Random Thoughts

It has been very rainy here lately...which is great! My plants are loving it!

I got a few cuttings from a fellow lover of gardening...she gave me some bleeding hearts stems, we are both novices at this so neither of us was sure if you can start bleeding hearts from stem cuttings....well I've discovered that you can!!!! I'm thrilled!

It doesn't look like much yet....

however if you look very close...

...a new leaf!!!!!

I took a walk to run a quick errand and saw a friend...

he looks very much like the frog I saved last year...

but larger....same spot along the road as last year...

he's almost the size of the palm of my hand...

(pic from last year),
he was about the size of my thumb...

could it be...?

I have much to get done, the weeds are taking over so I have to go out and vanquish the enemy! Hope you are enjoying the summer as much as I am :-)

Debating with the Skeptics...

 My husband shared something with me today, it is truly funny how the Lord works these things out, I am sure He has a terrific sense of humour. The reason my husband shared this link with me was because he told me that he was unaware (until reading this blog article) that there was anyone else on this planet besides me who uses the word "discombobulated"...

(from movie "Princess Bride")

Anyhow, I love the blog, and this particular blog post was on the topic that I've been harping on lately....

Excerpt:

"With a skeptic like Chaz, it truly is not a matter of whether there are answers to his criticisms. It is a matter of whether or not he will submit himself to God’s authority as revealed in Scripture. He is operating with an unregenerate mind; one that is darkened in sin and has no interest in the truth, and what truth he is given, he will reject, suppressing the truth by explaining it away with some clever argument he devises. Hence, the Bible in the mind of the unregenerate sinner will never be a “reliable” guide to Christ’s teaching and no one will ever satisfactory answer his list of “contradictions.” "

 Here's the link:
https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/twenty-ways-to-answer-a-fool-16/comment-page-1/#comment-14590

God's Timing, and God's Will Vs. Man's Will

 photo link

A recent discussion in the comments section of a blog post from a few months ago ....
 http://susanflutterbys.blogspot.ca/2015/03/another-post-on-hell.html
 had me marinating over the topic of God's will and man's will...again...I mean it is a topic that I often think about, and it had me go to that place once more.

The Bible likens the believer's relationship to a child and a Father. A child can demand all kinds of things at every whim or fancy, but does that obligate the father to give in to the child at that moment of the request? I think of the people that Jesus healed...some had been waiting for a healing for many years, begging that God would relieve their misery. Why didn't He? When Lazarus, beloved by Jesus, died, Lazarus's sister Mary complained that if Jesus had been a little bit sooner her brother would not have to have died. Why was He late? Or was He?

We have a timetable of when we think things should happen. There are many charlatans who will promise you that God will give you everything you want IMMEDIATELY and if He doesn't, it is because your faith is lacking, so show your faith by sending in all your money to the ministry....blahblahblahblahblah....

When looking for an image for this post, I found the one above, and interestingly, the story of the Doomsday Clock dovetails nicely with my thoughts about God's timing, God's will, and man's (and woman's...that is, mine included) impetuous nature. God answers when He does and the way He chooses to show us that it is His will, not ours, that causes what He does in our lives at the appropriate times, which often is not when we wanted it (immediately, whether it was yesterday, a week ago, or 20 years ago). Joseph had to wait in prison in Egypt MANY YEARS, having been falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. When he explained a dream to two fellow inmates the one who lived promised to tell Pharaoh about Joseph's plight, but then it wasn't until another 2 years passed before he remembered Joseph when Pharaoh had a dream. How mean of God to keep Joseph in jail all that time for a crime he did not commit!!! How dare He! What an evil God! No, actually, it ended up all being for good (if you know the rest of the story, I know you would agree with me). But God could have done things differently. Why did people have to suffer in order for God's good to have to come so late? Ahh, is it to teach us patience? Perseverance perhaps? Maybe...but it is for God to do what He does for the reasons He knows are the correct ones. We would only be guessing, but a good God who has the welfare of His chosen ever in mind, does what He does for those who love Him.

This is a quote I ran across yesterday, it sort of tells part of this equation:

" Now God sometimes allows people to treat us unjustly. Sometimes He even allows their actions to seriously affect our careers or our futures viewed on a human plane. But God never allows people to make decisions about us that undermine His plan for us. God is for us, we are His children, He delights in us (see Zephaniah 3:17). And the Scripture says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). We can put this down as a bedrock truth: God will never allow any action against you that is not in accord with His will for you. And His will is always directed to our good. "
Jerry Bridges, Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts

The Bible says the fiery trials purge us and refine us like gold in fire. The book of Job explains it beautifully.  God has made available all these things: warnings, rebukes, admonishings, wisdom, explanations, comforting passages, praises, love, and much more, and we can foolishly find ways to discredit what He says to us, or we can take it to heart and pray for His timing in the performance of His will in our lives. His will is to save the lost. Are you lost?

 Oh, and regarding the Doomsday Clock article...it's an old article...the time has been moved up to 3 minutes to midnite. The closest it has ever been to midnite was when they put the time at 2 minutes to midnite, and then after the cold war it was reset to 17 minutes to midnite....but God knows what time it is by His timetable. The disciples in Jesus day thought that the end of the world would be in their lifetime, and look at the patient endurance of God who is waiting for more people to save. He is patient...but are you patient, to the saving of your soul, with Him?

Blogging vs. Time

We've been incredibly busy lately so I haven't had much time for blogging...  The past week or so I've been digging around the yard doing gardening.

As you can see I still have a lot of work to do...

Not a whole lot is in bloom right now, the tulips just finished, and I started annuals from seeds, and sadly they still are only about 2 inches tall, and also started a vegetable garden, which isn't showing anything yet, I'd show you in pictures, but it's kinda depressing...

Working out in the yard with plants and dirt always brings to mind Jesus parable about the sower and the four soils:

Luke 8:4-15 (KJV)

 And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable:

 A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.

 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.

 And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold.

And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?  And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

Now the parable is this:

The seed is the word of God.

Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.


When I was a child in the SDA church I remember a sermon preached on the four soils, and I remember sending a hope to heaven that I was "good soil". I'm thankful for this parable because it opened my eyes to the truth, and how easily it could be snatched away from me by an evil enemy of my soul, and instilled in me the notion that I had to be tenacious and stubborn...thankfully those are traits I have (sometimes to other people's frustration) and are put to good use in my walk with Jesus :)