Bob Dylan has a real call of God on his life. Seriously, he does. I actually think a lot of really talented musicians and songwriters who are not Christ-followers, have been infused by God with special gifts of anointed melody and insightful lyric. They were born to sing the song of the Lord, but sometimes, you know, people get sidetracked along the way. Rocky theorizes that some have achieved huge fame by keeping some of what should have been God’s glory to themselves. Probably true.
But I also know that the glory of God is written across the heavens. It’s been written on walls of the pagans (see the book of Daniel in the Bible) and I am keenly aware that it permeates art and story, music and lyric. I can see Him in movies with transcendental deep love that could only reflect the Creator. His glory is visible and real, strong and prevalent, even when the ones who don’t yet know Him, aren’t yet following, are reaching for something, creating from a place they can’t even explain.
So, this Bob Dylan song came to mind a few days back, as I was praying for some treasured ones and I thought I actually heard God singing this very song over them. Garth Brooks made it famous for the soundtrack to the movie “Hope Floats,” and Billy Joel, Tricia Yearwood, Ronan Keating and Bob-D himself, among others, have recorded it. This is Adele’s version. And the more I see and hear the words, the more I am convinced this love song is straight from heaven…
Make You Feel My Love by Bob Dylan
When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love
When the evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one there to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love
I know you haven’t made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
I’ve known it from the moment that we met
No doubt in my mind where you belong
I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue
I’d go crawling down the avenue
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
To make you feel my love
The storms are raging on the rollin’ sea
And on the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain’t seen nothing like me yet
I could make you happy, make your dreams come true
How do you do it? How do you make it right when you have hurt some one? What happens when an apology isn’t enough, doesn’t even make a dent in the mess? How can you re-open some one’s heart to you when you have disappointed them, so let them down? Are some things just irreparable?
On the cause and cure of a wounded spirit C.H. Spurgeon preached, “Take sin away and give me a spirit washed in the fountain filled with blood, and I can patiently go through anything and everything, the Lord being my Helper.”
I LOVED this song when I was about 14. I bought the 45. The other day I taught it to GemGem. Only she had to sing “Nonna, What if…” It was hilarious. Everytime we got to the end and I’d ask, “Do you love me, Gemma?” She would smile, declare a very decided yes and grab me and hug me, as if she were really concerned I might not know, and then she would always be late coming in on singing the final refrain, “You better start loving me again, again…you better start loving me again!” It was so sweet!
Tristan went to Austria to play drums for a missions worship team recently.
Austria has chocolate and really good pastry (and tafelspitz, and germkenodel). and is where Arnold Schwarzenegger came from. Julie Andrews made their hills famous as she twirled and sang. Lots o’ composers were from this little nation (Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms and more). It is mainly Catholic, but mostly in a traditional, religious way. And it is a great mission field.
Tris and the worship team take on the castle.
Got to see pictures and hear his experience last night. The missionaries throw country music into the worship set list because people are drawn to that. A little Keith Urban here, a little Brad Paisley there. But they did not “get” Brad’s song, “I’m Gonna Miss Her,” about a guy whose wife gives him an ultimatum. They thought they were misunderstanding the translation and asked, “Why would a man choose fishing over his wife?” Perplexed, they were.
And it turns out they are NOT fans of “The Sound of Music.” Tris said they find it campy and believe it paints them in a bad light, to which my husband speculated sarcastically, “You mean because they sided with the Germans?!” Never-mind him, Tris. You went. You played. You ministered!
And everytime one of Tristan’s photos did show some beautiful hills, it was hard for me not to break into song. They did get that right!
I doubt this Austrian street drummer knew he was no match for our Tristan. Ahem.
When my kids go, I stay and pray. My honor to do so, to share my kiddos with the nations! And Tristan is wonderful. He brought us Mozart’s Balls (chocolate truffles, people) from the land of “singing hills” and coffee, too. Yum!
Stormie got baking chocolate. Mmmm…what loveliness awaits us this holiday season, I wonder? NOTE: Careers with McDonalds are available there, it seems.
Wanna hear some awesome Holy-Spirit-anointed drumming by Tristan Kelley?Right HERE! Click on “Freedom” (also down-loadable) for 34 minutes of his playing with scriptures on the topic read by Pastor Lewis Brown and Lewis Brown Junior (Proxy). Very cool!
In other family-missionary travels news…
Mary Jean just returned from 6 weeks Scotland, England, Estonia, and Norway~
That woman travels and teaches! AND she brought me ART! A signed and numbered piece called Heart Garden in a series of paintings about the heart (from Proverbs 4.23)…isn’t it beautiful? There is actually so much to look at in all the details!
Overall, pretty lame, as Keanu {so very cute, but seemingly pretty empty-ish and not much good at dramatic parts), plus the melodramatic storyline will most usually end up (did you recall hoiw much hope I had for “A Walk in the Clouds”? *sigh…). Anyhow, rather unsatisfactory and weird story, but a few interesting quotes I am fond of and the title is nice! ;p
Nelson: Why a month? Sara: Because it’s long enough to be meaningful, but short enough to stay out of trouble.
Nelson: Try to be wrong once in awhile. It’d do my ego good.
Sara: You’re my immortality, Nelson.
Sara: Nelson, do you want to be my November? Nelson: Yes.
Nelson: November is all I know, and all I ever want to know.
Nelson: This is it. Life will never be better or sweeter than this.
If only the movie had been as lovely as these lines…FYI: A really really great movie to see each November is “Pieces of April” starring Katie Holmes. It is a sweet Thanksgiving movie (thank-you Rob and Carol Ann for introducing me to it!).
PICTURED: The K-kids – Gavin, Guinivere and Gemma; and Hunter-Magoo!
In the dark of all All Hallowed Eve, 24 years ago today, a light was born
“You are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5.14
Last year I sang to you for your birthday, remember?
“So hold onto Jesus, baby wherever you are…”
This year, I am singing this song of great wisdom over you and your sweet life. I really do hope you’ll have no fear and never be afraid to dance, to fall, to succeed, to make a mistake or try what your heart wants to try.
I really do hope that – that you’ll live your life in the middle of the fulness of joy Jesus has for you! And may it cause dancing and rejoicing! Thank-you for loving my son like you do and for raising my granddaughters like you are. You are the beautiful girl your parents raised so well to share with us and we are grateful. And glad to call you our own.
I love you wholly, Jovan. I have you in my heart. Happy Birthday!
You shine!
“…so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—…” Philippians 2.15-16 NIV
Yes. I do. I h a t e it. This is my nearly-2000-word {highly-opinionated} essay (w/no pictures) on WHY~
I don’t hate little kids, all cute and dressed up coming to my door with an open bag. That actually requires a lot of trust in this day and age and I look at it as a chance to bless the little children, a chance to be a nice neighbor. Trick-or-treating does not bother me, really, because the kids (young kids only, please – you kids that are old enough to work – go buy your own dang candy) are just excited to get to wear a costume and eat more candy than they should. I hate, literally loath, despise and abominate Halloween, but maybe for reasons different than you’d imagine…
The Horror of Retail {mwa, mwa, mwa….}
For 5 years I ran a retail party store. Halloween was the BIG ONE. It drove our sales for the year and I had to be number one (I just HAD TO!…andwas!!, ok – strike that last prideful statement), so can you imagine my deep loathing for both milking-Halloween-for-all-it-was-worth for the money we could rake in and just hating the symbols that have come to represent it all? I set everything and worked my head off (can you say 90+ hours a week during the evil-season??) to sell to people who would purchase useless styro-headstones, “bloody” goblets and giant fuzzy spiders. Fog machines were the biggest rip-off and anything witchy-skeletony-or-ghoulish you could add double-D batteries to so it would light up or make some horrific noise were big sellers.
And then there were the costumes. We sold all those crappy costumes plus face paint and fake blood, stitches, etc.
And people would FILL those carts and spend hundreds of dollars. I both loved racking up the sales AND I disrespected seeing people waste that much money on something like Halloween, a “holiday” that really celebrates nothing that means eternal anything to me.
The worst part though? The company “encouraged” (read: forced) us to “dress up” – the whole month of October! It is fun for like, three days. The other 28, not so much. I have been a nun, a gypsy, a bunch of grapes. There were platinum blond wigs, Cleopatra headdresses and hot pink beehives. I was never “evil,” just dressed, all the while managing a hopping Halloween staff, chasing shoplifters, receiving Christmas and trying to make that transition as fast as humanly possible and just gritting my green-hick-farmer teeth to get through.
Suffice it to say I had more Halloween than I ever wanted and enough to last 37 people a lifetime. Yuck.
The Great Halloween Debate
And to top it off, I have spent almost a lifetime in the middle of the great Halloween debate: Is it OK for Christians to Participate?? OR Is it an evil-pagan holiday dedicated to devil-worship that we should avoid at all costs? I gotta tell you, I DO wish to avoid it all costs, but not for spiritual reasons, necessarily because the devil doesn’t own my days – not any of them. Dare I say I think it falls under the Romans 14 directive for disputable matters?…I do. Let the stoning begin…
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!
This year my home church decided not to have the Halloween alternative they usually have. And nobody knows quite what to do.
When I was growing up (in my very Christian, very strict Pentecostal preacher’s home), our parents let us trick-or-treat. In retrospect, that seems crazy. I couldn’t cut my hair, wear make-up or listen to the radio, at least “legally”, but I got to trick-or-treat. Strange. The church hadn’t been super-sensitized to the meanings and origins of the day back then. They still really thought it was just kids dressing up and getting lots of candy. And even after it became a “test of righteousness” in Christian circles, the churches my dad pastored still usually offered an alternative like a “Harvest Fest” with fall activities and the kiddos dressing up. I remember church bulletins reminding everyone that no “ghosts, ghouls or goblins” were allowed to attend, but costumes were welcomed.
Dave’s family was an absolutely-not Halloween family. I was from the use-the-opportunity-to-witness stream. My earliest memories are of my mom explaining to me that I had to do a “trick” to get a “treat,” and wow, was I ever willing! My trick was always to sing a song of some sort and since we didn’t do secular music, my song always had something to do with Jesus. The first year I could sing it all, I did – at every. single. house. “…for the Bible tells me so.” Deep breath, the person tries to give me candy, I whip my bag away from them , my mom reminds me, and whale on, “Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!…” They were prisoners to the end. But I would not take that candy until I had witnessed of the Lord’s love the full way through.
Pagan Roots
It seems H’ween has its roots in pagan Celtic festivals, the Druids dancing around bonfires and offering sacrifices to the spirit world for the harvest. So actually – having a church “Harvest Festival” is not an improvement on Halloween, necessarily. During the ancient pagan fetsival, Candy Corn would begin to fall from the sky, just kidding…just checking to see if you are still reading. ;p Haha.
In the 8th century, the Pope moved All Saint’s Day to November 1, so October 31st became “All Hallows Eve” and most people think he did it to claim the 31st back for Christians, which frankly, I applaud. What I bind on earth is bound both here and in heaven. We do have some authority in Jesus’ Name, people!
I digress.
So, then there is a biblical scripture-storm that erupts annually against having any part. One of the scriptures often cited is Ephesians 5.7-12 NLT:
7 Don’t participate in the things these people do. 8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.
10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12 It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.
Or, there is Deuteronomy 18.10-12 NLT
10 For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you.
And there are lots of other verses that are used to promote total abstinence from any type of Halloween participation. And they are important scriptures with definite guidelines for what we should and shouldn’t be participating in. But I honestly don’t see them saying “Little kids dressing up and trick-or-treating is anti-scriptural.” I just don’t. My grandbebes, who will dress as Nacho Libre or a Strawberry or as princesses or Batman this year? They will NOT be calling forth spirits of the dead or hosting seances. We will not sacrifice them as burnt offerings. They will NOT participate in drunken parties and godlessness of that sort and I will teach them to speak up for righteousness through their vote as citizens and to protect the helpless and feed the hungry. That is how they are being raised. They are being raised to be who God created them to be (light!) and to do what God has ordained for them to do and to fulfill their destiny for God in their generation. Period!
The devil doesn’t get my grandbebes. I truly and humbly do not see trick-or-treating as the step into a dark realm. If anything, I see it as “Hallowed,” like the old Pope wanted it to be because he went to enemy’s camp and took back what was stolen (know that song? Don’t make me sing it here!). My days are the LORD’S. All of them! And it is a great time to show our babies the difference between light and darkness by not worshipping death, not giving in to demonic influence and avoiding rebelliousness (which is as the sin of witchcraft and rarely gets corrected in Christendom).
Renunciation.
You know what, though? If you came from an occultic background where you used the 31st as part of demon worship and you have walked away from it being born into Christ and you have renounced that past – by all means, don’t participate. It holds something for you it doesn’t for me. Don’t be enslaved into any bondage you have been delivered from again! I would stand with you in that, and I mean that! Or if you just have a strong conviction that you don’t want your family to participate, because to you, it seems like being part of an agreement with the world, part of this godless generation and you’d rather make a stand here – then make that stand. I support you in that, but Romans 14, again…
Figure it out. Study it through. Pray. Ask the Lord. Listen. And be obedient there and let’s not let a disputable matter polarize us as Christians, or get us fighting one another in scriptural-sword fighting. Because? Then the stupid-head devil wins. Geesh, people – it is when he breaks our unity that we are trashed – not when some low-level demon flies around a room impressing the idiots who want that sort of thing. RESIST HIM, seriously. He HAS to flee!
I loathe, despise and abominate* Halloween because of how it separates us and causes holier-then-thou crap and we make each other the enemy instead of THE enemy. And I hate all the blackness and darkness because I am of the Light, but oh, by the way, I shine ever so much more brightly in the dark places. I say kick-him-in-the-butt and bless the little children when they come to your door: give the best candy, the biggest smile, the greatest encouragement and give ’em a God-bless-you, because that actually is within your power to do. Heaven will hear and attend to your blessing! May His will be done on earth as it is in heaven! On Halloween, even!
‘Nuff said.
*In the book version of Meet Me in St Louis, the sisters show their distaste for things by saying “I hate, loathe, despise and abominate {fill-in-the-blank}”. I think it is used a time or two in the Judy Garland movie, too. It is a fav family quote.
“Live as people of light!”
RT @ pastormark via ryan may: “If you’re one of those Christians who is going to give out tracts for Halloween, also give enough candy to make a kid a diabetic!” Haha!
My “leaf-is-falling-but-not-really” photoshoot in the backyard. ;p
It had actually already fallen. I was just replicating it a little {camera in my right hand, leaf stem in my left}.
I quit watering the veggies when I went to Montana over a month ago. I have been gathering regularly ever since, as the vegetable garden seeks to proliferate madly before the end. Then the rainy nights came and they thought they had been asked to stay a while longer. It pains me to tell them no, but I must. Until the spring, my sweet veggies – just until the spring…
“Well, it’s a marvelous night for a Moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
‘Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I’m trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
And all the night’s magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush.”
“Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time.”
– William Cowper , yes, the writer of one of my all-time favorite hymns, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood” He and I are soulmates, I am certain of it now (though he has been with Jesus, lo these 210 years or so)…
This morning I am watching the burning bushes turn to blazing red minute by minute. Overnight the neighbor’s Maple tree went orange, a bright, baby pumpkin -ish orange. Gold leaves adorn the lower branches of the Aspens like a 14k necklace. A steady rain all-day one day last weeks signaled the turn. The sun has shone in joyous celebration since, spotlighting the color’s arrival. Bright yellow spagetti squash, dotting the yard and garden from the various locations echo back with sunny resound.
NOTE TO THE ZUCCHINI: Enough already. Time to stop. I have run out of room. And recipes.
True AND a great tip:
“Fall is not the end of the gardening year; it is the start of next year’s growing season. The mulch you lay down will protect your perennial plants during the winter and feed the soil as it decays, while the cleaned up flower bed will give you a huge head start on either planting seeds or setting out small plants.” – Thalassa Cruso
Today for breakfast
Really good, reeeeallly good bacon and sliced red red red tomatoes from the garden, sweet and juicy, tangy and true to God’s original intent. O yes.
You plant a “dead” seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different. 1 Cor. 15 The Message
Drmatically and wonderfully different! Viva la garden tomato!
After-school snack last week with the grand~bebes (the first five): graham crackers and buttercream
Gavin, Hunter, Gemma, Averi and Guini
Graham Cracker Decorating 101, everybody gets an “A” for the day!
Songs can make you feel energized and happy or melancholy and sad. They can remind you of your best times in life or where you were when you got your first heartbreak. There are songs for everything, for every mood and emotion, for every season and reason. And then there are songs that are just jam-packed with good advice for living. I jotted these titles in my notebook today while I waited parked in the driveway as Averi was snoozing in her car seat.
The Cat’s in the Cradle by Harry Chapin
You WILL reap what you sow, so – spend time with your kids. As they say, “They’ll be picking your nursing home for you someday.”
And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home dad?
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time then…
Maybe this song isn’t so much good advice as it is a great reminder about how not to waste your life.
Daughters by John Mayer
On behalf of every man looking out for every girl
You are the guide and the weight of her world
So fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too
Totally true! A girl’s choices in love are so shaped by her dad. Even when she doesn’t realize how much, a dad’s approval and acceptance, his loving and wise words mean everything!
Teach Your Children Well by Crosby, Stills and Nash
Can you hear and do you care and
Cant you see we must be free to
Teach your children what you believe in.
Make a world that we can live in.
When you love a woman you tell her that she’s really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she’s the one
She needs somebody to tell her that it’s gonna last forever
So tell me have you ever really, really really ever loved a woman?
To really love a woman
Let her hold you –
‘Til you know how she needs to be touched
You’ve gotta breathe her – really taste her
Til you can feel her in your blood
And when you can see your unborn children in her eyes
You know you really love a woman
I love every lyric of this song (even though I couldn’t put them all here) and believe this song should be sung during Promise Keepers meetings. Seriously. They wouldn’t let me embed but there are a couple of great videos, the live version I have put the link to above, and the actual video in a Spanish Casino when the song was used for Johnny Depp’s movie, “Don Juan DiMarco.” Click here, but be warned, it is probably a PG-13 rating http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq2KgzKETBw
I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womak
And this one may be some of the best advice of all, especially for me, a girl who was forbidden the dance, but always knew deep down the Creator loved to see her twirl and dance with joy. I need this reminder constantly to break the unholy chains wrongly attributed to the Holy One. {NOTE: Please pardon LeAnn’s extraneous use of the newly acquired mammilla, which frankly, in my humble-o, seem a little out of place for the sentiment and style of this video. }
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they’re worth taking
Lovin’ might be a mistake
But it’s worth making
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
What other songs have great advice for me to sing to myself? List, please.
And please, brother Joe – do NOT say “Put Another Log on the Fire.” Or else.
