Comfort

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“The word comfort is from two Latin words meaning “with” and “strong” – He is with us to make us strong. Comfort is not soft, weakening commiseration; it is true, strengthening love.”

― Amy Carmichael

Let all the mountains, all the fields, and valleys of the earth…

IMG_1996 steeples fog trees silhouette

Some photos around the neighbourhood -with music by Fernando.

IMG_5337 misty forest

IMG_2039 cows fog

IMG_5372 jimsmith fog 3

st marys falls leaves on rock

wasa yellow bushes IMG_2771

IMG_4743 tamarack light

2 horses Wycliffe

IMG_3987 pond field fisher mt

autumn wasa

autumn sanctuary

aspen red leaves

autumn colour

autumn bushes aspen

sunset from wildhorse

Steeping in Reality

shoreline fog

Steep your life in God-reality,

God-initiative,

God-provisions.

Don’t worry about missing out.

You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

 

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now,

and don’t get worked up

about what may or may not happen tomorrow.

God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up

when the time comes.

-Jesus

(Matthew 6:33,34 The Message)

Content

Contentment
Content

True contentment is a real, even an active, virtue – not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it.

– G.K. Chesterton

Hiding Place

Hiding Place
Hiding Place

Come Away”

You are a hiding place for me;
    you preserve me from trouble;
    you surround me with shouts of deliverance. 

(Psalm 32:7)

Seriously?

Yesterday I scrambled down a deep ditch and through brambles and thickets and barbed wire looking for a pond I remembered that might still have colourful leaves around it.

“Oh Lord, please let this be worthwhile,” I prayed under my breath as I unsnagged my sweater from another monstrous Russian thistle.

IMG_4295 Wildhorse Pond Autumn

“Secret Place” (click on photo to enlarge)

He answered.

Oh, Lord, you are seriously good. You gave me a gift of more than I imagined. Thank you.

And since he created me to be creative I played with the photos when I got home.

Here’s the thing, my other prayer yesterday was just wanting to know if he loved me. There are those out there who say I am deceived, I have disappointed my Lord and am heading for hell. In a still silent voice he spoke through riotous colour. “Seriously? What do you think? You just posted a scripture today about true believers having the mind of Christ available to them. Think with that mind.”

Right.

Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit  so that through faith the Anointed One will reside in their hearts. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded so that together with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings.

 This is a doxology of praise to the One with power that is beyond understanding.

 Now to the God who can do so many awe-inspiring things, immeasurable things, things greater than we ever could ask or imagine through the power at work in us, to Him be all glory in the church and in Jesus the Anointed from this generation to the next, forever and ever. (Ephesians 3:16-21 The Voice)

Abide

IMG_4125reeds stump

“Abiding in the presence of God is learning to see Him in every situation.”  -Graham Cooke

  • My faith has found a resting place,
    Not in device nor creed;
    I trust the Ever-living One,
    His wounds for me shall plead.
  • I need no other argument,
    I need no other plea;
    It is enough that Jesus died,
    And that He died for me.

-Eliza Hewitt, 1891

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. (1 John 4:15-18)

The Leaves of the Tree

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In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river,

was there the tree of life,

which bare twelve manner of fruits,

and yielded her fruit every month:

and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

(Revelation 22:2)

IMG_3939 maple tree sun left

IMG_3914 maple leaves valley

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Turning
Turning

Loft
Loft

 

 IMG_3934 maple red red red

He Loves Me Too, He Loves Me Too

He loves me too
He loves me too

God sees the little sparrow fall,

It meets His tender view;

If God so loves the little birds,

I know He loves me, too.

He loves me, too, He loves me, too,

I know He loves me, too;

Because He loves the little things,

I know He loves me, too.

-Maria Straub, 1874

“What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” (Luke 12:6,7)