Christian Photographers Community

• NEW Mini Challenge #7~"TRASH or TREASURE"     Upload your photos today and until Aug. 15!  This subject was chosen by the winner of the "CANDY" challenge, Muddy_Sneakers!

• Mini Challenge #6~"CANDY"     SEE THE WINNERS!!  A new challenge will open over the day or so the subject chosen by the winner, Muddy_Sneakers!

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

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

• A Tennessee Tale   I found this to be such a blessing to read submitted by ohenry.

• See the last photos uploaded to our Gallery

• Tutorials by ohenry   Check these out and practice.  They are very well written. 

Morning Devotional...


Matt. 6:10.  "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Go outdoors some dark night and look up.  You'll see countless myriads of heavenly bodies of all sorts, sizes, and distances from us.  Each dot of light is a magnificent system of its own, a system that may include many less-luminous orbs, each circling its own nucleus.

Within all that indescribably vast array, though, each and every rock as well as each and every gigantic sphere moves and rotates in its own plane and at its own velocity.  As if it wasn't wonderful enough already, though, each and every heavenly body is in turn composed of billions upon billions of atoms, electrons, and protons.  We could well be completely overwhelmed by it all.

Yet, without exception, everything in this wondrous universe  obeys the same basic set of physical and chemical laws.  No mavericks here!  And everything operates according to one perfect plan, the plan of the infinitely wise God Who made all and sustains all.

When we are confronted with the frighteningly variable aspects of our own lives, lives that must traverse through heights of joy and depths of sorrow, the ultimate wisdom for us is to say with our Lord, "Thy will be done - on earth as it IS in heaven!"  It is so very, very good to confess the existence and power of our living Lord GOD!
Al Moak

And a wondeful good morning to all of you!

Good Morning Al and Carl! 

Thanks Al, for the good word this morning!

.


From time to time, I've shared with you a little email communication entitled "The Garlic Press" from a friend, Mario Bruno, who is a missionary in Rome.  He used to live at my parents' home when he was attending Bible School.

Today's email is especially touching about sowing the seed, watering it and harvesting.  I hope you receive a blessing as I did upon reading this.




Hello,
I returned to Rome this past weekend and experience first-hand the truth of the apostle Paul's statement: "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." (1Cor.3:6-7)

On the flight across the Atlantic I arrived at my aisle seat before the other passenger. Just after I was comfortably settled a young lady came and sat in the window seat beside me. The first thing she did, after getting settled, was pull a large study Bible out of her purse. I watched her (out of the corner of my eye) read Exodus chapter 16 while I read the newspaper they gave us when coming on board. When she stopped reading I introduced myself and asked why she was reading the Bible.

She gave me her name, told me she was from India and was a tennis player. She had been in Vancouver, Canada, playing in a tournament then flew to Toronto to spend some time with a childhood friend she grew-up with in Bombay. Her friend spent the whole time talking to her about Jesus Christ and God's Word. Just before leaving she gave the tennis player her own study Bible to help her come to know Christ and salvation. During the flight I tried explained to her how to read the Bible and understanding how the Old Testament was the foundation of the New Testament, tracing God's plan of salvation from Genesis to Revelation.

When we parted in Milan I gave her my email address if she had any questions or difficulties in the future. Below is part of her unedited email to me:

----------------------------------------
  I hope this letter find you in good health.

Firstly I wanted to remind you about our meeting on the flight from Toronto to Milan so you can recollect who I am. Once again, my name is M......  from India the Tennis Player.

  Secondly I wanted to thank you for the information and knowledge you provided me aboard.I believe as an amature it was very essential for me to have the guidance you gave me for reading the bible.
For me it was the Lord "Our God" who introduced me to you so he could help me get stronger in my faith in the path tyhat i am following,making my doubts clear and my reading the bible so much easier.Through you he saved me from the confusion I was in while reading it by myself.

  Thank you for the time you invested in teaching me with such intensity,love and kindness.I could truely see the love you have for LORD.

--------------------------------------------------

To the Lord alone be all praise and glory.
May God's grace be upon you all.
Mario.

Stories like that are so wonderful to read!  May our God continue to draw that young woman closer and closer to Himself - into the very center of His love and grace!  And may she also be used to help still others.

Good to see you here this AM Carl.  God bless your entire day.  And may He bless yours as well, Pat.

I want to share  this devotioanal with you this Morning it is from one of the devotionals that I read each morning.

Morning Prayer (#20060807)
by Henry Morris, Ph.D.
"Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee" (Psalm 143:.

This is a beautiful and meaningful prayer with which to start the day, and one which God must delight to answer. It is very simple, with two requests and two declarations, yet it can reach the very heart of God.

Because we trust implicitly in His Word, we hear Him speak through it, as we read it at the beginning of the day. And as we hear Him speak, we rejoice again in His loving-kindness, especially in saving our souls and guiding our ways.

Then we are emboldened once again to lift up our very souls to Him (not just our voices!) and ask Him for clear guidance in the way in which we should walk today.

The psalmist also prays, and so should we: "Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness" (Psalm 143:10). God will "cause [us] to know the way wherein [we] should walk" by the Holy Spirit, if we sincerely desire to know and to follow His will, and to be led in the paths of righteousness. He will never lead us, of course, in any path contrary to His revealed Word. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105).

But when He is given all priority in our lives, when we love and study and obey His Word, and when we sincerely call on Him for daily guidance in His will, He will surely answer. "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:6). "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him" (I John 5:14-15). HMM

For all of you are still in the hot areas, maybe this cool Cat will cool you down!

Pat ~ Thanks for the message from Mario.  Mark another up for God.  It makes my heart smile each time I hear another person has accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior.  I am happy that M is my sister.

Marilyn ~ Yes, we do have Adult Sunday School classes which I am thinking of joining one of them instead of driving to Greenfield another time during the week for Small Groups. 

Now for a Praise to God.  All three of my photos got hung at the Indiana State Fair.  The scoring went from 70 (lowest) to 85 (highest).  Mine were 71, 72 and 74.  But I was so happy when they were all hung.  And one of the members of the photography guild that I belong to got Honorable Mention...a beautiful photo of two hot air balloons with the crescent moon between them.  Kitty got all three of hers hung, too.  It does seem that our guild was represented honorably. 

After visiting the Open House at the Fair, four of us went to Steak and Shake for our evening meal at 9:30 p.m.!!

Nice reprieve today.  It is a cloudy day and very comfortable out when I took the trash to the roadside.  But I may mow the grass this afternoon if it doesn't rain.  Too much dew on the ground right now.

Good morning everyone, Carl (ohenry) invited me to this forum and I am excited to find it. I have already been blessed by Al's devotional and the other responses here.  Hope everyone has a wonderful day !

Good morning everyone.

Thanks Marilyn ! I appreciate the warm welcome.

Welcome Rob and may God Bless You.

I came to the computor to do some photo printing, printing I did but also a little experminting with colors etc. which I like , part of learning and confidence as well.  My printer also suggested that my color ink might be running out, I do not have any extra on hand so to the store I will be going sometime this week.

Every one have a great day.
Ruth

Hi Ruth,

thanks for the welcome.  I am looking forward to reading and sharing God's love with everyone. 

  Hi Rob,  welcome to the group.  I just noticed that you are not more than 45 minutes away from me!  Small world.

Well the joys of motherhood are catching up with me!  I volunteered to coach my daughters youth cheerleading squad and that starts this afternoon.      Pray for me that I will be a light to all of those young girls.   I was not a cheerleader in school so this should be fun!

Hope everyone has a great day!
Samantha

Hi everyone.  I had success with my GPS system after waiting on the phone for about an hour to speak to a service person.  He was very nice and helpful (the way support people should be) and provided me the code that went with the serial number of my GPS.  I had gotten a 1 gig memory stick to replace the 128 mgs as after rebate I could get it for $10.  So I have lots of memory and put all the states I think we might be travelining into anytime soon and especially on the trip to Missouri and Colorado at the end of September.  Now I will set some destination addresses into it for quick reference.

Al, I really liked your devotional today.  A couple of days ago someone sent me some graphics showing the relative sizes of the the planets to each other and to the sun and the far stars.  It was quite awesome and all God's creation.

Pat, that was a wonderful letter from your friend and the experience he had on the airplane.  Of all the people sitting on the plane those two ended up in the same row so that he could share God's plan of salvation with the tennis player. 

Etta Sue, congrats on your placings at the fair.  You are a good photographer and that is recognized by your peers.

Rob, welcome to CP and you are certainly doing the right thing in posting as you will soon feel right at home here. 

Samantha, you should have quite a challenge and a very interesting experience coaching the cheerleaders.  I hope you enjoy it.

Ruth, isn't it frustrating when we get ready to do something and the ink runs out in the printer.  Of course, if you printer is like mine it still have several pages worth of ink when you get the warning. 

I have a communications committee meeting at the church this evening at 7 pm.  I hope it won't be a long meeting.

Marilyn, hope you are still feeling better.

Talk with you all tomorrow.

Hi Samantha,

Nice to meet you. I bet you know one of my best friends from Belmont. Mark Henry? I've been to Belmont and visited Mark's mom and dad before.  It is a small world !  Good luck on the Cheerleading !

Hi Larry, Thanks for the greeting and it's nice to meet you. I feel at home already!

Larry...maybe I should think about one of those GPS thing-a-mabobs.  Not that I've ever been lost...I was confused for about 3 days once, though.   

Samantha...it's comforting to see a Christian woman interacting with kids.  May God give you the strength and the wisdom to make a difference in these young girl's lives. 

Ruth...I spent several emails trying to work someone through color spaces and color management.  I think she finally understood what I was trying to explain.

Pat...thank you for sharing the letter.  You have been a blessing to me in so many different ways.

Well done, Etta Sue!

Thank you to all who left devotionals today.  I don't always comment on them, but I always enjoy them

Hi, friends,

It's been a good few moments reading the devotionals and the posts today.

Y'all have a good evening.

Ruth Ann

Howdy everyone!  

It's sooooo good to come in here and read all your posts.  I was up and out very early this morning and then to a friend's for coffee and then I delivered some Avon products to a few customers and then I did a bit of work on the Photography Cafe ( http://photography-cafe.com ) for those of you who aren't aware of that site.  It's not a Christian site but it's a family site with no nudity or glamour photography as we have very yoiung photographers on there.

Then after that, here I am!  It's been a busy day and I'm tired just telling you all about it.

Carl, thanks for those words.  I appreciate them.  And I appreciate your inviting Rob to the site. 

Rob, please just continue to post and post and post!  You'll fit right in here and I just know that you're going to be a blessing to us all.

Hi Ruth and Ruth Ann!

I think I should get one of thos GPS thingies too!  Even though I don't remember being lost as a bus driver, it might be good for one of those things to tell me where to go next! 

I'm so happy that you enjoyed Mario's email.  He's a very busy man in Rome, Italy.

Hi Marilyn!

Well, it's 9:30 and I have a few things to do before I move Janet's devotional out here into the public that she got ready before she left for China.


I hope that you've all been to the Gallery and commented on a few photos!

As I was driving around today, this is a hymn that I kept on humming and then singing...  Thought you might all enjoy it too.

Time to lock the door.

I have Janet's New Every Morning to post for you all.

Have a good day tomorrow.

CLICK HERE