Jacobs Thoughts and Doings

White pillar candle, maple holder, holly branches, knit mat, on our oak kitchen table!  The holiday season is upon us.   Christ comes among us, close as breathing.

I begin December with the prayer of Charles Wesley. It is hymn # 18 in “A Collection of Hymns.” Reprinted in 1864.

Maker, Savior of mankind,
   Who hast on me bestowed
An immortal soul, designed
   To be the house of God:

Come, and now reside in me,
  Never, never to remove;
Make me just and good, like thee,
   And full of power and love.

I am living in this reality, Jesus in me! As Wesley opened his heart, he pled, “Come, and now reside in me.” My soul is specially designed to be “the house of God.” Me, God’s house, his home, his dwelling, a place that he calls home? I can barely take it in. I have trouble with the fact that Jesus came into this world at all. And to think and know that he came in order to live in my soul – can it be? If this is true, and I am sure it is (for I experience it), what an amazing privilege – to have the Lord Jesus in my house, not as a guest but as the HOST!

I love the next verse, especially the “happy too.”

Bid me in thy imagine rise,
A saint, a creature new;
True, and merciful, and wise,
And pure, and happy too.

This is the kind of happiness I was created to enjoy, now and forever.

I inherited different woods through the years, now I am trying to make things with that exotic wood.  The thing I recognize in this picture are the M and M’s!  Have a few.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:27

This morning, Anna Ruth and I, as we read Daily Light, were blessed and challenged by these gracious words of Jesus, spoken at that “last supper.”  My peace I give you. In no other way could they find peace in what was happening, things spinning out of control.  They had no peace!  Jesus had!  It is that peace that Jesus experiences and gives us.  Can it be?

My soul longs for and craves peace.  Yet, even in our prayers, we admit that things are happening all around us, maybe even in us, that disturb our peace.

Then Jesus speaks, “my peace I give you.”   Really?  Is he offering the peace that he had as he walked into the trials that were before him. What is he promising?  I believe he is offering us that same peace that he was experiencing in his hour of inexplicable pain and suffering. It is that peace that He knows when the sun does not shine and the earth trembles.  That is the kind of peace Jesus offers us!

As November ends, I realize anew that there is no peace in this world.  What is peace to them is illusive, the peace we are being given is eternal and glorious.

It is super special to receive vibrant flowers when the frost is “on the pumpkin.”  Paul and Tammy favored us with this splendid display!  Thanks much and God bless us all as we settle into Winter months.  And keep giving thanks!

Table fun.  Tammy, with her foot in a cast, enjoyed the Thanksgiving meal with family.  Great fun.

Anna and Kevin, dear neighbors, shared the meal with us, along with their daughters, Katia and Dema.

Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

Ephesians 6:23, 24

A while back I shared what I am learning as I think about this closing blessing that Paul shares with the believers in Ephesus, that large commercial center at the crossroads of their world.  It is a word of encouragement for all peoples in all cultures, then and now.

Again, I was struck with the words – peace, love, faith and grace.  All is wrapped up in these verb/nouns, as simple as they are profound.  Just reading them and savoring them reminds me of what my attitude should be always, and toward all.

These words have meaning because “our Lord Jesus Christ” loved us as he atoned for our sin and as he gave us new hearts that believe and adore Him.  So, it is all HIM!  He did it all.

Is that not what Thanksgiving is all about?  I know it is.

As Winter approaches, the candles appear!  I love the soft light of this candle, one of my favorites.  I enjoyed turning the holder – some exotic but lovely wood.  Welcome to candle time.

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.

Henry Alfred, about 1860.