The 3 Day 3 Quotes Challenge Day Three

(Forgot to schedule this for yesterday – so sorry! I’ll post 3 and 4 today. 😊)

Quote by Dorothy Bernard

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

When I fear, it is actually an opportunity to pray and let Him turn fear into courage. ❤

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Today’s Nominee:

Margaret from The Word

Thanksgiving Photos – cakes, candies, and lakes, oh my!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! First, it was Thanksgiving, and then I realized just how behind I was in NaNoWriMo… I’m determined to catch up and to reach 50k, I knew I’d have to write 3K a day. So far so good! I’m only 5K away now from winning; so close I can taste it!

Anyway, here is a snippet of last Friday in photo form. 😀 I didn’t get photos of all the food, but here are a few that I took. This is a cake that I baked and decorated:

And the inside of the cake. It was velvet with a cream cheese frosting. The decorations had allspice, cinnamon, and molasses (because I was out of maple syrup and had to improvise) and that gave it an autumn kick and the right color without using food coloring. I suspect there was food coloring in the cake mix though. XD

And my uncle’s girlfriend, whom I consider an aunt at this point, made these Christmas candies, which were addictive:

And of course, I went to my grandma’s lake, which was as beautiful and serene as ever.

As you may know, if you’ve followed me a while, I haven’t shown my face. And that’s not going to start now. XD I brought my dad’s tripod and set my camera on the timer function to get this one. I took a lot of me walking; do I sense a new “About Me” page header image? I think yes. XD Also, I just learned how to French braid and this was my second time trying it. And I included red highlights, because why not? I don’t know how well you can see it in the photo though.

After a bit of photo taking, it started to get dark, so I took this one (finally figured out how to make the new camera take photos and not wash out the sky – yay) and headed back to my grandma’s house. God’s artistry never ceases to amaze.

And here was the sunset from the opposite direction.

It was a lovely day, though we celebrated on Friday instead of Thursday so all of my uncles could make it. Hope you enjoyed the photos, and I’ll be back soon! ❤

“Thy Sins Are Forgiven, thee.”

If you read my post Humility – Jesus In The Wilderness, then you know I have been studying the Gospels and Andrew Murray’s book, Humility. Since that post, I’ve also posted Humility – Simon Peter And The Fish, but you don’t have to read either of those before reading this one. These are a few notes I made while in Luke 5. 🙂

Luke 5:17 – 26: And it came to pass on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before Him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring Him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.

Now that is faith.

And when He saw their faith, He said unto him, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.”

Jesus didn’t heal the man when he was lowered; He forgave his sins. Jesus was focused on his soul, not his flesh. This implies that the condition of his soul for eternity was more important than his physical body being healed. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” saith the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”

But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answering said unto them, “What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee;’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk?’ But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (He said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, ‘Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.’ ”

“So that you know that the Son of man has the power on earth to forgive sins…” Jesus healed the man to show Who He is…

And immediately he rose up before them and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.

All to glorify the Father in Heaven!

And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today.”

And this led to the multitude glorifying God as well. How wonderful it must have been, to witness this scene! All for His glory!

“We have seen strange things today…” REALLY, PEOPLE??? Strange? You witnessed Jesus heal someone. Strange? What about marvelous? Wonderful? I can think of so many other words to use in the place of strange. What about thankful? Not only for Jesus healing the man but for Him forgiving us of our sins? That Jesus has the power to forgive sins? That Jesus became the reason that we can be forgiven for sins?

Thankful.

May we be thankful to Him on this day. 

Give Thanks (Music Post)

Hello all! 🙂 Now that I have high-speed Internet, I may post music posts a bit more often. I just added a new “Music” category at the top so it will be easier to find them in the archives. Hope you enjoy this song called Give Thanks (With A Grateful Heart). May we be thankful for what Jesus has done for us during this Thanksgiving time. ❤

Jump Start: Encouragement and Thanksgiving

In this sermon by Paul Washer, he mentions how encouragement is like jump starting the soul:

“How it is such a blessing to me when someone comes up to me and encourages me. I mean, and says, ‘Man, you’re doing well. You’re really progressing.’ How it just jump starts me.”

So, my first thought was that our souls are all batteries. Hooked up to our souls are solar panels, in which, Jesus, the Son, charges our soul-batteries so that we may do His work. Let’s face it. We’ve all felt like a dead battery at some point, at which time, we need to be recharged. Luckily, we have the best soul-battery Charger ever! 😀

Sometimes, when we are so low on energy that we can barely start our cars (or, I suppose, so low emotionally that we can barely function), a bit of encouragement gives us an extra “jump start” to our souls like a dead // overused // exhausted car battery, and we can start again. It’s Biblical that we are to encourage each other (maybe not the battery part though since they weren’t invented yet XD ).

First Thessalonians 5:11: Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (ESV)

I think this can also be applied to thanksgiving. Letting people know that we are thankful and appreciate them and what they do always puts a smile on their faces and encourages them, especially during the frustrating holiday season when it seems that our batteries need that extra boost the most.

And don’t forget to be thankful to God for everything He has done for us! All good things come from Him. (James 1:17) If it weren’t for Him, we would not be able to even breathe. There is a song I really like called “Give Thanks” that is truly beautiful, and captures perfectly the spirit of Thanksgiving. “Give thanks, with a grateful heart; give thanks, to the Holy One; give thanks, because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son…”

Second Corinthians 4:15: For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. (KJV)

I’d like to take this moment to thank all of you who have stopped by, viewed, liked, commented or followed me. In the last two months, Following Him Beside Still Waters has reached three milestones: viewed 1500+ times,  liked 500+ times and followed 100+ times. Y’all are amazing. 🙂 The encouragement means a lot, and I’m thankful for each and every one of you. Keep following our soul-battery Charger and have a great Thanksgiving week! (And even if you are not in the United States, have a great week full of Thanksgiving anyway; there’s plenty to be thankful for! 🙂 ) Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 7:12)