Echoes of beauty

There’s no one quite like you among the gods, O Lord, and nothing to compare with your works. All the nations you made are on their way, ready to give honor to you, O Lord, Ready to put your beauty on display, parading your greatness, And the great things you do— God, you’re the one, there’s no one but you!

Psalm 86:7-9 

For GOD is great, and worth a thousand Hallelujahs. His terrible beauty makes the gods look cheap 

psalm 96:4

The ocean always to me, echoes Gods beauty - I know there are many places in nature and creation that do the same for others ....but living here I suppose I'm distracted by my own back yard. The sea isn't my God, but only hints of His glory and nudges me to know something about Him. It's moods, tones, power, loveliness and vastness speak of his own characteristics.  What about your own backyard ... What does it say about God to you ?? 

psalm 104

He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
 You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
 But at your rebuke the waters fled...psalm 104:5-7

How many are your works, Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.  
There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.  
There the ships go to and fro,
and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

psalm 104:24-26

Hope and help !!

This is one of my favorite verses because it represents a great thing that happened in my life......

But me he caught—reached all the way from sky to sea; he pulled me out Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos, the void in which I was drowning. They hit me when I was down, but God stuck by me. He stood me up on a wide-open field; I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!Psalm 18:15-17

I don't know how easy it is to express a time in a person's life when it seems you're going nowhere. That you're struggling - feel damaged and confused about life and the future.  For me it was so exact. I almost stopped literally in my life during my late 30's after I'd had a tragedy happen, decided everything was hopeless and I became beyond despondent. I rode my bike around a huge field track one day and wondered how I could just 'give up' trying in life. It was all too hard.
I was in trouble and felt completely lost. I thought God (if he was there at all)  had not only forgotten about me, but did not care.

This next couple of verses also expand on my personal experience of God and explain in retrospect what happened in my life.

Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart.

There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor (Trouble) to be for her a door of hope and expectation. And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

Hosea 2:14-15

That time, and now more than ever, the sense of kindness, of God reaching out to me when I had given up hope. When I was in the valley of trouble, and stuck there - a sort of life time wilderness. 

How can a person drown in a void?

A person can be dying, losing life's oxygen when there is nothing - no hope! A person can die in the wilderness... a harsh barren place with no food, comfort, life or water. These are perfect metaphors for an individual hungering for comfort, for strength, to have joy again.

There was a  D O O R  of  hope in the middle of my chaos -

in valley of my troubles

God reached down ....  He pulled me, He stood me, He spoke tenderly to my heart.

How does this happen in the real world?

All I can say is that I sensed a gentle whisper all around me as  I rode and rode, as I walked - like a magnet to my heart this sense that I needed to pray, to talk to God and read the Bible -  My beaten up heart began to soften day by day and week by week.... as the year turned my ears began to open and I started hearing whispers of goodness and feelings of love that seemed supernatural. I realised I couldn't save myself. I looked outside the void and into the sky... awaiting help. And here I am years later knowing that it was a turning point...
I read, I prayed and asked for help and meanwhile God was already reaching out to me.

I do sing, I do have my joy .... I can only thank God for all he has done for me.

In awe, the ocean

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

And by the breath of His mouth all their host.

⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;

He lays up the deeps in storehouses.

⁸ Let all the earth fear the Lord;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him

psalm 33:6-8

photo taken by me 2012 seventh7seaphotography

 

We expect our fill of good things in your house,

your heavenly manse. 

All your salvation wonders are on display in your trophy room. 

 Earth-Tamer, Ocean-Pourer, Mountain-Maker, Hill-Dresser, Muzzler of sea storm and wave crash, 

— Far and wide they'll come to a stop, 

they'll stare in awe, in wonder. 

Dawn and dusk take turns calling, "Come and worship."Psalm 65:1-3

Our world Broken and Beautiful

One of the reasons my belief that the Bible could hold answers for me, began with question I had rolling around in my head since I was a kid.

Much like the previous blog entry, I asked myself… how can the world be so beautiful and terrible at the same time?

As a little girl I often rode my bike around where I lived observing the beauty in nature and would spend a lot of time at the beach soaking up the salt air while studying the amazing changes the ocean wrought depending on seasons, wind changes and light. I loved cartoons, yummy food and playing with my sisters. But occasionally this lovely world would have shadows.

My parents would fight. I’d get sick or one of my sisters might hit me. Nothing out of the ordinary but I’d wonder why can’t things be nice all the time?

...these things happened

A flood happened in my street when I was 11 and I watched my world alter in a matter of hours. The teenage boy who lived across the street died in a motorbike accident one day - and I couldn’t understand how that could happen. I read the diary of Ann Frank and suddenly I perceived “badness” on a scale I’d never dreamed of. That a girl my age, could be carted off in a train and sent to a concentration camp to die. It seemed inconceivable that humans could do this.

So began my grapple with the paradox. How could this amazing beautiful earth, filled with so much goodness, love, fun and wonder also be a place of pain, hurt and conflict? I thought all this as I too battled with losing my own temper at times and hurting others, or lying and stealing occasionally as a teenager to get the things I wanted. Wasn’t I a negative part of it all too?

Having no religious or Christian background I wondered about the story of Adam and Eve. Like most people it seemed like a fairy tale and not really anything I’d taken seriously. I figured there may have been an original man and woman at the start of the world but not sure what happened, if they evolved or just were put there by God.

But what made some kind of sense to me was the idea of the Garden of Eden. I remember my sister had a record of Joni Mitchell and she played this idealistic hippy song in which the chorus sang   “…and we got to get ourselves back to the garden”…. (Metaphorically speaking of course)…  Even as a young teen I got what she was saying, we need to live a pure and good life.

If only!

The older I got the more confused I felt about the world.

Love was hard, it was messy and I struggled coming to terms with how awful people could be. I couldn’t understand bigger problems like poverty, cancer, unemployment and war. They perplexed me.

The idea of this “Garden” in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible… captured my attention.   God initially creating a perfect world where there was no conflict, illness or decay sparked my imagination  of the way the world could have been. That beautiful planet with oceans, trees, peace and goodness -   A world I sometimes glimpsed in my everyday life…  but was now also polluted with crappy stuff.

Eden - A “perfect world” with its self perpetuating garden and landscape so rich it grew everything without toil, animals and people lived in the same space, no death or sickness and a place where God walked with people. But wait...!! It all crashed and burned somehow, and war began, someone started killing, cells died and weeds grew.
That pretty much describes life today.

The first people whom God apparently created - were  requested not to cross his boundary (and eat of the tree of good and evil)  but they decided to cross it. God warned, “If you do this, if you choose to go against me in this you’ll end up dying”. And they did… and now we do and so forth. 
They opened this world to a force called sin.

What strikes me I guess as having some sort of relevance in my world, is that I can imagine this place of Eden when this planet earth in a perfect state, and when I cannot understand what went wrong its design - even if it was an evolutionized world - when I can't explain how civilization and it's inhabitants became so malfunctioning - that the very potential for world peace, wellness, happiness and health now seems impossible to attain.

They say when Adam and Eve broke God’s command and sin came into the world, much like a storm breaking into a perfect day, the ruinous aspect of sin permeating every spectre of life and our history. War, sickness, addictions, injustice, slavery, pollution and the list goes on. These are all because of this sin-infiltrating force in life, of evil that co-exists with this creation of beauty  - and to me that makes some kind of sense.

This amazing world should have been beautiful, we shouldn’t kill each other, we should not wreck the environment and disease shouldn’t occur - people shouldn't be starving or morbidly obese -  But it all does occur and I wanted to know when I was 14 years old why why why? What is the reason civilization and our planet fails so much - can't get it right?

Is it that people are so evil, or that God doesn’t exist or care? Is it that evolution is misfiring and we are not evolving at all? - The Genesis story seems to fit this "once perfect now polluted profile". A created environment with sin seeping in and around it over centuries and this to me seems a tangible explanation of what went wrong. It was perfect but became imperfect somewhere.. still beautiful, still full of love, goodness and wonder.. but broken.

I see evidence of this I suppose in my own character. The Bible says we are inherent with sin because of what human kind began in their DNA in the beginning. We can be wonderful and cruel ourselves. We can be kind in one breath and slander in another. If we are honest with ourselves we know that we too are beautiuful and broken.

I wish it was always beautiful … I wish the world didn’t suffer in ways I feel powerless to overcome, even in smaller places like where I work. A hospital ward, where patients have cancer, a work environment where co-workers get annoyed with each other, a week of work where my body tires and ages. My own small world is full of bad things and so much beauty as well.

Does it make any sense to you? That sin may be the reason life sucks sometimes? That there is evil and imperfection that happened in the human race and environment which changed what could have been an amazingly perfect world?

If we start to apply the idea of sin to real life we can find a step toward God and what he offers as an anecdote to sin in our own lives personally. For me it was a hunger to know… how I deal with the problem of sin, of evil, of crappy stuff that I couldn’t make sense of and that makes me feel despair.

When I pushed my mind back to an idea of Eden, when I could clearly see glimpses of beauty and perfection of Gods original plan and how that original plan was ruined, but still functioning, I didn’t feel so powerless or helpless. If this God story, this Genesis story was actually true and God put it there for us to read and understand then surely he would help us in the here and now to deal with it. And once we consider this,  the whole reason of why this Jesus came actually makes sense.

If we don’t believe that sin entered an originally perfect world with plans only for life, life and more life, if we just put it down to nature, human or otherwise, then we have no anecdote. We haven’t a lot of hope but to do our best in this life and fingers crossed if or if not there is more to be had. We can’t make sense if our mum’s get cancer or we lose our job, or we get wrinkles. We just go with it. But in God’s Genesis explanation we are offered a reason… and a promise for something more...

We dont just accept the brokenness and the fact we are part of that dying process.


Jesus says he came to give us eternal life, and be sin in our stead. To remove it's power over us forever.

keeps me leaning to Him to find out why...

That's my thoughts anyway.

all photo's by me - enjoy

Why God??

People in the world are starving and suffering..So... where's God?

I've heard many variations of this question over my life as a Christian - even asked it myself and spent time considering the how's and whys of how a loving God seems to appear distant in a suffering world.
For some, this seemingly irrational paradox is the basis for total disbelief in God, for dismissing His existence entirely.

For others, it's just a tricky question best left in the too hard basket.

Before the question can be answered (if indeed it can be fully answered) the very basis of tackling it must first come with the premise...

The premise being... Should God's behaviour (if he exists) conform to our human logic? Does God think like us... feel like us and rationalise the way we do?


For us... We understand if there's a problem that's within our power to fix, especially when it involves human suffering, we should and would take action. That's human thinking, that's heart felt, good and right. Isn't God wired the same way?

We have a framework of logic and expect a loving God to conform to it.... Surely?

Our understanding is contained in that framework. Is "sense" making sense. We expect God to fit into that framework, to conform himself to match it  - and if that framework of sense is a house that contains our understanding.. He is to come inside the front door, fit into it and sit down in our house and behave in ways that make logical sense to us.

Shouldn't he?

Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. psalm 145:3

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.Isaiah 55:7-9

As these Bible verses suggest our premise of God conforming may not be entirely reasonable in human understanding.

God's apparently got ways of thinking and doing outside our logic and limitations of rationale.

If that premise is true, that it's not God who conforms to our logic but he can in ways - exist outside the house and framework of human reasonable-ness...then our first argument in asserting the lack of intervention proves he doesn't exist, or secondly is cruelly ignorant to humanity falls down ... the question itself in light of these verses cannot be legitimate.

But that still leaves the messy awfulness of suffering. I'll write more on this next entry... because it's so profoundly important as to why people choose to, or not to believe in God and requires to be looked at from various angles. This is the first angle. The basis of addressing the issue. Firstly, God doesn't act as we do, or we hope .... it's his prerogative. But is he still a loving merciful God, and if so, why does he seemingly stand back.

More next week.

 

Job 42

 Then Job replied to the Lord:

² “I know that you can do anything,
and no one can stop you.
³ You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’
It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about,
things far too wonderful for me.
⁴ You said, ‘Listen and I will speak!

houses, homes and dwellings

Occasionally when I'm riding my bike around where I live, I'm struck by some of the older style beach houses which are still standing after forty odd years. Where I live, by the Pacific Ocean is a thriving built up tourist region... But areas at the southern end and close to the beach still aren't fully developed and homes which were originally built as cheap weekenders or holiday homes, continue standing year in, year out.

Most of these places have a certain aged character which really appeals me. I like the beach house dilapidation and weathered timber, old window panes and faded re-paints.

Some have been partially renovated or remodelled but thats appealing to me too. I love riding around with my camera or iphone and often take photo's and wonder who lives there, and how these places keep standing.

Quoting quotes

If you've been on facebook or any social media you'll notice life quotes and sayings  posted by usually caring people with a penchant for homespun philosophy giving the world at large some encouragement - For example "Live every day as if it's your last" A saying which to me, makes NO practical sense, and would mean  most of us would never go to work and our credit card bills would be astronomical. But... I think people mean well.

Often though these life quotes seem cheesy and often about good karma and kindness over-riding negative stuff, which seem nice but unfortunately make us so over-used to quotes that when a half decent one comes along we put it in the same corny category as those ones befitting the sides of coffee mugs and posters from new age gift shops.

Recently I heard one which on first impression sounds like all the rest - but made me stop and really think it over. So much so that I had to write it down in my iPhone straight away and I probably didn't get it perfect but here's the gist.

We as humans often live our lives out in ways which take us safely to our deaths

The speaker was actually quoting someone else -  but explaining how most of us live the day to day usually avoiding any kind of discomfort. We want our lives to be free from any kind of personal deprivation, danger or human risk. We avoid so much -  in order to stay safe and comfortable.. sometimes without even thinking. Automatically saying "no" to opportunities that would bring us drama... for example jobs, trips, even social engagements that might stretch us way too much.

I used to think if I ever got the opportunity to volunteer in a third world country I couldn't do it.. why? Because I'm sure I'd hate the food, humidity and the toilets.  Much safer and nicer at home. I still don't know if I'd do it, but I certainly feel challenged in myself to think about what I'm going to regret at the end of my life.

Years ago - I moved to the country for eighteen months, which I didn't end up liking in some ways - but still, I look back and admire the guts to actually go to the middle of nowhere. The struggle financially to live there was harsh, but I learnt alot and it was an experience which set the bar for how I'd live my life later on.

And last year, I created and ran a course for young girls, mainly about self esteem and creating a future based on God's promises - which was  a really new kind of challenge for me  to do but in the end was something I felt of so much value - more than what I've done in the last short while of my life.

It was risky for me to stand up and take those classes, fearing rejection and a response of boredom of the teaching plan I'd created... but the feedback was so positive that it made me realise had I played it safe.. I'd have missed out on a huge learning curve.

We are going to die - me included -  no doubt about it, and in my job as a nurse I am always mindful of this. But something in me does agree with this quote that getting safely to death is the main goal of alot of us. I'm first to admit it. I just have this gut feeling that when I'm old, when you're old we may just wish we had of taken a few more chances.

Whats more, a second quote during this same week also came to my ears and expanded on the first with a great sense of imagery.

Live life as if the gate has been left open

Thats pretty cool! It's not saying that everyone should just go crazy (..like living each day as if its your last)  but journeying with a sense that life is open to do more, to be more adventurous  and expectant to explore.
While most of us have 'responsiblities' likes jobs, bills and families - this quote can be still relevant. I think living life with the gate being left open won't compromise responsibility. Trying new food, cooking it even - riding your bike to somewhere you've never been, talking to someone you'd never usually talk to or doing a course in something your curious about.

Mostly I think these quotes point toward faith, and believing in something bigger than yourself. That someone greater can hold your life in his hands and open the door for you to live a full life.
Jesus says "I give life, and life abundantly"  - while that doesn't mean your going hangliding each day and having your adrenaline glands pumped - it's that a richer course of life is open to you ... that he who knows you better than you know yourself will direct your steps. Not always on that predictable safe course. But in ways that bring you closer to him... and safely not to death, but to eternity in heaven with him.

 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.John 10:9-11

In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.Proverbs 3:5-7

7thSeas Photo gallery for April

Occasionally I like to put up some of my latest instagram photo's. Hope you enjoy.

(any queries about the photo's contact the email address on this site)

This was taken out front of where I live 

 "Red rims"

Seagulls

blue version of

"Bureigh Heads"

Mollie B

Kirra

The skies were made by God's command; he breathed the word and the stars popped out. He scooped Sea into his jug, 

put Ocean in his keg.Psalm 33:5-7

put your listening ears on

I used to get told, especially as a kid in the school room, to "put on my listening ears"... as like most children - being distracted or day-dreaming was a way of life.

From time to time in my life too, I've found myself in the middle of an argument with a family member and said to them "your hearing the words, but your not really listening".

To be honest I've said this to my kids from time to time... they're making the right faces of standing there when I've been 'discussing' something with them, but I can tell they are mentally elsewhere.

Hey! I've done the same myself, especially in boring tutorials and even when someone is telling me a long winded tale. I may be looking at you, but my head is somewhere more interesting.

If you can relate... then is it fair to say that listening involves alot more than the ability to physically hear with your ears?
We may understand and have cognition of words and there meaning but we aren't really analysing the content and engaging in there purpose. We don't comprehend, either by distraction, or by purpose.

On purpose? --- when I've listened to guys start talking about football or sports. I switch off, I find it dull and purposefully don't absorb the content of the conversation. I'm sure the opposite can be true of girl talk in the other direction.

Disinterest?  --- I remember once my daughter and I were talking about fashion magazines and my youngest son was only about 4 years old and piped up "how can you keep talking about magazines and clothes? It's only paper and material!"  He was pretty annoyed at the content of our chit chat and refused to comprehend. In a way I don't blame him!

What about when someone mentions Jesus, God, Church or faith? I know alot of people immediately switch off, or just don't want to listen. Maybe out of human politeness listen for a little bit but don't really don't want to "hear".....

Some find the idea of God beyond comprehension

God doesn't make any kind of logical sense. There are too many unanswered questions and because faith in God seems an uneasy prospect to fully grasp. It's left unheard and unattended. Listening isn't worth it.  

Words about Jesus, faith  and God may slip over our ears and heads and fail to make an impression on our minds. There are too many difficulties - like a radio wave we try and tune in on an old radio.. the signal isn't clear. It's too hard to make sense of.

HOW DO WE HEAR GOD ? CAN WE HEAR HIM?

Jesus says we can --

This Bible verse out of the book of Revelation has Jesus saying to people, including you and I...

"Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I'll come right in and sit down to supper with you".

rev 3:20

How can we "hear" Jesus call ... ??  If this verse is believable by everyday people then how do we open our ears to his voice?

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,

 and they follow Me; - (jesus )

John 10:26-28

In both these statements Jesus says that we will be able to hear his voice... and we would follow him and sit down and share life with him.  How can we literally do that?

Christians believe that it's by the way of "faith" that we hear Jesus. It begins in the heart and soul of person. A kind of heartbeat which comes alive when the story of who God is is communicated. Something deep inside resonates "yes" and draws us to find out about him, and know him. It's so difficult to explain... but Ken Chant makes a statement about it in his book "Attributes of Splendour" which reads ...

"Most thoughtful people come to the same conclusion - there is not enough evidence of God to make belief in him quite reasonable, but no so much that no room left for doubt. In the end the recourse must be had to the grace of God himself and to faith.

But then something wonderful happens - those who believe know!

Faith brings its own authentication."

Maybe the "listening ears" of the heart need to be switched on somehow.. breaking down the barriers of doubt and putting aside disinterest.  Be open hearted if not open minded to genuinely seeks to find that a relationship with Jesus could be possible.

That God could be real...well, anything could happen.