O God of Detail - We Praise You !

Here are a few photos of some of patio pot flowers.  

 The above is the center detail of one of my petunias  - a detail you would never notice unless it was magnified.

Above a photo of a dead stump in my back yard.  A couple of years ago I planted a little starter plant in it, and I thought it was dead - dried out from summer lack of water, frozen in the dead of winter.

 Last year it wasn't there at all ... and this year to my surprise it is growing profusely !! 

Such happy little faces ... I can almost hear them say ... "SURPRISE !!!!!"    

 I have been so enjoying my flowers  - each so uniquely designed and coloured - which to me speaks of the kind of God we serve ! 

God is a God of incredible detail ....                                                                                             

  I am amazed ....  

At the infinite detail and variety of flowers that bloom so profusely, that come miraculously from a lifeless nondescript brown speck of  seed 

Matt. 6:30 , Luke 12:27 

That not only did God create countless billions of stars - out of nothing-  , but He named and knows the name of every one. 

Psalm 147:4, Isaiah 40:26

That God created the birds of the air, dressed each one in a designer coat of feathers, and knows and cares when each one dies ... 

Matt. 10:29 

That God, out of a thought, created the snowflakes, that fall in countless number , but not two of them have the same intricate design .. 

Job 37:5,6

That God counts the hair on each of our heads .... does it really matter or make a difference to anything? 

Matt. 10:30 

If God shows Himself to be such a God of detail to do all of the above,  then how much more does God care about the smallest detail of who you or I are .. ... 

There is not a detail about us, -individually -  that God is not aware of , and not just aware of  but also deeply cares about ....  Isn't it almost overwhelming to think about?  

The God that created the universe, the God that has the power to do anything He wills, cares about and understands you and me, and not just in a passive way ... NO !

Rather He cares in a very interactive and involved kind of way ...-  

Just to keep track of the constant changing number of our hair means He is constantly watching over us ...  

and if He does that , would a God of Love not so much more care about the things that are important to us, small as they may be ?    

          "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us

 that we should be called children of God !" 

I John 3:1

"Dear Holy and Great God, 

you who are also our loving Father, how we bow before you today in wonder.  

You are bigger than we could ever comprehend, and yet we acknowledge that you call us each by name.. 

You know and lovingly care about every detail of who we are and what is important to us, 

and even what is not. 

You who have numbered our days, and planned our life path, 

We offer to you today the one thing that we have of value to give you ... our TRUST, our FAITH in you ... 

We believe your words, your promises and we desire to follow you in everything we are and do . 

There is nothing else, no one else, we can trust in. 

I thank you for each reader this morning, I thank you for who you created them to be

 - unique and special. 

I pray that today they will be overwhelmed anew as they see around them the wonder of who you are. 

May their trust in you grow, and their hearts expand with praise and thanksgiving to you. 

I pray in Jesus' Holy name, amen."

Treasure in Genealogies

source https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/264938390555631269/?lp=true

One of the ladies in my church bible study group made a comment after one of our studies .
 She said, "I don't think there is any scripture that is not interesting ... " and then she qualified ... "except maybe genealogies." But, then in an afterthought added that even these contain interesting details of interest.
I so agree with her !!

That same night, in my personal bible reading I opened to the genealogies at the end of II Kings that carry on into I Chronicles. My attention was immediately engaged.

In I Chron. 1:28 it says this ... "The sons of Abraham were Isaac and Ishmael...." 
Wait ... something is out of order.  Genealogies are very orderly - always from father to sons in order of birth. Here we have the order reversed, since we know Ishmael was 13 years old when Isaac was born.
Then in I Chron. 1:32 we are given another surprising detail.  Abraham had six sons born to him after Isaac.  When his beloved wife Sarah died, Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. In Genesis 25:1 she is referred to as his wife, yet in the genealogy of I Chronicles she is not referred to as his wife but as his concubine.
There is another strange detail .. in the genealogy wording the six sons born by Keturah are not 'given to' Abraham.
Check references such as Gen. 35:5, Genesis 46:22, II Sam. 3:2, 5, I Chronicles 3:5 and you will see the standard pattern.  If sons are born to a man by more than one woman/wife/concubine the wording is that they were 'born to' the man 'by' the woman who bore the children.  But here, the only reference to Abraham is that these sons were born to a woman who 'happened' to be his concubine, not even giving her the respectful status of wife.

We know very little about the lives of these six sons. We do know that from one of them, Midian,  descended the Midianites who were enemies of Israel. So to surmise that these sons were not blessed, or that they chose - as Ishmael did - a wild side of life, is not unreasonable.

But .. the question arises - "Why would God reverse the birth order of Isaac and Ishmael? Why would God not record the six sons of Keturah  as 'belonging to' Abraham? And why is Keturah identified as a concubine and not a wife?

The starting point in any bible search has to be that no detail in the bible is by accident and that all scripture comes by inspiration of God -- not by the intellect or experience or opinion of man.

So the reversal of order of birth for Isaac and Ishmael , and the sons by Keturah not recorded as Abraham's  sons must have significance for us.

Perhaps it is not such a difficult thing to understand.

In Gen. 22:2 God, in speaking to Abraham, refers to Isaac as "your only son Isaac, whom you love..."  Isaac was not Abraham's only son at that time, but he was the the only son of Sarah.

God had promised Abraham a son, a promised son that would be a miracle birth, a son born to him and Sarah. (Gen. 18:10)  From the descendants of  this son, God would bring forth His people and through this son would be shown the prophetic picture that pointed to Jesus' , the coming Promised Son, who would be the sacrificial Lamb.
Abraham was the father of faith , Rom. 4:11,16.   It was only through Isaac that this blessing came down to us.  Ishmael was rejected, "cast out" as Gal. 4:30 states in a  quote from Gen. 21:10-12.

So the sons born to Abraham through Keturah, would also have to be cast out, and could not be joined to what God had purposed through the one promised son - Isaac, who would picture the One Promised Son, Jesus. God needed to keep the descendant line without confusion from the promised son to the Promised Son.   Abraham was both the father of the physical nation of Israel and  the father of faith of the spiritual people in the New Covenant. 

I Wanna be a Pansy!

"He's such a pansy!"   Not something we consider a complement.
To call someone a 'pansy' is to insinuate that he is a wimp, weak, a sissy, someone without a backbone.
I don't know who coined the phrase or the intended meaning ... but they had it all wrong !!

My prayer is ... "Lord, make me a pansy!!!"

I bought a lovely pot of purple pansies earlier in fall -- so pretty !  and I had them sitting outside my kitchen window on the patio table, where I could enjoy them.  The temperatures changed, they turned unseasonally cold.  And then we had a snow storm!  In two hours the accumulated snow measured 6 inches on my patio table, completely covering my sweet pansies ... I looked at them and thought ... 'poor things, you'll never survive this !' .  It was not the first time they had been covered in snow and freezing temperatures but I was sure this time would be their demise.

But to my absolute astonishment and delight, when the snow finally melted, this is what I saw.

My potted pansy was not  dead at all ...  in fact it was BLOOMING !!  Several more times, this potted pansy was covered with snow, and survived.   Then in early April it was covered with hail, but yet again it emerged blooming !

 Looking at my long-suffering pansy, this quote by the apostle Paul came to mind.
It is found in II Cor. 4:8,9

 "We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed, we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed." 

And that last photo speaks to the next verse ... 

"...always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body."

Are we like my pansy? Have we persevered through the 'winters' of our life experiences?  Do our physical bodies perhaps show the destruction caused by this earthly life, but our spirits are still 'blooming', showing forth the good fragrance of His life in us ?

I love pansies and I have tried to shelter them as a house plant.  I quickly found that they did not respond well to be being 'coddled' and I watched them die.  I'm sure every one of us would choose an 'easy life' if we were given the choice- but just like the pansies, we do not do well when everything is easy and we have no challenges or struggles . We very quickly can become spiritually lazy or  die.

"Oh Lord, make me like my pansy. Let me persevere, not with gritted teeth but with grace, never failing to bloom, even in the most dark or difficult times of my life.  May I know that the things of this earthly life cannot destroy me ..  your strength is made perfect in my weakness .. and I will stand victorious on that last day !!" 

The Maker of the Universe

It is once again that  time of year where we remember the One who left His place in glory to come and offer Himself as the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of man -- His death for our life. 
For those of us who were born into Christian homes and have grown up with the Esther story it is easy to take it for granted.
I came across a poem that stirred me to my depths and filled me anew with awe for what God, in His infinite love and mercy did for me.

***The Maker of the Universe ***

The Maker of the Universe,

As Man, for man was made a curse.

The claims of Law which He had made,

Unto the uttermost He paid.

His holy fingers made the bough,

Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow.

The nails that pierced His hand were mined,

In secret places He designed.

He made the forest whence there sprung,

The tree on which His body hung.

He died upon a cross of wood,

Yet made the hill on which it stood.

The sky that darkened o’er His head,

By Him above the earth was spread.

The sun that hid from Him its face,

By His decree was poised in space.

The spear which spilled His precious blood,

Was tempered in the fires of God.

The grave in which His form was laid,

Was hewn in rocks His hands had made.

The throne on which He now appears,

Was His from everlasting years,

But a new glory crowns His brow,

And every knee to Him shall bow!

The Maker of the universe.

**** Written by F.W. Pitt,  a British pastor (1859-1943)