Feet Up

God rules the universe with His feet up.
~ James MacDonald,
in a sermon I heard on the radio this past week

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
~ Isaiah 6:1

To the Weary

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

~ Isaiah 40:28-31

Sometimes I feel like I'm soaring; sometimes I feel like I'm running; and sometimes I feel like I'm walking. Isaiah didn't mention this, but sometimes I feel like I'm crawling along at a snail's pace, and sometimes I feel like I'm motionless, stuck somewhere and unable to make any progress.

How comforting to know that regardless of all of that, God does not grow tired. Instead He gives strength to the weary and power to the weak.

I need some of that!

Happiness Is Not Dependent on...

I suppose to those who look on from outside we must appear like a most unhappy family, since we hardly get free from one trouble before another steps in. But I see more and more that happiness is not dependent on health or any other outside prosperity. We are at peace with each other and at peace with God; His dealings with us do not perplex or puzzle us, though we do not pretend to understand them.

~ Stepping Heavenward

by Elizabeth Prentiss

Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and your soul will delight in the richest of fare....

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,"

declares the Lord.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts."

~ Isaiah 55:1,2,8,9

To Be Lived In

At the Defending the Faith conference...

Dr. Jason Lisle read the first verse below during his talk on Astronomy and the Bible. I liked that verse a lot, and then read on to the next one which was also quite good.

For the Lord is God,

and he created the heavens and earth

and put everything in place.

He made the world to be lived in,

not to be a place of empty chaos.

"I am the Lord," he says,

"and there is no other.

I publicly proclaim bold promises.

I do not whisper obscurities

in some dark corner.

I would not have told the people of Israel

to seek me

if I could not be found.

I, the Lord, speak only what is true

and declare only what is right."

~ Isaiah 45:18-19

Wonder in the Sky

The light was so unique last evening. There was some heavy cloud cover blowing through, with occasional thunder and lightning; but to the west, the sun was visible and was making the colors of everything - the neighbor's field, leaves on the trees, etc. - so vivid. It was beautiful, but almost had an eerie feel to it, as if the storm could suddenly increase in tempo and fury and cause significant destruction.

Isn't the sky a marvel? The variety that is present there is mind-boggling. The shades of color, the cloud formations, the "feel" it has - these factors are always changing in seemingly infinite designs. And then there's the wonder of the things we see in the sky: sun, moon, stars, planets. I don't know much about all of that; astronomy never held my interest for too long. But now I'm thinking in particular about what I do know about the sun and the moon and the way they are perfectly created to allow for life here on earth. This is what commentary in my new Bible (The Case for Christ Study Bible which I bought with my birthday money last month) has to say about that:

As astronomers are now discovering, our sun and moon are much more exceptional than once thought. Our sun is far from ordinary; it has exactly the right mass and composition and is the ideal distance from Earth to enable life on our planet. If it were much smaller, its luminosity would not allow high efficiency photosynthesis in plants; if it were much closer, the water would boil away from the planet's surface. Similarly, our moon is just far enough away and just the right size to stabilize Earth's tilt. Without the moon's stabilizing presence, Earth would experience wild temperature swings, with devastating consequences for life.

So, yes, the factors that contribute to life on our planet are unusual - unusually ideal. The sun and the moon are only two among innumerable variables that have aligned perfectly since the beginning of the universe to set the stage for human life on Earth.

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one,

and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

~ Isaiah 40:26