Reasons for Joy

Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again I will say, rejoice!
Philippians 4:4 NKJV

“How’s life?” someone asks.
And we who’ve been resurrected from the dead say,
“Well, things could be better.”
Or “Couldn’t get a parking place.”
Or “My parents won’t let me move to Hawaii.”
Or “People won’t leave me alone
so I can finish my sermon on unselfishness”. . .

Are you so focused on what you don’t have
that your are blind to what you do?

You have a ticket to heaven no thief can take,
an eternal home no divorce can break.
Every sin of your life has been cast to the sea.
Every mistake you’ve made is nailed to the tree.
You’re blood-bought and heaven-made.
A child of God—forever saved.

So be grateful, joyful—for isn’t it true?
What you don’t have is much less than what you do.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6:20-21

Published in: on June 20, 2017 at 3:55 am  Comments (1)  
Tags: , , ,

Only Seeds

the Farmer/Grandpa teaching young sowers.

I read a fable about a man who was browsing
in a store when he made the shocking discovery
that God was behind the sales counter.

So the man walked over and asked,
“What are you selling?”

God replied,
“What does your heart desire?”

The man said,
“I want happiness, peace of mind,
and freedom from fear…for me and the whole world.”

God smiled and said,
“I don’t sell fruit here. Only seeds.”

Luke 8:5-8 A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Luke 8:12-15 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

Published in: on June 19, 2017 at 4:44 am  Comments (1)  
Tags: , ,

Father’s Day 2017

A perfect description

of my Father, Bill Topper

the Farmer and my 3 Sons.

He never looks for praises
He’s never one to boast
He just goes on quietly working
For those he loves the most
His dreams are seldom spoken
His wants are very few
And most of the time his worries
Will go unspoken too
He’s there…. A firm foundation
Through all our storms of life
A sturdy hand to hold to
In times of stress and strife
A true friend we can turn to
When times are good or bad
One of our greatest blessings,
The man that we call Dad.
by Karen K. Boyer

Published in: on June 18, 2017 at 4:47 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , ,

Our 50th Wedding Anniversary


June 16, 1967

We are not the same persons this year as last;
(or 50 years ago – me)
nor are those we love.
It is a happy chance if we,
changing,
continue to love a changed person.
W. Somerset Maugham

December 18, 2016

We do and we are thankful.

We have been abundantly blessed.

Published in: on June 16, 2017 at 4:14 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , ,

I AM THAT I AM

God is His own equivalent,
and God needs nothing
but Himself to achieve the great purposes
on which He has set His heart.

I AM THAT I AM Exodus 3:14

God gave Moses a blank,
and as life went forward for the next forty years.
Moses kept filling in the blank with his special need.
He filled in fearlessness before Pharaoh.
He filled in guidance across the Red Sea.
He filled in manna for a whole population.
He filled in water from the rock.
He filled in guidance through the wilderness.
He filled in victory over Amalek.
He filled in clear revelation at Sinai.
And so Moses, for the rest of his life,
had little else to do than to go quietly alone,
and taking God’s blank checkbook,
signed by God’s name,
I AM THAT I AM,
write in I AM guidance;
I AM bread.
He presented the check
and God honored it.

And whenever you come to live upon God’s plan as Moses from that moment did, you may absolutely trust God. And when you come down to the hoar-head you will say, “Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you” Joshua 23:14. A. B. Simpson

Whatever life may bring to you,
“God” will ring true to you;
Star in your sky—
Food in your store—
Staff in your hand—
Friend by your side—
Light on your path—
Joy in your heart—
In your ears music—
In your mouth songs.
Yes, rapid as your race may run,
And scorching as may shine your sun,
And bitter as may blow your blast,
And lonely as your lot be cast—
Whatever life may bring to you,
“God” will aye ring true to you.
Charles. Herbert

Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. Jeremiah 23:23

Published in: on June 13, 2017 at 4:05 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , , , ,

My Salvation, My Rock, My Defense

A Psalm of David.
Truly my soul waiteth upon God:
from him cometh my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation;
he is my defense;
I shall not be greatly moved.
My soul, wait thou only upon God;
for my expectation is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation:
he is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory:
the rock of my strength,
and my refuge, is in God.
Trust in him at all times; ye people,
pour out your heart before him:
God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Psalms 62:1-2,5-8

Published in: on June 11, 2017 at 4:32 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Five Minute Friday – Expect


Joining with Kate at Heading Home

For five minutes of free writing.
“This is meant to be a free write, which means:
no editing, no over-thinking,
no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation.
Just write.”

Today’s prompt- Expect

go

Expect –
regard as likely to happen
anticipate await

Oh, how often I have expected something to happen
birthdays,
Christmas,
a wedding,
the births of my five babies.

Many times
the happenings were beyond my expectations.
Most of the time, in fact,
they were happily beyond my expectations.

BUT
those times with hard results,
those times of heart rendering results
those times when my expectations were shattered.

What then . . .

This I recall to mind,
therefore I have hope.
Lamentations 3:21

I remember:
in the hard times – I was never alone.

in the heart rendering times = He healed my broken heart.

in the shattered times – He picked up the broken pieces,
set them back on the potter’s wheel
and created a new vessel fir His use,

I’ve learned to leave my expectations in God’s hands.

Psalm 62:5
My soul, wait thou only upon God;
for my expectation is from him.

There is none but him in whom thou canst safely trust; and to get his help, resign thyself into his hands; be subject to him, and be silent before him. . .
Clarke’s Commentary


We are on vacation and just visited Niagara Falls.
The Almighty God who created this,
can easily and faithfully take care of my expectations.

Published in: on June 10, 2017 at 9:57 am  Comments (5)  
Tags: , , , ,

A Time To . . .

Sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
January, May, September,.
Winter, spring, summer, Autumn.
Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas.
These are the punctuation marks of time,
and what a marvelous mercy
that God divided light from darkness,
“and the evening and the morning were the first day”. . .

“For everything its season,
and for every activity under heaven in its time.”
wrote Qoholeth, the preacher of the book of Ecclesiastes.
For birth, death,
planting and uprooting,
killing and healing,
pulling down and building up.
Weeping and laughing,
mourning and dancing,
scattering stones and gathering them,
embracing and refraining,
seeking and losing,
keeping and throwing away,
tearing and mending.
There are times for silence and speech,
for love and hate,
for war and peace.

For the Christian,
time is transfigured
as we see it held in the love of God,
created by and for Jesus Christ,
to whom belongs the primacy
over all created things
and who existed before everything
and holds everything together.
Elisabeth Elliot

Published in: on June 9, 2017 at 3:55 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , ,

God’s ‘Love Language’ is Gifts.

We are profoundly impressed with
the unlimited resources of the God of the Bible.
He never does anything small.
When He makes an ocean
He makes it so deep
that no man can fathom it.
When He makes a mountain
He makes it so large
that no one can measure or weigh it.
When He makes flowers,
He scatters multiplied millions of them
where there is no one to admire them but Himself.
When He makes grace,
He makes it with out sides or bottom
and leaves the top off.
Instead of giving salvation with a medicine dropper,
He pours it forth like a river.

When God sets out to do a thing for us,
He does it with a prodigality of love-
prompted abundance that fairly staggers one
who reckons things by the coldly calculating standards of earth.

Whatever blessing is in our cup
it is sure to run over.
 With Him the calf is always the fatted calf;
the robe is always the best robe;
the joy is unspeakable;
the peace passeth understanding;
the grace is so abundant
that the recipient has all sufficiency for all things,
and abounds to every good work.

There is no grudging in God’s benevolence;………
unknown

And he brought him forth abroad, and said,
Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars,
if thou be able to number them:
and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
And he believed in the LORD;
and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Genesis 15:5-6

Published in: on June 6, 2017 at 4:42 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

May 350 Block Report

“Our new goal for May is to make 46 blocks
for a year-to-date total of 149.

and our new goal for June, which is 38 blocks,
for a year-to-date total of 187.”
Prairie Moon Quilts

My total to date –
January 33 + February 34 + March 22 + April 12 + May 0 = 101

Yes, zero, I cut strips for my 30’s scrappy trip-around-the-world,
but nothing sewn together.

,
I don’t even have a new picture.
I love the way these blocks look.

We left Sacramento, CA, on our vacation road trip on May 11.
I did pack my sewing machine
but it hasn’t seen the light of day.
I’m doing good to get in some crocheting on my #100 day project.
We are now in Holmes County Ohio.

Published in: on June 4, 2017 at 7:07 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , ,

#100 Days Project

My #100 day project of crocheting has hit a detour.

We live near Sacramento, CA.
We left May 11 on a road trip vacation
pulling a 22 ft trailer
driving north into Washington,
east through Idaho ans Montana,
south to Denver, Co,
east to Chicago, IL,
southeast through IN into Kentucky,
northeast to Ohio arriving
in Holmes County Ohio, Amish country on June 3, 2017.

I had time most evenings to crochet,
but little energy to do so.
I’m the navigator
and it takes much concentration at times.
Thinking is hard work.

I’ve missed 18 days of crocheting.

I finally finished row 63,
completed row 64 and started row 65
on May 16, non-moving day.
Then I had to rip back
because row 65 wouldn’t work out.
So not much head way,
but I finally figured out my problem
and now I’m on row 66.
Row 66 section between ‘hills’ reads
*sc in next 18 stitches,
hdc in next 2 sts,
dc in next 2 sts,
edc in next 2 sts,
tr in next st,
tr2tog,
tr in next st,
edc in next 2 sts,
dc in next 2 sts,
hdc in next 2 sts,
sc in next 18 sts*
9 times.

I am enjoying, when I’m not ripping,
the challenge of this #100 day project of crocheting.

Published in: on June 4, 2017 at 6:27 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Imagine God Answering Your Prayer

“NOW unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory… Ephesians 3:20-21

This is one of my favorite scriptures, ‘above all that we ask or think’. That burden you’ve been praying about, to borrow a phrase from a friend, “How Can You Imagine God Answering Your Prayer?” What is the most extreme your mind can think? What would the answer look like in “a perfect world”?

One scripture says ‘His thoughts are not our thoughts ‘ to me that means that whatever I could imagine is so much less than what God has in mind.

There is no other such piling up of words in Paul’s writings as these, “exceeding abundantly above all,” and each work is packed with infinite love and power to “do” for His praying saints. There is one limitation, “according to the power that worketh in us.” He will do just as much for us as we let Him do in us. The power that saved us, washed us with His own blood, filled us with might by His Spirit, kept us in manifold temptations, will work for us, meeting every emergency,every crisis, every circumstance, and every adversary.—The Alliance

“Unto Him be the glory…”

Published in: on May 26, 2017 at 3:54 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , ,

What’s In A Name?

What’s in a Name?

“And of the sons of Elam; Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Eliah.” (Ezra 10:26 KJV)

This verse is buried twenty-six lines deep in the midst of a long list of laborious names. Very few people would even bother reading it. I guess I’m one of those few. You can see that seven names are listed; a father and his six sons. However, nothing is said about them — who they were, what they did, how their lives mattered. Nothing. Just their names. But names are important. A name defines you, and a good name is to be desired above great riches.
So I did a curious thing with this verse of scripture. Using the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, the Easton Bible Dictionary, and the Hitchcock Bible Names Dictionary, I looked up the meaning of each of these names and what I uncovered is worthy of your consideration.

Elam — a secret hidden by distance in the highlands
Mattaniah — the gift of hope from the Lord; the hope laid up in heaven
Zechariah — The renowned Lord has remembered
Jehiel — God’s life will be seen in me
Abdi — serviceable, servant of the Lord
Jeremoth — elevations; uplifted beyond the fear of death
Eliah — The Mighty God, the Lord who works in wonder and power

Putting the meaning of these several names together in one continuous thought produced the following treasure:

“There was a secret hidden in the heavens, far away from the sight of man. It was a gift of hope, laid up in heaven for us by the Lord. At the perfect moment, in the fullness of time, the Lord remembered the gift and brought it forth for us to have and to behold. Because of this His name is now renowned throughout the whole earth. His life has now been made manifest in and through us, making us useful unto every good word and work, and lifting us far above the power of sin and death. He is the mighty God, who works wonders of love by His great power.”

Next time your whizzing through the Bible on your way to a place called Hurry Up and Get Here, take a break. Slow down and read with an inquisitive mind, a curious soul, and an investigative hunger. You might just stumble upon a buried treasure or two. James Ryle

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Published in: on May 23, 2017 at 4:45 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , ,

Sunday Bible Reading – For Our Good Always

Deuteronomy 6:4-7
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day,
shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house,
and when thou walkest by the way,
and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Deuteronomy 6:20-25
And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying,
What mean the testimonies,
and the statutes,
and the judgments,
which the LORD our God hath commanded you?
Then thou shalt say unto thy son,
We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt ;
and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand:
And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore,
upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household,
before our eyes:
And he brought us out from thence,
that he might bring us in,
to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.
And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes,
to fear the LORD our God,

for our good always,

that he might preserve us alive,
as it is at this day.
And it shall be our righteousness,
if we observe to do all these commandments
before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

Published in: on May 21, 2017 at 3:20 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , , ,

“fearfully and wonderfully made”


Psalms 139:14
I will praise thee;
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

How would you answer this multiple-choice question?

  • a coincidental collision of particles.
  • an accidental evolution of molecules.
  • soulless flotsam in the universe,
  • “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Don’t dull your life by missing this point:
You are more than statistical chance,
more than a marriage of heredity and society,
more than a confluence of inherited chromosomes
and childhood trauma.
More than a walking weather vane whipped about
by the cold winds of fate.
Thanks to God you have been
“sculpted from nothing into something”
(Psalms 139:15MSG)
Cure for the Common Life, Max Lucado

Psalms 139:15-18
My substance was not hid from thee,
when I was made in secret,
and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect;
and in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!
how great is the sum of them!
If I should count them,
they are more in number than the sand:
when I awake,
I am still with thee.

Published in: on May 18, 2017 at 4:32 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , , ,
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »