God is Working His Purpose Out ~ Hymn

God is Working His Purpose Out

God is working His purpose out
As year succeeds to year;
God is working his purpose out,
And the time is drawing near;
Nearer and nearer draws the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled
With the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea.

From utmost east to utmost west,
Where’er man’s foot hath trod,
By the mouth of many messengers
Goes forth the voice of God:
Give ear to Me, ye continents,
Ye isles, give ear to Me,
That the earth may be filled
With the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea.

What can we do to work God’s work,
To prosper and increase
The brotherhood of all mankind,
The reign of the Prince of Peace?
What can we do to hasten the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled
With the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea.

March we forth in the strength of God,
With the banner of Christ unfurled,
That the light of the glorious Gospel of truth
May shine throughout the world;
Fight we the fight with sorrow and sin
To set their captives free,
That the earth may be filled
With the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea.

All we can do is nothing worth
Unless God blesses the deed;
Vainly we hope for the harvest-tide
Till God gives life to the seed;
Yet near and nearer draws the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled
With the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea.

Words: Arthur C. Ainger, 1894.

Eleven Years and Counting…

On Wednesday, June 5th, eight of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook gathered at Lovella’s for a luncheon to celebrate our 11th year together.

Lovella provided all the oh so delicious food except for that beautiful cake that Anneliese made and brought to share.

Prayer For Friendship

You have blessed us, O God,
with the gift of friendship,
the bonding of persons
in a circle of love.

We thank you for such a blessing:
for friends who love us,
who share our sorrows,

who laugh with us in celebration,
who bear our pain,
who need us as we need them,
who weep as we weep,

who hold us when words fail,
and who give us the freedom
to be ourselves.

Bless our friends with health,
wholeness, life, and love.
Amen.

This poem by Vienna Cobb Anderson was shared with us by our dear Betty who lives in the same Province as Charlotte so neither of them could be with us for this celebration at Lovella’s home. The weather did not hamper our wonderful time under the tent. Our time and our ongoing friendship is all this poem expresses.

75 Years…

Before I share about my day in Canada I want to acknowledge the 75th anniversary of D-Day.  A day that stopped a force of evil that threatened the well being of mankind. A great evil was restrained that day. Thank you to all the young men who stormed that beach.

Have a thoughtful day…

 

Say Cheese!

On Monday Dear and I headed over to our kids’ place to help out. My help was of the play and cuddly kind. Addy found this little camera in her toy chest and we had some hilarious fun with it. She gave me instructions on where to stand when she was going to take a photo of me. Too cute. She’s learned a lot from those who want photos of her.

She got her work clothes on and sun hat on so she could work in the garden with her mama. I stayed inside and watched and cuddled Jaymison.

After lunch Addy got to choose one small lollipop to enjoy. She got a stash of candy from the Kettle Falls Parade this past Saturday. Her first experience with candy galore! She wanted to see her red tongue so Dear took this photo of her.

I’m flying to the Coast today and will be in Canada tomorrow so if you don’t hear from me you’ll know why. Looking forward to seeing our Coast kids and the “Girls” in Canada.

Mine Eyes Shall Behold Him ~ Hymn

Mine Eyes Shall Behold Him

I know not the hour of His coming,
Nor how He will speak to my heart;
Or whether at morning or mid-day,
My spirit to Him will depart.

Refrain

But I know I shall wake in the likeness
Of Him I am longing to see;
I know that mine eyes shall behold Him,
And that is enough for me.

I know not the bliss that awaits me,
At rest with my Savior above;
I know not how soon I shall enter,
And bathe in the ocean of love.

But I know I shall wake in the likeness
Of Him I am longing to see;
I know that mine eyes shall behold Him,
And that is enough for me.

Perhaps in the midst of my labor,
A voice from the Lord I shall hear;
Perhaps in the slumber of midnight,
Its message may fall on my ear.

But I know I shall wake in the likeness
Of Him I am longing to see;
I know that mine eyes shall behold Him,
And that is enough for me.

I know not, but O I am watching,
My lamp ever burning and bright,
I know not if Jesus will call me
At morning, at noon or at night.

But I know I shall wake in the likeness
Of Him I am longing to see;
I know that mine eyes shall behold Him,
And that is enough for me.

Words: Fanny Crosby

Front and Back and the Shop Pad

I took some photos while Dear was removing part of our fence to get ready for the work force that would be prepping the area for his future shop.

The equipment arrived bright and early on Tuesday the 28th of May.

The pad is ready for further preparations for Dear’s shop. The structure will be next and the concrete floor is the last thing you do. We are really open now to the street on this side of our property. We haven’t seen any deer in the back acres yet with this new open invitation. They are creatures of habit and coming into our backyard hasn’t been part of their habit…yet.

I’ll be linking up later this weekend to Mosaic Monday with Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.

Quotes of the Week

Little Sins

Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes
that spoil the vineyards.
Song of Songs 2:15

A little thorn can cause much suffering. A small cloud may hide the sun. Tiny foxes spoil the vineyards; and little sins do mischief to the tender heart. These small sins burrow in the soul and fill it with what is hateful to Christ, and thus our comfortable fellowship and communion with Him is spoiled. A great sin cannot destroy a Christian, but a little sin can make him miserable.

~Spurgeon

They are not seeking truth but seeking to put forth their own point of view ~ Linda

It cannot end there for a true believer. One with genuine faith cannot hear the Lord’s words and walk away without acting on them. The faithful will be more than shocked, more than amazed, more than admiring–they will be obedient. They are building a structure on solid rock.

* Obeying the words of Christ is equivalent to building on solid rock.

Obedience is the inevitable manifestation of true faith.

The state of mind that refuses obedience is pure and simple unbelief.

Faith obeys. Unbelief rebels.

~Excerpts from The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur

Becoming a Christian is waging a war against yourself.

Are you willing to abandon the sovereignty you exercise over your own life and confess Jesus as Lord?

~From a sermon on Matthew 7:13-17 by John MacArthur

One man with God is a majority though there be a thousand on the other side. ~ Spurgeon

All these quotes came from my readings and what I listened to these past couple weeks. They are for my own benefit and hopefully yours, too.

We drove to Spokane yesterday to do some shopping and when we arrived at the kids house to drop off their items we enjoyed quite the noisy thunderstorm. Every time the thunder rumbled, Addy asked, “What’s that?” One of the times she wanted me to hide with her on the couch with a pillow in front of our faces. It seems JJ can’t sleep well when it’s too quiet. Jamie tried to have him sleep in his own room with the monitor on. He kept waking up. She finally brought him into the living area with music going, Addy making noise and the vacuum going and he fell right to sleep and stayed asleep. Hmm.  I got some extra cuddle time with JJ while we were there, too. When we arrived home our power was out but came back on shortly after 9 PM. Glad that was a short outage. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Little brother content and asleep with all the noise a busy family produces!

 

The State of our Yard

I took all the photos in the collages on Memorial Day.

The magic of digital photography in avoiding the weeds and making spaces look better. Oh me oh my, we do have weeds galore.

On Tuesday we had the pad for Dear’s shop prepped and what a lot of work it is to get the ground ready for the cement slab. We had excavators, dump trucks and a huge roller on the property working from 7:30 am until 3:30 pm. The material that they dug up to begin with was dumped into our empty pond shell. Win, win. They also took some of our rock away for another family at church who can use it. A very productive day! I’ll feature a whole post on the beginning of this project but here is one photo from Tuesday.

The roller was huge and the vibrations from it shook the whole house.

Hope the last week of May is filled with good things for all of you!

Hello and Shoo!

Last Friday we were mowing the lawns in the morning and were in a rush to finish up before the rains came. We put all the equipment away and later in the evening we noticed a deer in the yard. We have never had deer in the backyard because it is totally fenced off. We realized we had forgotten to close the gate in the back where we have started a compost pile on the other side of the fence.

The deer seemed quite delighted with all the new things in our yard that it could nibble on.

When the deer began to eat our clematis it was time to shoo it away.

My Dear had to go out and scare the unwelcome deer back to the gate and out of the yard.

We secured the gate again and the deer went off to wherever the deer go in the evening.

It’s been nice having a relatively secured back area but today Dear took down 40 feet of our fence in the front because we are having a space prepared for his future shop to be built on. I might be chasing more unwelcome deer away from our clematis, soon.

If you look through the tree you’ll see the fence sections Dear has taken down already. Our backyard is free range now.

On Monday I got to enjoy both our grandchildren. Addy is getting more and more articulate and it’s fun to hear her full sentences. Jaymison is still having some digestive and elimination issues but he’s gaining weight and doing better. We’ve had some periods of heavy rain through the weekend. We are warming up and expected to go up 10 degrees tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll be putting our Heat Pump to good use. Hope you all have a good week.