Flight of the White Heron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
As I stood watching the wrens flit about in the brush and bush beside the lake, this great white heron flew overhead. I quickly pointed to him and got off these seven shots. 

Marvelous Morning for a Moon Soaring

 

 

 

 

There are diversities

There are diversities of gifts.
I Corin. xii.4

There are diversities of gifts, but none without any. Every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that.
Frances R.Havergal.
  Sunday, March 3rd marks the official kick-off of Christ's Fellowship meeting in the Westside Community Center on Birley Road in Lake City, Florida at 10:30AM, with Sunday School for the children led by Melanie at 9:00AM. Christ's Fellowship began at Westside Baptist, then Grace Covenant, then Grace Church to where it is today, with only Gary Byerly's family and my family  remaining from the original Westside Baptist, a missionary church from Parkview Baptist.
In thinking on each person's gifts, the other Sunday, Dennis was absent from the early morning set up group. Now you would think, no big deal, but you never realize how much Dennis does quietly without fanfare until he is absent.
The same with Gary, I do not know how the Grace Life Church will run the radio station Gary so tirelessly worked to secure with all the permits,etc.,  but I do believe at some point Grace Life should acknowledge, Gary for this tremendous gift he was instrumental in securing.
So from the least to the greatest in our estimation, everyone has his part, his place and is highly valued.
Like Dan Clark who led the music at Westside, when he drowned in the Gulf of Mexico, we just could not image going on, replacing him. Yet from his death was born the 7 Days Worship Band, and thus the gifts Dan offered, continue on in Lani and Tim, his offspring, and the other members of the group, Tyler,Scott,Tony,Gary,Stacy,Breya and Ken.
So today the remnant will gather under Russell and Christina Taylor at Christ's Fellowship and a remnant will gather at Grace Life under Brandon and Jori Elixson and so exercise our gifts we trust to the Glory of God and the advancing of His Kingdom Come.

There is a gap

Yesterday I went out to Moore Road North of town to get a meter reading. I found that the Falling Creek Bridge was being rebuilt, so I was unable to get the order. While there, I took a few moments to stop at the Falling Creek Falls. The old Corn Crib on the grounds I noticed due to vandals or curious folks seeking to see what is inside, had a board torn. At the moment Leonard Cohen's song Anthem was playing on Pandora and I thought of his words, "there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in". And not only the light, but the rats and bats and squirrels and curious eyes. Also, the water has risen to the level of the boardwalk, with no falls. That is high indeed.

Six Upon Gum Swamp

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the morning

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed.
Mark 1:35.

"We see how Jesus would rise a great while before day, or spend the whole night, that He might find time for heavenly communion. Let none say he is too busy.
George Muller
One of the good things that shall come from this one year job I had reading meters, it was the rising early, with time for reading scripture and praying. I have been reading the YouVersion ESV Study Bible One Year plan and as of today, I am on day 349 out of 365 in getting through.
The other good thing has been getting out and about the countryside in many solitary places, spending most of the day in a constant underlying prayer.
I feign the thought of returning to an inside job, under supervisors with set times. I am now
thinking that perhaps a paper route may be a good fit.
We shall see come April what develops.
In the meantime, I shall continue to rise early and seek the Lord.

To Fairy Lane

Today was the longest route I read, starting on Price Creek and finishing on Pounds Hammock.
With the new directive that says we no longer have to read meters with dogs on the premise, my meter reads were cut in half. Thus, there was time to go somewhat slower, finishing easily by noon.
One of the favorite paths leads to Leo Horne's residence. His wife is the Supervisor of Elections, Liz Horne. I will miss traveling early in the morning down the dirt lane, where deer are often grazing under the mature live oaks.

Wait Patiently

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.
Psalms xxxvii.7

Ah, soul, wilt thou be the foolish boy in the house of thy Father, loving thy Father if He fondle thee, and murmuring against Him if He scourgeth thee, as if He were not, both when fondling and when scourging, preparing thee for thine inheritance?
St.Augustine
As a crow flieth, so have I sought the blessing by taking the path of least resistance lately.
Like JG Wentworth I scream, I want my inheritance, and I want it now!
The evening before last, I was on the housetop photographing the rising moon. I made this prayer, Lord, if I am to have a job where Melanie does not have to work, let an airplane intersect the moon by 9:30. I waited and waited, and come 9:29, from the distant North to South, a blinking light, making its way toward the moon. I readied the camera, made sure of the setting, focused and waited in anticipation. The airplane came within a narrow margin under the moon, but not through it.
It was as if God was saying, I heard you, but that is not the manner in which I am going to send the inheritance. It is in my timing. I could cause all the airplanes in the heavens to intersect the moon if I needed.
And so singing over and over and over again, like the jingle from Frosty Morn Sausage, I must learn to not be a foolish boy in the house of my Father.

Be Strong

Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 Tim.2.1

The way to grow strong in Christ is to become weak in yourself. God poureth no power into man's heart till man's power is all poured out.
Spurgeon

Yesterday we had the joy of beholding and holding in our arms, little Carson Powers, born about 10:40 on Tuesday evening by C-Section to Allison, my sister Paula's first girl.
As we held him, pouring our love and prayer into him, he illustrated perfectly the weakness of the flesh and the need for the grace of God. And I held Carson, my heart was aching for him, Pearce and Nathaniel.
It took me back to the holding for the first time of Landon, then Jordon, then Allison, Jessica and how my heart ached for them then, and continues now.
Would as a father, like our Heavenly Father, I could take them into my arms continually and give to them all the things necessary in this life to get them through. But for now, what I can offer is continual prayer
for a Loving God to bestow mercy, grace and a drawing unto Him continually.

By His Son

God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.
Hebrews i.2
Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
I Sam.iii.9

The best will is our Father's will;
And we may rest there calm and still;
Oh, make it hour by hour thy own,
And wish for naught but that alone
Which pleases God.
Paul Gerhardt.
The simplicity of the Son. The one thing needful. The call to forsake all for that pearl of great price. Life is a paring down, a boiling down process, of casting aside weights that encumber our journey toward the purity found in Holiness.
Be still and know. Many things are picked up and twisted round and round in the whirlwind. If through the tumult, we can hold to the One, soon all about in the aftermath is revealed the things we held dear, damaged beyond repair.
It is a difficult lesson, to lose all in order to gain that one thing really needful.
But, worth the price of the whirlwind.

Goodbye Blue Sky

Once the people prayed
While high above fell the spray
Now under a man-made cloud
Children unfold the burial shroud
"Look mummy
There's an aeroplane up in sky"
Today mummy
How then do we die?

Thousand Words

 

If a picture is worth a thousand words

What would a thousand words be worth?

If I was paid for every word I wrote

How rich do you think I would be?

If I was paid for every photograph I took

Would I be any richer for it?

Better yet, if I was paid for every thought

Do you think I would be any richer

Than if I never thought at all?

But back to the thousand words

What makes a picture worth so much?

I do not think I have ever taken

A picture worth a thousand words.

And by the same token

I do not think I have ever spoke a

thousand words about any picture

Painting,etching,drawing,photograph included

Mostly we give a picture at most

a one liner

For who would bear to stand and read

a thousand words of description

about a photograph, a painting, an etching,

a drawing?

The photograph featured was taken from the automobile
doing about fifty miles per hour on a Sunday morning.
It was overcast and the camera was set on a shutter speed
of 2000 from the previous day.
When I saw the two cyclists approaching, with Melanie
driving, I quickly took the Nikon D5000 camera
with the 18-200 zoom attached and took four photographs.
This was the first photograph taken.
It was terribly under exposed due to the 2000 shutter speed set on shutter priority.
I used the active D-lighting function in camera to try and
lighten the scene.
It stayed under exposed until I manipulated it in Picasa
on the computer. I made it a black and white image with
focal color only on the riders jerseys.
And so you see why a picture can sometimes be worth a thousand words
I am not even at five hundred words and if you
are still reading
You are one that takes greater interest in words than in pictures
which perhaps is a good thing
for in the imagination comes the most vivid images
and even though the photograph thinks it speaks a thousand words
Those thousand words can be words of great deception
Just in the same manner I manipulated this image to death
to get an usable image.
But by the time I reached a thousand words, I would hope that
 you would discern the truth from the error,
That is unless I deliberately wrote to deceive
A common thing these days
Adept we are at deceiving
So in conclusion, I think it best to simply not try and place a value upon everything
As if our placing a value makes it valuable
The photograph is valuable in that it was created
as a reflection of its creator
an affirmation that we are valuable in that
we too are created
and not just a bunch of random molecules
every little atom from the hand of
God.