BeautyRevealed | The Blog of Melissa J. Dillon

“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

- C.S. Lewis

I’m almost done with my book… and that makes me sad. Have you ever read a book that was so good that you never wanted it to end? I may just end up reading it all over again when I’m done. 

I had a couple of hours to kill after an appointment so I brought my book and went to my favorite Coffee Shop downtown. I love it because almost everything they make is organic and very healthy. I got a Apple/Blueberry Crumble Muffin and a cup of organic coffee… it was yummy!  I took a picture because I liked how my book matched my plate (I’m strange, I know…) It was such a nice warm atmosphere since it has been rainy and slushy the last few days. 

I thought I would share a portion of a beautiful prayer penned by Leanne Payne: 

“O Lord, long ago I trusted in You, and You saved me utterly.

You took me from the ash heap, a place of powerlessness and death

And made me fruitful.

You made me as a tree whose branches reach out in every direction, 

Bearing Your rich fruits of all kinds and dripping healing waters, resins, and oils.

You caused my roots to grow down deep

To tap into hidden reserves of goodness, beauty, and life.

I put You on anew, O Lord

I cry out to You anew…” - Leanne Payne

It reminds me that only the Lord can transform us. No matter how hard we try… no matter how many self-improvement books we buy… no matter how hard we strive with our 12-step plans and to-do lists (I have had many of these over the years)… we cannot reach down into the rotten barrel of our own heart and produce good fruit. It just doesn’t work that way. We need to be grafted into The Vine. We need to be gazing on the beauty and holiness of the Lord in order to become like Him. 

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” - Jeremiah 17:5-8

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3:16-20

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” – John 15:4

“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.”

- Jane Austen

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.”

- Psalm 19:14

I’ve been reading through the book “Intimate Friendship with God” again by Joy Dawson. I first read this book when I was in YWAM 13 years ago (Wow! I can’t believe its been that long already) and it is still one of my favorites to thumb through and review again and again. Yesterday, I turned to the chapter on thoughts. I think this is something that Christians struggle with so much. It is one thing to “clean up our act” on the outside, but to truly turn from your sin in your thought life is the most challenging part: we may forgive someone when they ask us to but still hold onto bitterness in our heart… we may say that we trust the Lord when times are hard but secretly worry and fear… we can hold our tongue from gossiping about our neighbor but inward think critical and judgmental thoughts about them. But while we may fool others for a time, we will never fool God. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. He knows the true me. He knows the true you. And it is Him that we should strive to please. It is Him that knows how holy our thoughts are, or lack thereof.

Joy Dawson says, “All sin starts in the mind; therefore, we are only as holy as our ‘thought lives’ are holy. I believe our thoughts sound as loudly in heaven as our words do on earth. Would we want our thoughts to be written on a wall at the end of the day for anyone to see?

It is not sufficient to repent of sin committed with our words and actions alone. Repentance of our sinful thoughts are equally important. ‘Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon’ (Isaiah 55:7). If we have not an immediate reaction of hatred to some critical, evil, unforgiving, lustful, or unbelieving thought, then we know there is still a love for that sin in our hearts. We need to ask for the fear of the Lord to come upon us to replace the love for that sin. We are only as pure as our thought lives are pure. ”

So convicting. Actually the whole book is so convicting. But in order to have the intimate friendship with God, we need to get the things out of the way that hinder it. Instead of dealing with the symptoms… we must first deal with the root… our thoughts. It is never about our “performance” but it is about what is truly in our heart. 

Just thought I’d pass on the notes that I had jotted down in case anyone else needed to hear this like I did. Blessings.

Melissa

Am I the last person to find this wonderful publication? This is the third issue of Life:beautiful, a christian home and garden magazine with gorgeous pictures and great articles. It is very professionally done… unlike some other christian magazines which have a tendency to look a little “cheap” or low-budget. My mom and I were both very impressed with this one and think it makes a wonderful gift for friends. There website is lifebeautifulmagazine.com. You can order back issues as well… enjoy!

“I must confess that I think her as

delightful a character as ever appeared in print.”

- Jane Austen on her character Elizabeth Bennett

Every January I get Jane Austen fever. I don’t know why… it just happens. It must be ingrained in me that when Christmas is done and the weather is cold and blustery, that the prescription for the “wintertime blues” is all things Jane. I pick out one of her big fat novels to read… and pop the movies in the dvd player… and research all the websites that have anything to do with her… and I am lost in the world of Jane Austen. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong time… but no, Mark needed to live in the time of Macintosh Computers and I couldn’t be without him, so… here I am in 2008. I can still live vicariously through her novels, though. And so I do: every January.