Freely Given to Us

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."  I Corinthians 2:12

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We certainly did. Ours started off with Syd and myself spending Friday, our 33rd anniversary, on a nice outing together. We had a doctor's appointment, ran errands, did some food shopping and then walked 9 holes on a beautiful country-farm golf course. The weather was lovely and the company was extraordinary!

Our Saturday afternoon was spent with special friends, Paul and Susan.

You know, there are certain friends who just uplift you in the Lord. These are two of them. I love spending time walking and talking with Susan and my mom, both bubbling over with the love of the Lord Jesus! These friendships are freely given to us of God. What a wonderful place Heaven will be when true believers are all together, worshipping and serving God together for eternity!

A few photos of our day...

The apples are SO abundant this year!

Mom and Susan on Mom's prayer rock

Boaz got the jump on Ruger in "the dog race"

Sturm just LOVES Boaz

The dogs were thrilled to see their friend. Several nights ago we said, "Ruger, is BOAZ coming to see you?" He went to the window and sat, looking out for quite some time, and whined.

We had lunch and then took a walk to the top of Darling Hill for some apple-picking and then homemade apple pie plus a wonderful Maine blueberry pie that they brought. Coffee and a long time of talking finished up our afternoon. We were sorry to see them go.

Lately my sweetie has been working on some stone pillars out at our front door. It's always been my vision to have stone posts for our log pillars to rest upon (holding up the roof of our stoop). Somehow field stones just give the front of any house a sturdy look and it's what I've hoped for for quite some time. He's almost got them done and I won't show a picture till they are. Part of Friday was spent driving out along back roads, scouring the ditches and side banks for "that perfect rock". Isn't it wonderful that the Lord gives us these simple, FREE, pleasures? No one has to ask permission to stop on the side of the road to pick a wildflower or to pick up a toad or turtle crossing our path. These beautiful rocks alongside the dirt roads are here for us to freely take and use. We are still waiting for the perfect, matching (or closely) top-stones to finish off the pillars before we cut the final logs to rest upon them.

The verse at the top of the page was from the Scripture passage I was reading this morning. The most important FREE gift was that of Jesus, Who died upon the cross in our place. He took the sin that we were born with. He took the death that we would have had to die. Jesus did that for everyone, the payment has been made, but we must TAKE the free gift before it can belong to us. I have believed God's Word and taken that gift - Have you?

We have the freedom to worship God according to our conscience. Praise the Lord that we still live in a "free" country.  Many of our freedoms are being lost. I am in prayer this morning concerning the court decision that is soon to be made in Greece, NY. It has been challenged and is coming to court, that the chaplains cannot close prayer "in Jesus' name". Without Jesus, His death and resurrection, our religion would be in vain. God's Word commands believers to pray in Jesus name.

Thanks for stopping at the Hill. I hope you can get out and enjoy the freedom of the beautiful Fall day. Most importantly, if you have not taken the most important Freedom, that of salvation through Jesus, I hope you will receive that today!