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Devotional

"For there stood by me this night the angel of God."
- Act_27:23

Tempest and long darkness, coupled with imminent risk of shipwreck, had brought the crew of the vessel into a sad case; one man alone among them remained perfectly calm, and by his word the rest were reassured. Paul was the only man who had heart enough to say, "Sirs, be of good cheer."

There were veteran Roman legionaries on board, and brave old mariners, and yet their poor Jewish prisoner had more spirit than they all. He had a secret Friend who kept his courage up. The Lord Jesus dispatched a heavenly messenger to whisper words of consolation in the ear of his faithful servant, therefore he wore a shining countenance and spoke like a man at ease.

If we fear the Lord, we may look for timely interposition when our case is at its worst. Angels are not kept from us by storms, or hindered by darkness. Seraphs think it no humiliation to visit the poorest of the heavenly family. If angel's visits are few and far between at ordinary times, they shall be frequent in our nights of tempest and tossing.

Friends may drop from us when we are under pressure, but our intercourse with the inhabitants of the angelic world shall be more abundant; and in the strength of love-words, brought to us from the throne by the way of Jacob's ladder, we shall be strong to do exploits.

Dear reader, is this an hour of distress with you? then ask for peculiar help. Jesus is the angel of the covenant, and if his presence be now earnestly sought, it will not be denied. What that presence brings in heart-cheer those remember who, like Paul, have had the angel of God standing by them in a night of storm, when anchors would no longer hold, and rocks were nigh.


Morning and Evening  by Charles H. Spurgeon

Hi everyone. It got rather chilly here last night getting down to 39 degrees at 7 am but is now warming up a bit.  I am not sure how comfortable the people at the golf course watching the Master's have been this week.  Today should be better as I don't think we will have the gusty and steady winds of the last couple of days.  I doubt we will make it to Sunday School on time this morning but better late than never.  I did fix her some fruit and some scrambled eggs with ham and cheese to help her conserve her energy to get ready to go.  In fact we may just go to church this morning.  Nothing else on the schedule for the day.  I will watch the last round of the Master's this afternoon after listening to at least some of Don's Sunday Music program on the radio and probably getting in a little nap. 

Jane that is a fine devotional thought for the week. How comforting to know that God is always with us.

Janet, I guess this is the time of the year that many folks start to think about and prepare the ground for their gardens.  As I mentioned yesterday, we are going to try our hand at a little container gardening on the back patio.  I will have to wait until Wednesday evening for Scott to be able to get the soil into the planters.  I apparently didn't move any gardening tools with us so will need to buy a couple of tools for working the soil.  I hope you and Darrel had a nice time at the Senior Dance last night. 

Ruth Ann, you certainly have reason to be upset with the non-performance and poor performance of what little the lady did in her four hours of cleaning.  I certainly would ask that she never be sent back to help you again and I doubt she will have that job very long with that work (or lack thereof) mentality. 

Jane, thank you for today's devotional.  How great it is to know that God is always with us, no matter how frightening things feel.  And that is another of my favorite hymns - another that is impossible for me to get through dry-eyed.   

Ruth Ann, if that was a house cleaner assigned to you I would certainly make sure the management knew of her attitude and non-performance.  If you have to pay for her time you definitely have the right to expect value for your money.

Have you voted in the latest challenge?   It's "Easter Memories" and voting closes tomorrow. 

Hi everyone.  Today started out for me at 52 degrees and is to get to 75 this afternoon, another beautiful day.  I have a light schedule for today.  I plan on attending a meeting at noon today and will stop at Target either as I go to the meeting or afterwards to get some gardening tools.  I really enjoyed the golf tournament yesterday and its very surprising finish.  I felt for Jordan Spieth as his game fell apart toward the end after having led the tournament for three days and it looked like he was going to win again yesterday. 

Jeanne, I will try to put in my vote today before it is too late.  Thanks for the reminder. 

I am rejoicing today because.........IT'S RAINING HERE IN KANSAS!!!!!  Hallelujah!!

I do believe in angels! 

Marilyn:  Delayed reply to your question - sorry.  Yes, definitly so that some come to CO for pot - the pot head state I call it.  There are more homeless now - thank you stupid voters.  Car crashes and robbery.  There are more jobs as well and selling a house is wild. 

Janet:  Isn't it time you two thought about scaling down with a smaller house and perhaps no yard or at least a little yard?  Ask Larry, he has some good anwers for you.  It really helps us.

It has been raining in Arizona and the desert blooms have been showing this year.  Even the most prickly thing on earth that scares you to death is blooming.  You don't want to go near it.   

Larry, I hope you do well with your container garden.  It's such a wonderful feeling to grow something and watch it grow.

Hi to everyone!  It's raining rather heavily here and has been for an hour or two.   April Showers bring May Flowers!  Won't that be lovely?

Hi everyone.  It is a gloomy and dark morning but a nice 64 degrees but headed up to 70 degrees this afternoon.  We have a 50% chance of showers at various times today following some showers during the night.  I have the whole day ahead of me with nothing on a planned schedule. 

Yesterday afternoon I used my new gardening tools, a nice size shovel and hand rake and got the 4 twenty-eight pound bags of planting soil in the big planters.  Then as I was putting my hand cart away in the garage I discovered there is something wrong with my garage door opener.  I finally got the door open but had to manually let it down.  I have printed out the manual and will look at it later today.  I did note it is guaranteed for 5 years but didn't see if that extended to labor costs.  We have decided to get a second tomato plants as the container is certainly large enough to support two to three plants.  We will get a different kind and compare the output after the season.  We also need to get the herbs and another nice flower for the ceramic flower vase that is on our back porch. 

Just this week we decided to use our dinette table that is in the sun room rather than our large dining room table to have our meals on.  We have this heavy duty steal cart on wheels that is great for putting the meal on to get to the table in one trip and for clearing the table.  This way we can enjoy our back yard as we eat as have windows all around.  We can no longer see our big family room TV but we can get the Dish Anywhere on our tablets and on my phone. I found a little picture frame holder that serves as a nice holder for the phone and now we can watch the news or another program while eating, which we have done for years.  So the dinette table is going to work very well for us. I have never liked dining at the dining room table over the years. Pat moved her 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle to the dining room table and this was actually what brought on the change for us. 

Pat, it has been many years since we tried to grow anything outside and I have never cared for gardening.  However, our setup here with the containers that are on the cement but not under the patio cover and get plenty of sun should be easy to care for during the growing season.  I found I really enjoyed my flowers last summer and now have three containers of them on the front porch in place of the one I had last year.  Glad you were getting rain and not more snow.

Carol, the catcus blooming is just another indicator of God's goodness in creating beauty in nature. 

Janet, I see you are also having rain.  I guess we are all enjoying the April showers. 

We had heavy rain overnight but now the sun is shining and the temperature is starting to rise.  It's expected to be more spring-like again for at least the coming week.  I sure won't comlain about that!   

Let's see some photos, Larry of your gardens.

Hi Jeanne!

Hi everyone on this Wednesday morning.  It started early for me as I awoke a little before 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep.  Finally I got up about 5:30 so am getting an early start on my day.  Our garage door quit working on Monday afternoon so I have the repairman coming early this morning to fix it.  Pat has a Church Women's Circle meeting this morning and I plan on going down to the community ministries thrift store to donate several bags of linens and other items Pat cleaned out before my sisters visit.  While there I will certainly visit the Thrift Store to see if there is anything I can use.  This evening Scott will join us at the Church for the Wednesday night dinner.  Tonight the main item is fried chicken.  Then Scott plans on coming out to the house for awhile. 

Jeanne, glad you are finally getting some spring weather up your way.

Pat, I  put a picture of the flowers on the front porch up in the Gallery.  However, my garden is just going to consist of the two large planters with a couple of tomato vines in one and some herbs in the other.  I haven't planted the one tomato plant yet but will soon. 

Good morning, I have a loaf of bread just out of the oven, sure smells wonderful.

This afternoon I will be going to the board meeting for Furry friends although i am not on the board but members are welcome.

The sale of Keith's office has finally closed and the new people have taken over, they were busy tearing off the roof on Monday.

Our kids will be here next month for the church wedding. I've never had a church wedding before this is a first so after  all these years of only being in front of a judge, or in Reno I's d say it is about time to change things. Gilbert and family is the only of my kids that will be here, everyone else lives way far away.

Who is getting married?  Lovely time of the year.

Our dining room at home is used so seldom - Thanksgiving and Christmas unless we are at one of the children's houses.  This year a lot of the Christmas decorations are going to be given away or up for sale - although they are hard to sell in groups - or donated.  The children want very little.  There isn't much because I have not been a fan of collections but family things just do not mean much to them - just a few items.  Someone once said that a person should pretend they had to evacuate the house in one hour and what would you take - and that is all you really need.  But--- what about my sewing stuff?  You can see what my mind goes through every year. 

Don is back from his walk.  I boiled eggs for fridge keeping and adding to salads. 

Carol I am getting married.

Hi everyone on this fine Thursday morning.  We are in the low 50's this morning and will only get to the low to mid-60's later this afternoon.  We apparently had a little rain during the night. Today will be a typical Thursday for us. I did take the donations to our Community Ministries yesterday for their Thrift Store.  The man came on time and fixed our garage door by totally replacing the unit that opens it.  He was here about 15 minutes but it still cost $85 for the visit.

Today I will pick up my friend to take to coffee and then take him home and go from there to the Church for the Wisdom group meeting at 11:30.  I will stop at the Post Office for a roll of stamps that Pat needs for the cards she sends out on behalf of our Sunday School Class. Is everyone aware that the cost of first-class stamps was reduced to $0.47 on April 10th?   

There is a nursery right next to where I have coffee so may check out their selection for some herbs to plant.  Today is finally the day that our new Aldi's grocery store opens.  We have two $5 coupons to use there during the next couple of weeks. If I have enough energy left after the morning activities I may briefly stop at the new Aldi's.  This store being so close we won't need to make such big purchases as can easily stop there for a few items at a time. 

Marilyn, I don't think you have mentioned before the upcoming wedding.  I know this will be special for you and I am happy for you and Keith. 

Carol, we used very few of our Christmas decorations this last year and anticipate that is also be the case for the years ahead.  We didn't even use our little tree last year.   

Marilyn:  Congratulations - have a wonderful wedding day.

Every morning there is a phone call from Ted Cruz.  We can block sales calls but not political calls, of course, that is the only reason that bill was passed. 

When we watched the video this week of former pastor, he had chosen a song called Cornerstone - do not remember hearing it and it was really comforting.  Do any of you know the song? 

Hi everyone on this Friday morning.  The forecast for today shows we are to stay cloudy and only get up to 70 degrees this afternoon.  I had planned on driving to Madison, Georgia to meet friends for lunch but our plans were changed as three of the six weren't going to be able to attend.  So it is now scheduled for next Friday.  I am glad as am not feeling up to par today.   I do want to get a pedicure this morning as can no longer deal with my toenails and want to avoid having more toenails removed if possible.  Pat and I plan on going to a bar-b-q place we like for a good lunch and then she won't need to worry about fixing dinner tonight.  That will be our exciting day.

Carol, is this the "Cornerstone" song you referred to:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvLxZEU02uI  ?

Here is an article from a e-magazine about Freckles http://www.luckypuppymag.com/lucky-puppy-of-the-week-freckles-the-queensland-blue-heeler-and-australian-shepherd-mix/

I've been among the missing for a few days, but am back here now.  I will post in the morning.

Hi everyone.  It has been a rather long night as woke up at 2 am and wasn't able to go back to sleep.  So a little after 5 am I got up and got cleaned up and dressed for the day, washed my CPAP hose and related equipment that can be washed, unloaded the dishwasher and am now in my office for the morning.  I should get a lot done getting an early start.  We are predicted to get up to 72 sunny degrees this afternoon. 

Yesterday Pat and I went to the bar-b-que restaurant for lunch and then drove down to our new Aldi's.  They were busy but there was parking spaces.  It is the nicest Aldi's I have seen, well organized and small enough that you are not exhausted when you finish shopping.  They are going to give the other large grocery stores some competition. 

I expect to have a quiet day today with nothing on the schedule.  I will probably see if I an have a quick nap sometime this morning and will also rest this afternoon.  I did get to feeling better yesterday morning and Pat and I agreed we had enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon. 

Marilyn, a very nice article about and picture of Freckles and about you.  Thanks for sharing the link.

Larry:  Thanks so much for the "Cornerstone" song.  I hope to hear it more in church. 

Marilyn:  Nice article reminding people to adopt older dogs.

We just chatted with youngest son who is dealing with a lot of snow today.  We meet him in Phoenix in early May for dinner as he has meetings there - then we head home that night but have booked a room so we won't have to drive late. 

Well, it is past 8:30 P.M. so I didn't get here in the morning, after all!  I am not feeling up to par, as a cold is trying to attach to me, so I'm fighting it with prayer, Vitamin C and Zicam, plus tylenol or Ibuprofen.

We took the "new" pickup down to Abby so she could drive it to Prom tonight.  I guess Grandpa softened up since last year.  She asked to borrow it last year and he said NO!     I left my camera with Diane and asked her to take pictures for me, as we didn't want to stay that late, because it is raining!

It started raining last night, like pouring water out of a bucket!!  And lots of hail, but thank goodness it was small.  It cleared up for most of the day and then began raining again this afternoon after 4:00.  We had 2 5/8" in the gauge this morning!  And it's a good general rain, covering a huge area, so maybe this will break the drought! 

On Tuesday we took Beth to the neurologist in Colby.  He said she definitely has MS (multiple sclerosis) and has had it for at least ten years!  I am really baffled WHY none of the many doctors we have taken her to over the years ever caught that!  She has had so many MRIs, and he said all her loss of mobility and also her speech difficulty all have been caused by the MS NOT the Neurofibromatosis!    If any of them had paid attention, she could have been getting treated all this time and probably could still at least drive her power chair and use her hands!  But I know that even in this, God is in control; he loves Beth and still has plans for her life.  Also, she is nearly blind in her right eye from Angle Closure Glaucoma, a condition I'd never heard of until now.  And the doctors here and in Garden dropped the ball on that one--I had been telling them there was something wrong with that eye, they were putting in drops for a bacterial infection.  Now she will have to have surgery on both eyes to open a channel for the moisture to drain, so it doesn't stay trapped in the eye and cause the pressure  to build up.  That is scheduled for April 28th.  Your prayers are appreciated, always.  I think the concern for her, and the long trips to doctors have worn me down and my resistance wasn't up to its usual, is why I'm feeling bad now.  But I'll be okay.

I had a treadmill stress test and a bone density scan on Thursday, so spent about four hours up at the hospital doing those.  I amazed them on that treadmill, though!       Dr. said my EKG looked perfectly normal, and I said that's exactly what I expected!

It's time for me to get to bed, as I'm really tired.

Marilyn, what a nice story about you and Freckles!  Sweet!  Thanks for the link.

Larry, the new Aldi's sounds like something you and Pat will enjoy.  Wish we had one here!

Good night everyone, and sweet dreams!

Hi Carol!  You posted while I was typing.  We heard it's snowing clear down to Pueblo!  Elkhart, KS got over 6 inches of rain!!

Time for a new week to begin HERE