grace farm music

 

 

Dear Family and Friends of Pattie,

 

In lieu of a letter I am sharing this photo of a hickory chair that I recently designed and built to honor her memory. 

 

The legs symbolize Pattie’s firm foundation in Christ.  If you’re reading this, chances are that you observed Pattie’s faith in Jesus Christ.  In Him, she found the strength to endure all things, and in Him, she prayed for all of us.   Note that the feet of the chair seem to “hover” just a bit.   I made them that way to represent the “uplifting” love, joy, and encouragement that Pattie shared with all of us.

 

The seat of the chair symbolizes Pattie’s spiritual gift of hospitality.  Who among us hasn’t enjoyed an awesome “country” dinner, quiet conversation, boisterous laughter, a thoughtful card, a generous financial gift, a hug and a kiss, a bed or even a floor to sleep on when many were present?  She freely gave of her home, but in so giving, Pattie experienced such overwhelming joy that we could not help but be encouraged as well. 

 

The back of the chair symbolizes Pattie’s faithfulness during our time of need.  Whether her child, sister, brother-in-law, grandchild, son-in-law, niece, nephew, or friend - we knew we could lean on Pattie and rest, assured that she was dependable and if asked would give us only straight answers.

 

The absence of arms is also purposeful, representing the unseen and unknown sacrifices that Pattie made for each one of us.

 
The seat-to-back connecting mechanism represents Pattie’s acknowledgment that Jesus Christ was God’s Son and that He died on the cross for us, as a sacrifice for our sins.   This knowledge “held her up” during good time and difficult times, and it was Pattie’s greatest hope that each us would come to know and receive the same forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  In so doing, we will share with her God’s own “hospitality” forever.

 

I miss her.                                                                                       

Tags: faith, persevere, strength in Christ

     An encouraging sermon by Father Michael Ducette, St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Woodstock, Illinois.

But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

     In [this passage], Jesus is trying to tell us how we should regard the things of this world; where our priorities should be.  “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” 

     Now we all from time to time have been anxious about something and have been prone to worry about whatever might be bothering us.  “Will I have enough money for this or for that, will it rain, will it be hot, will my children have a good life, will I trip and fall, will I be able to come up with a decent sermon?” — the point is, we have all worried about something: it’s human nature.  We often worry about some important things and we also worry about some silly things, but in the end we hopefully discover that worrying never accomplishes anything — but makes us anxious. 

     And that is one of the lessons that Jesus is trying to get across to us.  He doesn’t want us to waste the mental energy on worrying about things that, compared to our relationship with God, are really not very important at all.  In reality, the things of this world don’t really amount to a hill of dung.  

     God wants us to get our priorities straight.  He wants us to focus on Him.  He will take care of the rest.  He wants us, in effect, to turn the things that concern and worry us over to Him.  He is more than willing to take care of all of our needs.  As Jesus asks the disciples,

Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them.  Are ye of much more value than they?

     The answer is, of course, yes. God has given man dominion over all things in the world.  All Jesus is asking us to do is to have enough faith and trust in Him to take care of all our needs that we keep our priorities straight; and that priority is to focus on our relationship with Him.

     Jesus is encouraging us to turn our worries, cares, and concerns over to Him.  For some of us this is not really a very easy thing to do.  Many of us have been taught to be self-reliant, to be tough, to be responsible for all that we do and are and to secure our future ourselves.

     Many people think that money will take care of all their problems and concerns.  “If I only had enough money to do this or buy that, then I would feel secure and happy.”  “A new car or a better house or some other thing would make me happy and give me joy.”   Not likely.

     I have known some very wealthy people in my life, and some of those same people are the unhappiest people that I have ever met.  That is not to say that I have never met some very wealthy people that were fulfilled and happy because I have; but those people were ones that had their priorities straight - those were the people that, although they had great worldly wealth, they also had great spiritual wealth; they had their priorities straight and they put God first in their lives.  Worldly wealth was not their god; they had things in the proper order.

     Those people who put God first, though they be rich in worldly terms, are the example that Jesus wants us to follow.  God is willing to give us what we need; to give us the desires of our hearts.  God is willing to fill our cup to overflowing, if we keep things in their proper perspective.  If we recognize that He should be number one in our lives; not money, not power, not our comfort, and not even our families; but God and our relationship to Him as the number one most important thing in our lives.

     God wants us to keep things in perspective by coming to the realization that God is where the focus should be and our relationship to Him should be first above all worldly concerns.  We should concern ourselves more with pursuing an understanding relationship with God first, rather than pursuing wealth, power, or comfort or anything that we put before God.  Those things get in the way and put distance between Him and us.  But if we put God first in our lives, all the other things will fall into place, and we will have nothing to be anxious or to worry about.  He will fulfill his promise to us - He will give us all the desires of our hearts; he will give us true happiness if we put God first and come to the realization that it’s all His to give to begin with, and that He wants us to be fulfilled and have happy lives.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

      God wants our hearts set on Him.  He is a jealous God and wants us to worship Him in love and thanksgiving.  God wants to be the provider of all things, especially our happiness, but we have to let Him.  Not always an easy thing to do, to have faith in a God we cannot see - as we can a nice house or a new car or cash in the bank - but God wants to demonstrate His love for us, not only spiritually, but in gifts that we have not even imagined.  Our cup will be filled to overflowing if we have faith and let Him be the source of all our needs.  As Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33,

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself.  Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

In other words, don’t worry; and don’t be anxious about tomorrow; it is in God’s hands anyway.  He is in control, and if you have your priorities straight and put Him first, He will grant you the desires of your hearts.  He will give you what is truly important - and that is the love a Father has for His children.

Tags: authentic, faith, unfailing love

Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom.  And he healed every kind of disease and illness.  News about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick, and whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon-possessed or epileptic or paralyzed - he healed them all.  Large crowds followed him wherever he went - people from Galilee, the ten towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

 Matthew 4: 23-25

What God wants is unobstructed relationship with us.  Sin obstructs relationship with Him, and He is the One who defines sin.

 

God wants a relationship with us so badly that He does not require us to transform our own lives - rather, he requires repentance, which is, in essence, an acceptance of God’s terms for an unobstructed relationship.   He defines sin for us; we agree that what God has said is sin is, in fact, sin; and we acknowledge our need to stop sinning and our powerlessness to do so without help from God.  We are truly healed when we understand and believe that He Himself has provided the means to live in accordance with His terms.

 

It is not so much a specific sin that is more deadly than others.  All sin is death, and we are all born with various sinful tendencies and weaknesses.  That is because we are living in a post-fall world.   After Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden, every human since then has been born with some ”natural” tendency toward obstruction and rebellion against God.  God knows this, loves us nonetheless, desires to be with us, and therefore He wants us to ask Him to heal us, to reconcile us, to transform us, because He surely will.  That is what He desires.  He wants unobstructed relationship, and He Himself has provided the means to obtain that.

 

Yet we hesitate.  We focus on:

1. the cost.  I have found fulfillment in my understanding of the world and my place in it, and I will lose much that I have invested my entire self in if I follow Him.
2. perceived “unfairness”.   a little farther on, our thoughts turn to the “unfiarness” of our lot in life:  “Well, if He was going to ask me to live differently, why did He make me this way?”  The truth is that none of us are born as God originally made us.  We are all born into a corrupt, post-fall world.  God did not originally create us with natural tendencies to rebel against Him.  But He foreknew that we would succumb to sin, and had mercy upon us, and thus has provided the means for release from our post-fall, inherited captivity - whatever that may be for each of us.
3. desire for approval and respect.   we have a very strong natural instinct to be accepted, approved, and respected by others.  We spend our entire lives building our identity and reputations to fit what we think will give us value in the eyes of those we most want to be accepted by.  This group of “approvers” may change and shift in importance as we mature.  It may not even be apparent to us that we are seeking acceptance or approval.  But it is apparent to God, who sees our hearts and inmost desires. 

 

If we are willing to accept God’s terms of repentance from sin, He does the rest.  Transformation happens over the course of a lifetime.  But, if we are earnestly and wholly devoting ourselves to pursuit of Him, the pain of the “cost” subsides; the need for approval and respect falls away; and instead, we are utterly enraptured by an entirely different - even foreign - awareness of Love; a greater, more full, more dimensional, more powerful, more satisfying love than we even knew was possible.  And so, we are healed.

Tags: authentic, unfailing love