Random Thoughts

It is a beautiful sunny day up here in the foothills of the Sierra mountains. It's a little brisk without a sweater or wrap of some kind, but to just look out the window is a refreshment. It is nice to see things "open up." I say that, because it seems like during the winter months we are closed in, unable to see the mountains clearly most of the time, and no such thing as fresh air in the house. It's much too cold to open windows and doors. But now I have my door open and the crisp air feels wonderful. Michael finally repaired our wind chimes that we bought when we lived on Crest in Walnut Creek. They are tuned and make beautiful music when the wind blows. The cord that held the clapper and wind catcher (not really sure what the real name is for that piece of wood that hangs down to catch the wind and pull the clapper against the pipes) had rotted away. We still had the pieces of wood so all we had to do was find a nylon cord the right size to restring it. It only took us a year to get that repair job done. Things don't move fast around this household. Oh, the wind just took the clapper around the different pipes and made beautiful music. I'd forgotten how beautiful it sounds. Now sitting here at my computer, just mere feet away, and with the sliding glass door open, I am delighted to listen to the sounds coming from the windchimes. Beautiful.

I have an Executive Board meeting tonight at church that I'm not looking forward to. I have to give a report to the board for the deacons and we didn't do much at our meeting to report. It was just one of those times when all that needed to be said was said within an hour and we were out of there. So I guess I have to report that I have nothing to report. But I still have to go. I feel so inadequate as the deacon board chair. I feel totally unqualified but I will keep plugging along.

I keep a pad of paper and a pencil on my coffee table and whenever I think of something I want to remember I write it down on the pad. (The physical act of writing it down helps plant it in my brain.) But I noticed that I had several pages of random thoughts and decided to share them with you. They don't flow one from the other so you'll need to read each one as a totally separate entry. But I thought I would just share some of those thoughts with you. Sometimes I will be able to take one of those thoughts and compose an entire blog out of it. These are some that didn't go that far. So I've put them all together for you and thought maybe you can get something out of them. Sometimes they are not as clear as they could be. You will see that the words come and retreat and then come again. Sometimes you can tell it's just a thought in its infancy, that maybe given more time or attention they might have blossomed into something beautiful. Maybe. I hope they will make sense and that you will benefit from reading them.

Random Thoughts

Can a mere child of dust really dwell in fellowship with the King of glory?

May my daily life be the bright and blessed proof that God's hidden power dwells within.

The hope of Christ is the hope of His redeemed: "I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also." This promise is as precious to Christ as it can ever be to me.

He that abides in Christ the Crucified of the Father learns to know what it is to be crucified with Him.

I did well to come; I do better to abide.

Who would, after seeking the Kings palace, be content to stand in the door when he is invited in to dwell in the King's presence and share with Him in all the Glory of His royal life?

I fear that there are many who have come to Jesus but who have sorrowfully to confess that they know very little of the blessed life of abiding in Him. Some, though they heard the Word, did not know that such a life of abiding fellowship was even possible and indeed within their reach.

Come, sisters, and let us day by day set ourselves at His feet and meditate on His Word with our eyes fixed on Him alone. Let us set ourselves in quiet trust before Him, waiting to hear His holy voice ... that still, small voice of none other ... quicken our spirits as He speaks : Abide in me.

For me, rest for the soul implies deliverance from every fear, the supply of every need, and the fulfillment of every desire. Is this not what the Savior uses to woo us?

I must realize and never fail to teach that Jesus lays claim to my undivided allegiance of my whole heart and life.

I need to comprehend that when Jesus said, "My yoke is easy," He spoke the truth because the moment the soul yields itself to obey, the Lord Himself gives the strength and joy to do it. That when He said "Learn of me," He added, "I am meek and lowly in heart" to assure me that His gentleness and strength would meet my every need and bear them out as a mother bears her feeble child.

"Abide in me" is Christ asking me to surrender my all to Himself and His assuring me that His almighty love will hold me fast and will keep and bless me with His almighty power.

Consecration and faith are two essential elements of the Christian life ... the giving up of everything to Jesus and the receiving of all from Jesus. They are implied in each other; they are united in the one word "surrender."

There is a spot where safety and victory, where peace and rest, are always sure, and that spot is always open to me ... it's the heart of Jesus.

It is not the yoke but the resistance to the yoke that makes abiding difficult.

May each failure teach me to listen more earnestly than ever, until the Holy Spirit causes me to hear the voice of Jesus saying, "Come, abide in me."

Abiding in Jesus is nothing but the giving up of oneself to be ruled and taught and led, and so resting in the arms of Everlasting Love.

With grace secured, I have strength for every duty, courage for every struggle, a blessing in every cross, and the joy of life eternal in death itself.

There can be no true conversion without the giving up of sin, yet my giving up of sin is usually only partial and superficial. I must yield myself to sin no longer ... to be only and wholly a servant of righteousness.

I must take time to but listen, in simple childlike teachableness. As surely as I am in Christ, I shall also, day be day, be established and built up in Him.

In my flesh dwells nothing good; and that flesh, though crucified with Christ is not yet dead but will continually seek to rise and lead me into evil.

Let me be content to possess Christ, to dwell in Him, to make Him my life, and only by a deeper searching into Him to hunt and find the knowledge I desire.

As a Christian, I must look on my spiritual life as existing not entirely of ever receiving, realizing that my capacity for receiving is only kept up and enlarged by the continual giving up and giving out of myself ... how it is only in the emptiness that comes from the parting with what I have that the divine fullness can flow into my daily walk? If I am to really abide in Christ and am to be found in Him at any given moment ... to have my life always and wholly in Him ... I must in my own measure say with Paul: "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.