Sabbath Keeping

"The just shall live by faith."

~ Habakkuk 2:4 ~ 

"Fear and faith have something in common...they both ask us to believe in something we cannot see." ~ Joel Osteen ~

"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.' ~ C. S. Lewis ~

"More faith than fear." 

~ Lena Schlabach ~

"Faithless is he who says farewell when the road darkens."

~ J. R. R. Tolkien ~ 

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."
~ Corrie ten Boom ~

"Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want.
It is the belief that God will do what is right."
~ Max Lucado ~

"Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away...and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast...be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust...and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it." ~ Ranier Marie Rilke ~

"Sometimes God allows what He hates

to accomplish what He loves."

~ Joni Erickson Tada ~ 

"[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint glean of Heaven is already inside you."
~ C. S. Lewis ~

"This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see."
~ Corrie ten Boom ~

"Did I not tell you if you believe, 

you will see the glory of God?"

~ Jesus, John 11:40 ~  

Please keep in prayer ~ Isaac's family (he celebrated his 8th birthday Friday and died today at noon) ~ 

Sabbath Keeping

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,

all whose thoughts are fixed on you."

~ Isaiah 26:3 ~

"Faith don't come in a bushel basket, Missy. It come one step at a time. Decide to trust Him for one little thing today, and before you know it, you find out He's so trustworthy you be putting your whole life in His hands." ~ Lynn Austin ~

"We have very little faith in the Lord, very little trust. If we trusted the Lord as much as we trust a friend when we ask him to do something for us. neither we as individuals nor our whole country would suffer so much."
~ Thaddeus of Vitovnica ~

"Fear is the glue that keeps you stuck.

Faith is the solvent that sets you free."

~ Shannon L. Alder ~ 

"Trust God or worry. Those are the two choices you have in every situation. Trust God and be at peace. Worry and experience stress. Your choices are that simple and you will make you life as peaceful or stressful as you choose to make it. Trust God and be at peace. This is all that is asked of you."
~ James Blanchard ~

"The hardest part of letting go is the "uncertainty"--when you are afriad that the moment you let of of someone you will hate yourself when you find out how close you were to winning their affection. Every time you give yourself hope you steal away a part of your time, happiness and future. However, once in a while you wake up to this realization and you have to hold on tightly to this truth because your heart will tear away the foundation of your logic, by making excuses for why this person doesn't try as much as you. The truth is this: Real love is simple. We are the ones that make it complicated. A part of disconnecting is recognizing the difference between being desires and being valued. When someone loves you they will never keep you waiting, give their attention and affection away to others, allow you to continue hurting, or ignore what you have gone through for them. On the other hand, a person that desires you can't see your pain, only what they can get from you with minimal effort in return. They let you risk everything, while they guard their heart and reap the benefits of your feelings. We make so many excuses for the people we fall in love with and they make up even more to remain one foot in the door. However, the truth is God didn't create you to be treated as an option or to be disrespected repeatedly. He wants you to close the door. If someone loves you and wants to be in your life no obstacle will keep them from you. Remember, you are royalty, not a beggar." ~ Shannon L. Alder ~

"One may have an abundance of faith in God,

but do we trust Him when we don't understand?

What good is faith without trust?"

~ Danny L. Deaube ~ 

"The reason some of us are such poor specimens of Christianity
is because we have no Almighty Christ.
We have Christian attributes and experiences,
but there is no abandonment to Jesus Christ."
~ Oswald Chambers ~

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled,

trust in God and also in me."

~ John 14: 27 ~

Please pray for ~ Nancy ~ Anita ~ Alicia ~ Vicki ~ Joe and Mandy ~ Sandra ~ 

Sabbath Keeping

~ mustard seed in bed of seeds ~

"The just shall live by faith."

~ Habakkuk 2:4 ~

"If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you may always do so. I'm so thankful that you realized the 'hidden story' in the Narnian books. It is odd, children nearly always do, grown ups hardly ever." ~ C. S. Lewis ~

"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?"

"Faith is to believe what you do not see,

the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."

~ Augustine ~ 

"Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death."

"Prayer is the key to heaven,

faith unlocks the door."

"Sometimes your only transportation is a leap of faith." ~ Margaret Shepard ~

"True faith rests upon the character of God and asks no further proof than the moral perfections of the one who cannot lie. It is enough than God has said it." ~ A. W. Tozer ~

"Faith makes things possible, not easy

so don't be surprised if God hands you a shovel."

"Be faithful in small things, because it is in them, your strength lies." ~ Mother Teresa ~

"The woman who follows the crowed will generally go no further than the crowd.
the woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before."
~ Albert Einstein ~ 

"You can tell the size of your faith by looking at the size of your worry list. 
The longer your list, the smaller your God."

"Choose your friends with caution;

Plan your future with purpose;

Frame your life with faith."

~ Thomas S. Monson ~

"Jesus replied, If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, 

you can say to this mulberry tree, 

"Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you." 

~ Luke 17:6 ~

If you'd like a name added to the prayer list, please let me know. 

Prayer Keeping ~ Donna ~ Bill ~ GJ ~ Gladys and Jim ~ Stephanie ~ Mary and family ~ Sandra ~

Sabbath Keeping

~ Cove dawn ~

"...but the righteous shall live by his faith."

~ Habakkuk 2:4 ~

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else." ~ C. S. Lewis ~

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens." 

~ J. R. R. Tolkien ~

"All the world is made of faith, and trust and pixie dust." ~ J. M. Barrie ~

"God will not look over you for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars." 
~ Elbert Hubbard ~

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." ~ Corrie ten Boom ~

"Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want.

It is the belief that God will do what is right."

~ Max Lucado ~

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." 
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

"Sometimes God allows what He hates in order to accomplish what He loves." 
~ Joni Eareckson Tada ~

"I am not moved by what I see. 

I am not moved by what I feel.

I am moved only by what I believe."

~ Smith Wigglesworth ~

"Faith is confidence in the veracity of what God has said." ~ Larry Huggins ~

"Faith obliterates time, annihilates distance, and brings future things at once into its possession."  ~ Charles Spurgeon ~

"The Bible is not supposed to make sense, it is supposed to make faith." ~ Kamran Karimi ~

"You get faith by studying the Word. Study that Word until something in you "knows that you know" and that you do not just hope that you know." ~ Carrie Judd Montgomery ~

"The whole being of any Christian is faith and love. Faith brings the person to God, love brings the person to people." ~ Martin Luther ~

"A little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but a lot of faith will bring heaven to your soul."
~ Dwight L. Moody ~

"Sciio cui credidi" 

"Faith is believing that God is going to take you places before you even get there."
~ Matthew Barnett ~ 

"Weave in faith and God will find the thread." ~ proverb ~

"Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led." 
~ Oswald Chambers ~ 

"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; 

for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; 

to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: 

as it is written, the just shall live by faith."

~ Romans 1:16-17 ~

If you'd like a name added to the prayer list, please let me know.

Prayer Keeping ~ Pam ~ Richard ~ Jencourt ~ Donna ~ Jim ~ Stephanie ~ Sandra ~ 

Get off the Boat

Jen, Finding Heaven Today, has a post on...fear which is what I call most of the unknowns in life. She talks about leaving the boat which reminds me of the card someone sent Dave and I when we bought this farm. The card showed two people, standing at a crossroads, with a sign that pointed "Normal" and "Off the Beaten Path". The couple stood at the lane that lead to "Off the beaten path" and the caption said, "George, are you sure we should do this?"

Dave used to say, "Once you get off the boat, you can never go back." He and Cathy were going to sell out, move to Hawaii and raise blood hounds except cancer changed those plans and she died. Eleven months after she died, I met Dave and he and I moved to Hawaii and lived for a while (separate bedrooms) because he needed to find his bearings. Little did either of us know it would take six years for him to regain equilibrium but he was worth every day of wait. Evidently, he thought the same of me.
We bought this farm and moved from Richmond where we'd each lived for years. It was a great decision; it taught us to rely on each other, to depend upon each other and it was the beginnings of a foundation that stood us in good stead over the years. What cemented that foundation, that trust, that love was when we began to travel. 

The first time I ever needed a passport, I was invited to teach in Russia. Thankfully, Dave decided he wanted to go and the two of us landed in the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport where we wandered around for a while. Long story short, the people who were supposed to meet us were detained...for a week...and Dave and I were on our own. The man who'd put the trip together had arranged for a car and driver; eventually, Dave and I were found and, after a phone call to ascertain it was legit, we loaded our luggage into a van with two Russians, one of whom was ex-KGB. Oh yeah, talk about fear factor -smile-. We drove for about five hours before we arrived in Yaroslavl where I was to teach first. It didn't take long for Dave and I to surmise our translator, the ABC no-neck guy as he was quickly labeled, was a severe alcoholic...by eleven o'clock in the morning! God knows what he translated that week but our reception was warm and I still correspond with some of those people we met, so it might not have been too bad. I think. 

Dave and I "got off the boat" to make that trip and it was the beginning of a lot of trips, most of them mild adventure that made for wild adventure and a lot of memories. Were we frightened? Oh yes...but we did it anyway. Like I told my mother when she had a panic attack over our going to Russia, "If God can take care of us in Virginia, He can take care of us in Russia. It's not a problem for God." In the years since, He's taken care of us, and now me, in almost thirty countries and in situations that were sometimes...tense. (Remembering here the Russian Mafia in Gori, Georgia and camping in the Moroccan Sahara Desert nine clicks from the Algerian border.) Since Dave's death, God has kept me safe in Sint Maartin and I feel confident He's also kept me safe each and every day since.

A few years ago, a friend told me she admired me and I was surprised. I asked her why and she said, "because you're not afraid of anything." Again, she surprised me and I told her, "Oh yes, I'm afraid. I'm afraid if I say "no" to God, He'll stop giving me opportunities."  Getting up in the morning takes a lot of faith and courage. How do people who don't have God in their lives manage? I mean, why bother? Life is full of unknowns; it's full of what if's and, for me, it's full of Jesus. 

I don't know what the future will bring, heck, I'm not sure what all I'm doing tomorrow but I do know my future includes Jesus. 

And that means I can step out confidently, in the direction of my dreams. What's your dream and will you join me?

Blessings ~ Dave ~ travel ~ mild adventure ~ Jesus ~ 

Don't Just Do Something...Be STILL!

~ Sam and Gypsy ~

To read Vicki's Grow Your Blog Party post, click here.

If you're a female reader, them's fighting words, eh? Women are trained, from girlhood, to not only be busy but to multi-task. In my experience, and I've had a fair share, multi-tasking simply means we I reach burnout faster and more deeply exhausted. If you're a female Christian, and practice your faith, not merely go to church occasionally, you've probably been taught to, always, put others first. You know...JOY, Jesus first, others second, yourself last...and that's good...except when it isn't. Yes, always put Jesus first by having your devotions in the morning to prep yourself for the day and whatever is allowed to cross your path. You also need to get them out of the way.

GASP!

She didn't just write that, did she? Yep, I did. Again, in my fair share of experience, when I don't have my devotions in the morning, before most everything else, they usually get pushed to the nether regions of the back, back burner and, at bedtime I tell myself, "I do double tomorrow." That's just not good business or practicing Christianity because, throughout the day, I'm left with the nagging feeling (could it be my conscious? wry smile) that I could have done better, accomplished more and been more gracious or calm. 

Thistle Cove Farm has taught me some wonderful lessons...some terribly hard and others wonderfully grand. When Dave and I first moved here, I worked seven days a week because there was always work. This farm had not been owner occupied since 1948 and decades of tenants and no funds by the owners had left it looking sad and shabby and not in a shabby chic sort of way either. Also, in 1899 the house burnt to the ground and this replacement was built during the years of 1900-1902. Most of the barns and outbuildings were built in the 1800's and they looked worse than sad and shabby; they looked like they were standing on last legs. The fences were neglected and standing solely due to God's grace and lack of imagination on the part of the livestock.

Each morning, I'd fix coffee and breakfast then head outside where I'd work eight hours a day. It wasn't long before I was feeling a trifle resentful because it seemed the job was huge and I was small. Barns were filled with junk, the house was filled with junk and the carpenters were spending eight hours a day renovating the house and living here. Not only was I working on cleaning up the farm and house, but because we'd torn out the very old kitchen appliances, I was fixing three meals a day for upwards of fifteen people, using a Coleman two-burner camp stove, a charcoal grill and several large coolers. My sense of being overwhelmed came to a head very quickly, mostly, because I wasn't putting myself first. I was doing my own work, the work necessary to keep the workers working and it felt like I was putting in sixteen hour days!

So, I stopped.

Oh my yes, there was grumbling but you know what? No one starved, they ate breakfast and supper at home like they should have been doing in the first place. I still fixed three meals a day for Dave and I and lunch for the workers but I stopped fixing the rest of the meals. We still had two carpenters living with us but when I stopped doing it all, Dave stepped up and started fixing supper and that left me a lot more time to work on the farm and in the barns. He and I reached a place where our efforts were put to good use; I'm better in the mornings, he was better in the evenings. I'd fix coffee and a big breakfast; we'd have sandwiches for lunch and he'd fix supper. 

Dave died in November, 2011 and the work load doubled immediately. All those things he'd been doing now were my jobs as well as the work I already shouldered. Even so, the admonition of "don't just do something...be still" serves me well. Sundays are reserved for devotions, church and, sometimes, catching up with friends. The rest of the week I work but Sunday's are kept deliberately holy...remember the Sabbath and keep it holy...a time of rest, renewal, relaxation, recreation and a lot of porch sittin' time! Some Sundays, if I don't go to church, I'll spend the entire day without speaking to another human being; that can be a good thing, probably for all of us. wry smile

God has given me the gift of being, mostly, comfortable with myself and I enjoy His, and my own, company. On Sunday's, I don't do much other than keep still in order to face whatever He has in store for me in the coming week. If I have a bona fide emergency, I'll deal with it but that's all; I'll keep the rest of the Sabbath holy. I don't just do something, I stay still so I'm better prepared for the rest of the week and life.

Linking up with Soli Deo Gloria Party.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." ~ Albert Einstein ~

Today's Miracles ~ blue skies ~ clean air ~ hay for the animals ~ wood for the stove ~ groceries in the pantry ~ food for the journey ~ stillness ~ 

Sabbath Keeping

"So then, faith comes by hearing 

and hearing by the word of God." 

~ Romans 10:17 ~

"Faith is reason grown courageous." ~ Sherwood Eddy ~

"A man of courage is also a man of faith." ~ Cicero ~

"Faith is believing 

when it is beyond the power of reason to believe." 

~ Voltaire ~

"You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it." ~ Samuel Butler ~

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there.
You can't see the future, yet you know it will come;
you can't see the air yet you continue to breath."
~ Claire London ~


"Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation." ~ D. Elton Trueblood ~

"There's a point in your life when God will bring someone in, at a very unexpected time, that'll change everything." ~ Kristin Martin ~

"I believe,

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.

I believe in love even when I cannot feel it.

I believe in God even when God is silent."

~ Anne Frank ~

"Has something bad happened to you and you said, “Oh me. What did I do? I must have done something terrible. Otherwise, this wouldn’t have happened!”
And before you knew it, you fell headlong into a pity party of morbid introspection—taking yourself apart piece by piece to see where you went wrong. If you’re like most people, you have.
But have you ever thought that maybe you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong, but God is simply testing your faith? This is an important truth for you to understand, because if you don’t, you may get discouraged. The seeds of doubt and discouragement sprout in the soil of ignorance.
Read Exodus 16 about the testing of the Lord in the lives of the Israelites while they were wandering in the desert. What applications can you give to your life?" ~ Adrian Rogers ~

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:7 ~

"Faith has to do with things that are not seen 

and hope with things that are not at hand." 

~ Thomas Aquinas ~

"Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to."
~ Miracle on 34th St. ~

"Ultimately, blind faith is the only kind." 

~ Mason Cooley ~

"Sometimes the things we can't change,
end up changing us instead."
~ unknown ~

"Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother." 

~ Khalil Gibran ~

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." ~ Hebrews 11:1 ~

 If you'd like your name added to the prayer list, please let me know.

Prayer Keeping ~ Noelle ~ Geoffrey ~ Terry ~ Angela, Penny and family ~ Daniel ~ Morgan ~ Meredith ~ Susan ~ Stephanie ~ Winnie ~ Wanda ~ Steve ~ Leslie ~ William and Catherine ~ Becky ~ Rick ~ Misha ~ J ~  Linda and Skip ~ Ryan ~ Roy ~ Tonya ~ Dave ~ me ~