Sticks and Stones

The average life span of a Great Pyrenees is 10-12 years. Atlas will be 11 on his next birthday. He's doing well for an old hound. He's slowed down a lot, not that he was ever Speedy Gonzales or Taco the Chihuahua, but he can still guard a food bowl like nobody's business. 

Atlas's purpose here at HBF was never to guard sheep; the girls run that show. His duties were to protect me, and to be our pup baby daddy, and he has performed both tasks quite well. I have no complaints. I'm still alive and have four of his offspring.  

Atlas is a simple dog. He only has two life rules and they apply to all non-humans. This includes ants and stink bugs: 

1. Stay at least 20 feet away from my food bowl. 

2. Never, ever yap in my face. 

One of my neighbors said, "He's just like a man, ain't he?" 

One day as I was walking with the dogs toward the front of the property, a lady in a van was driving slowly by watching us. Great Pyrenees attract curiosity. The mom of a dear family with one of our puppies, now grown, once said to me, "When we go out, I wish I could put a sign around King's neck that told all about him, so I could save my breath." 😂  I can relate. 

When we made it to the road, the woman rolled down her window and asked about his breed. Atlas, ever the lady's man, stretched up towards her so she could pet his head. Just as she reached out her hand through the open window, a small dog jumped up from her lap and began yapping toward him. In a nano second Atlas went from gentle giant to Cujo, from Don Juan to Hannibal Lecter. 

Fortunately the woman had the good sense to step on the gas pedal and get the heck out of there before Mr. Yappy Pants became Atlas's breath mint.  

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits." Proverbs 18:21

No matter what size dog you are. 

Sometimes it is not what we are saying, but how we are expressing it. I believe nine times out of ten, this can be the issue. 

We see so many deconstructions taking place inside of the church today and sadly, I've seen some Christians responding to the individuals so abrasively. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the sweet song we sing to bring hope to the world, but if it gets sung in harsh tones and melodies, we've lost our witness. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, without love, we've become about as soothing and hospitable as a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And that's just annoying. I think of Will Ferrell banging that cowbell on SNL. 

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." ( 1 Corinthians 13:13 ) 

Our doctrine can be spot on, but without love, words seasoned with grace, they fall on deaf ears and hurting hearts. We need both. 

If we have a family member or friend who is considering leaving the faith, can't we have the kindness to hear their story, gently ask them about their experience? Listen to them. I've not always done this in the past, and I regret it immensely. I ask God and them to forgive me. I've found the closer I walk to him each day, the more like him I become. But it is a lifelong journey with many twists and turns, this transformation process. Thank God for his grace. May we return it to others. 

I know this is oversimplifying the fix, but I believe love is the starting point. Words are powerful; they can cause pain or healing. And it matters how we execute them. 

"A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." ( Proverbs 15:1 ) 

Somethings are just commonsense exercised with a bit of self-control and grace. The maxims contained in the Book of Proverbs can help us grow in these areas; that's why I chose a devotional for this year based on the biblical wisdom literature. 

Because the Farmer and I have to remind each other every time we discuss theology or a cultural problem to stop interrupting the other. We both get so zealous. 

The Farmer says that I need a small theological study group to engage with to give him some relief. He's probably right, but for now, while God continues working on his feisty, little Chihuahua, the Farmer takes the yaps. 😂  

Reforming Rebecca

As many are gearing up to celebrate Halloween this weekend, my man children will roll their eyes and tell you that their mom is not a fan and is a big, giant party pooper. "Tell her she can throw that wet blanket over top of her head and cut some eye holes out." Believe me, they have. It's just all of the death and gore and creepy degeneracy, haunted houses, graveyards, and possessed serial killers. I just can't remotely get into celebrating that.  

And then I did a study on the origins of Halloween, and yeah, that didn't help my abhorrence any. It actually made it worse as I didn't realize that such abominable pagan beliefs and practices had crept into the church. I sit here feeling numb. 

I do love autumn though, especially here in the Blue Ridge. I take joy in treat-or-treat alternatives, although now I'm contemplating them a bit this morning. I love pumpkin patches, corn mazes, fall festivals, hay rides, all of that warm fuzzy stuff, and especially the view of the resplendent mountains surrounding the farm against a pure, blue sky. 

Last week we encountered our first frost of the season, and the dogs were over the harvest moon with delight. In fact, I had to remind them to get back to work.

This coming week is also the date of what I have often thought of as "the forgotten holiday." It's not one acknowledged with decorations or gift giving, and yet ironically involves the greatest gift ever given: The Protestant Reformation. 

To be honest, I've never celebrated it. 

I recently began taking a church history class on-line, and I have begun to better understand the issues leading up to the Reformation, the convictions that empowered and drove the reformers to ignite such an explosive movement, and the lasting effects it has had on the Church, down through the centuries, constantly caught in the crossfires of culture wars.  

As if their lives weren't traumatic enough during the Middle Ages with wide-spread illiteracy, plagues, starvation, and death, the Christians experienced a spiritual hunger as well. With few Bibles in the hands and homes of the common folk, they relied heavily on the clergy for their biblical instruction. And their leaders were failing them miserably. 

God does give grace, the church taught, but that grace is like a can of Red Bull, as one theologian described, a power boost that enables people to do the works needed for salvation. Salvation is by God's grace and your good works. And furthermore, if you want forgiveness for yourself or your loved ones trapped in purgatory, you will have to purchase indulgences to attain it.  

"Have we paid enough for our sins?" 

"Have we done enough to earn our salvation?"

"Are we doing enough to keep it?" 

Such were the constant cries of the worried parishioners. 

Enter one Martin Luther, a somewhat obscure Augustinian Monk from Wittenberg, Germany who struggled ferociously in his own heart with the false teachings and unethical practices of the church. Luther's spiritual awakening came as he read and then understood and was set free mostly by the Book of Romans. I know this is a ridiculously simplistic recounting of the Reformation. 

Luther is credited with kicking off the Reformation and rediscovering the greatest gift to mankind: The Bible along with its liberating, comforting, beautiful, core truth:

Justification by faith. 

By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. 

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing: it is the gift of God, not a result of works, that no one may boast." ( Ephesians 2: 9 ) 

It's pretty clear cut. 

As I sit here this morning in the predawn hours before the sun rises, I have to be honest reflecting on the end of Martin Luther's life, his last years. Why all of that antisemitism? I just don't get it, and I feel numb. For me it cast a wet blanket over the Reformation, and I don't have any answers. Just thoughts, I guess, because I can't make sense of it. 

The Farmer instructs me that I need to learn to extract the good out of the bad. I think he means that it's possible for whole truths to be poured out of broken vessels. 

Since Eden, mankind continually messes up everything. To me, there is great comfort in the truth that God did not leave salvation in the hands of sinful man. Not comfort like my fleece blanket and chai tea, but comfort as in security and assurance. Even if it were a possibility, and it's not, I thank God he didn't leave salvation up to human effort. Good heavens, now that's scary. 

All through the Bible our "heroes" fail us. Adam fails. And the entirety of mankind fails. "...the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." ( Genesis 6 ) 

"None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands; no one seeks after God." ( Romans 3:11 ) 

Then along comes Noah. And Noah found favor with God and Noah was a righteous man. The Bible tells us. And then after all of that building and collecting of animals and weathering all kinds of conditions literally of epic proportions, what does he do once he exits the ark? He gets drunk and naked. "Really, Noah?" After all that. 

And then there's King David who is the apple of God's eye and hailed as the key figure in the messianic lineage, but also an adulterer and a murderer. 

Then there's Abraham. Issac. Jacob. Moses. Solomon. Most of the Kings. Jonah. Peter. Thomas. Judas. 

And then there's Rebecca. 

I failed myself. I don't even know my own heart. Thank God, he does.  

God warned an angry Cain in the Book of Genesis that sin is crouching at the door and its desire is to have you.  

Sin is not to be taken lightly.

We can not handle sin. 

Even the so called best of us. 

Sin separates us from a holy God. 

Sin put Jesus on the cross. 

Remember?   

Jesus defeated sin for us. He served our death sentence. 

He is the only one who can. 

My regenerated heart cost Jesus everything. 

Jesus did not fail. Ever. 

And even though there are many perplexities in this fallen world that I can not understand, the biggest lesson I learn from the Reformation is that the reformers never meant for it to be a done deal. We should be reforming as a church and as individuals continuously. 

Reforming is not bending with culture or compromising our convictions cemented in the Bible, or changing the Bible, or Jesus for that matter to suit our fancy. But it is daily through the struggles and challenges and ordinariness of life transforming into the beautiful image of Jesus. 

I have not read through the entire Ninety-five Theses, but maybe the greatest lessons I learned from Luther weren't the ones he set out to teach. In fear and trembling, I am reminded of the discipline to be ever vigilant in protecting my regenerated heart at all costs, constantly on guard against sin. Never thinking I am above it. 

Falling on our knees and on our faces in utter surrender, not just on the day of salvation, but on every single day of our broken lives. Understanding emphatically that on this side of eternity and the other, there is only one way we will ever be able to stand before a holy God: 

In Christ Alone. 💜

Shades of Glory

"How do you know that I'm truly a Christian?" The Farmer asked this question recently in a discussion we were having about a variety of subjects. 

It's a fair question. A good question. 

I thought about how to best answer him even though I knew it to be a rhetorical question as well because he seems to possess as much or more spiritual knowledge than me. Of course, I kept thinking about it throughout the day because my brain wasn't installed comprising of an off button or one of those little icons that pop up on your screen and say "ask me later."  

And anyway the Apostle Peter said that we need to always have an answer ready for the reason of the hope inside of us. ( 1 Peter 3:15  ) Sometimes I've mistranslated the verse to knowing all of biblical theology, but still, I think the more sound doctrine we are clear on, the more helpful we can be with these questions, among other treasures, mainly knowing God better. ( 2 Timothy 2:15 ) 

Well, there are several distinct marks of a Christian that we see in Scripture, and I believe a huge one, because everyone around us should be able to witness it, is that we begin to transform. 

In other words, a relationship, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, unto death, should change us. 

And specifically, the Bible indicates our relationship with God should supernaturally transform us into the image of Jesus, one shade of glory at a time. ( 2 Corinthians 3:18 )  

How are we doing?

In the dry, wilderness seasons, the growth may seem slow or nonexistent. And winter does seem to drag endlessly on, but trees do grow in winter. Believe it or not, the strongest growth occurs in cold, harsh conditions, when resources are stored for the seasons that follow. In springtime we may hardly be able to keep up with all of the fresh, tender greenery. In stormy seasons, we may experience tremendously hurtful growing pains as pruning and clipping cultivate room for an abundant harvest of luscious new fruits.

 But whatever season we're currently experiencing, we should be growing. Tiny acorn into mighty oak. 

The proof will look different for all of us. For me, I think the day-to-day measuring stick or rain gauge looks something like this: 

When I see machinery parts and thing-a-ma-bobs recently purchased from Tractor Supply spread across my dining room table, and the desire rises up in me to shove them into some space far away from my field of vision, but I resist the urge to do so for an entire week, no less, I realize this relationship has changed me. 

When I'm trying to come through the back door with an arm load of groceries, and the Farmer doesn't rise to help, but instead gives me a lecture on the kitten that unbeknownst to me snuck in under my feet and how we already have enough cats in this house and the more I let them in the more they assume they can just take over, and I think to myself a kitten is not a hill I'm willing to die on. So I keep my mouth shut and scoop the little fur ball up and quietly take him back to the garage with a can of Little Friskies and a heart of forgiveness, remembering all of the times the Farmer has changed my oil, checked my tires, cut hay for my sheep, and never shrunk back from the unpleasant and dirty, but necessary farm jobs, so I would not have to do them. And wow, I realize this relationship has changed me.  

When I walk into my house and it smells like garlic, and I'm sorry, people, but I do not like the smell of garlic. It's so stinky. I don't care how healthy it is. However, garlic is the Farmer's favorite cooking ingredient, and it makes him exceedingly happy. When you enter a small cabin on a friendly farm, it should smell like fresh baked cookies or cinnamon apples, not Pizza Hut or the Bombay Kitchen, but he loves garlic. So every morning when I approach my countertop where garlic bulbs are rolling around the coffeemaker, I hold my nose as well as my tongue, realizing this relationship has changed me.  

When my young grandson points to his toy tractor and asks me about the different parts, and I can actually educate him that they are front end loader and post hole digger implements, I realize this relationship has changed me. 

When my eyes slowly open in the morning, and I pray, "Sovereign God and Holy Father, this is your day, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. However if it's okay with you, can I die first, so I don't have to live without him?" And I realize this relationship has changed me. 

But when I turn off the lights at night and get into bed and close my eyes in the darkness and reflect, pondering the mercy and grace and love God has bestowed faithfully upon his prodigal daughter, I pray: "Father, I changed my mind. I don't want the Farmer to have to go through any more pain. He can leave first." 

And I realize this relationship has changed me.  💜

The Good Shepherd's Shepherds

As many churches today celebrate and honor their pastors as is designated during the month of October, I was reminded during my devotional reading this morning that the head pastor of a church along with his many responsibilities also is a spiritual umbrella to the pastors serving under him, imparting to them strength and guidance and passion. He shepherds shepherds as well as the flock. 

I hope this makes us appreciate our pastors all the more. What a calling God has placed on their lives! I think most of us congregants probably don't have a clue of the weight they carry. Let's make it a priority to pray for our pastor every day of the year. God has appointed pastors to equip us as part of the five fold ministry within the Body of Christ, and our commandment is to lift them up fervently in prayer. We can make it a goal to encourage and remind each other to do this. 

I'm sharing a picture today that I took of my pastor, Milton Atkins, this past summer at our church's VBS. I've always loved it because I believe it sums up his conviction not just to our young people, but to all of our people. If you've ever attended any outreach at our church, you know you'll find him right in the thick of things with his sleeves rolled up serving. And if you don't immediately see him, just wait for the belly laugh. 

If Pastor Atkins isn't at church on Sunday or at one of our events, it isn't the same. Everyone knows this, so I'm just writing what everyone is thinking. Some might think it shouldn't be that way, but I beg to differ. That's one of the marks of a great leader in my book. And in the Good Book too, I believe.  

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes." Ephesians 4: 11-14 

"Father, fill us in the Church with a fresh anointing of your Holy Spirit to pray for our head pastors as never before. As our leaders, they bear a heavy burden to equip us for ministry and bring us to maturity in Christ. When you call us, you promise to equip us, so we ask that you fill your pastors in your Body with the knowledge of your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding and strengthen them with all power according to your glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. Jesus, we know one way you are building us, your Church, is through these precious laborers. Bless them exceedingly and abundantly more than they can ask or think in your beautiful, holy name! Amen."  

Happy Sunday! 

Go love on your pastor. 💜

Pastor Milton with a few of his lambs at VBS 

The Heavenly Hound

Recently I was speaking with another Christian that I love dearly and admire, and this person was telling me that they were praying for some family members to find the Lord. I encouraged them not to give up in their intercessional strivings, but to keep pounding the doors of Heaven. And this wonderful person said something to me that I've heard consistently throughout my life, not every day, but often enough that I'm questioning it. 

Since my conversion, I have become like a one of my dogs sniffing along every commonplace trail, interrogating every scent, and digging up hidden meaty, treasure bones in the process. The whole journey began in the first place not because I'm super intelligent, because I'm not, but out of shear curiosity. I wanted to know what happened to me. 

Of course, we can't confuse intelligence with wisdom. Those are two entirely different things. 

So, this person looks at me, and says, "I am continuing to pray, Rebecca, but you know that God can not violate that person's will." 

Do I know this? 

I've heard it, but never questioned it. Can't he violate our will? I mean, he is God after all. He's the sovereign God of the universe, in fact. 

I know this is a heavy thought for a Monday morning, but here recently, I seem to hit the ground running. Hear me out. 

I can't find this anywhere in the Scriptures. I'm not saying we are puppets. Of course we have a will and make decisions and those decisions matter. And even more, those decisions have consequences. Good and bad. One read through the New Testament shows us this. 

But the way I perceive it, God "violated" all of mankind's will when he sent Jesus. Thank God, he did. Since the Garden of Eden, we humans have wanted to be our own gods and to do life our own way, rejecting God and rebelling against him. 

"None is righteous, no, not one; 

no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one."  ( Romans 3:11 & 12 ) 

Wow, we don't even seek for God. I hadn't thought of that. We do seek though, because we are so broken, we seek for our healing in everything, but God. 

"He's seeking for God." "She's seeking for God." I hear this regularly. I've said it. 

No, the Bible tells us. We are all seeking, but not for God. I know I wasn't seeking for him. I actually wanted God to leave me alone and let me live my way. I told him to please cut out all of the spiritual drama in my life and just give me some peace. I didn't want him to change and rearrange my life. I just wanted a little self-help. 

But the darkness wouldn't let up because that torment was actually him seeking for me. 

With Jesus it's all or it's nothing. He isn't in the decorating business. He's in the demolition business. Jesus demolishes the shack we've built, so he can construct a castle for a King to reside in. 

We need help, people. 

Thank God he violated our wayward, sinful wills when he sent Jesus. 

His amazing grace and mercy over us and to us in our disobedience is something to rejoice about this Monday morning and every single moment of our lives! And once he finds us, then our true seeking begins. And he promises to reveal himself to us:  

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." ( Matthew 7:7 )  

This is Jesus's teaching from the Sermon on the Mount, and remember, he was training his disciples. He encouraged them to seek into the beauty of God and in doing so, they would reflect that glory to the world. What a wonderful word to us in our present culture as well. 

"Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline," Jesus informs the church of Laodicea in Revelations 3. "So be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock." 

In a way, he's like one of my dogs too. He will sniff us out. He will come knocking. He will find us. 

He's God. 

Aren't we glad?

The Hound of Heaven. 🐾

Aslan at 6 months old 

O, God my Father

A little book update: I'm making progress slower than a Great Pyrenees enrolled in obedience school, providing such a thing were allowed. 

If I had to describe how the work is shaping up, I would say like a devotional on steroids, not for content, but for length. On the one hand, the longer it takes the more studying and learning that transpires thus the more helpful it hopefully will be. 

When I began my journey on January 19, 2019, after my regeneration, I asked the Lord one main thing: "Please, teach me the truth. I'm confused. There are so many beliefs out there. I want to know the truth." And I was referring to all of the many beliefs inside of the church, not outside. Although, as God has been faithfully answering my prayer, I've been learning much more than I bargained for. God is like that, always more than we could ever ask or even know to ask.

Along the way I plan to publish excerpts in my blog, least I fly away home before I can finish, willing the literary mess to Jonah and Meadow. 😂 

Happy Monday! 

The Farmer has been working on his 30-1 hot sauce a little at a time as we slowly harvest the peppers out of the garden, wearing gloves, of course. 30-1 means each bottle contains thirty different type of chili peppers and one lonely, lovely Carolina reaper pepper. Yeah, the heat is on. That's why his little workshop of horrors is outside and not in our small kitchen, causing major sinus drama and violent sneezing. In case you're a wimp like me, he also makes Tabasco sauce for the faint of tastebuds.   

I kept telling him that he needed to come up with a label design so he could order some for the bottles. In the past, he's sold the sauce in plain, obscure bottles, and I think it's high time he embrace a label. And one with a warning, and shrink bands while he's at it.  

Funny though, I've never cared for labels. Not bottle labels, people labels. 

In J. I. Packer's weighty and worthy Knowing God, toward the end, there is a chapter which could in my humble opinion be an entire book in and of itself. Not for length, but content. 

Each morning I enjoy reading a section aloud while the Farmer sips his coffee and we both contemplate the attributes of God. Chapter 19, Sons of God, begins like this: 

"What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God for his Father." 

Dr. Packer has spent the previous chapters exquisitely unpacking and spreading forth in nutritious and easily digestible nuggets biblical theology and sound doctrine for his hungry readers. He throws quite a banquet. No book outside of the Bible has deepened my relationship and understanding more with the Triune God of creation.     

And the truth dawns to me that the chapter depends on the others for the full clarification of my adoption into the family of God. The truth overtakes my heart: 

God was aiming at one particular goal in his purpose of sending Jesus: 

To be our Father. 

Since the garden, man has been separated from God because of our sin. God loves us, but his love is a holy love. Something had to be done about the wretched state of the human condition. 

Jesus. 

Sadly, Dr. Packer writes that the teaching of our adoption into the family of God has been lacking in the church ever since the Reformation.   

My pastor actually just taught this wonderful truth in his series on the Trinity. I praise God for this. 

Dr. Packer throws out the common notion that how we view our earthly fathers shapes how we view God. However this thought does reveal that we have an idea and standard of what a father should look like in the first place. when we, unknowingly maybe, judge our own fathers, we are doing so against that standard. 

I realize now that it wasn't labels I disliked so much, but the seeking of an identity in something that could never sustain me. 

Even church membership or belonging to a particular denomination does not fill us. As much as I love being woman, matriarch, wife, mom, grandmother, aunty, friend, farmer, blogger, student, Irish, Virginian, American, Protestant, introvert, "zookeeper," these things are too flimsy to bolster up the heavy burden of self-worth, purpose, meaning, and need of identity that all mankind is born to bear because of the fall. These collectively may be what I am, but they are not who I am. 

At the end of the day, they all fail to satisfy the longing inside of my soul for true identity and belonging into a family with brothers and sisters all loved completely and unconditionally by a compassionate parent who guides and teaches us with perfect training, grace, mercy, and love.  

One who has prepared for us an eternal room in his house.

"Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name!" 

And I think it's high time for me to stop walking around like a misguided orphan and embrace a label. 

Rebecca Covert, Daughter of God. 

Nice to meet you. 💜

Knowing God, Dr. J. I. Packer, InterVarsity Press, 1973