Foxgloves -- a medicinal bloom for heart failure...a heart strengthener.
Foxgloves and forget-me-nots in my German Street garden, Photo by Catherine Boynton
Heart Change
I may have always known that change takes real intentionality, like a woman bent over her garden beds every day with a spade and a determined will to grow up something good to strengthen the heart... Ann Voscamp, from One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5
How sweet the sound...
Our dear Georgette hanging out the laundry at Lilac Hill, Plein air oil painting by Lee Boynton
Amazing Grace, by John Newton
Amazing grace how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost by now I'm found,
Was blind but now I see...
God so LOVED the world He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:16-17
What is eternal life?
Jesus answers that question for us. He prayed to His Father in heaven, "this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You sent."
Dirty Laundry
Give your dirty laundry to God and He will make it white as snow. Isn't that awesome! Eternal life begins the moment we acknowledge our wayward thinking, repent, surrender our lives to God and accept His Son Jesus into our hearts as our Savior and Lord. That moment when we turn the reins over to Him, the old confused heart of stone goes and the new tender heart of flesh comes, the heart made alive through the Holy Spirit. We are able to know God.
John Newton (1725-1807)
Before his conversion, John Newton was involved in the slave trade as his profession -- first as crew on slave ships, and then as a captain. While serving as crew aboard the Greyhound, he gained notoriety for being one of the most profane men on board. He wrote lewd poems and songs openly mocking the captain, and encouraging his crew mates to join him in chanting or singing them. He called himself the Great Blasphemer, deriding and denouncing God as a myth, and ridiculing others who revealed the slightest glimmer of faith. He was a man without limits, indulging himself in every vice from drinking, to fighting to fornication.
In March 1748, while at sea in the North Atlantic, a violent storm came upon the Greyhound. One of his fellow crew members was swept overboard from the spot where he had been standing moments before. The hull was beginning to break apart and it looked like the ship was on its way down. In moments of extreme desperation, while lashed to the pump and bailing for all he was worth, Newton cried out to God for mercy.
In the harrowing hours to follow, he questioned why God would ever want to spare his life. He thought he had sinned too much to have any hope of God's forgiveness. This was the opening to his hardened, darkened heart through which God could shine his marvelous light, and for the rest of his life, he marked March 10 as the anniversary of his new birth.
His growth in his new life in Christ was slow at first. He experienced several more miraculous rescues from death by the storms of life, including illness, starvation, mutiny plots and slave uprisings, and came to see God's amazing grace for what it was. He finally abandoned the sea faring life and responded to a call to the ministry. He was ordained as a priest on June 17, 1764.
Newton wrote poems and hymns to accompany his sermons. He wrote the lyrics for Amazing Grace in late 1772, and it was first sung during a New year's Day service on January 1, 1773. Talk about transformation and giving glory to God! This hymn is estimated to be performed 10 million times annually around the globe, and has appeared on over 11,000 albums.
May the God of living hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope! Romans 15:13
God's resplendent glory fully on display on the Isle of Skye, photo by Catherine Libeert
God's Constant Love
Psalm 107:1-16, Passion Translation
Let everyone give all their praise and thanks to the Lord!
For here's why -- He's better than anyone could ever imagine.
Yes, He's always so loving and kind, and it never ends.
So, go ahead -- let everyone know it!
Tell the world how He broke through and delivered you from the power of darkness and has gathered us together from all over the world.
He has set us free to be His very own!
Some of us once wandered in the wilderness like desert nomads with no true direction or dwelling place.
Starving, thirsting, staggering we became desperate and filled with despair.
Then we cried out, "Lord, help us! Rescue us!" And He did!
He led us right into a place of safety and abundance, a suitable city to dwell in.
So lift up your hands and thank God for His marvelous kindness and for all of His miracles of mercy for those He loves.
How He satisfies the souls of thirsty ones and fills the hungry with all that is good!
Some of us once sat in darkness, living in the dark shadows of death.
We were prisoners to our pain, chained to our regrets.
For we rebelled against God's Word and rejected the wise counsel of God Most High.
So He humbled us through our circumstances, watching us as we stumbled with no one there to pick us back up.
Our own pain became our punishment.
Then we cried out, "Lord, help us! Rescue us!" And He did!
His light broke through the darkness and He led us out in freedom from death's dark shadow and snapped every one of our chains.
So lift your hands and give thanks to God for His marvelous kindness and for His miracles of mercy for those He loves!
For He smashed through heavy prison doors and shattered the steel bars that held us back,
Just to set us free!
For the Joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10
The Joy of Discovery, watercolor by Lee Boynton
The disciples came to Jesus and asked, "who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Jesus called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said:"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:1-5
A Childlike Heart, by Claire Cloninger from my Women's Devotional Bible
I used to be a little baffled by Nehemiah 8:10: "For the joy of the Lord is your strength." To me, that verse never made much sense, because joy didn't seem to be all that strong a quality. I thought it would have made more sense if it had said, "The strength of the Lord is your joy."
But the longer I live, the more I realize that the ability to find joy in life really is a tremendous strength. The people who can laugh are the strong ones. The people who can throw their heads back and delight in the joy of the moment are going to live a lot longer than those of us who are stressed and pushed and taking ourselves terribly seriously...
Children really are good at open-hearted, spontaneous joy. They know it intuitively. That's why they use it lavishly in the present moment. They don't put it in a savings account for a rainy day. They don't put it on hold or put a lid on it. They spend it with abandon. They practice it at every small occasion. That's why they are such pros and getting it right!
Wisdom says, I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. Proverbs 8:17
Marigolds, oil painting by Margie Boynton
Psalm 19:7-19 (NIV)
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold:
They are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.
Imagination is the Divine Body in every man. William Blake
Tiger Lilies in the garden at Lilac Hill
The Tyger, by William Blake (Published in 1795)
Tyger, tyger, burning bright,
In the forest of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame they fearful symmetry?
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
On Imagination
An excerpt from If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
Now this creative power I think is the Holy Ghost. My theology may not be very accurate but this is how I think of it. I know that William Blake called this creative power the Imagination and he said it was God. He, if anyone, ought to know, for he was one to the greatest poets and artists that ever lived.
Now Blake thought that this creative power should be kept alive in all people for all of their lives. And so do I. Why? Because it is life itself. It is the Spirit. In fact it is the only important thing about us. The rest of us is legs and stomach, materialistic cravings, and fears.
How could we keep it alive? By using it, by letting it out, by giving time to it...
Blake used to say, when his energies were diverted from his drawing or writing, "that he was being devoured by jackels and hyenas." And his love of Art (i.e., expressing in painting or writing the ideas that came to his Imagination) was so great that he would see nothing but Art in anything he loved. And so, as he loved the Apostles and Jesus, he used to say that "they were all artists."
God he often called the "Poetic Genius" and he said "He who loves feels love descend into him and if he has wisdom, may perceive it is from the Poetic Genius, which is the Lord."
As for Blake's happiness -- a man who knew him said: "If asked whether I ever knew among the intellectual, a happy man, Blake would be the only one who would immediately occur to me,"
As an old man, Blake's wish for a little girl was "that God might make His world as beautiful to her as it had been to him."
He did not mind death in the least. He said that to him it was just like going into another room. On the day of his death he composed songs to his Maker and sang them for his wife to hear. Just before he died his countenance became fair, his eyes brightened and he burst into singing of the things he saw in heaven.
We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
Forget-me-nots from my German Street garden
My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask Him to strengthen you by His Spirit -- not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength -- that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite Him in. And I ask Him that with both feet planted firmly on Love you'll be able to take in the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
God can do anything, you know -- far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, His Spirit deeply and gently within us. Ephesians 3:14-20 (Message Translation)
Then they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. Acts 2:3
Tongues of fire in our garden
And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:3
A Testimony to the Flame by Reinhard Bonnke
The flame of Christ's compassion for the world has never exhausted itself. What exploded at the Cross is a stream of fire to this day. Calvary is not an extinct volcano. Eternal fires are still there for all who spiritually visit that place. Those shuddering hours of crucifixion were a special work, but not a final "peak." God's love has neither peaks nor valleys, waves or troughs: His compassions are steadfast, "new every morning." (Lamentations 3:23)
Our Spiritual Mother
God blessed us with a spiritual father in our dear friend Feico as we were beginning to plant our feet on the Rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ, and not long after, a spiritual mother in Pierre, a close childhood friend of my mother's. Pierre and my mother had attended third grade together in Annapolis and were still in touch. From across the Atlantic, Feico, a kindly Dutchman, gave us our first, sweet taste of God's Word. It made sense to us in a world that was making less and less sense every day on every front. We needed a moral compass on our ship, and an anchor -- answers for ourselves, but also for our children.
Dear friends at the church we were attending at the time, invited us to an intro night for Bible Study Fellowship one fall. They were doing a year-long study of the Book of Acts. Lee and I loved what we heard that night and signed up. Bible Study Fellowship was just what we needed, an in-depth study of God's Word. We were introduced to the Holy Spirit through that study, the fire behind the early church. Jesus had promised His disciples that God would be sending "another Helper," that would abide with them forever. (John 14:15) He said, "when the Helper comes, whom I shall send from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me." (John 15:26) He also said the Helper, the Holy Spirit, would empower them to be witnesses to Him "to the ends of the earth." Jesus had instructed his disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for "the Promise of the Father."
One hundred twenty of Jesus' followers, including the disciples, returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, where they had watched the risen Jesus ascend into heaven. They went up into an upper room in the place where they were staying, and prayed for several days. They were "all of one accord [in complete harmony of mind and spirit] in one place," waiting. On the Day of Pentecost the promised "Helper" came. It sounded like a mighty rushing wind and appeared as flames of fire, resting on the heads of each person who was there.
During the study of the Book of Acts we heard about a book that was making waves in the Episcopal church, Miracle in Darien by Bob Slosser. This book documented a powerful move of the Holy Spirit at St. Paul's Episcopal church in Darien, CT. Pierrie lived in Darien and attended St. Pauls's. When she came to visit my parents that year, God joined our hearts.
Pierrie was on fire for how God was awakening His church. The mighty rushing wind and flames of fire could be heard and seen in our land and around the globe, and Pierrie was following it closely. She shared everything she was learning with us, and we were eager recipients. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God were the glue in our relationship with Pierrie, our spiritual mother. Pierrie went home to Jesus, three weeks after my mother. They were both 94 years old.
Lamentations 3:22-25
Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul,
Therefore I hope in Him!
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 Peter 2: 2-3 (New King James Version)
Different translations of 1 Peter 2:2-3
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation; now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:2-3 (New International Version)
You've had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deeply of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God. 1 Peter 2:2-3 (Message Translation)
Spiritual Parents
..looking unto Jesus, the author [originator] and finisher [perfecter] of our faith... (Hebrews 12:2)
Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. I love that! He is writing the story of my life, from start to finish. He knows all of the interesting twists and turns it will take, all of the characters involved, all of the conversations I will be having and the settings in which they will happen... And He even knows the glorious ending. He will be right there, with all the host of heaven, cheering me on as I cross the finish line.
We need spiritual parents when we are newborns in the faith-life -- fathers and mothers mature in the Lord who will cuddle and feed us, look down with adoring eyes and sing over us (and leave the changing to God.) Feico, the gentleman who led me to Christ when I was 23 years old, became a spiritual father to Lee and me seven years later, after we were married and had young children. God knew we needed a spiritual father!
We corresponded with Feico on a regular basis for over 25 years. His wisdom and counsel were always grounded in the Word of God and he introduced us to the spiritual classics by A.W. Tozer, Andrew Murray and C.S. Lewis. He passed on to us his love of God's Word, laying a foundation in us upon the Rock of Ages, brick by golden brick.
Occasionally, he would send us cards he had made with a photo of the Dutch countryside on one side and a verse of Scripture on the other in his careful calligraphy. These cards always seemed to arrive when we were in desperate need of encouragement or that particular word of counsel from God's Love Letter, the Bible. This was our first understanding that God is very present to us through our relationships and that His timing is always perfect.
