Journaling Prompt Two

Sunday -A union with Him brings loving grace.
God's grace is an awesome thing. He gives it so freely, all we have to do is say "YES!" and we receive grace & salvation. But it does go beyond just saying yes; we need to bring glory to God in our life every day -- this should be our mission in life.
This morning's sermon by Jean was one of glorifying God. She used John 12:20-33 for her scripture base and talked about how a seed must die before it produces any fruit. Metaphorically Jesus was saying that He must die before His mission here on earth will come to fruition. And we are left behind to glorify God & spread His word throughout the world; this message was not just for the Jews, but to the whole world.
The take-away points that I wrote down in my Bible were as follows:
1. This passage does not to mean that we should not like our life here on earth, but rather that we should look beyond our life here to an eternity with Him.
2. What we do to glorify God is limited only by our imagination.
3. Our Christian life should be like the path that a lamp lighter left as he traveled down the road; one that is visible to all who gazed down the road, lighting the path that he took. He certainly walked in the light as we should; he made the path light for others to see as we should strive to do in our daily walk while we are here on earth. And who would want to walk toward Christ if we hated our life here?
4. Our desire should be to glorify God daily & receive His give of salvation.
So today I come to God in praise & adoration; glorifying His goodness & mercy - thanking Him for His gift of life for eternity and lighting the way for all who follow!

Journaling Prompt One

Prompt - It is startling to realize the miracles occurring.

It is amazing to think about all the miracles that happen around us everyday. As spring approaches, the miracle of rebirth surrounds us. The leaves emerging; the flower buds forming & some even in full bloom already; we need to take time to thank God for His marvelous creation. He is totally awesome! And at this season of Lent we are reminded to dwell on the sacrifice Christ made to save us from our sinful nature.

More of the Rat-A-Tat-Tat -- A Duet Even!

Another exciting day in the birding world. We have been hearing the pileated woodpecker for about a week now; actually he makes quite an loud call & his rat-a-tat-tat is almost deafening. If you want to listen to it go here, scroll down listen - http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/id/ac  When Dave spotted him yesterday it was thrilling. Today was even more thrilling because he was in a tree in the back yard...and there were two of them. I tried to get a photo of them, but didn't manage. I did get a poor quality shot of one of them (it was a rainy, dreary day - not good for using the camera.)

It is amazing to me to watch the birds that are here. When I think of the way nature works together I am in awe of the way that God created the universe & I thank Him for making me aware of what there is to watch & learn from. I have learned to keep my eyes & ears open; I have learned to pay attention to what the birds & critters are doing. And as I think on this, I work hard to keep my eyes & ears on my Lord for I have much to learn from Him.

Rat-A-Tat-Tat

We are so excited! We've been hearing a very loud woodpecker lately and hoping that it might just be a Pileated Woodpecker. Dave spotted a pair of them this afternoon. By the time I got out there, I saw them flying down river but didn't have enough time to capture them with my camera. All evening we heard them off & on very near here -- sounded like there was a pecking on metal, but Dave says that they sound like that on a tree. After listening to them on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (great website!) I quite agree with him. And we've been hearing their call too, wondered what it was...now I know!
This is one of the birds that we've seen only occasionally for the last 39 years we've lived here & one that we've been wanting to add to our photo collection. Now we'll be watching for them more closely. Soon I hope to be able to post one here. :)

Word for the Day - Hope

Today we had our last Lenten Study at the church. We've been using Adam Hamilton's book Why? Making Sense of God's Will. This lesson was about why God's love prevails. One of the things that God gives us is "Hope". I've been having some ideas about scrapping a page or two on the concept of hope. At first I was going to use this: H-His; O-Omniscient; P-Power; E-Eternally. Then I thought perhaps the P should be for Presence. Lastly I thought of Peace. Now I'm thinking perhaps I should use all three. It's coming around in my mind & I know that God will guide me to do an awesome page.
I'm really excited that I finally decided to do an 8x8 book for my Faithbook. And the ideas are really flowing. I think I want to do 2 double pages based on the study we just finished.
I'm also very tired this evening, so this one is going to be very short; but I wanted to get these ideas down somewhere so I can remember my thoughts.

First Day of Spring

It certainly has been like spring the last week or so. Dave is sun burned -- who would have thought that one could get outside enough to be sunburned in the middle of March in northern Indiana? He even mowed yesterday; the earliest he's ever done that.
Today we hung the wind chimes. Also got out the umbrella because it was so bright & sunny & to protect Dave from the son while he was out back. Now, with the ivy done on the patio side of the trellis, it seems like our normal patio setting (minus the flowers of course.) I hope the trees that are coming out won't be harmed by cold weather. Our weeping cherry is fabulous right now. Here's a shot, sorry it's stitched because I couldn't get it all in the camera & I was almost over at Angelo's when I took it -- had my telephoto lens on the camera.

My verse for today has been Jeremiah 29:11. "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." I seem to be overwhelmed this week with all that I need to do in the next few weeks; so I'm concentrating on the "my future with hope" portion & faith that God will help me get everything finished up on time.
On that note, I think I'll get started. Have a blessed day!

God Is Good

Thanks be to God for the wonders of this earth.
Thanks be to God for His grace & mercy.
Thanks be to God for another day to worship Him.
Church today was based on John 3:14-21. Pastor Jean told of how Moses protecting the Israelites from snake bites as instructed by the Lord (found in the book of Numbers) was like Jesus being on the cross and those who turn to worship Him are protected from the bites of Satan. Also in verse 16 it says that we "have" eternal life -- not "will have"; we have eternal life already! And the last thing that I wrote in my Bible was that God rejects our rejection!
One last thought from Charles Stanley -- "The cross is where the worst of man met the best of God."