Today's Goal

Goal for the day: to please the Lord and walk in His will, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.

An illustration I heard this morning: A monument found in the foothills of the Alps was erected for a faithful guide who died while returning to the summit to rescue stranded climbers. The monument read: 

"He died climbing".

"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." 

Ephesians 5:15-17

Lord, I want to die climbing

Two Tired, but Happy One-Year-Olds!

We really had a fun gathering last Saturday, celebrating the Grand-nieces first birthday! I guess they slept well that night, hopefully Mommy and Daddy did too. Theme was The Hungry Caterpillar, as you can see:

Everything was festive and bright. Food was delicious; grilled burgers and hot dogs with all the fixings.
We brought a fruit salad. Both Syd and I had fun cutting out flowers and other shapes for garnishing. I had never had star fruit before. All I did was cut through and stick the stars on the plate, etc. Syd said that he and Machias determined that it tastes like "sweet grass"...which I always called "sour grass".

Ready for Lunch!

...Then the ears went on for enjoying cake!

...Lots of great cake!

And don't forget the presents. Madison started helping with gifts, but sleep won out. Katelyn stuck it out for the duration. We all enjoyed the fun gifts. Lots of clothes and plenty of toys too.
Great Grammy (Mom) and the Great Grandpa (on the Mommy's side) did a lot of visiting. Mom actually was happy in this photo, I caught her off guard and didn't notice that she wasn't smiling or I would have taken another picture!

Some of the cousins made it too. Here's Diana with little Titus. Sorry I didn't get more pictures of the guests. I was using my Sweetie's phone camera and kept having to go and retrieve it from the safety of his pocket (knowing me, I may have laid it down somewhere and misplaced it, otherwise).

It was a very fun day with family and friends! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MADISON AND KATELYN!

To The Work!

I loved the little excerpt from my morning devotional,

"You are not in heaven yet; get up, get dressed and get to work!"

This lesson from the account of Peter's prison wake up call by the angel of the Lord. It's simply an illustration, but it does make one think!

A prayer request: Bob Nutting is an elderly man who is dying from cancer. As far as we know he is unsaved. We hope to visit him today or this evening. Whether you get this days from now or not, could any of you Christians out there please pray for him? Our church is already doing so, I know. Thank you.

As I was closing in prayer time this morning, the Lord brought two elderly ladies to mind again. He reminded me of them weeks ago and I should've looked them up. Olive and Miriam Kingsbury.
These two ladies used to do after school Bible clubs in the home of a friend of mine. It is where I first heard of the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for me. I looked them up today and find them listed as still living (87 and 95 years old) in the same hometown, just miles from where I grew up. Through the years when I was a child, they would call my mother on the phone or stop in at our house and ask her to pray with them for a particular person or need.

We never know how the Lord will use our lives to touch another person. Lord, let us get up and get going; working faithfully for You and waiting on YOU for the results until we get to our only "resting place", Heaven.

I share this with you because I love this photo of Pastor and his twin grandchildren. How sweet!

Happenings

This week has been quiet on Darling Hill. My hubby did take two days off to work on the house. Not only do I love having him here, but he spent time getting more siding on our gable ends. We can get a before and after picture soon, awaiting the electric company to come and put a sling on the electrical wires so that Syd can get up into the very peak. We lost electricity (storms in the area) for a few hours on Tuesday, so he even got to take the canoe and get a little fishing in at the nearby pond! an added plus!

I have no pictures to show for it, but we got a quick visit from our niece Loken and the family. We did enjoy it so much but can't believe I didn't take a picture! Little Jaden played hard with Ruger, as did Ethan. When Ahren asked Jaden what the dog's name was, he replied, "Yogurt". What a cutie pie! Megan is a young lady now. They all grow up too fast.

God has blessed through His Word this week...I leave that on the stand alone page above.

Focus, focus, focus (may even be our next series in our Sunday School class):

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in  your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." Hebrews 12:2-4

Yes, We Gathered At The River!

The Lord gave us a beautiful day for baptism on Saturday. At my best count, there were 18 people baptized in the beautiful pool, just below the cascading falls. I got pictures of most of them, but sorry to say, I missed a few. These first two are the adults who have been most recently saved, Carol and Gary.

This man had been prayed for by his Christian wife, son and family and by our church for years before recently receiving Jesus Christ as his Savior!

Our dear brother, Jim, had always feared the water greatly, and therefore had not dared to go through baptism. The Lord truly did the work in his heart when Jim asked Pastor recently if he could be included in this round of baptisms! He also joined the church the next day. God never gives up on His children. I am glad that growth comes at every age and that the Lord never stops His work of conforming us to His image.

I will give the next pictures in family groups:
I totally missed Matt and Zach's photos from the H family. Not sure where my camera was at times, I guess. Sorry, guys!

 ~ These from the R family, which I did not get all their photos either. There were 7 of their children baptized!

Amos

I am sorry that I don't have the photo of Amos actually turned around, but there was a bit of a mishap as he stepped into the water. I do have the photo of Pastor, as he'd slipped down in to the pool...the photo of Amos and Mr V laughing, but decided not to include it here!

Salinn

Lydia

Hosea

I missed several of the photos of the R family. Also I missed Samuel, from the A family photos below, I'm sorry!

Grace

Jonathan

Then the B family; I'm sorry again, I missed two here.

Ben

Henry

Annette

Mom was there, as each came out of the water, to encourage and remind each one to carry on with the Lord and that they can "talk to the Lord at any time."

Following this blessed time of baptisms we had our church/family picnic. The fellowship with family and friends -- and the food...all made for a wonderful day!

Friends, Mom and Rose

Jim says Hi to Katelyn

...and great Grammy, to Madison

Girls, gathered around the babies, of course!

Our cooks, Syd & Dustin

Jim & Gary

A large group for volleyball!

...and of course, the food tables.

At the end of the day we were tired, but Syd and I just couldn't stop thanking the Lord and talking about the blessings of it all, especially for those who followed the Lord through the testimony of baptism...a testimony of each believer's faith in the Lord; the picture that they "died with Christ, were buried with Him and rose with Him, to justification," and publicly showing the desire and decision to keep waking with the Lord throughout the remainder of life.

"...they came to a certain water; and the eunuch said, 'what doth hinder me to be baptized?' And Philip said, 'If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.' And he answered and said, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.' And he commanded the chariot to stand still; and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him." 

Acts 8:36-38

Loving, Obedient Service

I am thankful for people's patience toward me. The Lord has blessed me in listening to the beginning of a challenge from Pastor Monroe (Greenville, SC) on 'Leaving thy first Love' (not exact title) from Revelation 2. Today I ask myself...am I doing all that I can do in the service of the local church? the answer, 'no'. It was a challenge to prayer, prayer, prayer, encouragement toward the saints and service in even the 'little things', ongoing, more and more in the days ahead. A quote that I heard the other day, "If I only look at the level I am on, I will never be challenged to go to the next level." Having been praying for revival in my own heart for many months now, a deeper prayer life, for salvation of souls in our communities, for OBEDIENCE to go out to the lost with the love that the Lord Jesus Christ has for them...for so many other things...this sermon, only an addition and follow-up to the feeding we get from God's Word weekly through our own Pastor, was truly a challenge to service to the point of exhaustion perhaps. It did not get to the point of leaving our first love, which we recognize to be leaving Jesus Christ OUT of and apart from our Christian service. I'm looking forward to the messages to come!

This post began with "I am thankful for people's patience toward me", partly because I cannot figure out HOW to get a stand alone page that can be added to regularly. Therefore "Daily Meditations..." at the top of the page, still only has one post. I guess that a person must actually need to set up another BLOG if we want to have a section of 'Meditations', apart from 'Daily Musings'. I can't say that I have the patience for all this technology these days.

I want to share some fun pictures from the week...but they're stuck in my PHONE which I need to be in a place that has CELL SERVICE in order to send them to my EMAIL...see what I mean? technology all around us! I am going to publish this, then perhaps at some point today I can stop on a little hill somewhere and try to get enough BARS to send the photos to myself...Oh for the simple life!

Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully pictures will follow later today.
Take care, all.

A Refreshing Recipe

We were grilling chicken last night and wanted something kind of sweet/tart to put on it. Over the weekend we had heard of someone putting a WHOLE lemon in the blender and adding some spices to it. We did a variation and it turned out GREAT. Thought I'd share this really simple, refreshing recipe with you.

We decided to call it...
Zingy Citrus Sauce
Wash 1 lemon (thoroughly; I use vinegar and water)
Peel 1/2 of the zest away, but leave plenty of zest on (to taste, I guess)
Slice lengthwise, simply so that you can get all seeds out
Put all in the blender with: (amounts are all relative, but the combination is great)
A splash of lime juice, if you have it
Another splash of water
A teaspoon or so of honey
A little salt and pepper
1 small handful of wild strawberries

Blend it up thoroughly and serve it cold over your grilled chicken (or pork would be good too)
We had done lightly curried chicken breasts. I wanted to do ginger chicken, but Syd had already sprinkled with curry before I caught him. It was really good and gave that chicken a Zing!