Photographer -Geoff Fierce
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God
is the strength of my heart, and my
portion for ever.
Psalm 73:26
Check out Geoff's beautiful photography
on the links provided below.
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON
Photographer - Geoff Fierce
To every thing there is a season, and a
time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Check out Geoff's beautiful photography
on the links provided below.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
MORE DESIRABLE THAN GOLD
Photo provided by Tammy Stein Dore
More to be desired are they than gold, yea,
than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey
and the honeycomb.
Psalm 19:10
Monday, October 1, 2018
THE LORD MAKETH ME DWELL IN SAFETY
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep:
for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8
Check out Geoff's beautiful photography
on the links provided below.
Saturday, September 29, 2018
THE SON BRINGS CLEANING
Tonight, my daughter told her story on live facebook. Her story was very hard to listen to because it was one of deep pain and trauma she had experienced as a young teenager and didn't know who to cry out to for help.
Sexual assault is a horrible thing and anyone living through it will tell you it's like a leach. The person committing the crime walks off seeming many times to feel no pain or sorrow, whereas the victim wears the leach attached to them for the rest of their life. The leach at times seems to be hidden. One thing can happen and suddenly the leach seems to suck the life right out of the body. Anger, frustration, hatred, and every emotion possible comes raging forth out of nowhere.
These emotions can be triggered by true stories or by stories that were even made up or on a movie. None the less, that trigger sets off something within us that takes us out of circulation sometimes for days or even weeks.
For the women who lived before us I must say, I can't imagine that grief and pain you carried and having to keep it locked away in your heart and everyone feeling you shouldn't speak of it. I can't imagine the tears you must have shed feeling you would loose your mind because of the guilt experienced due to the assault. Feeling you are the one that caused it, yet knowing you didn't ask for the person to do such a thing to you. Never able to express yourself to anyone yet secretly dying inside because of the need to be set free.
As I was lying in bed unable to sleep tonight I realized that we live in a period of time that we are free to express everything. We hold nothing back and sometimes that can be good but also can be destructive.
For those experiencing sexual assault I feel this has been good to live in a time we are free to tell the damage it does to a person.
They have a voice and are being heard, now they can heal. They are free to throw the venom out of their heart and be released of the dark shadows that haunt them. Free to move on and be somebody significant instead of being wounded and swiveling away into a old grouchy person and nobody understanding why.
I remember as a very young mom washing diapers and hanging them out on the close line to dry. There were many times those old white diapers would have stains on them that the soap, bleach and water just didn't get out. When they hung on the line for hours the sun would fade those nasty old stains right off the diaper leaving them crisp and white again. This was something that always amazed me when I watch it happen.
I have found in my life that telling my story and just hanging it out on the line has been much like the old stained up diaper. Jesus Christ, the Son shines his rays of love straight to the depth of my deep grief and pain and washes it away leaving me free once again to move forward instead of being locked away in the darkness of my pain and suffering.
He also wants to meet you at the old wash tub and as you express your grief and sorrow, he desires to shine his deep rays of love, compassion, mercy, peace and grace upon your bleeding heart and bring healing that can only be found in his presence.
Sexual assault is a horrible thing and anyone living through it will tell you it's like a leach. The person committing the crime walks off seeming many times to feel no pain or sorrow, whereas the victim wears the leach attached to them for the rest of their life. The leach at times seems to be hidden. One thing can happen and suddenly the leach seems to suck the life right out of the body. Anger, frustration, hatred, and every emotion possible comes raging forth out of nowhere.
These emotions can be triggered by true stories or by stories that were even made up or on a movie. None the less, that trigger sets off something within us that takes us out of circulation sometimes for days or even weeks.
For the women who lived before us I must say, I can't imagine that grief and pain you carried and having to keep it locked away in your heart and everyone feeling you shouldn't speak of it. I can't imagine the tears you must have shed feeling you would loose your mind because of the guilt experienced due to the assault. Feeling you are the one that caused it, yet knowing you didn't ask for the person to do such a thing to you. Never able to express yourself to anyone yet secretly dying inside because of the need to be set free.
As I was lying in bed unable to sleep tonight I realized that we live in a period of time that we are free to express everything. We hold nothing back and sometimes that can be good but also can be destructive.
For those experiencing sexual assault I feel this has been good to live in a time we are free to tell the damage it does to a person.
They have a voice and are being heard, now they can heal. They are free to throw the venom out of their heart and be released of the dark shadows that haunt them. Free to move on and be somebody significant instead of being wounded and swiveling away into a old grouchy person and nobody understanding why.
I remember as a very young mom washing diapers and hanging them out on the close line to dry. There were many times those old white diapers would have stains on them that the soap, bleach and water just didn't get out. When they hung on the line for hours the sun would fade those nasty old stains right off the diaper leaving them crisp and white again. This was something that always amazed me when I watch it happen.
I have found in my life that telling my story and just hanging it out on the line has been much like the old stained up diaper. Jesus Christ, the Son shines his rays of love straight to the depth of my deep grief and pain and washes it away leaving me free once again to move forward instead of being locked away in the darkness of my pain and suffering.
He also wants to meet you at the old wash tub and as you express your grief and sorrow, he desires to shine his deep rays of love, compassion, mercy, peace and grace upon your bleeding heart and bring healing that can only be found in his presence.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful
in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of
salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of
righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels.
Isaiah 61:10
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
CUTTING THROUGH THE STONE
Photo provided by Macie Rae Haley
Have you ever watch water flow after a great storm.
A small stream trickles down the hillside, it's joined
by many other small streams. Suddenly it reaches
the bottom of the hillside and dips into a gully where
a larger stream is flowing. As it travels and other
streams are added to it one by one, the current
increases in momentum and a rapid current suddenly
turns into raging catastrophic plucking of massive
boulders, taking out trees, heavy equipment and
breaking apart houses that are its path.
Yet this very same water can be the thing
which brings tranquility when sitting beside
a calm spring listening to the birds singing
and the sound of the water trickling down
the stream.
The same is true with our heart. The living
water can bring peace, comfort and tranquility.
Yet that same living water can bring conviction
to the heart causing us to be overwhelmed by
how far we have strayed from the presence
of the Holy God who loves us so deeply. This
conviction at times can feel as if the Lord is
cutting into our inner being causing us to
desire to run from his presence.
When we finally surrender our hardened
heart to His will, we realize this strong
conviction has trenched out a path for us
to reach the heart of God, a path that can
only be opened up by us surrendering our
lives to Jesus Christ.
Monday, September 24, 2018
LOVE IS NOT PUFFED UP
Love is ...
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
A devotion by Stephen Long
If you love someone, you will put up with a lot. I have seen the mothers of special children show the greatest patience with their children, even far after a spouse has long ago pulled away because he “just can’t deal with it.”
Love doesn’t give up on somebody after the first and second offense. It is capable of forgiving seventy times seven.[i]
God’s kind of Agape love is about loving for what you can contribute to another’s life regardless of what they do for you. The only one who has ever successfully loved this way is the Lord Jesus Christ, but with the Holy Spirit within us and filling us, we can grow more into this kind of lover.
What kind of person would we observe who loved like this? How would we recognize an Agape kind of lover?
It is the man who forgoes his career to stay at home with his invalid wife. It is the farmer who goes and harvests his injured neighbor’s crop for him. It is the prominent citizen who goes out of his way to speak to the boy with an intellectual disability. It is the policeman who responds to an emergency call from a well known criminal.
Agape love is giving credit to someone else when you know that you also contributed heavily to the success of a project. It is downplaying the flaws of others, knowing that you have plenty of your own.
Love thinks well of others, speaks well of others and treats others as you would have them treat you.
Love will never be jealous of the success of others even if you have competed for the same prize. It will never wish any less blessing or more trouble upon another. It will never say, “They don’t deserve that” when something good happens to another; and it will never say, “They deserved that” when something bad happens to someone else.
The person who loves will not push one’s self up to the front of the line. It will not bully people but it will confront those who do bully others. Love will not allow us to grab the spotlight while shoving others out. Love focuses first on the Lord Jesus and then upon the indivuals around us. It never says "What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?" and "Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?" [ii]
Love will not “think of himself more highly than he ought to think,”[iii] but will also look out “for the interest of others.”[iv] Love is not like the pufferfish, blowing yourself up thrice your own size to impress but will think soberly – realistically. It is not making yourself look smaller than you really are but neither is it making yourself look bigger.
We could use a few more good manners these days. It seems like we’ve lost so much of what we once had attained as a civilized society. Love will help us do that.
Love looks out for others as well as it looks out for one’s self. It doesn’t become easily provoked nor does it think the worst of others but gives a fellow human being the benefit of the doubt whenever possible.
Love is full of joy. There is joy when another succeeds as much as when you succeed. There is joy in the blessing of others as well as when you are blessed. There is joy when truth is spoken – the full truth. It rejoices in the truth that “the wages of sin is death,” but also in the truth that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This is just a start, but that’s what love is. And, if you really want to see true love, don’t look at all of us flawed humans around you; look at God – and the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ who loved you so much he came to a lousy sin cursed world to be one of us and die for our sins. This is love.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
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Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
A devotion by Stephen Long
If you love someone, you will put up with a lot. I have seen the mothers of special children show the greatest patience with their children, even far after a spouse has long ago pulled away because he “just can’t deal with it.”
Love doesn’t give up on somebody after the first and second offense. It is capable of forgiving seventy times seven.[i]
God’s kind of Agape love is about loving for what you can contribute to another’s life regardless of what they do for you. The only one who has ever successfully loved this way is the Lord Jesus Christ, but with the Holy Spirit within us and filling us, we can grow more into this kind of lover.
What kind of person would we observe who loved like this? How would we recognize an Agape kind of lover?
It is the man who forgoes his career to stay at home with his invalid wife. It is the farmer who goes and harvests his injured neighbor’s crop for him. It is the prominent citizen who goes out of his way to speak to the boy with an intellectual disability. It is the policeman who responds to an emergency call from a well known criminal.
Agape love is giving credit to someone else when you know that you also contributed heavily to the success of a project. It is downplaying the flaws of others, knowing that you have plenty of your own.
Love thinks well of others, speaks well of others and treats others as you would have them treat you.
Love will never be jealous of the success of others even if you have competed for the same prize. It will never wish any less blessing or more trouble upon another. It will never say, “They don’t deserve that” when something good happens to another; and it will never say, “They deserved that” when something bad happens to someone else.
The person who loves will not push one’s self up to the front of the line. It will not bully people but it will confront those who do bully others. Love will not allow us to grab the spotlight while shoving others out. Love focuses first on the Lord Jesus and then upon the indivuals around us. It never says "What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?" and "Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?" [ii]
Love will not “think of himself more highly than he ought to think,”[iii] but will also look out “for the interest of others.”[iv] Love is not like the pufferfish, blowing yourself up thrice your own size to impress but will think soberly – realistically. It is not making yourself look smaller than you really are but neither is it making yourself look bigger.
We could use a few more good manners these days. It seems like we’ve lost so much of what we once had attained as a civilized society. Love will help us do that.
Love looks out for others as well as it looks out for one’s self. It doesn’t become easily provoked nor does it think the worst of others but gives a fellow human being the benefit of the doubt whenever possible.
Love is full of joy. There is joy when another succeeds as much as when you succeed. There is joy in the blessing of others as well as when you are blessed. There is joy when truth is spoken – the full truth. It rejoices in the truth that “the wages of sin is death,” but also in the truth that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This is just a start, but that’s what love is. And, if you really want to see true love, don’t look at all of us flawed humans around you; look at God – and the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ who loved you so much he came to a lousy sin cursed world to be one of us and die for our sins. This is love.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
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