POTD

A little bit of heaven on earth. Yes, there will be caramel corn in heaven!!

Musings from Luke 12

My Bible study homework was from the 12th chapter of Luke yesterday.  So much wisdom and teaching packed into one chapter!  Thought I would share some of my thoughts...


In the first few verses, Jesus is cautioning His disciples to guard against hypocrisy.  If you continue reading the chapter, He then begins to give a little insight on just how VALUABLE we are to Him.  We are His treasure.  If we can understand that, I believe this is a great weapon against hypocrisy.  When I am secure IN Him and understand my worth TO Him, then I am free to live FOR Him.  The need to impress others or live to please others is diminished.


Then in verse 15, Jesus cautions, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."  Wow, if that isn't a contradiction to what the world is trying to tell us??!!  Colossians 3:5 calls greed "idolatry".  What are you idolizing?  What am I idolizing?


And then we are told not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear.  {Ouch!}  I have often struggled with the great importance we as Pentecostals have placed on clothing.  So much conversation, so much effort, so much pride in what we are (or are not) wearing.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about holiness here...I'm just wondering if we are truly living these verses like Jesus encouraged us to live them.  Some people go to the other extreme and just slap on whatever clothes are handy and off they go.  I'm not talking about that either.  Ha!  I mean, just a few verses down, in verse 35, He tells them to be dressed and ready for service.  So obviously SOME thought should be going through our heads in the morning when we are standing in front of our closet getting dressed...but I guess I'm just thinking it should not be an obsession, or a matter of pride, or something to draw attention to yourself.


Finally, the great wisdom of verse 34: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.


Hmm...I think I'll go ponder that a bit longer.


No photo today...and we'll be traveling the next few weeks so the photos may not be daily, but I'll post when I can!

Grocery shopping

This is the produce aisle of our local supermarket. Veggies, anyone?

Lord, You are Majestic!

During our trip this weekend, the words of this song kept coming to my mind:

Oh Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth
The heavens declare Your greatness
The oceans cry out to You
The mountains, they bow down before You
So I'll join with the earth and I'll give my praise to You!

Crusade!

This is what we have been enjoying the last few days. I will have to blog about it later, but it has been a great experience.

Lunch anyone??!!

What a yummy lunch! I love visiting the coast and enjoying fresh fish and seafood. (This was a freshwater fish but still, always tastes better at the coast.)

Today's photo: Landing!

Coming in for a landing in Fort Dauphin.

J-Man Extreme Sports!

Boy + bike + mounds of dirt = FUN!! :)

POTD - Test Day

The Bible School students studying up until the last minute!

Tropical island = strange bugs!

CREEPY mole cricket we found the other day!!!  What a strange looking creature.  God must have been feeling particularly creative when He created this one!  :)

"Got made the wild animals according to their kinds, ...and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds.  And God saw that it was good."

POTD - Go Ye!

We're excited about a new daughter work that is being started from our Headquarters church.  Pastor Emilson and his family (pictured below) will be pastoring this new work, and for the next year they will be sponsored by the 'mother' church.  Excited about what God has in store!

The fields are white, ready for harvest.  Who will go?

Tearing Down Walls

We are tearing down one of the old storage rooms on our property.  Yesterday the guys had a lot of fun knocking down the walls!  :)  

Made me think about walls in our life that might need tearing down.  Maybe someone hurt you in the past or let you down and you built up a wall between you and them.  How about taking out your spiritual sledgehammer and tearing down some walls today!  (And don't worry, I know that some walls/fences are needed...not talking about those kinds of walls!  :D)

 

POTD 10/14

My view for the last few days...and the weeks to come!! Editing a book for printing...and as you can see, there is alot of work to be done!!!  Spacing, punctuation, and formatting, just to name a few.  I go through it then print it out for my "assistant" to do a final spell check (since my computer doesn't do spell check of Malagasy - ha!) then make final corrections before printing.  I have a tight deadline on this one, so pray I get it done!

Today's Photo - 10.13

Duck...duck...goose...no...DUCK!  :)

(Remember, click on the photo for a larger view.)

POTD 10/12

Today I was going through some old filing cabinets at the Bible School office and found some old floppy disks!!!  Made me laugh and I had to share...even though it shows my age to even know what these are!!!  :)

So here is a photo that shows the progression of technology.  When I first started using computers, we used the big floppy disk -- the one pictured here holds about 1.2 MB of data.  Then the 3 1/2 inch floppy came out and it holds a little more - around 1.4 MB.  And then the CD which holds 700 MB.  And now the USB flash drive which, this particular one holds 1 GB (which is 1,000 MB) but you can get them that hold as much as 64 GB (or more??).

Every Little Bit Counts

Jared and I read this story today in his devotional book.  It really struck a cord in me.


"There once was a prince in India who dreamed one evening that he owned a beautiful garden.  The lake in it was different than any other lake in the world because it was filled with perfume.  Its wonderful aroma filled the entire garden and the nearby town.  When the prince awoke, he decided to make his dream come true.  Although he was very wealthy, he didn't have enough money to fill a lake with perfume.  So he invited every person in the country to come to a party.  Each person was asked to bring a small vial of perfume and empty it into the lake. 


People from all over the nation came to the party, and one by one they poured their small vial into the lake.  To everyone's surprise, however, the lake didn't smell any different.  The prince finally asked someone to take a sample of water near the spot where the people were emptying their vials. To the prince's dismay, he discovered the water to be just water!  He realized that everyone thought their little bit wouldn't matter, and had poured water in the the lake instead of perfume."


So this made me think...what is my vial?  Am I giving the Lord "perfume" today?  Or do I feel like my little bit won't matter, and so just giving him "water"?


He deserves our very BEST...whether big or small.

POTD 10/11

Homemade tortillas = yummy fajitas for lunch!!! :)

10.10.10

Oh yeah!!! I do believe summer has arrived!! :)

POTD 10/9

This is a picture of us trying to fill water bottles. The water pressure has been horrible and it can be a slow process. :) Just another one of those things that we should never take for granted!  Here we have to filter or boil our drinking water.  We have a filtering system on our faucet but as you can see, when the water pressure is low, it is just a trickle.  (Actually it was a drip, but my iPhone doesn't have a high quality lens to catch it that way...haha.)  The other day I finally just left the bottle under there and drip by drip, it slowly filled up!  (Surely there's a sermon in there somewhere??)

Photo Of The Day - 10.8

More of the 'shopping' opportunities on the side of the road!

(**Hmm, I've noticed I need to wait until later on in the day to post these, otherwise the dates are off.  I guess the blog goes by American time.  :D)

POTD - 10/7

Test day!!! When we drove onto the Bible School campus, you could see 2nd year students scattered all over the grounds...last minute cram session! :) :)

POTD 10.6

The road in front of our home...

Bike Seat Observations

So today we took the motorcycle into town to run some errands.  One thing I enjoy about riding the bike is being able to focus more on the surroundings.  When riding in the car, I feel more 'isolated' somehow?  Anyway, so here are just a few of the observations made from the 'bike seat' today.

Tshirt logos seen: Hooters, Planet Hollywood, Arkansas Razorbacks, and multiple Bob Marley shirts.

We stopped at the post office and my husband went in to get a package.  I stayed out with the bike to 'guard' it.  :)  A taxi pulled up and the passenger got out and went into the post office.  Meanwhile the taxi driver gets out, opens his trunk and gets out water bottle with gasoline in it and proceeds to put gas in his car.  :)

Some kids were playing in the street (it's a dead end street)...they were playing soccer with a ball that was a bit 'hungry' for air.  Each time they kicked it you could hear the 'thump' of a partially deflated ball.  I wished I had a whole basket of soccer balls to give them.



One little girl came up and she had a sucker in her mouth.  She gave her sucker to one of the boys and let him have a taste.  :)  I guess suckers are better when shared with friends!

We have our first 'fast food' restaurant now.  It's called "Happy King".  Supposedly it's the Chinese version of Burger King.  :) :)  We haven't tried it yet...but the place looks quite authentic.  :)

Along the side of the roads there are ALL kinds of things for sale.  It's like having a Super Walmart spread out along the sides of the road: bread, veggies, meat (see previous POTD postings), bicycles, toilets, toilet seats, plumbing supplies, shoes, clothes, curtain material, fish, toys, radios, cell phones, candy, ice cream...just a few of the things I noticed for sale on the roadside today.

One thing for sure, our bike rides are never boring!  :)  We get alot of attention ourselves...the bike itself is quite unique here, and then to have two 'vazahas' in matching jackets and all our 'gear'...well, let's just say that heads turn.  :)

POTD - 10/5

Who needs Walmart?? :)

Perception & Impressions

Lately Facebook has me thinking of perceptions and impressions.  How conscious should we be of people's perceptions and impressions of us?

First of all, let me say that fake people frustrate me.  People who say one thing and live another.

However, there are some opinions that are not for "general consumption" either.  Some things are just T.M.I.  Some comments/statuses need to be run through a "spirit-check" before you hit "send".  Perceptions of your typed words are often skewed by the lack of visual confirmation.  That is to say: you can say something in a face-to-face conversation and the humor is conveyed by your facial expressions/body mannerisms.  But when you type it, none of those things are visible.  And while some of your friends may know you well enough to 'picture' the humor/meaning behind the words, not everyone may catch it.  Or when you comment on someone else's page, THEIR friends may not even know you and certainly might not understand the context of your words.

I'm preaching to myself here.  Just a little something that has been on my mind recently.  Thank you, Facebook, for reminding me of the responsibility of my words.  Not just on a social networking level, but in all of my correspondence. And indeed, in my conversations and interaction with other people.  What are my words saying?  Am I sowing seeds of encouragement?  Am I sowing seeds of peace?  Am I sowing seeds of joy?  Am I building up with my words?  Or tearing down.

That train of thought leads me right to Matthew 12:34: "...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

But that's a whole 'nuther blog.

Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in YOUR sight!

POTD - 10/4

Well, Mondays are normally "catch up" days (not to be confused with ketchup days :D) and so mostly spent here at my desk. At home. Catching up on the weekend's paperwork. (And no, I do not have two computers - I just use the one screen to "dock" my laptop. :D)

POTD 10/3

Sunday School scripture reading:

"Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared." Proverbs 22:24-25

POTD 10/2

One thing for sure -- it is never boring to drive the streets of the city here.  Today's photo is just one example of the many interesting sights to see!  Anyone need a new mattress??

POTD 10/1 (Can you believe it is October already??)

Today's photo is special.  My sweetheart surprised me with roses at the seminar.  He was making an illustration about giving unexpected gifts...and I'll say he made his point!!  :)  Thank you, my love!