, with their sparkling lyres,

Make music on the air.

 

The answering hills of Palestine

Send back a glad reply,

And greet from all their holy heights

The Dayspring from on high.

 

O'er the blue depths of Galilee

There comes a holier calm;

And Sharon waves in solemn praise

Her silent groves of palm.

 

"Glory to God" the sounding skies

Loud with their anthems ring;

"Peace on earth-- good-will to men

From Heaven's Eternal King."

 

Light on thy hills, Jerusalem!

The Savior now is born!

More bright on Bethlehem's joyous plains

Breaks the first Christmas morn;

 

And brighter on Moriah's brow,

Crowned with her temple spires,

Which first proclaims the newborn light,

Clothed with its orient fires.

 

This day shall Christian tongues be mute,

And Christian hearts be cold?

O catch the anthems that from heaven

O'er Judah's mountains rolled.

 

When nightly burst from seraph harps

The high and solemn lay,--

"Glory to God; on earth be peace:

Salvation comes today!"
~ E. H. Sears

Little days of Great things

   I wish life were such that I could wake up and do something grand and important tomorrow-- that it were possible to simply step out and fix a problem, create something beautiful, rescue a soul. To wake in the morning and be someone spectacular. But the only worthy things that can be quickly done are the little things, repeated often, day and again, loyally accumulated, until they mature into those great things that can produce changes.

   Where do we find the daily propulsion to accomplish these great-little tasks? In the daily meditation of the law and promises of God!

The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want

Proverbs 21:5

My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word
Psalm 119:28

 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 2Peter 3:14

 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.
Psalm 119:45

Mother, Home, and Heaven

 "It has been said that the sweetest words in our language are 'Mother, Home, and Heaven;' and one might almost say the word 'home' included them all; for who can think of home without remembering the gentle mother who sanctified it by her presence? And is not home the dearest name for heaven? We think of that better land as a home where brightness will never end in night. Oh, then, may our homes on earth be the centers of all our joys; may they be as green spots in the desert, to which we can retire when weary of the cares and perplexities of life, and drink the clear waters of a love which we know to be sincere and always unfailing."

~Saturday Evening Post late 1800's issue