Holy is.

“If you would be holy, you must live close to Jesus.” – Dr. Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Holy is waking up with a precious child snuggled next to you in bed.

Holy is being a servant.

Holy is laughing deep belly laughs.  Together.

Holy is picking apples right off the tree with a little twist.

Holy is watching the little mouse scurry from pen to pen in the barn collecting bits of corn and stashing them in his home under the baseboard.

Holy is a cup of tea made from precisely blended leaves.

Holy is friends that send random notes to encourage.

Holy is the quiet.

Holy is having eyes to see that all that is around you is from the Creator.

Holy is the flavour of your food and the colour of, well….anything!  Because both were made by Him.

Holy is the flicker;  In an eye.  A single candle.  A memory in your mind.

Holy is friends gathered together in a living room sharing life.  The parts we live well and the parts where we’re just really dumb.

Holy is cozying up together to watch something on the small screen of an ipad.

Holy is finding shapes in the clouds and crunching leaves beneath your feet.

When we’re close to Jesus, connected to His character, living how He says we ought then all of life is holy. When we seem Him in everything, everyone, every circumstance around us, that’s holy.

I see.  I see that the nearer that I draw the more I see Him.  And the more I see Him the more content I feel in every situation.  And the more content I am in every situation the more my heart, my life, my smile is full. And the more full I am, the closer I want to draw Him in.

If you give a  mouse a cookie, I tell ya….

My Life : a photo a day

when: April 18, 2011

I am an ant.

An Aunt, yes.  But I mean an ant.  Just a little bit of perspective for you this morning if life is seemingly out of hand.

“I will help thee, saith the Lord.”

— Isaiah 41:14

‘Help thee?’ Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help,

it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art

nothing but a tiny insect at the door of my all-sufficiency. ‘I will

help thee.'”

Read Spurgeons full writing here.

Just what I needed.

No, not a vacation to Hawaii.  Better.  So. Much. Better.  I thought maybe someone out there might need it this morning as well.

From Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening:

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”

— Hebrews 4:9

How different will be the state of the believer in heaven from what it is here! Here he is born to toil and suffer weariness, but in the land of the immortal, fatigue is never known. Anxious to serve his Master, he finds his strength unequal to his zeal: his constant cry is, “Help me to serve thee, O my God.” If he be thoroughly active, he will have much labour; not too much for his will, but more than enough for his power, so that he will cry out, “I am not wearied of the labour, but I am wearied in it.”

Ah! Christian, the hot day of weariness lasts not for ever; the sun is nearing the horizon; it shall rise again with a brighter day than thou hast ever seen upon a land where they serve God day and night, and yet rest from their labours. Here, rest is but partial, there, it is perfect. Here, the Christian is always unsettled; he feels that he has not yet attained. There, all are at rest; they have attained the summit of the mountain; they have ascended to the bosom of their God. Higher they cannot go. Ah, toil-worn labourer, only think when thou shalt rest for ever! Canst thou conceive it? It is a rest eternal; a rest that “remaineth.” Here, my best joys bear “mortal” on their brow; my fair flowers fade; my dainty cups are drained to dregs; my sweetest birds fall before Death’s arrows; my most pleasant  days are shadowed into nights; and the flood-tides of my bliss subside into ebbs of sorrow; but there, everything is immortal; the harp abides unrusted, the crown unwithered, the eye undimmed, the voice unfaltering, the heart unwavering, and the immortal being is wholly absorbed in infinite delight.

Happy day! happy! when mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and the Eternal Sabbath shall begin.

If this doesn’t make your heart joyful

A Spurgeon quote for this morning from his Morning and Evening devotional.

Yes, we are, indeed the conquered captives of His omnipotent love.  Thus chosen,  purchased, and subdued, the rights of our divine possessor are inalienable:  we rejoice that we never can be our own; and we desire, day by day, to do His will, and to show forth His glory.

May He make those our desires every hour of every day!

Straight from the great Spurgeon

I’m simply copying this straight from his words because there’s no point in trying to make them better – I couldn’t possibly.

Wherefore hast Thou afflicted Thy servant?  Numbers 11:11

Our heavenly Father sends us frequent troubles to try our faith. If our faith be worth anything, it will stand the test.  Gilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not: the paste gem dreads to be touched by the diamond, but the true jewel fears no test.  It is a poor faith which can only trust God when friends are true, the body full of health, and the business profitable; but that is true faith which holds by the Lord’s faithfulness when friends are gone, when the body is sick, when spirits are depressed and the light of our Father’s countenance is hidden.  A faith which can say, in the direst trouble, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him’, is heaven-born faith.  The Lord afflicts His servants to glorify Himself, for He is greatly glorified in the graces of His people, which are His own handiwork.  When ‘tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope’, the Lord is honoured by these growing virtues.  We should never know the music of the harp if the strings were left untouched; nor enjoy the juice of the grape if it were not trodden in the winepress; nor discover the sweet perfume of cinnamon if it were not pressed and beaten; nor feel the warmth of fire if the coals were not utterly consumed.  The wisdom and power of the great Workman are discovered by the trials through which His vessels of mercy are permitted to pass.  Present afflictions tend also to heighten future joy. There must be shades in the picture to bring out the beauty of the lights.  Could we be so supremely blessed in heaven, if we had not known the curse of sin and the sorrow of earth?  Will not peace be sweeter after conflict, and rest more welcome after toil?  Will not the recollection of past sufferings enhance the bliss of the glorified?  There are many other comfortable answers to the question with which we opened our brief meditation, let us muse upon it all day long.