Inspire

Good morning all! Just a quickie post this fine day, and I do mean fine! Over the weekend I finished quite a large sewing project but unfortunately I am currently camera-less, a problem which shall soon be remedied but until then here are a few springy lovelies for you to enjoy!

1) Etsy; 2) Anthropologie; 3) Etsy; 4) Etsy

Blessings to you and yours 'til we meet again!

"Why must every day involve a fight with an American?" - Downton Abbey

Quotables

“...before I was humbled, I was like a stone lying in deep mire, and He that is mighty came and in His mercy raised me up and, indeed, lifted me high up and placed me on top of the wall. And from there I ought to shout out in gratitude to the Lord for His great favours in this world and forever, that the mind of man cannot measure.”

-Saint Patrick

Quotables

"I may repeat "Do as you would be done by" till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbor as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him."

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Quotables

"A Scout is Helpful", Norman Rockwell, 1939

"Ah, what a mercy it is that it is not your hold of Christ that saves you, but His hold of you! What a sweet fact that it is not how you grasp His hand, but His grasp of yours that saves you."

-Charles Spurgeon 

Quotables

"Bedtime Prayer", Eugene-Ernest Hillemacher

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." -Philipians 4:6

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." -Abraham Lincoln

Quotables

"Who has the right words at the right time?" -Charlotte Bronte

"Joy can be sustained only as long as it's source is constant..." 

-Lydia Brownback, "Joy: A Godly Woman's Adornment"

"...hope does not produce shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Sprit who has been given to us." -Romans 5:5

"The Starry Night", Vincent van Gogh, 1889

Thanksgiving

'Do all things without grumbling or questioning.'

- Philippians 2:14 (ESV)

' "All things" means all things, because there is nothing-absolutely nothing-that touches our lives that somehow slipped through the cracks of [God's] providential ordering.'

- Lydia Brownback, Joy: A Godly Woman's Adornment

This Week...

John Everett Millais, The Nest, 1887

John 6:1-15

Jesus gives us tests and trials to increase our faith and trust in Him. He knows already what He is going to do because He is all knowing God. When tests come to us we must trust Him and seek His help in making wise decisions. "He said this to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do." (6:6)

This Week...

  John 3:22-36

Jesus is above all things and people. He is the ruler of Heaven and earth. Nothing can happen on earth without His knowledge, for all things come from Heaven. "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from Heaven." (3:27). We must remember that He has complete control. Our decrease is His increase. All we have was given by Him. God is true and only in this belief can we live. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on Him." (3:36). We are nothing and He is all.

Photo: Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by John Singer Sargent, 1885-1886

Hospitality

Photo by Wendy.

"Show hospitality to one another without grumbling."

-1 Peter 4:9 

This Week

"Petites Maraudeuses" William Adolphe Borguereau, 1872

Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?

John 1:38

Jesus' first words to the disciples were what are you seeking? Lately I found this to be a question I need to ask myself. What am I seeking? Am I seeking Jesus or my own personal happiness and pleasure? At the close of the day when I reflect on it's happenings I find that if I have sought the latter I have gained only personal suffering for my pains but if I have truly sought to follow Christ I have a joy and satisfaction within myself that is worth anything I might have had to give in order to receive it.

This Week...

I have decided to post every Saturday something I have learned in my daily devotions. When I read my Bible in the mornings I write down one or two paragraphs about what God has shown me through that day's reading. Each week I will choose one of these notes to share with you. I think this will help me to be more diligent in my study and I think it will better establish this blog as being owned by a follower of Christ!

Defeating Sin

' "But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that it was desirable to make one wise, she took of it's fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband who was with her, and he ate.' -Genesis 3:4-6 (ESV)

'The Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It's desire is for you, but you must rule over it." ' -Genesis 4:6-7

Because of Adam and Eve's fall from perfection into sin (Gen. 2-3) sin is an ever present factor in our lives. It is forever "crouching", waiting to trip us up and bring us down (1 John 1:8). However, Jesus because He loved us, came and died and conquered sin (John 3:16, John 16:33). Now we have a choice (Josh. 24:15). We can choose to follow the world and be brought down by sin or we can choose to say "no" to the world and follow Christ. This choice is a daily one and it can be as simple as saying a kind word instead of an irritated one when we are busy and a sibling asks a question. Nor will we be able to choose well every time but through the grace of God we can overcome sin and follow Christ instead of the world!

Please forgive me if this is not very good. I am not a writer and I am not used to writing things in a way that other people will understand (though I know exactly what I'm talking about!). I hope, with time and practice to improve my skills!

P.S.
This is also my 200th post!

Take My Life and Let It Be

Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold:
Not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect, and use
Ev'ry pow'r as Thou shalt choose.
Ev'ry pow'r as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
It shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself, and I will be,
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Ever, only, all for Thee.

Frances R. Havergal, 1874
Painting: At the Shrine, John William Waterhouse

I hope everyone had a beautiful Lord's Day!

If I find within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
~ C. S. Lewis

Miranda - The Tempest; John William Waterhouse; 1916

Pause.

Sewing camp is officially over.


Life is back to normal.


Almost.


I have so much to do it's not even funny.


Pause.


Take a deep breath.


Plunge in.


"Be still, and know that I am GOD:
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
-Psalm 46:10

His Biddings

Michelangelo, The Creation of Man (Detail), 1508-1512, Fresco, Cappella Sistina, Vatican

"Who thought of it's being hard? The beasts would not think it hard if I told them to walk on their heads. It would become their delight to walk on their heads. I am His beast, and all His biddings are joys."

C.S. Lewis, Perelandra

What We Are

"It is not what we say or feel that makes us what we are, it is what we do."

Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility, 2007 BBC

Gone Forever

Jacques-Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii, Oil on canvas, 1784

"He had long dispaired of witnessing a Greeklike struggle. Such things would be no more, he had said. Men were better, or more timid. Secular and religious education had effaced the throat-grappling instinct, or else firm finance held in check the passions."

Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage

Dress

Gerrit Dou, The Lady at her Dressing-Table, Oil on panel, 1667

"It is a well-known fact that dress plays a very important part in the lives of most women..."

- Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl

Call to Prayer

"First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or dissension."

1 Timothy 2:2-8