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Colossians 3:3 "For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God."

As we all know, Johann Sebastian Bach was the finest and probably the most brilliant composer in human history.  His perfection to form, harmony, melody and compositional unity in pieces staggers the mind.  His influence on all other composers after him reveals the tremendous ripple effect in man's music collection.  Surely, without a Bach there would have been no Beethoven, Mendelsohn and others.  His influence on music is well stated in the words of Johannes Brahms (1833–1897): "Study Bach: there you will find everything."  In 2016 a hand-written piece from Bach was discovered and sold at private auction.  "Prelude pour la Luth ò Cembal" (for lute or keyboard) was written between 1740-1745.  It sold for over three million dollars. This piece fits on 3 pieces of paper. 

After Bach's death his widow was put in a difficult financial place with so many children to care for.  In trying to make money, some of Bach's music was sold.  Some of his music was sold, not for the music, but for the paper.  A few of his violin pieces were saved in stacks in "wrapping paper" or "butcher paper" which have been preserved today.  We will never know how much of Bach's music was destroyed in this manner.

Butcher paper.  
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That's like selling the Constitution to a wallpaper company, or using a $100 bill to roll up and start a fire.  These papers are much more valuable because of what was produced on them.

Imagine the fervor, the brilliance and musical value of Bach's piece wrapping up a stinky dead fish.  A fugue on a bloody rump roast.  A concerto sealing up a chicken.  It boggles the mind. We stagger back in horror. The most valuable products of human creativity --- sold for a few pennies then used for such a common purpose.  Bach's music welcomed royalty to their thrones and accompanied the holiest of Church events. Bach's chorales ever elevated the truth of Jesus Christ and His life to the listener.  High cathedrals kissed the notes of Bach's organ tones ---- now the carcass of a pig touched these notes.

Death was wrapped up in ultimate brilliance and beauty.  It seems such a waste. 
Until we think of Christ......and us.

We are are that dead chunk of meat.  Sold at the market, we were born just as dead and rotting in this world of sin and decay.  We are sold at the meat market with very little value. No lasting value, that is. Without outside intervention, we are to be sold into oblivion eaten by festering flies.
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Now imagine being wrapped in a piece of paper with the must sublime melody printed on it --- a one- of-a- kind symphony clothing you in song.  This song once lit the hallways of heaven and now touches your utter helplessness.  Raw meat touching the warmest of musical thoughts.  Death wrapped in life --- the ultimate dichotomy.

Christ did for this at the moment of rebirth in Him.  When we have washed our souls in the blood at the cross, we are wrapped in a priceless paper ---- a linen of Christ's song of righteousness. This comes completely from Him, not of our own merit or doing. 

This song is written in Christ's own hand, from His own eternal mind, flawless in form. The blood ink flows from his hands and feet, the rarest of mercy inks.  He chooses to wrap our sin-state and our "deadness" in this precious manuscript, covering us with his beauty.
Isn't this a waste?  Putting something so irreplaceable on something so wretched --- it does not make sense to the human mind.
"My ways are not your ways", says the Lord.  His mercy, lovingkindness and sacrifice is the ultimate act of restoration. He does it in the most un-human of ways, which the world calls foolishness. He chooses the butcher paper.

Imagine being an 18th century German housefrau  coming home with your pack of meat --- unwrapping it on the wooden table and seeing the notes scribbled on the paper.  You look closer in curiosity --- you see the name "JS Bach"  and the words "Soli Deo Gloria" at the bottom.  You realize in complete horror and joy that you have carried home a priceless song which led men into worship -- written for the glory of God.  

People should see us as that strange combination --- we, the weak fleshly people we are, yet carefully wrapped in the Lord's work  --- the butcher paper of redemption.  On it is written the song of the saints:  "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!"  As our lives are unwrapped, the stamp of "Soli Deo Gloria" (all glory to God alone) comes clearly into view.  Revelation speaks of saints wrapped in white robes who have dipped their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Holy butcher paper.  What a sight.
Lord, keep us all wrapped in your butcher paper of heaven. Let your Song envelope us, shape us, and identify us with You alone.

 
Years are funny things.  They, like a storm, can come up on us quickly, or slowly cloud in upon the horizon.  2020 has been a gully-washer of a year.  Coming in with political intrigue, Australian fires, a hail storm called COVID pummeled our world.  COVID and its effects have shut down governments, companies, schools, even worship.  The storm continues on as man decides what to do next.

This year has shaken the world by its foundation.  Something so small, microscopic, has paralyzed us in fear.  A virus, unseen by the human eye, has sabotaged man's great outward achievements.  

A year is the time it takes for the earth to move around the sun.  God watches every minute, holding our earth and universe in His mighty hand.  Not one event happens without His sovereign control.  Yes, even the bad things.

Yet as I sit at my desk overlooking the trees, I have joy in my heart. 

This next month starts a new journey around the sun for me:  our 8th year of the ministry "Joy Through The Stamp".  Started by God, provided by God, flourished by God, this little ministry has touched hundreds of inmates and shut-ins around the country.  I look at my list ---- many names have come and gone.  I have close to 100 on my current list but many have been on it at some point.  Some folks are out of prison and on their own.

  I received a photo of a man I wrote to who just bought his first ATV up in Vermont.  Another man is starting his own prison newsletter and ministry.  A woman got out, remarried and has started a wonderful new phase of life.  Several say they want to minister to prisoners with their life testimonies.  Some teach the Bible in prison.  Some I have lost contact with as they were moved to a new facility.   Sadly, I have taken the call from a prison to state the inmate had died; I was the only one on his contact list.  This ministry has stretched me in ways I would never imagine.

But oh the glory!  Hearing people's prayers answered; reading the encouragement they are experiencing through our friendship; people learning to read the Bible as a living book.  The blessings in God's kingdom are so abundant.

The number 8 has special meaning in the Bible.  It is known as the number of "Grace" and "New Beginnings".  Noah exited the ark on the 8th day.  Jesus exited the tomb on the 8th day.  There are 8 Beatitudes. Some consider 8 the personal number of Jesus Christ; when we add together the letter values of the name Jesus in the Greek we get 888.  The Bible describes the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast is said to have lasted for eight days. The number eight associated with this feast can show us that this feast was to celebrate a new beginning and celebration.  The list goes on.

As I enter this 8th year of ministry, I see the storms swirling around us in the world --- chaos, looting, protests, sickness, poverty.  But I also see the rainbow of hope, life and growth that God is doing in the prison systems across America.  His Word is going forth and bringing fruit.  God's mercy is reaching the dankest cells and barred cafeterias.  Praise God, He is working in the storm, through the storm, and above the storm.  And amazingly, God has asked me to have a small part of this vineyard.  I am humbled and thankful for it. I'm not worthy.  But Jesus is, and makes me worthy every day with his fresh mercies each morning. No matter the storm.

Happy 8th birthday, Joy Through The Stamp.  I look forward to God's work this year, to His glory. Eight candles of fruit for the kingdom.
Amen.

Spotsylvania County, Virginia, boasts of the best dump around.  It is an amazing place. I have friends from out of state who have shown intense jealously for our first-class trash site. For folks who do a lot of gardening, tree-chopping or just cleaning out the garage of years of clutter, this is the best place to be.  I know it’s showing my age when having a good dump is a luxury!  Why is this dump so amazing?  It’s big, organized and clean.  It has 8 bays for you to drive up and dump your stuff into the eternal smasher of things ------there’s a place to put chemicals and refrigerators, newspaper recycling, leaf disposal, a large Goodwill truck with a full-time staff member, and a place where they mulch your trees and wood (which you can have for free! Just load up your truck). Any given morning at 8:00 a.m., you will see 10-12 cars lined up waiting for the gate to open.  This year we cleaned out our garage, hauling three van-loads of stuff for the smasher.  You can see my husband, Darren, on the left.    When it goes, everything is pulverized and pushed into an eternal darkness which we will never see again. Now, this dump is selective; only members of Spotsylvania county are allowed to use it, as our tax dollars fund it.  It is a special privilege.  
We love the dump!

   Now, imagine Darren and myself a week later driving back to dump to look for that stuff!  Imagine us, covered in stench and decay, trying to get that stuff back. People would look at us like we were crazy! A dump is not a place to return and retrieve our stuff—our past.

That’s what we often do with sin.  The sin that Christ has taken for us on the cross, covered in His blood, given the “FORGIVEN” stamp of love, is often the thing that we go back to.  How could we do that? That’s like going back to the dump.  But yes, we spend sleepless nights rehashing sins of the past, worrying about guilt, feeling that God somehow loves us less…..we forget that it has all been put in the eternal dump of heaven; and once sin is covered, we are not to go back looking for it. God placed your sin as far as the East is from the West, and in the deepest ocean.  God even gave us an example of this: Israel.  They longed to go back to Egypt (also an imagery for sin) when they were in the wilderness.  After all God did to deliver them and give them the spoils of Pharaoh, some of them wanted to be slaves back in a land where they were abused. They wanted the dump lifestyle again. WOW!  Let us not follow their example.
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When you are tempted to dredge up old sins that God has forgiven, use these verses for strength:
I John 1:9  “ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness”
Isaiah 43:25-26 “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, 
and remembers your sins no more.” 
God never goes back to the dump.  He looks not back to Egypt. God asks us not to go there either. God chooses to forget our sin -----why would we not follow His example in accepting this fully?  God is a forward-leading Father, not a backwards-leading dictator.  Start to see yourself as God sees you ---- justified in His sight.  Justified means “Just as if I’d never sinned”.   Hide these verses in your heart ---- they are great treasures!  Don’t be a dumpster-diver; be a kingdom citizen, with head held high, knowing that God has forgiven you and given you great riches from His kingdom.  Now go tell someone else that they are forgiven too!  

​In John 21:1-25 we read a fabulous story.  The more I learn about Christ, the more I love Him.  He is majestic, loving, giving, powerful, but sometimes, just plain old “cool!”.  As background to the story, Jesus as been crucified and has risen from the grave.  If you recall, every disciple of Jesus failed him during this time.  They denied him, fled from the scene, hid away, and didn’t initially believe his resurrection story when the women told them.  You can imagine how they might be afraid of Jesus finding them, and what vengeance He would bring them!  I would be nervous as well. Let’s see---the last thing I did with Jesus was ----- blow it big time…. Commit the ultimate failure (despite Jesus predicting it).  I would be confident that I’d be fired from the role of disciple, and maybe given a plague or two in return for my not-so-loyal service.  I’m sure there would be a special place in hell for me…..What greater sin is to deny the Holy Son of God in His presence? Then run and hide? 
 
Jesus is the opposite of what we think.  As the disciples are fishing, and once again failing miserably, Jesus is cooking them breakfast --- fresh, hot, delicious.  He isn’t planning how to punish them, but how to feed them.  He isn’t preparing a judgement, but a feast.  Jesus isn’t preparing a penalty, but a hospitable call. How beautiful is that!  First, Jesus gives them a miracle of fish after their efforts have brought nothing forth.  He fills their empty nets of failure. Then comes the call:  “Come have breakfast!”.  After a long night of work, exhausted and hungry, there is no better call. Instead of “You’re gonna get it!”, Jesus invites them:  “Come and get it!”  The Bible says that they didn’t even recognize it as Christ ---- that voice they had heard for years….the voice that called Lazarus from the grave and told the storm “Peace, be still!”.  What forgetful failures these guys were ---- yet Jesus invites them to a warm meal, a blazing fire, smoky delicious smells, a marvelous sunrise view and a net-full of fish. 
 
Jesus then goes on in the story to reconcile the disciples back into His fellowship --- especially Peter who denied him three times.  Luke, the Doctor, is the only one who gives us the fateful line after Peter curses that he knows not the Lord:  "And Jesus turned and looked upon Peter." (Luke 22:61)  Oh, to meet the eyes of the Savior after betraying Him!  What a dark moment. What a downfall. I try to imagine my sinful eyes locked in the eternal eyes of Love. Luke paints a dark picture.  Not a week later, Jesus is inviting Peter to eat as friends.  Friend, I don’t care what you have done in your life.   It will never be worse than denying God Incarnate three times.  Never.  Peter committed treason, heresy and ingratitude as Jesus was literally dying for Peter’s own sins.  And all within earshot of Jesus Himself....If Jesus cooked Peter breakfast and forgave him, Jesus will do the same for you.  Pull up a chair, don’t be shy.  Jesus only has love and forgiveness for you today.  He wants to fill the empty net you are struggling with this hour.  Plus, He wants to just hang out with you….enjoy a hot breakfast….watch the fire die out…..be in your life after a long night of failure-fishing.  When Jesus invites you to breakfast, it’s the sign of a brand new day.

As we are all social-distancing, quarantining, meeting in small groups and sanitizing, we are focused on the fear of the outside getting in: the fear-filled word: Pandemic.
As COVID-19 shuts down countries, economies, worship and schools, we think:

Where is God in all of this?  
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God has always been present in history's large catastrophic events.....working for His glory and our ultimate good in Christ.
1. God used a large famine to move Jacob and his sons to Egypt where they were reunited with their lost brother, Joseph.
2. God used a nation-wide drought to bring Elisha to the widow's house to save her family.
3. God used a famine to drive Ruth and Naomi back into Israel so that Ruth could meet and marry Boaz, fulfilling God's plan for the Davidic and Messianic lines.
4. God used the capturing of Israel  to bring Esther's family into a foreign land, so that she could marry the King and save the genocide of the Jewish people. 
3. God used a regional census, upsetting the entire area, to bring Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem so that Jesus' birth would fulfill prophecy.
And the list goes on .  God does not see us less when world-wide terrors are alive.  In fact, the dark background of these large black swaths enhances even more the light of God's work in His people. When the question comes up, "Does God care?"  The answer is always, "Yes!".   We can claim this verse as both a cry for help and reassurance of God's care:  Psalm 57:1  says:

​"Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, For my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge Until destruction passes by."

I texted someone last week meaning to say "Happy New Years".  Instead I typed "Happy New Tears".  Quickly fixing  my error, I thought about that statement.  We always wish the best of things for each other, but down deep inside we know the reality.  2020 will bring good and bad.  
Proverbs 27:1 says, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."  This  may be uncomfortable wisdom, but it is true.  In the next 12 months, any one of a host of things could come to our door:
~ a doctor's prognosis or test result
~ a death in the family (maybe your death!)
~financial struggles
~ strained relationships and unforgiven hurts
~car accident
~addiction
My list could go on a thousand events more.  We are sinful people, dealing with other sinful people in a sinful world.  Even being in Christ is no defense for bumping up against heartaches.  Our Lord Himself, living here for 33 years, was "despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem." Isaiah 53:3.  

Familiar with pain.  Jesus didn't just have pain here and there.  He touched some side of it every day.  Jesus, God-man, the Word of the Father, was not just knowledgeable but familiar with pain. He lived it just as we do.  This Hebrew word וִיד֣וּעַ (familiar) refers to "know in a great variety of senses".  Jesus' life was not wonderful for 32 years and then he had a painful last year.  Jesus knew how each year brought new forms of rejection, pain, grief, all the things a new calendar brings us. He felt these pains in childhood, puberty and adulthood.  This should bring us great comfort as we face tomorrow.

The Psalms give us hope in our 2020 tears which may come: Psalm 94:19 "When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. " 
So Happy New Years and Happy New Tears to you....all in Christ alone.

Galatians 4:7 So you are no longer a slave, but God's child;
and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
 
 
Hello and Merry Christmas from beautiful Virginia.  We have an ancestry.com account and I have dubbed myself the family historian.  A few years ago, I traced my mom’s father’s side, the Dingmans, back 14 generations to Holland.  It was great fun.  This fall I decided to follow my mom’s mother’s side, the Winchesters.  What discoveries I made.  It seems that the Winchesters are filled with kings, queens, the Tudors, Bishops, Kings of Wessex and the Visigoths, and Emperors.  Alfred the Great and the present Royal Family are in our line. Now I am in the Frankish/Roman period (the 500’s A.D.) and still going.  My patient husband, Darren, listens as I tell him everyday what new ancestors I’ve discovered and try to relay their tales of greatness. It is great fun but I remember that my past is completely random to me ---- that is, I have no control who my ancestors are.  I really can’t take credit for their accomplishments; I can only admire them. I thought about this, how as a Christian, when we are saved under Christ’s blood, we take on His royal line, His riches, we become “co-heirs” in His kingdom.  And we can’t take one bit of credit.  It’s all the Savior’s grace and favor to us. I realize that Heaven will be the converse of ancestry.com ---- instead of looking back, we will forever move forward learning about Christ and all that He has to give us.  This will be my new contemplation as I look at the manger this year.