Quiet



We stood there on a bridge in the quiet of the forest. There were no human sounds, no shouting or arguing, no honking horns or sirens or sub-woofers, no TV - just quiet.

I thought, "God, why is it You feel so close to me in this quiet place?" So often in quiet places and sometimes at night Psalm 23 comes to my mind, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul... I began to sing the praise song, "In the secret, in the quiet place, You are there."

We were hiking the East Glacier Trail in Juneau. Leaving the Visitor Center area we had heard people calling to each other and some shouting at their dogs, the sound of buses bringing more tourists, and helicopters flying overhead showing people the sights from the air.

We had gone into the forest and up the mountain a ways when we stopped on a bridge.


It was while we stood there that I became aware of the quietness. At first I thought it was just the absence of sound, then I realized birds were singing, leaves were rustling and the brook was bubbling. But it felt so quiet and still. What was missing was the hectic pace and hubbub of human life.

Jesus went often to a solitary place to pray. If He felt the need to get away, how much more we, in our humanness and weakness, should try to get away. We need times of healing and times of refreshing. Psalm 46:10 invites us to Be still and know that I am God...

In Mark chapter six we're told that there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and the disciples didn't even have a chance to eat. Jesus said, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.

Sometimes we don't even realize we need a rest until we experience a quietness in some place. In that quietness our spirits are refreshed. Then renewed, we face another day with the hubbub of human life.

The Lord will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17b The forest was quiet. The birds were singing. It felt like a touch of God's hand.

Mark 5:22-43 (Matthew 9:18-26, Luke 8:41-56)

^{… 25}And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." ²⁹Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

³¹"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

³²But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

“When she heard about Jesus …”

Personally, I’m one of those people who is fascinated by home-remedies and new kinds of treatments. Perhaps that’s because I’m easily bored. Or maybe it’s because I’m very curious. For whatever the reason, I’ve read about all kinds of treatments and cures and tried a great many. I’ve also talked relatives of mine into trying some of my more successful cures … although not with a lot of success … I guess I’m just not really gifted in a Louis Pasteur kind of way.

When my husband was first diagnosed with melanoma cancer, we were inundated with all kinds of cures. After the doctors removed the tumor on his neck, they started us on a new treatment called “interferon” via a pic-line in his left arm. That lasted for a week before his vein got infected and they had to remove nine inches of the vein in an emergency surgery.

Nevertheless, the next year they removed a golf ball sized tumor from his head. A month later he went through a month’s worth of radiation to his head. Then an old friend sent us a year’s worth of vitamins and another friend sent us a year’s worth of tea that is supposed to restore your blood cells health and ability to fight off cancer.

My husband could easily have said that he “had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all (he) had, yet instead of getting better “he” grew worse.”

The difference was Jesus. You see, he had “heard about Jesus” so from the beginning he turned to God and what a difference it made. Although we did spend some money traveling to and from places, God arranged for friends to provide some things we needed. Although we did do some of the things the doctors suggested we didn’t do them all. When one of the doctors suggested radiating his neck, we prayed about it and had NO peace and just opted out … guess what? Later we were told that was a good move. After his brain tumor was removed, his doctor suggested we go to MD Anderson for a bone marrow transplant. Again we felt NO peace, so we got a second opinion and that doctor suggested we just wait and see what God would do. He was right!

It may be that God will call you to go through some really painful times. I have a dear friend whose wife was taken home to heaven. God used breast cancer to do that. But his family experienced great peace in knowing that God was in charge. (They suffered. They cried. They felt like they had died. But they had “heard about Jesus” so they trusted and God proved faithful.)

I want to encourage you today to make it a point to learn more about Jesus. “Don’t be afraid … just believe.” He can do anything because “Nothing is impossible with the Lord!”

Mother's Day
by Barbara Chadwick


I always loved Mother's Day. We made cards in school and church. We hugged our mother and told her she was the best mother. Then we went to Grandma's house and had a big dinner, which, of course, our mother and grandmother prepared.

After I got older and realized how much Mother did and what it cost her in time and energy, not to mention the planning and preparation that went into each day I wished I could have somehow shown my appreciation more appropriately.

Paul said to the Thessalonians, "...we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children." Thes. 2:5 When I read that verse I'm always reminded of my own Mother. There were five children so she had a lot to do. I have pictures in my mind of sitting in her lap, of her combing my unruly hair, of her holding a pattern up to me for measurement and so on. These are pictures of love. And when she did any of these things for the others I still felt loved.

Then there's the discipline. I thank God that she cared enough to discipline me.

I am told that when I was three years old that one day I banged my fist on the table and said, "I want my blankety-blank-blank breakfast right now! You know that verse in Colossians that says, Let your conversation be seasoned with salt? I don't think that's what it means!

My mother looked at me with her mouth hanging open. "Where on earth did you hear that?!"

I said importantly,"Wichad says it all the time." Richard was my friend from next door.

I am also told that I got a good spanking and was told NEVER to say that again! I don't remember ever swearing again. Some lessons are learned quickly.

That verse in Colossians - Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Col 4:6) - I learned the importance of that from watching my Mother. She is very gracious - full of grace and love.

She felt that motherhood was God's plan for her. In Ephesians 4:1-2 Paul is talking to the church at Ephesus but the words apply to my mother: I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

She settled our quarrels in love, she patiently guided us through all those childhood phases and taught us to treat each other kindly.

On Mother's Day I reflect on God's gift to me of a Godly Mother.

Facebook Conversations

Sandy Hey, I got the Cd's from the His Hill Conference today. Muchas gracias! Can't wait to listen to them.Now if I can only find a CD player that Malcolm hasn't trashed....

Top of Form

Audrey

Is trashed a fair word? ... from his perspective is it more like explored, investigated, fixed, experimented on the extent of densile strength inherit in the plastic form???? Come on mom ... for the sake of th sciences ... hehehe

2 hours ago

Sandy

Problem 1: What happens when coins are inserted into car CD player? Malcolm's Hypothesis: Music will play or coins will come out the heater vent. Conclusion: CD player changer ceases to function.

Problem 2: What will happen when 2 or more CD's are forced into CD changer simultaneously? Hypothesis: Both will play at the same time? Conclusion: CD player changer no longer closes or opens .

OK Auderey, we've had a scientific moment. Now I want to listen to my His Hill CD's. Thanks for playing.

2 hours ago

Audrey

Ahhh ... now you must wait until he's old enough to get a job (one where you are not paying the employee) and buy you a new one ... sigh.

Robert went through a phase where he took my mother's pinking shears and cut a small triangle in the back of her new couch ... just to see what it cut like

We moved to Panama and he took a pair of scissors and made random experimental snippets through and entire laundry basket of clean clothes ... just wondering how it would cut.

He found a knife and sliced two long strips out of the top of my hope chest ... just wondering what it would cut like.

He took a kitchen knife and machette chopped the top of the drawer that held the knife (military housing ... they never caught the drawer at inspection ... I don't remember if I deliberately tried to cover it up). ... why? just wondering if it would chop it up.

Conclusion #1: spankings have NO effect on a very curious mind

Conclusion #2: reasoning doesn't work when your mother obviously doesn't have a curious mind

Ah well, I feel for you in any case ^_^

3 minutes ago ·

Why is it that we feel we must experiment? Why can’t we just go ask our Father if this or that is ok? Or would He show us how is works? Consider these scenarios:

I wonder what it would feel like to have an affair?

I wonder if I would feel freer, more like myself if I left my spouse and family?

I wonder if anyone would notice if I didn’t show up for work? Church? Life?

I wonder if I could get away with lying, cheating, stealing?

For the curious, life can be exciting. But if you really like living on the edge you should consider spending some time with Him and finding out what the parameters are. You might save yourself a lot of headache … and heartache.

^{2 TIMOTHY 3:16 NIV} All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Hebrews 4:^{12 NIV} For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account

Romans 8:9-17 (New Living Translation)

⁹ But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) ¹⁰ And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life^[a] because you have been made right with God. ¹¹ The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

¹² Therefore, dear brothers and sisters,^[b] you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. ¹³ For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature,^[c] you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children^[d] of God.

¹⁵ So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.^[e] Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”^{[f] 16} For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.