The Magnificence of God's Creation

Water Dew Drops hanging off a flower frond.  Spectacular!

Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, 

and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 

God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 

God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. 

And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

Kindness

Peanuts

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, 
be at peace with all men. 

Romans 12

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Let love be without hypocrisy. 

Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 

Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. 

Do not be wise in your own estimation. 

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. 

Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 

If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. 

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 

“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 

“But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Sweetheart

The LORD is interested in our sanctification

Check out Something I Don't Understand from Stan on his Blog, Winging it, where he shares his excellent commentary on modesty, and generally, about Christians choosing poorly.

As Believers we are called to a higher standard. Our standard is from the LORD who let's us know what He expects in His Word.

"Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. 

For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 

that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 

not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 

and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 

For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 

So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you."
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

We are fearfully and wonderfully made!

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Psalm 139:14

 I will give thanks to You, 

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Your works,

And my soul knows it very well.

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Little Hummer

From friends in Oregon

Matthew 10:29-31

 Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? 

And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 

So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

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The God of all comfort

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 

who comforts us in all our affliction 

so that we will be able to comfort 

those who are in any affliction 

with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, 

so also our comfort is abundant through Christ."

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LORD! Set them free!

Today I was overwhelmed when I thought of all those individuals who are caught up in legalisms, abuse, drugs, sex, pride, control, greed, arrogance...

I thought of all the mothers, sisters, grandmothers, women who have shared their deepest heartaches with me over these years. 

I cried out for them and I cried out for me.  I know the LORD’s character, and so I know He hears my cries, and that He is working in all these Waywards, but that He is also working in each of us who live in anguish for them.

I thought of so many of the Waywards whom I have prayed for all these years, and I cried out to the LORD!  They are caught in webs of deception, in traps and snares of sins.

Set them free, LORD!  

Confuse their camp and set them free! 

Somehow, set them free!

Psalm 55:9-11
Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongues,
For I have seen violence and strife in the city.

Day and night they go around her upon her walls,
And iniquity and mischief are in her midst.

Destruction is in her midst;

Oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets.

Proverbs 6:1-5
My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor,
Have given a pledge for a stranger,

If you have been snared with the words of your mouth,
Have been caught with the words of your mouth,

Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself;
Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor,
Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor.

Give no sleep to your eyes,
Nor slumber to your eyelids;

Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand
And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Proverbs 1
"...Wisdom shouts in the streets!...."

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Precious mothers, sisters…..I know you are weary!  

But do not become weary, instead, look to the LORD! 

Continue to cry out to Him! He holds you, He comforts you, He sustains you!

Proverbs 15:3 
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good.

2 Chronicles 16:9a
For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Matthew 19:26
And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Psalm 73:28
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.

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The joy of braids!

What do "Red Flags" look like?

"My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent.

If they say, “Come with us,
Let us lie in wait for blood,
Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

Let us swallow them alive like Sheol,
Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;

We will find all kinds of precious wealth,
We will fill our houses with spoil;

Throw in your lot with us,
We shall all have one purse,”

My son, do not walk in the way with them.
Keep your feet from their path,

For their feet run to evil
And they hasten to shed blood.

Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net
In the sight of any bird;

But they lie in wait for their own blood;
They ambush their own lives.

So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence;
It takes away the life of its possessors."
Proverbs 1:10-19