An Unfinished Story: The Fourth Lesson

The fourth lesson: The prophet Micah foretells the glory of little Bethlehem

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    are only a small village among all the people of Judah.
Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you,
    one whose origins are from the distant past.
The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies
    until the woman in labor gives birth.
Then at last his fellow countrymen
    will return from exile to their own land.
And he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord’s strength,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
Then his people will live there undisturbed,
    for he will be highly honored around the world.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Phillip Brooks, 1867

O little town of Bethlehem

How still we see thee lie

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by

Yet in thy dark streets shineth 

The everlasting light

The hopes and fears of all the years

Are met in thee tonight.

O morning stars together

Proclaim the holy birth

And praises sing to God the King 

And peace to men on Earth

For Christ is born of Mary

And gathered all above

While mortals sleep, the angels keep

Their watch of wond'ring love.

How silently, how silently

The wondrous gift is given

So God imparts to human hearts

The blessings of his heav'n 

No ear may hear his coming

But in this world of sin

Where meek souls will receive him still

The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend to us, we pray

Cast out our sin, and enter in

Be born in us today

We hear the Christmas angels

The great glad tidings tell

O come to us, abide with us

Our Lord Emmanuel!

"An Unfinished Story" is based off of a bulletin from a church service I attended in South Africa.  I will give credit to individuals throughout the series, but the bulletin is from St. Thomas' Anglican Church, Linden, from the 18th of December 2011 at 6:30 pm.  I edited to make it more modern.

An Unfinished Story: The Third Lesson

The third lesson: The prophet Isaiah foretells the coming of the Savior

The people who walk in darkness

    will see a great light.

For those who live in a land of deep darkness,

    a light will shine.

You will enlarge the nation of Israel,

    and its people will rejoice.

They will rejoice before you

    as people rejoice at the harvest

    and like warriors dividing the plunder.

For you will break the yoke of their slavery

    and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.

You will break the oppressor’s rod,

    just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.

The boots of the warrior

    and the uniforms bloodstained by war

will all be burned.

    They will be fuel for the fire.

For a child is born to us,

    a son is given to us.

The government will rest on his shoulders.

    And he will be called:

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His government and its peace

    will never end.

He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David

    for all eternity.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

    will make this happen!

(Isaiah 9:2-7, NLT)

Messiah (For Unto Us a Child is Born)

Handel, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis

"An Unfinished Story" is based off of a bulletin from a church service I attended in South Africa.  I will give credit to individuals throughout the series, but the bulletin is from St. Thomas' Anglican Church, Linden, from the 18th of December 2011 at 6:30 pm.  I edited to make it more modern.

An Unfinished Story: The Second Lesson

The Second Lesson: God promises to faithful Abraham that in his seed shall all the nations of the Earth be blessed.

     Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. "This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.  And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

(Genesis 22:15-18, NLT)

Who But You (Abraham & Sarah)

Various Artists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEmnjRKitFA

Too little too late, his time has come and gone

Is that what they say when I walk by?

I've got a little more grey, my steps are slow and long

And the promise you've made fades in the moonlight

I see a star; You see the Milky Way

I see one man counting sand

But you see generations

Who, but You, would ever choose

To dream Your dream in me?

Tell me who, but You, would dare me to

Believe what I can't see

Who, but You?

You'd think by now, it wouldn't bother me

The hush from the crowd when I walk by

And you'd think somehow, I'd let my heart believe

It's time to let go of lullabies

I see a star; You see a galaxy

There's just one hope, just one way

These arms will not stay empty

Who, but You, would ever choose

To dream Your dream in me?

Tell me who, but You, would dare me to

Believe what I can't see

Who, but You?

So call me crazy, call me a fool

You alone can do the things You promised to

You are Yahweh, I'm just a man

I'm counting tiny grains of sand

Placing every promise in Your hand

Who, but You, would ever choose

To dream Your dream in me?

Tell me who, but You, would dare me to

Believe what I can't see

Who, but You? 

Great and mighty God, I believe, I believe You

Keeper of the stars, I believe, I believe You

"An Unfinished Story" is based off of a bulletin from a church service I attended in South Africa.  I will give credit to individuals throughout the series, but the bulletin is from St. Thomas' Anglican Church, Linden, from the 18th of December 2011 at 6:30 pm.  I edited to make it more modern.

An Unfinished Story: The First Lesson

     I must first start with a disclaimer: this was not an original idea of mine.  "An Unfinished Story" is based off of a bulletin from a church service I attended in South Africa.  I will give credit to individuals throughout the series, but the bulletin is from St. Thomas' Anglican Church, Linden, from the 18th of December 2011 at 6:30 pm.  I edited to make it more modern.

The First Lesson: Humankind rebels and is separated from God

      When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
     He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
     “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
     The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
     Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

     Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
    more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
    groveling in the dust as long as you live.
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
    and you will strike his heel."

     Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
    and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
    but he will rule over you.”

     And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
    whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
    All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
    though you will eat of its grains.
By the sweat of your brow
    will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
    from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
    and to dust you will return.”
(Genesis 3:8-19, New Living Translation (NLT))

Remember, O Thou Man 

by Thomas Ravenscroft, 1611

 Remember, O thou Man, 

O thou Man, O thou Man, 

Remember, O thou Man, 

Thy time is spent. 

Remember, O thou Man, 

How thou camest to me then, 

And I did what I can. 

Therefore repent. 

 Remember Adam's fall, 

O thou Man, O thou Man, 

Remember Adam's fall 

From Heaven to Hell. 

Remember Adam's fall, 

How we were condemned all 

To Hell perpetual, 

There for to dwell. 

 Remember God's goodness, 

O thou Man, O thou Man, 

Remember God's goodness 

And promise made. 

Remember God's goodness, 

How his only Son he sent 

Our sins for to redress. 

Be not afraid.

For the Beauty of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth,

for the beauty of the skies,

for the love which from our birth

over and around us lies,

Lord of all, to thee we raise

this our grateful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour

of the day and of the night,

hill and vale, and tree and flower,

sun and moon, and stars of light,

Lord of all, to thee we raise

this our grateful hymn of praise.

This hymn has just been running through my head these last couple of days.  I look around me and I see so much beauty.  I'm driving along and I think OH I wish I had my camera.  So here's a couple instances when I did.

 Lamppost silhouetted by the sunrise

 Frost over the water at sunrise

 Sun shining through the forest along a undeveloped road

 Green moss on a tree in the forest

 Frost on a rosebud with a lamppost behind

 Frost on the roses in the gray dawn 

 Frosty grass in my lawn

 Water from snowmelt trickling over a cliff

Icicles and hanging moss

This is my last reflective post until after the holidays.  I'll be posting a series called "An Unfinished Story" in preparation for Christmas, so keep an eye out!

Missionary kid

     Some people call me a missionary kid because I lived in South Africa for two years.  I've stopped bothering to correct them, but it's not entirely true, in the commonly accepted sense of the word.  Living in a different country doesn't make you a missionary - your lifestyle and support do.  Having a businessman father (albeit for a humanitarian company like World Vision) who moved his family around the world doesn't make me a missionary kid.  I just got an opportunity to live somewhere else, an opportunity most people don't get.
     Most people would say a missionary is someone who leaves home, is supported by other people financially while they are serving, and is promoting a religion in some way or another.  Like our friends the Taylors, working in Swaziland right now, being supported by people in the states who donate money on a regular basis, doing the work God has called them to.  But while I left home and I am a Christian, Dad had a job which was paying for us to be in South Africa.  So I was not and am not a missionary kid.
     Yet.... am I?  This is the point in this post where I really run the risk of being cliche.  There's a man standing on the corner holding a sign saying "hungry."  There's a girl who responded to a newspaper ad requesting a nanny and who was subsequently trafficked into sex slavery.  There's a teenager crying because her sister, after helping a stranger get home, was killed in a car crash .  We have mission fields. 
     I think this message becomes cliche when we start referring to our comfort zones as our "mission fields."  Yes, you can certainly help those around you.  But there is unbearable suffering right here, right now, in your backyard.  You just have to intentionally stretch out and touch it.  God doesn't call all of us to the jungles of Brazil.  But neither does he call any of us to remain in our "mission field."  He wants us to find a mission field, where we love with God's love and hurt for those He hurts for.  What are you called to?

How to Make a Basic Pair of Earrings

     I had to write a process analysis speech for my English class, and I realized it would be a nice how-to post on here.  So, while, it's not a reflection, here it is!  Besides, I can, um, reflect on the beauty of glass.  And my creative side from God.  And.... the slippery character of beads?  Maybe that last one is a stretch.  

     The ability to work with wire, beads, and some basic tools has many advantages.  It enables one to create unique statement jewelry, reuse old jewelry, and fix any broken pieces.  To create a basic pair of earrings, first gather the needed tools: assorted beads, ear wires, head pins, chain nose pliers, round nose pliers, and wire cutters.  Ear wires are the bent wires which hang in one’s ears; head pins are a stretch of wire which have a flat part at the bottom to stop beads from sliding off.  Local craft stores should carry all of these tools.  One will also want to make sure to have patience with minuscule components, an eye for beauty, and a clutter-free, well-lit workspace.

     First, the design and style of the earrings-to-be must be decided upon.  Select the desired beads and lay them out on the work surface in the order they will be strung.  Since there are two earrings in a pair, lay out two sets of beads, same or different.  Carefully string the beads in the decided order onto the headpins, using one headpin per set.  Beads slide off as easily as they slide on, so be attentive to their desire to undo one’s hard work.  

     One set at a time, use the chain nose pliers to bend both headpins to a 90° angle just above the beads.  Now that the bend will stop the beads from sliding, lay one incomplete earring aside and focus on the other until its completion.  Using the wire cutters, cut the excess wire off of the headpin about one centimeter away from the beads.  The round nose pliers should now be used to create a loop at the end of the headpin.  This loop will be used to connect the headpin to the ear wire.  Clasp the very end of the trimmed part of the headpin between the two parts of the pliers.  The pliers should be perpendicular to the wire.  Holding the wire tightly, roll the pliers so a loop is almost completely created, leaving a small space on which to string the ear wire.  This is where patience comes in - shaping wire takes practice.  

     Now it is time to attach the ear wire to the beaded headpin.  Slide the ready-made loop at the bottom of the ear wire onto the loop which was created on the headpin.  Again using the chain nose pliers, gently close the loop on the headpin so there is no room for the ear wire to slide off.  One must be careful not to change ear wires and beaded headpins too often because the loops will break over time if they are bent too often.  

     The first earring is now complete.  Repeat the wire-bending-attachment process with the second earring.  Finally, the one of a kind earrings must be worn with pride because no one else has the same pair of earrings!  

or something.