Every Morning Mercies New

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion sayeth my soul; therefore will I hope in him.”–Lamentations 3:22-24 (KJV).

Sometime poetic lines pound themselves against the parameters of my mind until I have to grab a pen and paper and write the thoughts so that my mind can move on to other things. Maybe this is a gift—maybe just a pastime that I’ve been practicing most of my life. Maybe it is inspiration; I like to think that some of the lines indeed are inspired by the Spirit of God. Here is one entitled simply “Every Morning Mercies New.” The lines of the poem bear truth worth considering. The poem itself is not a Keats, Shelley or Wordsworth quality piece, but sincerely rendered from a heart overflowing with joy. The poem is old—written in 2005 when I had heavy caregiving responsibilities. God was faithful to provide what we needed and bring me triumphantly through that journey. Praise be to God.

Oh! The delight of morning

When birds are on the wing;

When squirrels scamper for their food

And Nature wakes to sing!

Another day to embrace life,

To rejoice with exultant thanks;

To know that whatever happens

God keeps us in His ranks!

What beauty for our eyes to see,

What joy within our hearts

When Spring in all its splendor

With bursting new birth starts!

Then comes Summer’s verdure

With life-blessings in store;

And fall comes softly tripping

With abundance—more and more!

Sometimes in Winter we wonder

Will darkness and nighttime cease;

But when dawns the Springtime morning

Joy floods with amazing peace.

As duties call and crowd me

May this day etch its rightful place

Of reassurance on this journey

That God assists me in life’s race. (-EDJ. From March 7, 2005)

May you be blessed on this Lord’s Day with a song in your heart. –Ethelene Dyer Jones 11.29.2015.

Thanksgiving, a Time to Count Blessings

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing.

Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him and bless His name.

For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.”

Psalm 100 (KJV)

I memorized Psalm 100 when I was in third grade at Choestoe School. In those days, it was not “against the law” to have Bible reading in at the beginning of each school day, have the pledge of allegiance to the flag (we learned these for both United States and Georgia flags), and have quote the Lord’s Prayer in unison.

Furthermore, my third grade teacher in our one-room country school, Mrs. Mert Collins, was my teacher in public school and also in Sunday School at Choestoe Baptist Church. At both places, she encouraged her pupils to memorize verses from the Bible. Among those I memorized early was Psalm 100. At a program for our parents and community citizens at our school at Thanksgiving, the children stood on the raised platform before our gathered guests and quoted Psalm 100. In those early years, it became a favorite passage and I wanted early to live by the precepts noted in the Psalm.

I learned long after my wonderful seven years at Choestoe School when I studied Bible in college that this Psalm was specifically “A Psalm for Giving Thanks.” Although of Israelite origin, the Psalm invites people “of all lands” to join in thanksgiving and to sing praises to God. The Psalm makes it clear that we are “the sheep of His pasture,” a metaphor used in several places in the Scriptures, and noteworthy in “The Shepherd Psalm,” Psalm 23. A shepherd gingerly and carefully looks after his sheep, leading them beside still waters and to green pastures. In like manner, the Lord provides for those who love Him. And for His care and provision, we ought always to give thanks.

Besides memorizing and quoting Scriptures in our country school, we also learned songs of Thanksgiving. A favorite was “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come,” with words written by Henry Alford (1810-1873) and set to the music “St. George’s Windsor” by George J. Elvey (1816-1893).

Since we lived in a farming community, we could relate well to the words of this Thanksgiving hymn. We loved to sing this song when our parents and neighbors came to hear our Thanksgiving program at school. Mrs. Mert Collins had to explain the meaning of some of the words in the hymn to us, but when we learned the words and tune, you can imagine that we sang it with gusto. She told us that to sing hymns like this one was a good way to give thanks to God: “Come, ye thankful people, come, Raise the song of harvest home!/All is safely gathered in, Ere the winter storms begin; God, our Maker, doth provide For our wants to be supplied;/Come to God’s own temple, come, Raise the song of harvest home.”

What is your favorite Thanksgiving Scripture? Your favorite Thanksgiving hymn? Would it not be timely to share them as you gather this Thanksgiving to celebrate? -Ethelene Dyer Jones 11.21.2015

Going to the House of the Lord

“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.” –Psalm 122:1, 9. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.” –Psalm 27:4. “For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. –Psalm 84:10. “And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to tech and preach Jesus Christ.” –Acts 5:42. (KJV).

Going to the house of the Lord—for worship, praise, prayer, learning, listening, being challenged in the Christian life, for quietness and meditation, knowing that God is God, enjoying Christian fellowship! When it comes time to go to church, are you like the psalmist who exulted, “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord’ ”?

Each cited scripture above exclaims with what gladness the writers considered going to the house of the Lord and what a privilege for the worshiper. Even a lowly task, that of a doorkeeper, one who greeted people when they came to worship and bade them farewell when they left worship to go from the temple or sanctuary or place of worship into the work-a-day life, even a doorkeeper is better than considering wealthy dwellings of wickedness. And when the early Christians met to worship, even the threat of being jailed and persecuted (a very real possibility), they “daily in the temple and in every house” did not cease to meet, to teach and to preach Jesus Christ.

What has happened in our modern age to take away the love for and the help from assembling ourselves together at the house of the Lord? What has occurred to harden our hearts and remove our zeal for the church? I have heard many excuses as I have tried to encourage persons to renew their faithfulness to the Lord and their faithful attendance at church. The writer of Hebrews 10:25 admonishes: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is: but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as we see the day approaching.”

Some of the excuses offered for non attendance at church are: “I work on Sunday”—or “I work hard during the week, and I must sleep-in or rest on Sundays.” Another is “I can worship as well at home or wherever I am on the Lord’s day; I don’t have to go to church to worship.” Then this excuse, a bit more bitter: “I don’t like to associate with those ‘hypocrites’ at church.” Still others claim, “I can hear good sermons on television or radio; it’s not necessary for me to go to church.” And the excuses go on.

A person must develop his/her own commitment to the Lord that includes a love and longing for fellowship with other Christians in the house of the Lord, the church. For me, this is vital and necessary. I pray that, if going to church is not a regular and necessary part of your spiritual life, that you will pray about it until you, like the psalmist, can exclaim: “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord!” On this Lord’s day, I am eager to got to church and worship! -Ethelene Dyer Jones 11.15.2015

Considering Three Pursuits: Beauty, Truth and Love

“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” –Psalm 29:2b (NKJV).

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”-John 14:1 (NKJV). “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” –John 8:32 (NKJV). “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” a-1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NKJV).

“For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it.

For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it.

For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.”

These are words from the pen of Ivan Panin who lived from 1855-1942. Dr. Panin was a Bible scholar born in Russia who did much study in the Hebrew and Greek languages and applied what he learned to an intensive study and interpretation of the Scriptures.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” wrote Margaret Hungerford (1855?-1897). How we view people, places, objects and events makes the difference in whether we consider them ugly or comely, of little value or priceless. How does your eye view an object, person or situation to determine beauty? According to Ms. Hungerford, the beholder either sees beauty or does not. If we train ourselves to look for beauty, it is likely that we will be searching for it wherever we are. And this being the Lord’s Day, Sunday, we have the opportunity for beauty when we gather together in bonds of Christian love to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

“Truth will out,” wrote John Lydgate (1370?-1450?). Sometimes we cannot hear truth because we are deafened by deep-set prejudices, preconceived notions and irrelevant ideas. Is your ear attuned to Truth? Jesus invited us to seek and follow Him and He will lead us to Truth which is freeing and satisfying. Today many voices vie for hearings and we need to weigh and seek to sift the false from the true. Back to another truthful saying by Dr. Ivan Panin who believed that “For every truth there is an ear to hear it,” also held that we can learn truth. “Experience, if we only learn by it, is cheap at any price,” he wrote. Such experience we can apply to learning truth.

“Love either finds equality or makes it,” wrote John Dryden (1631-1700). Love is more than a fleeting feeling and a romantic attachment. Love is a deep commitment. Have we a heart to receive—and give—love in the places where it is needed most? Paul wrote that he would show the Christians at Corinth “a more excellent way.” Then followed the great treatise on love found in 1 Corinthians 13. The qualities of love are identified. We can use the characteristics in the chapter as a check-list to see if our manner of giving and receiving love is according to

God’s will and way. 

 

Does the way I live my life demonstrate beauty, truth and love?

-Ethelene Dyer Jones November 8, 2015

Signs for the Seasons

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.” –Genesis 1:14-19 (ESV). He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.” –Psalm 104:19 (ESV).

“Spring forward! Fall back!” These are not commands for some military maneuver, but directions for how to set the clock when Daylight Saving Time change rolls around on the calendar. Now (in 2015 and since these dates became effective in 2007) the time for fall change (roll back one hour) is 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November and the spring (move forward one hour) change is on the second Sunday in March at 2:00 a.m. Electronic devices are set to change automatically. It is hardly practical that anyone would stay awake to make the changes right on the minute of occurrence of time change.

The history of the time change is intriguing. If you are interested, I recommend that you seek out and read the story of how the phenomenon of Daylight Saving Time evolved. The history will reveal that the hurdle to change the time has met obstacles. From religious antagonism to secular displeasure and disregard, the idea to change time has met with opposition. We “set-in-our-ways” people don’t like changes that go against “what we are accustomed to.” And time seems so set. As we read in Genesis, God got time just right on the fourth day of Creation. He set day and night. Each was ruled by its own special light: the sun for day, the moon for night. And He saw that the way He had created it was very good.

“So then, when there is a good thing going, why change it?” argue those who may be irked and whetted while getting used to an hour’s change in time spring and fall. A writer for “Snopes” wrote this comment: “The purpose of the shift (to Daylight Saving Time) is to transfer, in effect, an hour’s worth of daylight from the early morning hours of the day, when only milkmen and chickens are awake to appreciate it, and use it to push back sunset until one hour later in the day. This arrangement is claimed to cut electricity usage in the evening and help reduce traffic accidents.” (http://www.snopes.com/science/daylight.asp. Accessed 10.31.2015.)

In this new month and in the beginning of this winter season’s Daylight Saving Time change, may we, as the Psalmist, rejoice that from the beginning of Creation God has faithfully brought day and night, light and darkness, sunset and sunrise. Indeed, we can say with the Psalmist, “He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting” (Psalm 104:19). Furthermore, we can declare with positive faith as did the Psalmist: “My times are in Your hand” (Psalm 31:15a), and, assuredly, “This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!” (Psalm 118:24).  

-Ethelene Dyer Jones November 1, 2015