“For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. Eat nothing made with yeast. Where ever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.” – (Words of God to Moses found in Exodus 12:19)
“ ‘These are the LORD’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: The LORD’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the LORD’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For seven days present a food offering to the LORD. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’ ” (- Lev. 23:4-8)
“And you shall count for yourselves from the morrow of the Shabbat, from the day that you bring the omer [offering] that is raised, seven complete weeks there shall be until the morrow of the seventh week you shall count fifty days – (Leviticus 23:15-16).
“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else. I’ve felt that many times. My hope for all of us is that “the miles we go before we sleep” will be filled with all the feelings that come from deep caring – delight, sadness, joy, wisdom – and that in all the endings of our life, we will be able to see the new beginnings.”
― (Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember)
“…2And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, beside which stood those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name. They were holding harps from God, 3and they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations! 4Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”…(Revelation 15:2-4; The Song of Moses and The Lamb)
“When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back. He praised God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.” –
(Luke 17:15)
“For your Maker is your husband— the LORD Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.” – (Isaiah 54:5)
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever” (John 6:32-33, 58)
“We sometimes choose the most locked up, dark versions of the story, but what a good friend does is turn on the lights, open the window, and remind us that there are a whole lot of ways to tell the same story.” – (Shauna Niequist)
“When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow.” – (Shauna Niequist)
“Joy in your heart is better than bitterness in your soul.”
― (Matshona Dhliwayo)
“Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.” (John 20:27)
“You showed me that my past didn’t make me unworthy to receive the nearness of God in the elements. I could stand before the table of grace a whole person — deeply flawed and still incredibly valued, hand-made by a loving God” ― (Lenny Duncan, Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the US)
In every generation, everyone is obligated to see themselves as though they personally left
Egypt.
“All virtuous women, like tortoises, carry their house on their heads, and their chapel in their heart, and their danger in their eye, and their souls in their hands, and God in all their actions.” – (Jeremy Taylor)
“When we leave the pen in His hands we will never be disappointed with the story of our lives.” ― (Eric Ludy, When God Writes Your Life Story)
“Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.”
― (Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass)
“Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from the God of his salvation.…” – (Psalm 24:3-5)
Let us raise our cups in gratitude to God that this call can still be heard in the land. Let us give thanks that the love of freedom still burns in the hearts of our fellowmen. Let us pray that the time be not distant when all the world will be liberated from cruelty, tyranny, oppression and war.”
― (Mordecai M. Kaplan, The New Haggadah For the Pesah Seder)
“Sometimes the greatest love comes from unexpected places.” – (Ruth 1:16)
“Who or what is your Pharaoh?” – (Exodus To Freedom by Gail Landgraf)
“Freedom is within our grasp, and Pesach reminds us that we need to reach.” — Rabbi Bradley
“Freedom is within our grasp, and Pesach reminds us that we need to reach.” — (Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson)
“Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” – (Psalm 90:12)
“Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. 7 The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.” – (Esther 7:6)
“Whenever you eat and drink – Remember Me.” – (Jesus)
“I arise today through the strength of Heaven.” (St. Patrick)
“There are only two kinds of people in the world, the Irish and those who wish they were.” (Old Irish Saying)
“Life is like a cup of tea; it is all in how you make it.” (Old Irish proverb)
“So the men of Benjamin did as they were told. Each man caught one of the women as she danced in the celebration and carried her off to be his wife. They returned to their own land, and they rebuilt their towns and lived in them.” – (Judges 21:23)
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” – (Esther 4:14)
(Esther 4:14) “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (NIV)
” The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. And in every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them. ” – (Esther 8:16-17)
“Settle this in your heart: Whether I am up or down, the Lord Jesus is the same. Whether I sing or sigh, the promise is true and the Promiser is faithful. Whether I stand on the summit or am hidden in the vale the covenant stands fast and everlasting love abides.” – (Charles Spergeon)
“As I prayed for the future I could see that these concepts taken from the ancient exodus were the only way any would ever regain the right to live within the total freedom God has always intended for us to have.” (Gail Landgraf – Exodus To Freedom)
“No matter how gloomy things seem, everything can turn around. Talking to God can turn things around. ” – (Rabbi Elchunon Tauber)
“Then all Israel from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came together as one and assembled before the Lord in Mizpah. 2 The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of God’s people, four hundred thousand men armed with swords. 3 (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, “Tell us how this awful thing happened.” – (Exodus 20:1-3)
‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. – (Revelation Chapter Two)
“The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.” – (James Madison)
“Don’t die with your music still in you.” – (Dr. Wayne Dyer)
When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!” – (Judges 19:29-30)
“All you need is love; but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” – (Charles M. Schulz)
“January is the quietest month in the garden. But just because it looks quiet doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.” — (Rosalie Muller Wright)
After they had taken Micah’s idols and his priest, they went to Laish, to a tranquil and unsuspecting people, and they struck them with their swords and burned down the city. – (Judges 18:27)
“True love stories never have endings.” — (Richard Bach)
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD. – (Jeremiah 17:5)
“Time is what we want most, but… what we use worst.” – (William Penn)
“I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” – (NIV – Revelation 3:8-10)
“In every wood in every spring there is a different green.” – (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings)
“If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and counsel, there is no telling how great a catastrophe shall come upon us and bury our glory in profound obscurity.” (Daniel Webster)
“With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men.” – (Samson)
“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” ― (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince)
“Time is non-refundable; use it with intention.” – (Anonymous)
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.” – (John Muir)
“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.” -( Ray Bradbury)
(Revelation 7:7) – “Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.”
“Small lights have a way of being seen in a dark world.” – (Neal A. Maxwell)
“The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.” – (W. Somerset Maugham)
“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.” – (Larry Wilde)
“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.” ― (Ellen Goodman)
“So quiet and subtle is the beauty of December that escapes the notice of many people their whole lives through. Colour gives way to form: every branch distinct, in a delicate tracery against the sky.” – (Flora Thompson)
“With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps. With the jawbone of donkey I have slain 1,000 men.” – (Samson)
“You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.” – (Nehemiah 9:8)
“O come, O come, Immanuel,and ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to you, O Israel.” – (JM Neale)
“What good is the warmth of summer without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” (John Steinbeck)
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – (Soren Kierkegaard)
“Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that reared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey within them.” – (John Bunyon)
“Out of the eater, something to eat, out of the strong, something sweet.”
Oh wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love, come to teach us the path of knowledge.
“Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.” (G.K. Chesterton)
“The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from the mere animal biology to an act of culture.”
― (Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto)
“Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart…filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.” – ( Bess Streeter Aldrich)
“Christmas is a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart.” – (Freya Stark)
“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the one’s I used to know.” (From the song lyrics of “White Christmas)
“For kids who grew up in the church, Samson was like a Marvel superhero.” – (Brooks Waldron)
“As long as Hanukkah is studied and remembered, Jews will not surrender to the night. The proper response, as Hanukkah teaches, is not to curse the darkness but to light a candle.” – (Irving Greenberg)
“Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me
Let There Be Peace on Earth
The peace that was meant to be
With God as our Father
Brothers all are we
Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With ev’ry step I take
Let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment and live
Each moment in peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.” – (Sy and Jill Jackson Miller)
“This season called Christmas is only a time of remembering ALL of Jesus and His story, past, present and future and celebrating His Conception. We think a lot about the Annunciation and the journey of Mary as she Carried God inside her womb for nine months. What could be more of a miracle than that?? – (Gail Landgraf)
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” — Hamilton Wright Mabie
“The happiest life of individuals, and the happiest state of society, is that which affords the fewest remarkable events. To live in credit and quiet, to be peacefully useful to those around us, to possess a clear conscience; but, above all, and without which nothing can avail, to enjoy communion with God our Saviour while we live, and to die at peace with God and man, form the substance of all that a wise man can desire.” – (Matthew Henry)
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
“The secret ingredient for all Tuscan and/or Thanksgivings anywhere; is LOVE.” (Gail Landgraf)
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” – (Carl Sagan)
“When I tell people I was in Tuscany for Thanksgiving, their first question is – with a note of concern – “Did you have turkey?” – (Cameron Hewitt)
“My dream is to become a farmer. Just a Bohemian guy pulling up his own sweet potatoes for dinner.” – (Larry Kravitz)
“Most seasonings are based on family tradition.” – (Wolfgang Puck)
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” – (Masanobu Fukuoka)
“There is one spectacle grander than the sea; that is the sky. There is one spectacle grander than the sky; that is the interior of the soul.” (Victor Hugo)
“It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich!” – (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
“O God of harvest moons and campfire tales, O God of leaf piles for jumping and apple cider for sipping, O God of pumpkin pies with dollops of cream and the swirl of steam that rises from a cup of hot coffee in the cool morning, Be near.” – (Kayla Craig)
“We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing; He chastens and hastens His will to make known; The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing; Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.”
(Author Unknown)
“You shall charge the sons of Israel, that they bring you clear oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually.” – (Exodus 27:20 (NASB))
“Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.” – (Theodore Roosevelt)
“Our house is flanked by mighty maples
that seem to shed their summer skin all at once, shaking off their leaves.” – (Kayla Craig)
“Our Lord has many weak children in his family, many dull pupils in his school, many raw soldiers in his army, many lame sheep in his flock. Yet he bears with them all, and casts none away. Happy is that Christian who has learned to do likewise with his brethren.” – (J. C. Ryle)
“Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” – (Sy Miller and Jill Jackson)
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – (John 8:32)
“On the other hand, what would a life look like if it were only about doing, with no emphasis on being? I would define “being” as those moments when you just “are.” You stop trying to accomplish long enough to appreciate what you have. It could be a long walk with a husband, or a moment in the playground with the children.” – (Shalvi Waldman)
“We are cups constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.” – (Ray Bradbury)
“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” – (Ephesians 5:11)
“Each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.” – (Judges 11:40)
“Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said, ‘Go beg for it.’ I didn’t know what to do! I’d knock on people’s doors and go, ‘Trick or treat.’ ‘No thank you.'” (Rita Rudner)
“Proof of our society’s decline is that Halloween has become a broad daylight event for many.” – (Robert Kirby)
“I have forged many things that I believe to be things of great beauty. Yet if God is not a part of them, they are entirely counterfeit and I have been robbed blind by the work of my own hands.”
― (Craig D. Lounsbrough, Flecks of Gold on a Path of Stone: Simple Truths for Profound Living)
“Come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” – (Hebrews 4:14-16).
In Autumn
by Winifred C. Marshall
They’re coming down in showers,
The leaves all gold and red;
They’re covering the little flowers,
And tucking them in bed
They’ve spread a fairy carpet
All up and down the street;
And when we skip along to school,
they rustle ‘neath our feet
“Autumn … the year’s last, loveliest smile.” — (William Cullen Bryant)
“Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.” – (Zechariah 14:16)
“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” – (Isaiah 12:3)
Hello to all of our faithful readers. If you clicked in to get today’s COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY from The Book of Judges; we are not publishing a lesson this week because everyone is celebrating The Feast of Tabernacles. Enjoy your feast! We will see you again next Thursday with our continuing lessons. If you need a few…
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And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. – (Revelation 12:3)
“You shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of an etrog tree, the branches of date palms, twigs of myrtles and brook willows.” – (Leviticus 23:40.)
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” -William Arthur Ward.
Leviticus 23:37
‘These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day’s matter on its own day.” – (Leviticus 23:37)
“God is not looking for perfection, just availability.” – (Michael James King)
“Will you stay with me? Will you be my love, Among the fields of barley?
And you can tell the sun in his jealous sky, When we walked in fields of gold” – (Sting – from Ten Sommoner’s Tale)
Deuteronomy 16:13-15; Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast of the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
“If you build it; he will come.” – (Ray Kensella played by Kevin Cosner in Field of Dreams.)
In the split second after atonement; victory comes. (Gail Landgraf)
“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” – (Matthew 25:21)
“Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth.” – ( Menachem Begin)
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to atone for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. – (Lev. 17:11)
“The blessing over the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah refers to the mitzvah as ‘hearing the voice of the Shofar,’ but since that voice speaks without words, the message that is heard depends a great deal on who is doing the listening.”
— (Douglas Aronin)
“And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.” – (Revelation 18:14)
Abraham answered “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went off together.” – (Genesis 22:8)
“The blessing over the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah refers to the mitzvah as “hearing the voice of the Shofar.” but since that voice speaks without words, the measure that is heard depends a great deal on who is doing the listening.” – ( Douglas Aronin)
“Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.'” (Leviticus 23:24-25)
“The earth flourishes, or is overrun with noxious weeds and brambles, as we apply or withhold the cultivating hand. So fares it with the intellectual system of man.” – (Horace Mann)
“Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.” – (Milton Hershey)
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart. – (Helen Keller)
“The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion. Leaders have power, but power is safe only in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve.” – (John Stott)
“Teshuvah is thus like a person on a journey who at some point decides to change direction. From that point on, his steps will be carrying him toward a different destination. The turn itself is accomplished in a second. Yet the new path, like the one abandoned, is long and arduous.”
― (Steinsaltz Adin)
“Set a goal so big you can’t achieve it until you grow into the person who can.” – (Author Unknown)
“But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and humans are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’” – (Judges 9:9)
“I’m very proud to be “love-a-listic” instead of “legalistic.”
– (Gail Landgraf)
“The summer looks out from her brazen tower, through the flashing bars of July.” – (Francis Thompson)
Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the changing of the guard. They blew their horns and broke the jars that were in their hands. – (Judges 7:19)
“The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy.” – (Corrie Ten Boom)
“And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: Many shall see it, and fear, And shall trust in the LORD.” – (Psalm 40:3)
“So may all your enemies perish, Lord!
But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.”
Then the land had peace forty years.
– (Judges 5:31)
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. (II Timothy 4:2)
“With the world so set on tearing itself apart, it doesn’t seem like such a bad thing to me to want to put a little bit of it back together.” – (Desmond Doss.)
On his robe and on his thigh he had this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. – (Revelation 19:16)
Rise up LORD!
“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” — (Maud Hart Lovelace)
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” – (Nelson Mandela)
“When God is asked: “Remember your great mercy and love,” he is being asked to act according to his character. When someone asks God to “remember not [my] sins,” he or she is asking that God would not act on what he knows. Therefore, to say that the Israelites “forgot” God is to say that they no longer were controlled by what they knew. We could put it another way. Though they knew who God was and what he wanted, those things were not real to them.” ― (Timothy J. Keller, Judges For You)
“Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see if they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their ancestors did. – (Judges Chapter Two)
“The value of a loving father has no price.”
“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” – (Revelation 21:8)
“We roamed the fields and the riversides when we were young and gay. We chased the bees and plucked the flowers in the merry, merry month of May.” – (Stephen Foster)
“Words will be forgotten. Friends will come and go. Civilizations will turn to dust. Heaven and Earth will pass away. But a brown paper sack of homegrown tomatoes will last for a thousand tomorrows, and then some. Because a tomato is tangible proof that God loves us.” – (Sean Dietrich/Homegrow Tomatoes.)
” If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 8: 19-20)
There is a way which seems right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; And the end of that mirth is heaviness. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: And a good man shall be satisfied from himself. The simple believeth every word: But the prudent man looks well to his going. A wise man fears, and departs from evil: But the fool rages, and is confident. – (Proverbs 14:12-16)
“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and sheroes” — (Maya Angelou)
“Teach of faith to keep all the commandments of God, knowing that they are given to bless His children and bring them joy. Warn them that they will encounter people who pick which commandments they will keep and ignore others that they choose to break. I call this the cafeteria approach to obedience. This practice of picking and choosing will not work. It will lead to misery. To prepare to meet God, one keeps all of His commandments. It takes faith to obey them, and keeping His commandments will strengthen that faith.” ― (Russell M. Nelson, Accomplishing the Impossible: What God Does, What We Can Do)
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” – (Revelation 19:7)
“Rule with the heart of a servant. Serve with the heart of a king.” – (Bill Johnson)
“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”” – (John 21:15-17)
“When we treat people merely as they are, they will remain as they are. ” – (Author Unknown)
“No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. ” – (Micah 6:8)
“Legacy is not what’s left tomorrow when you’re gone. It’s what you give, create, impact and contribute today while you’re here that then happens to live on.” – (Rasheed Ogunlaru)
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – (Romans 12:2)
“Wide open and unguarded stand our gates, And through them passes a wild motley throng. Men from Volga and Tartar step. Featureless figures from the Hoang-ho, Malayan, Scythian, Teuton, Kelt and Slav, Flying the Old World’s poverty and scorn; These bringing with them unknown gods and rites, Those tiger passions here to stretch their claws, In street and alley what strange tongues are these, Accents of menace in our ear, Voices that once the Tower of Babel knew. -THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH, “UNGUARDED GATES,” 1882” – ( Neil Gaiman)
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” – (John 10:10)
“And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28:12)
“The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.” – (Revelation 3:5)
“It is in the roots, not the branches, that a tree’s greatest strength lies.” – (Matshona Dhliwayo.)
“Conduct reveals character, and we best understand integrity when we see it lived out in a person’s life.” – (Charles H. Dyer, Character Counts)
Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God. – (Deuteronomy 20:17-18)
“In the turbulence of this anxious and active world many people are leading uneventful, lonely lives. To them dreariness, not disaster, is the enemy. They seldom realize that on their steadfastness, on their ability to withstand the fatigue of dull repetitive work, and on their courage in meeting constant small adversities depend in great measure the happiness and prosperity of the community as a whole. … The upward course of a nation’s history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its average men and women.”
– (Queen Elizabeth II)
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. – (Acts 2:2)
“These are the few ways we can practice humility: To speak as little as possible of one’s self. To mind one’s own business. Not to want to manage other people’s affairs. To avoid curiosity. To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully. To pass over the mistakes of others. To accept insults and injuries. To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked. To be kind and gentle even under provocation. Never to stand on one’s dignity. To choose always the hardest.”
― (Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living)
“You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough.” – (William Law)
“The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation.” — (James E. Faust)
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. – (Psalm 90:12)
“Don’t try to rush things: for the cup to run over, it must first be filled.” – (Antonio Machado)
“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
― (Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays)
“You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.” – (Walter S. Hagan)
“I have been wandering to find him and my happiness is so great that it even weakens me like a wound. And this is the marvel of marvels, that he called me Beloved, me who am but as a dog.” – (C. S. Lewis, – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle)
“Be as brave as a lion to do the will of your Father in Heaven. (Ancient Jewish Text)
“Humility is becoming a lost art, but it’s not difficult to practice. It means that you realize that others have been involved in your success.” –
– (Harvey Mackay.)
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.” – (Ernest Hemingway)
Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. – (Psalm 136:26)
“He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Malachi 6:8)
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)
“The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one’s life.” – (Peace Pilgrim.)
“The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and they coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” – (Psalm 121:7-8)
“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” – (John 7:37)
“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke? Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.… – (Isaiah 58:6-8)
“Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime.” – (Author Unknown)
“The holiest, most ordinary, and most necessary practice in the spiritual life is that of the Presence of God. It is to take delight in and become accustomed to His divine company, speaking humbly and conversing with Him all the time, at every moment.” — (Brother Lawrence in The Recollected Heart by Philip Zaleski)
“Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire.” – (William Penn)
“Heroism is endurance for one moment more.” – (George F. Kennan.)
“Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win.” — (Max McKeown)
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – (Mother Teresa)
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. ” (I Corinthians 5:7-8)
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ – (Matthew 25:40-45)
My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof. – (Proverbs 3:11)
“God has equipped you to handle difficult things. In fact, He has already planted the seeds of discipline and self-control inside you. You just have to water those seeds with His Word to make them grow!” – (Joyce Meyer)
“Be humble in your confidence yet courageous in your character.” – (Melanie Koulouris.)
“The one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” – (Matthew 24:13)
“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” – (Isaiah 40:31)
Don’t ever look back; you are not going that way.
“For I have said, “Loving devotion is built up forever; in the heavens You establish Your faithfulness.” You said, “I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah (Psalm 89:2-4)
“Oh who will come and go with me? I am bound for The Promised Land!” – (Samuel Stennett 1727-1795)
“I think the best part of being a mom is when your little one looks up at you and just smiles and stares because they know you are their person. Like nobody else is as important as you. They know that you have them like nobody else ever will. The connection is indescribable.” – Unknown
“Dance with me oh lover of my soul, to the Song of All Songs.” – ( song by Paul Wilbur, lyrics by John and Johanna Hall)
“Always stay humble and kind.” – (Tim McGraw)
“The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.” – (Maya Angelou)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – (Romans 5:8)
“I’ve looked around enough to know that you’re the One I want to go through time with.” (Jim Croce – Time In A Bottle)
“The cross, as poignant as it is, is understandable from a human perspective: an innocent man was murdered by crooked politicians and religious leaders. But the empty tomb– what can you say? Only a supernatural God could accomplish that. – (Jim Cymbala)
“Only the disciplined are truly free.” – (Stephen Covey)
“You need to abolish anything in your relationships that isn’t right – in finances, friendships, activities, and in your house. God is going to stand with you until these borders are established for worshiping Him.” – (Candice Smithyman)
“How long will you let the devil feast on your freedom?” – (James Dee Clayton – Diary of an Aesthete)
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” – (Joshua 24:14-15)
“The Exodus from Egypt occurs in every human being, in every ear, in every year, and in every day.” – (Rabbi Nachman of Breslev)
“It should be noted that people in the free market rarely bear false witness; integrity is the rule. The morning mile, phone calls, planes the airlines buy, autos by the millions – no one could list the instances – are as represented. We have daily, eloquent, enormous testimony that the Ten Commandments can be and are observed by fallible human beings. Contemporary politics is the most glaring of all exceptions.” – (Leonard Read)
“The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a wilderness.” – (Ellis Havelock)
“May the Irish hills caress you. May her lakes and rivers bless you. May the luck of the Irish enfold you. May the blessings of St. Patrick behold you.” – (An old Irish Blessing)
“In the coldest February, as in every other month in every other year, the best thing to hold on to in this world is each other.” – (Linda Ellerbee)
“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” – (Genesis 12:2-3).
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – (Genesis 12:3)
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, To Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever – Amen – (Ephesians 3:20, 21)
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” ― (Abraham Lincoln.)
“Education is not the means of showing people how to get what they want. Education is an exercise by means of which enough men, it is hoped, will learn to want what is worth having.” – (President Ronald Reagan)
“If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” – (Seth Godin)
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” — (Thomas Jefferson)
“New year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.” – (Alex Morritt)
“I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree; A tree that looks at God all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray.” (From “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer)
“If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.” — (Maya Angelou)
“The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” – (Revelation 22:17)
“And this morning the thought of the miracle of life amidst it all grabbed me unexpectedly. As I watched the sun peak the sky Life formed a knot in my throat, and I cried. I cried mostly because of how it all comes together, piece by amazing wonderful piece like an artist brushing on stroke on top of surprising stroke then finishing with His signature.” (Gail Landgraf)
“December has the clarity, the simplicity, and the silence you need for the best FRESH START of your life.” – (Vivian Swift)
“So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing, and put your lips to the world. And live your life.”
( Mary Oliver, Red Bird )
“The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the LORD (Yahweh) is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.'” (Numbers 14:7-9)
“A party without cake is just a meeting.” – (Julia Child)
“I’m careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can strive for; perfection is God’s business.” – (Michael J. Fox)
“Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.” (Richard Cushing)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both. And being one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
– (Robert Frost)
“… All we know Is that we are a little early, that today has that special, lapidary todayness that the sunlight reproduces faithfully in casting twig-shadows on blithe
sidewalks…”(John Ashbury)
“How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year!” – (Thomas Wentworth Higginson)
“Choose to focus your time, energy and conversation around people who inspire you, support you and help you to grow you into your happiest, strongest, wisest self.” – (Karen Salmansohn)
Fill yourself with goodness. Have a Smoothie!
“If peace means a willingness to be exploited economically, dominated politically, humiliated and segregated, I don’t want peace. If peace means being complacently adjusted to a deadening status quo, I don’t want peace. If peace means keeping my mouth shut in the midst of injustice and evil, I don’t want it. Peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but the existence of justice for all people.” – (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is time for home.” – ( Edith Sitwell)
“Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” – (Revelation 5:5)
“Go to the garden when you need to remember that everything is love.” – (William Wordsworth)
And out of the ground made
the Lord God every tree to
grow that is pleasant to the
sight, and good for food; the
tree of life also in the midst of
the garden, and the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. – – (Genesis 2:9)
“Blue, navy blue, I’m as blue as I can be. ‘Cause my steady boy said, “Ship ahoy” And joined the Navy.” (Popular song lyrics sung by Diane Renea called NAVY BLUE)
“Wise Men Still Seek Him”
“Raiders shall raid Gad but he shall raid at their heels.” (Genesis 49:19)
“Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.” – (Henri Frederic Amiel)
“Even the poorest in Israel are looked upon as freemen who have lost their possessions, for they are the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” – (Akiva ben Joseph)
“It’s a fact that sometimes we are called to leadership later in life. Other, more recent people of note who didn’t shine until their 60s (or well after) include folk artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses — known as Grandma Moses — who didn’t start painting until the age of 76, and James Parkinson, who identified Parkinson’s disease at age 62. His 1817 work titled “Shaking Palsy” is the foundation of our modern-day understanding of Parkinson’s disease.” – (Deirdre Reilly)
“So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Thus the land had rest from war.” – (Joshua 11:23)
“My lovely November. Have you seen my heart, somewhere in your castle of yellow leaves?” – (from A Waltz for Zizi)
“So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel! ” – (Joshua 10:13-14)
“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” ― (C.S. Lewis)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – (Proverbs 3:5-6)
“Outside of Christ, I am only a sinner, but in Christ, I am saved. Outside of Christ, I am empty; in Christ, I am full. Outside of Christ, I am weak; in Christ, I am strong. Outside of Christ, I cannot; in Christ, I am more than able. Outside of Christ, I have been defeated; in Christ, I am already victorious. How meaningful are the words, “in Christ.” – (Watchman Nee)
“We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving.” – (From Psalm 100 – A Psalm of Praise.)
General Colin Powell’s Rules:
1. It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done!
5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6. Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.
8. Check small things.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
“But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.” (Joshua 6:18)
(Joshua 7:10-13) – The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.
“October is crisp days and cool nights, a time to curl up around the dancing flames and sink into a good book.” — (John Sinor)
“Trust is believing “I will be safe with you”. Love is striving to keep the trust.”
― (Wordions)
“Well I know you’ve heard about Joshua He was the son of Nun
He never stopped his work until
Until the work was done Up to the walls of Jericho He marched with spear in hand “Go blow them ram horns”, Joshua cried, “‘cos the battle is in my hands” – (Joshua Fought The Battle of Jericho by Hugh Laurie – 2nd verse)
“In every change, in every falling leaf there is some pain, some beauty. And that’s the way new leaves grow.” – (Amit Ray)
“The celebrations of Sukkot teach us that there are two ways to live. You can live believing that nothing in your life is a miracle or you can live believing that everything in your life is a miracle.” – (Author unknown)
“If worship does not propel us into greater obedience, it has not been worship. To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change.” – (Richard J. Foster)
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. – (Ephesians 6:18)
“This is the truth: You lose some things because you didn’t see the darkness rushing toward you. Some things disappear because it all snuck up on you so quickly and quietly, and you weren’t paying attention. Okay. But once in a while a loss is preventable. You can stop it. And if you don’t, you are to blame. The trick is knowing which is which.” ― (Lauren Fox, Days of Awe)
“Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ – (Revelation 19:8)
“Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” – (Exodus 33:15)
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.”- (Psalm 23:5)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
“Justice delayed is justice denied.” – (William Edward Gladstone)
“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars”. – (Martin Luther)
“And one of the elders *said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.” – (Revelation 5:5)
“Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.” -(Revelation 15:4)
“Riches take wings, comforts vanish, hope withers away, but love stays with us. Love is God.” – (Lew Wallace)
For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord had sworn that He would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. – (Joshua 5:6)
“Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.” – (Henry Ward Beecher)
“It is better to be divided by truth than united in error.” ― (Bruce Bickel)
“When you see injustice among the nations, you will find out that the root cause is covetousness.”
― (Sunday Adelaja, Insulted by Ungodliness: Raising a Generation of the Provoked in Every Nation)
“The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.”
– (James A. Michener)
Honor your parents that your life may be long upon the land the LORD has given you.
“Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything they can’t talk about after dinner.” – (Oscar Wilde)
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.(Psalm 122:1)
“Seek good, and not evil, that you may live…Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate…let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream!” – (Amos 5:14-15, 24).
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” – (Corie ten Boom)
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12)
Come and peek into what has been happening at The IN SEASON Lifestyle. We are reviewing August and previewing September. There are so many new and wonderful things to talk about!
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. – (Romans 12:1)
“Once you depart from the Ten Commandments as being the foundation of right and wrong, you are in a free fall.” – (Randall Terry)
2 Corinthians 11:14 – “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
“When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way. – (Wayne Dyer)
“Every child has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don’ts,
Not the God who ever does anything weird,
But the God who knows only four words.
And keeps repeating them, saying:
‘Come dance with me, come dance.’”
— (Hafiz – translation by Daniel Ladinsky)
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)
That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses. – (Joshua 4:14)
“Each of my days are miracles. I won’t waste my day; I won’t throw away a miracle.” – (Kelley Vicstrom)
Have you ever noticed how the THIRD DAY of anything is always very significant? – (Gail Landgraf)
“Like the flower of Aubiere; Help us make it through the day.” (Golden Choir of Aubiere – Alan Levi)
Walking with God through the Hebraic Calendar with a Christian Heart
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over; it became a butterfly.” (Chuang Tzu)
It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
– (Revelation 19:8)
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” – (Galatians 6:7)
And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people. – (Joshua 3:6)
But Joshua had commanded the army – “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout!” – (Joshua 6:10)
School days, school days; good old golden rule days.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. – (Revelation 19:7)
So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’” – (Joshua 1:10-11)
“You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,” – (Psalm 30:11)
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” – (John 14:27)
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you where ever you go.” – (Joshua 1:9)
“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ” – (Joshua 1:7-8)
“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.” – (Joshua 1:5)
“A fallen leaf is nothing more than a summer’s wave goodbye.” – (author unknown)
“Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:4-5)
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. (Joshua 1:1-4)
“Blue Ridge is a hipster of a village where Appalachian roots branch out in all sorts of interesting directions.” – (Southern Living Magazine)
“America, America, God shed His grace on Thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shinning sea.” – (From America The Beautiful)
“When life throws you a rainy day – just splash through the puddles!” – (author unknown)
“Truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice.
You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy” – (John 16:20).
“For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” – (Matthew 24:24)
“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.” – (Hebrews 6:19)
“True love, like any other strong and addicting drug, is boring – once the tale of encounter and discovery is told, kisses quickly grow stale and caresses tiresome…..except of course, to those who share the kisses, who give and take the caresses while every sound and color of the world seems to deepen and brighten around them. As with any other strong drug,true first love is really only interesting to those who have become its prisoners. And, as is true of any other strong and addicting drug, true first love is dangerous. – (Stephen King – Wizard and Glass)
“A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like a summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the joyous day of the whole week.” — (Henry Ward Beecher)
“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. (Hebrews 11:23-29)
“And he said
Let me tell you a secret about a father’s love
A secret that my daddy said was just between us
He said daddies don’t just love their children every now and then
It’s a love without end, amen
It’s a love without end, amen” – (Love Without End, sung by George Strait and written by Aaron Barker.)
“The flag is how America signs her name.” (National Historic Park – Philadelphia)
“My Father didn’t tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it.” – (Clarence Budington Kelland
“Being a great father is like shaving. No matter how good you shaved today, you have to do it again tomorrow.” (Reed Markham)
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person; he believed in me.
(Jim Valvana)
“My father didn’t tell me how to live, he lived and let me watch him do it.” – (Clarence Budington Kelland)
“Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.” – (Al Bernstein)
“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.” – (Joshua 1:5)
” Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” – (Genesis 28:14)
FALLING IN LOVE WITH WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA A few years ago my family had the privilege of visiting Holden Beach, North Carolina. We LOVED Holden Beach; but that is another story for another day. While we were there we decided to drive on over to see what was hiding in the old city of Wilmington, North Carolina. We discovered quite…
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“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – (Martin Luther King Jr.)
“Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave?” (Francis Scott Keys)
“A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.” – (Max Lucado)
“Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” (Deuteronomy 34:10)
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – (Jesus – John 16:33)
“In my beginning is my end. In succession houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires, Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth Which is already flesh, fur and faces, Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.” – (T.S. Elliot from East Coker)
“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”
― (J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye)
“Do not despise the small but significant symbolic act. God probably does not want you to reorganize the entire discipline or the entire world of your vocation overnight. Learn to be symbol-makers and story-tellers for the kingdom of God.” ― (N.T. Wright)
“Without Pentecost the Christ-event – the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now.” – (Henri Nouwen)
About Asher he said: “Most blessed of sons is Asher; let him be favored by his brothers, and let him bathe his feet in oil. The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze, and your strength will equal your days. (Deuteronomy 33:24-25)
Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America — not on the battlefields of Vietnam.
– (Marshall McLuhan)
“We were preparing not peace only, but eternal peace. There was about us the halo of some divine mission. We were bent on doing great permanent noble things.” (Harold Nicolson – at Paris Peace Talks)
‘Grandchildren fill a space in your heart that you never knew was empty.’
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by; And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking. – (From SEA FEVER by John Masefield from Poetry Foundation’s Collection)
“Naphtali is abounding with the favor of the Lord and is full of his blessing; he will inherit southward to the lake.” – (Deuteronomy 33:23)
“They came on one of April’s most brilliant days–a day as sparkling as a newly-washed lemon…a day when even the shadows were a mélange of blue and orange and jade, like the shadows that poured from the tipsy brush of Monet.” – (Beverley Nichols)
“Far up in the deep blue sky, Great white clouds are floating by; All the world is dressed in green; Many happy birds are seen, Roses bright and sunshine clear Show that lovely June is here.” — (F. G. Sanders)
“Dan is a lion’s cub, springing out of Bashan.” – (Deuteronomy 33:22.)
“A place where the windows clean the people.” – (Author Unknown)
“A horse gallops with his lungs, perseveres with his heart and wins with his character.” – (Federico Tesio)
“For I am coconut and the heart of me is sweeter than you know.” – (Nikki Grimes)
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity.” – (John Muir)
And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad. – (Genesis 30:11)
“I always wondered why the makers leave housekeeping and cooking out of their tales. Isn’t it what all the great wars and battles are fought for
so that at day’s end a family may eat together in a peaceful house?” – (Author: Ursula K. Le Guin)
“You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. (Leviticus 23:15-16)
“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach ― waiting for a gift from the sea.” ― (Anne Morrow Lindbergh)
“For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green.” – ( J. R. R. Tolkien)
You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed.
(Exodus 23:15)
“And know, of all the words I have found, kindness is the most powerful. It can transform the world. At the end of my days, the only thing I will regret in my life are times when I was unkind.” ― (Karyn D. Kedar, Omer: A Counting)
“He is not here; He has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: The son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”
“It was no accident, no coincidence, that the seasons came round and round year after year. It was the Lord speaking to us all and showing us over and over again the birth, life, death, and resurrection of his only begotten Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord. It was like a best-loved story being told day after day with each sunrise and sunset, year after year with the seasons, down through the ages since time began.” (Francine Rivers)
Next Year In Jerusalem!
“By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. (Hebrews 11:22)
“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” – (Matthew 6:26 KJV)
“The cause of freedom and the cause of peace are bound together.” (Leon Blum)
“Just remember in the winter, far beneath the virgin snow lies the seed that with the sun’s love in the spring becomes the rose. ” (From the song called The Rose by Bette Midler)
“The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found by the heart.” – (Judy Garland.)
“The message of Passover remains as powerful as ever. Freedom is not won in the battlefield but in the classroom and the home. Teach your children the history of freedom if you want them never to lose it.” – (Jonathan Sacks)
“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. (Psalm 91:1-3)
“And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine;” (Numbers 3:12)
“And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:24)
Count off seven Sabbath years – seven times seven years – so that the seven Sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of “the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all of its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you. (Leviticus 25:8-10)
And this he said about Judah: “Hear, Lord, the cry of Judah, bring him to his people. With his own hands he defends his cause. Oh, be his help against his foes!” (Deuteronomy 33:7)
“In life, we plant seeds everywhere we go. Some fall on fertile ground needing very little to grow. Some fall on rocky soil requiring a tad bit more loving care. While others fall in seemingly barren land and no matter what you do; it appears the seed is dead. Nevertheless, every seed planted will have a ripple effect. You could see it in the present or a time not seen yet.
So be wise about where you plant your seeds. Be very mindful of your actions & deeds. Negativity grows just as fast if not faster than positivism. Plant seeds of kindness, love and peace
And your harvest will be abundant living.” ― (Sanjo Jendayi)
I see children as kites. You spend a lifetime trying to get them off the ground. You run with them until you’re both breathless. They crash . . . You add a longer tail . . . You patch and comfort, adjust and teach. You watch them lifted by the wind and assure them that someday they’ll fly. –Erma Bombeck
Exodus; Chapter 12; verse 24: “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, observe the ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when He struck down the Egyptians.”
“The greatest of all capabilities of a human being is to become born again.” ― (J.R. Rim)
“There in that place, that invisible to us world, time goes on forever. God lives there; somewhere inside a place called eternity.” (Gail Landgraf – The Gospel Hidden in Genesis.)
“Arise my darling. Come away with me, my beautiful one. For now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in the countryside, the season of singing has come, and the cooing of the turtledoves is heard in our land.” (Song of Solomon – Chapter 2:10-12)
“Let Reuben live and not die, nor his people be few.” – words of Moses (Deuteronomy 33:6)
“And they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb….” (Revelation 15:3a)
“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” – (William Shakespeare)
“In Jewish history there are no coincidences.” (Elie Wiesel)
” I am neither a buyer nor a seller of love.” (Queen Esther – One Night With The King)
“Our little systems have their day. They have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee and Thou O LORD are more than they.” – (Alfred Tennyson)
“Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated.”” – (2 Maccabees 2:8 – Writings
From The Apocrypha)
“You are Esther now, a Persian star, and you will shine like the dawn in the King’s palace.” ― (Jill Eileen Smith, Star of Persia: Esther’s Story)
“Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” ~ (Moses)
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
“..but there never seems to be enough time to do the things we went to do once we find them..”.(Jim Croche – TIME IN A BOTTLE)
“I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.” – (Woodrow Wilson)
“Deeds, not Words.” – (George Washington)
Be strong and courageous. – do not be afraid or terrified. (Deuteronomy 31:16)
“What a sad generation. In the olden days. We used to learn from our mistakes. These days you get canceled for your mistakes.”
― (De philosopher DJ Kyos)
“Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?” (Walt Witman)
“Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.” ~ (Jim Henson)
“Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors – it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.” – (Wolfgang Puck)
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.” — (Oscar Wilde)
“Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” – (Deuteronomy 31:6)
“Love is the food of life, travel is dessert.” – (Annonymous)
“Keep your vitality. All life without health is like a river without water.” – (Mainne Lagace)
“A river cuts through a rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.” – (Jim Watkins)
“In February there is everything to hope for and nothing to regret.” – (Patience Strong)
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” – (Acts 2:17)
“The only thing we should scream into the world is love.” ― (Jill Telford)
“There are moments in history when a door for massive change opens, and great revolutions for good or evil spring up in the vacuum created by these openings. In these divine moments key men and women and even entire generations risk everything to become the hinge of history, the pivotal point that determines which way the door will swing.” – (Lou Engle)
“March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice.”
― Hal Borland
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” …- (Hebrews 10:26-31)
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed — we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
“Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.” (Diane Ackerman)
“Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.” (Deuteronomy 29:9)
True prosperity is the knowledge of God lived out in our lives and the lives of our children and our grandchildren. In the end – that is all that matters!” – (Bunni Pounds)
“From Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command;”- (1 Chronicles 12:32)
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – (Nelson Mandela)
It always seems impossible – until it is done! – (Nelson Mandela)
“Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you’ll see them all around you.” – (Jon Bon Jovi)
“The color of springtime is in the flowers; the color of winter is in the imagination.” – (Terri Guillemets)
“Where Are You Christmas?”
“It was no accident that our ancestors pinned Valentine’s Day on February’s shirt: he or she lucky enough to have a lover in frigid, antsy February has cause for celebration, indeed.” ― (Tom Robbins)
“Forever is composed of nows.” ― (Emily Dickinson)
“I AM The LORD Your God.” – (Deuteronomy 29:6)
“When Henry Ford decided to produce his famous V-8 motor, he chose to build an engine with the entire eight cylinders cast in one block, and instructed his engineers to produce a design for the engine. The design was placed on paper, but the engineers agreed, to a man, that it was simply impossible to cast an eight-cylinder engine-block in one piece. Ford replied,”Produce it anyway.” ― (Henry Ford)
“Don’t believe in miracles – depend on them.” – (Lawrence J. Peter)
“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” ― (Shel Silverstein)
“If nature has taught us anything it is that the impossible is probable” ― (Ilyas Kassam)
“Just remember, in the winter far beneath the frozen snow lies the seed that with the sun’s love, in the spring, becomes the rose.” (From The Rose)
“12 And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
20 The mystery of the seven stars which you have seen on My right hand and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are seven churches.” (Revelation 1:12 and Revelation 1:20 from The Bible)
“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” ( Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-1968)
“No natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy, in themselves. They are all holy when God’s hand is on the rein. They all go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods.” (C. S. Lewis)
“If God is just; I tremble for my country.” – (Thomas Jefferson)
“When we have graciously endured every adversity, we become like a shining diamond.”
― (Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!)
“Learn to light a candle in the darkest moments of someone’s life. Be the light that helps others see; it is what gives life its deepest significance.”
― (Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart)
“Little is much when God is in it.” (Judah the Maccabee)
“Learn to light a candle in the darkest moments of someone’s life. Be the light that helps others see; it is what gives life its deepest significance.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
“Joy to the world! The Lord has come! Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare Him room. Let Heaven and nature sing. Let Heaven an nature sing. ” – (From the popular carol called JOY TO THE WORLD)
“Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
“I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colors are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content.” – (Lin Yutang)
“The sights you see will drive you mad. ” – (Deuteronomy Chapter 28)
“Freshly cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin—inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night.” – (John J. Geddes)
“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” ― (Edith Lovejoy Pierce)
O come, O come, Thou Lord of might, who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height in ancient times did’st give the Law. In cloud, and majesty and awe, Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel. Shall come to thee, O Israel. (John M. Neale and Henry S. Coffin.)
“Blue has no dimensions; it is beyond dimensions. – (Yves Klein)
“Humility must now come to our aid, as we own the inherited sins of our Egyptian forefathers. We have been found guilty because our ancestors are charged with enslaving the Jewish people. We are committed to repent for the sins of the Egyptians. We are found guilty by reason of geography. This action is necessary for our deliverance. It is similar to the confession we made as sinners when we turned our lives over to Jesus in answer to the spiritual curse left to us from Adam and Eve.” – (Barbara Robinson Smith – Breaking The Curse of Racism From The Root)
“A tradition is kept alive only by something being added to it.” – (Henry James)
“Just remember in the winter far beneath the virgin snow lies the seed that with the sun’s love in the spring becomes the rose.” (Amanda McBroom)
“Christened the Christmas bird for its spectacular red color, the cardinal has become a symbol of the beauty and warmth of the holiday season. A glimpse of this brilliant bird brings cheer, hope and inspiration on a gray, wintry day. As nature’s reminder for us to focus on our faith, the cardinal’s scarlet plumage represents the blood of Christ shed for the redemption of mankind.” – (From Bronners Christmas Wonderland, 25 Christmas Lane, Frankenmuth, Michigan.)
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” – (Sun Tzu, The Art of War)
“Love came down at Christmas; love all lovely, love divine; love was born at Christmas, stars and angels gave the sign. “(Christina G Rossetti)
“The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic God’s giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves.” (St. Nicholas of Myra)
(Esther 9:22 ) Because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
“So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth. It will not return to me empty. Without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. “For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to the LORD for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.” (Isaiah 55:11-12)
“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.” – (John Muir)
“Twinkle, twinkle Little Star; How I wonder what you are!”
“I sing because I’m happy. I know my plan and I’ve done my part!” – (Sparky The Snowflake)
“We can begin by asking what type of world we want to leave for our children. Then we can feel our way together, step by step, preferably hand in hand.” (Walter Isaacson in the Epilogue of The Code Breaker.)
“Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” ― (Mark Twain)
“And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” – (Zechariah 14:12)
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:5)
“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.”
― (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are)
“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” – (Lionel Hampton)
“Remember the quiet wonders. The world has more need of them than it has for warriors.” ― (Charles de Lint, Moonheart)
“For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.” (Exodus 23:10-11)
“And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me, then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins.” – (Leviticus 26:23-24)
“Write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.” – (Deuteronomy 11:21)
“And all at once summer collapsed into Fall.” – (Oscar Wilde)
“December’s wintery breath is already clouding the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summer’s memory…”
― (John Geddes A Familiar Rain)
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. – (Psalm 139:13-16)
“Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings, saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.”
(Robert Hass)
“Life was just a tire swing. ‘Jambalaya’ was the only song I could sing. Blackberry pickin’, eatin’ fried chicken, And I never knew a thing about pain. Life was just a tire swing.”
(Jimmy Buffett)
“There is no place like home.” (Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.)
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people; and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” (Victor Hugo)
You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land. (Deuteronomy 28:38-48)
“Go back. Go back in time. Everyone’s life is a chain of memories. In each chain there are shining links, happenings where this element of wonder…was very strong. Why don’t you reach out and relive some of those memories? If you work at it, remembering the wonder can revive your ability to live life as it should be lived.” – (Arthur Gordon Webster)
“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.” – (Billy Graham)
For everything there is a season….a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. (Ecclesiastes 3:1a,2b)
“Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” (Psalm 137:7-)
“‘And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.” – Leviticus 25:20-22
“Fall is waiting on the wings, impatient to get going. She has a lot of work to do before it’s time for snowing.” – (Joanne Fuchs)
Look! An eagle will soar and swoop down, spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor. – (Jeremiah 49:22)
“The holy days are the best times to focus on real enthusiasm, the inner source that lightens and sanctifies our lives all year.” – (Martha Beck)
“It is the beginning of Fall.
I am completely in awe.” – (LIVING IN AWE from the poetry of Gail Langraf)
“I can smell autumn dancing in the breeze. The sweet chill of pumpkin, and crisp sunburnt leaves.” – Ann Drake
“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” – (Matthew 24:12-13)
This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. – (Isaiah 49:22)
“Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.” – (Genesis 22:8)
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” – (Genesis 50:20)
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” – (Matthew 7:24-27)
” Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” – (Hebrews 10:23)
“We have to pray with our eyes on God – not on the difficulties.” – (Oswald Chambers)
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. –
(John: 1:12-14)
“To know a community is to know its food.” – (Gil Marks)
“From every stormy wind that blows; From every swelling tide of woes, There is a calm, a sure retreat; ‘Tis found beneath The Mercy Seat. There is a place where Jesus sheds the oil of gladness on our heads. A place that all besides more sweet; it is the blood bought Mercy Seat.” – (Hugh Stowell – 1828)
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord. – (Leviticus 23:26-27)
“God uses no magic wand to simply wave bad things into nonexistence. The sins that he remits, he remits by making them his own and suffering them. The pain and heartaches that he relieves, he relieves by suffering them himself. These things can be shared and absorbed, but they cannot be simply wished or waved away. They must be suffered.”
― (Stephen E. Robinson, Believing Christ: The Parable of the Bicycle and Other Good News)
“Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.” – (Andy Murray)
“Every act of irreverence for life, every act which neglects life, which is indifferent to and wastes life, is a step towards the love of death. This choice man must make at every minute. Never were the consequences of the wrong choice as total and as irreversible as they are today. Never was the warning of the Bible so urgent: ‘I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life, that you and your children may live.'” – (Erich Fromm)
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. – (Revelation 20:11-15)
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son and whosoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. – (John 3:16)
“Summer has always been good to me, even the bittersweet end, with the slanted yellow light.” – (Paul Monette)
“The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer. One ripens the apples, the other turns them to cider.” – (Jane Hirshfield)
“Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.” (Galatians 4:28)
“In the valley of the giants where the stars and stripes explode, the peaches they were sweet and the milk and honey flowed.” – (Bob Dylan)
“Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”
― Vince Lombardi Jr.
“This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.” – (John 6:50)
“Like the woman at the well, I was seeking for things that cannot satisfy. Then I heard my Savior speaking; draw from a well that never shall run dry!” – (lyrics from FILL MY CUP LORD by Jesse Dixon)
“Do not be afraid little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom.” – (Luke 12:32)
This day the LORD thy god hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments; thou shall keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. (Deuteronomy 26:16-17)
“Cause for the first time in forever there will be music, there will be light. For the first time in forever I’ll be dancing through the night!” (Anna from Frozen in the Coronation Song)
“I grew up in New York City, and I’ve got wonderful memories of the Fourth of July fireworks.” – (Jimmy Smits)
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” – (Isaiah 5:20)
This is the perfect time to shop for the Fall Holy Days!
“Honesty is the first chapter of the Book of Wisdom.” – (Thomas Jefferson)
“That old law about ‘an eye for any eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.” – (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
“Why does the ocean rock the moon to sleep every night? So the sun will wake and kiss the beach.” (J. Henson)
“Zion shall be redeemed with justice,
And her penitents with righteousness.” – (Isaiah 1:27)
“By nurturing your soul you will be well on the way to nurturing your physical body.”
“There are two categories of people on earth:
1. Human beings.
2. HuMANE beings.”
― (Michael Bassey Johnson, Song of a Nature Lover)
“This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God.” ― (Frederick Douglass)
“To say it was a beautiful day would not begin to explain it. It was that day when the end of summer intersects perfectly with the start of fall.” – (Ann Patchett)
(Matt. 25:40) – And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
“Take care of your body, It’s the only place you have to live.” (Jim Rohn)
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – (Henry Miller)
?If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick.” – (John Steinbeck)
“Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” – (Proverbs 31:19)
“O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free
and the home of the brave?” – (Francis Scott Key)
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” – (Psalm 122:1)
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” (John 6:27)
(Ephesians 5:22-23)
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
“Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers and singers of song.” (Pam Brown)
“Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” (Carl Bard)
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.? – (Cicero)
Home is where the story begins.
“Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos.” – (Don Kardong”
“If a man prepares dinner for you and the salad contains three or more types of lettuce, he is serious.” (Rita Rudner)
“I was glad when they said unto me; let us go into the house of The LORD.” – (Psalm 122:1)
“All things seem possible in May.”
— (Edwin Way Teale)
“To her the name of father was another name for love.” (Fanny Fern – Fresh Leaves)
“Peacefully the quiet stars come out, one after one; the holy twilight fell upon the sea, the summer day was done.” – (Celia Thaxter)
I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.…”(Revelation 21:203)
“Each walked single file; into a blessed land where wars would be no more.” (Sheila Gail Landgraf)
“The garden, the land, and the temple did not prefigure a day when holiness no longer mattered. They pointed to the heavenly reality that has been our hope since Adam and Eve were barred from Paradise.” – (Kevin DeYoung)
These are the appointed feasts of Jehovah, holy convocations which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons. (Lev. 23:4)
“Bethlehem was God with us, Calvary was God for us, and Pentecost is God in us.” (Robert Baer)
“Let us spend one day as deliberately as nature, and not be thrown off track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation; let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry, – determine to make a day of it.” (Henry David Thoreau)
“The word “Comforter” as applied to the Holy Spirit needs to be translated by some vigorous term. Literally, it means “with strength.” Jesus promised His followers that “The Strengthener” would be with them forever. This promise is no lullaby for the faint-hearted. It is a blood transfusion for courageous living.” – (E. Paul Hovey)
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. – (Revelation 19:8)
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – (Acts 1:8)
“April showers bring May flowers” – (Thomas Tusser)
“Cause a little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about.” – (John Mayer)
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” – (1 Peter 2:9)
“Nothing is lost until your mother can’t find it.” – (Unknown)
“And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” (Acts 16:14)
“There is such a special sweetness in being able to participate in creation.” (Pamela S. Nadav)
“Mother is a verb. It’s something you do. Not just who you are.”
(Cheryl Lacey Donovan)
“And mothers, they never stop believing in the miracle of metamorphosis. Because believing in the miracle of metamorphosis is the sum total of a mother’s job. The theological term for that is faith.” (Ann Voshkamp)
“Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.” – (George Eliot)
” If you don’t know history, you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.” (Michael Crichton)
To the world you are a mother, but to your family you are the world.
“Ma-ma does everything for the baby, who responds by saying Da-da first.” – (Mignon McLaughlin)
Keep calm and wear a fancy hat.
“Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” -(Psalm 100:3)
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest.” (Jesus in Matthew 11:29)
“Look at our farmers markets today, bursting with heritage breeds and heirloom varieties, foods that were once abundant when we were an agricultural nation, but that we have lost touch with. Bringing all these back helps us connect to our roots, our communities and helps us feed America the proper way.” (Jose Andres)
“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” – (Song of Solomon 2:15)
“If you have a heart that beats with passion for the task of making a house into a home, Elaine’s featured article brings forth some interesting points to consider. ” (Sheila Gail Landgraf – Editor, The IN SEASON Lifestyle)
“Right smack dab in the middle of town I’ve found a paradise that’s trouble proof (up on the roof)
And if this world starts getting you down There’s room enough for two up on the roof.” – (Lyrics from a song called UP ON THE ROOF by The Drifters.)
“Today is the day when bold kites fly, When cumulus clouds roar across the sky. When robins return, when children cheer, When light rain beckons spring to appear.”
― (Robert McCracken, Spring)
Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get. – (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)
“April is the kindest month. April gets you out of your head and out working in the garden.”
― (Marty Rubin)
“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – ( from The Way of The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman)
“Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)
“Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems.” – (Rainer Maria Rilke)
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,” – (Ephesians 4:15)
Teach us to number out days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)
“If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.” – (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)
“Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see Life with a clearer view again.” – (Alex Tan)
“Groundhog found fog. New snows and blue toes. Fine and dandy for Valentine candy. Snow spittin’; if you’re not mitten-smitten, you’ll be frostbitten! By jing-y feels spring-y.” ― (The Old Farmer’s Almanac)
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” -(1 Peter 1:3)
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” (The Apostle Paul)
“A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma.” – (Marlene Dietrich)
“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” – (Luke 2:7)
“Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn’t come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out – single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves which were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing.”
― (C.S. Lewis)
“I am going to try to pay attention to the spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen.” (Anne Lamott)
“If you fall in love because someone makes you laugh, what happens when you no longer find them funny? If you fall in love because someone is beautiful, what happens when that beauty fades? If you fall in love because someone can provide for you, what happens when they lose wealth? Real love defies all reasons. When you truly love someone, you do not look for reasons, you see beyond reasons.” – (Jefroy Hanson)
“Nothing, how little so ever it be, if it is suffered for God’s sake, can pass without merit in the sight of God.” – (Thomas a Kempis)
“If you think the pursuit of good health is expensive and time consuming, try illness.” – (Lee Swanson)
“Lovers who read together – succeed together!” – (Gail Landgraf)
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”- (Proverbs 4:23)
The future of our fragile, beautiful planet home is in our hands. As God’s family, we are stewards of God’s creation. We can be wantonly irresponsible, or we can be caring and compassionate. God says, “I have set before you life and death… Choose life.” – (Desmond Tutu)
“Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.” – (Rumi)
“A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray.” – (From Trees by Joyce Kilmer)
“If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel’”
― (Benjamin Netanyahu)
“Winter is not a season, it’s a celebration.” – (Animika Mishra)
“To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold.” – (Aristitle)
(1 John 4:16) – We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
“Sometimes solitude is a real heaven for the tired minds and a marvelous sanctuary for the wounded souls!” –
(― Mehmet Murat ildan)
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
And this theme really runs throughout the entire Bible. Theologians like to call this theme “the Great Reversal.” “The Great Reversal”: that in the end, God is going to turn things upside-down–or really, rightside-up–from the way they are now in the world. We find this idea in so many places in the Bible. For instance, Mary, in her Magnificat, says of God: “He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.” Both James and Peter, in their epistles, quote the same verse from Proverbs when they write: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”- (Rev. Charles Henrickson, Pastor at St. Matthews Lutheran Church, Bonne Terre, Missouri)
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He choose for His inheritance.” -(Ps. 33:12)
Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you. (Deuteronomy 16:20)
“I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is — Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his To the Father through the features of men’s faces. (Gerard Manly Hopkins – When Kingfishers Catch Fire)
“How can a truly “free” state exist if the individual citizen is enslaved to the forceful will of individual or organized aggressors? It cannot.” – (Tiffany Madison)
“Forgive us us our trespasses; as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12)
“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.” ~ (Shirley Temple, child actor, and former U.S. ambassador)
“The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before… .What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.” (Jan L. Richardson, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas)
Ketosis: A metabolic state of being a fat-burning machine.
“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.” – (Ruth Reichl)
“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” -Alex Haley
For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. -(Psalms 22:28)
“We climbed up through the moonbeams and observed the dance of lights.” (From Night
Flight by Gail Landgraf)
In November – “The fires burn
And the kettles sing, And earth sinks to rest Until next spring.” ― (Clyde Watson)
ENJOY AND BE THANKFUL FOR THE HARVEST BLESSINGS OF FALL
“Without Pentecost the Christ-event – the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now.” (Henri Nouwen)
“Freedom is within our grasp, and Pesach reminds us that we need to reach.” — (Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson)
“I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.” – ( Sun Bear, Chippewa)
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me.” – (Exodus 13:1-2)
“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.” – (George Gordon Byron)
“Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold. Her only leaf’s a flower; but only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf So Eden sank to grief So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.” – (Robert Frost)
“Autumn…the year’s last, loveliest smile.” – (John Howard Bryant)
“That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” – (Moses from God in Deuteronomy 30:20)
“This is what the LORD says: “‘I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place.” (Jeremiah 30:18 NIV)
““Tolstoy said, “The antagonism between life and conscience may be removed in two ways: by a change of life or by a change of conscience.” Many of us have elected to adjust our consciences rather than our lives. Our powers of rationalization allow us to live in luxury and indifference while others, whom we could help if we chose to, go hungry, are abused and exploited, or go to Hell.””
― (Randy Alcorn, Managing God’s Money: A Biblical Guide)
“Life is like a trumpet – if you don’t put anything into it, you don’t get anything out of it.” – (William Christopher Handy)
‘Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. (Leviticus 23:40)
At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. (Daniel 1:15)
“Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.” – (Genesis 22:8)
“Think of Yom Kippur as a lookout on the top of a mountain that you have been climbing all year. See your days and their moments spread out before you. Be willing to look now at this big picture of your life. Your ultimate goals. Your beliefs. See each person in your life as part of that picture. What lesson have they taught you even if you had to learn it through pain? What message is God sending you by putting this person in your life?” – (Sara Debbie Gutfreund)
“Let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. – (2 Thessalonians 2:3.)
“One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” (The Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag.)
And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest os these is love. – (1 Corinthians 13:13)
“All at once, summer collapsed into fall”. – (Oscar Wilde)
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – ( Albert Camus)
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse – the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. – (Deuteronomy 10:23
“To travel is to live.” (Hans Christian Anderson”
The Hebrew letters that make the word “Elul” aleph, lamed, vav and lamed, are an acronym for the phrase (from the biblical Song of Songs) ani l’dodi v’dodi li, which means “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me.”
“Humility is the essence of love and intelligence; it is not an achievement.” – (J. Krishnamurti)
“And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible disease of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.” – (Deuteronomy 7:15)
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” – (Proverbs 22:6)
“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” – (Matthew 25:40)
” Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.” – (Deuteronomy 11:1)
I will remember the deeds of the Lord; Yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.” – (Psalm 77:11)
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 16:19-20)
“The lessons of the Holocaust are searingly relevant to this day. Seventy-five years after the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, hatred and intolerance still lurk in the human heart, still tells new lies, adopts new disguises, and still seeks new victims.” (Britain’s Prince Charles)
“Celebrate Summer – Sun drenched days and starlit nights .” – (Gooseberry Patch)
“From a distance the world looks blue and green And the snow capped mountains white. From a distance the ocean meets the stream and the eagle takes to flight.” (Song lyrics written by Julie Gold; made popular later by Bette Midler.)
“This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God.” ― (Frederick Douglass)
“To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. – (Revelation 2:7)
Freedom’s natal day is here.
Fire the guns and shout for freedom,
See the flag above unfurled!
Hail the stars and stripes forever,
Dearest flag in all the world.
~Florence A. Jones
“America, the Beautiful, God shed His grace on thee!”
Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray that our unity will one day be restored. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, Yeah they’ll know we are Christians by our love. (Fr. Peter Scholtes – 1960)
You are my hiding place
You always fill my heart
With songs of deliverance
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You
“The moon tells the sky. The sky tells the sea. The sea tells the tide, and the tide tells me. – (Lemn Sissay)
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:19)
“Take courage. We walk in the wilderness today and in the Promised Land tomorrow.” – (Dwight L. Moody)
“When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all of their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all of their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. ” (Numbers 33:51-53)
“We have no one to go to for help. Not even a church. Anything goes, now that our President Roosevelt signed the order to get rid of us. How can he do this to his own citizens? No lawyer has the courage to defend us. Caucasian friends stay away for fear of being labeled “Jap lovers.” There’s not a more lonely feeling than to be banished by my own country. There’s no place to go.”
― ( Kiyo Sato, Kiyo’s Story: A Japanese-American Family’s Quest for the American Dream)
“Leaders don’t settle for less. When you do so, you rob humanity of what you are supposed to deliver!”
― (Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders’ Watchwords)
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” – (James Baldwin)
“It is not the cause for which men took up arms that makes a victory more just or less, it is the order that is established when arms have been laid down.” – (Simone Weil)
You can’t go out and buy a new lifestyle; forget that type of craziness; but you can pick up a few accessories now and then. (Gail Landgraf)
“This is the day for anyone involved with horse. The dream is to win the Kentucky Derby, because there’s nothing like it.”
— (Billy Turner, trainer)
“Broken vows are like broken mirrors. They leave those who held to them bleeding and staring at fractured images of themselves. (pg. 161)”
― (Richard Paul Evans, Promise Me)
Exodus 23:19 – For the three annual festivals, Moses tells the people, “The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.”
“In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.” (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 10-2-32)
“But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him.” – (Moses)
“First off, you will not find a foundational book from, say, the 1930s, called The Cultural Marxism Manifesto. Maybe the best we can say is that cultural Marxism, for lack of a better term, is essentially, and very simply, Marxism applied to cultural goals. To repeat: Marxism applied to cultural goals. This is distinguished from the classical Marxism applied to economics or class goals. It is Marxist theory affixed to culture, and thus referred to commonly and understandably as “cultural Marxism.” – (Paul Kengor.)
“For my own part, I have been wont to converse with poverty; and however disagreeable a companion she may be thought to be by the affluent and luxurious, who were never acquainted with her, I can live happily with her the remainder of my life if I can thereby contribute to the redemption of my country.” – (Samuel Adams)
In my daughter’s eyes
I can see the future
A reflection of who I am
And what we’ll be
And though she’ll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I’m gone
I hope you’ll see
How happy she made me
For I’ll be there
In my daughter’s eyes”
― Martina Mcbride
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
― (Charles Dickens, Great Expectations)
Stay home and shop on-line; you are too pretty to have to look for a parking place.
“Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23)
“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.” (Ernest Hemingway – 1946)
” How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” (Numbers 23:8-10)
“I had a professor one time… He said, ‘Class, you will forget almost everything I will teach you in here, so please remember this: that God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and He has been speaking through asses ever since. So, if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself. And, if on meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway. ” –
(Rich Mullins)
“Keep your faith in beautiful things; in the sun when it is hidden, in the Spring when it is gone.” – (Roy R. Gibson)
““You ask a question that philosophers argue over,” Chiron had said. “He is worth more to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone else’s friend and brother. So which life is more important?” We had been silent. We were fourteen, and these things were too hard for us. Now that we are twenty-seven, they still feel too hard.”- (Madeline Miller – The Song of Achilles)
“But we have overthrown them; Heshbon’s dominion has been destroyed all the way to Dibon. We have demolished them as far as Nophah, which extends to Medeba.” (Numbers 21:30)
“The promise of spring’s arrival is enough to get anyone through the biter winter.” – (Jen Selinsky)
“Spring up, O well! Sing about it, about the well that the princes dug, that the nobles of the people sank—
the nobles with scepters and staffs.” (Numbers 21:17-18)
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved.” – (Ephesians 2:4-5)
“You did not trust in me.” – (Numbers 20:12)
“Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” – (2 Corinthians 7:1)
“February the month of love?!! No wonder the shortest one in the calendar.” – (Dinesh Kumar Biran)
“Love is a friendship set to music.”
— (Joseph Campbell)
“Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts.” – (Philip Neri)
“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” – (Cornel Wast)
“You may be poor, but important; uneducated, but wise; lowly, but noble; simple, but insightful; and ordinary, but great.” – ( Matshaua Dhilwayo)
“I have come to feel strongly that the greatest service I can still render to my fellowman would be that I could make the speakers and writers among them thoroughly ashamed to ever again to employ the term “social justice.” – (Frederick Hayck)
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” – (Aldous Huxley)
“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” – (Henry Kissinger)
When on the morrow Moses went into the tent of the testimony, behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and ripened almonds’ (Num. 17:8).
“I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. A magical thing. And sweet to remember. We are nearer to Spring than we were in September. I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.”
― (Oliver Herford)
“Often God will send us what we need in a package we don’t want. Why? To let us know He’s God and we cannot second-guess Him. We cannot search for answers merely with our heads; we must seek Him and His provision with our hearts. Scripture cannot be interpreted from our limited human mental understanding. There must be a breath of the Spirit of God. He alone gives wise counsel and correct application.”
― (John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: The Essential Virtue for Receiving God’s Blessings)
“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” — (Anton Chekhov)
“We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.” – (Donald Trump)
“New year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.” — (Alex Morritt)
“May God’s grace be upon this shawl…warming, comforting, enfolding and embracing.
May this mantle be a safe haven… a sacred place of security and well-being…sustaining and embracing in good times as well as difficult ones.
May the one who receives this shawl be cradled in hope, kept in joy, graced with peace, and wrapped in love. Blessed Be!” – (Prayer Of Blessing (blessing for a completed shawl) By: Janet Severi Bristow – 2000)
“Every day is Judgement Day. Always has been. Always will be.” – (Tom Robbins)
‘Your offering shall be reckoned to you as the grain from the threshing floor or the full produce from the wine vat.” – (Numbers 18:27)
“True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.” – (Sadhu Vaswani)
“When you believe beyond what your eyes can see, signs from Heaven show up to remind you that love never dies.” – (Author unknown)
“Obeying from love is better than to obey from fear.” – (Rashi)
“Train up a child in the way he should go and even when he is old he will not depart from it.” – (Proverbs 22:6)
“In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.”
– (Charles A. Lindbergh-Aviator)
Just a little t-shirt suggestion to make your Thanksgiving fun even more fun.
“Not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times – not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. ” (Numbers 14:23)
“A legend is sung, of when England was young and knights were brave and bold. The good King had died and no one could decide who was rightful heir to the throne. It seemed that the land would be torn by war or saved by a miracle alone. And that miracle appeared in London town: The Sword In The Stone.” – (Author Unknown)
“Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death.” — (James F. Byrnes)
“Once I came to October; now I never want to leave.” – (Gail Landgraf)
“When I run in Ethiopia, I look out and see eucalyptus trees and rivers.” – (Haile Gebrselassie)
Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile. – (William Cullen Bryant)
“There is lust and then there is love. They are related, but still very different things. To indulge in one requires little but honeyed speech and a change of clothes; to obtain the other, by contrast, a man must give up his rib. In return, his woman will undo the sin of Eve, and bring him back into Paradise.”
– (Ann Fortier)
“I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,” – (Genesis 26:4)
“God is not merely at your fingertips but within your grasp. Live each day like a child digging through an antique treasure chest rifling for the next discovery. Open your arms and your eyes to the God who stands in plain sight and works miracles in your midst. Look for him in your workdays and weekends, in your meeting-filled Mondays and your lazy Saturdays. Search for him in the snowy sunsets and Sabbaths, seasons of Lent and sitting at your table. Pray for—and expect—wonder. For when you search for God, you will discover him.” –
(Margaret Feinberg)
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
― (Lauren DeStefano, Wither)
“There is a place where Jesus sheds the oil of gladness on our heads.”
(Hugh Stowell – “At Your Mercy Seat” 1828)
The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’S love is with those who fear him and his righteousness with their children’s children. (Psalm 103:15-17 – a Psalm of David)
“The Korahites, were in charge of the work of the service, guardians of the thresholds of the tent, as their ancestors had been in charge of the camp of the Lord, guardians of the entrance.” – (1 Chronicles 9:19b)
“I am the vine; you are the branches.” – (John 15:1)
‘The entire world is God’s message of love to us. Yom Kippur is the time when we are most open to receive this message’ – (Rabbi Noah Weinberg)
“Why do we fall? Because we do not realize how easy repentance is.”
(Orot Hateshuvah)
“The lack of demonstration in the Church is connected to the lack of consecration.” – (Jerimiah Johnson)
“Dawn to dusk, they only turn up to heaven where God lives,
Every face a separate light
Reflections of the love He gives.” -(Allen Levi – The Golden Choir of Abiere)
“The body is like a piano, and happiness is like music. It is needful to have the instrument in good order.” (Henry Ward Beecher)
“Family is whoever fits into your heart.” (Rachel Hauck – The Memory House)
“The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Numbers Chapter 6)
THE LORD MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON YOU Today we want to look into the second part of the Aaronic Blessing the part that says; “ The LORD make his face to shine upon you.” INTRODUCTION Welcome to the COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY which we hold on this blog every Thursday. We are slowly…
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“The Lord bless you and keep you.” – (Numbers 6:24)
“A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.”
-(Washington Irving)
“Love is not about how much you say “I love you” but how much you prove it is true.” – (Author unknown)
” All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.” (The Book of Numbers)
All of the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD. – (Numbers 6:8)
“Hope is the anchor of our souls. I know of no one who is not in need of hope – young or old, strong or weak, rich or poor.” – (James E. Faust)
Saying, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” – (Jesus)
“You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’ They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” (Jesus – Matthew 15:7-9)
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” – (The Woman At The Well; John 4:29)
“The world is full of genies waiting to grant your wishes.” – (Percy Ross)
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” – (Revelation 12:11)
The IN SEASON Lifestyle’s BOOK OF THE MONTH
“What is adultery, at its heart, once you get past the sex part? It’s fundamentally the human will to eat the forbidden fruit, to choose what one wants instead of what God wants and to tear apart what God has joined together. There’s a reason that adultery was a capital offense in the Old Testament: God hates it.” – (CHARLES ERLANDSON)
“But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding; he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.” – (PROVERBS 6:32)
“I went window shopping today! I bought four windows.” – (Tommy Cooper)
“It is very very difficult to win. A horse is only there once. His opportunity is only going to occur once, when he sets foot into that gate and he is only going to have two minutes and a little bit of extra to pull it off.: – (John S.”
John Sosby -Speaking of Swale, 1984 Derby Winner)
“You can’t win the Kentucky Derby unless you’re a thoroughbred.” – (Joe Torre)
“When you touch the dirt on the tract you have the feeling, at that moment, that you are on the center stage of the universe.” – (Steve Cauthen, Jockey of Affirmed who won the Triple Crown in 1978)
April showers bring May flowers!
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” – (Ephesians 4: 14-16)
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
— (Exodus 25:8)
“Spiritual friendship is eagerly helping one another know, serve, love and resemble God in deeper and deeper ways.” – (Tim Keller)
And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers’ skins. – (Exodus 26:14)
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; (2 Timothy 3:16)
“Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians. 5:7)
Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me. -(Exodus 13:2)
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I said to you, let My son go, that he may serve Me; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.” – (Exodus 4:22-23)
Let’s dine outside! Everything is so lovely. The air is clean and the day is sunny! Then we will shop for spring!
“The day the LORD created “hope” was probably the same day He created “spring.” (Bernard Williams)
“Torah is not education, it’s transformation.” – (Rebbitzen Dena Weinberg)
“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.” – Genesis 49:27
“Life is short – buy the shoes!”
“Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” (Genesis 48:16)
“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)
“Joseph is an example of true patience and endurance in the plan of God. From the moment we are conceived in the womb, our destiny is being shaped by God the Father. From the life of Joseph we can learn what it is to suffer for God, what it is to truly die to self and the blessing that God bestows upon those who lay down their lives in service to Him and the resurrection power of new beginnings that only God can bring to pass by and through His Spirit of grace.”
― (Paddick Van Zyl)
“Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else.: – (Charles Spurgeon)
“Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.” – (Isaiah 65:24)
“We, too, will have fellowship with the sublime if we know how to be perfectly obedient to the Word of the Lord.” ― (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Being God’s Friend)
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” – (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? – (Psalm 18:31)
“They draw from the abundance of the seas, and the hidden treasures of the sand.” – (Deut. 33:18-19)
“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” – (Dr. Seuss)
“The meaning in life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” (Pablo Picasso)
“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” – (Ephesians 6:13)
“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas; just like the ones I used to know. Where the treetops glisten and the children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow.”
“Over the river and through the woods, trot fast my dapple gray. Spring over the ground like a hunting hound On this Thanksgiving Day, Hey!
Over the river and through the woods now Grandmother’s face I spy. Hurrah for the fun, Is the pudding done? Hurrah for the pumpkin pie.”
– (English folksong, It’s Raining, It’s Pouring)
“God is not a human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” – (Numbers 23:19)
“Entering the house of God to dwell with God, beholding, glorifying and enjoying him eternally, I suggest, is the story of the Bible, the plot that makes sense of the various acts, persons and places of its pages, the deepest context for its doctrines.” – ( L. Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus)
“A small town is a place where there’s no place to go where you shouldn’t.” – (Burt Bacharach)
“One nation under God indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” (The Original Pledge of Allegiance)
“Obedience is an act of faith; disobedience is the result of unbelief.” – (Edwin Louis Cole)
“While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is onward, & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who sees the end; who chooses to work by slow influences; & with whom two thousand years are but as a single day. ” – (Robert E. Lee)
“All the secrets in the world worth knowing are hiding within plain sight.” – (Robin Sloan)
“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” – (Leviticus 25:10) Note: This scripture is where America found the message inscribed upon the face of the Liberty bell. It was fifty years to the date of its use that the crack formed in the bell and it could no longer be rung or heard in the land.
“About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.” – (Ernest Hemingway)
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness. —ISAIAH 5:20”
“Your life is like a coin. You can spend it anyway you want, but only once. Make sure you invest it and don’t waste it. Invest it in something that matters to you and matters for eternity.” – (Tony Evens)
“Shmita (alternatively spelled shemitah, shemitta, or shmitah)—the sabbatical year, or seventh (sheviit)year—is a biblical prescription for and inoculation against environmental and social problems, including habitat destruction, hunger, overwork, soil-nutrient loss, unabated growth, wealth gaps, and the disconnects between people and their food and people and the Earth.” – (David Krantz)
So maybe you already know your true identity. Perhaps you found Jesus Christ years ago and have placed Him in the High Priest’s position as LORD of all of your life and you have proclaimed that He is the lover of your soul. Isn’t it good to understand who you are and where you belong? HOW’S YOUR LIFE GOING? Just…
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“But I’ve wandered much further today than I should
And I can’t seem to find my way back to the wood.” (House At Pooh Corner – Loggins and Messina)
“Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret – it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed; but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land. (Psalm 37:8-9)
“This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (Shakespeare)
“Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” – (Jesus) ( John 4:35)
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
“For the fruit always works – it must work – but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will.” – (Asland from THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW)
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them. ” – (Isaiah 11:6)
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (Corinthians 13:12 KJV)
“August rushes by like desert rainfall,
A flood of frenzied upheaval,
Expected,
But still catching me unprepared.
Like a match-flame
Bursting on the scene,
Heat and haze of crimson sunsets.
Like a dream
Of moon and dark barely recalled,
A moment,
Shadows caught in a blink.
Like a quick kiss;
One wishes for more
But it suddenly turns to leave,
Dragging summer away.”
– (Elizabeth Maua Taylor)
Help the economy grow; go shopping!
“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” – (Lou Holtz)
“Nothing is so sexy on a man as talent.” – (Joan Plowright)
Be dogmatically true, obstinately holy, immovably honest, desperately kind, fixed upright.” – (Charles Spurgeon)
“The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.” (Jim Morrison)
“Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” – (Robert Collier)
“A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.” – (Billy Graham)
“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.” (Blaise Pascal)
“The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another.” (John Komfield)
“Honesty is the first chapter in the Book of Wisdom.” (Thomas Jefferson)
STRANGE HAPPENINGS IN THE DESERT The next chapter of Leviticus is worded a bit strange for most people’s modern-day thinking. It basically says: “Don’t eat blood” and “Don’t worship goat-idols out in the open fields.” Can you imagine? What kind of crazy subject is this? Well; it may not be as far-fetched as you might think. We are going to…
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“It is just an ADD TO CART kind of day!” (unknown)
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to atone for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Leviticus 17;11)
“God has always worked wonders through his prophets to increase the faith of His chosen people or to correct their disobedience.” (Mother Angelica)
“Loneliness is the leprosy of the modern world.” – (Mother Teresa)
“Roar and Slither; Squawk and Coo; Things are happening at the Zoo!” (Author Unknown)
“There is something beautiful about our scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.” – (Harry Crew)
“Saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.” – (Exodus 15:26)
“If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance.” (Bernard Williams)
“When we were dating, I would pick these blooms from Magnolia trees. So when we had the opportunity and were trying to figure out what to name her little boutique, Magnolia Market just stood out to us.” (Chip Gaines)
“A baby is a blank check made payable to the human race.” (Barbara Christine Seifert)
“A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.” (Coco Chanel)
“It is easier to change a man’s religion than to change his diet.” (Margaret Mead)
“It is not so much adverse events that make you anxious as it is your thoughts about those events. Your mind engages in efforts to take control of a situation, to bring about the result you desire. Your thoughts close in on the problem like ravenous wolves. Determined to make things go your way, you forget that I am in charge of your life.” (Sara Young – Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace In His Presence)
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)
“The devil only bothers to counterfeit that which is real and a threat to his kingdom.” (Frank Viola)
“We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.” (Eduardo Galeano)
“Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking ad.” (James C. Penney)
“ Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity. Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” (Kahlil Gibran)
“Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)
“I think most of us want to go to heaven though not necessarily right now. But we all need to get ready for the trip – and Anthony DeStefano’s book is like a Fodor’s Guide for just that purpose. It is a wonderful road map for people who want to be happy in this life, and at the same time prepare for ultimate happiness in the life to come. ” – (Mike Huckabee – Former Governor of Arkansas)
“Now this I know: The LORD gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand.” (Psalm 20:6)
“Motherhood – all love begins and ends there.” (Robert Browning)
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9
“I heard Sham’s hooves disappear behind me… And then, there was nothing. All I could hear was Secretariat’s breathing and his hooves hitting the ground. It was very quiet.” – (Ron Turcotte – Jockey of Riva Ridge, 1972 Derby Winner & Secretariat, 1973 Triple Crown Winner)
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2; The Apostle Paul)
“God works single-mindedly throughout the ages to restore lost humanity to Himself.” – (Alice C. Lindsley)
“The face is the mirror of the mind, and the eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.” (St. Jerome)
“Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24) (ESV)
“Fire doesn’t fall on empty altars. There has to be a sacrifice on the altar for the fire to fall. If you want the fire of God, you must become the fuel of God.” (Tommy Tenney)
“Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is the most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrong doing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.” (Aldous Huxley; Brave New World)
“The seven sins are: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Worship without sacrifice. Politics without principle.” – Frederick Lewis Donaldson (1925)
“Jerusalem (1804) And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green And was the holy lamb of God On England’s pleasant pastures seen And did the countenance divine Shine forth upon our clouded hills And was Jerusalem builded here Among those dark Satanic mills Bring me my bow of burning gold Bring me my arrows of desire Bring me my spears o’clouds unfold Bring me my chariot of fire I will not cease from mental fight Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand ‘Til we have built Jerusalem In England’s green and pleasant land” (William Blake)
“The holiest of holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart; the secret anniversaries of the heart.” – (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
“No person was ever honored for what he received; he was honored for what he gave.” – (Calvin Coolidge)
“It is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving.” – (Richard Braunstein)
“The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a Wilderness.” – (Havelock Ellis)
“Go for the moon. If you don’t get it, you’ll still be heading for a star. Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of the creative effort.” – (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
“The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.” – ( St. Jerome)
“For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26
“At some point you will meet my imperfections. Will you leave or will you stay for my redemption?” (Shanna Rodriguez)
“God is our Father; we are his children. He has brought us into his covenant, and it is our privilege to go on from wisdom to wisdom, from intelligence to intelligence, from understanding of one principle to that of another, to go forward and progress in the development of truth until we can comprehend God. For we are his children, we are his sons and daughters, and he is our father.” — (John Taylor)
“For the LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own possession.” (Psalm 135:4)
“He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock
That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He hideth my life with the depths of His love
And covers me there with His hand”
(Fanny Crosby – 1890)
“The deepest passion of the heart of Jesus was not the saving of men, but the glory of God; and then the saving of men, because that is for the glory of God. – G. Campbell Morgan”
“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” (Song 2:4)
CREATING THE ANOINTING OIL Today we come to a discussion in which God instructs Moses about creating and using the sacred anointing oil for the tabernacle. INTRODUCTION Welcome to Lesson 174 of our ongoing on-line chronological bible study called COME AS A CHILD. Today we are studying a passage found in Exodus, Chapter 30. If you missed the previous lesson…
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“Having “descended below all things,” He comprehends, perfectly and personally, the full range of human suffering! A spiritual sung in yesteryear has an especially moving and insightful line: “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus.” Truly, Jesus was exquisitely “acquainted with grief,” as no one else.” (Neal A. Maxwell)
“I am the way, the “truth” and the life.” (John 14:16)
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD.” (Song of Solomon 8:6)
“There is in souls a sympathy with sounds: And as the mind is pitch’d the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch’d within us, and the heart replies.” (William Cowper)
It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. – (Revelation 19:8)
FAVORITE QUOTE FOR MAY: “I measure success by how many people love me. And the best way to be loved is to be loveable.”
(Warren Buffett)
And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 18:3)
“This is so typical of God’s Kingdom. The most beautiful things are the hidden things. You will not see them at first glance. They are the things you must learn to search for with all of your heart. God must lead you to them and God must reveal them to you. He will do that if you ask Him to. ” – (Gail Landgraf)
