Christian Photographers Community

Isaiah 58:11 says...

And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.





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Luke 15:7 says...

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

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Morning Devotional...

Crutches and Heart Transplants [/color][/size][/b]

         
His bitter countenance hardened to a sneer when I informed him that I was a Christian.

"Christianity," he snapped," is only a crutch for weaklings".

His eyes flashed hate against his Maker as he repeated this old tattered and silly platitude. It was obvious that rage was rolling and boiling within his innermost being.

What should I say in reply? Perhaps I could remind him that the sinner is lame and blind and in need of help and assistance on life's great journey. I could go on to say that Christ alone is able to support the morally lame and guide the spiritually blind. However, such an answer would have been inadequate and misleading.

It is indeed true that unregenerate man is "poor and lame and blind" and therefore, unable to walk uprightly and in a straight path before God Who is holy, righteous and just. But man's disease, in a spiritual sense goes far beyond the darkened eyes and the deformed feet. Both his sinful sickness and his spiritual penury are merely symptoms of a far more serious malady. Isaiah, the prophet wrote, "...The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;...". (Isaiah 1:5,6) The sickening symptoms of this disease are vividly pictured for us by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:10-18:


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This may sound awful, but remember it is God's diagnosis of the problem, and men left to their own devious devices will soon manifest such terrible conduct as that described. We only have to read of the acts of men in recent history to confirm the truth of it. Even the behaviour of "civilized" troops sent to keep the peace in war torn lands attest to thefacts of scripture.

Man does indeed seek out and use many devices to support himself as he travels through life. Indeed these props may appear to be of some help for a time, but by and by they crumble and break when they are most needed. These supports give a false sense of security and will be of no help at all when the poor forsaken soul stands before the Last Great Assize. These crutches have various names. A few examples are: socialism, humanism, atheism, psychology, religion and entertainment to name but a few. They all have some things in common. For example, their place of manufacture was Hell and their designer was the arch enemy of souls. His name is Satan. They are among the many and diverse tools which he uses to blind men to their personal depravity and to the real cause of the present distress of nations.

When God reaches down and imparts saving faith to a poor sin sick soul, He does much more than provide a crutch.  He performs a spiritual Heart Transplant.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26,27 NKJV)

As the new heart is thus given in grace, the unsoundness of the head is also dealt with. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man." (Mark 7:21-23 NKJV)

To the one who calls Christian faith a crutch we can confidently answer, "It is not merely a crutch to the lame. Rather it is a spiritual heart transplant which never fails." The recipient of such a new heart as God gives will never die spiritually for he has eternal life.

Oh, that sinners may be moved to cry with Israel's king David "Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10 NKJV). Those who do this, trusting in Jesus Christ and His redeeming work on Calvary will receive new hearts and will become new creations in Christ. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) This truly describes the experience known as the new birth. Those who have truly experienced it no longer need crutches for they are enabled to "walk in newness of life."

Beloved reader, have you received this divine surgery? You don't need to have your name put on a waiting list. God now calls sinners to repentance and faith in His Son the Great Physician of souls.

---

Jack Scott loved his Lord! He passed away on January 10, 2001 after a lengthy illness.
He is missed greatly by his family.

Hello, good night/good morning to everyone.  We came back from North Dakota without incident.  How is everyone?  I'm just now catching up with email/websites.

Have a good day everyone!

Ursula

I think Karma was looking for something like this. Where the black and blues blend in with each other, but I could be wrong.

We had a busy busy day! 

We are having an even busier (is this a word?)  day tomorrow.  Lot's to do and lots to enjoy.

You all are the best!  Sorry I haven't been in much. I haven't even been on the computer much either. 

It got up to 96 today.  I love this hot weather.  Mike on the other hand can't stand it.  He roasts like a turkey in the ups truck. 

I better get to bed. 6:50 comes around pretty fast.
Sonja

"And being found in fashion as a  man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God  also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

It was wonderful to read the devotional this morning.  It is a great shame that people don't really understand what it is to be a Christian.  To come to understand who Jesus really is, is the greatest blessing in life.

Have a great day everyone. 

I wonder how the wedding went yesterday?

God bless,

Anthony.

MARK 7 : 15
Nothing outside a man can make
him 'unclean' by going into him.
Rather, it is what comes out of a man
that makes him 'unclean'

We get so hung up on externals,
appearances, and facades.
Jesus cuts to the core of God's concern --
our heart condition.
He wants us to not only focus on what we put
in our body, but what we allow to grow in
our hearts and simmer in our heads.
The inner world is what needs our most
earnest attention.
So let's be honest and ask if we are spending
as much time focusing on our inner world as
we are focusing on our external appearance!

PRAYER...
O God, who searches
minds and hearts, may the
words of my mouth and
the thoughts of my heart
be pleasing to You.
I offer you my inner world to
cleanse and redecorate by
the sanctifying work of
Your Holy Spirit.
Please guard my heart from evil
ambitions and my mind
from impure thoughts.
In Jesus name i pray. AMEN.

                                               PHIL WARE.

Ria     

GOODMORNING ALL 10.53 in HOLLAND 

PAT thank you again for the great devotional from your dear Jack. What was he good.
Also a very good bibleverse they you have put on CP for
Trisha and Jacob.  Is Jacob an english name also in Holland
a lot man have the name Jacob.

MARILYN a very good devotional yesterday i thank you very much.

LADYBUG i love always your writings.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDY  MAY GOD BLESS YOU DEAR JUDY
AND HAVE A NICE DAY
      LOTS OF LOVE RIA

RUTHIE thank you for your lovely words to me
we have also not the weather what we normal have in july.
Also cool and a lot rain.
Yesterday sunny very nice but in the evening again rain.
Today is it sunny but also today we can get a rain shower.


Our dogs go away now for haircut just as the dog from SONJA.
This evening we can keep them home.
But the coming week i go to the doctor i have pain in my right
shoulder and there i also sleep on but that can now not.
I think it is coming from painting the walls white
up en down and my eyes are being very bad i have sorrows about that. I have glaucoom but so as it now is i get no operation but i think other glasses.

God is not a man, that He should lie,
nor a son of man, that He should change His mind.
Does He speak and then not act?
Does He promise and not fulfill?

                     FAITHFUL IN ALL THINGS

                       We can take Him at His word
                     because the One behind the Word
                  has proved Himself faitffull in all things,
                         even unto His death upon a cross.

Love and prayerfully for you all
Ria   


                             

Soni, That's sortof it.  See how there are "bands" running across the middle.  That is what I was trying to avoid.  If you use any kind of gradient, it will do that.  I finally got it to do what I was wanting.  I used a black background, then painted and airbrushed the part that I wanted blue.  This way, I was able to "blend" it without banding.   Now, to take my picture. :-)

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.  If the rain holds off, I have promised Travis we would go swimming.  Of course the pool doesn't open for another hour or so, but he is wanting to go now.  I prolly shouldn't have told him where we were going. :-P

Laters all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUDY!!!  AND MANY MORE!!!

Wonderful devotionals from Jack and Ria today!  So good to start our mornings with the Word in our minds.  Thank you, too, Anthony.

We are taking a day off from working on those trees.  Darrel said we need to heal up some.   We got some stuff from Diane yesterday to kill the stumps, also it will kill the small trees that have sprouted up in the ditch, and against some of the buildings.  We really need to get rid of those!

I am getting my hair cut at 11:00 today.  Just a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking I really liked my hair the length it was, and all of a sudden it seems to stick out all over.   That's life!  At least I have hair!

Sonja, I can emphathyze with poor Mike!  Those brown trucks must be very hot!  I do NOT like this really hot weather, either.  But glad you enjoy it!

Liz, I sure didn't know a squirrel would kill anything!  That is new to me.........poor robin.   I thought squirrels were vegetarians.........guess not.

Good Morning, we had a very good Bible study last night.  The class was taught by  my friend Patty who is one of the prayer warriors, She taught on the power of Prayer. She used the youth worship team and one member of the adult worship team to do the music.

After a time of praise music and the song "Look what the Lord has done" she called for testimonies of what God has done for us this week. Then She taught the lesson after that she asked everyone to come forward to pray for each other while the worship team played  worship songs and sang. People were still at the altar praying when I left at 8:45 to come home.

Plans for today. After work I must go next door and water and week my garden. Do a little laundry and that is all.

Gloria's foot is healing niceley but as will all diabetics it is taking a long time. When it is well we are going to do 6 weeks at HealthSport. My medi/cal (medicaid) allows for 6 weeks per year of excersise.

Well must get on with my day

TTYL

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Happy Birthday Judy!!!

Pat:  Thanks for the message from Jack.  I have heard Christianity is a crutch as well and it is good to read Jack's ideas on that phrase.

A bit of news on the t.v. as I did the treadmill was that Whoppi Goldberg (a foul-mouthed comedian) was cancelled as spokesperson for Slim-Fast diet company - after her speech against Prez. Bush.  I was amazed that any company would hire a filthy mouth person in the first place.  I don't even want to know what she said but glad the pressure was on the company to get that out of their ads. 

Our three grands get together for weekends once in a while and they set up a lemonade stand and made $7.00 - this money is going to the church where one belongs and it is for the "poor people" - We are gratified to hear that the three voted to give the money away.  They are 7, 8 and 9 years of age. 

Carol

Hi everyone.  Am not working today so can get to CP a lot earlier than the last three days.  I was tired from the full day yesterday so skipped my walking this morning and slept in a bit later.  I am going to Calvin Cove this afternoon to play for and sing with the folks.  I missed the last two weeks as we were away.

Carol, I agree with you on Whoppi.  She has the right to say what she wants but words have consequences and perhaps this will cause some people to think about how they express themselves.   

Janet, it sounds like you all need a day off from the tree cutting.  That sounds like a job for cool spring or late fall days.  Glad that Abby had such a nice party yesterday. 

Pat and Ria, thanks for the devotional thoughts for today.  Ria, glad to read you are having a little better weather.  I think we are going to have a clear day today with no rain but never know about late afternoon.

Happy Birthday, JudyB.  Hope you have a nice day to celebrate the event.

Sonja, it sounds like you all are having a great time for the summer.  I don't envy your husband on the UPS truck and know he must be drained at the end of these hot days.  The drivers always seem to be on the run.

Anthony, nice to see you posting again.  Glad your mother is doing better.

Karma, do hope the rain holds off so Travis isn't disappointed in not being able to swim. 

Marilyn, glad to hear that Gloria's foot is healing.  My dad was a diabetic and I understand how long it takes for things to heal.  My daughter is also a diabetic.

Hope everyone has a nice day.

Thank you Pat and Ria;
     For this mornings wonderful devotioals, They always seem to brighten my day...

     My friend is coming today from Oklahoma today. She is staying 2 weeks. I hope to get to do alot of shooting while she is here. She is going to help me get the office ready. We have finished  2 rooms painted , cleaned and ready for use. The house seems so much cleaner. Craig says he's on a roll so we better keep going only 7 rooms left, HAHA!!
   
     I will be  in and out while she is here.  I want her to spend some time here as she to needs all of you as I did..

     I pray God will continue the good work he has stared in all of us... We must allow him to be who he is, so we can become who he sees us as.

I do believe Karma figured it out.  I thought of similar but I took Sonja's and 'smudged' the area where black blended with blue.  Then cropped it so black and blue was even.  Then stretched it by resizing out-of-ratio.  Then resized again in-ratio.  Just an idea.

Kara and Lydia and I had a great time at the park yesterday.  The weather was perfect.  Windy and even a little chilly in the shade.  Bright sunshine with fluffy, fast-moving clouds.  BUT I shouldn't have said we were going for ice cream.  Kara probably asked me a dozen times if we could go get ice cream now!!!  Kara had Bubble Gum flavored ice cream and Lydia had Cotton Candy flavored ice cream.  I had Turtle Tracks.  Then we got back home, they both worried Ali and Inky.     My girls were glad when THOSE girls went back to Grandma's house.... 

I called my programming provider for my satellite dish yesterday and then discovered around 11 p.m. that I didn't have any channels.  I finally got to talk to someone and got it turned back on.  Got to bed at 12:30 a.m.  I feel a nap coming on this afternoon....

<)))><<~~<)))><<~~<)))><<~~<)))><<~~<)))
"Noah didn't wait for his ship to come in...he built one!"

A quick Hi to all then I am off to see the postings I missed while I was away.

Heading to Fayetteville, N.C next week and going to Myrtle Beach, SC on the following weekend then back to Jersey some time at the end of the month.

Does that sound like a plan???

Hopefully the rainy weather will not follow us around too much.

Take care and as always,

Love in CHrist,

Joyce

@ Karma,

I don't have PSP 7 loaded on this computer, but in PSP 8 you can adjust the gradient colours' width/strength so that you would have just black fading to blue as you describe.  If I remember it was the same in PSP 7 (you move the paint sliders, change colours, add colours, work with transparency, in the edit gradient section.

Also, I'm wondering if you're creating the background in full 24 bit (16 million colours) - banding occurs more often when you are in a lower colour depth.

Ursula

Well, It is an overcast day, and the rain we have had has been good for my garden.

It has been good for the weeds too!  More weeding to do!

I have decided to wait till the ground is drier before I start that.

Big day ahead, I have to get ready.

Blessings all

OK, KARMA, I created a black/blue gradient, moved the sliders about 1/3 in from both edges (to give big areas of black and blue at the top and bottom), coloured a 150x300 px rectangle with that gradient, and then applied a gaussian blur at 50%.  It came out very smooth.  I wish I could post it.

OK, forget the previous post.  When saved to jpg, banding shows when I open the picture in a program other than PSP.

Now, I saved the same picture as a tiff image, and opened in Irfanview, and it was smooth!!!

This isn't going to help you, is it?

Ursula

Ursula

It sure is interesting listening to you talk.  I wish I could understand though!

I suppose that is like someone trying to understand the Gospel message,  Without the Holy Spirit revealing the message it would be like hearing  foreign language. 

Lets continue to pray that the Holy Spirit reveals the Message to our unsaved loved ones!

Have a blessed day

!!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HAPPY NEW PREGNANCY, HAPPY WEDDING, HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!![/size][/b]

MISSED TOO MANY HAPPIES.....hope this will make up for our oversight.  Not wanting to miss any occasion, anyone who had cause for celebration - NOW I've covered them all.

MANY MORE HAPPIES, GOD'S BEST TO YOU.


In His love,

Margit and Chris

Quote from: Ladybug on July 15, 2004, 03:02:16 PM
Ursula

It sure is interesting listening to you talk.  I wish I could understand though!

I suppose that is like someone trying to understand the Gospel message,  Without the Holy Spirit revealing the message it would be like hearing  foreign language. 

Lets continue to pray that the Holy Spirit reveals the Message to our unsaved loved ones!

Have a blessed day

Hi, Ladybug, I'm sorry, I did not mean to be obscure.  I think that it is very good that God's Word is much clearer than anything I or anyone else can say.

Have a blessed day!

Ursula

Subj: Insight for Leaders 
Date: 7/15/04 5:08:04 AM GMT Daylight Time
From: lmi@flash.net
To: tozer@litmin.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)



July 15   

The Church: The Gloomy Voice of Unbelief

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. 
--Hebrews 11:1

The voice of unbelief says, "Yes, I'm a believer. I believe the Bible.
I don't like those modernists, liberals and modern scientists who deny
the Bible. I would not do that for the world. I believe in God, and I
believe that God will bless." That is, He will bless at some other
time, in some other place and some other people. Those are three
sleepers that bring the work of God to a halt. We are believers and we
can quote the creed with approval. We believe it, but we believe that
God will bless some other people, some other place, some other time--
but not now, not here and not us....

If we allow the gloomy voice of unbelief to whisper to us that God will
bless some other time but not now, some other place but not here, some
other people but not us, we might as well turn off the lights because
nobody will get anywhere....

The average evangelical church lies under a shadow of quiet doubting.
The doubt is not the unbelief that argues against Scripture, but worse
than that. It is the chronic unbelief that does not know what faith
means.  Rut, Rot or Revival: The Condition of the Church, 152,157.

"Lord, today I claim three words to take with me through the dayÑnow,
here, us. Thank You that I can claim these and it can change my life.
Amen."

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Thanks for all the help.  I was using the maximum colors, and at one point I did "discover" the sliders.  I was still getting a minimum of bands, though.  For most things, it would have been okay, but I really needed it to be as smooth as possible.  Isn't it amazing what we can do with computers nowadays.  I remember in elementary school when we had to program one pixel of color at a time, and in high school when "Paint" was all the rage.  Wow.

Well, I'm off into cyber land to see if I can find some health insurance.  ugh.  pray for me. :-)

laters

Karma, this is from Ursula...

http://christianphotographers.com/forum/graphics/ursula_blackblue.jpg

We haven't had any hymns for awhile...  Let's sing this one.  What wonderful words...

Hello, just wanted to stop in and say hi again. I am on my way out the door again. Won't be back to late.

Hope you all have a great evening.

Soni

Hello to everyone,
   
   Just a quick hi, as to my friend is off the plane and on the way here.

   HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU JUDY!!!

   The house is clean and ready, I am so excited to see Marlene, They shoukd be here soon. Better go. I'll be back later with her to read messages.


   

Howdy!  I got a letter from Curtis today!  Can you tell that makes me very happy?  He said "DO NOT send any care packages, they will just take them away."  Too late!  I sent him one already.  Oh well, I guess it will either be returned or someone else will enjoy his chocolate chip cookies and beef jerky.  He says he is doing fine, but does not like getting up at 4:45 A.M.    Says he is learning a lot about leadership and attention to detail.

Dr. Dobson is to be on Fox News tonight on Hannity and Colmes---two segments.  So if you want to hear what he says about yesterday's vote on the Marriage Amendment, I encourage you to tune in.

Going to watch the national news now.