Lord's Day June 22, 2008

Our pastor is working his way through James.

Last week he focused on James 1:9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation. And what is the exaltation of a lowly or poor person?

1. We are an heir to a mansion in glory.
2. Jesus makes no financial requirements - salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
3. This is because of the richness of the ransom paid for my soul - Jesus dying for me!

Final conclusion - be rich in Christ!

This week he focused on James 1:10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. And what should the rich boast in?

1. What we've been given in Christ - His grace in spite of our sin and rebellion
2. Gratefulness for His provisions

Final conclusion - boast in God!

So, in light of all the random posts I've made on this blog, I just want to make it perfectly clear that the most important thing in my life is my relationship to God through Jesus, my Lord and my Saviour. He has saved me in spite of my sinfulness, and His grace is truly amazing to me. I've been blessed with a wonderful husband, a loving family, a safe and comfortable home, and more blessings than I have ambition to list, but at the very top of my list is Jesus, the Pearl of Great price!!!!!

Seen any good movies lately?

I love asking people what movies they've seen and their opinion of them. I've seen several lately, so here goes:

(theater) Prince Caspian - Wow! Loved it, even though they strayed from the book. I came out of the theater exhausted - all those battles. And Reepicheep - loved him!!!!

(theater) Indiana Jones - a hoot! Way over the top and completely unbelievable, but loads of fun.

(DVD) Flicka - very enjoyable and what a gorgeous horse. However, being a typical horse movie, I cryed buckets.

(DVD) Ella Enchanted - My favorite scene was Anne Hathaway singing Queen's "Find Me Somebody to Love". She is multi-talented for sure. Aside from the blatant "girl power" and "if you believe it hard enough you can do it" themes, which got tiresome, it was a cute and fun picture.

(DVD) Finding Neverland - Excellent! I never realized Peter Pan was originally a play. I thought it was a book. Anyhow, Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet were great, and I felt like they were portraying characters, not just decorating the screen as "stars".

(DVD) Becoming Jane - A tad slow in spots, but interesting. I also enjoyed poking around the internet and finding out how much was fact and how much was conjecture. Plus, I could watch James McAvoy all day! I first saw him on a BBC mystery/thriller, and am a sucker for those blue eyes!

Experiments

A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday, when it was ninety degrees and 100% humidity, I spent a delightful half hour or so wandering around the yard playing with the macro button on my digital camera. The results were better than my wildest expectations! Plus, many of the flowers I photographed were the result of last year's winter sowing experiments. If I get ambitious I will write about winter sowing, but meanwhile, if you are curious, check out www.wintersown.org. The method appeals to my lazy and cheap nature, and the results were well worth the time I invested. Also, the beds along each side of the paddock fence were created using the lasagne method. What a time (and back!) saver. I sure wish I'd heard of it years ago. Anyhow, put very briefly, it is a method of creating a garden by laying down a barrier (in this case, 10 sheets of newspaper) right on top of existing lawn, coverin that with layers of soil and mulch, then planting. Voila!!! I now have sixty feet of garden, about 3 or 4 feet wide, running down both the north and south sides of our paddock fence. I did the north side 3 years ago and the south side last summer. It sure beats digging and beating soil out of sod clumps. Ideally there would be several layers each of soil, compost, and mulch, but even my scaled down version worked just fine.

Made me laugh out loud!

Here's a picture I received from a friend that made me hoot out loud. Definitely one of my besetting sins!

Linwood Gardens

Little Man's father and I celebrated 28 years of marriage on May 24th. We took the day off and visited Linwood Gardens, which is near Pavilion, NY. (www.linwoodgardens.org) It was a beautiful place and a perfect Spring day and we had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures I took using the macro setting on the digital camera.

Yes - I'm still here

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted anything. I've thought about it, but then shot off in another direction. Anyhow, in case anybody is checking, things are fine at Little Man's house. He was last spotted in his little bed, trying to get some sleep after supervising his parents usual morning mad dash to get ready for work - all so we can afford his favorite cat food - Fancy Feast chopped grill. Cammie was at her post in the blue room window, keeping an eye on the birds and squirrels, and Spooky was chirping away on the back deck, making sure routine was maintained in her little world. Buttercup, aka The Thug, has been mostly MIA lately. He must have found a better source of food. It used to be 2-4 days between visits. Lately it's been 2 weeks or so.