Of Holiness and Hummingbirds

"But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, sanctification and redemption." I Corinthians 1:30

I am so glad that my redemption could not come from ME. So often we Christians can, however, think that somehow our righteousness can be kept by us. I read a wonderful quote today:

Sanctification is not imitation, but impartation

As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I cannot produce righteousness. HE is my righteousness. Only by walking in the Spirit will it be expressed. We do have to make the decision and take the steps to walk in the Spirit. Our Heavenly father naturally produces the fruit. He IS the fruit! We have put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He IS our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption! I do God a huge injustice not to latch onto this truth and walk in the will of His loving heart and Word. So often I forget that it is the Lord who is conforming me. I am not conforming myself (or anyone else, for that matter)

This was an encouraging verse to me today and I hope that (if you are a child of God) you can be encouraged by it also.

This morning the hibiscus has all four buds open and shining for all to see. Thanks, Sarah, for this beautiful little tree!

Mom and I ate the first cucumber from her vines yesterday and we picked the first summer squash. Those of you in other parts of the country must think we're a little behind here - well, it's because we are! There are LOTS of tomatoes coming but none of them are ripened yet.

I left Ruger with my mom after lunch, so they could go for their walk. She called a couple hours later and said that Ruger "told" her he wanted to come home. Pretty soon I saw them walking down the driveway together. We sat out on the back porch and watched the hummingbirds flitting from these hibiscus to the fuschia and then to the hummingbird feeder. They were busy! Then we saw them down in our jewel weed behind the house. They'd stop at each tiny orange blossom to get nectar. It was fun to watch while we sipped our afternoon coffee.

The morning is wearing on so I should get dressed and off to write a few checks at work. Ruger "told" me that he'd like to go along (he always goes with me to my bookkeeping job), so I guess I'll let him, since he asked nicely. Sturm still will not warm up to Eddie (who comes in for part-time work) so he has been staying home and seems to be content in his kennel -with treats in his ball to keep him busy. I showed Eddie this photo yesterday (it's on my desktop at work) and told him that "Sturm really can be a cuddly puppy, see?"...

...all he said was, "yeah, look at those teeth, I think he's thinking about ME! Grrrr!" Why Sturm won't get used to Eddy, I do not know. We've even tried treats. Oh well, best to leave him home.

Thank you for stopping by today. Hope you have a really special day.