Category Archives: Bible

Santa Monica Mountains Wildflowers

To be able to call the plants by name
makes them a hundredfold more sweet and intimate.
Naming things is one of the oldest and
simplest of human pastimes.

Henry Van Dyke in Little Rivers

 

Giant Coreopsis, Sea Dahlia                   Indian Paintbrush ~ Figwort Family
Sunflower Family

 

Wild Hyacinth ~ Amaryllis Family             Chocolate Lily ~ Lily Family

California Encelia ~ Bush Sunflower,  Sunflower Family

Wishbone Bush ~ Four O’Clock Family

Rattlesnake Weed ~ Spurge Family

Here comes Peter Cottontail!

Here comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin’ down the bunny trail,
Hippity hoppity,
Easter’s on its way

And In the wonderful words of Swinburne –

Winter’s rains and ruins are over
—————–
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the Spring begins

~

The paths lead them in pleasant places who walk among the wild flowers.

March 1952  ~ John Kieran

Psalm 104: 24-25 ~

“O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures
innumerable,
living things both small and great.”

For more Wildflowers in Winter click here.

ht: quotes from  An Introduction to Wild Flowers by John Kieran

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

Thankful Thursday ~ Hope

I am so thankful to God for this time of year. This time before Spring arrives. The anticipation for Easter and then the culmination with a great celebration of the Resurrection. I think this even trumps Christmas for me. I love Christmas, too, but the New life and new birth and flowers and strawberries that come with Spring just overwhelm me! Thank you God for these simple pleasures and your amazing sacrifice and miracle of your Resurrection that make this season so beautiful!

Hebrews 6: 19, 20 ~ “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us has entered on our behalf. ”

For more Thankful Thursday click here.

WFW ~ Mathew 6: 25-27

 

wfw_blue1.jpg

Mathew 6: 25-27 ~
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more imortant than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

For more Word Filled Wednesday head over to The 160 Acre Woods

Word Filled Wednesday ~ James 1: 5-7

James 1: 5-8 ~

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”

For more Word Filled Wednesday visit Amydeanne at The 160 Acre Woods.

WFW ~ Ephesians 5:8

Darkness or Light
Ephesians 5: 8 ~ “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
~
For more Word Filled Wednesday click here.
Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

A Meme about Books

 Willow from Willow’s Cottage tagged me for a meme about Books. I had to think a while on this one and I’m sure my answers might change as time goes on or as my memory clears here and there…

The Bible would fill the bill for many of these answers for me but I’m going to answer with books written by human beings…

1. A book that has changed your life.

I loved Willow’s answer about Dick and Jane. I too remember how thrilled I was to be able to read those books, hold them in my hand. I even remember the smell, putting in the book mark, not wanting my reading time to ever end but I’m going to come up with something different…

I’m going to say that being able to read and enjoying reading and reading a variety of books through my life has changed my life for the better. From Dick and Jane, to the Little House on the Prairie Series, The Freddy the Pig Series, some classics, some good Christian non-fiction, George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Stephen Lawhead, R.C. Sproul. That might be cheating but I really can’t point to one book except the Bible that has changed my life all by itself.

2. A book you read more than once

Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit both by Tolkien, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead, The Harry Potter Series

(and of course all those childrens books that I read over and over and over to my kids)

3. A book you would take to a desert island.

Before I answer I was wondering… What is a desert Island? A deserted Island? An Island that doesn’t get rainfall? Anyway it for sure doesn’t sound like somewhere I’d want to be so maybe I would take a book I can escape into and be inspired by like,

The Lord of the Rings

4. A book that made you laugh.

Lots of them have but right now I am reading Anne of Green Gables and it has made me laugh a lot.

5. A book that made you cry

The last time I read the Lord of the Rings and got to the last page I closed the book and wept and thanked God that He gave someone such a talent to write like that. I also cried at the end of the last Harry Potter Book…

6. A book you wish you had written

Something classified as being a classic. But honestly I don’t know if I’d be comfortable living with such brilliance. So maybe a beloved children’s book like The Pokey Little Puppy.

7. A book you wish had not been written.

I’m drawing a blank here. There is a lot of trash out there in the form of books.

8. Two books you are at present reading.

Right now besides the book of Hebrews (I’m on a quest to try to read every book of the Bible 20x before moving on to the next) I am reading Anne of Green Gables.

9. Two books you are going to read.

I’m on a reading children’s classics kick. I’m going to read The Wind in the Willows. Then I just got an Elizabeth Goudge book called The Child From the Sea that I’ll be reading too.

10. A book you read and never figured out.

Oh this is an easy one for me. I so enjoy George MacDonald but one of his books just bewildered me. It’s called Lilith. It’s one of his fantasy books. If anyone has read it and wants to explain it to me, I’m all ears. I really think I get along better with his regular fiction not his fantasy…

So there you have it. If anyone would like to join in on this meme please do and let me know when you do…

More About Jesus ~ Hymn

 More About Jesus

More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love Who died for me.

Refrain

More, more about Jesus,
More, more about Jesus;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love Who died for me.

More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern;
Spirit of God, my teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me.

Refrain

More about Jesus; in His Word,
Holding communion with my Lord;
Hearing His voice in every line,
Making each faithful saying mine.

Refrain

More about Jesus; on His throne,
Riches in glory all His own;
More of His kingdom’s sure increase;
More of His coming, Prince of Peace.

Refrain

Words: Eliza E. Hewitt, 1887 ~ Music: John R. Sweney

Ephesians 3:16-19 ~ “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Tuesdays In Other Words

This week, Elisa is hosting “In ‘Other’ Words” at her site, Extravagant Grace. She has chosen a quote from the Anne Ortlund’s book “The Disciplines of a Beautiful Woman.” This week’s quote is:

“But remember, for all your adult life you’ll be a woman. And how you live your life as a woman, all by yourself before God, is what makes the real you. Nothing on the exterior can touch or change that precious inner sanctuary, your heart, his dwelling place unless you let it. And God, who loves you very much has tailor made all your outer life, your circumstances, your relationships, to pressure you into becoming that beautiful woman he’s planned for you to be.”

~ Anne Ortlund ~

So here is where I went for “in other words.”
~
Titus 2: 1, 3-5 ~
“You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.
“Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their
husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.”
10 – 15
“….so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
~
I’m just beginning a study with some women at my church on Titus 2. We are using the book Feminine Appeal – Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Motherby Carolyn Mahaney. Here are some quotes from the 1st chapter of the book to follow-up on this passage from Titus.
“Our conduct has a direct influence on how people think about the gospel. The world doesn’t judge us by our theology; the world judges us by our behavior. People don’t necessarily want to know what we believe about the Bible. They want to see if what we believe makes a difference in our lives. Our actions either bring honor to God or misrepresent His truth.
….As verse 10 [in Titus 2] says, we can “adorn” the gospel with our lives. To “adorn” means to put something beautiful or attractive on display – like placing a flawless gemstone in a setting that uniquely shows off its brilliance. The gospel is like the most valuable of jewels.
…Make no mistake, by adorning the gospel, we are not enhancing or improving it.  The gospel cannot be improved! But by cultivating the feminine qualities listed in Titus 2, we can present the gospel as attractive, impressive, and pleasing to a watching world.”
~
The truth that is presented in Titus 2 for us women is a dependable model of what God has planned for women to be in this world. What is truly beautiful is a women who adorns the gospel inside and out…
~
For more Tuesdays In Other Words click over to Extravagant Grace.