07/07/10

I have fallen in love with Isaiah 61. How beautiful are the words at the beginning that show us how much God loves us and will always come to our rescue.

"As long as the sun comes up in the morning, God will keep offering to deliver His children." - Beth Moore

Isaiah 61:1-4
¹The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

²To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

³To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

⁴And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

07/06/10

More of those lily pics. :)




I have been doing a Bible Study this summer.... more sporadic than I had originally planned because of the painting. I am loving it, though, and learning much. It is called Breaking Free by Beth Moore.

If you will "humor" me for the next few days I am going to share some things I have learned thus far. I pray it will be encouraging to you as well!

I have recently learned this thought myself. When Beth Moore wrote it I underlined it and KNEW what she meant:

"The filling only Christ can give does not automatically accompany our salvation. It was in my early 30's before I understood the huge difference between salvation from sin and satisfaction of the soul. Salvation secures our lives for all eternity, Soul satisfaction ensures abundant life on earth." - Beth Moore

Is your soul satisfied or are you just living the Christian life only knowing you are free from eternity in Hell? God wants us to hunger and thirst for Him so we can be "soul satisfied!"

Psalm 63:1-8
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
²Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
³Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips will praise You.
⁴So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
⁵My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
⁶When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
⁷For You have been my help,
And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
⁸My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.

07/05/10

I realize this is a bit strange to photograph an aluminum can but the condensation droplets were captivating to me! They looked like little gems all over and I couldn't resist trying to capture some of their beauty. Condensation is something we see most every day but have you really ever stopped to see how neat it is? It can also be refreshing on a hot day when you use the condensation to cool you off as you drink from the can. :) Yet another detail of God's Creation that I just love!

07/04/10

Leviticus 25:10b
...and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof:

Happy July Fourth!

Let us remember that we are a free nation because of God's blessings. I pray America will turn back to the One Who gave them what they have and bless HIM.

07/03/10

Interesting fact I just read in my Acts and Facts issue (p.4) from July which is published by the Institute for Creation Research :

"Every state constitution refers to God as understood by the writers as a Creator God, not the impersonal god of Hinduism or Buddhism. Furthermore, the Judeo-Christian Creator God from whom comes our freedoms and rights is, either directly or indirectly, written into all 50 state constitutions.

The common expression "grateful to Almighty God for our freedom" refers to the belief that the source of our rights is not from government, but rather from God. A good example is Maine's constitution that calls God the "Sovereign Ruler of the Universe." Delaware's says, "Diving Goodness all men have, by nature, the rights of worshiping and serving their Creator" (emphasis added). The Virginia Bill of Rights refers to the duty that "we owe our Creator." The Washington State Constitution Preamble says, "We the People.... [are] grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe." "

"Teachers denied the right to critique Darwinism could simply teach their state's constitution. It could not be unconstitutional to teach the state's constitution! All 50 state constitutions acknowledge God, most as the Creator, and the ACLU and the federal courts are wrong to deprive students of this knowledge."

The article went on to show each part of each state's constitution that has those words. I thought it was very interesting indeed!

07/02/10

Here are some more "before and after" pics but this time it is with decorations for our bathroom. :) You saw them in the pics from our master bedroom/bath makeover, but I'll show these a little more up close.

I have totally been learning the value of some spray paint and to see that some things have great potential if you look beyond the color or way it is decorated at the time.

My choice of colors this time.

This is a candle holder. I needed something tall for one side of the bathroom around the tub. When I saw this I imagined what it COULD be. :)

Here it is after its transformation.
I love that the "curly Q's" on the iron look like my baker's rack that holds the towels in the bathroom.

I needed another tall item for the other side of the tub surround.
Voila... I found this vase that was wood and had some areas that had been "loved."

Here is the after shot after some good old black spray paint... with the flowing "greenery" Mom and I found at Michaels. It looks awesome in that corner!

This last one was my bold and daring move... FOR ME. lol

I saw this vase at the thrift store and fell in love with its lines. I did not like the blue flowers, though. I originally was going to paint this black, too, but then I began to think... there ARE other colors of spray paint, Kellie!

So this is what she became instead... I will say that I had to put a TON of coats on it to cover up the blue flowers that kept trying to peep through.

The greenery container was also a thrift store find. I needed something sturdy and flat to hold the greenery on top of the bakers rack and this does the trick. I didn't change anything with that... it was nice the way it was.

I am just so tickled to have learned through other blogs of friends how to transform something ordinary into extraordinary without having to pay a lot for it! :)

07/01/10

Now on to the dining room makeover! :)

Before
I loved the green color on the walls when we first painted... and still did before we began this process. However, as I began to think of all the changes we had made I felt the dining room needed a different hue as well. I wanted to go with red, but that would have caused our already small dining room to become smaller! I decided instead to stick with green but lighten it up!

After
Paris Mint... and I LOVE it. I couldn't get over how much bigger the dining room appeared!

Before

After
New window treatments really helped to enlarge the room, too.
My curio with my collectible dolls that had been in Mikayla's room now fit beautifully in the corner of the dining room. Plus, they are now able to be displayed and seen. :)

Before

After

I found a lot of new wall hangings for cheap.... and I DO LOVE that fact of not paying a lot for something. These are the plates I just found on Monday. They were cheap in price and oh so nice.... lol :)