Dale offers the prompt “art for art’s sake” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
Below are photos of Spanish moss. It hangs from trees in the southeastern part of the United States. I think of it as a swirling bunch mindless modern (or pretentious postmodern) art as an excuse to use it for this prompt.
We were in Tampa, Florida, recently. The place where we stayed had many trees with this growing on them.
Being lukewarm is a serious condition. It means running out of oil when one needs it most. It means missing the bridegroom. It means being locked out of the wedding feast because one’s lamp has gone out. (Matthew 25:1-13, Revelation 3:14-22)
The Spirit’s presence within us leads to a life that bears fruit. Those who submit to the Spirit will bear the fruit of the Spirit throughout the remainder of their lives or they will need to repent and receive once again the joy of revival that they could have had all along.
Galatians 5:22-23 (AMP)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Though troubles turn about until
wild worries dominate your will,
be hungry and you’ll have your fill.
Be still and know He’s God.
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Ronovan Hester offers the inspiration “” for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. I am grateful to Mary (tqhousecat)’s recent post featuring Psalm 46:10. This poem has also been posted on Poet’s Corner.
Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Hoping to balance his wobbling view of reality Timothy read the message inside his fortune cookie. Given his expectations for something prophetic he felt cheated when all he read was
Have a nice day.
Self-diagnosed with the rare condition of being intellectually superior to everyone else, he vowed, as punishment to cookie makers everywhere, to never again eat, let alone read the messages within, their cookies.
However, like all of his previous resolutions, this one collapsed a week or so later when he got a taste for Chinese food and found a plastic wrapped cookie in his takeout bag. Figuring “the universe”, as he liked to depersonalize reality, was too dumb, or nonexistent, to care whether he kept his vows, he broke open the cookie to extract the hidden message. Regardless what was actually written on the slip of paper, all he remembered of the message he read was
If you aren’t grateful for a nice day, Timothy,
how can you expect to receive a blessed one?
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Denise offers the prompt word “balance” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Dale offers the prompt autumn colors for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
The trees in South Carolina where I am now have not changed as much as I know they will.
Here are pictures from late autumn in northeastern Illinois.
Recall the words with kindness said
and yearn for those that you’ve once read
about the One Who rose, once dead,
Who reigns forevermore.
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Ronovan Hesters offers “happy” as inspiration for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Also posted on Poet’s Corner.
In sorrow Naomi felt the need to turn away from Moab to find what was left for her in Bethlehem after the death of her husband and her two sons. Ruth, the widow of one of her sons, refused to let her go alone, telling her, Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay, and your people will be my people, and your God will be my God, and where you die, I will die.
In Bethlehem Ruth gleaned from the fields of an older man, Boaz, not knowing he was a near kinsman of Naomi’s deceased husband. After negotiations with another kinsman Boaz redeemed the land belonging to Naomi and married Ruth so she could bear children to raise up the name of her deceased husband upon his inheritance.
As a result of this union, Ruth, a Moabite woman, bore a son and called him Obed. From Obed would come Jesse and from Jesse would come David, the singer of psalms, mighty in battle and a future king, and from David would come, generations later, Jesus, the promised Messiah.
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Denise offers the prompt word “turn” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. For what really happened see the short book of Ruth.
Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Dale offers the prompt “reflections” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
Below are some reflections on Techny Pond, a small body of water, in Northbrook, IL.
We used to live in the buildings seen in the distance of the first photo.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 