Christian Photographers Community

Morning Devotional...


The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.
Proverbs 18:10

What a dwelling place--the name of the Lord!

In this strong tower the righteous find safety and blessing.

Come, weary one, and you will find rest. Flee into it and find a refuge from the pursuing enemy.

God's name encapsulates all of His attributes, and His covenant promises. In this tower is complete security. It is the ultimate city of refuge. Here the believer can forget about self, retire from the world and be out of reach of the enemy.

This is a place of dwelling and abiding in Christ, which lifts the believer into the heavenly places, where he can enjoy the full blessings of God.
--Milton Haack

It's 9:15 pm for me.  I see I'm first here.    I had to post after reading all the postings today.

There seems to be so many changes lately, pastor's leaving, churches splitting, trials in families and loss through death.....just lots of heartache.   I was so thrilled to read what some wrote about the Holy Spirit being so present in their services this morning.  We had the same where I am.  The presence of the Lord was so strong that all I could do was weep, loudly I'm afraid, with no thought ofr shame.  People were going forward for prayer, tears streaming.   This is nothing man can do.  As you said, Janet, there is such a new hunger I see in His own.   I want to trust him too.  With all and everything, I want to worship freely and with all the passion in my heart, the very passion He has given.

I remember reading somewhere that if Jesus isn't all and everything...if His presence isn't your greatest need, if you don't desire intimacy with your Lord more than anything.........then He isn't anything at all to you. 

I am so grateful to be living in this day. 

edit:  Oh.....and more news.  Not that you'd all be interested, but this morning only one puppy was wobbling around, and tonight they all are "walking".  So cute.  I noticed mama is staying out of the box for longer intervals.    I know God has so many lessons for me in watching these little ones grow.    I'd better get it quickly, the way they're growing! 

                 Good Morning Holy Spirit

Morning Pat.  Thank-you.

Hello Jane.

This afternoon is Our little Prayer Meeting.  As it is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assissi today I have asked if we could use his Peace Prayer to begin.

May Our Lord enfold you all in HIs Peace this day.
Love,
Jenny.

                     

                Prayer of St. Francis of Assissi


Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light and where there is sadness, joy.

O Lord, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled but to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that I receive
It is in pardoning that I am pardoned;
And it is in dying that I am born to eternal life. Amen.

Good morning all.

This is the day that the Lord has made
Let us rejoice! and be glad in it.

Hello, all!  Gotta get to work, but wanted to say Hi!

nard

good morning,
just dropping in before i head off to school. i only have 4 days this  week with the funeral... i go monday and tuesday and maybe 1st hour wednesday then i'm off wednesday and go thursday and friday.... anyways ttyl
Sarah

Sarah, I've been thinking for you and praying for your family during this time of sadness.

The prayer of St. Francis is one of my favorites, Jenny. If only I could come close to his devotion to our Lord.

Y'all have a good day.

Ruth Ann

I, too, am just popping in before i begin my day!!

Have a good 'un!!!!

Good Morning: Good devotional this morning Pat.

Hunger for more of God: oh yes I am there too. The Lord has told me to wait on Him this morning regarding a house. Patience is NOT one of my virtues, but I am "Learning to Lean". (you got that Pat I love the old hymns.) What a good message there is in that old song.

Nita and Janet I know just how you feel. Some of the men in my church are meeting with the Pastor to see if he will decide to stay with us.

My client Fay is in the hospital I will post a prayer request.

TTYL

I don't have a midi for it, Marilyn  but I found this link...

Learning to Lean

Howdy folks! 

Just dropping in to say hi. "HI"

soni

Just dropping in to say "Hi" to you all as well.

Busy day for me.

A close friend passed away and the visitation is this afternoon and the funeral is tomorrow but tomorrow, Judy McKenna and I and another friend are going up north to a Ladies Luncheon so I must go today to the visitation.

Also have to get some Avon books out.

I know many of you have done the same things as I have done this morning during my Bible reading.  But today was an exception!!!!  I learned three new things from reading passages that I have read many times before but didn't let those passages speak to me.

1) The parable about 'The Great Banquet' prepared by a king.(Matt 22:1 14)  It was a custom at that time to send out two notices for a banquet...one to invite and another to say the banquet was ready.  But the king sent several.  Then one one person came not dressed properly for the banquet.  The king ordered the person to be tied hand and foot and thrown out into the dark.  I never understood why, just because a person wasn't dressed properly, that he would be bound up and thrown out.  Now I realize...I take things literally...that the parable meant, that many people come to Christ but their hearts aren't ready to accept Christ.  They come to Christ not willing and able to change.  

2) I didn't realize that when earth was first created that it didn't rain.(Gen 2:5-6)  So when Noah was told to build an ark in the middle of the desert, far away from any body of water, he built the ark on total faith.  Did he wonder how he was going to get this big ark to float?  How he was going to get the ark to a body of water?  My take on this was when, after building the ark for 120 years, Noah saw rain coming from the heavens the first time, did he say 'Yes!' while he brought his fist down in the yes manner that we do today?

3) The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord.  He delights in every detail of their lives.(Ps 37:23).  Every human activity, except sin, can be done for God's pleasure if you do it with an attitude of praise.  Now my take on this is, every human activity can be praising God or appeasing the devil.  Photography?  It can be pleasing to God or it can appease the devil.  Washing dishes?  It can be pleasing to God or it can appease the devil.  Driving a car?  It can be pleasing to God or it can appease the devil.  My thought if you Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, (Mark 12:30) then you are pleasing God in all you do.  The answer is love God as God loves you.

I am filled with God today!  Thank you, God.

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"It may be true that life begins at forty, but everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out."

Good morning!  Thank you so much for the great devotional thoughts to start the day. Yes, Pat, I have run into that strong tower many times ... and today is no exception.   Jenny, I have always loved that prayer of St. Francis of Assissi. Marilyn, Learning to Lean has been my theme song for the past several days,too. So has "Until Then" <Pat???>  Thank you, Etta Sue, for sharing the things you have learned this morning ... I, too feel filled up and ready for whatever this day has in store for me!

Y'all have a good day, now, y'hear?

Here you are, Jane!

Hi all.  ETTA SUE, you came up with some really good God-thoughts in your Bible time this morning.   Thank you for sharing them.

I don't think I'd heard that song, Until Then, before.

I'm waiting for it to warm up so I can do the mowing.  Some things just won't go away.

I am testing something out.  Seems I may have a problem with my pc or something.

New photo, Etta Sue?

Hi Nita...

I have to mow my lawn again.  One more time nice and short should do it till the spring.

Seems as if summer didn't come this year.

Hi to all,

So nice to come back today and my first post that I read was from dear
Nita.

Her love and passion for our Lord has strengthen my faith so many times.

Bless you , Nita.

This weekend, I awoke early and put Charles Stanley on TV --next thing I noticed
my grand daughter awoke and the two of us watched.  She was so taken by his
words and the way he preached. 

Every time, he said, are you listening?? she would pop her eyes open even more.

This was a wonderful message for my 14 year old to hear --all about our conscience,
the wonderful Holy Spirit living inside of us.  How we are programed and what to
do to guard our thoughts and to open up to receive HIS words through our conscience.

Very, very pleasing to be a grandma sitting there with her grandchild, really listening
and learning, all by ourselves before the rest of the "gang" got up and disturb our
peace.

Then the two of us took the doggies for our walk along the creek. Due to the storms
our creek looks like the Colorado River but so pleasing to walk along..

Wish you all had a great weekend,

Love in Christ,

Joyce

http://www.faithclub.org/Discouragement%20and%20Depression.htm


http://www.inspirationalpoetry.com/faith5/mylifeisinhishands.shtml

Pat, thanks for the link to ‘LEARNING TO LEAN”  I’m listening to it right now.  I have had to lean on Jesus through the years.

Cornelia had a long list of things for me to do today, letters to write, emails to send, bills to pay, etc.  But I got it all done.  It is easy to get behind when you are away for a week.

I Jn 4:7-11
7   Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8   Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9   This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10   This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11   Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  (NIV)

--- Papa John          
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Please pray for my client Fay

Just click on the link _^^ above

Hi everyone.  I have spent most of my free moments today continuing to work on my wife's computer.  Happy to say that the work today was loading software and copying back her files that I had been able to save copies of on my computer.  With the network it is a matter of drop and drag but she has some really large files involving her quilting that she has accumulated over the years.  I was able to get her computer on the network where I can access it from the other computers.  That makes working with her files much easier as she relies on me to back up for her.  I am also in the process of setting up a music library in MusicMatch Jukebox that accesses the music files I have on my desktop.  Still more work to do on her computer but it is all coming together.

This afternoon we had our database class at the SeniorNet Computer Learning Center and we had a very nice time.  It was a fun group and now the class is finished.  Do have a volunteer's meeting to attend on Friday.

Good to read the devotional for today and all the postings.  Hope everyone has a good evening.

Larry - I have been wondering how your wife, Pat is feeling these days.

Marilyn - I will go back when finished here and read about Fay.

Pat - Sorry to read in the paper about Albert's passing.  I recall a few years ago that you took them to the Niagara area.  I enjoy the music you put here, especially "learning to Lean", that someone requested.  Is there a music for the Prayer of Francis.... that Jenny mentioned?  I read the words to that prayer, and it seemed to me that it is a chorus or praise piece, but I'm not sure.

Nita - So good that you had such a wonderful service where you worship.

I'm quickly going to visit some of the other folders, then get ready for bed early tonight, as Pat and I have a very early start to our day tomorrow.

Please pray for safe travelling for us.        Thanks.,  Judy

Thank you, PAT, for "Until Then" ...     I wonder if it is "just coincidence" that you wrote the second verse 4 times!  Must be something I needed emphasized today!   

Here I come....a week or so late.  It seems I never get to be online here any more.  I used to catch up at work some, but now is our busy season and then I have a young computer genius who has taken over the computer. 

I want to say a big "THANK YOU" to Pat for the morning devotional and the wonderful hymn.  I never really noticed the meaning of the words as much as I did tonight when I sang all the verses.  What a blessing!!

Then, Etta Sue, you came up with some really good insights from your daily readings.  Also, I like you new picture.  I'm going to check out the diet section and see how skinny you are getting!
Both you and Pat!

God's blessings to all.   kathy

A birthday celebration for me this past September.  When I was not quite 32 years old I asked Christ into my heart.  I wanted to serve him and do whatever He desired for me.  As a grateful sinner, I asked of Him one favor...that He let me live long enough to serve Him for as many years as a saved sinner as I had lived as an unsaved sinner..

The middle of this past September marked 32 years that I have served Him.  While I do not know if He will take me now that that request has been fulfilled...I do not worry....I'm ready.

Happy Born-Again Birthday, Fast Eddie!  I feel that way too----while I am not afraid of death, I'm not planning to be on the next load going to heaven! 

We just got in from Amarillo a while ago.  Darrel had his stress test and passed with flying colors!  His doctor said "Get off that thing and come back in a year!"  He didn't see any further problems with his heart or blood pressure.  For that I am thanking God!! 

I'm tired, so will go fix a cup of tea (Thanks, Pat!    and go to bed soon.  Pat left her tea in our room in Niagara Falls, so I've been drinking it!