Christian Photographers Community

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• Mini Challenge #5~"LEADING LINES"     Get your camera out and take some photos for our new challenge!!

• Mini Challenge #3~"PETS"   Congratulations to all who entered and to the winners!!

• Garden Visitors  Let's post photos of insects, little critters, etc. that visit our gardens.

• DMC's Paintings! Read all about Dave and please leave a comment to encourage him.

• Etta Sue in the Koinonia Gallery Please visit and leave a comment. 

• Your Day in Romans   Great study in the Book of Romans.

• See the last photos uploaded to our Gallery

• Talk about Photoshop Actions  

• We're VOTING for a Caption #13! Vote for your top 4 captions for this hillarious duck!

 



Morning Devotional...


If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father...all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die.
Deuteronomy 21:18, 21

I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.
John 17:4

This is My beloved Son.
Luke 9:35

He spared not His own Son.
Romans 8:32

The Old Testament is full of rebellious sons who shamed their fathers in many ways.

The New Testament is full of the righteous Son who glorified His Father in every way. Out of love, many rebellious sons were spared.

Out of love, one righteous Son was not.
--S. McE.

It's late and I'm sleepy, so this will be short.

Mormons and caffeine -- Like Marilyn said, they aren't supposed to have caffeine of any kind.  Personal story.  In college, I befriended a young Mormon gent named Ryan.  He was a year behind me and we marched in the band together.  Over time, we (some friends and me) began witnessing to him.  We had no intention of slamming mormonism, insulting it (or its followers), or putting it down in any way.  We treated it and him with the utmost respect, and he did the same for us.

Some weekends we would have to go to exhibitions and places, and he would usually ride with me and two or three other friends.  On one trip, he mentioned a particularly good piece of chocolate cake he had had.

Me:  Chocolate
Ryan:  Yea.
Me:  I didn't think ya'll could have chocolate?
Ryan:  Why?
Me:  The whole caffeine thing
Ryan:  Yea?
Me:  You can't have coffee or cola because of caffeine, but you can have chocolate?
Ryan:  Yea.
Me:  Explain that please.
Ryan:  I really don't know that I can.

Shortly after that, he gave his heart to Christ.  His family was NOT happy at all.  He had been a Christian for a very short time when he looked at me crying and said, "I have been told lies all of my life.  I believed they were the truth.  My daddy believes they are the truth.  I was not deliberately lied to, but I was LIED to.  Please, when you meet mormons, don't assume they know they are lying.  They don't.  They don't know it is lies.  Give them the truth like you gave me.  Straight, but with love and patience.  They won't believe you at first, but keep telling them.  Tell them the truth of Jesus."

Because of that one request, I have always tried to be courteous, but straight up, with the visitors to my door.  They may not come inside (more because I am usually here just me and the kids), but I do tell them that Jesus loves me.  And Jesus loves them, and if they seek HIS truth, it WILL be revealed to them.

Good Evening/Morning Everyone!

We had a GREAT service today.  A young man named Hiroki, in his twenties, was baptized.  After his baptism, he said this in his testimony.


Wow!  There weren't many dry eyes in the building.  Normally, a Japanese person will come to church for about a year before responding to Christ.  Hiroki gave his life to Jesus after just three Sundays!

We are home relaxing for the evening now, but still smiling, rejoicing with Hiroki!

Oh, yes, Pastor Al, I have done a study on WORSHIP and I look forward to yours!

In His Grip,
Kevin

Hi everyone.  We had a little more rain during the night last night and it wasn't as hot yesterday, which was nice.

I must have spent 3 hours getting 4 rebates ready to mail tomorrow.  My new monitor alone had three rebates and required that 3 different parts of the box be cut out and sent in.  I checked and double checked as don't want to foul any of these up.  I worked on one at a time so as not to mix up the pieces.  I am glad that is done and now must wait a couple of months or longer for the rebate. 

Pat, thanks for the devotional today and sure hope you got rid of that headache last evening.  Those are not pleasant at all.

I want to get busy rerecording some parts of the sermon tapes from our Sunday morning worship.  I didn't lose any of the sermons when my computer crashed as had them all on the web.  However, I had recorded all the anthems and our Easter Cantata and those were lost when my computer crashed.  (Yes, I know to back up but that is hard to make yourself do daily like you should.)  So now I have several hours of work finding the anthems on the tape and recopying them. 

JudyB, it sounds like your daughter will have a wonderful summer and should learn a lot about leadership.  She certainly seems to be an outstanding young lady.

Kevin, wonderful news concerning Hiroki.  God must be using you in a powerful way.

Al, your study results are always interesting and insightful.  I appreciate your sharing them here with us.

Karmat, wonderful story concerning your former Mormon friend.  Thanks for sharing it with us.

Marilyn, I will take a look at your quilts. 

We are planning on going to Sunday School and church today and then out to eat.  This is our last Sunday for the choir to sit in the choir loft until August.  We are not singing an anthem today as our choir director is out of town with her family on vacation but will do the Threefold Amen at the conclusion of the service.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Really enjoyed this mornings devotion.  I'm off to church.  Hope you're feeling better Pat.  Lord bless,  Ray

Good devotional this morning Pat thank you.

I have posted 4 more photos of the quilts at the fair. But to see the true beauty of them you realy have to see the larger photos.
Hope you enjoy what you see.

Must get ready for church now. 

See you all later.

We went to Saturday night service and our retired pastor friend gave a very good and simple message.  I wish that he was still heading up the Spirituality group.

Larry:  Rebates - they can drive a person bonkers.  We quit going to Office Max because they did not honor their rebates.  Good luck to you & don't let anyone tell you that you can't have the rebates. 

karmat:  Interesting isn't it - about mormons.  We toured the cathederal in SLC once - what a fantastic building.  People must give 10 % of their income to the church.  You gave a great story. 

Pat:  I assume Kathleen is a grandchild - bet you had fun with your "guest".  How is your headache? 

Marilyn:  Thanks - I will check out the quilt photos.  I knew a mormon girl in grade school but her mother did not want her to play with me - or anyone outside of the religion.  This gal now has 10 or 12 children - I was shocked to read that in the high school newsletter. 

JudyB:  Just hate the thought of any lawsuit but there should be at least coverage to pay for the medical bills yet to come & perhaps loss of work - they are insured.  People would certainly understand that!  We didn't sue when my father died after surgery that they could not explain why he never woke up again & I know something went wrong and they were hiding it from us - I didn't want to sue nor my brothers either but we were at least owed an explanation  & never got it.  You are going to miss Melaura a lot this summer!  Busy gal.

Pat:  Do you live close to Judy?  Just wondered because you both mentioned eating at the Swiss Chalet. 

Waiting for son & family to arrive in the next hour or so - Don put the screen door on in place of the glass door & I cleaned the patio after last night's windy & rainy weather.

Gotta go.
Carol

I gave up on Internet Explorer.  My computer kept freezing up and a lot of 'Not Responding'.  Firefox doesn't do that. 

Church was awesome.  Great message on the Road to Emmaus.  Interesting how different the two messages were on the same subject. 

Around 4, the members of my Small Group will be here for the weinder roast.  It is cloudy...just hope the rain holds out and lets us all have a great time. 

We just got home from taking John to his plane in Dodge City.  Beth is really going to miss him.  He is very attentive to her when he's here, but not when she goes to visit him.  I think that is because he is so set in his ways, he doesn't like his routine interfered with in any way. 

The wedding was beautiful!!  There was a church full of people, and everything went smoothly.  The bride was beautiful, and of COURSE the groom was SO handsome!    I will have to share a few photos, which I haven't even reviewed as yet.

They invited everyone who attended the wedding to their house (garage, really!) for supper/dinner, and I think every one of them came!  They had a LOT of food, and almolst every morsel disappeared!    Then they had a dance (also in the garage) and I got to dance with the groom.    We had so much fun, and they also did Karaoke.  Darrel and I were surprised how many came, and how many took part and stayed until nearly midnight.  Lots of good memories were made yesterday.

The fathers of the couple drove them to Amarillo very early this morning to catch a plane to Galveston where they boarded a cruise ship for a week's honeymoon.  Lucky kids!  I want to go on a cruise!   The Cruise was a gift from Curtis' parents.  The bride's parents paid for........absolutely NOTHING.    And when there was work to be done, they magically disappeared!  But, as Diane said, it was Curtis' wedding, too, and we wanted it to be nice.  I just never heard of the bride's parents not helping at all before. 

We stayed at the kids until after midnight, then got up fairly early to drive John to the airport, so I am feeling the need for a little nap!

Talk to you all later.  I'm not making individual replies at this time, but I have read all your posts.   Will try to do better this week, if and when life returns to some semblance of normalcy! 

.

The wedding sounds lovely, Janet!

I'll be looking forward to the photos.

Oops, Carol...  Sorry, missed replying to you about the Swiss Chalet.  No, Judy and I live about 4 1/2 to 5 hours apart by car.  She's way up north.

But in most major towns and cities, there's a Swiss Challet like there is in the USA a Perkins or Denny's etc.  We have two here in Guelph.

Well, I'm back.  It's Monday morning this time.  Got my and the Word, and we have lots and lots of rain.  And because I can't go out and shoot a pict of something, I'll get in some reading and chatting.

Our international fellowship in Hiroshima is so unique.  We have people from 6 countries currently attending.  And who knows from what denominations?!?  And our fellowship is so sweet!!

I mention this because recently I told someone, after they asked, that I was from an Assemblies of God background. It was like I'd just tossed a bucket of ice water on them.  The person made an assumption about me and decided there was no reason to try to fellowship with me. 

Oh, by the way, that didn't happen at our church, but somewhere else.  It's so sad when BELIEVERS don't/won't get along.  My co-pastor was born and raised in a Baptist church and we have the best fellowship you can imagine!  As a matter of fact I, along with another AG pastor performed his wedding this past May!

Bible-believing Christians should be able to get along, fellowship, discuss, minister together.  We do so on the mission field here in Japan.

On another note, I will be posting some Scripture with my greetings once in a while.  Here's one  from Isaiah.


In His Grip,
Kevin

Kevin, Jane and Janet you would have been so blessed by our service this morning (I am also AG). We had a young woman  there from New York City who is ordained under the Rick Joyner ministries. (Morningstar)  She preached a wonderful message and  then began to move in the prophetic.

By the way she is also BLIND. She didn't know anything about any of us and there were quite a few guests from a Baptist Church as well other denominations. 

She just began to call out names of people she and had them come up for prayer. Her words for them  were exactly right on. I say all this for those who are not familiar with  a prophetic ministry.

She told me why I came to McKinleyville and why God me put me there at Abundant Life center; she commented on my smile and how I hug people as they come in the door. She didn't know that about me. well anyway I am totally blessed the Holy Spirit is  SOOOOOO AWESOME!! There was a lot more that was just too personal to share here.

Later got to spend some time with my father before going back to prayer meeting she is going to be back at that time.

Kevin---AMEN AND AMEN AND AMEN!! 

Marilyn, I'm sure I would have been blessed if able to be in that service!    Glad you got blessed real good.

I'm off to post FOUR wedding photos now! 

Wow ... Beautiful testimonies here today!  What an AWESOME God we serve.

Quote from: mybcjazz on June 25, 2006, 05:48:04 PM

Bible-believing Christians should be able to get along, fellowship, discuss, minister together.  We do so on the mission fieild here in Japan.

This is so true, Kevin. 

Marilyn, sounds like a real blessing today.  In my opinion that should be the "norm" rather than just a special once in a while sort of event. 

I've got stuff to do here in preparation for when my daughter comes to visit next Sunday.  I want to get a lot of "stuff" sorted out and send it home with her --- I'll toss whatever she doesn't take.   

I'm enjoying reading what all y'all have to say ... I couldn't have said it better so will refrain from comment and let y'all have the floor.   

Y'all have a great rest of the day in the Lord.....

  As usual, I am having a LOT of trouble posting photos, but did manage to get three of them posted.

Anyway, if you like wedding photos, feel free to take a look.  More to come if I can do it with less hassle. 

Tuckered out from only a few hours of visiting with son & family.  We made plans for a joint grandchildren birthday bash in July.  Then, they are checking to see what dates we can have the kids here so we can have fun without parents around ruining everything 

Kevin:  I have often heard that missionaries from different branches based in foreign countries work together on supporting each other.  Know this to be in the case in Uzbeck. for one country.  Know that everyone of the churches (except one I won't name & it isn't considered Christian) in a small town in Alaska really support each other with only one taking on VBS for the summer and if they have fund-raising dinners, everyone comes.  It isn't the same here but we do have announcements for other things and there is a weekly meeting of all pastors & reps from churches.  Very involved in community - doing the work of the Lord, after all.  Sorry that you had to endure a silence after mentioning your denomination.  It should not happen. 

Marilyn:  The quilts were just beautiful.  Such detailed work!  Thanks.

Pat:  I bet you wish you lived closer to Judy. 

Carol

Jane we are working on that being the "Norm". Things are changing at ALC. God is on the move. Our pastor is out of town n San Jose until Tuesday he hasn't even met Sandy Seltzer except on the phone.

Argh I can't wait until my new keyboard gets here. I  have bought a "skin" to go over it to keep the new one clean. It will be custom made I have to send/fax the details of my keyboard and they will send one that is specifically for my Dell.

Janet the wedding photos are great. Sorry you weren't pleased with the way the wedding was paid for but does that really matter. Maybe they couldn't afford to pay the cost. 

Glad you like the quilts Carol I will post the rest of them tomorrow. 

Thank you Marilyn, for your post.  You helped emphasize my point.

Now you can see that AG congregations are varied, as are those of other denominations.  At Mitaki, we seldom have guest speakers, or people ministering prophetically in the main services.  So without getting to know one of God's kids, that is, fellowshiping with them, sterotyping them is seldom a body-building exercise  .

And that was the jist of my previous post.

In His Grip,
Kevin

We had a very delightful rain again this afternoon and the ground is really enjoying it.  It has also cooled things off a lot.  

We had a wonderful worship service and then enjoyed eating out with several of our friends from church.  We actually got home around 2 pm and then I had a nice nap.  Since them I have been working on reviewing the sermon tapes for 2006 and recording off the choir anthems and special music from each Sunday.  I had already done this but lost it when my hard disk crashed.  This time I will be sure to back it up and also put it on a CD.  I am enjoying listening to the anthems we have sung so far this year.  I so enjoy singing in our choir.

Kevin, I certainly agree with your comments.  We as Christians certainly should love and respect other Christians even if we don't share exactly all the same views.  It is Jesus Christ we must look to for our salvation and not our churches.  Over the years my wife and I have been priviledged to be members of several denominations and you really have to look hard to find major differences.  

Etta Sue, have you tried uninstalling Internet Explorer and downloading it again.  There is a new Beta Version, which will be a part if Vista, that I have been using for a couple of months and like it.  With your highspeed connection now downloading software should be pretty quick.  Hope your small group hotdog roast was very enjoyable.

Janet, sure Beth will miss all the attention that John has given her these last few days.  It sounds like the wedding was a wonderful event and there will be many happy memories of the day.  It is nice that the grooms parents were willing and able to give them such a wedding and then such a nice wedding gift.  You now have a new member added to your family.

Kevin, we attend the AG also, and have people from a number of denominations attending.  It is great to worship together, and keep the main thing the main thing! 

YES, Marilyn, it does matter!  And yes, they could have helped, that's the rub.  I'm glad the kids (ours) were able to do it, even though it sure strained their budget.  The matter of them (bride's family) shirking the work was the most galling part.  They are a generation younger than Darrel and I, and we worked HARD for days helping get things done and ready.  But as they say "what goes around comes around" and the kids will help us if the time comes that we need it, too.

Larry, your day sounds lovely.  This is the third week in a row, I think, that we didn't get to attend church.  Maybe we will have to introduce ourselves when we do get back.

See you all tomorrow!

do we not have a new thread this morning?

Well, Well, some say better late than never, others say better never than late.  Anyway, had this all waiting, then never came back to it last night.  So it's there now:

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