Immediately I was in the Spirit;
and behold, a throne set in heaven,
and One sat on the throne.
And He who sat there was like a jasper
and a sardius stone in appearance;
and there was a rainbow around the throne,
in appearance like an emerald.
- Revelation 4:2, 3
For the Lord will comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
- Isaiah 51:3
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.
Also there was no more sea...
The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it,
for the glory of God illuminated it.
The Lamb is its light.
And the nations of those who are saved
shall walk in its light,
and the kings of the earth
bring their glory and honor into it.
Its gates shall not be shut at all by day
(there shall be no night there).
And they shall bring the glory and the honor
of the nations into it.
But there shall by no means enter it
anything that defiles, or causes abomination or a lie,
but only those who are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life.
-Revelation 21:1, 22-27
and behold, a throne set in heaven,
and One sat on the throne.
And He who sat there was like a jasper
and a sardius stone in appearance;
and there was a rainbow around the throne,
in appearance like an emerald.
- Revelation 4:2, 3
For the Lord will comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
- Isaiah 51:3
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.
Also there was no more sea...
The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it,
for the glory of God illuminated it.
The Lamb is its light.
And the nations of those who are saved
shall walk in its light,
and the kings of the earth
bring their glory and honor into it.
Its gates shall not be shut at all by day
(there shall be no night there).
And they shall bring the glory and the honor
of the nations into it.
But there shall by no means enter it
anything that defiles, or causes abomination or a lie,
but only those who are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life.
-Revelation 21:1, 22-27
My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.”
- Song of Songs 2:10-13
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.”
- Song of Songs 2:10-13
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us or we find it not.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
How Beautiful
How beautiful the hands that served
The wine and the bread
And the sons of the earth
How beautiful the feet that walked
The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
How beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sin and bore it instead
How beautiful the tender eyes
That choose to forgive and never despise
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
And as He lay down His life
We offer this sacrifice
That we will live just as He died
Willing to pay the price
Willing to pay the price
How beautiful the radiant bride
Who waits for her Groom with His light in her eyes
How beautiful when humble hearts give
The fruit of pure lives so that others may live
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
How beautiful the feet that bring
The sound of good news and the love of the King
How beautiful the hands that serve
The wine and the bread and the sons of the earth
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
we must carry it with us or we find it not.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
March comes to an end today.
And as I sit here preparing to write my usual month end post, I listen to my heart, waiting for the word that will be the appropriate name for this month.
The word BEAUTIFUL resonates within my spirit.
Both my wedding anniversary and my birthday are in March, so this month will always be my favorite.
But that is not the only reason.
March is such a beautiful, in-between month - coming between winter and spring. I imagine that the season in heaven will be eternally spring. Each season comes with a beauty all its own... but I picture spring to be the most beautiful of all.
Spring comes as a season of new birth, of new life. The month of March comes at a time when nearly everyone is ready to say good-bye to the cold winter months and open the doors to let the freshness of spring fill every room in the house.
Beautiful God, Indescribable God
Something is said to be beautiful when it brings delight to the senses.
Beauty is not only for the eyes... beauty can also be heard, or felt.
Surely, heaven will be the most beautiful place any one has ever seen; all of heaven will be a beautiful experience.
What makes heaven beautiful is the fact that God is in the center of it all.
God is Beautiful.
He, the Author of Beauty, is the Creator of all the earth.
Beauty is intrinsic in everything He has made.
We need not look very far to encounter beauty.
There is beauty in the everyday.
The stars, the quiet sunrise, the majestic sunset...
The snow-capped mountains and the rolling hills... the flowers in the fields...
The rivers... the lakes... the waterfalls... the clouds in the blue skies... the gently falling rain...
The smile of a little baby... a poem... a song...
The love between a man and a woman, between a mother and a daughter... between friends...
Beautiful words... a beautiful garden... an act of kindness...
A beautiful God created a beautiful world, and all creation was declared good by God Himself.
If ever beauty was marred or shattered, it was never God's doing.
Choosing to believe Satan's lies, man corrupted... defiled... twisted... destroyed... this beautiful world.
The ugliness of death entered the picture. Blinded from the Truth, men turned away from God.
Nevertheless, all around us beauty still abounds.
Deep inside we know what beauty is... deep inside our hearts we long for the eternal and the beautiful.
If God were not at the center of heaven, heaven would not be a place worth longing for.
Hell is a place of eternal damnation and torment simply because God is not there!
Everything about God is beautiful in the same way that the elements of a work of art exude beauty; there is balance, symmetry, and harmony.
Like a masterpiece, the attributes of God are all beautifully and perfectly blended together. Even in my finite understanding, I know that God's wisdom, love, holiness, mercy, power, justice, knowledge... all the components of God's character... are all beautiful.
It is difficult to explain what I mean and what I feel... Somehow it escapes me, the right words to express the kind of beauty that I believe and understand God to be.
John, when he saw an open door in heaven and received a vision of God, had this to say:
Even John could not find the right words.
No matter how articulate or eloquent a poet might be, words are never good enough to describe the beauty of God.
Going Deeper
What fills my heart with humble awe is that even though God is unfathomable... and indescribable... deep calls to deep. From the depths of His heart, He reaches out to us.
Hebrews 11:6 states this so clearly - "...He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
God is willing to be known and to be discovered. When someone earnestly seeks Him, God allows Himself to be found.
This is God's beautiful mercy at work. He knows how much we need Him, though we may not see it that way.
God says, And you will know Me, and find Me, when You seek Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13
Any one who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
Our beautiful God fills our hearts with a longing for Him.
All God wants is to be sought after diligently. He responds to the deep longing of our hearts. He rewards the one who honestly longs to know Him more.
To know.. encounter... understand... experience God's beauty means that I am constantly willing to empty my cup, offer my emptiness to Him that He may fill me to overflowing.
In spring the earth is reborn only after a season of dying.
In my younger years, I had embraced a theology, a set of dead doctrines about God. Thinking that I needed to guard these doctrines with my life... I stayed away from so called Christians whose belief systems did not match mine.
Your prejudices prevent you from knowing who I really am, God spoke to me one night.
His words caught me by surprise... but He was right.
Henry Blackaby is one of the Christian authors who have influenced my Christian thinking in a radical way. In his book Experiencing God he said that sooner or later, we will reach a crisis of belief, a point where our faith has to be met with a response of obedience... and, in order to move forward, we must be willing to re-adjust... unlearn... what we were so staunchly defending or holding on to. Because as long as we believe only with our minds, without the required response of obedience, there is no real growth.
If we really want to grow mature and to experience God, we have to be willing to discard our wrong notions of God before we can rediscover Him at a deeper, or higher level.
This is what I call intellectual honesty, or better still, intellectual humility.
To be willing to admit that we need to re-discover God at another level.
My faith is anchored on God... but faith is never the goal...
God is the ultimate goal of my faith.
Therefore, my faith has to be examined, proved, and tested.
Allowing my faith to be tested means that at some points in my life there are some beliefs about God that will be proven wrong... and I will need to re-align my faith with the new things God is showing, to be willing to receive a correct understanding of who He is.
Paul admonishes us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
To experience the beauty of God at a deeper level, I must be ready to grapple with my faith... not let it remain stagnant.
Because faith, like a muscle, atrophies if it is not used.
This month I realized that if I do not exercise my faith at a higher level, then I can't fully appreciate the beauty of who God is... in the new season I am in.
All I will have for food is stale bread...and old wine... and my understanding of God eventually becomes insipid and tasteless.
My faith will be spineless... powerless.
But faith cannot remain at a standstill ... it is meant to mature and draw me ever closer to the fullness of God.
God is always inviting us to taste and see Him in a new light.
Hopefully, in doing so, I may whet someone's spiritual appetite... give another person a desire to discover the God whom I have personally known and experienced... remove the veil from someone's eyes... lead a thirsty traveler to the well that never runs dry, point to him the way to heaven.... and experience for himself that Jesus is indeed Who He says He is - the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
And as I sit here preparing to write my usual month end post, I listen to my heart, waiting for the word that will be the appropriate name for this month.
The word BEAUTIFUL resonates within my spirit.
Both my wedding anniversary and my birthday are in March, so this month will always be my favorite.
But that is not the only reason.
March is such a beautiful, in-between month - coming between winter and spring. I imagine that the season in heaven will be eternally spring. Each season comes with a beauty all its own... but I picture spring to be the most beautiful of all.
Spring comes as a season of new birth, of new life. The month of March comes at a time when nearly everyone is ready to say good-bye to the cold winter months and open the doors to let the freshness of spring fill every room in the house.
Beautiful God, Indescribable God
Something is said to be beautiful when it brings delight to the senses.
Beauty is not only for the eyes... beauty can also be heard, or felt.
Surely, heaven will be the most beautiful place any one has ever seen; all of heaven will be a beautiful experience.
What makes heaven beautiful is the fact that God is in the center of it all.
God is Beautiful.
He, the Author of Beauty, is the Creator of all the earth.
Beauty is intrinsic in everything He has made.
We need not look very far to encounter beauty.
There is beauty in the everyday.
The stars, the quiet sunrise, the majestic sunset...
The snow-capped mountains and the rolling hills... the flowers in the fields...
The rivers... the lakes... the waterfalls... the clouds in the blue skies... the gently falling rain...
The smile of a little baby... a poem... a song...
The love between a man and a woman, between a mother and a daughter... between friends...
Beautiful words... a beautiful garden... an act of kindness...
A beautiful God created a beautiful world, and all creation was declared good by God Himself.
If ever beauty was marred or shattered, it was never God's doing.
Choosing to believe Satan's lies, man corrupted... defiled... twisted... destroyed... this beautiful world.
The ugliness of death entered the picture. Blinded from the Truth, men turned away from God.
Nevertheless, all around us beauty still abounds.
Deep inside we know what beauty is... deep inside our hearts we long for the eternal and the beautiful.
If God were not at the center of heaven, heaven would not be a place worth longing for.
Hell is a place of eternal damnation and torment simply because God is not there!
Everything about God is beautiful in the same way that the elements of a work of art exude beauty; there is balance, symmetry, and harmony.
Like a masterpiece, the attributes of God are all beautifully and perfectly blended together. Even in my finite understanding, I know that God's wisdom, love, holiness, mercy, power, justice, knowledge... all the components of God's character... are all beautiful.
It is difficult to explain what I mean and what I feel... Somehow it escapes me, the right words to express the kind of beauty that I believe and understand God to be.
John, when he saw an open door in heaven and received a vision of God, had this to say:
Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.
Even John could not find the right words.
No matter how articulate or eloquent a poet might be, words are never good enough to describe the beauty of God.
Going Deeper
What fills my heart with humble awe is that even though God is unfathomable... and indescribable... deep calls to deep. From the depths of His heart, He reaches out to us.
Hebrews 11:6 states this so clearly - "...He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
God is willing to be known and to be discovered. When someone earnestly seeks Him, God allows Himself to be found.
This is God's beautiful mercy at work. He knows how much we need Him, though we may not see it that way.
God says, And you will know Me, and find Me, when You seek Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13
Any one who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
Our beautiful God fills our hearts with a longing for Him.
All God wants is to be sought after diligently. He responds to the deep longing of our hearts. He rewards the one who honestly longs to know Him more.
To know.. encounter... understand... experience God's beauty means that I am constantly willing to empty my cup, offer my emptiness to Him that He may fill me to overflowing.
In spring the earth is reborn only after a season of dying.
In my younger years, I had embraced a theology, a set of dead doctrines about God. Thinking that I needed to guard these doctrines with my life... I stayed away from so called Christians whose belief systems did not match mine.
Your prejudices prevent you from knowing who I really am, God spoke to me one night.
His words caught me by surprise... but He was right.
Henry Blackaby is one of the Christian authors who have influenced my Christian thinking in a radical way. In his book Experiencing God he said that sooner or later, we will reach a crisis of belief, a point where our faith has to be met with a response of obedience... and, in order to move forward, we must be willing to re-adjust... unlearn... what we were so staunchly defending or holding on to. Because as long as we believe only with our minds, without the required response of obedience, there is no real growth.
If we really want to grow mature and to experience God, we have to be willing to discard our wrong notions of God before we can rediscover Him at a deeper, or higher level.
This is what I call intellectual honesty, or better still, intellectual humility.
To be willing to admit that we need to re-discover God at another level.
My faith is anchored on God... but faith is never the goal...
God is the ultimate goal of my faith.
Therefore, my faith has to be examined, proved, and tested.
Allowing my faith to be tested means that at some points in my life there are some beliefs about God that will be proven wrong... and I will need to re-align my faith with the new things God is showing, to be willing to receive a correct understanding of who He is.
Paul admonishes us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
To experience the beauty of God at a deeper level, I must be ready to grapple with my faith... not let it remain stagnant.
Because faith, like a muscle, atrophies if it is not used.
This month I realized that if I do not exercise my faith at a higher level, then I can't fully appreciate the beauty of who God is... in the new season I am in.
All I will have for food is stale bread...and old wine... and my understanding of God eventually becomes insipid and tasteless.
My faith will be spineless... powerless.
But faith cannot remain at a standstill ... it is meant to mature and draw me ever closer to the fullness of God.
God is always inviting us to taste and see Him in a new light.
Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me,
and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me.
- Isaiah 55:1-3
He desires that we move on in our knowledge of Him, experiencing Him from glory to glory... ever moving upward, growing closer to His heart.
And this is really the reason why I take time and effort to maintain this weblog - even if my words are not adequate, I can still try to share what I feel, what I understand, why I believe in God.Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me,
and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live...
- Isaiah 55:1-3
Let your soul delight itself in abundance...
Incline your ear, and come to Me...
Hear, and your soul shall live.
Incline your ear, and come to Me...
Hear, and your soul shall live.
He desires that we move on in our knowledge of Him, experiencing Him from glory to glory... ever moving upward, growing closer to His heart.
Hopefully, in doing so, I may whet someone's spiritual appetite... give another person a desire to discover the God whom I have personally known and experienced... remove the veil from someone's eyes... lead a thirsty traveler to the well that never runs dry, point to him the way to heaven.... and experience for himself that Jesus is indeed Who He says He is - the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
A Beautiful Month
As I look back over the past thirty one days, I can say that my heart encountered so much beauty.
In the midst of the events taking place in Japan and in the Middle East, there were also many changes around my personal and family life... my childhood best friend's brother died at a young age of 51... a church friend died of lung cancer even though he was "given" five years to live... threats of earthquakes... rumors of war... a nuclear disaster happening right here in Asia where I live...
I don't know anymore how to pray or what to pray for... except for this word rising in my spirit:
He sits on the throne, high above the heavens, but also within the hearts of people who are hungry, longing to know Him more.
Life is beautiful because my God holds not only my own life, but that of the whole earth, in His hands.
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
- Psalm 46:1-5
In Him I am safe and secure.
God's love gives beauty and meaning to my existence.
Indescribable
by Chris Tomlin
From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to it's light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom
In the midst of the events taking place in Japan and in the Middle East, there were also many changes around my personal and family life... my childhood best friend's brother died at a young age of 51... a church friend died of lung cancer even though he was "given" five years to live... threats of earthquakes... rumors of war... a nuclear disaster happening right here in Asia where I live...
I don't know anymore how to pray or what to pray for... except for this word rising in my spirit:
When you see these things happening, rejoice... for your redemption is near.
The beauty that I saw was not so much in the external dimension, but from realizing that God is Sovereign.He sits on the throne, high above the heavens, but also within the hearts of people who are hungry, longing to know Him more.
Life is beautiful because my God holds not only my own life, but that of the whole earth, in His hands.
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
- Psalm 46:1-5
In Him I am safe and secure.
God's love gives beauty and meaning to my existence.
At the start of the month, I coordinated an Ancient Paths seminar for ten participants. No two seminars are exactly the same. But one thing is constant. Each seminar is filled with ministry breakthroughs where the lies that people have come to believe about themselves, or others, or God Himself, are exposed, and replaced with truth. The circumstances may differ, but the work of healing and restoration is the same. Jesus can always be depended on to bring light into the darkness and pain of our lives!
March 3-5, 2011
Ancient Paths in Bacolod City
I went to Manila on the second week of March and was able to spend some time with my high school friends. For twelve years, from Kindergarten to Fourth Year High School, we were together. We graduated from high school 40 years ago. But the years we spent together in school has created a bond so special, that each time we see one another, it is easy to reconnect at a deeper level!
This month is also a special treat for me because my best friend Melanie who resides in Virginia is in town. We spent a lot of time together!
And just last week, it was a week-long celebration of my 58th birthday. Family and friends made me feel so special.
Mayang, me, Menchu
March 25, Menchu hosted a birthday lunch for me and another friend Mayang.
March 27, early morning on my birthday, my friend Melanie arrives at my house with a bag of freshly baked bread, and a gift for me.
Pat, me, Buddy, Tata
some of my friends from the Family Foundations team who treated me to a birthday breakfast
First Born Son with his son Forerunner (Matthew)
Worshiper's wife, Chosen One with her baby Mighty Warrior / Full of Hope
My family
A beautiful family
March 27, First Born and God Given celebrated their third wedding anniversary at By the Sea, together with the rest of our family. Dear son and "daughter in love" I want you to know I truly am proud of both of you... how you are committed to your marriage, to one another, and to your son Forerunner.
March 28
with my friends Jing and Melanie, at the birthday dinner hosted by my sister in law Sue
March 29, at Bascon Cafe...
Jing hosted a birthday lunch just for the three of us
This picture of my miniature rose was taken at 6:17 a.m. after a night of rain. I believe that God made it bloom right on my birthday.
In the midst of all the uncertainties around me, it has truly been a beautiful month...
And I give glory and honor to my God who alone is truly Beautiful.
He has made all things beautiful in His time.
March 3-5, 2011Ancient Paths in Bacolod City
I went to Manila on the second week of March and was able to spend some time with my high school friends. For twelve years, from Kindergarten to Fourth Year High School, we were together. We graduated from high school 40 years ago. But the years we spent together in school has created a bond so special, that each time we see one another, it is easy to reconnect at a deeper level!
This month is also a special treat for me because my best friend Melanie who resides in Virginia is in town. We spent a lot of time together!
And just last week, it was a week-long celebration of my 58th birthday. Family and friends made me feel so special.
Mayang, me, MenchuMarch 25, Menchu hosted a birthday lunch for me and another friend Mayang.
March 27, early morning on my birthday, my friend Melanie arrives at my house with a bag of freshly baked bread, and a gift for me.
Pat, me, Buddy, Tatasome of my friends from the Family Foundations team who treated me to a birthday breakfast
First Born Son with his son Forerunner (Matthew)
Worshiper's wife, Chosen One with her baby Mighty Warrior / Full of Hope
My family
A beautiful familyMarch 27, First Born and God Given celebrated their third wedding anniversary at By the Sea, together with the rest of our family. Dear son and "daughter in love" I want you to know I truly am proud of both of you... how you are committed to your marriage, to one another, and to your son Forerunner.
March 28with my friends Jing and Melanie, at the birthday dinner hosted by my sister in law Sue
March 29, at Bascon Cafe...Jing hosted a birthday lunch just for the three of us
This picture of my miniature rose was taken at 6:17 a.m. after a night of rain. I believe that God made it bloom right on my birthday.And I give glory and honor to my God who alone is truly Beautiful.
He has made all things beautiful in His time.
Indescribable
by Chris Tomlin
From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to it's light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom
How Beautiful
How beautiful the hands that served
The wine and the bread
And the sons of the earth
How beautiful the feet that walked
The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
How beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sin and bore it instead
How beautiful the tender eyes
That choose to forgive and never despise
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
And as He lay down His life
We offer this sacrifice
That we will live just as He died
Willing to pay the price
Willing to pay the price
How beautiful the radiant bride
Who waits for her Groom with His light in her eyes
How beautiful when humble hearts give
The fruit of pure lives so that others may live
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
How beautiful the feet that bring
The sound of good news and the love of the King
How beautiful the hands that serve
The wine and the bread and the sons of the earth
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
How Beautiful by Twila Paris
This post is lovingly dedicated to Judith Guerino, one of the most beautiful women I have ever known.
Visit her amazing weblog (which I have read several times over) entitled A Doxology in Darkness and you will understand what I mean.
On her blog sidebar is this quote:
This post is lovingly dedicated to Judith Guerino, one of the most beautiful women I have ever known.Visit her amazing weblog (which I have read several times over) entitled A Doxology in Darkness and you will understand what I mean.
On her blog sidebar is this quote:
To be grateful for an unanswered prayer,
to give thanks in a state of interior desolation,
to trust in the love of God
in the face of the marvels, cruel circumstances,
obscenities and commonplaces of life
is to whisper a doxology in darkness.
- Brennan Manning
to give thanks in a state of interior desolation,
to trust in the love of God
in the face of the marvels, cruel circumstances,
obscenities and commonplaces of life
is to whisper a doxology in darkness.
- Brennan Manning
12 comments:
Today your blog name and this post speak of each other. God is incredibly beautiful, and your words about Him reach upwards, soaring on the spirit of praise.
Peace, blessing, and most of all beauty, to you today.
I dearly love your scriptural listings and also your beautiful photographs. God bless.
beautiful....and you got a great family...great friends and a beautiful heart. When you're blog opened...I felt myself breathe...have a great weekend Lidj.....hugs to you.
Awesome! Heaven will have a beauty beyone our wildest imagination and I love spring time too.
God bless
I am refreshed by the many facets of this beautiful post. Thank you for always finding a way to reach into my heart, and shine God's Light in it.
One thing that really spoke to me was finding beauty in uncertainty.
Sometimes in the middle of the storms of life, we are given a chance to see the Savior walking on water - and we are invited to join Him.
And knowing Him is the sure anchor...
GOD BLESS!
"One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to enquire of him in his temple", Psalm 27: 4.
Thank you, Crown of Beauty!
Reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote reminded me of the verse "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also..." (Matthew 6:21). And how true of the heart being a special storage, that we can carry what we store in it where ever we go...
And how appropriate with all these beautiful things you store in your heart!And every time, your love for the Lord is evident on top of all and same with family and friends. I love all the pics you shared and now, I got to see your "best friend" who always says "I know" and I agree, she has a sweet smile :)
Thank you sister Lidj for your prayers always. My battle is just beginning and will surely be a long process. But having blogging friends like you (in reality are my brothers/sisters in Christ)who encourage me always make this journey beautiful, despite all the trials that come my way. I know that through this trial, like what you said, our faith sometimes is tested. We are being shaken at times, so we can let go of those that do not have eternal values.
God bless and take care sister. May you always remain strong in the Lord's mighty power. Love you in Christ.
Lidj,
Beauty....the appreciation of it can be denied for some false sense of guilt. This was very much me without Judith in my life, my Judy-Mom. From the very beginning of our relationship she began giving me beautiful things and with it a tender, gracious lecture to enjoy. Over time she patiently endured the conversations of false guilt I carried...."but if I enjoy that material thing, won't I be putting an idol in my heart, replacing God?" There is a balance, but I was so far on the other side of that dangerous spectrum. She continues to model for me a worshipful stance in enjoying those things that God created or man created from God's handiwork. I can be sure that God is on the throne of my heart when I fully enjoy the green soothing elixir of tea in a hand painted teacup, made out of the finest china porcelain that can be found, with a price tag that I couldn't pay, but she did to give me pleasure.
You couldn't have dedicated a more suitable blog post to my beautiful Judy-Mom...and as I've been memorizing 1 Peter...it was just this week that I added chapter 3, verses 3 & 4 that say: "do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, the putting on of gold jewelry, the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."
My Judith has this imperishable beauty...and it is continuing to be cultivated.
Longing for the imperishable beauty that is precious in God's sight,
Amy
Lidj, I am always blessed and refreshed when I visit your blog. God is indeed beautiful and the author of beauty. We can see his hand all around us in the beautiful world he has made. God bless you, my sister.
Dearest Lidj and my beloved Amy,
I am overwhelmed and deeply humbled by the honor, kindness and love that your gracious words have showered upon me. I fear I am also rendered nearly speechless. What can be said at such generosity except thank you for these thoughts that I know God's Spirit will use time and again to refresh my mind and comfort my heart in the months to come.
May He find us all ever trusting as we submit to any darkness His hand of love and grace may on occasion provide in order to refine our hearts even as He has redeemed our souls.
With all my love,
Judith/Judy-Mom
Thank you for sharing so many of your personal photos. I love to see the smiling faces. I also loved reading about your 'beautiful' month. I too have been greatly influenced when studying "Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby. It was a turning point in my walk with the Lord.
Blessings and love,
Debbie
Hi Lidj -
This is such a splendid message.
I was pleasantly surprised to read this after my devotions with our Lord this a.m. Surprised because He gave me "beautiful" as a focus this morning. He led me to write these scriptures that contained the word beautiful:
From the King James Bible:
Psalm 48:2
Ecclesiastes 3:11
Song of Solomon 6:4
Isaiah 4:2
Isaiah 52:7
The Acts 3:10
You expressed, "Joy and gladness..."
Amen, Lidj - Thank you
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