Matanzas River - “Turn to Me With All Your Heart”

 

Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.

Joel 2:12-13

Shores Waterfront Park - “The Midst of the Sea”

 

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

Psalm 46:1-2

Shores Waterfront Park, Florida - “Call to Me and I Will Answer You”

 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

Jeremiah 33:3

Matanzas River, Shores Waterfront Park - “I Have Heard Your Prayers and Seen Your Tears”

 

“Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD.

2 Kings 20:5

Shores Waterfront Park - “Tree of Shame”

 

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:8

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2

Shores Waterfront Park - “Be My Love in the Rain”

 

Oh, come forth into the storm and rout  
And be my love in the rain.

Robert Frost

Shores Waterfront Park - “Heart of the People Moved as the Trees of the Woods Moved with the Wind”

 

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.

Isaiah 7:1-2

Commentary:  King Ahaz and his people react with fear instead of with trust in God. They are shaken and unstable in their hearts.

 In this, the people of Judah really are the people of Ahaz, not the people of the LORD. God was not shaken or unsettled by this threat. If the king of Judah and the people of Judah had put their trust in the LORD, they would have had the peace of God in this conflict.

Shores Waterfront Park, Matanzas River - “No One will take Your Joy From You”

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

John 16:22 (ESV)

Shores Waterfront Park, St. Augustine, Florida - "The Rising of the Sun"

 

From the rising of the sun 

to its setting
The name of the LORD
is to be praised.
Psalm 113:3

Matanzas River - “The Breath of all Mankind”

For the soul of every living thing is in the hand of God, and the breath of all mankind.

Job 12:10

You are My Hiding Place

 

You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble.

Psalm 32:7

I am the Way and the Truth and the Life - Moultrie Creek

 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the father except through me.

John 14:6

Shores Waterfront Park Trail

 

Intra Coastal Oak Trees

 

Fall Season in Florida

 

“It is He Who Made Us, and We are His”

Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Psalm 100:3

Rapture in the Lonely Shore

There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more.

George Gordon Byron

Don't Look Back!

 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying 'Hurry!  Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished."

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.  As soon as they had brought them out one of them said, "Flee for your lives!  Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain!  Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"

But Lot said to them, "No, my lords, please!  Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life.  But I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die.   Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small.  Le me flee to it--it is very small, isn't it?  then my life will be spared."

He said to him, "Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.  But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it."  (that is why the town was called Zoar.)

By the tie Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.  then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah--from the LORD out of heavens.  Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities--and also the vegetation in the land.  But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Genesis 19:15-22 NIV

Shores Drive Park Intracoastal - Worth More then Sparrows

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.  

Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in Heaven.  But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

Matthew 10:29-34 NIV

Bringing Out the Best

 

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?  It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

Matthew 5:13 NRSV

Thought for the Day:  I can use my faith to bring out the best in others. (Upper Room, July)