We need the Contemporary English Version for today’s Word.

Same night, third vision for our prophet, Zechariah:

This time I saw someone holding a measuring line, and I asked, “Where are you going?”

“To measure Jerusalem,” was the answer. “To find out how wide and long it is.”

The angel who had spoken to me was leaving, when another angel came up to him and said, “Hurry! Tell that man with the measuring line that Jerusalem won’t have any boundaries. It will be too full of people and animals even to have a wall.  The Lord himself has promised to be a protective wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem, and he will be its shining glory in the heart of the city.”

(Zechariah 2:1-5)

Do you not love verses 4 & 5? “…Jerusalem won’t have any boundaries. It will be too full of people and animals to even have a wall…”

Oh, oh. Yes it will. Too full because His goodness will spread among all nations.

“And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,” declares the LORD, “and I will be its glory within.” (NIV)

“And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (ESV)

Fiery passion for His Bride. His incendiary presence the glory in our midst.

No one is like Him. Nothing is worth compromising our relationship with Him.

The Lord says to his people, “Run! Escape from the land in the north, where I scattered you to the four winds.  Leave Babylonia and hurry back to Zion.”

Then the glorious Lord All-Powerful ordered me to say to the nations that had raided and robbed Zion:

(Zechariah 2:6-13 CEV)

God disciplines us carefully and with a Father’s heart. And when others attack without that Fatherly love? Well, what they do to us, they do to Him.

And He won’t tolerate it.

“For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.’ (NASB)

For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye: “Behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. (ESV)

Whoever touches you touches His pupil, the most tender part. We are His cherished treasure. Others should have holy fear of messing with us.

Why?

What you do to her, you do to Me.

I will be to her a wall of fire all around.

And we will know He is the LORD All-Powerful.

Do you know about the Easter Sun Run? This premier 10k and 2 mile race benefits Youth Horizons‘ mission to break the cycle of fatherlessness through mentoring and residential programs. Door prizes, musical entertainment, and homemade BBQ. Basically the best. Register here to join the fun.

Twisted Java is offering 16 oz coffees for 99 cents every weekday morning from 6-7:30 a.m. They also offer delights such as S’mores and Snickerdoodle Lattes. Be still my heart.

From February 20-22, Shutterfly is offering 101 free 4×6 prints! We have ordered and been pleased with prints and cards from this company, and they are an affiliate link to help support this site (at zero cost to you). Just enter promo code WINTERGIFT at check out.

My friend alerted me to Friends University’s Jazz Festival this Friday and Saturday February 19th & 20th. Come hear world-class guest artists accompany Friends’ big band and jazz combos. Get tickets here.

Have you ever been to Bella Vita Bistro? Friends introduced me to it several years back, and it remains one of our favorite local date spots. So charming.

Have you ever read the sweet book Dragons Love Tacos? Our friends pretty much have it memorized and have even thrown a dragon taco party. (Borrow it here.)

Do you know about the 2016 Engineering Expo? Presented by the Wichita section of the Society of Women Engineers, this free event shows kids grades K-8 how cool engineering can be with hands-on activities. This Saturday the 20th from 9-2 at Century II. See you there.

Reverie Roasters has been hosting Adult Coloring Book Socials. The next one is Tuesday the 23rd from 6-8 pm.

Enjoy this warmer weather with extended hours at O.J. Watson Park this weekend. Picnics, fishing, paddle boats.

This Saturday is Brew Day at the Johnson’s Garden West 13th Street Store. I don’t know what that means, but I want to find out.

This is the 30th year the Wichita Public Library is hosting a free screening of Academy Award films. Come to the historic Orpheum Theatre this Saturday, doors opening at 9:30 am. Get more info and see the film nominees here.

Do you know about Startup Wichita? You should.

Library:

This Saturday at Alford from 1 -3, come hear about Brown vs Board of Education and the events that led to desegregation of public schools.

Also Saturday from 2:30-3:30 at Central, come to Family Fun: Draw This Story. Experience the role of illustrator as you listen to a narrative and capture the scene on paper.

Then Monday at Central, come from 3-4 to learn about the Kansas Expungement Law.

At 6 pm Monday, Linwood is hosting Mermaids and Silly Fish. Enjoy stories and make your own tail.

Any time from 11-5 on Tuesday, come to Comotara Branch to Make a Ladybug.

Also Tuesday at noon, stop by Central to hear about Infant Mortality from a representative of Sedgwick County Health Department.

And at Rockwell on Tuesday evening from 6-7:30, Jennifer Allen from Natural Grocers will present Chocolate for Your Health. This is why I love the library.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Waiting

Citrus

Party

Food

Great project

Caleb’s Picasso

Coffee

Can’t stop talking about the $3.99 bouquets from Aldi. They even gave me the bucket.

Marriage can be hard. But we love to soak in its sweetness, too.

President’s Day

Using up energy

Daredevil

8 Week Old beauty

Your 7 Days?

Linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Quick Lit. It is hard for me to throw in my voice on reading posts because I’m rarely finishing books – always in them. But I’m jumping in because sharing.

Emily Dickinson Selected Poems. Because life is poetry.

A Wrinkle in Time. Because I thought this was a read-aloud in school for me, but nothing is ringing bells. I need this in my life.

Brown Girl Dreaming thanks to MMD’s Podcast with Deidra Riggs. Sounded compelling and it is.

The Boxcar Children with Caleb during lunch.

What have you been reading?

{Heads up: some Affiliate Links in here}

I want to write about fashion today.

I do not want to face my blind spots. The ways I am privileged and didn’t know it. A friend said it best on Facebook, sharing how Lent is making her pause and consider her own loss, racism, and pain.

It’s not just out there.

I wish it was.

I hate my naivete at times. The idealism that can smooth away hundreds of years of struggle and injustice. That is genuinely shocked at what is still brewing in our hearts as a nation.

In my heart.

There’s so much to learn. Every stone turned over makes me wince. I want to let it thud back down, leave the darkness unexposed.

Yes. I want to write about fashion today.

————————————–

A new resource.

Last time we got to hear about the first of 8 visions Zechariah had in one night. God told our prophet how He would again show mercy to His people.

Same night, second vision:

“Then I looked up – and there before me were four horns! I asked the angel who was speaking to me, ‘What are these?’

He answered me, ‘These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.’

Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen. I asked, ‘What are these coming to do?’

He answered, ‘These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head, but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people.'”

Zechariah 1:18-21

Have you ever been so sifted that you could barely lift your head?

It’s interesting: horns are symbolic of strength and power in God’s Word. These four horns in particular represent the four nations of Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, and Medo-Persia, the enemies of God’s people who opposed them.

Remember, this was God’s plan. He had outlined in Leviticus 26 exactly what would happen to His people if they gave themselves over to the gods of the nations. The exiles and their ancestors had real-time consequences for their disobedience.

He really is a good Father.

But now He’s done with that. He wants to lift up their heads again…and drive the nations away from His people.

Now. We cannot forget all we learned from Haggai. The people must work. As Beth Moore says, God wisely requires us to play an active part in our liberation. If He just zapped our enemies for us, we’d simply wander, slide, or jump into the next pit. The next object, circumstance, or person who seems to fill our Grand Canyon-sized emptiness and need.

He’s too kind to let us do that. So we work alongside Him to get free and stay free. In His power, under His Word, with His people.

But He gives us the beautiful vision of Zechariah 1 to carry us through the battle: Ultimately He will defeat our enemy.

And we will know where our help comes from.

Another Hack Night with Open Wichita tonight, February 11th, at 5:30 at The Labor Party. Join the discussion.

It’s 2nd Saturday. Shop Douglas, shop local.

This Saturday from 1-3, come to City Arts for their Professional Development Workshop: Marketing and Social Media. This free, quality panel discussion will review the various ways to leverage social media to share your work as an artist.

Come to Watermark for a signing and reading by George Hodgman’s Bettyville: A Memoir. And don’t miss Jessica Day George’s reading of her children’s book Fridays with the Wizards.

Join the Ulrich Museum of Art and Wichita Art Museum Friday and Saturday for their Community Symposium featuring the important work of Gordon Parks. See all discussion and reception times here.

Library:

Tonight, February 11th, come to Rockwell from 6-7 to make LOVE-ly Valentines for your friends.

Also tonight at Westlink, enjoy Family Fun: Dynamic Dinosaurs at 6:30.

Come to Angelou Branch this Saturday any time from 1 – 6 to make paper plate necklaces based on the creations of the Samburu tribe.

Also Saturday from 1 – 4 at Central is LibCon 2016. Dress as your favorite character from books, TV, or movies. Enjoy games and make a superhero ring.

Then at Evergreen on Saturday from 2:30-3:30, come for slime, bananas, and fun with Minion Madness.

On Valentine’s Day, Sunday the 14th, come to Alford for The History of Chocolate. Play games, sample the goods, and learn the history.

Our Popsicle Stick Harmonica event is back, this time at Evergreen any time from 2-5 on Tuesday the 16th.

Also Tuesday, come to Evergreen from 2:30-3:30 for Kids Cook. Ages 6-12 can practice simple recipes with all ingredients provided.

And don’t forget Hook & Needle Friends every Wednesday at Alford from 10-12. You don’t need to be an experienced quilter or knitter or crocheter. Come and learn and make new friends.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Rolling cars down the pile of dirt from gas line work

I have mentioned The Secret Book Club before. The fun part is when you bring back the book you unwrapped, you choose another book and place one of these bookmarks under it. The librarians then wrap that book for someone else to enjoy.

Our friend turned 3

Spiderweb fight

Happiness

New hobby: whittling wood

The start of a wicked Spanish Rice

Minions

Your 7 Days?

When I’m thinking through a specific topic, it takes a while for me to land. To know exactly how I feel about details.

So instead of my opinion, I thought I’d let you in on the articles and discussions that have been rolling around in my brain.

On the topic of racial reconciliation.

I know, very heavy. But I’m convinced anyone reading this blog can jump in and handle it with dignity.

The first article I linked to last week is this one. I like how it makes sure we know we’re not the only generation dealing with these issues. Great way to get started.

Next? This article. Don’t be scared of the title; she is not trying to attack anyone, just be honest about overcoming her complacency. (And make sure to read the blog post she linked to. Best line? “But I am simply and profoundly missing out if all my goals begin and end with me, or if they fail to fall heavy against the throb of injustice.”)

Third, this article from Desiring God. On what it will take to actually have these discussions.

I have yet to participate in and IF:gathering in real time, but I have benefited greatly from watching videos online. The one I’d like to direct you to is here. Beginning at 41:00 the ladies begin this discussion. They even have a downloadable packet of questions for ladies to use to help facilitate honest sharing from various perspectives. (Heads up: I’m fairly sure this is free to watch only until tonight, February 8th.)

(Also? You should check out Jen Hatmaker’s talk here, beginning at 3:25:00. “Ladies: Who would you stand beside if you were unafraid?”)

That’s what I have so far. I don’t think anyone would honestly say this isn’t an issue in our country. I also don’t think anyone honestly thinks the government is the sole answer to our struggles. If the people of this nation, in particular the Body of Christ, want to see forward progress, we will have to begin these discussions.

I’d love it if these thoughts bounced around your brain for a while, too.

“Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence. So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo.”

(Ezra 6:13-14a)

The king had spoken and he was serious. Armed with not only permission to continue, but a command that no one messes with them, our exiles kept on keeping on “under the preaching of Haggai…and Zechariah…”

Back to our prophets.

Last we heard from Haggai it was December 520. The letter to King Darius and his answer took some time, and now it is roughly two months later, February 519. And we’re returning to Zechariah, our Remembering Prophet, three months after his last message.

Let’s hear what God has to say through him:

“On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.

During the night I had a vision – and there before me was a man riding a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.

I asked, ‘What are these, my lord?’

The angel who was talking with me answered, ‘I will show you what they are.’

Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, ‘They are the ones the LORD has sent to go throughout the earth.’

And they reported to the angel of the LORD, who was standing among the myrtle trees, ‘We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.’

Then the angel of the LORD said, ‘LORD Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?’ So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.

Then the angel who was speaking to me said, ‘Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD Almighty says: I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, but I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they added to the calamity.’

‘Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the LORD Almighty.

‘Proclaim further: This is what the LORD Almighty says: My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.'”

(Zechariah 1:7-17)

Our jealous God. Jealous for His people. Comforting those who seek refuge in Him.

The phrase in verse 15 translated “added to the calamity” is no joke. The Hebrew for this word means adversity with the intent to harm.

I like how the NLT states this verse: “I was only a little angry with my people, but the nations inflicted harm on them far beyond my intentions.”

Remember what Zechariah’s name means? “The LORD remembers.”

Even when God is remembering His people’s rebellion, it is so they will learn to obey. So they won’t repeat the same mistakes and end up in captivity.

Is that the same way we remember? Or do we look more like those who don’t know Him: Choosing to remember others’ sin to punish them?

I have been acutely aware lately of when my words and actions misrepresent Him to others. When I do not look like someone who loves much because I have been forgiven much. Or when I don’t trust and it results in anger or anxiety rather than peace.

How about you? Do your words bless others? Or do they tear down and judge with the intent to harm?

And your actions? Do they result from freely receiving that you may freely give? To whomever God is asking you?

I struggle in God’s process to become a person who is quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. But I want to be that more and more.

After all, He is returning with mercy and rebuilding His House.

I want to be among those He comforts.