On This Sunday Morning...

Do You Bleed Bibline?

Charles Spurgeon:

Oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God, and get that Word into ourselves! As I have seen the silkworm eat into the leaf, and consume it, so ought we to do with the Word of the Lord—not crawl over its surface, but eat right into it till we have taken it into our inmost parts. It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the words, or to recollect the poetical expressions, or the historic facts; but it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned upon Scripture models, and, what is better still, your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord.
I would quote John Bunyan as an instance of what I mean. Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like the reading the Bible itself. He had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress—that sweetest of all prose poems — without continually making us feel and say, “Why, this man is a living Bible!” Prick him anywhere—his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God. I commend his example to you, beloved.

On this Sunday morning, I found this in my perusing of devotional blogs. Potent don't you think? Christianity IS all about the Bible. All the coffee times, and beautiful music and fellowship is needed and great but the Bible is still the main focus.  It is God's letter to us and His guide book for our lives. If we stray from it, it is like sending our child out to do yardwork without a rake, shovel, or lawnmower. He can't do it with his bare hands. Neither can we do the work of God without the Guidebook. We are saved by His Grace alone, but He has given us His Word to help us along our journey.

Have a blessed Sunday. Focus on Christ a little harder, pick up that Bible and refresh yourself with the real thing. Take some time for prayer.

Rain and the Cozy....

Yesterday it was bright and sunny. I spent the morning wandering the neighborhood looking at leaves and blue sky....but I forgot my camera. In the afternoon we headed to my brother-in-law and his wife's cottage to close up for the winter. This time I put my camera in my purse and smiled at the thought of all the pictures I would get for my blog, but the rain came...first dull grey sky, then light rain and cold. And it has rained since. My back yard 'forest' is almost bare. The lovely golds and oranges have given way to different shades of gray and ...well, just blah. I can see the houses in the back subdivision again through the naked branches.

I do, however, want to make the best of it. I have candles burning, lovely music by Sara Groves on the CD player, good food cooking. It is cozy here. The rain is good in that it nudges me to stay in where it is warm and do things that make the house comforting and appealing for all the people that live here or pop in.

When we did our Sunday Bible time this morning, I thought about how our Christian lives are sometimes like the weather. We go through sunshine and light but God also allows us to experience times when things seem very dull and grey, when troubles come like rain, and our spiritual sky is not blue. We could wallow in the self pity of despondency, or we can seek the 'cozy'. Read the Bible more, spend extended times in prayer, listen to encouraging music. I know there are times when none of this seems enough and we need to allow a time of grief and sorrow but I mean more, the times that we can give into sin or seek the higher ground.

Next time you have a bit of a blue day spiritually, ask yourself if you can enter into the 'cozy' and become stronger because of it.

And what is a blog without pictures? So here are a few for you!

Our front porch sign

Asters. Yes these grow in my flower bed. They are my birth flower and absolutely beautiful!

....all the sumacs on the hill, have changed their green to red!

Tea anyone? I love the sun shining on my cups in the morning. Makes me want tea.

Nice smelly stuff on my coffee table.

..and a last visit to the cottage.

The gate to woods that seem endless.