Knowing the End of the Story

 

In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.

John 16:33 NIV

Broyhill Walking Park - Let Your Light Shine

 You are the light of the world...Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to Your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16 ESV

Huron Manistee Forest - He Gives Strength to the Weary

 Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Isaiah 40:28-29 NIV

The Friend of Silence

 "We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.  God is the friend of silence...We need silence to be able to touch souls."

Mother Teresa

Broyhill Walking Park - Finding Rest for Your Soul

 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find res for your souls.

Matthew 11:28-29 NIV

Lake Huron - Finding Your Good Way

 

Thus says the LORD:  "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."

Jeremiah 6:16 ESB

Keep your face toward the Sunshine

 

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows bill fall behind you.

Walt Whitman

Eat and Sleep with the Earth

 

"Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons; It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth."

Walt Whitman

In the Beginning...

 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said, "Let there be light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.  So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven.  So the evening and morning were the second day.

Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas.  And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:1-10

Could We with Ink the Ocean Fill...

Could we with ink the ocean fill;

And were the skies of parchment made;

Were every stalk on earth a quill'

And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky.

Unknown

This is verse 3 of Frederick Lehman's hymn {The Love of God" (1917),  This verse is apparently an adapted translation of a Jewish poem by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai (1050).  It seems that the hymn-writer found it scribbled on the walls of a patient's room in an insane asylum after the death of its occupant.  Whatever its origins, it is a wonderful and unusually striking piece of devotional writing.

Emerald Green Waters

Alaska rivers are like mirrors reflecting all the beauty of the sky above and the majestic mountain peaks.  Emerald rivers flow for miles.  Is this not paradise?

"You, Lord, in the beginning 

laid the foundation of the earth.

And the heavens are the 

work of Your hands;

They will perish, but You remain;

And they will all grow old 

like a garment;

Like a cloak You will fold them up;

And they will be changed.

But You are the same

And Your years will not fail."

Hebrews 1:10-12

Rain in the Springtime

 

Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime, it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms.  He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone.

Zechariah 10:1

Reaching for a Dream

 

Not all angels reside in heaven.  Many walk the earth and are our guardians.  My angel is in heaven.  She joined her grandmother at the Eastern Gate August 18, 2019.  Her grandmother told her two months earlier that she would be waiting for her at the Eastern Gate.  She told Crystal to live a good life and she will be waiting for her.  Crystal cried out wanting to go to heaven to be with her grandmother.  Little did any of us know the day would come so soon; within 4 weeks after her grandmother left this earth, a angel lead Crystal gently by the hand to join her heavenly Father.  God is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34.18).  God knows what is best for each of us.  He comforts and takes care of the weary and heart broken.  I have to believe that God heard her cries. Nothing is impossible with God.  

Jesus replied, "What is  impossible with man is possible with God."

Luke 16:27 

In loving memory
Crystal Michelle Fallin
June 19, 1984 - August 18, 2019

In the Roar of Your Waterfalls

 

In the roar of Your waterfalls,
ancient depths surge, calling out to the deep.
All your waves break over me;
am I downing?
Yet in the light of day, the Eternal shows me His love.
When night settles in and all is dark, He keeps me company--
His soothing song,  a prayerful melody to the True God of my life.
Even still, I will say to the True God, my rock and strength:
"Why have You forgotten me?
Why must I live my life so depressed, crying endlessly
while my enemies have the upper hand?"
My enemies taunt me.
they shatter my soul the way a sword shatters a man's bones.
They keep taunting all the day long,
"Where is He, your True God?"
Why am I so overwrought,
Why am I so disturbed?
Why can't I just hope in God?
Despite all my emotions, I will believe and praise the One
who saves me, my God.

Psalm 42:7-11

Sound of the Sea

Sound of the Sea

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,

And round the pebbly beaches far and wide

I heard the first wave of the rising tide

Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;

A voice out of the silence of the deep,

A sound mysteriously multiplied

As of a cataract from the mountain's side,

Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.

So  comes to us at times, from the unknown

And inaccessible solitudes of being,

The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;

And inspirations, that we deem our own,

Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing

Of things beyond our reason or control.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As if The Sea Should Part

As if the Sea should part

And sow a further Sea--

And that--a further--and the Three

but a presumption be--

Of Periods of Seas--

Unvisited of Shores--

Themselves the Vere of Seas to be--

Eternity--is Those--

By Emily Dickinson

Walking on the Sea

 

But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.  Now in the forth watch of the night, Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

Matthew 14:24-25

Alone in the Mountains

 

And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on a mountain by Himself to pray.  And when evening had come, He was alone there.

Matthew 14:23

The Land of the MidNight Sun

Beautiful Alaska!  Endless sunlight living on the top of the world.  

"There are strange things done in the midnight sun
by the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold..."

The Cremation of Sam Mcgee by Robert Service, 1916

Broken Things

 God uses broken things.  It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grains to give bread, broken bread to give strength.  Quote:  Vance Havner

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18 

Faith is Believing

 

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.  It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed.  Quote by Voltaire

For we live by faith, not by sight. 

2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV

Passing through the Rivers

But now, this is what the Lord says--he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel; "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.   When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not burned; the flames will not set you ablaze..."

Isaiah 43:1-2

Thy Word is a Lamp to my feet

 

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Psalms 119:105

Out of the Deep Waters

Then the channels of the sea were seen.  
The foundations of the world were uncovered, 
At the rebuke of the Lord, 
At the blast of the breath of His nostrils.  
He sent from above, He took me, 
He drew me out of many waters.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me; 
He drew me out of deep waters.

2 Samuel 22:16-17

"I am with you always...'

 

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Matthew 28:19-20

Jesus the Good Shepherd

 

"I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.  But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.  The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.  I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.  As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep.  And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd."

John 10:11-16

In the Woods

 In the woods we return to reason and faith.  The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.

Renewal of Spring

Spring is here and nature has a rebirth and renewal of new growth, bright colors and perfect skies.

 'Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.'

Romans 12:2