The Evil That People Do

   Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call.

   It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.

   Your hands are the hands of murderers, and your fingers are filthy with sin. Your lips are full of lies, and your mouth spews corruption.

   No one cares about being fair and honest. The people’s lawsuits are based on lies. They conceive evil deeds and then give birth to sin.

   They hatch deadly snakes and weave spiders’ webs. Whoever eats their eggs will die; whoever cracks them will hatch a viper.

   Their webs can’t be made into clothing, and nothing they do is productive. All their activity is filled with sin, and violence is their trademark.

   Their feet run to do evil, and they rush to commit murder. They think only about sinning. Misery and destruction always follow them.

   They don’t know where to find peace or what it means to be just and good. They have mapped out crooked roads, and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace.

(Isaiah 59:1-8, New Living Translation)

I took this picture out by my clothesline about a week ago. I thought it looked kind of cool and that there surely would be a Bible verse about spider webs which I could use here today. I only found two in the Bible Gateway website. The other one, in the book of Job, was pretty good also. But this one? Holy cow. As usual, God has got this, and there’s nothing more I can add.

Meet the New Additions

   If you follow me on Facebook, you already saw some of these pictures and have already been introduced to Emma and Gizmo. Also, if you follow the lives of my pets, you may remember that we have had cats or dogs named: Keisha, Pepper, Shadow, Pebbles, Bam-Bam, Dino, Fred, Betty, Barney, Alice and Cheshire. We worked on the Flintstones theme, but have pretty much exhausted those names. I did, however, see a tendency towards running through the alphabet, so having had an A, several B’s, a C, a D and an F, I thought we could continue that trend and give the new kittens E and G names. After we picked out two girls, though, the only G name I could think of was Gretel and I feared we would have to get a Hansel next. When I decided on Emma for our E name, it dawned on me that that was my grandmother’s name, and lo and behold, Hubby’s grandmother’s name had been Frieda. That sounded good to me. And Hubby? Wise man that he is, goes along with whatever his wife says.

Until we picked up the kittens and they told us the black one we were going to name Frieda was a boy. We were like, well, we’ve had as many males as females, so it doesn’t matter, except that changing names all over again threw me in a tizzy. Maybe I could still go with Gretel and Hansel.

Then on the way home, while she was chilling in their crate 

And he was crawling all over me, looking at me with those ears, it dawned on me that he was a Gizmo. And sometimes he acts like a gremlin. 

So, here are some of the pictures I’ve taken of them. A hard task as Gizmo never stops moving and I can’t just show you Emma.

She doesn't often stop moving either.

But at least Emma bonded with Dino quickly. 

Gizmo? Not so much, but he is starting to tolerate the dog. 

Almost looking at the camera. 

Not looking at the camera at all. 

So cute

Still not looking at the camera. 

The only picture I could get of them together. 

The next task is getting this guy, The Cheshire Cat, to be friends. 

God Is With Us

 God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

 So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and mountains fall into the ocean depths;

 even if the seas roar and rage, and the hills are shaken by the violence.

 There is a river that brings joy to the city of God, to the sacred house of the Most High.

 God is in that city, and it will never be destroyed; at early dawn he will come to its aid.

 Nations are terrified, kingdoms are shaken; God thunders, and the earth dissolves.

 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

 Come and see what the Lord has done. See what amazing things he has done on earth.

 He stops wars all over the world; he breaks bows, destroys spears, and sets shields on fire.

 “Stop fighting,” he says, “and know that I am God, supreme among the nations, supreme over the world.”

 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

(Psalm 46, Good News Translation)

I’ve shared Psalm 46:10 many times – “Be still and know that I am God.” In fact, I say that verse in my head sometimes to help me get to sleep at night. I should remember to say it when I’m stressed out during the day as well.

But isn’t the entire chapter great? I should memorize the whole thing. And once again, it is so true to the times we are living in. No matter what happens, we can never forget that God has got it covered.

Thank You, LORD, Father in Heaven, for being with us at all times, even when we stumble and fall, even when we mess things up. Amen.   

2020 Camping Post #4 – What turned out to be our last day

            Sadly, this will be my last post from our camping trip to Michigan in July. As it turned out Thursday, the 23^rd would be our last full day and I guess I’m glad we made the most of it.

            We left the campground early and drove up through L’Anse and Baraga, past the Shrine to the Snow Shoe Priest. 

Hard to get a good picture of it from the road though. Hubby always calls him the Spider Priest as that’s what the monument looks like to him.   

         View of Lake Superior from L’Anse Bay.

            Driving through Houghton      

            And Hancock.    

             On to Jacob Falls.       

      And the Holy Transfiguration Skete Society of St. John, to buy cookies and other goodies at their Jampot Bakery.

The giant muffin was amazing. But unfortunately, the woman in line just in front of Hubby bought out all but three bags of cookies. Hubby was not happy.          

       Even Dino didn’t seem too happy.            

 We had lunch at a wayside along Lake Superior.            

Drove down by the Eagle Harbor Life Saving Station.            

 And got a good view of the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse.

Next stop was the Assinins Cemetery, which is mostly an Indian burial ground, so filled with many interesting memorials.

At first I thought it didn’t look very well taken care of it, but it dawned on me that actually it shows more respect for the earth, which would seem the Native American way of dealing with death, right?

      I took way too many pictures.

As long as I was on this sudden Native American burial ground trail, we next drove to the Indian Cemetery in L’Anse.

      Again, waaaay too many pictures.

    Like the previous cemetery, it appeared to be neglected, but in reality, I think it shows more care and love for the deceased than sanitized modern European-American cemeteries.

Returned to camp, ate, and went to bed, with plans for another full day on Friday. It was full all right. Full of a lot of pain and misery. If you haven’t heard about it yet, click the link here for the post of the sad story.

There’s always next year.

To Live or Die

 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Romans 14:8 (New International Version)

When I sat down to write this post, and checked Bible Gateway website to start looking for a verse, this was the one that came up as the verse of the day.

Just before that, Hubby and I were talking about life and death. As believers, we know where we’re going when we die and we know we have nothing to fear. And with the same faith, we get through each day that we live.

But what about the in-between. You know what I mean. Where someone is suffering and dying. Or just suffering so much with whatever kind of malady that they wish they would die.

When I had my kidney stone a couple weeks ago, I was in so much pain I wasn’t sure if I was more among the living or the dead. We’ve all had that kind of pain, if not physically, certainly mentally or emotionally, when we don't think we can handle what we’ve been dealt.

Just like most of you, I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. And no, I’m not afraid of getting COIVD19 and dying. But if I were to get it and get it bad, I rather not end up on a ventilator. I work in health care so I know how incredibly not-fun that would be.

My greatest concern, though, is for all the people who are not believers. Who think that living life is all there is and you just die when you die. Or you go someplace else that’s an ok place to be. Or maybe get reincarnated. For me, none of those options make any sense and my heart cries for those people.

There are so many things going on in the world right now. I know that if you look back at history, things have been worse in the past. The pandemic of 1918-1919 which was at the same time as World War I. The Great Depression, World War II and the holocaust. Years and decades of famine in foreign countries. Earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires. But a person has to wonder how much longer this will go on.

But no matter what happens, me and my house will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15). I need not fear, as God is with me, He will strengthen me and help me and hold me with His right hand (Isaiah 41:10). I will be strong and courageous; I will not be afraid or discouraged, because my Lord and God is with me wherever I go (Joshua 1:9).

I pray the same is true for you.

2020 Camping Post #3 – A Tour of a Single City

July 22 seems so long ago. What have I been posting about here since then?

Anyway, that Wednesday was our second full day of camping at Bewabic State Park in Crystal Falls, Michigan. It had been a cold, wet night the night before, and the temperature was only 59 when we finally headed out for a ride around 9:30. The sky assured us that rain was imminent.

Our ride consisted of driving up and down pretty much every street in Crystal Falls, population 1,370, and taking up a distance of 3.47 square miles, so it’s not like traversing every street would be a major feat. I would have liked to walk some of those streets, but there were those rain clouds hanging overhead. Instead, a lot of pictures were taken through the truck windows and others were “snatch and go” (jump out of the truck, snap a half dozen pictures, jump back in, instruct Hubby to drive to the next block, where I repeated my antics. I hope no one was watching us.)

And yes, the rain did eventually begin falling. I did, though, get the following pictures, between raindrops. 

Crystal Falls dam and power plant 

Clark’s Landing park which is adjacent to the dam 

Crystal Falls theater 

And lots of other buildings downtown 

The Iron County courthouse 

Harbor House Museum 

A Community Garden 

The Bigfoot Inn 

And finally Winks Woods, which is a fun little craft shop where we did some shopping to support the local economy. 

All of that took us just ‘til 11:15. After a lunch of leftovers, we read and napped and took a few short walks. Finally we resorted to building a campfire and making s’mores, even though we hadn’t eaten supper yet. But that worked out well as I was able to enjoy the s’mores more on an empty stomach.

 This red squirrel enjoyed them too.

We went to bed hoping for better weather on the ‘morrow