When our children were old enough for horseback riding, ATVs and such, we spent a few days for several summers at a horse ranch.  One of our favorite sights along the 90-mile trip that began in north central Connecticut were the rolling hills in eastern New York, lush green and dotted with the dark forms of grazing cows.

We never tired of seeing them; their serenity was refreshing.

It’s a scene our heavenly Father notices, too. Through the Psalmist He brings to our attention “the cattle on a thousand hills are mine” (Psalm 50:10).  And David, in the beloved 23rd Psalm, draws us to green pastures where the Lord, our shepherd, makes us lie down.

There is something comforting and reassuring about these passages:  God is in control.

This is why I have chosen Green Pastures for the name and theme of this website. The sight of lush, rolling hills refreshed our family on those summer drives.  We can become weary in the wilderness of websites on the internet; my purpose is to make this a haven to gather, refresh ourselves and rejoice in the Lord.

Gather

God is a gatherer; He loves gatherings.

Early on, God gathered creatures of all sorts to Adam so he could name them.

Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding—a gathering to celebrate love.

Great compassion swept Jesus when He saw the multitudes, “weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).  He lamented when He approached Jerusalem, “How often I wanted to gather your children together” (Matthew 23:37).

And toward the end, before The Great Separation when the Good Shepherd culls his flock, “all the nations will be gathered before Him” (Matthew 25:32).

God gathers and we are gatherers made in His image.  Remember our desolation in the COVID-19 pandemic as quarantine and isolation drove us apart?  The virus emptied public spaces and we longed to work together, to eat together, to worship and play together.  For months we couldn’t gather, and we were devastated.

Gather is what we do, and what God wants.  After all, He tells us “consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25).  We can gather in many ways:  around a table, at the water cooler, in our pews, and even on a website.  Who knows who else is here while you visit?  There at least are two of us in this moment—you and me, and Jesus promises, “Where two or three gather in my name, I am there with them” (Matthew 18:20).  Gather to Jesus, and He promises to be there.

Refresh

The Psalmist is careful to tell us the condition of the pastures by their color.  They are green; not brown, as though dry from drought or bare from overgrazing.  Withered grass and barren ground cannot feed the flock; the Lord our shepherd passes these for better fields—green pastures.  The Psalmist chooses his words carefully, depicting expanses bursting with sprouts—young, tender growth and therefore fresh.  These are fields where the sheep can be refreshed.

This is my second intent for this website.  We need a place to draw aside from the noise and bustle of daily demands.  Jesus recognized this with His disciples. Mark describes in his gospel a particular time in Jesus’s ministry after He had dispersed the disciples and they returned, exhilarated yet exhausted.  “Come away,” He said, “and rest for a while” (Mark 6:30).

Jesus wants us refreshed.  He says to the weary, “Come, and I will give you rest.”  Paul appealed for us to not “grow weary while doing good” (Galatians 6:9).  Isaiah the prophet acknowledged that even youths faint and wear down, but “those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength…They shall run and not be weary” (Isaiah 40:30-31).

This site is dedicated to refreshing you.  With the Lord’s help, I commit to writing that is fresh and crisp and edifying. Limp lettuce isn’t appealing; stale bread doesn’t satisfy.  We ask in the Lord’s prayer for daily bread—fresh and according to our need; in the same way I pray the Lord will refresh and satisfy you here.

Rejoice in God

I cannot say I found God joyful when I was growing up.  To me, He was stern, harsh, demanding, a father of hypocrites and fomenter of arguments.  For example, a teacher trying to get us to esteem the Bible above all books (we were to put nothing on top of it) warned that dropping the Bible would cost us time in heaven.

By my teens, I thought to reject God altogether.  

Imagine my shock, then, when I read this:  

“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation” —Psalm 51:12

This is King David praying in the anguish of horrible events that he had unleashed.   He had committed adultery with the wife of one of his loyal soldiers and conceived a child by her; arranged for the death of her husband, Uriah, in battle; and the boy died soon after birth.

Overwhelmed by his offenses, David said, “I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me” (51:3).  He asked God to blot out his transgressions, to wash and cleanse him, and then to restore his joy.

What shocked me was that David did not pray, “restore my salvation” but rather restore its joy.  Adultery and murder are certainly greater sins than dropping a Bible, yet David did not sense he had lost out on salvation.  The king longed for joy again; he wanted to rejoice in God.

God wants us to rejoice.  Before Israel entered The Promised Land, God foretold how He would choose a place for Him to dwell and the Israelites to “rejoice before the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 12).  He also gave them annual feasts, when they were to gather and “rejoice before the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 16:11).

Whereas the Israelites were to rejoice before God periodically, Paul broadens it in the new covenant, calling us to “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).

Rejoicing in God and the blessing of God are connected.  When I consider how God has blessed me all my life, I usually think of good health and comfortable circumstances, but Paul had something greater than this in mind when he said Christ blesses us in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3).  This blessing, he says, is Christ speaking well of us.  Christ is before the Father, saying good things about us!  Can you imagine Jesus speaking well of you?  Talk about blessing!

This blessing goes both ways—we are to bless God, too.  Paul begins with these words, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  To paraphrase, he is saying, “Speak well of God, the Father of our Lord.”

So, this I also want for this website:  Blessing.

• To bless God by reveling in the great things He has done.

• To bless you by bringing to mind the awesome God we serve.

• To sow Green Pastures worthy of gathering in, where we can rejoice together in the Lord who refreshes.

Come again

I am glad you visited.  I hope you will come again.  Let me know when you do.  I’d like to hear if Green Pastures lives up to its purpose or how it can become better.