Eclipse Rave, Eclipse Poem, And A Book Review 🌒

(Hang onto your hat if you are wearing one, this is going to be a longer post than usual. 😄) The eclipse yesterday was really amazing! A friend sent me a pair of (approved) glasses in the mail a few weeks ago and I was so ecstatic! I had been scheming, trying to find a way to get a pair with no luck; everyone was either sold out, or my computer wouldn’t let me order, but who needs luck when you have thoughtful friends and an amazing God Who provides? ♥

Even though I had the glasses, I was still a bit sad that I didn’t have a filter for my camera so I could take a photo of the eclipse. And then I got a wild idea…

😂 😂 😂 I still can’t believe this worked. God is good! ♥ This was the peak for Arkansas; no totality here. (It was about 89% at it’s peak.) It got a little darker, but it wasn’t anything like I saw for the people who were lucky enough to be in the totality. It was still an amazing experience though! And I wrote a poem about it.

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Eclipse

Performance has just begun,
The moon eclipses the sun.

Moons shadow travels the land,
From Pacific shore to Atlantic sand,
Isn’t it all just so grand?

And in the midst of it I wonder;
My mind can’t help but wander…

Like Satan tried to deliver a blow,
Natural satellite blocks the glow;
Sun is too bright, creates a halo.

Even in darkness, God remains,
To guide us; Satan is in vain!

The only begotten Son,
Jesus Christ, victory is won,
It is finished; it is done!

I just want to sing praise
Today, what a gift He gave!

Reminders of His grace
Everywhere; I’m abased
And His sweet embrace

Tells His beloved children
Of His love, again and again.

As I stand captivated,
The eclipse terminated;
But joy abounds, elated.

The light defeats the night
As the sun again shows its might.

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Even though I didn’t get to see totality this time, there is another eclipse in 2024, in which Arkansas will be in the totality path, and I’m really excited for that! I hope I can see it then. 😀 Speaking of, have you seen the 2024 eclipse path compared to the one from yesterday?

Image from Biblegematria, originally from NASA

When I first saw it, there was an audible “Awww,” which confused my dad a lot. I had to explain that it looks a lot like a cross – if I tilt my head. This fact was even more amazing once I was reminded of the fact that the sun went dark when Jesus died upon the cross. (Thank you, wordcoaster8550!) “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.” (Mark 15:33) That was one loooong eclipse, if that is what it was. How interesting is that?

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To get myself even more excited, I pulled Every Soul A Star by Wendy Mass from my bookshelf to read last week. It focuses on three teens preparing for a total eclipse. This is my second time reading this book; I read it a year or two ago and I loved it – it even has info in the back about yesterday’s eclipse (it was written in 2008)!

It’s a young adult book; I read a lot of YA because it doesn’t usually have quite so much cursing and suggestive themes in it.

What is unique about this book is that it has three points of view in first person – Ally, Bree and Jack. At first, this may seem confusing but when reading it, it wasn’t. Their points of view are so different, it was easy to tell them apart. Just in case it happened though, there is a symbol by the page number to let you know who is speaking – Ally is a crescent moon, Bree is a star and Jack is a planet with rings around it.

The following is the first sentence that each of them speaks to the reader:

“In Iceland, fairies live inside rocks.” – Ally

“I was switched at birth.” – Bree

“My father has no head.” – Jack

With introductions like these, I knew I was in for a wild ride!

Ally’s parents own a campground called Moon Shadow, in which they are preparing for the crowds who come to see the eclipse. Among the people coming to the campground are reluctant Bree, whose parents dragged her along, and Jack, who either goes here or goes to summer school. They have no idea that their lives will overlap at the campground and that they will change each others lives…

I identified most with Ally. Not knowing much about city life, knowing random facts about random things, living in the middle of nowhere, not to mention that she was homeschooled – haha, I liked her a lot.

If you’re a bit of a nerd like me, you’ll appreciate all the science facts about space in this book. 🙂 For a YA book, it was quite educational. And in places, it was hilarious. So for now, I’m going to experience an eclipse in totality through this book and its characters, and look forward to 2024.

Hope y’all are having a great week so far! 😊

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Humility – Jesus in the Wilderness

Some of you may remember that I’m slowly studying Humility by Andrew Murray and reading through the Gospels while paying attention to His humility. I thought perhaps you all would like to read a few notes I’ve been making as I go:

Matthew 4:5-7: Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, ‘He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’ ”
Jesus said unto him, “It is written again, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’ ”

Not only is Satan misquoting verses on Psalm 91 here, it wasn’t until a friend told me about this verse (I’m slowly working my way through the Gospels but I haven’t gotten to the end yet) that I realized how many angels Jesus had that He could have called, but didn’t:

Matthew 26:53: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”

Legion: “a military division varying at times from 3,000 to 6,000 foot soldiers, with additional cavalrymen.” (Thank you, Webster’s dictionary.) So, my friend encouraged me to do the math here. At the very least, 3,000 X 12 = 36,000, and at the most, 6,000 X 12 = 72,000.

And He said “more than.”

That’s a lot of angels.  😮

Just think, when the mobs surrounded Him, when Satan tempted Him, and when He was sent up to Cavalry to be crucified, He could have called 36,000 – 72,000 angels – or more! – to deliver Him.

But He didn’t, because it wasn’t His will – it was the Father’s will He obeyed. Now that is what I call humility.

All In Context.

“If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”

That sounds like a grand promise from God to His children, don’t you think? But what is the context of this verse? This is Luke 4:7. Here are the surrounding verses:

Luke 4: 1 – 13: And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days He did eat nothing: and when they were ended, He afterward hungered. And the devil said unto Him, “If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.”

And Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

And the devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, shewed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto Him, “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”

And Jesus answered and said unto him, “Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, ‘He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’ ”
(Satan is misquoting Psalm 91: 11&12 here.)

And Jesus answering said unto him, “It is said, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’ ”

And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season.

Satan sure is crafty. My point is, you don’t want to use a verse that seems to say one thing before reading the context before and after it. Another example:

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (Psalm 37:4)

Beautiful verse. But consider what the Bible says about the heart’s desires:

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7: 21-24)

These are all things that God hates. So why would He give us our heart’s desire if it’s sinful and wrong? Here are the surrounding verses:

3: Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

4: Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

5: Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

6: And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

This is not the flesh heart; this is the heart that loves God with all its might. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (Second Corinthians 5:17) It’s this heart that gets what it wants. It wants Jesus. It is focused on Jesus. And when it has Jesus, it wants no worldly things, no sinful things.

For if one asks for Him, and knowledge of Him, etc, He will give it. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.  (Matthew 7:7&8)
Ask for Him; seek Him; knock on His door and He will open it! How wonderful is this? ♥

Depression and Denying Self

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

“Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)

Denying self. What does this mean? For years, I thought it meant denying self-worth. Statements like, “You don’t deserve (finish this sentence with any good thing, want, or idea)”, “You’re a worthless sinner”, “You’re not good enough” went through my head, and I let them have free reign. (And then those thoughts took the reigns, cut them, and let the worst run free inside me, and it nearly destroyed me. But that’s another post for another day.) While it is true that we are all sinners, Christ died for us all, and I believe that.

He made our sins as white as snow. (Isaiah 1:18)

Depression took a truth as Satan did when Jesus was in the wilderness, and twisted it into something that it was not ever meant to say.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”

But He answered and said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, “If thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, ‘He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.” (Note: Satan is misquoting Psalm 91:11&12)

Jesus said unto him, “It is written again, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’ ”

Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto Him, “All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.”

Then saith Jesus unto him, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’ ”

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

(Matthew 4: 1-11)

In reality, a twisted truth is a crafty way to say, “lie.”

Verses are intended to be read in context. Sometimes it is possible to take a verse and then apply it to a situation that it was not addressing.

That is dangerous. Very dangerous.

It misleads the soul.

Denying self and denying self-worth are entirely different things. What I believe “denying self” means is what Paul spoke of in Romans 8: deny the wants of the flesh self and walk after the Spirit. 🙂