June 30, 2009

human nature
photo by Erin Doyle

“The first law that ever God gave to man
was a law of pure obedience:
it was a commandment naked and simple,
wherein man had nothing to inquire after or to dispute,
forasmuch as to obey
is the proper office of a rational soul,
acknowledging a heavenly superior and benefactor.
From obedience and submission
spring all other virtues,
as all sin does from self-opinion.
And, on the contrary, the first temptation
that by the devil was offered to human nature,
its first poison,
insinuated itself by the promises
that were made to us of knowledge and wisdom…”
- Michael de Montaigne

June 29, 2009

nature

"Nature has some perfections
to show that she is the image of God,
and some defects
to show that she is only His image."
- Blaise Pascal
(French mathematician, 1623-1662)

June 28, 2009

a new spirit

“O God, who made us once a Christian people
who strode to live by heaven’s law,
who loved Your Word in Scripture and Psalm,
who felt themselves privileged to worship
every Sabbath day in the house of the Lord:
We have not loved You as our fathers loved.
We have grown careless in our faith,
and we have made worship in Your house
a matter of convenience and not of conscience;
A matter of comfort instead of sacrifice;
a matter of fancy instead of faith.
Forgive us, Lord, that we think more of ourselves
than we do of You.
And forgive the Church in this land
that before the world
has seemed really to care so little.
Give us a new heart, Lord,
and a new spirit, we pray.”
- Arthur A. Rouner Jr.

June 27, 2009

I love you this much!
photo by Erin Doyle

“I in them and you in me.
May they be brought to complete unity
to let the world know
that you sent me and have loved them
even as you have loved me.”
- John 17:23 NIV

June 26, 2009

it hath a delicacy

“We sometimes fear to bring our troubles to God,
because they must seem small to Him
who sitteth on the circle of the earth.
But if they are large enough
to vex and endanger our welfare,
they are large enough to touch His heart of love.
For love does not measure by a merchant's scales,
not with a surveyor's chain.
It hath a delicacy... unknown
in any handling of material substance.”
- R. A. Torrey

June 25, 2009

as taught and lived by Jesus

“The great need today among the young
is the strengthening of belief in things spiritual,
for in spite of the superhuman advances
in science, invention, and culture,
none of this is attributed to God's gift to man;
in fact, the increase of knowledge
and the cult of education
have but given to youth a self-reliant independence
where religion has no place,
and beyond admitting that Christ
was ‘the best man that ever lived,’
there are few who concede
any other tribute to the Creator.
And yet the saving principles of the world
are rooted in Christ, implanted in him;
the Truth by which men live
is the Truth as taught and lived by Jesus.”
- Helen Olney

June 24, 2009

discovering God

“To the spiritual perplexity which exercised
so many of the rarest souls of the nineteenth century,
God appeared as a Being
whom men desired to find but could not.
But such a formula,
though it truly represented one side of their situation,
can never represent the whole of any human situation.
For God is also a Being
whom it ill suits any of us to find
but from whom we cannot escape.
Part of the reason why men cannot find God
is that there is that in Him
which they do not desire to find,
so that the God whom they are seeking
and cannot find is not the God who truly is.
Perhaps we could not fail to find God,
if it were really God whom we were seeking.
And indeed the deepest reality of the situation
is that contained in the discovery,
which alone is likely at last to resolve our perplexity,
that when we were so distressfully
seeking that which was not really God,
the true God had already found us,
though at first we did not know
that it was He by whom we had been found.
There is a saying,
’Be careful what you seek; you might find it.’
And some who have sought God
only as a complacent ally of their own ambitions
have found Him a consuming fire.”
- John Baillie

June 23, 2009

the now and here

Fill your now and here
with the Holy Spirit
before the window
of opportunity closes
and you end up
nowhere.

June 22, 2009

I will cleanse you.

“Who will tell whether one happy moment of love
or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning
and smelling the fresh air,
is not worth all the suffering
and effort which life implies.”
- Erich Fromm

“If you have made mistakes,
there is always another chance for you.
You may have a fresh start any moment you choose,
for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down,
but the staying down.”
- Mary Pickford

“I will sprinkle clean water on you,
and you will be clean;
I will cleanse you from all your impurities…”
- Ezekiel 36:25 NIV

June 21, 2009

A Frey family photo

“There is no more vital calling
or vocation for men than fathering.”
- John R. Throop

A father provides love, strength, wisdom,
security, example, friendship, and fun.
- Jim Gallery

“Creating a warm, caring, supportive,
encouraging environment is probably
the most important thing you can do
for your family.”
- Stephen Covey

“What we desire our children to become,
we must endeavor to be before them.”
- Andrew Combe

June 20, 2009

in the muck
photo by Erin Doyle

Caught in the muck of sin
and trying to get out?

Trust in God and persevere.

“We need not despair of any man,
as long as he lives.
For God deemed it better
to bring good out of evil
than not to permit evil at all.”
- St. Augustine

June 19, 2009

where your glory dwells

“I wash my hands in innocence,
and go about your altar, O LORD,
proclaiming aloud your praise
and telling of all your wonderful deeds.
I love the house where you live, O LORD,
the place where your glory dwells.”
- Psalm 26:6 NIV

June 18, 2009

crown of life

"Though nothing can bring back
the hour of splendor in the grass,
of glory in the flower;
we will grieve not,
rather find strength
in what remains behind.”
- William Wordsworth

“Be faithful, even to the point of death,
and I will give you the crown of life.”
- Revelation 2:10 NIV

June 17,2009

The right path?
photo by Erin Doyle

“A well-beaten path
does not always make the right road.”
- Author Unknown

“Listen, my son, and be wise,
and keep your heart on the right path.”
- Proverbs 23:19 NIV

June 16, 2009

Pluck a thistle
and plant a flower.

The Musk Thistle is an invasive plant
that is usually unwanted
wherever it grows.

Musk thistle can become a problem
in pasture or rangeland.

“All my life I have tried
to pluck a thistle
and plant a flower
wherever the flower would grow
in thought and mind.”
- Abraham Lincoln

“Get rid of all bitterness,
rage and anger, brawling and slander,
along with every form of malice.
Be kind and compassionate to one another,
forgiving each other,
just as in Christ God forgave you.”
- Ephesians 4:31,32 NIV

June 15, 2009

related to life

“Jesus, like all other religious leaders,
taught men to pray, that is,
He taught them to look away from the world
of ordinary sense impressions
and to open the heart and spirit to God;
yet He is always insistent that religion
must be related to life.
It is only by contact with God
that a better quality of living can be achieved -
and Jesus Himself, as the records show,
spent many hours in communion with God -
yet that new quality of life
has to be both demonstrated and tested
in the ordinary rough-and-tumble of plain living.
It is in ordinary human relationships
that the validity
of a man's communion with God is to be proved.”
- J. B. Philips

June 14, 2009

cannot love without giving
photo by Erin Doyle

“It is not how much we do,
but how much love we put in the doing.
It is not how much we give,
but how much love we put in the giving.”
- Mother Teresa

“One can give without loving,
but one cannot love without giving.”
- Amy Carmichael

“He who did not spare his own Son,
but gave him up for us all—
how will he not also, along with him,
graciously give us all things?”
- Romans 8:32 NIV

June 13, 2009

determination

“No one is beat till he quits,
No one is through till he stops,
No matter how hard Failure hits,
No matter how often he drops,
A fellow's not down till he lies
In the dust and refuses to rise.
Fate can slam him and bang him around,
And batter his frame till he's sore,
But she can never say he's downed
While he bobs up serenely for more.
A fellow's not dead till he dies,
Nor beat till he no longer tries.”
- Edgar Guest
"Defeat"

June 12, 2009

endured to the end

Some paths are marked
”do not enter”
for our own protection.

There is a path, however,
that the “world” does not
beckon us to take
because it does not promise us
instant gratification and pleasure.

This path may contain hardships,
trials and tribulation,
but it is the “right” path
of truth and leads to
the light of God’s peace
and eternity with Him.

Letting Him be our guide…
trusting and obeying
His Word… will lead us
ever higher into the light
of His presence.

Persevere.

“…but it is the one who has endured to the end
who will be saved.”
- Matthew 10:22 NASB

June 11, 2009

love of God

“I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day,
and stand in deep contemplation
over my vegetable progeny
with a love that nobody could share or conceive
of who had never taken part in the process of creation.
It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world
to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil,
or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently
to trace a line of delicate green.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Mosses from an Old Manse

Don’t you think the Creator
feels the same way about
His creation.

He loves us all so very much.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- Romans 8:38,39 NIV

June 10, 2009

like a green leaf

“Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,
but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.”
- proverbs 11:28 NIV

June 9, 2009

hanging on

“Perseverance... keeps honor bright:
to have done, is to hang quite out of fashion…”
- William Shakespeare

“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on
after others have let go.”
- William Feather

June 8, 2009

God has prepared

I’ll see you forever
For you are a part of me
And I myself a part of thee
Inseparable in God

There is no tomorrow now
Though sun may rise and set
And sleepy eyes may slumber, still
Eternity now is set

It’s stamped upon my heart and yours
Its seal: the Love of Christ
Which willingly I have received
And cherish more than earthly life

This soul awaits a body that will not die-
This soul awaits to see Him with its eye-
This soul awaits our meeting in the sky-
For faithful is our God
Who once did die, but now’s ALIVE :
We’ll see Him forever.”
- David Severy

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared
for those who love him.”
- 1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV

June 7, 2009

In order to be made into the likeness of Jesus
we must become like Jesus.
That is, we must learn to love each other
(yes, even our enemies)
in spite of our differences.
Following the same Shepherd
does not mean that we are all have
to be the same, or think the same,
or even act the same.
It means that we all have the presence
of the Holy Spirit.
It means we all grow
by feeding on the bread of life.
It means that we have found peace…
not worldly peace, but the peace
of God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
It means that we all follow the same path…
His way… by submitting to His will,
glorifying the Father
through praise and worship together.

June 6, 2009

in the morning

"The men who have done
the most for God in this world
have been early on their knees.
He who fritters away the early morning,
its opportunity and freshness,
in other pursuits than seeking God
will make poor headway
seeking Him the rest of the day.
If God is not first in our thoughts
and efforts in the morning,
He will be in the last place
the remainder of the day."
- E.M. Bounds

June 5, 2009

expectations

“Expecting the world to be fair to you
because you are a good person
is like expecting the bull not to charge
because you are a vegetarian.”
- Author Unknown

Be good anyway.

“Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.”
- Psalm 37:3 NIV

June 4, 2009

blossom in heaven

“I tell you the truth,
unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains only a single seed.
But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
- John 12:24 NIV

“The seed buried in the earth
will blossom in heaven.”
- Max Lucado

June 3, 2009

needing prayer

“It was no exceptional thing
for Jesus to withdraw Himself
’into the wilderness to pray.’
He was never for one moment of any day
out of touch with God.
He was speaking and listening
to the Father all day long;
and yet He, who was in such constant touch with God,
felt the need, as well as the joy,
of more prolonged and more quiet communion with Him...
Most of the reasons that drive us to pray
for strength and forgiveness
could never have driven Him;
and yet He needed prayer."
- G. H. Knight

June 2, 2209

God is good!

“I see the wrong that round me lies,
I feel the guilt within;
I hear, with groan and travail-cries,
The world confess its sin.
Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings
I know that God is good!”
- John Greenleaf Whittier

June 1, 2009

My hope is in You.

“We must try to keep the mind in tranquility.
For just as the eye which constantly shifts its gaze,
now turning to the right or to the left,
now incessantly peering up or down,
cannot see distinctly what lies before it,
but the sight must be fixed firmly
on the object in view
if one would make his vision of it clear;
so too man’s mind
when distracted by his countless worldly cares
cannot focus itself distinctly on the truth.”
- St. Basil the Great

“Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:
He bustles about, but only in vain;
he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.
But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you.”
- Psalm 39: 6,7 NIV