Cheering for the Lord

Perhaps it's because it is "College Gameday," I don't know, but this is what came to me as I read Nehemiah 12 today. It is talking here about the celebration that happened at the dedication of the wall around Jerusalem after it had been rebuilt.

For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God... At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres. The singers also were brought together from the region around Jerusalem... I also assigned two large choirs to give thanks.

One was to proceed on top of the wall to the right... [along with] some priests with trumpets... with musical instruments, prescribed by David the man of God.

The second choir proceeded in the opposite direction.

The two choirs that gave thanks then took their places in the house of God... The choirs sang under the direction of Jezrahiah, [standing opposite one another] to give praise and thanksgiving, one section responding to the other, as prescribed by David the man of God...

And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.

After reading that and picturing the scene, this is what I wrote in the margin of my Bible:

"We love Jesus, yes we do... We love Jesus, how 'bout you?!"

OK, like I said, I may be influenced by the 'game day' mentality, (ha) but that's what I saw... and I'm not trying to be irreverant at all. It's actually a pretty neat scene in my mind - people who love God, standing on opposite towers of an immense wall, singing, playing instruments and shouting joyfully to one another their praise of God. I would have enjoyed being there. :)

And then it brought to mind a moment from Impact a couple of summers ago. Our junior high kids standing together on a brick wall at Lipscomb singing together and shouting out to the crowd that had gathered, waiting to go in for the next session --- "If you love Jesus, clap your hands... "


So, as we gather around our televisions today, or perhaps in a stadium somewhere, and cheer on our favorite football teams, maybe this scene from long ago will come to mind and we can take a moment to offer up a cheer for the One who deserves it the most!

A Heart Like His

I started a Beth Moore bible study called "A Heart Like His" last week. It's a study on the life of King David that I've wanted to do for some time and I am really looking forward to the journey through this study - and I've learned that when you do a Beth Moore study, it's definitely a journey! :)

I was working on the homework from the first week this morning and came across a "one-liner" kind of thought that spoke to my heart and will be with me in thought for a while, I'm sure. So I thought I'd share it here. The text for today was out of I Samuel 15 and the 'theme verse' was v.22, "...To obey is better than to sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams." Beth was contrasting the hearts of the prophet Samuel and King Saul in this story of the destruction of the Amalekites. It's best if you just go and read the whole story in I Samuel 15 and then consider Beth's closing thoughts on this chapter:

"The chapter concludes with a harrowing scene. Samuel hacked King Agag to pieces. Samuel's actions were not in haste, nor did he approach Saul with displaced piety and say 'I told you so.' Samuel acted in grieved obedience.

Perhaps Samuel's heart was the reason God used him as He did. Samuel's heart never grew cold and condemning. God allowed Samuel to be emotionally involved but enabled him to maintain objectivity so that he could 'speak the truth in love.' (Eph 4:15)

Saul learned that obedience was better than sacrifice. Samuel learned that sometimes obedience is the sacrifice."

You know, I want to think that obedience is always best for me, so therefore it ought to seem like the easy and obvious choice in all circumstances. Yes, I want to think that... but honestly, many times obedience is just hard and yeah, it means obedience becomes a sacrifice of what *I* want or what *I* think is the best way. I think what struck me today was seeing that thought put so well into words and seeing this story, objectively, from the outside looking in - it's obvious why God so often asks us just to 'trust and obey.' Our ways around obedience, even sometimes in the name of trying to do something for God (as Saul claimed), will always get us into trouble. I need to learn to trust God, even when my obedience is the sacrifice and it seems really hard...

Getting Ready...

It's so nice to get emails from people who love to take pictures with really nice cameras and then share them with the rest of us. ;-) One of the moms at the gym took these pictures of Anna and passed them along.

So the competition season for Anna kicks off here in Huntsville at our home meet at the VBC the weekend before Thanksgiving. Anna hopes to be competing at Level 8 this year - and that should be very exciting to watch! The big 'travel meet' this year is supposed to be in Orlando, so we're looking forward to that... it will be a little warmer there in January than it was in Chicago last year!! ;-)

When I was looking at this last picture, I noticed the white board in the background and got curious about what it said. I looked at another picture and here is what it says:

"WINNERS have formed a habit of doing what LOSERS don't want to do."

And well, that about says it all, huh? ;-)

Deer Hunter

Today was the first of what I hope will be many nice walks up on Green Mountain this fall. I haven't been up there all summer because it's just too hot and buggy - but this morning was so beautiful, and the sky was so blue, and my melancholy mood needed a boost, so I just had to go. Mandy was pretty excited about it, too - so off we went. :)

Everything was pretty uneventful until we were almost at the end of the trail. I didn't have Mandy on her leash at that point and all of a sudden she got startled and started to run off the trail. NO, thank goodness it wasn't a snake!! I couldn't figure out what she was seeing until I looked through the trees and about 20 feet away from me was a deer, staring right at me. The deer didn't move - I didn't move. And Mandy ran back over to me, thankfully. In that moment, I even managed to take a picture, which I am including here to help you understand why I didn't see the deer at first. Somewhere right in the middle of this picture, there is a deer - I promise. You just really can't see it. ha

I thought the deer would run off, but she just stood there and was stamping her foot at me - really. Like, pawing the ground as if she was trying to say, "Back off lady, you're on my turf!" I then quickly tried to get Mandy back on her leash so that she wouldn't chase after the deer. At the same time, I was wondering if the deer was going to come charging at me or something. I know it sounds silly, but you think silly things in these kinds of situations. :) Then something rustled in the brush closer to me and Mandy took off after it - it was the cutest little baby deer! NOW I understood why the Mama deer was stamping her foot at me. She was protecting her baby! Of course, now Mandy was chasing it! I had gotten the leash back on her, only to have her pull so hard that she snapped her collar off... goodness. So, here I am, running after my dog and yelling at her, while she's chasing the baby deer who is being chased by its Mama... Well, something made Mandy stop (me screaming at her maybe? ha) and come back to me and the deer got away. I guess there was never any real danger of Mandy catching up to them, but I didn't want to be wandering the woods looking for my dog!

So that's my animal story for this trip up to Green Mountain - I seem to always have some sort of interesting encounter with animals up there. :) I usually find some sort of spiritual lesson from these encounters and what went through my mind today is how protective that Mama deer was of her baby - to the point that she was ready to take me and my dog on and let us know that she wasn't backing down. Of course, then the baby ran off from her and she had to go and chase it down... it didn't realize that the best place for it to be was right next to its Mama. I think God is so protective of us in the same way. He urges us to stay close to Him and He will fight our battles.

"Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.... The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still." Ex 14:13-14

The problem is that we run, trusting in ourselves to find a way out of the predicament that we are in, only to find that God is there, chasing us down and taking care of us once again. I'm glad He's so willing to do that... :)

So that was my day on the mountain. Well, there was one more thing that happened. I was winding down the mountain - slowly, because it's steep and pretty scary - and I came upon a policeman in the road. Then I realized that there was a pretty bad accident right around the corner... it looked like a garbage truck had rolled over on one of the curves. It was bad enough to block the road, so I had to turn around and go down the OTHER way over the mountain to go home... so I said a prayer for whoever was involved and made my way home, thankful again for God's protection over me.

OK, so this is somewhat totally off the subject, but can I make one complaint about my dog? You know how most dogs like to 'mark their territory' by peeing on every bush and leaf in sight? Well, MY dog seems to have decided that it's not enough to pee on everything, she has to poop everywhere... I had to pick up after her four times in my little loop around the pond today. It's just wrong to have to clean up that much after your dog... and this is getting to be a regular occurance on walks with her. So I'm trying to figure out how to change that!! ha... (sorry if that was TMI!)