The Painter

The Painter of the Coulee

Sunday we were returning home and notice there seem to be a little more snow on the shoulders of the road from Bridgeport south to Leahy Jct., Then from there to Grand Coulee it was very evident that there had been light frosting of snow while we were at church services.

We live in such a beautiful place in this land; it is hard for me to understand when people cannot find beauty here. When it snowed in the Coulee last time and this time I was overcome by the beauty of The Painters strokes!

The Painter took the white of the snow and matched it with the dark gray of the slide plies of crumpled rock, some far up towards the rim and others some distance from the rim of the Coulee to make a soft gray that stands out in the Sun. With white of the snow in other places, He had the snow stand out white against the lighter big rocks that dot the roadway. If you look out my back door, the one out of our bedroom, he added the deep green of huge evergreen trees that line the mid part of the cleft. Down in the Coulee on the water in the bay by Electric City He lined a then layer of ice that even the ducks could not have walked on that shimmered in the sunlight. Have you ever noticed, when it snows that every road or path, paved or dirt shows up instantly? He then contrasted the snow covered south walls of the Coulee with the Southwest side of Steamboat rock where there is very little or no snow at all, and with the blue water, there is simply not a better masterpiece to be found except maybe in the next Coulee where Dry falls is located.

I am convinced God is willing to be “The Painter “in our lives. He still gives us the choice to let him paint in our lives’; never does He take that away! He would paint us using only the best or choicest paints. He would paint our faces with both the yellow, bright yellow of Joy and sky blue of peace, calm soft sky with no wind in it. He than is willing to paint us a patient green you know the green from evergreen trees that last hundreds of years. Next it is the pink if kindness and the orange of goodness. Pink is so soft and so is kindness! Orange is alive with color Orange just shouts good for you! Then there is the gold of Faithfulness, it shines in your eyes and almost blinds one to everything else that a goes on! Don’t forget the soft purple, that royalty that shouts gentle, gentle, gentle and then the Black and white of self-control! Don’t ever forget the God promises that we can run away from evil any time we choose too! It is pretty black or with the choice always being ours! The question is; Who is painting you? Will you be masterpiece or simply a water color? Dave

love

I mentioned last week that I bought a Barbra Streisand CD and one of the first songs is a number called “Down with Love”. In the song is the wording such as, down with cupid and it mentions all the “romantic” associated words, settings such as moonlight. The song is of course supposed from a broken – hearted victim of another’s rejected love. In the end she comes back to all the wonderful words used when love is returned. Can you imagine this world without love? It is impossible for me to really imagine a world without human love, let alone the Love from God! The Bible tells us that Love comes from God, that He loved us first! That God is love and that we are modeled (made in His imaged) after Him! We are of course are familiar with the ups and downs of human love, simply because we are human! Maybe you love someone who doesn’t love you, maybe you have been hurt because you gave your heart away and didn’t receive any love in return. Maybe you have experienced some one who broke their vowel of love to you?

Because we are humans we measure everything as we as humans can see or feel it. Sometimes we measure God’s love for us wrongly because we measure it and understand it only by human thought. I have heard from people who are disappointed in God because thy have troubles in this life. They suppose that if God loves us so, and we say that we love God that nothing bad or wrong will every touch us? This is misunderstanding of the promises God makes to us. In fact just the opposite is said by Jesus in John 15. “If the world hates you keep in mind it hated me first…Remember the words …No servant is greater than his master, if they persecuted me, they will persecute also.”

Maybe more so is our understanding or misunderstanding of God’s love for us? It is actually God’s love that He lets us be tempted. Jesus has told us that there is no temptation that we can’t say “no” too and can’t escape from. The ability to go through temptation allows saying no to Satan and yes to God. When we say yes to God, He pours more blessings in the form of Spiritual growth and I believe sometimes that includes physical blessings! You see God’s love is deep, mature love that takes working on. You can not love God and enjoy His love unless you are willing to put in the time, effort, heart… The marvelous answer is God will provide you and I help and understanding if we will preserve! I really believe we have difficulty in our human love relations with persevering. I don’t think we have as many troubles with human love in stop loving, but in persisting and not growing discouraged. You see I think we have the same problem with God’s love, in order to feel God’s love as we grow we must persevere in following Him! We as human being are sometimes not very good with perseverance, so God made us to help each other! You cannot go to heaven without help from other Christians! You cannot go to heaven by yourself. That is why God made us a family. Maybe, if you are having trouble feeling God’s love, it is because you are not loving God’s family enough? Dave

Singing to one another

I like all kinds of music! Admittedly the Polka maybe at the bottom of the list along with some others, but most music I like. Some styles are again at the bottom of the list while others are at the top. Recently I bought a Barbra Streisand CD, some of you may be already saying Barbra who? If truth is known, I like the back –up Orchestra as much as Barbra’s singing, although I like her singing. Another recent acquisition was a Dean Martin CD where someone had cut out the real “named” star Dean sung with in a duet and replaced them with a lesser known artist. But! More than just listening to them I like to sing with them. While, I enjoy just listening to music I love it when I can sing alone with it.

Most of us are closet singers I’m afraid, while studies show that the Car is the place most of us gather to sing along especially when we are alone in the car. It seems a shame that people in the world have convinced us that only people with “good voices” should sing in public. I have found that most folks have voices that are not too bad. There is something about people singing the “Star Spangled Banner rather that just hearing the music played. To hear and to see the folks standing in a ball park singing the national anthem is just inspiring! Maybe, that is why Paul writes in Ephesians 5:19, and Colossians 3: 16-17 that we are sing to one another and God! While these verses have been used wrongly in saying that they prohibit singing with instruments which is incorrect in the contextual reading, they do not! What they say speaks only to singing to one another and God. That is why I buy a Streisand CD and not just a Boston Pops Orchestra only. There is something about hearing people sing that is different to just listening to played music.

One of the wonderful things about Christmas is hearing people sing! I am convinced in my own heart that people singing the Carols together is the draw that makes them (Carols) special to the holiday! Christmas Carols just are meant to be sung together! Another example is “Jesus loves me”, I just can’t imaging singing that song without children singing? Another example of the power of singing to someone is a mothers or father voice singing to our little children as they go to sleep. I sung to ours and whether they liked it did wonders for me to sing to them, Of course when they were teens and I would sing in the shower early in the morning it wasn’t such a hit!

Obviously there is something that God enjoys when we sing to Him and I believe that He created us to like that also! There is just such encouragement when the people of God sing out loud to one another and in the Praise to God that gives encouragement! After the Americans were driven out of The Philippines by the Japanese, they gathered all the allied prisoners and march them to an area of the Country called the Bataan Peninsula. One of the reasons those prisoners made it, was they sang as they marched! Keep on singing for Christmas, for others and God!

Dave