Quality friendships

My dear one,

I'm sitting in a coffeeshop right now, celebrating my first quiet evening in two weeks. I  just can't bear to be at home right now, where the quiet is stifling. Life is so busy right now that I can't even imagine being in a relationship. Yet there is still that sweet, secret longing tucked away safely in my heart... I would love to have a good reason to shut down my computer, prepare a nice meal, and show you that you are the most important person in my life.

I am extremely grateful for a new friend I've found in one of my colleagues. She is a single woman 16 years older than I, with a real heart for ministry and an intensely energetic personality that somehow doesn't drain me but rather makes for refreshingly deep conversation. She's the kind of friend who builds me up, motivates me, and makes me feel a little less "alone" in my present circumstances. She is very conscientious of maintaining holiness in her spiritual walk, music pursuits, student mentoring, etc., yet without being dowdy or closed-minded. She always has Scripture ready on her tongue and in her heart, and I find in her an example of the kind of person I want to be in 10 or 20 years.

I pray that you have friends like this that can be an encouragement to you!

Love and prayers,
Your Evenstar

Heidelberg Catechism Week 43

112. Q. What is God's will for you in the ninth commandment? A. God's will is that I never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one's words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone without a hearing or without a just cause. Rather, in court and everywhere else, I should avoid lying and deceit of every kind; these are devices the devil himself uses, and they would call down on me God's intense anger. I should love the truth, speak it candidly, and openly acknowledge it. And I should do what I can to guard and advance my neighbor's good name.

My reflections on the reading from the book...

Spreading gossip has never been one of my personal vices. Yet I do confess to secretly relishing the "juicy truths" that others too freely share. It is incumbent upon me as a child of God to refuse to participate in such, no matter which side of the false testimony or gossip - the sharing OR the receiving - I encounter.

Heidelberg Catechism Week 42

110. Q. What does God forbid in the eighth commandment? A. He forbids not only outright theft and robbery, punishable by law. But in God's sight theft also includes cheating and swindling our neighbor by schemes made to appear legitimate, such as: inaccurate measurements of weight, size, or volume; fraudulent merchandising; counterfeit money; excessive interest; or any other means forbidden by God. In addition He forbids all greed and pointless squandering of His gifts.

111. Q. What does God require of you in this commandment? A. That I do whatever I can for my neighbor's good, that I treat others as I would like them to treat me, and that I work faithfully so that I may share with those in need.

My reflections on the reading from the book...

Any means of taking anything that doesn't belong to me, or even of wasting what is given to me, is sin in the eyes of a just God. I cannot serve two masters, God and riches. The Lord invites His people to a life of generosity and wise stewardship.

Reflections on a mountain

My dear one, 

There are very few people who know me well. I am not quick to allow people into my circle of trust, for I have witnessed the hurt and betrayal that my parents and grandparents have endured over the years.

But sometimes this solitude is extremely difficult. I long to share my dreams and passions and fears with a kindred spirit. If you could be that person, I would show you a favorite mountain retreat where I can sit and view my hometown 25 miles away. We could sit at a picnic table at the state park and listen to the tree frogs as we eat our sandwich supper. I'd tell you how much I've always wanted to have a pianist for a best friend (dare I even say husband?) and to enjoy collaborating on a lifetime of recitals together. I'd admit my love of cheesecake, 19th-century poetry, college football, and a good cup of coffee. I'd explain my convictions about music, church, education, and my habits regarding housekeeping, health, and cleanliness. I'd confess my fears of getting cancer, of losing my job, of never have children.

For now though, these letters to you must suffice, shrouded in ambiguity as they are...

Praying for you today, 
Your Evenstar

Heidelberg Catechism Week 41

108. Q. What is God's will for you in the seventh commandment? A. God condemns all unchastity. We should therefore thoroughly detest it and, married or single, live decent and chaste lives.

109. Q. Does God, in this commandment, forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery? A. We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and God wants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why He forbids everything which incites unchastity, whether it be actions, looks, talk, thoughts, or desires. 

My reflections on the reading from the book...

The verses that I cling to...

"Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23).

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8).

"Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

"For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor" (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4).

Psalm 34

Verse 1...

I will bless the Lord at all times; 

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

"If all we do may be done to the praise of God [see 1 Cor. 10:31], then certainly all we speak may be spoken to the praise of God; and indeed, seeing He never ceaseth to send forth continually His blessings, with what reason can we cease to set forth continually His praises?" (Sir Richard Baker, 1640)

Verse 2a... 

My soul makes its boast in the Lord.

"My confidence is that He who hath given me the resolution to will it, will give me also the power to perform it; that He who hath begun the work will also finish it." (RB)

Verse 4... 

I sought the Lord, and He answered me 

and delivered me from all my fears.

"To have delivered me from all my troubles had been a great favor, but a far greater to deliver me from all my fears; for where that would have freed me from present evil, this secures me from evil to come; that now I enjoy not only tranquility, but security, a privilege only of the godly." (RB)

Verse 8... 

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! 

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

"If you would but taste Him, you would never take pleasure in other meat; if you would but see Him, you would never delight in other object... He that trusteth in God, and he only, is like to be admitted to taste the sweetness and to see the goodness that is in God, which only are  the things that can make us blessed. What is it to trust in God but to depend wholly upon him, and to put all our confidence in him? To trust in the world, is to lean upon a broken reed; to trust in ourselves, is to lean upon a shadow; only to trust in God is the true terra firma where the angels pitch their tents, and where, if we fix ourselves, the gates of hell can never prevail against us." (RB)

Scottish Psalter:

1 God will I bless all times; his praise my mouth shall still express. 2 My soul shall boast in God: the meek shall hear with joyfulness. 3 Extol the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together. 4 I sought the Lord, he heard, and did me from all fears deliver. 5 They looked to him, and lightened were: not shamèd were their faces. 6 This poor man cried, God heard, and saved him from all his distresses. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps, and round encompasseth All those about that do him fear, and them delivereth. 8 O taste and see that God is good: who trusts in him is blessed. 9 Fear God his saints: none that him fear shall be with want oppressed. 10 The lions young may hungry be, and they may lack their food: But they that truly seek the Lord shall not lack any good. 11 O children, hither do ye come, and unto me give ear; I shall you teach to understand how ye the Lord should fear. 12 What man is he that life desires, to see good would live long? 13 Thy lips refrain from speaking guile, and from ill words thy tongue. 14 Depart from ill, do good, seek peace, pursue it earnestly. 15 God's eyes are on the just; his ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of God is set against those that do wickedly, That he may quite out from the earth cut off their memory. 17 The righteous cry unto the Lord, he unto them gives ear; And they out of their troubles all by him delivered are. 18 The Lord is ever nigh to them in heart that broken be; Those who in spirit contrite are he saveth graciously. 19 The troubles that afflict the just in number many be; But yet at length out of them all the Lord doth set him free. 20 He carefully his bones doth keep, whatever can befall; That not so much as one of them can broken be at all. 21 Ill shall the wicked slay; laid waste shall be who hate the just. 22 The Lord redeems his servants' souls; none perish that him trust.

Refreshment for body and soul

Isaiah 40:26-31...

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: 

Who created all these? 

He who brings out the starry host one by one 

and calls forth each of them by name. 

Because of His great power and mighty strength, 

not one of them is missing. 

Why do you complain, Jacob? 

Why do you say, Israel, 

"My way is hidden from the LORD; 

my cause is disregarded by my God"?

Do you not know? Have you not heard? 

The LORD is the everlasting God, 

the Creator of the ends of the earth. 

He will not grow tired or weary, 

and His understanding no one can fathom. 

He gives strength to the weary 

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, 

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the LORD 

will renew their strength. 

They will soar on wings like eagles; 

they will run and not grow weary, 

they will walk and not be faint.

These are pictures from last Saturday's excursion - just now getting around to sharing them.

- Your Evenstar

Heidelberg Catechism Week 40

105. Q. What is God's will for you in the sixth commandment? A. I am not to belittle, insult, hate, or kill my neighbor - not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture, and certainly not by actual deeds - and I am not to be party to this in others; rather, I am to put away all desire for revenge. I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself either. Prevention of murder is also why government is armed with the sword.

106. Q. Does this commandment refer only to killing? A. By forbidding murder God teaches us that He hates the root of murder: envy, anger, vindictiveness. In God's sight all such are murder.

107. Q. Is it enough then that we do not kill our neighbor in any such way? A. No. By condemning envy, hatred, and anger God tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be patient, peace-loving, gentle, merciful, and friendly to them, to protect them from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies. 

My reflections on the reading from the book...

The sanctity of human life is under attack today. Abortion and euthanasia are being held up as "rights," while the right to protect oneself is being stripped away. Violence and terror reigns all throughout the world, while God's authority is denied and His laws ignored. It all boils down to the heart. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked..." (Jeremiah 17:9). Instead of loving God and loving our neighbor, our sinful flesh seeks merely its own gratification, protection, and exaltation. O Lord, cleanse my heart of envy, anger, bitterness, pride, and selfishness!