Looking Forward to Spring

I'm going to take photos of my favorite quiet spot over the next month and watch for spring.

 This is my Father's world.

The birds their carols raise.

The morning light, the lily white,

Declare their maker's praise.

Wonderful Day

Yesterday my good friends from Kansas City came to visit, and sang and played the piano with me. Then my neighbors surprised me by knocking on my door and inviting me over to play their piano and have a hymn sing. We had a great time, each recalling their favorite hymns and telling about when they first came to know the Lord,

We found that we all liked Dottie Rambo's song "We Shall Behold Him". Everybody had tears in their eyes thinking about the day when Jesus will return for us "in all of His glory".

The Bible passage that stood out to me this morning was 1 John 3.

We know that when He is revealed, 
we shall be like Him, 

for we shall see Him as He is.

Sometime

Sometime, 

when all life's lessons have been learned,

And sun and stars forevermore have set,

The things 

which our weak judgments here have spurned,

The things o'er which we grieved with lashes wet,

Will flash before us out of life's dark night,

As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue;

And we shall see how all God's plans are right

And how what seemed reproof 

was love most true.

by May Riley Smith

Praise the Lord

Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life,

my lips shall praise Thee.

Psalm 63:3

I Won't Be Overwhelmed

credit

If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,

and the light around me be night,"

even the darkness is not dark to You,

and the night is as bright as the day.

Darkness and light are alike to You.

Psalm 139:11-12

God I Look to You
Jenn Johnson, Bethel Music

I am dreaming of daffodils!

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

Sunshine After Rain

We had blowing snow a few minutes ago, and now bright sunshine. It reminded me of this old hymn, and of the pretty tulips, daffodils and forsythia in my son's yard in KC last spring.

Like the sunshine after rain,

Like a rest that follows pain,

Like a hope returned again,

Is the peace that Jesus gives.

Like the soft, refreshing dew,

Like a rosy daybreak new,

Like a friendship tender, true,

Is the peace that Jesus gives.

Oh, the peace that Jesus gives

Never dies; it always lives.

Like the music of a psalm,

Like a glad, eternal calm,

Is the peace that Jesus gives,

Haldor Lillenas, 1885-1959

Nothing Less

"How much of your life you've invested in Jesus Christ is the issue. Have we held some back for ourselves - just in case He's not as real, as powerful, as active as we thought? Just in case He doesn't come through? Just in case He really can't be taken at His Word? Or have we banked everything we have and everything we are on the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord of all the earth? We will never fulfill our destinies until our hope is built on nothing less."
Beth Moore, Beloved Disciple

His oath, His covenant, His blood

Support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way

He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ the solid rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand.

All Powerful God

There is a river

    whose streams bring joy to the city of God,
        the holy place where the Most High lives. 

God is in that city.
    It cannot fall.
        God will help it at the break of dawn. 

Nations are in turmoil, and kingdoms topple.
    The earth melts at the sound of God’s voice.

 The Lord of Armies is with us.
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah

 Psalm 46:4-7 God's Word

I have posted this passage before, but it meant even more to me this morning. That one phrase: "The Lord of Armies is with us" stood out. He is here!

The Plans of God's Heart

"From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty. To anyone who truly loves America, nothing could be more inspiring than to contemplate this rededication of our youth, on each school morning, to our country's true meaning."

President Dwight Eisenhower upon signing the bill to include "under God" in the pledge of allegiance. 6/14/1954

The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

Psalm 33:11-12

Funny Memory

My first year of teaching school was in 1972. I was 21 and the other two first grade teachers were in their late sixties. We three would sit together at the lunch table in the cafeteria. They were a tremendous help to me, but they would often boss me around like I was a kid. (Guess I was!)

"Eat everything else on your plate before you have your dessert!" they would tell me every day.

One day, I'd had enough, and I said a little too loudly: "I went to school for four years to be able to teach, and I've earned the right to eat what I want off my own plate!!"

Then I heard one of my six year old students at the table behind me inform the class, "Hey, our teacher only went through the fourth grade!"

All We Need

By his divine power,

God has given us
 everything we need for living a godly life.

We have received all of this
by coming to know him,

the one who called us to himself 

by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

2 Peter 1:3 NLT