They Will Soon Be Gone

They Will Soon Be Gone

For my daughter who loves these little friends

The days are getting shorter, the mornings cooler, fall will be here and they will soon be gone.

 

It begins in the early spring.  It has happened much the same for over 12 yrs.    Our little feathered creature, flapping his wings at the window, seems to be looking in and saying, "I'm back, I'm hungry, and where is the feeder? 

 

The males always come first.  The red throats distinguish the males.  The species called Ruby-Red-Throat humming birds are about the only ones found in this area. The females will soon come to the feed with their fledglings. Their white throats and under bodies can distinguish them from the males.  Male and female have dark green plumage on their backs from head to tail.

 

The red dye has been found to be harmful to the birds.  It is better to make your own nectar. Using warm water, begin by making one recipe of nectar, one part sugar and four parts water;  one-fourth cup sugar to one cup of warm water.  As the hummers come, make more nectar and add more feeders. Begin with a small amount of nectar for the males that arrive within a few days of each other. 

 

The females arrive later with their fledglings and seem to like to feed with them.  The large feeders with eight holes is what they seem to like.  The mother will ward off any intruders to their feeder, while her offspring continue to feed. A feeder is added for each female that arrives with her fledglings.  At the end of the season you may have as many as eight feeders.

 

These little feathered friends are wild and do like to be around humans but if the feeder is held very still they will ignore the person holding it and go after what they want (food).  If a snake is wrapped around the feeder and is very still they will come up and feed from it.  They seem to have only eyes for what they want and ignore the danger. How do I know this, because it happened at our house? 

 

My husband with pellet gun in hand looked convincing when he said to come and see what was on the feeder. Following him to the feeder, to my dismay there was a snake wrapped around the feeder.  The unaware little birds were still coming up and feeding.  I started shouting, "kill it, kill it".  The black snake is suppose to be a good snake to have around, but protecting my little friends was my main concern.  He killed it with one shot.  We stretched the long black snake out on the deck and noticed many humps in its body.  He was feasting on our little feathered friends.

 

Some times, we do not recognize danger.  When the door is opened, I wish the hummers would not run away.  I wish they would know my voice. Like the humming birds, we may run away from God who loves us and wants us to recognize Him and know His voice.

 

The humming birds will soon be gone – but they will return. 

Death Blog Aug 13

Wednesday August 13

 

Saddened by the death of a friend, how do we handle this?  We grieve, of course.  We will miss this person.  We are glad at the same time that she is a Christian and will be with our wonderful loving God.  We are happy that she will not have the pains of this earth any more. 

 

Losing a young child would be much harder if this child was healthy and seemed to have wonderful possibilities.

 

Our relationship with Jesus is what makes all the difference in all deaths.  We know with out a doubt because we have this relationship with Jesus that we will be with Him one day.  When we get older, each day is more wonderful when we can look forward to our heavenly home.

 

How much we know, how much wealth, or possessions we have does not make any difference when we face death.  It is about a relationship with God's son, Jesus Christ.  If you have not asked Him in, all you have to do is just that – ask, and if you are sincere He will come in.  You may not have a different feeling but one day you will realize that you were born again on the very day you asked Him into your life.  What peace and joy you will experience when He sends the Holy Spirit into your life.  Just realizing that we are all sinners is the first step.  Hope you will take these steps and one day meet our loving Father.

Faith, Light or Darkness

August 9 2008

Memories of loved ones that have passed or that are living -

Where do we get our faith? What kind of life did we have growing up? Did we go to church? Did we attend a church school?

Maybe we never had Christian parents or family members yet God has called us out of darkness into light.

Try to think where you heard the Word.

Maybe we had one parent that was Christian and one that was not.

God is so wonderful and lets us chose.

We could have a single parent that in our growing up years had faith in God but did not please Him in their passing years; but we have a forgiving God and if they are truly repentant, He knows and forgives us.

Maybe life was great for us and we had two loving parents that were devout Christians.

No matter where we have been if He has called us and we have truly repented and desire to follow him completely, dying to self, we can have a wonderful relationship with Him.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.

The Tree Represents Love

June 28

Have you ever thought of the tree, how it represents love?

In the Old Testament God made or created the tree on the third day. He made or created man on the sixth day. He was in His love getting the earth ready for us, for man.

Eve, Adam and the serpent were all guilty concerning the fruit tree. God punished all three. We will leave all men as sinners in the Old Testament.

In His love, think of all the benefits of the tree He prepared for us: nuts, fruit, shade, beauty in the spring with the blossoms, shade in the summer with the leaves, privacy, windbreaks, erosion control, and the list goes on.

In the New Testament we find God again showing His love with a tree giving man freedom to chose between sin (death) or eternal life with Him as he intended from the beginning.

The tree on which Jesus died is the only way to the loving Father. He lives to bring us to the love of a tree.

If you have not already called on Jesus, the Word, call out His name; do not remain in sin.

Remember the tree and the Father’s love. He loves you and does not want you to stay in sin, it is your choice, choose life or death.

How much more I love Him when I think on the tree, all its benefits and possibilities!

Seek Ye First

June 26

A song has been on my mind even in my sleep. Thought I would share it with you. Have you heard of it?

Seek Ye First
by Karen Lafferty (b. 1948)
based on Matthew 6:33

Seek ye first the kingdom of God And His righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you.
Allelu, alleluia!
Ask and it shall be given unto you,
Seek and ye shall find,
Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.
Allelu, alleluia!

Hope this is given at a time that will be meaningful to you and that you will be able to find the music to it. I have many denominational hymnbooks. This was found in a blue Presbyterian hymnal that was published in 1990. It is a simple song to play and sing and is meaningful to me as a Christian.

The World and the Kingdom

June 20

The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat

As a Christian I want everyone to know that there is only one God. That He sent His son, Jesus Christ to earth to die for us.

He is the Living Word. He is the creator God. He dwells among us.

I also want a Christian leader for our country.

Some left their mother country because they wanted to worship our Lord and Savior in freedom.

The Parable of Weeds and Wheat
Matthew 13: 24
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where then, did these weeds come from? He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'

We have to listen and do what He wants us to do.

Father be with us and help us to understand what we are to do. We understand that there is Spirit and Flesh. Let us die to the flesh and live in the Spirit Kingdom with you forever and forever.

Blog June 2008 I Saw the Light

June

17

Jesus is known as the light.  He is the light of the world.  In Him, there is no darkness.  We talk about lightness as His (Jesus') power, the darkness as sin, the evil one, Satan.

 

Let us walk in the Light not in darkness.  We can walk in the Light if we will only ask. It is that simple.  Just ask.  Then you can sing the song, "I Saw the Light" with meaning.

No Connection, No Power

June

13

 

No Connection, No Power

 

Yes, this is Friday 13.  Jesus said, "Fear not, I am with you."  So many times in the bible, we read this, "Fear not".  It is not easy, not to fear, when we are in the midst of a storm, whether we are in the storms of divorce or other family problems, health problems or a weather storm.

 

We recently had a lightning strike that took out all the non-essentials that we now have that as a child I did not have. The lightning struck a pine tree about 40 feet from our house.  We smelled smoke but could not locate the source that evening. 

 

It took out our security system, TV, telephone and therefore our internet.  Our garage door opener had no connection, no power.  Push a button and nothing happened.  Turn the irrigation system on, no connection, and no power, the same with the pump that controls the irrigation, the boatlift and all of the above.  All these are non-essentials to a person that grew up without them. 

 

If they are non-essentials, are we going to try to get them back?  Yes, we are as fast as we can. In fact, we have them back now except the irrigation system.

 

Is this a good thing that we do not have the irrigation system?  Yes, we can look at it as bringing the son who has had a very busy life since he left home back into our life.  He is corresponding with his dad, is ordering parts, and thinks he may be able to come down and help him since this is one of his side jobs.

 

God is so good.  He makes us thankful for the essentials, our house could have burned down, but it did not.  When the non-essentials are taken away, we learn not to take them for granted and are even more thankful for them.

 

We can also be thankful for the good that comes out of chaos, like communicating with a son that has been out of our life.

 

Father, teach us to fear not.  Make us thankful for all the good things you have given us, especially the connection to JESUS, that THROUGH HIM we find the Power, the Source, and A LOVING FATHER.

Blog May 29 2008

May

29

 

We are drawing near the end of May.  I have something that is heavy on my heart today: a warning.  Is it for me or for someone that needs to hold firm.

 

We all make mistakes.  I have made my share.  Now, I have a heavenly Father that holds me firm when I have fears of humanness. There was a time that I thought my Father was a God who never spoke and only listened.  I was wrong.  God knows the fickleness of the earthly.  After all, He experienced it first hand here on earth.  God is right there with us in our disappointments.  Let us be assured of His love and care.  When a friend, spouse, or other leaves us are forsakes us, He never will.

 

Let us be assured of this.  He said, "I will never leave you are forsake you".  Hold on to this when you have to go through rough times.  He loves us.  He will take care of us.  Remember the Creator God is our Spiritual Father.  No one can compare, how wonderful is that! We have a Father that loves us.  We are His if we depend entirely on Him. 

 

He is a God of action; He does more than listen.

 

Keep saying He loves me; He will never forsake me.

Loving Praise of men more than God.

May 28

They loved the praise of men more than praise from God. This is what we need to think of today.

Do we love the praise of men more than God?

John wrote of this in Chapter 12. Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus and spoke about him.

Many among the leaders believed in him but loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.