Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

Valentine’s Day – it’s supposed to be a day of communicating those matters of the heart as they relate to love and affection.   While Valentine’s Day has come and gone, perhaps there is room for one more Valentine… In regard to those matters of the heart, if I were to paraphrase dictionary definitions, the heart is the center of the total personality, especially with reference to intuition, feeling or emotion. So, how about this as a matter of the heart?    “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation.”   (Psalm 33:11) The plans of His heart…could it be that God’s plans are based on His emotions or feelings? I must confess that I am more used to plans that come from the mind.   For that reason, Jeremiah 29:11 resonates more with me:   “For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”   Did you catch t...

Do you whistle while you work? Do you whistle when you’re happy? Do you whistle to summons (perhaps a person or a pet)? Do you whistle to get someone’s attention? Did you know that God whistles?   What????? Before we go there, perhaps defining the word might be helpful: Whistle - a shrill clear sound produced by forcing breath out or air in through the puckered lips; the sound produced by a whistle; a signal given by or as if by whistling; to send, bring, signal, or call by or as if by whistling. God whistles?   Yep, check it out:   “ I will whistle for them to gather them together, for I have redeemed them; and they will be as numerous as they were before.” Zechariah 7:10 (NASB) Another translation puts it this way:   “I will signal for them and gather them, for I have already redeemed them; then they will become as numerous as they were before.” (NET) I don’t think we are given any indication as to the type of sound that God’s ...

Upside down - t he common definition is to position in such a way that the upper and the lower parts are reversed in position.   B ut it can also mean in or into great disorder. When I recently read Isaiah 29:16, I was struck by an “upside down”: You turn things upside down!   Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? (NIV) It seems so obvious, but the potter is not the clay and the clay is not the potter.   If they were, that would be a major and inappropriate reversal of position and the result would be an upside down, big time! Furthermore, the normal order is that the clay is in the hands of the potter and the potter shapes it as he wishes.   The clay shouldn’t question the potter or assume the potter doesn’t know what he is doing.   Those just throw things into great disorder While that is all...