Lucy

We met Lucy in September of 2011.  She was sitting in her wheelchair at a small bible study that Michael and I attended at Atria just a few weeks prior to him starting his Pastoral Care Ministry and Sunday Preaching ministry there.  I recall that first meeting vividly.  Myrtle, who has since gone home to be with the Lord, was easy to get to know and did a great deal of interacting.  Lucy, on the other hand, did not speak a word the entire time.  After the study concluded, I sat with her and discovered many things about her.  She was suffering with Parkinson disease and was having a rather difficult time dealing with her limited ability to do physical things; but there was still a twinkle in her eyes as we talked.  Lucy and I felt an immediate love for one another.

After meeting Lucy at that Bible Study, Lucy regularly attended the Sunday services that Michael led at Atria, and we got to know her quite well.   As Lucy's strength declined she was transferred to The Terraces at Roseville and Michael (with me accompanying him on occasion) continued to visit her on a weekly basis.  Deni (my best friend) would also stop in weekly and minister to Lucy.  It was through our visits with Lucy at the Terraces that we found out about the Friday morning Bible study there where it turned out that one of my old friends from Grace Bible Church, Arnold, led the study.  Although Lucy was later moved to another facility (Eskaton), Michael has continued to partner with Arnold in ministry every Friday morning at the Terraces.

Once Lucy was moved to Eskaton, we continued to visit with her there and Michael and Deni continued to meet with her on a regular basis at different times during the week.  When I was visiting with Lucy she would always tell me the truth about her struggles and how difficult is was to be so physically helpless.  Because Lucy was transferred to Eskaton, Michael felt led to meet with the activity director to discuss the possibility of a Sunday morning service for the residents there.  He was told that they had not had one in 2 years, but would welcome one.  Michael would not be able to fill that need; but, he wanted to make sure that it would be filled and so he passed along the information to another church (Immanuel Baptist Church of Sacramento) and now one of our dear brothers in the Lord, Paul Little, will be coordinating an every Sunday service at Eskaton--providing both a worship service for the residents and an opportunity for many other men to use their gifts in this ministry area.

We still marvel at how God used our relationship with Lucy and Michael's faithfulness to God and the Ministry to help fill so many spiritual needs in two additional facilities.  We had been praying that God would grant Lucy peace regarding her situation and also that she would be used by God in the midst of her own suffering.  God answered that prayer!  Just recently Lucy told Michael that for the first time in her life she shared Christ and the gospel with one of the other residents.  She also has recently told Michael that she has stopped fighting and has peace.

Lucy is still at Eskaton and we will be visiting with her tomorrow evening.  But; after checking the mail tonight, I simply had to post a little bit about Lucy.  There is so much more to the story; and someday I hope to have the time to share more of the details of how the Lord used, and is using, a 90+ year old little lady with Parkinson's disease named Lucy to work His will in so many people's lives.

Here is what came in the mail.  We suspect that her son David penned it for her.  What a blessing it was to my heart, as once again, I was reminded of how the Lord is still using Lucy.  This was such an encouragement to the heart of my husband as he faithfully ministers to so many of those who are unable to attend a church service and who have, in some cases, been forgotten by the church.

Thank you Lord and Thank you Lucy - We love you!

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The Glory of God - Man's Chief End - (Part Four)

When I started my Theology Art projects two years ago, one of the first things I created was a hand-illustrated vest with the image of Thomas Watson on one side of the vest and one of his rather provocative quotes on the other.  When I originally read the quote, I had to ask myself, "How would the majority of professing Christians in the twenty-first century react to this?"  Would they agree?  So what was that quote?  Here it is:

"God's glory is more worth than heaven, and more worth than the salvation of all men's souls."

What are your initial thoughts when you read that? Do you agree with that statement? Ponder it for a minute or two.  This quote was taken from his treatise on Man's Chief End is to Glorify God of which I have been copying excerpts from as part of this four part series. I truly believe that we (modern Christians) need to ponder these things and very few have ever even been introduced to such thoughts, let alone, pondered them.

Let us listen a bit more to Thomas Watson on the topic:

" When the Spirit revives the heart with comfort, it comes not only with its anointing, but with its seal; it sheds God's love abroad in the heart. Rom. 5:5, "Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 1:3. 

In the Word we hear God's voice; in the sacrament we have his kiss. The heart being warmed and inflamed in a duty is God's answering by fire. The sweet communications of God's Spirit are the first fruits of glory. Now Christ has pulled off his veil, and showed his smiling face; now he has led a believer into the banqueting-house, and given him of the spiced wine of his love to drink; he has put in his finger at the hole of the door; he has touched the heart, and made it leap for joy. Oh how sweet is it thus to enjoy God! The godly have, in ordinances, had such divine raptures of joy, and soul transfigurations, that they have been carried above the world, and have despised all things here below.

Use 1.

Is the enjoyment of God in this life so sweet? How wicked are they who prefer the enjoyment of their lusts before the enjoyment of God! 2 Pet. 3:3, "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life," is the Trinity they worship. Lust is an inordinate desire or impulse, provoking the soul to that which is evil. There is the revengeful lust, and the wanton lust. Lust, like a feverish heat, puts the soul into a flame. Aristotle calls sensual lusts brutish, because, when any lust is violent, reason or conscience cannot be heard. These lusts besot and brutalise the man. Hos. 4:11,"Whoredom and wine take away the heart;" the heart for anything that is good. How many make it their chief end, not to enjoy God, but to enjoy their lusts; as that cardinal who said, "Let him but keep his cardinalship of Paris and he was content to lose his part in Paradise." Lust first bewitches with pleasure, and then comes the fatal dart. Prov. 7:23, "Till a dart strike through his liver." This should be as a flaming sword to stop men in the way of their carnal delights. Who for a drop of pleasure would drink a sea of wrath?

Use 2.

 Let it be our great care to enjoy God's sweet presence in his ordinances.  Enjoying spiritual communion with God is a riddle and mystery to most people.  Every one that hangs about the court does not speak with the king. 

We may approach God in ordinances, and hang about the court of heaven, yet not enjoy communion with God.  We may have the letter without the Spirit, the visible sign without the invisible grace. It is the enjoyment of God in a duty that we should chiefly look at. Psalm 13:2, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God." Alas! what are all our worldly enjoyments without the enjoyment of God? What is it to enjoy good health, a brave estate, and not to enjoy God? Job 30:28, "I went mourning without the sun." So mayest thou say in the enjoyment of all creatures without God, "I went mourning without the sun." I have the starlight of outward enjoyments, but I lack the Sun of Righteousness. "I went mourning without the sun."

It should be our great design, not only to have the ordinances of God, but the God of the ordinances. The enjoyment of God's sweet presence here is the most contented life: he is a hive of sweetness, a magazine of riches, a fountain of delight, Psalm 36:8,9. The higher the lark flies the sweeter it sings; and the higher we fly by the wings of faith, the more we enjoy of God. How is the heart inflamed in prayer and meditation!   What joy and peace is there in believing! Is it not comfortable being in heaven?  He that enjoys much of God in this life carries heaven about him.   Oh let this be the thing we are chiefly ambitious of, the enjoyment of God in his ordinances! The enjoyment of God's sweet presence here is an earnest of our enjoying him in heaven.

Sharing Your Gifts

In ways you least suspect, God answers prayers.  I have been praying for a couple of years that the Lord would bring someone into our lives with a heart for music.  My husband, who neither reads nor can write music, has been given over 70 songs (both the words and melodies).  His only way to capture those songs is to record them acapella.  He can hear orchestra's playing them, congregations and choirs singing them; but, that is impossible without sheet music for them.

We met Celeste and her husband Mike last December when members of our church and others came to Atria, where my husband ministers, to share a Christmas Program with the residents.  Celeste accompanied the group on piano and Mike sung in the choir.  At that time we had no idea how gifted this young lady was.

As we got to know Celeste and Mike we discovered that they both love the Lord and are both gifted in many ways.  As a side note:  They will be leaving for the mission field and will be gone sometime before the end of this year. Mike is a doctor and will be joining a medical missionary team in Africa.  Celeste will be working with women trapped in the sex trafficking industry with the desire to win them to Christ.

Through our relationship with them, we discovered that Celeste has been singing since she was a tiny little girl and also plays the piano--even composing her own musical arrangements.  Michael shared a few of his songs with Celeste and she was able to write the piano chords for them.  Three of Michael's songs became part of a one woman, outreach concert,  that we hosted at Atria on April 19th.

As we sat listening to this gifted young woman sing praises to the Lord, our eyes filled with tears.  As we heard Michael's songs being played and sung by someone who we have both grown to love, we were overwhelmed with thanksgiving to the Lord.

Little did we know, another sweet Christian sister, India Curry, who is a gifted artist as well, video taped Celeste practicing for the concert in her home and posted that video on Youtube.  You can watch it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcXn5x26Alo

This is the body of Christ working together to build up and edify believers, bring glory to God, and reach the lost.

What God has taught me through this is that He has everything and everyone under His sovereign control and overcomes all obstacles that we may think are present in our lives.  He will bring those members of His body together who will glorify Him with their gifts in the most unexpected ways--even if it's only for a season!

Rejoicing in Christ - The Center of Our Joy!

whose experiences almost daily mingle with their own in the sweet sympathies of song

Poets are the song-birds of human nature, the interpreters of human feeling; and they only are worthy of the name, in whose interpretations we find our own unexpressed thoughts and feelings and experiences. The sacred poet, like the Levite of old, is still a minister in the temple; he still kindles the altar fires of holy feeling, and from his own spiritual indwelling, insight, and inner communings, he puts into language for as those emotions, dispositions, desires, that our hearts recognize and yet our lips fail of uttering. He takes us to mountain tops of feeling, into valleys of shadow, and leads by streams of refreshing, and into solitudes of restfulness and calm. But to understand him best, we must know the ways by which he himself has been led, and have the assurance that it is a trusty guide with whom we enter into holy companionship.

The above is an excerpt from the preface of a book published in 1875 entitled, Story of the Hymns.  Our best friend, Denise McCool found this book (which is a first edition) at a second hand story.  She stopped by this past week and presented it to Michael, stating, "I came across this and knew that it was meant for you".

Over the past 4 years, my husband, Michael, has written over 70 original songs/hymns and well over 600 poems which all exult Christ and express honor and glory to God.  I have been blessed to be able to say, I have first hand knowledge of  "the ways by which he himself has been led, and have assurance that it is a trusty guide with whom I enter into holy companionship"

What a blessing this little book has already been in just 4 short days.  God has used it to encourage my husband when all around him can be such discouragement.  In the current Christian culture, so few understand and appreciate the gift of praise and worship that God gives some of his people through the writing of both poems and hymns.  It is wonderful to read that it has not always been that way.  The preface ends by stating:

"...The religious experiences out of which these hymns grew are not as familiar to those who have not made a special study of the subject. That the book may lead some to better know the guides of their spiritual journey, whose experiences almost daily mingle with their own in the sweet sympathies of song, is the devout wish of the author."

Thanking the Lord this morning for His sweet presence and providence in our lives as he orchestrates even the smallest thing, like a friend finding a book in a second hand store, to encourage His people through our sojourn here on earth!