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.
A very Happy Valentine’s Day to all my bloggy friends.
And a very Happy Birthday to my dear friend, Beth, in the State of Washington. I’m so happy our boys became such good friends so we could in turn become friends. God’s richest blessings on you this year!
I John 3:1 ~ “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God.”
Psalm 36:5-7 ~ “Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your love!”
And now after reading these verses in Psalm I’m singing this song by Third Day..
“Your Love Oh Lord”Your love, oh Lord
Reaches to the heavens
Your faithfulness stretches to the sky
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains
Your justice flows like the ocean’s tide
I will lift my voice
To worship You, my King
I will find my strength
In the shadow of your wings
Have a marvelous day basking in the “love”
For more WFW click here.
I am thankful for God’s compassion for us.
Before he formed us in our mother’s womb, before his creation multiplied on the earth He planned a way for us to be made alive with Christ. His compassion for the lost world because of sin sent His son to the cross to suffer and die for us. Without the sacrifice on Jesus’ part on behalf of us we would still be dead in our sins, separated from God, utterly lost. We are redeemed through Christ’s blood.
Thank you God for your compassion.
Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice.
Thank you Holy Spirit for your work in our lives to help us to be a compassionate people who love like God and sacrifice like Jesus.
Ephesians 4:32, 5: 1-2 ~
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Praying that God through His Spirit helps us to be a compassionate people who see the world through His eyes…
For more Thankful posts visit Iris at Sting My Heart.
All of these photos of Spring flowers were taken in England. The third photo on the top of the collage is of a Fritillaria meleagris which grow wild on the grounds of Magdalene College in Oxford. This photo was taken on Addison’s Walk, a footpath along the grounds and River Cherwell. When we were on this trip I wasn’t a blogger yet. If I was, I would have taken more and better photos of this wonderful flower. I’ll add a google image of a closeup so you can see it better. The 1st photo I believe are Anenome nemerosa. The second daffodils. The fourth are Pink Pom Pom Aster? Any real gardeners and flower buffs can correct me if I’m wrong, please.
While on one of our trips in England we stayed on the Farm in the center picture in the Lake District. This was the first time I ever experienced hearing a Cuckoo Bird. I was amazed and excited to realize it really says “cuckoo, cuckoo”. Then after hearing the cuckoo from our room at the Bed and Breakfast we got to see some of these cuckoos as they flew from tree to tree on one of our walks. This brings me to the poem about Spring and Flowers and the Cuckoo that I chose to share for week 3 of Wildflowers in Winter. I would highly recommend a walking tour in the Lake District or the Cotswolds in late Spring and early summer.
To The Cuckoo
~ by William Wordsworth
O BLITHE New-comer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?
While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear,
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off, and near.
Though babbling only to the Vale,
Of sunshine and of flowers,
Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.
Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing,
A voice, a mystery;
The same whom in my school-boy days
I listened to; that Cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.
To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen.
And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.
O blessed Bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, faery place;
That is fit home for Thee!
I’m adding two photos of my husband and our daughter and myself with our daughter on Addison’s Walk on the grounds of Magdalene College where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis would walk and talk.
For more literary contributions to Wildflowers in Winter Week 3 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.
“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 ~
I’m thankful that God chose me, that He forgives me, that He loves me, and that He continues to lead me and protect me.
I am thankful for our new evening Home group that encourages me and gives me the opportunity to encourage.
I am thankful for learning about other people and cultures in bloggy world. It opens up the world to me in ways that I never dreamed of before.
I’m thankful to be able to pray for people all over the world.
I am thankful that Jesus laid down His life for me and brought me out of darkness into His light.
I am thankful that God fills me with joy!
I Thessalonians 5: 23-24 ~ “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”
For more thankful posts head over to Sting My Heart.
Welcome to my Thursday Thirteen. On January 15th I stopped by this McDonald’s to take some photos and gather at least 13 facts about the oldest-operating McDonald’s. I don’t have the facts numbered but I’m sure there are at least 13! Enjoy…
Roger Williams co-owner of the McDonald’s Restaurant at Lakewood and Florence Blvd., stands by the 64-foot neon sign that may be the only one left of its kind in the United States. William and Bud Landon opened the McDonald’s in 1953, and the business still remains under the original franchise agreement with the McDonald brothers.
The 1953 McDonald’s restaurant at 10207 Lakewood Blvd. (at Florence Ave.) is the oldest operating McDonald’s.
It was listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservations 1994 list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
It was one of the first restaurants franchised by Dick and Mac McDonald, prior to the involvement of Ray Kroc in the company, and it still has the original “Golden arches” and a 60-foot animated neon “Speedee” sign.
For more Thursday Thirteen 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.
“I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits for long, so very long, in vain.”
~A.W.Tozer~
I am going to be bold and say in other words that this very desire to want the Lord in our lives will have to come from Him. We naturally will not have this desire or the ability to drum it up on our own. We need to start asking daily that God will give us this desire. We need to say each day to Him “not my will but thine”. Help me Lord today to desire You, to listen for You, to love you more. Teach me what it means to abide in You. We need to recognize the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God the Spirit who teaches us, testifies, guides us, convicts us, comforts us.
We need to open our Bibles daily, read, meditate, listen, and respond to His leading.
Ezekiel 36: 25-27
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
II Corinthians 5: 17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”
John 7: 37 -38
“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him”. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
May I encourage you and me to speak to God today like we would speak to a real person. Let’s ask Him to give us the desire to grow closer to Him and to give us the awareness of all the Holy Spirit is in our lives.
For more In Other Words visit Debbie at Chocolate and Coffee.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 